The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 503 - 492 Naming (Added update for book friend "Jin Yi Wei: Rong Rong" with a reward)

Chapter 503: Chapter 492 Naming (Added update for book friend "Jin Yi Wei: Rong Rong" with a reward)

"Have you ever seen the books at the bookstore? But Manbao really is impressive. You haven’t been to their farm, have you? The other day when I was taking a shortcut back to my parent’s house, I passed through that area. Guess what?"

"What?"

"Oh my, the fields were filled with chickens, and there were even geese in the big water channel. So many chickens, there must have been at least a hundred, right? If they all laid eggs, wouldn’t that be like finding little gold nuggets?"

"And that’s not even counting the chickens. Just think about the grain harvest from this summer and fall, Manbao had a share in that too. And even though the soil in their little manor isn’t that fertile, how come the crops they grow are better than ours?"

Everyone became more and more envious as they spoke, and they stopped wondering how Zhou’s family could afford to send their children to school. Compared to studying, they found the farm’s yield far more attractive.

So, they started discussing the little manor. "The winter wheat they planted looks pretty good too. They’ll be able to harvest in the spring, and the chickens will start laying eggs. One chicken, one egg, that’s like a hundred eggs a day. Oh my, how much money would that bring in?"

Anyway, they couldn’t figure it out.

Mr. Zhuang had the Zhou family’s children sit separately in the classroom and said, "Your progress is different from the other children’s. I will test you first and then decide how to teach you."

He knew that Manbao had always been teaching her family to read, and sometimes she would come to him with questions that she couldn’t answer, but he didn’t know the exact extent of their progress.

When it was time for assessment, Mr. Zhuang was surprised to find that they had pretty much mastered both the Thousand Character Classic and The Analects. It was just that, perhaps due to Manbao’s limited knowledge, they had only grasped the basics.

But now that they had the basics, learning further would be much easier.

However, the Zhou family’s children wrote such ugly characters.

Knowing that they had bought plenty of paper, Mr. Zhuang was not bashful in assigning a large number of calligraphy homework assignments every day.

Second Son, Sanya, and Fourth Son were shifted to the other side with the new students to study together.

Although they could recite the Thousand Character Classic, they were only able to recognise the characters when they had the textbook in front of them. If you took the book away or pointed out a single character and asked them to recognize it, they couldn’t do it.

So, they had to start from the very beginning.

After pondering for a long time, Mr. Zhuang eventually decided to return Bai Erlang to the classroom, letting him study with the students of the higher grade he was in before.

As for Manbao and Bai Shanbao, he placed them at the very back of the classroom. He said, "The two of you are on a completely different level from the rest, so I will instruct you separately."

The classmates looked at the two with envy and pity, but the children from the Zhou family were filled with pride when they looked back, puffing out their chests as they observed those around them.

Mr. Zhuang, satisfied, nodded as he looked over the classroom now filled with students. Then he said, "Come here, all children without a formal name. I will give you a formal one."

The Zhou family’s children instantly stood up, looked around, and decided to let the others go first.

They wanted to hear the names the teacher would choose to see if they were good. If not, they planned to ask their little aunt to pick names. If her choices weren’t to their liking, they would search through books themselves.

After all, they could read now. They’d flip through books, and if they saw a character they liked, they’d use it for their name.

It wasn’t very difficult to name the other children, but when the seven Zhou siblings gathered around him, Mr. Zhuang hesitated and asked, "Since you’re all brothers and sisters, do you want your names to share a common character?"

The children’s eyes lit up, and they nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes, teacher. Our current names also have one character in common; I’m Datou, and he’s Second Son..."

Mr. Zhuang laughed heartily upon hearing this and said, "Then I’ll give you names with two characters, with the middle one being the same, how’s that?"

Mr. Zhuang routinely asked, "What kind of character do you want included?"

Everyone thought seriously for a moment, then turned their gazes to Datou. Being the eldest, he was entitled to make decisions according to Zhou family tradition.

Datou pondered for a bit and then said, "Teacher, we like money. Can we use money as the second character?"

Mr. Zhuang: ...

After coughing lightly, he said, "Let’s use the character ’Lizhong’ (立忠)."

With a smile, he looked at the seven children and said, "Your family may have been poor before, but your grandparents and parents have laid the foundation for you. In your generation, you should be able to establish yourselves. So let’s pick the character ’Lizhong’"

After Mr. Zhuang finished, he settled on it and turned to Manbao at the back and beckoned, "Manbao, recite a passage from The Analects on the spot."

Manbao then stood up, thought for a bit, and recited, "The Master said, ’A gentleman is not imposing yet commands respect; without learning, he is not secure in his knowledge; stick to loyalty and trust. Do not befriend those who are inferior to yourself. If you have faults, do not hesitate to correct them.’"

Mr. Zhuang nodded slightly and wrote the passage down on paper, then told the seven children, "Choose one character from this passage for your own name."

He laughed, "The passage your little aunt picked for you is very good."

The seven children immediately crowded around to look. Datou, Daya, Second Son, and Erya had studied this passage and understood its meaning. So, after discussing briefly, they decided to let the three younger siblings, who were still confused, choose first.

Second Son, Sanya, and Fourth Son were pushed forward, and they quietly asked their older siblings, "Which character should we choose?"

Erya said to her sister, "If you want it to sound nice, then take the character ’ru’ which means ’like’. ’Liru’, sounds pretty good."

Without hesitation, Sanya said, "Teacher, I will be called Liru!"

Mr. Zhuang nodded slightly, smiling in agreement.

Then he turned to the other children.

Second Son and Fourth Son were indecisive, and Manbao somehow found her way up to help her nephews choose characters. "Second Son, you’re always reluctant to study, so let’s use the character ’xue’ for ’learning.’ That way, every time we call your name, you should remember to study."

Second Son: "...I don’t want to. Is there a character ’play’?"

Manbao: "If you keep misbehaving, then you’ll get the character ’gai,’ which means ’change.’ Lizhong, hahaha..."

Mr. Zhuang looked on helplessly.

Bai Erlang, who got along well with her, also encouraged him, "The character for ’learning’ is better; the other characters are even worse. If you’re called ’Lizhong,’ you must be loyal. Hey, Lizhong isn’t bad, it’s similar to my name, I’m called ’cheng’ (sincerity)."

Immediately, Second Son said, "Great, I’ll take ’learning’."

Bai Erlang, not pleased, huffed.

Manbao chose for Fourth Son, "You’ll take the character ’gu’ which means ’solid.’ You’re too indecisive. Every time Second Son tells you to do something, you do it, and every time Third Son tells you to do something, you do it too, even though they’re contrary things, and you somehow manage both. From now on, you need to learn to make up your own mind and stick to your own opinion."

Mr. Zhuang didn’t comment, smiling silently. Although this ’gu’ wasn’t the same as that ’gu’, her explanation wasn’t wrong. After all, children have all sorts of strange ideas, and as long as she didn’t interpret it as obstinacy, it was fine.

Having passively chosen characters for the three children who could not yet make independent preferences, the remaining four had a much easier time picking their characters.