Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 3
Chenzhong Village
The old woman raised her head and saw Mo Yan, then asked with a smile on her face, “Yan’er, are you going to school again?”
Wait, going to school? She could go to school? Why hadn’t her sister mentioned that?
Then, a taller old woman walked out from the northern entrance and glared at Mo Yan from the doorway, “Going to school? Isn’t she just listening in on the lessons, how could she go to school?”
So she just listened in on the lessons from outside the classrooms. That wasn’t unexpected, since there was no way Mrs. Liang would ever foot the bill to send her to school.
The old woman living in the northern cottage had a large and long face. She looked ill-tempered and her words were scathing, so she seemed like the old woman Mo Ling was talking about.
The old lady who lived in the southern cottage couldn’t compare to that old woman in terms of her clothing and her bearing. However, she always had a smile on her face, and was very kind. She was Mo Yan’s second grandma. [1]
Second grandma hadn’t given birth, so when Mo Yan’s grandpa was still alive, he made the decision to give his second son Mo Zelin to her to raise. He was Mo Yan’s second uncle. Mo Zelin had inherited his father’s business, a small clothing business in Yi City.
He had thought of bringing second grandma to Yi City with him, but she had refused. After all, he wasn’t her biological son.
Second uncle would periodically send money to her, but she couldn’t bear to use it and kept living frugally.
The old woman living in the northern cottage resented second grandma for ‘stealing’ her son, so would constantly make trouble for her. Second grandma thought she was in the wrong as well, so she just let the old woman do whatever she wanted.
Mo Yan smiled towards second grandma and said, “Second grandma, I’m going now.”
Second grandma waved at Mo Yan while chuckling, “Goodbye! I’ll take you to the pond to make clay birds in the afternoon, the kind that can make a sound if you blow in it.”
The old woman glared at second grandma viciously, “A girl, playing with clay? What are you trying to teach her?”
Second grandma ignored the old woman and returned to her cottage.
Mo Yan turned right along the alleyway, and followed the main road to Chenzhong Village.
She didn’t know where the school was, but she hoped she could find it by slowly walking along the main road and looking for students. On the way, someone called her name, and she nodded and smiled. Mo Yan didn’t know what they were called, so decided to just do that to be safe. Thankfully, they were busy working in the fields and didn’t chat with her. [2]
Soon, she saw a young person with a backpack walking hurriedly. He was probably going to the school, so Mo Yan followed him.
She didn’t walk far before seeing two buildings with azure roofs, which looked markedly different from all of the other buildings she’d seen so far. The youth with the backpack walked over there, so that was probably the school.
Just outside the two houses was a large tree whose leaves covered almost half of the sky. The flowers on the tree were blossoming, and their sweet scent could be smelled from far away.
A well-dressed young man, barely in his twenties, was standing outside. The youth with the backpack ran up to him and bowed to him, calling him “Mr. Tian”. So he was the teacher? He looked so young!
Mo Yan nodded slightly at Mr. Tian from afar, and he returned the gesture.
When all the students had arrived, Mr. Tian started teaching. Mo Yan started secretly listening in from the window.
Mr. Tian said, “Today, we’ll be discussing governmental policies, more specifically the importance of agriculture.”
Mo Yan already knew everything he was talking about, so her mind started to wander.
Mr. Tian asked, “All of you here are the sons of farmers, and not particularly wealthy. Can you tell me why you have paid the tuition to study here?”
Two students raised their hands to answer, and he picked a student called Cao Zhang.
A thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy with handsome features stood up to say, “Out of the four social castes, the farmers are the second highest caste. This showed that all emperors, historically and in contemporary times, have held agriculture in high regard. The reason we are studying here is twofold; firstly, we want to repay our country, and secondly, we want to be educated so farmers can get the respect they deserve.”
Because it was in the middle of summer, the school’s paper windows were fairly transparent, so Mo Yan could see Cao Zhang’s face. He was around the same age as Mo Feng, but he had a dignified and elegant temperament, and approached what she thought a scholar should be like more.
Mr. Tian nodded his head, “Cao Zhang is correct. However, I must stress that the key to a good education is to possess both knowledge and wisdom. If you have all the knowledge in the world, but don’t have a shred of empathy or a lick of common sense, then all of your education will have gone to waste. How would you repay the country like this?”
Mo Yan scanned the classroom, but couldn’t see Mo Feng. She didn’t know if he had been paying attention, or if he even understood what the teacher had been saying.
It was break time. The students went outside for a walk, to have a chat or go to the toilet. Mo Feng also exited the classroom, and turned his cheek when he saw Mo Yan.
Another person spoke with Mo Yan, and she just smiled and nodded her head again. The youth called Cao Zhang was the last to walk out. He didn’t call Mo Yan’s name, and just nodded at her. Mo Yan nodded back.
All of the students here were male, and as the only girl there, Mo Yan felt a bit uncomfortable, so she quickly left.
On the road home, she saw a horse dragging a cart filled with wheat passing through. Her family didn’t have any livestock or carriages, so all of the harvested wheat must’ve been manually transported by her mother and sister.
When she thought of her sister, who wasn’t much taller than her, and her mother, who had a sporadic but persistent cough, having to do that much heavy labour, Mo Yan couldn’t help but feel guilty about the half-bowl of porridge she had every meal.
Right now, the most important thing was to earn money. If possible, she’d like to buy a work animal like an ox, and if they had even more money, extra farmland. As farmers, they could only live good lives with enough farmland.
It would be useless if she went to the school every day; after all, it wouldn’t change anything if she knew a few more words. Additionally, Mo Yan was probably the most knowledgeable person in the village right now, so there was no need for her to go. [3]
When she arrived back home, neither Mo Ling nor Mrs. Liang was there, so she started making lunch by making what they had for the previous two meals. Then, as the house was currently empty, she decided to search it thoroughly and learn more about her new family.
Mo Yan opened Mrs. Liang’s wardrobe. Inside were a few sets of everyday wear, which had been cleaned thoroughly and folded neatly.
In the corner of the wardrobe was a small wooden box, which contained the deed for the two acres of land they had. There was also a document, which roughly conveyed that Mrs. Liang’s family and Mo Zenian’s mother were considered part of separate families, as long as they gave her two thousand dollars, a load of wheat, and a load of dried food every year. They also had to visit her on holidays and during the new year, and help her out if she needed it.
There was also a small cloth bag inside. Inside was a pair of silver bracelets, a silver pendant and some silver bells. There were a total of twelve silver bells, and each of them had a different animal of the zodiac engraved on it for an unknown purpose.
Mo Yan weighed the bag in her hand and guessed it was about two and a half kilograms. She didn’t know how much that silver was here, and whether it’d be enough to buy an ox.
These were probably the most valuable items in their entire home. There was no way Mo Yan’s father gave these to her mother, so this was most likely Mrs. Liang’s dowry.
While eating lunch, Mo Yan asked Mo Ling, “Sis, would you dare to handle an ox?”
Mo Ling nodded and replied, “Of course, but there’s no way we could afford one…”
“How much does one cost?”
“Well, someone in the village just sold an ox for twenty silver taels. A horse would cost more, and a donkey would cost less.”
Mo Yan fell silent. The difference between twenty silver taels and two and a half kilograms of silver was just too vast. Not to mention that it was probably her mother’s dowry, so there was no way she’d be willing to sell it.
After lunch, second grandma took Mo Yan to the pond to make the clay birds she had been talking about this morning. Mo Yan didn’t have much interest in making clay birds, but decided to follow her anyway.
Edited August 17, 2023, to try and get the rest of the story up to the current standards. This includes using the current terms and polishing up the translation.
[1] It seems strange that Mo Ling didn’t mention second grandma’s existence.
[2] Why was the information transfer incomplete?
[3] Even if she had higher education, it was explicitly stated Mo Yan knew nothing about daily life in ancient China.