CHAPTER 29: CHAPTER 29: THOSE WHO WASH UP GET A SNACK

EDITOR: ENDLESSFANTASY TRANSLATION

Kneeling is extremely torturous, even with the small kneeling benches that Lin Wanwan specially purchased from modern times as samples and then had crafted by the town carpenter, it is still exhausting.

Even Lin Wanwan herself was quite fatigued, let alone the children.

Like little Qingyu and others, they’re simply unable to sit properly, already leaning left and right. Lin Wanwan simply chooses to turn a blind eye and not be too strict.

The classroom is divided into zones; those under 7 years old are in the east zone, 7-8 year olds in the west zone.

The children in the east zone are merely of kindergarten age, so not much can be demanded of them. However, for the west zone, Lin Wanwan is a bit stricter, with classroom discipline primarily maintained there.

After the first cultural lesson was over, Lin Wanwan had already begun to think about making a dangling bed suitable for sitting with feet hanging down, as kneeling was too punishing.

In fact, the rise of kneeling mainly stems from the fact that earlier Chinese literati before the Han Dynasty often didn’t wear pants (soldiers who needed to ride horses wore them); in the Han Dynasty, open-crotch pants were popular, ultimately this style of dress made sitting without kneeling prone to exposure.

But for poorer people, such as farmers, servants, or soldiers who needed convenience for working, they would wear loincloths (equivalent to underwear). So, whether to wear loincloths or not sometimes seemed to mark a divide between rich and poor. Those with a bit of money naturally wanted to follow trends and refrained from wearing the loincloths worn by farmers.

However, every household at Lin Family Manor was almost equally impoverished, not even reaching the level of farmers, rather they were fishermen. Since that is the case, why endure the punishment of literati kneeling!

After justifying it to herself, Lin Wanwan led the children to line up and wash their hands in the kitchen. A new well was dug in the yard, making water fetching convenient.

The children seeing snow-white children’s soap for the first time were full of curiosity, while little Qingyu proudly demonstrated to everyone.

"You must wash your little hands clean before eating, otherwise you’ll get sick." Qingyu’s crisp voice rang out amid the group of rascals.

When the children finished washing amid laughter and returned to the classroom, they suddenly found it had changed form. Two desks had been pushed together, with several porcelain basins and white flour placed atop.

Lin Wanwan said, "Today for the second lesson, I’m teaching you how to make Hu bing, each person gets an amount to make four, you can take them home."

Lin Wanwan had prepared modern snow skin mooncake premix, which could be eaten directly once made. She chose this to fit the occasion, and the molds were specially ordered custom wooden box molds.

Hua Nong and Yun Shang brought up the boiled water, and the children eagerly followed Lin Wanwan step by step in making Hu bing — in the Great Tang, they were not yet called mooncakes, but Hu bing.

There’s a line from a poet of unknown origin, "Should invite the moon with Hu bing," referring to the later mooncakes, and it’s said the name ’mooncake’ was given by Yang Yuhuan.

Once the little ones finished making Hu bing, each was unbearably tempted, but Teacher had said these Hu bing could be taken home, so they held back from eating them, waiting to share with the family when they got back. Sometimes, poor children are more filial and understand sharing more than rich ones.

After mooncakes were made, it was time for lunch, Hua Nong had already cooked a big pot of rice.

Besides Hua Nong, a freeloader named Lin Zhentian (nicknamed this because his loud snoring, and after being called this for a long time, most people forgot his real name unless they looked at the family genealogy, but most were illiterate) insisted on helping.

This freeloader wasn’t lazy, only due to being bitten by a shark as a youth in the sea, sustaining serious injuries and then unable to do heavy manual labor, couldn’t farm properly, had no one to take care of him after his parents died, he lived a hard life relying on a bit of clan assistance, doing odd jobs in town when there was work (many too heavy for him to do, so jobs were scarce).

Hua Nong was a rather honest woman, used to bearing with things. When Lin Zhentian pestered her saying he wanted to help, she couldn’t muster the courage to drive him away.

Upon seeing Lin Wanwan, Lin Zhentian humbly approached, saying he was just helping the children cook, as he was about to leave.

Lin Wanwan called out to him: "Actually, it’s quite hectic for Hua Nong alone to cook for so many children, you can help, but you must abide by rules."

Lin Zhentian immediately stood straight and promised repeatedly, "I will certainly abide by the rules, won’t take more than a share, won’t say too much, just give me a meal to eat and I’ll be content!"

Lin Wanwan waved her hand, "Go eat, you and Kun Lun together."

Lunch was a specialty dish from the Tang Dynasty called "acacia leaf cold noodles," actually a type of cold noodle made using acacia leaf juice mixed in the dough, boiled into noodles then naturally cooled in the well, tasting refreshing and sweet, relieving heat, quite pleasant to eat in hot weather, topped with slices of lamb, the children relished it so much as if biting their tongues!

What lunch was, they were eating it for the first time at this age!

In fact, they were hungry every noon, but what could be done being hungry? Never heard of a family having lunch at noon, what kind of wasteful people could pull that off? If all the grain was eaten, could they drink the northwest wind in winter?

Many households were already out of cooking fuel, subsisting mainly on seafood which wasn’t filling, their complexion pale from hunger every day.

Whenever possible, children would go up the mountains to dig wild vegetables, but there weren’t many on the small hills – mostly dug up by people from three nearby villages. As for deep mountains and dense forests, where there were fierce beasts, folks didn’t dare venture.

At a quarter past the hour of the monkey, the dismissal bell rang, and the children rushed home with the snow skin mooncakes wrapped in oil paper.

This tasty Hu bing they made with their own hands, they wished to eat with their family while appreciating the moon that night, they needed to bathe and wash their hair! Teacher had said, from now on checking for lice on their body and head daily, clean people get rewarded with a snack at dismissal!

Today little Crab and Big Girl were the cleanest, each earning a piece of jujube paste cake.

Eleven-year-old Lin Mengwu was the oldest child in the school today, the clan leader’s youngest son, ranking higher than all the little fellows present today, yet because he had lice, he didn’t get the jujube paste cake reward from Teacher.

This left him very disappointed.

After returning, he said nothing and started boiling water to frantically wash! Tomorrow, he must earn the reward!

Hmm, he wasn’t just after a snack, it was for his pride! He was of the same generation as Teacher, a man!

Besides him, the two little ones of his elder brother’s family, eight-year-old Duck Egg, and five-year-old Sai Nan also clamored for a bath and hair wash.

A busy rush ensued at home, upon asking why they were clamoring to wash, they revealed that if clean, they could get an extra piece of dessert!

A sweet piece of dessert! That was too much of a motivation!

Wash, must wash, the whole family should wash!

Besides the desserts, the lunch they had of acacia leaf cold noodles topped with meat slices was spread quickly via the children to every family at Lin Family Manor, causing quite the stir.

This Wan Niang truly indulged them, seriously arranged a proper lunch for the children! Even allowing them to bring back such beautifully translucent Hu bing! With both eating and taking, was this school? It was outright enjoyment, wasn’t it!

That night, many families didn’t prepare dinner for the children, since they had eaten a meal at noon, supper could thus be saved.