CHAPTER 114: CHAPTER 114: PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY

As Jiang Hu returned from a trip to the bookstore, it was nearly time for lunch.

After a short rest at noon, it was still very hot. Unable to work in the fields, Jiang Hu was weaving a winnow under the eaves, with Jiang Xiaoxue beside him making clothes.

The second mother took a few of the crabs caught yesterday, wore a straw hat, and went to visit Wang Xiang.

Because Wang Xiang often came to see the second mother, they had developed a deep friendship.

Iron Egg was causing mischief around his dad, while Xiaomi was petting the cat and reciting the "Three Character Classic" that her elder brother taught her last night. From time to time, she even wrote a few characters on a small sand tray.

Jiang Hu listened to a few sentences and asked in surprise, "Xiaomi, are these the things your brother taught you last night?"

Speaking as he got up and approached, he saw the words in the sand tray, and his eyes widened significantly, "You’ve already learned how to write them?"

Xiaomi looked up innocently, "Yes, didn’t my brother teach me yesterday?"

But your brother only taught you twice!

Jiang Hu really wanted to shout, but fortunately, he remembered he was a father and shouldn’t get too excited in front of the children, so he held it in.

Even so, he was still incredulous: "Did you remember what your brother taught you before?"

Xiaomi nodded calmly, "I remembered. He taught me the ’Hundred Family Surnames’ and the ’Thousand Character Classic’ before."

Then she gently shook the small sand tray to flatten the sand, and started writing with a stick as she recited, "The heavens are mysterious and yellow, the universe is vast and desolate..."

The sand tray wasn’t big, and she could only write two characters at a time. Xiaomi didn’t mind, shaking the tray after writing two characters and continued.

At this rate, it would take well over an hour to finish the ’Thousand Character Classic’, but Xiaomi obviously wasn’t that silly. She wrote twenty or thirty characters and then looked up at Jiang Hu.

"Dad, how’s my writing, isn’t it all correct?"

The innocent and harmless look on her face was a stark contrast to Jiang Hu, who was so shocked his eyes looked like they might fall out at any second.

Jiang Xiaoxue, who came over at some point, was full of admiration, "Xiaomi, you’re amazing! There are so many characters I don’t recognize."

Jiang Hu finally came to his senses and swallowed, "Xiaomi, was all this taught by your brother?"

If he remembered correctly, although the eldest brother could read, there were still many words he couldn’t write without looking at the book, right?

Xiaomi nodded calmly, "Yes, it’s all taught by brother, he’s the only one in the family going to school."

That nonchalant attitude almost broke Jiang Hu’s heart.

After a while, he couldn’t help but mutter to himself, "What a pity, Xiaomi, why are you a girl."

Although girls can read and write, they can’t take the imperial examinations. If Xiaomi were a boy, with nearly photographic memory, she would surely accomplish something!

Jiang Hu’s voice wasn’t loud, but Xiaomi, standing nearby, heard it. She didn’t mind; she wasn’t interested in taking the imperial examinations anyway.

So Xiaomi pretended not to understand and instead looked full of anticipation, "I wonder what Brother learned today. When Brother comes back, let him teach me again."

Jiang Hu’s eye twitched several times, already unsure of what to say.

Instead, Jiang Xiaoxue seemed interested and put down her needlework, bringing out her own sand tray to practice writing.

"Xiaomi, why don’t you teach me? When brother taught before, I wasn’t serious, and I don’t know a lot of things."

She hadn’t bought the book on embroidery yet. Dad said the bookstore owner would go to the county in a few days and bring one back for her.

Although it’s a book about embroidery, what if she can’t understand it without recognizing words? Jiang Xiaoxue was quite serious now.

When Xiaomi started teaching Second Sister how to recognize words, Jiang Hu was still a bit dazed but came to his senses after a while.

Fortunately, the skill of weaving winnows had become instinctive, so he didn’t make any mistakes.

Seeing the two sisters, one teaching and the other learning, Jiang Hu forced himself to remain calm. Xiaomi was, after all, a reincarnation of good fortune, understanding adult conversations at four or five months old, so what if she has a good memory, what’s the big deal!

Jiang Hu comforted himself like this, pretending it was normal.

Thus, when it cooled down and the second mother returned, she saw that Jiang Xiaoxue was, for once, not making clothes, playing something with Xiaomi, while her man was still somewhat in a trance, and only responded after being called several times.

Hearing Jiang Hu’s explanation, the second mother was also surprised. However, surprised or not, work shouldn’t be delayed.

Now it’s not so hot and they could go to the fields. The sweet potato mounds haven’t been done yet. The sweet potato vines planted before had grown long and could be transplanted.

Making sweet potato mounds was not for the kids, so she let them stay home. It was a good opportunity for Xiaomi to teach her second sister to recognize words.

As for why Xiaomi suddenly seemed so smart, naturally, she had her own reasoning.

Being able to read and write could disguise many things she knew that others didn’t.

But before, no one in the family studied, and there were no books. She couldn’t just inexplicably know everything, right?

Luckily, her brother started school this year, and she would always pester him to teach her when he returned home.

Thus, naturally, she knew everything, not abruptly, and others would just think she had a good memory.

But this wasn’t enough; with only the few books her brother had bought for school, suddenly mentioning things from other books would easily expose her.

The next step was to make money and buy many books, all kinds of books!

But how to make money required careful planning. The family’s current wealth wasn’t enough to buy books at will.

Thinking of this, Xiaomi couldn’t help but sigh, the books at the bookstore were all manually copied, and their prices were outrageously high.

She had plenty of books in her space, from various fields and industries, but she couldn’t take them out, so she worried in vain.

Lost in thought, her arm was nudged, and Jiang Xiaoxue pointed to a character in the sand tray: "Xiaomi, is ’embroidery’ written like this?"

Xiaomi came back to her senses, corrected it, "There’s one stroke missing here, Second Sister is awesome too, you learned after just being taught twice."

Praised by her younger sister, Jiang Xiaoxue was delighted, smirking and focusing more on practicing writing.

Previously, Jiang Xiaoxue hadn’t been interested in learning, so she didn’t know many characters. But now that she was focused, she learned quickly, managing five characters and their meanings in an afternoon.

To this, Xiaomi only felt that the Spiritual Spring fruit was indeed excellent, not only improving physique but also making people smarter.

When Jiang Yu came back in the evening, and heard from his parents about Xiaomi’s photographic memory, he was incredibly surprised. He eagerly picked up a book and began teaching Xiaomi what he learned today.