CHAPTER 257: CHAPTER 252 LEARNING IS HARD

After Zhao Hanzhang finished handling the documents in her hand, she then allowed a few children to be brought in.

There were five in total, the leader was named Jia Shan, and his name was given by Zhao Hanzhang. Well, the names of the children in Yushan Hall were basically all given by her.

Zhao Hanzhang set the rules: the first batch of children entering Yushan Hall, those who didn’t have names, would all take the middle character Jia, and the following character would be chosen randomly from the Analects of Confucius to form a name. Those with surnames would keep their surnames; those without would be given a name first, and after they reached adulthood, they could choose any surname they wanted.

For those who already had names and didn’t want to change, just add a prefix order number such as Jia, Yi, Bing in front.

Jia Shan was just called Jia Shan, obviously, he didn’t have a surname.

Zhao Hanzhang carefully scrutinized this thin young teenager and asked, "Why skip class?"

Jia Shan was extremely nervous, his voice trembling, "I, we know we were wrong, please County Lord forgive us this time, we will definitely not do it again in the future."

Seeing him so afraid, Zhao Hanzhang softened her tone, raised her hand, and said, "Sit down, let’s have a chat."

Although Zhao Hanzhang was very kind and not much older than they were, the teenagers were used to seeing her surrounded by people, and no one dared to offend her authority.

"Skipping class is naturally wrong, but I want to know why you all skipped class?" Zhao Hanzhang said, "Looking at you, you don’t seem like mischievous children. Mr. Zhao told me that you are filial and take care of the young, so I really don’t understand why such filial and brotherly kids would make such a mistake?"

Zhao Hanzhang entrusted the school to Zhao Cheng, so he was set as Mountain Master early on.

In the eyes of the students, Zhao Cheng was a very serious and authoritative figure. The teenagers didn’t expect Zhao Cheng to speak on their behalf and praise them like this, and they were momentarily speechless.

Zhao Hanzhang did not rush them, just quietly waited.

Jia Shan and the others were silent for a moment, suddenly knelt down on the ground.

Zhao Hanzhang looked at them in surprise.

The teenagers suddenly became very sorrowful, their tears falling drop by drop on the ground, crying until they couldn’t catch their breaths.

Zhao Hanzhang, frightened, immediately stood up, went around the table to support them, "What is this? Get up quickly."

The teenagers didn’t move, just kept crying.

Feeling helpless, Zhao Hanzhang squatted in front of them and asked, "Did you suffer some grievance in Yushan Hall? Tell me about it?"

The teenagers shook their heads, Jia Shan cried, tears streaming down, "County Lord, we really know we were wrong, in the future, we will absolutely not skip classes. Please don’t expel us, okay?"

Zhao Hanzhang said speechlessly, "Why do you all think I’ll expel you when something happens? Am I that fierce?"

She decided not to stand up, sat cross-legged on the ground, leaned forward to look at their faces, "Come, come, tell me why you skipped class?"

Jia Shan and his companions exchanged looks, felt the kindness from Zhao Hanzhang, calmed down a bit, wiped away the tears on their faces, and said, "I, we just wanted to carefully learn how to make tofu and bean curd."

"I don’t stop you from learning, you can learn after school, can’t you? Don’t other students do the same?"

"But doing that might lead to missing steps, although the cook teaches every day, we are rather slow-witted, afraid we won’t learn it in a short time."

The cook would only teach for these few days, once she taught the people from the village, she wouldn’t teach anymore, so it was a rare opportunity, they couldn’t bear to miss it.

Zhao Hanzhang curiously asked, "Why do you want to learn this so much?"

A few teenagers exchanged glances, whispered, "We want to learn this skill so that after leaving Yushan Hall in the future, we can use this skill to support ourselves."

Zhao Hanzhang greatly praised them, "This idea is very good, but why didn’t you tell your teachers? With their understanding and reasoning, they would surely support you."

"I, we are poor students, often don’t recognize the characters, can’t write well, the teachers probably don’t like us, how would they support us?"

Zhao Hanzhang laughed, "Like and dislike are mostly related to character, not much to do with knowledge. You have pure character, why wouldn’t the teachers like you?"

She said, "If indeed they didn’t like you, why would Mr. Zhao specially speak for you and praise you so well?"

"Students have many paths forward; I believe as long as you have a skill to make a living, whether or not it’s related to studies, the teachers will be very happy."

The teenagers were moved beyond measure by her words, "Really?"

"Really," Zhao Hanzhang nodded.

The teenagers finally stopped crying and broke into smiles.

Seeing them relax, Zhao Hanzhang then said, "Now let’s talk about punishment."

The teenagers froze.

Zhao Hanzhang smiled at them, "Mr. Zhao said, although you are good children, making mistakes should still be punished. Let me see what punishment might suit you?"

Zhao Hanzhang thought for a moment and said, "The county government is hosting an event, requiring a lot of bean products, so the punishment will be for you to work as helpers at the county government, daily assisting in making bean products."

The teenagers were stunned for a moment then nodded repeatedly, did not get up, and directly kowtowed to Zhao Hanzhang.

Hearing the sound of foreheads hitting the ground, Zhao Hanzhang quickly reached out to support them, these children were too sincere.

"Come, come, no need to kneel, sit down and let’s chat," Zhao Hanzhang felt the floor was a bit cold, seeing they didn’t dare sit on chairs, she simply let them take out the mats that were kept, spread them open, then took off her shoes and sat cross-legged on the mat.

She waved to them, "Come, sit down."

The teenagers exchanged looks, cautiously sat cross-legged below Zhao Hanzhang.

Zhao Hanzhang then asked, "Are there many children like you who have decided to make tofu?"

"Quite a few, but their strength isn’t as great as ours. Grinding the mill requires strength, we defeated them, so we get to learn."

"Oh?" Zhao Hanzhang didn’t expect they had internal agreements, smiled and asked, "What, others can’t learn?"

"They can, but they lack our strength, in the future when we all do business in the county, surely they’ll lose to us, so why waste time learning this, might as well focus on studying." Jia Shan sighed, "They read better than we do."

Zhao Hanzhang didn’t comment but was very interested and asked, "Is studying very hard?"

All the teenagers nodded vigorously, and said emphatically, "Yes, too hard."

Zhao Hanzhang slightly frowned, "But you’re only learning simple characters and arithmetic now, how can that be hard?"

"How can it not be hard? Those characters are hard to recognize and write, when learning I clearly remembered, but after a while, I forget."

Zhao Hanzhang was silent for a while and then asked, "What about arithmetic?"

"Also hard."

Zhao Hanzhang then asked, "What is four plus five?"

The teenagers hesitated for a moment before answering, "Nine."

"What about twenty-four plus twenty-five?"

The teenagers were immediately stumped, silent for a long time.