Chapter 106: Apprenticeship
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

This time, the two major matters at home began to progress slowly.

The wheat they planted in the alternate space had been harvested. Now, Zhou Yu has begun to plant sweet potatoes in the field.

In her free time, Zhou Xiaoli would often go to the alternate space to take a look.

She realized that ever since the back mountain opened up, the subsequent changes had been a little slow.

The wheat had been collected and yet, the tea orchard at the back of the mountain had yet to be fully revealed.

It was like leveling up in a game. The further one went, the higher the experience required to level up, and the harder it was to level up.

However, the two acres of wheat in the alternate space produced a very good harvest. There were 1000 kilograms of wheat!

More importantly, there was no need to pay farm tax on it. The full 1000 kilograms were their own. It was enough for their family of five to eat for more than a year.

Now, no one in the family needs to worry about starving.

Now that food and shelter were no longer a problem, the family felt much more relaxed. They were just waiting for Zhou Junjun to go through with the apprentice ceremony and start school tomorrow.

In the afternoon, the three families made sugar together as usual.

They were all very familiar with the process now. Moreover, Zhou Xiaoli had thought of a way for them to squeeze the beet juice with a board that helped them to squeeze all of the juices from the pulp while using lesser strength.

Now, there was no need for two people from each family. One person from each family was enough.

It was just that the village chief’s family was large so his wite otten brought her eldest daughter-in-law to work.

Therefore, they only needed Zhang Lan as representative of their family to help make sugar.

Zhou Yu pulled himself out and went to work in the field.

The next day, the three helpers that Zhou Yu had sourced arrived early in the morning.

As it was their first day of work, they came to their house to look for Zhou Yu.

After hearing the knock on the door, Zhou Yu hurriedly walked over to open it.

When he saw that it was the three helpers he had sourced, he smiled and said,

“You’re here. Then let’s go straight to the field.”

As their salary was calculated according to the workload, they too wanted to finish it early so that they had more time to do other work.

When they heard Zhou Yu say that they would go straight to the field, they were extremely happy.

Lin Xiujuan and Liu Yan noticed the situation at the door.

After Zhou Yu and the others left, the two of them asked Zhang Lan in confusion, “Workers? Why did you hire workers?”

Seeing their nervous expressions, Zhang Lan smiled and said, “Don’t worry, these workers are not here to help us make sugar.”

Lin Xiujuan heaved a sigh of relief. “Haha, I knew it. How can we allow outsiders to help us make sugar? It’s not safe.”

Then, she became even more puzzled. “Why are you looking for workers then? And three of them at once.”

Zhang Lan smiled and explained, “It’s like this. Didn’t my Li’er look for the Mayor and ask for the southern slope of Qingyuan Mountain? My family is busy making sugar, so those lands have been desolate and remain as forest land so far.”

“As soon as we discussed it, we decided to hire three workers to help us. We thought that the earlier we clear the vegetation, the earlier we could plant fruit trees on the land.”

Hearing this reason, the two of them were even more surprised.

Liu Yan was so shocked that she stopped washing the vegetables. “No, what are you guys thinking? Are you stupid? It’s not worth it to buy forest land in the first place. You have to pay taxes on it too. Not only will you not be able to earn money, but you will also lose money.”

“Now, you’re hiring workers and even have to pay them. This isn’t how money should be spent!”

Lin Xiujuan, who was obsessed with money, couldn’t understand it the most. At this moment, she nodded repeatedly. “Yes, yes, Sister Ping is right. It wasn’t easy for us to make sugar and earn some money. You should save it well. Moreover, your Brother Jun has just entered school. He would need to spend money in the future.”

Zhang Lan knew that the two of them were thinking for their family. However, she had already been “brainwashed” by Zhou Xiaoli and felt that her Li’er was right.

Spend small money to earn big money.

The fruits in their alternate space were so good. The sooner they planted them, the sooner they could earn money from it.

Lin Xiujuan and Liu Yan didn’t understand the situation and hence, their thought process was normal.

However, Zhang Lan could not explain, so she only said, “If we clear the forest land earlier, we can Dlant things earlier to earn monev. We won’t lose out.” Seeing that their persuasion was futile, Liu Yan and Lin Xiujuan stopped trying to persuade her.

At this time, Zhou Xiaoli had returned home from running on the mountain. Seeing that Zhou Yu was not at home, she asked Zhang Lan about it.

Zhang Lan explained, “It’s the first day that the workers are here so your father brought them to Qingyuan Mountain.”

Zhou Xiaoli was surprised and said, “Wow, they’re going to work so quickly. I’ll take a look.”

As she spoke, she went to get her straw hat and prepared to go to the field.

When Zhou Xiaoyu heard this, she immediately stood up and ran over. “Sis, I want to go too!”

When Liu Fengfeng and Zheng Lingling heard this, they also said that they wanted to go to the fields to play.

At this moment, Zhang Lan said, “Don’t go yet. Your father will bring the workers over and he’ll be back soon. Aren’t you going to bring Brother Jun to do the apprenticeship ceremony today?

Your father is like a gourd. It won’t be good if he loses his manners in front of the Tutor. You’re smart. Follow him and keep an eye on your father.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Zhou Junjun, who had already put on his new clothes, walked out of the room. He looked at Zhou Xiaoli nervously from the door.

He was a little nervous about becoming a student today and wanted his elder sister to go with him.

However, he boasted that he was already a little man and wanted to be independent!

As such, he was too embarrassed to ask her to accompany him.

Zhou Xiaoli naturally saw through the little guy’s thoughts and nodded with a smile.

Although her father was quite good at talking to them when he was at home, he couldn’t do it when he’s facing strangers outside.

As Zhang Lan described it, he was like a gourd with a small tip.

She smiled and said, “Alright, I’ll go too. After Brother Jun is done, I’ll go to the mountain to take a look.”

As they spoke, Zhou Yu returned.

Last night, Zhang Lan had already prepared the apprenticeship gifts for today and placed them in the cart.

Therefore, after Zhou Yu returned, he washed his face, tidied his clothes and hair, and they set off.

They were not far from Dazhuang Village to begin with, and the donkey cart was fast. After a while, they arrived at the private school.

By the time they went over, the teacher had yet to start class.

However, there were students arriving one after another. At this moment, the sound of reading could be heard coming from the classroom.

Tutor Tang was standing in the courtyard of the private school, nodding and greeting every student who arrived.

When he saw the three from the Zhou family, he knew that they were ready to acknowledge him as his Tutor. He immediately welcomed them in with a smile.

In ancient times, acknowledging a tutor and enrolling in school was a big deal. The details of etiquette were very important.

“The beginning of etiquette is in the body, color, and speech.”

Theretore, on the tirst day ot school, the tirst thing the student had to do when they met the teacher was to put on their clothes.

Next was the apprenticeship ceremony.

Zhou Junjun must first follow the Tutor and kowtow to the Confucius altar that they have in the school.

One had to kneel on both knees and kowtow nine times.

Then, the student needs to kowtow three times to the tutor.

After paying his respects to the tutor, it was time to give the tutor the six etiquettes.

After all of this was done, Tutor Tang stroked his beard and guided Zhou Junjun to a basin of water.

“Cleansing the hands means to cleanse the heart and hands. I hope you can focus on your studies in the future,” Tutor Tang said in an unhurried manner.

Zhou Junjun nodded solemnly. “I will remember it.”

Tutor Tang nodded in satisfaction.

Next was the last step of the apprenticeship ceremony. It was called

“Enlightenment Activation”, also known as “Vermilion Enlightenment”.

The meaning was to activate wisdom in the students and for the students to have bright eyes and a just mindset. He hoped that his students would be able to grasp his teachings quickly in the future.

Zhou Xiaoli, who was watching from the side, was very serious. The ancient way of respecting one’s teacher was indeed very particular.

As she thought about this, Tutor Tang held a brush dipped in vermillion and placed a red dot like a mole between Zhou Junjun’s eyebrows..