CHAPTER 413: CHAPTER 394: HOW MANY SKILLS IS DAD STILL HIDING? (2)

Li Yuzhu had a stern face, "Why do you call him an idiot?"

"Liu Yanbai’s arm is thinner than others, isn’t that being an idiot?" The child was about seven or eight years old, with darting eyes, obviously a sly kid.

Li Yuzhu sneered, "He had a disease after birth that affected his arm, what’s that got to do with intelligence?" She reached out and pinched the child’s arm, "Does your head hurt?"

The child bared his teeth and pouted, "My arm hurts, not my head."

The child knew she was with the new teacher, and after being scolded, he didn’t dare to show anger.

Li Yuzhu snorted, "Yes, your arm hurts, not your head, which shows that an arm is an arm, and a head is a head. Intelligence relies on the head, not the arm."

"But... his right arm is useless, and he writes with the opposite hand, and it’s very ugly," the child said again.

"That’s because he started school late, he’s only been going to school for a year, and he hasn’t practiced writing much, did you write well when you first started school?" Li Yuzhu retorted angrily, hands on her hips.

The child shrank his head under her chastisement and dared not retort.

Seeing it was enough, Li Yuzhu patted his shoulder, "Alright, take me to him."

The child breathed a sigh of relief and pointed to the side of the Song Family’s house, saying, "He’s definitely there, you can see for yourself."

Li Yuzhu let go of the child and walked towards the side of the house.

Sure enough, that disabled child was sitting on a large stone under a tree, head lowered, holding a twig in his left hand, tracing lines absentmindedly on the ground.

It had rained in the morning, and the soil was damp and soft.

The twig in his hand drew lines on the wet ground, creating simple drawings.

"Liu Yanbai!" Li Yuzhu walked over, "So you’re here, I’ve been looking for you a good while."

Liu Yanbai raised his head and looked at Li Yuzhu.

When he found a pretty girl with clear eyebrows and bright eyes looking for him, his face blushed, and he lowered his head even more.

Li Yuzhu squatted down in front of him and realized he wasn’t just scribbling, he was writing words.

No wonder Mr. Song said he was the child who knew the most characters in the school; turns out he’s been secretly working hard.

"You’re so diligent, while other kids are playing, you’re secretly writing here," Li Yuzhu said with a smile.

Liu Yanbai didn’t look at Li Yuzhu, he kept writing in the dirt with the twig, "What do you want with me?"

After filling the two-square-foot ground in front of him, he picked up a piece of stone, erased the words in the dirt, smoothed it out, and continued to write.

Li Yuzhu was quite amazed, this kid was smart, using this method to write saved a lot of paper and ink.

She said, "Here’s the thing, my family opened a new shop in the county, and we haven’t hired an assistant yet. Do you want to come?"

Liu Yanbai looked up in surprise and said to Li Yuzhu, "But I’ve never been an assistant."

Li Yuzhu smiled and said, "Being an assistant is easy. When customers come to buy things, you just greet them and sell. Tell them the price, and when they buy something, you calculate it with an abacus."

Liu Yanbai bit his lip, "But I only have one hand, customers will laugh at me."

Li Yuzhu said, "Customers don’t laugh at you for having only one hand. If they really laugh, it’s because you know your shortcomings but still magnify them and don’t work hard to improve."

Liu Yanbai stared at her in a daze.

Li Yuzhu continued, "Just now in the classroom, the teacher also said, you’re not the only one with one arm in this world, there are plenty outside Qingyang County. Those people don’t wallow in self-pity all day, they live like normal people. If the right hand doesn’t work, there’s still the left hand. If neither hand works, there’s always the feet. It’s not like you have no limbs, so what are you worried about?"

Liu Yanbai recalled Prince Luling’s encouragement and thought for a moment before saying, "I want to go, but I don’t know how to be an assistant, I’m afraid I won’t do well."

Li Yuzhu said, "Don’t worry for now, my shop has just been fixed up and hasn’t opened yet. You keep studying in school, practice your handwriting more, once I’m ready I’ll come to get you."

Liu Yanbai happily said, "Alright, I’ll keep learning then."

After discussing with Liu Yanbai, Li Yuzhu went to find Prince Luling and told him about hiring Liu Yanbai as an assistant.

Prince Luling was always indifferent to such trifles.

Moreover, he sympathized with Liu Yanbai and immediately agreed, saying, "I think it’s feasible. His family calls him a freeloader and dislikes him, but if we hire him as an assistant, he can support himself in the future."

.

In the blink of an eye, the lunch break was over.

Song Jinxiu picked up a small iron hammer and struck the old copper gong hanging from a nearby willow tree.

Ding ding ding, ding ding ding—

"Beat the gong to gather the stragglers! Beat the gong to gather the stragglers!" Some kids giggled, shouting loudly as they rushed back to the schoolhouse.

After the clanging finished, all the kids entered the schoolhouse.

Prince Luling, hands behind his back, stroked his beard and walked inside.

"Hello, teacher." The children shouted in unison.

"Hmm, sit down."

"Thank you, teacher." Another chorus of children’s voices rang out.

"Now it’s time to recite, memorize the content I taught this morning. I’ll give you half an hour, after which I’ll check each of you. Those who can’t recite will receive ten ruler slaps and have to copy it ten times." Prince Luling shook the hourglass on the table, adjusting it to measure the time, and said.

The children immediately grabbed their respective books and read aloud, each at a different pitch.

Li Yuzhu and Mu Yuanxiu sat outside the room, quietly watching the children inside.

A few children, about five or six years old, seemed completely unafraid of being punished, and as they read, their eyes drifted toward a window.

There were two sparrows perched there, chirping away.

One would chirp a few times, and then the other would reply a few times.

One chirped softly, the other loudly.

It looked as if they were having a conversation.

The children watched with great interest.

At first, three children watched.

Other children noticed their unwavering gaze and began to watch too.

In less than a quarter of an hour, half of the children were watching the two sparrows.

After instructing the children to recite books, Prince Luling picked up a book himself.

Gradually, he noticed the sound was much quieter, and there were other unusual noises mixed in.

Prince Luling identified the cause, his expression immediately turning dark.

He looked around the ground, picked up a small pebble, and hurled it forcefully at the two sparrows.

"Chirp—" One chirp cut short, and with a thud, it fell to the ground.

The other was startled and fluttered away.

Outside, the cook sweeping the ground said, "Oh, who killed a sparrow, such accurate aim!"

The room full of children were all dumbfounded.

All of them looked at Prince Luling with the eyes of hero worship.

Li Yuzhu was also stunned.

What other skills does her father still hide?

Prince Luling, with a stern face, picked up the ruler and heavily tapped the table, "Anyone whose eyes wander elsewhere instead of reciting will have to recite twice as much before going home."

"The sage said..."

"It is said..."

The children, as if hitting a reset button, began reading loudly again.

Li Yuzhu, with a dark face, whispered to Mu Yuanxiu, "My dad’s bird-hitting skills are so great, when our family had nothing to eat, why didn’t he use this skill to hunt for game to improve our life! That’s too much!"

Mu Yuanxiu laughed and said, "He cares about appearances, don’t forget that."

Li Yuzhu snorted, "Is face more important than the stomach?"

Showing off skills twice in a row, Prince Luling became the children’s secretly admirable master.

Being able to write with his left hand, and doing it well, was admirable.

Being able to use a tiny stone to kill a bird twenty steps away was not only admirable but also frightening.

What if the teacher was in a bad mood and decided to throw small stones at them, wouldn’t their heads get cracked?

The children became more fearful, their attitude towards studying was more serious than ever before.

Especially Song Baoshun, who had opposed Prince Luling before, his face turned pale, and he didn’t dare to let his eyes wander when reading with the book in hand.

Prince Luling was quite satisfied with their performance.

He leisurely picked up a book again and started reading.

Li Yuzhu twitched her lips, truly remarkable!

Time passed quickly, half a shichen went by.

Prince Luling began to check the children’s recitation.

The children were of different ages, so what they recited was different.

Except for the three who were notably lacking, all the others could recite.

True to his word, Prince Luling unceremoniously rapped their hands with the ruler.

"Knowing you’re slow at recitation, normally put more effort into it. If others can recite in half a shichen, you should spend one shichen to recite. As long as you strive, I don’t believe you can’t recite."

Half criticism, half encouragement.

The children earnestly replied, "Understood, teacher."

The ensuing sessions were also cyclical, with the reciting being taught, then going back to seats to recite.

If explanation was needed, Prince Luling would call the child over to explain.