Chapter 201: Chapter 200: Delivery

The children within the Ding Family are taught by other uncles and clansmen from the Ding Family.

The thirty children who are admitted for free receive Mr. Cheng’s introductory lessons in a room beside the school.

The previously seen Mr. Ding only comes occasionally.

Thus, the situation faced by the four siblings is completely different. Sanlang and Si Niang focus on introductory learning, with a relatively relaxed atmosphere.

The atmosphere around Da Lang and Second Lang is much more serious, as the Ding Family children of the same age group already have a certain foundation, and the courses taught by the teacher are more advanced.

Additionally, as the purpose of the lessons is to prepare for the imperial examinations, the atmosphere is particularly solemn.

Fortunately, both brothers are very diligent. After returning home, they light a candlestick to preview the next day’s lessons and simultaneously supplement knowledge they hadn’t previously learned, silently catching up with their peers.

Having just started school, the gap isn’t apparent yet, so they just need to make up for it quickly.

Da Lang is composed and calm, and Second Lang knows how to disguise himself, so the Ding Family children don’t know what level they are at, and they get along quite well with each other.

After finishing their conversation and freshening up, the mother and four children returned to the children’s room, where Qin Yao opened their books to help the four siblings with their lessons.

She clarified what the teacher talked about in class during the day, what was unclear, what could be self-learned, and so on, guiding them in self-study, trying to make the dull text interesting to spark their interest.

By cultivating a good self-learning habit, she wouldn’t have to go crazy coaching the four kids in the future!

Ever since the four kids started attending school, Qin Yao clearly felt that her energy was insufficient.

She slept late, got up early, had to drop off and pick up every day, and was busy making book boxes to find ways to earn money.

So, why can’t the Ding Family School have dormitories?!

On the day that she set out to deliver the book boxes to the Ding Family School, Qin Yao first went to the village to find two Liu Family clansmen whose wheat had already been harvested to help her with the wheat harvesting.

One acre of wheat for twenty-five cents without meals, directly contracted to the two of them.

Once the wheat was harvested, they helped her move it to the flat area in front of her home, where she would later carry it inside herself.

To prevent rain, Qin Yao had specifically arranged for three drying mats to be woven this year; the two of them covered the harvested wheat with the mats for her.

Fortunately, tomorrow is a rest day, with three consecutive days off for the farming season, and the four children can come home to help with threshing the wheat.

After arranging the fieldwork, and eating some of the food Da Lang prepared the night before, Qin Yao hurried to drive the ox cart, carrying twenty book boxes, toward Jinshi Town.

Of these, fifteen were for order deliveries, and she wanted to take the remaining five to the town to see if they could be sold.

When Qin Yao arrived, it was lunchtime when the students were on their break.

Second Lang and Da Lang guessed she would arrive at that time and called out a few of the classmates who had placed orders to wait outside the school.

Before long, they saw a familiar ox cart approach at a steady pace. The brothers exchanged a pleased glance, Da Lang moved forward to greet her, while Second Lang informed the classmates that their Divine Power Book Boxes had arrived.

When Qin Yao drove the ox cart closer, she initially assumed that these classmates were merely kids around the age of ten. To her surprise, the oldest looked eighteen or nineteen.

Second Lang, at eight years old, was actually the youngest among them.

No wonder the purchasing power was quite good. In one classroom of about twenty people, fifteen bought the Divine Power Book Box.

Qin Yao parked the ox cart by the roadside, and as Da Lang came to help, Qin Yao smiled and asked, “Have you had lunch?”

Da Lang nodded, “We did. After eating, we guessed you should arrive, so we came out to wait.”

“Where are Sanlang and Si Niang?” Qin Yao asked again, while tying the ox’s rope to a nearby tree trunk to prevent it from injuring anyone.

Da Lang explained, “They’re all practicing their calligraphy, which needs to be handed to the teacher in the afternoon. We didn’t call them.”

The school has two doors, and students from each side enter and exit through different doors. Every day after school, Da Lang and Second Lang loop around to this door to wait for the Dragon and Phoenix Twins.

After all, in the first year of the official decree, being able to study is already quite good, and it’s understandable that the Ding Family is concerned about outsiders affecting their own children.

Second Lang led a group of teenagers over, and Qin Yao didn’t waste any words, smiling as she pulled out the orders, handed the Divine Power Book Boxes to them one by one, and had them check for any defects.

The teenagers, who had been eagerly anticipating their Divine Power Book Boxes for a long time, were very excited to finally receive theirs and immediately tried them out under the guidance of Da Lang and Second Lang.

Liu the carpenter polished the wooden wheels and the pull handles very smoothly, so the pulling and rolling were both very smooth.

If the road is quite flat, they can be pushed along directly.

Even in some bumpy spots, dragging it won’t be an issue.

However, one student remarked, “It would have been great if we could still carry it on our shoulders like the original book boxes.”

Hearing this, Qin Yao’s heart skipped. That’s right, she nearly forgot that the shoulder strap is essential for older students.

Adding a detachable shoulder strap to the Divine Power Book Box would make it unbeatable, right?

However, for this batch of deliveries, adding a shoulder strap wasn’t feasible. Qin Yao quickly came up with an idea for the student.

“This classmate has a good point. Here’s an idea: when you get home, have someone make a mesh rope for you, which can easily be looped over the wooden box, and then attach a suitable shoulder strap. You can remove it anytime and carry it during rainy, muddy conditions.”

As she spoke, Qin Yao took one of the book boxes from another student’s hands and pointed to the circular depression on top of the box,

“Look at this part. It’s meant for inserting an umbrella handle. When it rains, you can insert the umbrella so neither you nor the box gets wet.”

Since it was renovated from an original book box, Liu the carpenter preserved the umbrella handle slot at the initial design stage.

When the students heard that they could insert an umbrella handle and could also design a shoulder strap to carry the box, they were excited to have something that felt personalized.

After confirming that there were no issues with the book boxes, they stepped forward one by one to settle the remaining balance.

More than five hundred coins, enough for a five-member household in Liu Family Village to buy twenty-five pounds of pork. The students hardly hesitated, happily spending it as if buying a toy for ten cents.

Moreover, very few paid with copper coins, mostly using whole six-mace silver coins. Fortunately, Qin Yao had the foresight to bring enough change; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to provide change immediately.

After handing over the fifteen Divine Power Book Boxes, she received eight taels, three maces, and seventy coins in total.

The lunch break was short, so after collecting the book boxes, the students joyfully left with their Divine Power Book Boxes.

Qin Yao instructed Da Lang and Second Lang to wait for her to pick them up in the afternoon, as she planned to set up a stall in town.

The brothers were pleasantly surprised and eagerly agreed.

After watching them enter the school, Qin Yao drove the ox cart with the remaining five book boxes towards the town’s streets.

As she passed by Ding Xiang’s house, she thought for a moment, approached the back door, and knocked on the brass ring.

The family guard, Zhang Ba, opened the door, his eyes widening in surprise, “Miss Qin, you’ve arrived!”

He quickly opened the back door completely and, without needing to report it, immediately invited Qin Yao inside.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep