Wang Fuhua still looked deeply wronged. “Wuwuwu… I’m not pure anymore! Wang Nian held my hand! My little hand was supposed to be for Xiaofang to hold! Will Xiaofang dislike me now? Wuuu~~~”
The moment he said that, Wang Nian instantly flung his hand away and vigorously rubbed his right hand against his left, snarling, “Stop crying already, you’re so annoying! I haven’t even started disliking you yet, and you dare dislike me?!”
Ye Manshu nearly burst out laughing.
The children nearby all started laughing too, with some teasing him:
“Fuhua, Xiaofang definitely won’t like you anymore! You’re tainted now, hehe!”
“Waaahhh—” Wang Fuhua finally couldn’t hold it in and burst into loud sobs.
This heartbreak really didn’t seem fake.
Ye Manshu patted little Wang Fuhua’s head. She understood the way little boys adored pretty little girls and treated it like salvation itself.
“Fuhua, you’re not dirty at all. Friends holding hands is perfectly normal. From now on, you and Wang Nian are friends, so holding hands is natural. There’s nothing wrong with liking little girls, but if you want girls to like you back, you need to become capable. Study hard, become talented, work diligently—those are all things that make girls like you.”
Wang Fuhua wiped his tears and looked at her with watery eyes. “Teacher, really?”
“Really. Wang Nian, tell me—aren’t you Fuhua’s good friend now?”
Ye Manshu fixed Wang Nian with a deadly stare.
Stiffening, Wang Nian forced himself to say, “We’re good friends!”
“See? From now on, you two should play nicely together. And you all heard the story about the Dog Mother’s Grave just now, so no one is allowed to mock Wang Nian anymore.”
“We understand, Teacher!”
A group of skinny little bean sprouts answered in unison, grinning with missing teeth.
“Good. Everyone go home now. Class is dismissed.”
“Woohoo! Time to play!”
In an instant, most of the children dashed off wildly.
Today, more than a dozen children had come to listen to her lessons. Quite a few of them had probably been dragged here by their parents with threats of spanking; otherwise, there wouldn’t have been so many more children today compared to yesterday.
Even Wang Fuhua, who had still been crying moments ago, disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Children were like that. It was hard for them to stay stuck on one thing for long. Nothing made them happier than playing.
When Wang Nian learned that Ye Manshu was heading into the mountains, he immediately wanted to go along.
Ye Manshu smiled at him. “If you come, it won’t be easy. Not only will you gather herbs, you’ll also have to memorize medical knowledge.”
Wang Nian glanced at Ye Yuze and at Cheng Yunfan, who was trailing along listlessly.
“They have to do it too?”
“Yes. This is also part of your education.”
“Fine. I’ll go.”
Ye Manshu brought them up the mountain. She would constantly write words on the little blackboard. For example, when they found rehmannia root, she would write the characters for “rehmannia” and have them copy them twice.
Then she would explain the herb’s medicinal effects and related legends.
She wasn’t truly trying to train them as doctors. In this era, however, scholars were expected to learn medicine. If someone wished to take the imperial examinations but knew nothing about medicine, they would be considered unfilial.
This all began because the founding emperor himself loved medicine. He had personally studied it and even ordered the compilation of many medical texts.
Furthermore, when the Empress Dowager fell ill, the emperor personally attended to her bedside. One needed to understand illnesses and treatments to care for sick parents properly.
After the founding emperor set the example, officials followed suit and elevated the practice into a moral virtue. They claimed that children who knew no medicine could not detect their parents’ illnesses early or properly care for them when sick, making them unfilial.
And being labeled unfilial was a grave offense—something other officials could easily use against you politically.
Therefore, anyone hoping to enter officialdom through the imperial examinations had to know medicine.
Of course, this trend was mostly confined to scholars and officials. Ordinary commoners often couldn’t even read, much less master medical arts.
But if one wanted to pursue the path of officialdom through examinations, medicine was necessary.
Sometimes even the county, prefectural, or academy exams would include questions on basic medical knowledge. To score well, one had to understand medicine.
In truth, many officials only understood the surface level and knew a few medical theories.
Ye Manshu, however, was putting theory into practice. Not only did she teach them pharmacology, she also explained the foundational theories of traditional medicine.
That made the knowledge much more intuitive and easier to grasp.
And along the way, they also learned to recognize the written names of all these herbs.
By evening, Ye Manshu finally headed home.
Aside from Cheng Kang, who had gone to help Ye Yuze prepare the fields, everyone else had spent the day gathering medicinal herbs.
Once they got home, Ye Yuze voluntarily went to cook dinner. Wang Nian set down the herbs and prepared to leave.
“Wang Nian, take these. This counts as payment for gathering herbs today. I’m going to sell these herbs.”
Wang Nian refused to accept them.
Ye Manshu stuffed two copper coins and half a jin of meat into his hands.
“If you refuse to take them, I won’t bring you to the mountains anymore. These two coins are what you earned. And this half-jin of meat is for my daughter and grandson to eat.”
That argument worked immediately.
Wang Nian accepted the items and left.
Meanwhile, Cheng Yunfan ran back into the room with a miserable little face, wanting to “complain” to his parents and seek comfort.
But Cheng Yuan and Madam Yang still hadn’t returned.
Whenever they gathered herbs, they usually came back only after dark.
This made Cheng Yunfan feel even more aggrieved. Originally, he had thought he might run into his parents while gathering herbs in the mountains, and they could help him out a little so he wouldn’t have to complete the herb quota Ye Manshu assigned.
He was still just a baby!
After spending the entire day behaving properly in class, he had already witnessed how strict his grandmother could be. Mischievous children got their palms smacked. Then in the afternoon, he had to climb the mountains and work until he was exhausted.
Three-year-old Cheng Yunfan had tears on his face. Yet before two minutes of feeling wronged had passed, he fell asleep.
He only woke when an overbearing, delicious aroma drifted into his nose.
At that point, he completely forgot his grievances. His stomach was already growling fiercely.
He rushed into the main room, where dinner had already been set out.
But seeing all the adults sitting upright properly, waiting for Ye Manshu to allow them to eat, he didn’t dare act recklessly. Instead, he went to Madam Yang’s side, leaned against her leg, and sought comfort.
Madam Yang stroked his hair. “Yunfan, you’re awake?”
“Mom, I’m hungry!”
Only then did Ye Manshu say, “Eat. And no fighting over the food.”
In truth, there was no need for Ye Manshu to say that anymore. The family no longer scrambled over meals.
Tonight’s dish was stewed pork belly, cooked until perfectly tender. Ye Manshu ate comfortably, her mood improving greatly.
At present, the family’s income mainly came from gathering medicinal herbs.
In a single day, they could earn around thirty copper coins.
When Cheng Yuan, Madam Yang, and Cheng Kang all gathered herbs together, they could usually make forty to fifty coins.
Now that only Cheng Yuan and Madam Yang were doing it, earning thirty coins was already quite good.
Out of those thirty coins, most went toward food and daily expenses, leaving only around ten coins saved.
That was far too little.
Ye Manshu also made medicinal pills and powders, and on top of that, she had to provide meals for Cheng Yi’s family as well. Cheng Yi’s household had completely run out of grain; otherwise Wang Lin would never have risked venturing deep into the mountains.
After all, their grain had all been taken away by Ye Manshu.
There was also Wang Lin’s medicine expenses…
Watching their daily earnings disappear completely—and sometimes even requiring extra money on top—Ye Manshu grew anxious.
Cheng Kang returned carrying two jin of tiny fish, shrimp, and loaches. Ye Manshu instructed Madam Sun to keep them in a basin of clean water so they could purge the mud before being eaten.
Only then did the wrinkles between her brows ease slightly.
At least tomorrow they would still have fish, shrimp, and loaches to eat.
She looked toward Cheng Kang.
“How good are you at catching fish?”