They've all separated, so what does it matter to me if they get poorer and poorer?

Chapter 54 A Refined Scoundrel, A Despicable Man

Xu Zhichun looked at him, suppressing her anger, "Tell your sister-in-law the truth. Mingxuan, you can choose not to speak, but don't lie to your sister-in-law. No matter if you have a reason, no choice, or it's for her own good, your sister-in-law won't accept it. Deception is deception. What your sister-in-law can't stand the most is being deceived."

"If you deceive your sister-in-law, she will be very sad and disappointed."

Liang Mingxuan pursed his lips, lowered his eyes, and after a long while, softly said, "It is the teacher."

Xu Zhichun didn't quite hear, or rather, didn't react immediately. "What?"

Liang Mingxuan took a deep breath, and, feeling somewhat embarrassed and sad, slowly told her, "Sister-in-law, I don't know what I did wrong."

Xu Zhichun's expression gradually changed, becoming extremely ugly!
Her child suffered such a tremendous injustice!
What a load of rubbish! He's unworthy of being a teacher!

A despicable scoundrel, a vile villain.

Xu Zhichun then realized that ever since the beginning of the year, for some reason, Master Liu had been saying that Liang Mingxuan was smart and quick to learn, and that there was no need to waste so much time, so he asked him to help with chores at his house.

He was a man of principle and didn't dare let Liang Mingxuan go out to work, but gradually, Liang Mingxuan ended up taking care of almost all the housework by himself.

Chopping wood, washing clothes, cleaning the yard, cooking pig feed to feed the pigs and chickens, cleaning the pigsty and chicken coop. Behind their house was a vegetable garden, and Liang Mingxuan often had to dig the ground and plant vegetables for them.

The vegetable garden was surrounded by a dense fence of bamboo branches taller than a person, making it impossible to see inside from the outside. Moreover, Master Liu's house was located at one end of the village, in a rather remote location. Everyone knew that his family ran a school and taught six children, so they dared not disturb them easily.

So no one noticed that Liang Mingxuan was doing so much work all day.

As for the children in the school, whether they were threatened, bribed, or coaxed, they must have all received instructions from Master Liu and had not uttered a single word about it.

Of the six children attending the school, two were from Quanshan Village, while the other four, whose homes were far away, had to bring their own lunch every day, which consisted of either dark-colored steamed buns or white or brown rice balls with vegetables and mixed grains.

At lunchtime, Master Liu's wife would boil a pot of water, and everyone would eat half a bowl of hot water with their dry rations.

Xu Zhichun felt sorry for her child and prepared soft, large steamed white flour buns or flower rolls for him, along with two boiled eggs.

Fearing he wouldn't have enough to eat, and thinking that the other children were his classmates and it would be good to help them get closer, she would bring him two extra portions every day so that his classmates could share them and have a few bites.

Unexpectedly, the steamed buns never even reached Liang Mingxuan's mouth; they were all snatched away by Liu Fuzi's son, nine-year-old Liu Fenghua.

The Liu couple pretended not to know anything, snatched the white flour steamed buns, and didn't even give him a bite of the black flour steamed buns or the wild vegetable and coarse rice dumplings, so Liang Mingxuan had to go hungry every noon.

Xu Zhichun was both angry and heartbroken. She loved her child, but in doing so, she had harmed the child. It was worse than when she wasn't there; at least the child would eat a bite, even if the food wasn't good.

No wonder he refused to bring any more eggs after only two days, saying he wanted to eat them at home. She felt it was inappropriate for him to be the only one with eggs at school while everyone else did not. She thought that made sense, so she didn't let him bring any more.

Otherwise, it would never have reached his mouth.

"You silly child, why didn't you tell your sister-in-law!"

Xu Zhichun felt a mix of heartache, anger, and frustration.

Liang Mingxuan said in a low voice, "Sister-in-law, he is my teacher."

Xu Zhichun was stunned and fell silent. His heart was filled with resentment.

Heaven, Earth, Ruler, Parents, and Teacher. Heaven and Earth and Ruler go without saying, Parents are related by blood, a natural blood relationship, and Teacher follows closely behind, showing how important they are.

The saying "A teacher for a day is a father for life" is not just a humble expression of respect in this era, but a principle of conduct that every scholar must practice throughout their life.

Anyone who disrespects their teacher is considered to have betrayed their teacher and ancestors, and their path to the imperial examinations will come to an end.

They will also be despised by the entire society.

In other words, Liang Mingxuan could not possibly openly criticize Master Liu.

Not to mention he had no evidence at all. Even if he had a little bit of evidence, Master Liu could just say he didn't know anything: he taught his students every day and was oblivious to what was going on outside. What could he possibly know? It was all his wife and son who did it.

His wife is a simple-minded woman, and his son is young and doesn't understand anything. Who can argue with a woman and a child who don't understand anything?
To put it another way, as a disciple, what's wrong with Liang Mingxuan doing his work for his master? Isn't that just his duty?
Xu Zhichun: "Then you should also talk to your sister-in-law, and we can think of a solution together. How can this continue?"

Liang Mingxuan hurriedly explained, "No, I... I have a plan. Isn't the entrance exam for the Tongsheng degree next month? I want to register for the exam. I'm sure I can pass. Once I become a Tongsheng, I won't go to that school anymore, and he naturally won't be able to do anything about it."

Xu Zhichun laughed in exasperation, lightly poking her brother-in-law's forehead with her index finger: "You little fool, wouldn't that be letting him off easy? Wouldn't everyone praise his abilities? Wouldn't they all think you're where you are today because of his good teaching? Wouldn't he be incredibly successful? You'll have to respect him for the rest of your life, won't you?"

Liang Mingxuan fell silent.

He was unwilling to accept it, but Master Liu was his teacher. He had been taught his early education there, and he had studied there for so long, always doing well. The teacher had always praised him for his intelligence and often gave him private lectures. He could feel that the teacher had genuinely cared for him and truly dedicated himself to teaching him. Only this year, for some reason, things suddenly changed.
Even with his precocious intelligence, Liang Mingxuan couldn't understand what was going on. Why had his once-good teacher suddenly changed?
“This person’s character is terrible, Mingxuan. If you want to go further in the future, you’d better not have anything to do with him anymore. This matter must be resolved.”

"Tell me the truth whatever I ask you now."

"Ah."

Xu Zhichun was shocked to learn that Master Liu had been very kind to him in the past.

So what exactly happened?
Xu Zhichun quickly ruled out the possibility that the first and second wives were involved.

Mingxuan is still so young. Although everyone praises him as a child prodigy, who doesn't know how difficult it is to succeed in school? The first and second wives can't possibly assume that Mingxuan will definitely succeed in the future and therefore ruin his future prematurely.

Of course, they would be happy to get involved for free.

However, if they were asked to bribe Master Liu to do this, they certainly wouldn't be willing to do so.

The reason mostly lies with Master Liu, or even the Liu family.

When Xu Zhichun learned that Liu Fuzi's son, Liu Fenghua, had been studying with him since last year but was doing terribly, and hadn't even memorized the Three Character Classic after a year, while Liang Mingxuan could recite it fluently in less than a month, Xu Zhichun felt that he had guessed something.

When she learned that Lady Liu wasn't very kind to Liang Mingxuan, especially recently, she found him to be disrespectful and irritating, while Lady Liu doted on her only son, Xu Zhichun felt she had grasped half the truth.

Thank you all for your support! 11 successfully made it to the final round and cleared the level! Thank you so much! Hugs and kisses, love you all!
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(End of this chapter)