Chapter 43： apprentice

Chapter 43 Apprenticeship

As soon as he heard it was a storybook, Zhao Zhitong became interested, blinked and said: "Why wait until we grow up, let's read it now."

Thinking about it, he had never read those books before, so serious Qiao Muchen agreed: "Yes, I will take you there."

Then, when Mother Qiao came in with tea, she saw two little guys lying on the ground looking for books.

The two little guys were very careful, for fear of spoiling the book, so Mother Qiao didn't bother them, put down the refreshments, and went out.

"I found it, this is it." Qiao Muchen pointed to a book on the upper shelf.

Zhao Zhitong raised his head and looked up, pointing to one of the books threaded with thread: "Is that the one?"

"Yes, that's the one," Qiao Muchen said affirmatively, "I still wear the thread that fixes the book with my mother."

Zhao Zhitong stood in front of the bookshelf, stretched out his small arm and gestured, and was half a head away from touching it: "Oh, so high."

"Well, yes." Qiao Muchen thought for a while, and suggested: "I'll pick you up, you go get it."

Zhao Zhitong looked at the thin Qiao Muchen, who was not as tall as himself, and was a little suspicious: "I don't want you to hug me. What if I fall down?"

Qiao Muchen emphasized emphatically, "I've grown stronger!"

Zhao Zhitong didn't believe it, so he refused to let Qiao Muchen hug him.

After arguing for a while, the two of them went to the outer room one after the other, dragged a chair over, and took down the book.

Once Qiao Muchen got the book, he stuffed it directly to Zhao Zhitong. The two of them just lay down on the chair and opened it to read.

This is a completely handwritten book, the words on it are vigorous and sharp.

"Wow, your father's handwriting is so beautiful, just as beautiful as your husband's."

Qiao Muchen is proud: "If we practice hard, we will be able to write well."

The two little radish heads nodded solemnly, and then couldn't wait to read the book.

This book is Qiao Muchen's father, and it is a storybook specially written for Xiao Qiao Muchen, so the whole book is written in vernacular, which is easy to understand. Although there are some fonts that neither of them can recognize, they can roughly guess the meaning after some discussion.

The first story tells the story of a magistrate of the Liuzhou county government helping an old woman in the county who was wronged to kill her own man to clear up her grievances.

The glorious image of the county magistrate in the story defying the power and fighting the bullies made the two little guys adore it.

Both of them were deeply attracted into the book, reading it with relish and being very absorbed.

It wasn't until Sun Mei came to pick Zhao Zhitong back that they realized that so much time had passed.

Because the two children were only lying on the chair to read, so at this moment, their legs were numb from their knees, and they sat on the ground for a long time before recovering.

Qiao Muchen put the book back on the bookshelf, and the two of them made an agreement to read it together after school tomorrow, and then ran out of the study happily holding hands.

Seeing the little girl running out happily, Sun Mei knew that she was very happy watching here.

Give the bean curd to Mother Qiao to Granny Qian, and then take Zhao Zhitong's hand, say goodbye and go home.

The two little ones obviously had some unfinished business. Before going out, Qiao Muchen was still holding Zhao Zhitong and biting his ear.

Sun Mei rubbed Zhao Zhitong's little head, and said with a smile: "Okay, Tongtong, it's time for us to go back and say goodbye to my aunt and brother."

Zhao Zhitong bid farewell to Qiao's mother, and told Qiao Muchen not to secretly read storybooks alone, and then took Sun Mei's hand and went home.

Zhao Zhitong was really happy, he was jumping and jumping while walking, but when he was about to get home, he met his little cousin Zhao Yu, who was coming back from digging bamboo shoots from the mountain with a bamboo basket on his back.

The little cousin was thinner than the last time she saw him, his clothes were torn a few holes, his face was also dirty, and the light in his originally clear eyes was gone, just like a little beggar on the side of the road .

After seeing the two of them, Sun Mei let out a small cry, then ran away in a hurry with his head down.

Sun Mei was a little stunned, because after the last quarrel with Mrs. Zhu, she seldom took care of their family affairs.

In addition, the family is making tofu and is busy, so I can't take care of them. When I saw this child again, I didn't expect it to be like this.

It may be that she is a mother herself, and she really can't see the child suffering. To be honest, seeing the child's appearance makes her feel somewhat uncomfortable.

But there was nothing he could do, he sighed, and took Zhao Zhitong home.

When I got home, I saw Zhao Dong sitting in the yard weaving bamboo. Zhao Zhitong will be apprenticed to a teacher tomorrow, and he is weaving a cage for her.

Seeing something novel, Zhao Zhitong put aside the discomfort of seeing his little cousin in a blink of an eye, trotted over, squatted aside and looked at Zhao Dong curiously: "Daddy, what are you doing? We Do you still want to sell bamboo baskets?"

"Not for sale anymore." Zhao Dong's men didn't stop moving, and replied with a smile: "Daddy is making a cage for you."

"What is a cage?"

Zhao Dong explained patiently: "It is for you to put the Four Treasures of the Study when you go to school."

Zhao Zhitong suddenly realized: "Oh, it turned out to be a schoolbag."

Zhao Dong laughed: "It can also be said that it is an ancient schoolbag."

Because he was going to be an apprentice the next day, Zhao Zhitong was a little bit over excited. After eating, he lay on the bed and didn't sleep.

For a while, I asked her if her new clothes were ironed and taken out for her, for a while, she asked if her books were put in the box, and for a while, she asked what the teacher was going to do after finishing her worship.

Keep making noise until very late before falling asleep.

The next day, just after dawn, the little guy got up from the bed, stood on the bed and yelled out the window, asking Sun Mei to dress her.

"Mother, I still need to comb my hair."

Short hair is to divide the hair into two strands, tie them symmetrically into two large vertebrae, place them on both sides of the top of the head, and draw out a small lock of hair in the bun to let it hang down naturally.

This is a hair style that children or young girls often wear in this era.

On weekdays, because the little guy was in a hurry to go out to play, he would tie a bun on the top of his head and finish the job, but today he asked for it.

Sun Mei couldn't help laughing: "Why are you so smug today?"

Zhao Zhitong has a small face and is serious: "Before meeting your husband, you need to straighten your clothes to show respect."

Sun Mei nodded with satisfaction: "Tongtong is awesome, you are ready, let's go down and wash your face first."

Zhao Zhitong, who had put on new clothes and new shoes, sat on the edge of the bed with her little feet up, reluctant to put her feet down, because she didn't want to get the soles of the new shoes dirty.

The shoes were made for her by my aunt. Because cotton is only grown in remote areas, they are made of linen, but the soles are very thick and comfortable to wear.

It wasn't until Sun Mei called her outside that she jumped out of bed reluctantly and ran out cautiously.

Zhao Dong also found some new clothes from the cabinet to change into. After washing up, he went to get Liuli.

After Sun Mei finished combing Zhao Zhitong's hair, she brought out the boiled egg soup for her to drink.

Zhao Dong over there told his second brother, Sun Youli, who would come to fetch tofu in a while, and then took Zhao Zhitong to the school.

(end of this chapter)