After the grain winnowing, the busiest period of autumn harvest had passed. Under the urging of the clan elders, Su Youcai announced the reopening of the clan school.
However, he didn’t send Su Lu back to school because the clan school taught mixed classes with children of various ages. He had to teach them in rotation, which would be too inefficient for Su Lu’s learning.
Moreover, Su Lu’s learning speed was astonishingly fast. Placing him in the clan school might inadvertently dampen the other children’s confidence in studying and making progress…
Therefore, Su Youcai continued to give Su Lu extra tutoring every evening and let him study independently during the day. With the boy’s intense drive for learning, there was no worry about him slacking off.
Indeed, Su Lu needed no supervision. His days were fully scheduled, requiring him to memorize three or four different books. For example, on the twentieth day of the eighth month, he was to review “Hundred Family Surnames” and “Thousand Character Classic” for the fifth time, review Categories of Current and Ancient Matters for the fourth time, and newly study “Elementary Knowledge of Names and Objects.” His study tasks were becoming increasingly heavy.
Fortunately, “Elementary Knowledge of Names and Objects” was a broad yet concise, smooth and easy-to-understand four-character rhyme book with a total of 2,720 characters, making it relatively easy to memorize. The other three books in the Lesser Four Books—”Historical Outline,” “Elementary Study of Human Nature and Principle,” and “Elementary Knowledge of Successive Dynasties”—were generally similar, clearly designed to facilitate memorization for beginning students.
In comparison, calligraphy practice appeared uneventful. Day by day, Su Lu followed the routine, undergoing training in thick and thin lines, lifting and pressing, brush tip control, pressure point application, curved strokes, brush surface switching, and dry brush techniques…
These were all training his brush control ability, familiarizing him with the characteristics of the writing brush, enabling him to wield it freely.
Although Su Youcai hadn’t formally taught him calligraphy, Su Lu noticed while copying texts these days that his writing had become much smoother. Not only was his brush movement getting faster, but the characters he wrote were also becoming more pleasing to the eye.
Of course, this was only his own perception—in reality, they still lacked any proper structure…
After brush control training, Su Youcai taught him brush techniques: swinging, horizontal movement, twisting, and folding… Though he still didn’t teach him character writing, Su Lu’s writing skill showed visible improvement, gradually acquiring a somewhat “old cadre style” flavor.
But just at this time, a serious problem emerged—he had run out of paper…
~~
“Qiu Ge’er, you’re really consuming too much paper.” That evening, after rummaging through chests and cabinets, Su Youcai finally found the last few sheets of earthen paper from the bottom of a chest and handed them to Su Lu, saying, “Your father’s meager stock has been completely exhausted by you.”
“I have indeed been using quite a bit,” Su Lu said apologetically. Calligraphy practice was manageable—the main paper consumption came from copying books and writing from memory…
“Quite a bit? The twenty or thirty children in the clan school combined don’t use as much paper as you alone,” Su Youcai said helplessly. “With your usage rate, your father can’t afford to supply you.”
Despite saying this, he still managed to scrape together eight copper coins and handed them to Su Lu. “Tomorrow, go to Uncle Hu’s house to buy a ream of paper. He’ll definitely ask for ten coins. Be sweet-tongued and persistently pester him—you should be able to get it for eight coins.”
“…” Su Lu nodded silently, only then realizing that even earthen paper was this expensive. No wonder people said studying was the most costly endeavor.
~~
Early the next morning, Su Lu prepared to go to Uncle Hu’s house to buy paper but was stopped by his second brother: “Don’t waste your time. I’ll go buy it after noon.”
With that, Su Tai went out carrying his fishing rod. The autumn harvest had ended, and there were still a few days before the winery resumed work, giving him a rare moment of leisure…
By late morning, Su Tai returned with his fishing rod. Today his luck was extraordinary – he had caught two grass carp weighing about half a kilogram each, plus four smaller fish of 150-250 grams, all strung on a willow branch. He received countless praises along the way.
“Did Xia Ge’er go fishing?” The Old Lady’s eyes immediately lit up when she saw the fish in his hand.
“Yes, Grandma. Let Aunt cook them to nourish you,” Su Tai nodded with a smile.
“Good, good. You all should eat some too.” The Old Lady’s face blossomed like a chrysanthemum as if hearing celestial music. “Qiu Ge’er studies every day – he mustn’t eat fish roe.”
“Grandma, fish only spawn in spring,” Su Lu chuckled as he stepped out of the room.
“Right, eating fish roe makes you illiterate. Don’t worry Grandma, I was never literate anyway,” the Old Lady’s hearing failed her again.
“I’m illiterate too! I can eat it!” Jinbao’er also raised his small hand with righteous confidence.
“We can’t eat that much in one meal,” Aunt tapped Jinbao’s head and said to Su Tai, “Put the two largest fish in a basin to keep. We’ll eat them when Chun Ge’er returns.”
“I’ll go fishing again when elder brother returns. These two fish have their use,” Su Tai unusually declined to follow Aunt’s suggestion.
~~
In the afternoon, Su Tai went out carrying those two grass carp. When he returned, the fish were gone, replaced by a ream of earthen paper in his hand.
He handed the paper to Su Lu, with the eight coins their father had given placed on top. “Keep these for next time.”
“Did you trade the two fish for this?” Su Lu accepted the paper, feeling for the first time how precious paper could be.
“Yes,” Su Tai grinned sheepishly. “Uncle Hu didn’t catch any fish today. He took those two fish home to appease Aunt Hu.”
“Then why didn’t you give them to him this morning?” Su Lu asked, puzzled.
“At that time, he thought he could catch some in the afternoon and wasn’t willing to trade,” Su Tai explained leisurely. “If he had agreed then, I would have given him the eight coins too.”
“Second Brother, you’re amazing!” Su Lu was utterly impressed. Who said Second Brother was foolish? No one could be smarter than him.
“Ah, but such opportunities are rare. Who knows when the next will come,” Su Tai sighed.
“True,” Su Lu nodded, examining the ream of paper in his hand – one hundred sheets in total. At his current usage rate, it would last only five or six days… still just a drop in the bucket.
If used solely for handwriting practice, it might stretch another ten or twenty days. But he relied entirely on copying and reciting from memory to memorize texts. Mere rote memorization was not only inefficient but made it difficult to identify errors and target corrections.
He still needed to find a solution to the paper shortage. Otherwise, cramming all the content before exams would be pure fantasy.
Weren’t there poor scholars in ancient times? How did they solve the paper shortage problem? After pondering for a moment, a phrase from the “Lesser Four Books” suddenly came to mind, making his eyes light up. “Brother, when are you going into the mountains?”
“Tomorrow. Aunt has been urging me to gather mountain goods, and we’re running low on pine resin torches – need to collect more,” Su Tai replied.
Actually, the pine resin torches at home could have lasted until the New Year, but Su Lu wasn’t just wasteful with paper…
“Tomorrow I’ll go with you,” Su Lu said.
“Great! But aren’t you studying?” Su Tai asked.
“Tension and relaxation complement each other—this is the way of both civil and military arts. After studying for ten days or half a month, you need to clear your mind, otherwise your head turns to mush,” Su Lu laughed.
“Alright, tomorrow your brother will take you into the mountains!” Su Tai said happily.
~~
Gathering mountain goods must be done early.
The next day, the two brothers rose before dawn, each carrying a bamboo basket containing sorghum cakes, straw hats, water bottles, and tools like choppers and hemp ropes—all essential items for going up the mountain.
After informing their father, the brothers set out.
On their way downstairs, they unexpectedly ran into their uncle. He had been resting these past few days but left early and returned late, never staying home. No one knew what he was busy with all day.
“Good morning, Uncle,” the brothers quickly greeted him.
“Hmm,” their uncle nodded. The swelling on his face had subsided, restoring his handsome, clear-eyed appearance. It must be said that aside from their eldest uncle and Su Tai, the entire Su family was quite good-looking.
However, at this moment, their uncle seemed rather suspicious. Seeing them following him, he asked warily, “What are you two up to?”
“Going to gather mountain goods,” Su Tai said innocently. “What about you, Uncle?”
“Same,” their uncle said evasively. “Just going up the mountain to see if I can dig up some gastrodia elata.”
“But why aren’t you carrying any tools?” Su Lu asked. “Digging gastrodia elata barehanded?”
“You’re like ‘the county magistrate going to the countryside—meddling in everything,'” their uncle said sternly. “Can’t I just scout the area first?”
“Of course, of course,” Su Lu quickly nodded.
With that, the uncle and nephews ended their conversation and silently walked to the densely forested foot of Centipede Ridge.
At a fork in the road up the mountain, their uncle stopped and said to the two, “I’ll go east, you two go west.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to go together?” Su Lu deliberately asked.
“Of course not. When gathering mountain goods, you need to spread out. What’s the point of crowding together?” their uncle said, giving orders. “Hurry up and go.”
“Alright,” the brothers said and took the western path.
Their uncle waited a moment before heading east.
“Second Brother, should we see what Uncle is up to?” Su Lu whispered. Despite his studious persona, he was quite nosy at heart.
“Better not,” Su Tai shook his head. “We should listen to Uncle and focus on gathering mountain goods.”
“Okay, okay,” Su Lu, who always obeyed his second brother, dutifully followed him, stepping along the path covered with thick fallen leaves and passing through the arrow bamboo forest at the foot of the mountain.
By now, the morning mist had just dissipated. Tall Phoebe zhennan trees spread their umbrella-like canopies, with clusters of bluish-black fruits hanging among their branches. The seeds of the yew trees resembled red agates, peeking out from among the scale-like leaves.
The branches of the long-leaf rhododendron were taller than a person, with old leaves edged in brown and newly sprouted tender branches gleaming with an oily green. The shorter shrub rhododendrons stretched their branches far out, intertwining with the nearby Castanopsis fargesii.
The gnarled branches of the Castanopsis fargesii were covered with hedgehog-like husks. When foraging squirrels touched them, chestnuts would clatter down.
“The environment here is truly wonderful,” Su Lu took a deep breath of the forest’s bitter herbal scent. The fatigue accumulated over days vanished, and the faint throbbing pain at his temples disappeared.
In Su Tai’s eyes, the mountain forest during this season was a treasure trove where riches could be found everywhere. He called out to Su Lu to pick up the chestnuts scattered on the ground, saying, “Grind these into powder and mix them with sorghum flour. It won’t scratch your throat when you eat it, and it’ll even have a sweet fragrance.”
“Then we should gather more.” Su Lu immediately perked up. One of his motivations for studying diligently was the hope that in the future, when eating sorghum flour, he could mix in a bit of fine grain. As for pure fine grain, he didn’t even dare to think about it yet…
He was afraid of stirring up memories of rice and steamed buns.
“Don’t just focus on the chestnuts.” Su Tai pointed to a few yellow mushrooms peeking out from the decaying leaves under a tree. “These are also delicious!”
“I wouldn’t dare pick those,” Su Lu said cautiously. “I can’t tell which are poisonous and which aren’t.”
Su Tai fell silent for a moment before replying softly, “Then you can gather ground skin vegetable.” As he spoke, he pushed aside a cluster of ferns, revealing a patch of what looked like ‘black fungus’ hidden beneath.
He was intimately familiar with this mountain forest. No edible or medicinal wild produce could escape his notice.
He even knew which old tree hollows housed wild beehives. Unafraid of being stung, he carefully took out a knife and sliced off a small piece of the honeycomb.
“We have to leave half for the bees to survive the winter, or there won’t be any honey to eat next year,” he said, handing the cut piece to Su Lu.
Su Lu scraped it with his finger, and amber-colored honey flowed out of the comb, trickling down between his fingers. He quickly retracted his hand to suck his finger, immediately squinting with delight from the sweetness. This was the first time since his rebirth that he had tasted something sweet, and the long-lost feeling of pleasure and satisfaction made him want to cry.
Truly, one can only recall bitterness and cherish sweetness, not the other way around…
Su Tai scraped the remaining honey from the edges and put it in his mouth, mumbling, “Let’s get away from here quickly. The bees are slow in the morning, but once they wake up, they’ll start stinging.”
“Mm-hmm.” Su Lu hurriedly followed his second brother as they beat a hasty retreat.
~~
By now, the sun had risen. Sunlight filtered through the tree canopy, dappling the forest floor. Though it didn’t look intense, the temperature was rising rapidly.
Su Lu hadn’t forgotten their main task. He pulled a hatchet from his bamboo basket and said, “Time to harvest pine resin torch.”
This was no easy task. Only a few pine trees that had suffered natural disasters or human damage would secrete resin to heal their wounds. After exposure to wind and sun, the resin would soak into the wood, forming what was known as pine resin torch.
Fortunately, pine resin torch had a distinct pine fragrance, making it possible to locate by scent. Su Tai, with his experience, knew that the pine scent would intensify after sunrise, which was why they were starting now.
With his exceptional sense of smell, Su Tai led Su Lu and in less than two hours, they had harvested over two jin of gleaming, reddish pine resin torch.
“This should last us a while.” Su Tai knew when to stop, ceasing collection once he felt they had enough. He then asked Su Lu, “Did you find what you were looking for?”
“Found it long ago.” Su Lu gestured with his chin toward a wild banana plant standing by the mountain stream, its broad leaves glistening with dewdrops.