Scholar Wong remained that way until Li Hongmei asked him, “Mr. Wong, has my Baofeng caused trouble in school? If he has, please feel free to discipline him and don’t be soft-hearted with him.”
“How come? Baofeng is very good student and a fast learner. He’s able to read The Analects of Confucius all by himself now.”
“That’s good, that’s good.” Li Hongmei smiled but of course she had no idea what was in The Analects of Confucius.
Xiao Baozhu had been staring at Scholar Wong and she did not go near him until he drank up his douhua. “Sir, just pass the bowl to me.”
Scholar Wong then gave her the bowl.
He recalled that Xiao Baozhu had been to the school before and wanted to learn how to read, so casually he asked Baozhu, “Are you still reading novels? Have you learned any more characters?”
“Yes, I have. I’m able to read a whole book myself now. Thank you for teaching me so much, Sir,” said Xiao Baozhu.
“I only taught you several words, don’t mention it,” said Scholar Wong.
Scholar Wong wanted to pay the bill after having the food but Li Hongmei, like the last time, insisted on not taking the money. Scholar Wong did not force her but after he walked away a few steps he waved to Xiao Baofeng, asking him to come over.
Xiao Baofeng thought that his teacher had something that he wanted to ask him to do, however, Scholar Wong was paying him money. Scholar Wong said, “There are eight coins in total and four of them are for the cold jelly I had in town. Here they all are, now go back to tell your ma if she doesn’t take them I won’t teach you to read anymore.”
“But…” Xiao Baofeng was in a dilemma.
“Hurry up!” Scholar Wong posed as a teacher.
Xiao Baofeng had no option but to go back and give the money to Li Hongmei.
“Goodness, your teacher really takes it too hard. He’s a teacher so why should he pay for just a couple bowls of douhua. Baofeng, take the money and give it back to your teacher tomorrow when you go to school.”
Li Hongmei did not want to take his money.
Xiao Baoshan was again left in a dilemma.
Finally it was Ye Xiaoxian who helped him out of this quandary. Ye Xiaoxian said to Li Hongmei, “Ma, don’t let Baofeng get embarrassed anymore. Scholar Wong was right. As a teacher he should set a good example for his students by not taking student’s belongings. Only in this way can Baofeng develop as much integrity as him. If he accepts free stuff everywhere he goes what will his students become in following his example?”
Li Hongmei gave it some thought and found it to make perfect sense, saying at last, “Little Ye’s being the sensible one and look at me, I almost made a mistake.”
…
Scholar Wong had not gone far when he was called over by the county mayor. The county mayor was the county executive and also a landlord who was in charge of all the heads of the village.
The county executive called on Scholar Wong to do the inscription for the “touching autumn” festival. Others would put up banners and flags which all required inscription.
Scholar Wong was the teacher of the school in the county and was an uncommonly young and handsome scholar, so the county executive invited him to come over to inscribe the banners as soon as possible.
While Scholar Wong was inscribing all the curious villagers were running towards him and surrounded him in a circle on the lawn. Everyone tended to join in the fun making it more crowded, so it took no time for others to join in the circle and make it larger.
Just then Xiao Baozhu was observing Scholar Wong and, seeing that everyone was surrounding him, she wanted to go too.
“Baofeng, your teacher is going to inscribe the banner. Aren’t we going too?” asked Xiao Baozhu.
Xiao Baofeng looked at Ye Xiaoxian and asked her opinion with his gaze.
Ye Xiaoxian smiled. “Go ahead. Ma and I are here keeping at eye on the stand.”
Now all the others were rushing over to Scholar Wong and no one was left to eat douhua, so she just let the two little ones be.
Xiao Baozhu and Xiao Baofeng were thin so they were able to dig their way through the crowd and reach the very front.
On the lawn, Scholar Wong had already flattened the red paper and blank banners and started to grind the ink. The way he was grinding the ink was very focused. He did not look at all nervous with so many people staring at him. As he was being silent, so too were the crowd as they gazed at him intently.
Xiao Baozhu was also staring at him and found him so handsome as he was grinding the ink. She continued watching him and finally he picked up the brush and began to write.
The brush was dancing and the lively characters were jumping onto the paper. With the characters appearing Xiao Baozhu felt her heart flutter like a butterfly. Her heart kept pounding and she couldn’t possibly stop it. She wanted to shout his name and hail.
However, at this time people’s nature was still suppressed, especially with girls, so Xiao Baozhu couldn’t yell like modern girls do when they see their idols.
After Scholar Wong had finished Xiao Baozhu was the first one applauding and Xiao Baofeng applauded as well. As for other surrounding villagers, whether they could read the characters or not, they followed suit, clapping their hands and cheering.
“A scholar is indeed different from us. His handwriting is so good.”
“Can you actually read it?”
“So what if I can’t? I know those are characters and that’s enough, isn’t it?
“…”
After Scholar Wong finished writing he placed the brush aside. Someone would take away his inscription, brush and ink. Seeing that so many people were watching him write he started searching for that petite figure in the crowd, hoping to see admiration in her eyes.
However, seeing through the crowd he spotted the cold jelly stand not far away where Ye Xiaoxian was still busy serving food and casting not even a glance his way.
…
Ye Xiaoxian was indeed very busy. This was because Old Mr. Xiao was here.
Old Mr. Xiao saw that their cold jelly stand in fact looked very good so he somehow said, “It doesn’t look too shabby, hoho.”
He got up late every morning and when Ye Xiaoxian and Li Hongmei were going out to town to open up shop he was still dreaming, so he had no idea what the douhua that Ye Xiaoxian sold looked like and thought that their business was just fiddle-faddle.
When Ye Xiaoxian and Li Hongmei got back their douhua had all been sold out so they just carried back several empty buckets and Old Mr. Xiao was convinced that they were just making a fuss over nothing.
“Give me a bowl of douhua,” said Old Mr. Xiao.
Ye Xiaoxian then filled a bowl of douhua for him.
When Old Mr. Xiao tasted this douhua his eyes popped out and he drank it up in one breath.
“The douhua is so tasty. You actually never sent any to me. Here, give me two more bowls.” said Old Mr. Xiao.
Ye Xiaoxian gave him another two bowls.
Once Old Mr. Xiao had eaten up the douhua he asked for cold jelly. He had a large appetite and drank five or six bowls without taking a break. After finishing he burped loudly; so loud that people five meters away could hear it.
Ye Xiaoxian was left completely speechless, but she had to serve him.
Old Mr. Xiao did not leave after he was full but sat there as if he was at home. There was just one small table at this cold jelly stand and others could not rest while he was sitting there.
Li Hongmei was very annoyed by Old Mr. Xiao and had to take five coins to him. “Pa, I heard that the egg pancake over there is nice. Why don’t you go and buy one.”
“Oh.” Old Mr. Xiao took the money and then slowly left their cold jelly stand.
