Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside-Chapter 118 Making Oil

The Gu Dashan family was unaware of Scholar Shang’s thoughts. They simply believed that Gu Jin’an was not good enough, which was why Scholar Shang did not take him as a pupil. However, since Scholar Shang was willing to teach Gu Jin’an, the Gu family was already very grateful.

Facing the gratitude of the Gu family people, Scholar Shang smiled and said, "No need for thanks, I do collect tuition fees. You all should discuss and pick a date to send Good Brother An to my place to study."

Manager Tao’s plea for the beggar incident, with the involvement of Manager Zeng and County Magistrate Zou, meant that it would be best for Good Brother An to start studying with him as soon as possible. In this way, the Lu Family and County Magistrate Zou would have reservations and not dare to play dirty tricks against the Gu family.

"We will bring Good Brother An to your place the day after tomorrow," said Gu Dashan, who was so excited he initially wanted to take Good Brother An to visit the next day, but then remembered that preparations for the tuition fee gift needed to be made, and thus delayed it by another day.

Scholar Shang replied, "All right, it’s settled then."

After finishing talking about Gu Jin’an, Scholar Shang left with Ah Jiu.

The Gu family saw Scholar Shang off, waiting until Scholar Shang’s mule cart disappeared before they returned to the courtyard.

Now no longer pounding spices at Gu Jinli’s house, each family took two types of spices home to grind, and after grinding, would bring them back to Gu Jinli for mixing. Nevertheless, the other families soon learned of the news that Gu Jin’an would be studying with Scholar Shang.

The people of several families were overjoyed, all hoping that Gu Jin’an could make a name for himself and shelter them in the future.

Mrs. Chen was also delighted, but alongside her happiness, she felt a strong sense of unwillingness, and grabbed her eight-year-old Gu Dewang and hit him hard, saying, "You worthless thing, you were evaluated by Scholar Shang along with Good Brother An. Why did Scholar Shang only take Good Brother An and not you? Get back to grinding spices for me!"

Gu Dewang was afraid of Mrs. Chen, and with shrunk shoulders, he ran back to grind spices, dismissing the prospect of schooling. What’s so good about studying? The characters are like ants, making one dizzy just looking at them. He much preferred grinding spices and making tofu.

Gu Dexing, while filtering soy milk at the Luo family’s home, heard Mrs. Chen’s words. He took them to heart, feeling like the criticism was aimed at him, and ran off angrily, leaving the soy milk filtering halfway done.

"Brother Xing, where are you going? Your work isn’t finished yet!" shouted Gu Dafu, who was carrying a bucket of soy milk, but Gu Dexing seemed to hear nothing and ran off without looking back.

Gu Dafu sighed, knowing that Gu Dexing wanted to study, but what could he do if Scholar Shang refused to take him in?

Gu Dagui from the side said, "Big brother, there are private schools in town too. Let’s send Brother Xing to study there."

They all realized that Brother Xing wanted to study. Back in their hometown, this nephew was his father’s great hope. Starting at the age of seven, he was sent to a private school to study, and it was only because of the drought in the Northwest that he had to stop studying reluctantly.

But Gu Dafu knew his son; the boy was stubborn. With Scholar Shang as the benchmark, he would not go to study at another private school.

"Let’s wait and see," Gu Dafu said, and continued with his work.

After Gu Dexing ran off, he didn’t return until it was dark. Fortunately, he didn’t do anything foolish, merely sulked by himself.

The next day, Gu Jinli didn’t accompany [them] to set up the stall, but stayed at home making tofu and directed Gu Dashan to take Gu Jin’an to town to shop.

They had quite a few items to buy today, including the tuition fee gift for Scholar Shang and the pens, ink, paper, and inkstones needed for Gu Jin’an’s schooling.

The town had few scholars, and at the back street was a small bookshop that sold pens, ink, paper, and inkstones, as well as some commonly used books, such as Three Character Classic, Thousand Character Classic, and others like the Analects, Classic of Poetry, and Rites.

Although the selection of books was limited and the paper was yellowed, they were not cheap; a regular Three Character Classic cost a whole tael of silver.

Gu Dashan asked about the price of the books and wanted to buy two books for Gu Jin’an, but was stopped by Gu Jin’an.

Gu Jin’an said, "Dad, right now, we don’t know what the tutor will teach, so let’s not buy the books yet. After meeting the tutor tomorrow, we can decide then."

After hearing this, Gu Dashan suppressed the thought of buying books. After browsing through the bookshop, he purchased a pen, the cheapest inkstone, two ink cakes, ten sheets of yellow paper, and bit the bullet to buy two sheets of white Xuan paper as well.

Manager Tang of the bookshop knew Gu Dashan. The Gu family often came to their bookshop to buy yellow paper for their tofu business, but this time they bought white Xuan paper, which made him curious and he asked, "Brother Gu, why did you buy white Xuan paper this time? This paper isn’t cheap."

The yellow paper was the cheapest, at fifty copper coins per sheet, while the white Xuan paper was expensive, costing two hundred copper coins per sheet, not something ordinary families could afford.

Gu Dashan responded, "Good Brother An is about to start school, so I bought two sheets of Xuan paper to have on hand, just in case the tutor asks him to write essays, then he can use Xuan paper." Using yellow paper just doesn’t look good.

After hearing this, Manager Tang was very surprised that the Gu family, who had fled famine, actually had the money to send their son to school.

"That really is something to congratulate Brother Gu on," Manager Tang said with a smile. "Which tutor did you choose? Is he going to study in a private school in the town?" ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

Gu Dashan replied, "We’ve approached Scholar Shang from Shang Family Village; he will be studying at his house."

Manager Tang was thoroughly shocked; he had not expected Scholar Shang to be willing to teach Brother Gu Jia’an. This was truly... He recalled the rumors in town that said a young girl from the Gu family had saved the County Magistrate’s granddaughter and therefore gained the protection of Lord County Captain.

And that County Magistrate’s son-in-law was none other than Scholar Shang.

It seemed then that the rumors were true, and the Gu family really had struck it lucky, earning the protection of both County Captain Jiang and Scholar Shang.

The smile on Manager Tang’s face grew even warmer as he sincerely said, "This truly is a joyous occasion. Scholar Shang is genuinely talented; with his guidance, your boy, Good Brother An, is sure to have a promising future."

Manager Tang said a few more kind words, and when it came to settling the bill, he rounded down the amount, charging only one tael and five hundred copper coins and refusing to accept any more.

Finally, Manager Tang also handed Gu Dashan a pack of dried celery wrapped in yellow paper, "You definitely need to buy a gift of tuition fee, and celery is essential. Right now, there’s no fresh celery available, but my shop has dried celery on hand, so I’ll give it to you."

Gu Dashan was very grateful and accepted the dried celery.

Gu Jin’an was not one to be foolishly unresponsive; he thanked the shopkeeper with a smile, spoke a few more kind words, and then the father and son left the bookshop to purchase other gifts of tuition fee.

At home, Gu Jinli was busy making tofu and soy oil.

Making soy oil isn’t difficult. It involves selecting beans, crushing beans, frying beans, and making the oil cake, then pressing it for oil.

The beans had been ground with a stone mill a few days earlier, and now it was time to start frying them.

After adjusting the vinegar water for Mrs. Cui and helping to press six pots of tofu, she built a simple stove outside the kitchen with mud bricks, took out an iron pot, heated it over the fire, poured in twenty jin of crushed yellow beans, and slowly fried them over low heat.

The beans were ground fine, making them easy to cook. After 30 minutes, the twenty jin of broken soybeans were all fried.