Misty Rain of the Old Times

Chapter 74 No Wind
After the 'morning exercises', Chen Xuan ate nearly twice as much food as in the previous few days before he was full. His appetite increased significantly. He did not think it was because his body had shrunk and then regrown. It was definitely related to the quiet and healthy exercises he practiced.

I haven't had any adverse reactions. My teacher said that practicing that 'gongfa' is beneficial and harmless, so I think this change is not a bad thing.

After a short rest after dinner, it’s time to go to class again.

There are three classes every morning, just the same three things, just in a different order: beginners learn to read, learn the four seasons, and learn to count...

When Mr. Yushan was giving a lecture, Chen Xuan observed him and found that he did not show any abnormality, as if nothing had happened. It was impossible to guess whether he had taken any action. There was nothing he could do but wait for further developments.

Gao Jingming should have rested after lunch, but he went to play Cuju to vent his energy at this age. He came back all dirty, and Chen Xuan had to take time to wash his clothes. After all, Chen Xuan provided him with food and accommodation and paid him a salary, so it was his due.

However, Chen Xuan discovered that his appetite only increased in the morning, and there was not much difference from usual at noon. It should be that his body needed to replenish the energy consumed after practicing the calming and health-preserving exercises in the morning. He didn't need to worry too much about becoming a little fat man.

Tsk, in this ancient society, most people don’t have the blessing to become fat, otherwise it is said that fat people look blessed.

The two classes in the afternoon are painting and piano learning, which is two of the six arts of a gentleman.

The painting is of course ink painting. At this age, students in Class D are just beginners and are learning the basics. The teacher explains and then lets the students paint. Each child's "work" is hard to describe.

Chen Xuan couldn't draw. He had never even attended any interest classes when he was a child. His drawings were about the same as those of other children. As for drawing a "photo" to shock everyone, that was naturally impossible.

The content of painting that the gentleman talked about was quite interesting. Ink painting is actually more inclined to realism, while freehand painting is a level that only "masters" can reach.

It's not just that poor families can't afford to support scholars. The mere act of painting is very expensive. Not to mention the paper needed for painting, the key is the pigment. Some pigments, such as blue and purple, are more expensive than the same weight of gold!

Of course, even painting masters generally would not use such precious pigments, let alone beginners like Chen Xuan. They have just started to learn the techniques of light and dark painting. It is an exaggeration to say that they have skills. They are just children's graffiti.

The art of playing the zither does not only refer to the zither. Any "tool" that can make sounds and play music can be classified into this category. In the future, you should dabble in it. You don't have to be proficient in it, but you must understand it. At least you must have a certain appreciation ability, otherwise you will be speechless when you are drinking and singing with a few good friends in the future, which will spoil the fun.

Anyway, any educated person with a certain level of knowledge can play at least a few musical instruments. This kind of thing can actually be applied to other similar situations. Once you master one, it will be much easier to learn others.

The teacher who taught the musical instrument was Mr. Yushan. In class, he personally demonstrated seven or eight musical instruments, which was not all that he mastered, which made the group of children admire him very much.

During the performance, Mr. Yushan encouraged everyone to come forward and perform. Zhou Lin stole the show. He used the leaf-blowing technique he learned from Chen Xuan yesterday to win applause from the whole audience. Even Mr. Yushan praised him.

This made Gao Jingming and the others feel helpless. They all learned from Chen Xuan, but Zhou Lin was the only one who stole the limelight. But who made them learn slowly?

From class to get out of class, a day of study passes just like that. As long as one studies hard, one can actually gain a lot.

After lunch in the afternoon, Chen Xuan and Gao Jingming went to Mr. Yushan again to do their homework and memorize new texts, and also practice painting and playing musical instruments.

To be honest, if the scholars in ancient society were to roll up their books, they would have to learn no less than the students in Chen Xuan’s hometown, or even more. The only difference was that what they learned was different.

Chen Xuan was a little skeptical that the scholars of this era were all trained to be all-rounders.

When they were in Mr. Yushan's courtyard, he only supervised and guided the two of them in their studies, and didn't mention anything else, as if the things he had asked about and promised yesterday had never happened. He told Chen Xuan and the others not to worry about it and just wait for the results, and he really removed them from the incident.

But the more he acted like this, the more reassured Chen Xuan felt. People who talked about him all the time were unreliable...

The next four or five days passed peacefully.

After many days, Chen Xuan had basically mastered the set of calming and health-preserving exercises. Every time he practiced, he could experience the comfortable feeling of warmth all over his body. The more standard he was, the more obvious the feeling was. Even though Gao Jingming and others warned him many times, he still practiced seriously on his own.

Seeing that they couldn't persuade him, Gao Jingming and the others just let him go. No one took him seriously anyway.

Until recently, Chen Xuan's set of "exercises" has become quite standard. If he were not a servant, the teacher would have wanted him to go to the front to "lead the exercises" and set an example.

As he practiced more deeply, his appetite did not increase too much. At most, it was about the same as a normal adult's, which was not exaggerated.

After gradually learning it, Chen Xuan would occasionally practice it at noon and in the afternoon to relieve fatigue, but the effect was not as obvious as in the morning. It can only be said that it is better than nothing.

From this, he deduced that the practice of this "gong method" also has certain requirements for the time period. It is understandable if you think about it. After all, it is a "health-preserving exercise" that focuses on health preservation. If you only focus on hard practice, it will go against the main purpose.

Life in the school has gotten on track. I can learn new things every day, especially the articles that the teacher asks me to recite in the four-season class. Later, Chen Xuan will quietly mark them with pinyin, so the number of words I know is increasing day by day. However, I still have a long way to go before I can read books on my own.

Knowing the words is not enough, you also need to be able to write and punctuate, otherwise you will not be able to fully understand the content of a book.

However, Chen Xuan thought like an adult, and gradually found the skills. In terms of writing, there is a traceable order between the strokes of a single character. As long as it is written down, it is a character. But if you want to write well, you have to spend a lot of time practicing.

There are methods for punctuation. There are no punctuation marks to refer to, but you can infer based on some specific words, such as '了, 呢, 乎, 哉, 矣...' and so on. This aspect still needs in-depth study. The teacher has not talked about punctuation yet. It is still too early. To put it bluntly, Level D is just the stage of school enrollment.

In daily life, Chen Xuan originally had a question, that is, since food and accommodation are all provided in the school, what did Gao Jingming bring so much money for? There is no canteen in the school to spend money.

It was not until the paper for practicing calligraphy ran out and ink sticks needed to be bought, and the scented candles he used to refresh himself also consumed a lot of energy, that he realized that the bulk of his expenses were in these areas.

The school also provides things like pens, ink, paper, and inkstones, but they are not free and you need to exchange money for bills to purchase them.

But the quality of the things provided by the school was really poor. A family like Gao Jingming naturally wanted to use the best, so he could only spend money to purchase them from outside. Fortunately, there were people from the Gao family waiting at the school gate every day. Chen Xuan went to contact them once and purchased a batch of necessities, spending nearly thirteen taels of silver.

Just one piece of ink stick that Gao Jingming was used to using cost him eight taels of silver!
Chen Xuan finally understood why, as reported online back home, an eraser for elementary school students in some places cost thousands of yuan...

Even so, Gao Jingming did not suddenly decide to buy some extra things like storybooks, otherwise the cost would be even higher. Add to that the daily expenses for food and drink, and the thirty taels he brought might be a bit tight.

This is not studying at all, it's clearly just burning money.

Of course, wealthy people like Gao Jingming have their own way of reading, and ordinary people like Shu Yao have their own way of learning. People can't be generalized...

(End of this chapter)