Chapter 1458.
Early in the morning, Causeway Alley.
The morning light came out to illuminate the beams of the house brightly, and the drum sounded when the door was first opened.
Located in the innermost part of the alley, Wang’s Pavilion School, again resounded with the sound of reading.
The families in the same alley are already accustomed to it, a few naughty children leaped out of their homes, ran to the door of the school with a flexible pace, and looked inside with curiosity.
There are also bold little guy directly to the sill of the school, sneaky tiptoe, peeping through the open window, and quickly attracted by the content of the teacher’s teaching.
Unconsciously forgetting the passage of time.
In front of the podium, Wang Chen lifted his brush and dipped it in lime water, writing the word “mountain” on the homemade blackboard.
“This character reads mountain, the mountain of big mountains, the mountain of mountains and rivers.”
Not only that, he also used his pen to depict the peaks of the mountain ranges, so that the students sitting below could grasp the meaning of the word more visually.
This was also considered Wang Chen’s pioneering teaching method, a skill that other gentlemen would never have.
Writing and painting mountains, writing and painting the sea, combining graphics and text in a lively and interesting way.
The effect was naturally excellent.
A group of children chanted, “Mountain, big mountain, mountain of mountains and rivers!”
The children’s voices were accompanied by the morning light, a unique sight.
Wang Duan then taught two more characters, and then asked the students to recite them aloud against the Thousand Character Essay.
He then walked out of the classroom with a scroll in his hand.
The children who were hiding under the window sill and peeping were startled, and fled in panic, all of them like frightened rabbits.
Only one child around ten years old didn’t run, and plopped down and knelt in front of Wang Duan: “First, sir, I want to read, please accept my little man as a disciple!”
This child was dark and skinny, his clothes were ragged and his hair was messy, he looked like the kind of poor people’s children who couldn’t eat.
Qing An County was not a very affluent place, and such children were quite common on the streets.
Wang Chen asked without moving, “What’s your name?”
The black and thin child summoned up the courage to raise his head and replied, “My name is Er Dog, my surname, Chen.”
It’s normal for the poor to take cheap names, so Wang Chen didn’t think it was a big deal and asked, “Can you take out your tuition?”
Chen Ergou obviously knows what tuition means, and immediately felt out three copper plates from his pocket, and presented them to Wang Duan with both hands, “I only have this much, can I owe it first?”
“I promise to pay it back later!”
His eyes were filled with apprehension and contained a desire to learn!
Wang Dust reached out and took the three coins that were sticky with mud and dust, “That’s enough, you can come to school from tomorrow.”
“But clean yourself up a bit, you won’t be able to enter the schoolhouse in this state!”
Chen Er Dog was instantly overjoyed, panicked and kowtowed to Wang Dust in thanks, “Thank you sir, little man, I will definitely get clean!”
“Chen Er Dog is not a good name.”
Wang Dust thought for a moment and said, “My student can’t be without a proper name, from now on you’ll be called Chen Yi Jian.”
“Poor and Yijian, don’t lose the will of the green clouds!”
Chen Ergu froze.
He hadn’t studied and didn’t really understand the meaning of the name.
But in his body, a rush of hot blood steeply surged up, rushing straight to his head in excitement so great that he couldn’t help himself.
“Yijian, my name is Chen Yijian!”
Chen Ergu muttered his new name, a dark, thin face reddening.
He suddenly kowtowed three times heavily to Wang Dust: “Many thanks for the name, Mr. Chen, Chen Yijian, in this life and in the next, I will never forget Mr. Chen’s great kindness!”
Wang Dust smiled faintly.
His acceptance of Chen Ergou as a student, and also giving the other party a name, was not a sudden attack of kindness.
Despite sealing his own heavenly cultivation, Wang Chen’s divine soul consciousness was still incredibly powerful.
His eyesight was also by no means comparable to that of an ordinary person.
This Chen Ergou had the aura of a snake and python in his body, the destiny of a chaotic lord!
Of course, having a destiny doesn’t mean that you can definitely achieve extraordinary things, and geniuses abound who die in the middle of their lives.
But since he had encountered it, Wang Dust didn’t mind putting a son on the other side.
Whether or not there is any gain in the future, it is a matter of indifference.
So the matter of Chen Er Dog of the Chen family joining the Wang’s Pavilion School as a student soon topped the Causeway Alley’s hot search list.
Chen Ergou, now called Chen Yijian, lives at the east end of Causeway Alley. His father died of illness early in life, and his mother worked hard to support him and his brother by weaving, so his family was naturally very poor.
However, a year ago, Chen Yijian’s mother lost her eyesight due to a disease caused by hard work, adding to the family’s already difficult situation.
At such a young age, Chen Yijian had to take on the burden of life and try to earn money to support his family.
Despite this, he still had the desire to learn!
After the news of Chen Yijian’s enrollment in the Wang’s Pavilion School spread, all the families in Causeway Lane and the nearby streets knew that there was such a private school, which was willing to take in poor and humble children as students.
So the people came to the door one after another.
Wang Duan did not refuse.
Although these people can not take any decent tuition, at most a dozen coins, or a bag of rice, a piece of bacon, a hare and so on to make up for it.
But Wang Duan didn’t mind, and treated these students equally.
As a result, the hall of Wang’s school was soon filled with students, so that those who came later could only stand outside to listen to the lessons.
However, trouble soon arose.
That day, while Wang Chen was in the middle of a lesson, two uninvited guests suddenly came to the door.
One of them yelled fiercely, “Stop talking and come out to talk!”
It scared a few children in the schoolhouse to the point of wailing.
Wang Dust frowned and comforted the students for a few moments before walking out of the schoolhouse and asking in a deep voice, “What is it?”
“I’m a tax collector from the Qing’an County Office, and someone has reported that you’re running a private school here.”
The vicious looking fellow asked with his nose in the air, “So have you paid your taxes yet?”
Wang Duan shook his head, “I’ve never heard that you have to pay taxes to open a pavilion school!”
“This is the rule of our Qing An County.”
This tax collector was uplifted, “Unless one has a meritorious title, one must pay the tax!”
“I have merit.”
Wang Dust didn’t move as he flashed out his school diploma.
A school certificate was a document that proved merit, and although Wang Dust hadn’t participated in the imperial examinations, it wasn’t difficult to purchase a Xiu Cai’s school certificate – as long as one had enough silver taels and found the right fixer, it could be done!
Wang Chen’s Xiu Cai diploma was of course genuine, and cost him two hundred taels of silver.
“A Xiu Cai from out of town?”
The tax collector snorted, “That won’t do, outsiders have to have a scholar’s merit to be tax exempt!”
This was deliberately making things difficult!
Wang Chen’s heart was clear, he didn’t argue with the other party and asked, “Then may I ask how much tax silver I need to pay?”
“Ten taels a year!”
The tax collector opened his palm and flipped it over, “Not even one or two less.”
“Good.”
Wang Dust nodded and went to his room to fetch ten taels of silver to hand over to the other party, “This is for this year.”
“Count on you to be sensible.”
The tax collector smiled smugly and winked at his companion, then raised his head and left.
Wang Chen looked at the two men’s departing figures, his gaze indifferent.