Chapter 821: Seeds of Rice

Editor: Henyee Translations

After dinner, the four girls sat around the table.

Ge Lihua handed the second set of test papers done by the children to Chu Qingzhi. “Qingzhi, take a look at this.”

“Alright.” Chu Qingzhi took the test papers in her hands.

Chu Qingning handed over the books copied by the children to Chu Qingzhi. “Fifth sister, these are the books the children copied. I’ve checked them once, and I’ve already corrected the mistakes.”

“Fourth sister has saved me a lot of trouble.” Chu Qingzhi took the book pages in her hand and set them aside.

Hong Yujun took out her bridal gown to embroider while chatting with the others, “Lihua, is your bridal gown embroidered yet?”

Mentioning this, Ge Lihua’s cool eyes seemed to be adorned with sunshine, becoming warm. “It’s done. I’ve prepared the other things too. How much do you have left? Let me help you.”

Hong Yujun gladly agreed, “That would be great. You’re so skilled, it must look beautiful.”

Ge Lihua modestly said, “As long as you don’t dislike it.”

Hong Yujun hurriedly said, “How could I? Your embroidery is much better than mine. I’m more than happy with it.”

“Then I’ll help you.” Ge Lihua sat down beside Hong Yujun to help her embroider the bridal veil.

Chu Qingning, having nothing to do for the moment, took out a medical book. She had some questions she wanted to ask her fifth sister.

The book she was reading, provided by Chu Qingzhi, was about women’s diseases, extremely rare and now considered a unique copy.

Chu Qingning carefully opened the medical book and was engrossed in reading.

On Chu Qingzhi’s side, the children’s test papers had already been graded by Ge Lihua.

The highest score on the academic test paper was achieved by Xu Songnian, who scored eighty-five points. The highest score on the arithmetic test was earned by Tian Xiaoqiu, who got eighty-seven points.

Chu Qingzhi took out Tian Xiaoqiu’s test paper to look over it in detail. Tian Xiaoqiu’s handwriting was very neat, and there were hardly any corrections needed on her answers. This little girl’s confidence in herself was growing. Initially, her test papers were filled with large blobs of black ink.

She put away the test papers, placing them in front of where Ge Lihua was sitting earlier, and then looked over the books copied by the children.

Given that the children were beginners, it wasn’t expected for them to write very well, but being able to recognize the characters was already commendable.

After reviewing the three copied books, Chu Qingzhi affirmed their efforts.

“Lihua, tomorrow morning could you go to the workshop and get some cupcakes and peanut candy for the children? Tell them it’s my reward for them.”

“Alright, I got it.”

Chu Xuyuan and Chu Xuyao came out of the house. “Fifth sister, Brother Songnian asked us to check the test papers, can we look at them?”

Chu Qingzhi pointed to the stack of test papers, “They’re all there.”

The brothers sat down on the chairs, taking the test papers in front of them to review. As they went through them, the two children unconsciously furrowed their brows.

Chu Xuyao expressed some helplessness, “Fifth sister, these questions are so hard. If I were to do it, I wouldn’t score this many points.”

Chu Qingzhi explained, “It’s okay if you can’t do it. What you learn in the academy is different from what we teach here. What we teach is to do business better.”

Chu Xuyao blinked, “But looking at these questions, I feel so dumb.”

Chu Qingzhi smiled reassuringly, “The questions you can do, they can’t. It’s not what you’re good at, so don’t compare with others, understand?”

Chu Xuyao nodded, then suddenly asked, “Fifth sister, will you attend the academy’s end-of-year banquet?”

Chu Xuyuan was also curious about this question and looked up at Chu Qingzhi.

Chu Qingzhi was a bit puzzled why Chu Xuyao would ask her about attending, ” What does it have to do with me? Why are you asking if I will attend?”

Chu Xuyao widened his eyes, emphasizing, “Fifth sister, you’re a Marquis, such banquets definitely need your presence.”

Chu Qingzhi considered, “If the academy invites me, I’ll go.”

“Great.” Chu Xuyao’s eyes lit up, showing a lot of cunning.

Back in her room, Chu Qingzhi summoned the parrots inside with the voice of a tit, lining them up.

The parrots were now perfectly obedient, following commands closely.

She first imbued each parrot with some spiritual energy, then started today’s training. “Today, I will read you a letter. If you can imitate three hundred words, you’ll be rewarded with ten small green worms.”

Shuang’er cheered, “I can do it, I’m sure I can.”

Its record yesterday was two hundred and eighty words. With the spiritual energy today making it smarter, breaking three hundred words was not impossible.

Chu Qingzhi took out the letter Wu Yaqing wrote to her and read it until she reached three hundred and fifty words, then stopped. “All ten together, imitate.”

Numbers one to ten immediately stepped to the front and began reciting in unison.

The first two hundred words went smoothly. From two hundred to two hundred and fifty words, there were some stumbles. Between two hundred and fifty to two hundred and seventy words, some couldn’t recite anymore. In the end, only Shuang’er remained, reciting three hundred and one words.

Chu Qingzhi patted Shuang’er’s head, “Well done, you’ve met my expectations.”

Shuang’er rubbed its head against Chu Qingzhi’s palm, enjoying her touch.

Chu Qingzhi recorded the parrots’ recitation results. Those who performed well would be assigned tasks first. Once Jinghong returned, it would be time for their official mission.

Then it was numbers eleven to twenty’s turn to recite…

Her training was going smoothly, but Tang Jinghong encountered a problem that was difficult to resolve.

Three days ago, Tang Jinghong was in Guangling City, entrusted by the local magistrate to transport a batch of rice seeds for the next year.

With recent unpredictable weather and numerous dangers on the road, the magistrate, knowing Tang Jinghong’s exceptional abilities and that he was returning to the capital, hoped he could help transport the seeds. There were no other requests, just to ensure the seeds arrived safely at the capital’s Ministry of Revenue.

Guangling City was one of Dalin’s four major breeding bases, needing to transport twenty thousand jin of rice seeds to the Ministry of Revenue each winter.

After these seeds were delivered to the Ministry, they would be distributed to various counties and sold to the common people at low prices for planting next year, a cycle repeated annually.

However, now there was a problem…

Everything had been fine, but upon arriving in Ping City, the accompanying officials discovered during inspection that the seeds had all turned to stones.

The officials, terrified, promptly informed Tang Jinghong.

Hearing the news, Tang Jinghong’s expression darkened. This was a matter concerning the livelihood of the people for the next year. Any mistake was irreparable, even death could not atone for the loss.

He hurried to the backyard where the seeds were stored.

For safety reasons, when Tang Jinghong and his party stayed in the inn in the city, arrangements were made in advance to book the entire inn. There had been no issues in the first two days, but on the third day, the problem arose, pushing everyone to a desperate situation.