Chapter 116: A Visit to Fangcao Academy—The Journey Home

Yuanlao Dong, seeing them all silent, knew that this group had not yet let go of their airs. He couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. Although traditional scholars were of little value to the Yuanlao Senate other than their literacy, they still held value as benchmarks in social customs. If these people could be transformed, it would have a positive effect on the Yuanlao Senate’s influence over society as a whole. Besides, there was indeed a shortage of educated people at present.

However, changing one’s thinking is not something that can be done overnight. Yuanlao Dong had not held much hope for their transformation in the first place. He simply laughed it off and moved on.

Today was the Australians’ weekend, and the children who lived locally could go home from school. Because there was only one day off a week, it was especially precious. At the gate of Fangcao Academy, a crowd of parents had gathered to pick up their children. Some families came with a large entourage of servants, some had specially prepared sedan chairs, and the wealthier ones even used horse-drawn carriages.

Because the educational purpose of Fangcao was to erase the students’ family backgrounds, they had implemented a system where students wore uniforms and used standardized school supplies. There were also regulations for picking up and dropping off students: only one person was allowed per student, and sedan chairs and carriages had to wait a hundred meters away from the school gate.

The children of ordinary people and naturalized citizens were not so delicate. They either walked to and from school themselves or took the public horse-drawn carriage or small train. Most of the parents who came to pick up their children were from middle-class or wealthier families in the county. Many of them knew Liu Dalin and the others and came over to greet them. Huang Binkun discovered that many of the children here were from prominent families in the county. Upon a little inquiry, he found that not only were there children from concubines, but also many of the most important eldest grandsons of the main branch of the family. It seemed that the situation in the county had long since changed, and he had truly been ignorant.

He saw teams of students, led by their respective internal affairs class leaders, emerging from the various teaching buildings in an orderly fashion. They walked out of the school gate in neat formation before dispersing. The school gate instantly became a chaotic scene of noise and activity. The usually well-behaved children were like monkeys let out of a cage, chasing each other with joy, talking and laughing. The entire entrance to Fangcao was a scene of clamor.

Huang Binkun planned to go home with Huang Ping, so he could chat with him more on the way. He was especially curious about the girl who had hugged Huang Ping. This was a major matter concerning the reputation of both men and women. What did it mean to be hugging in public? He calculated that if that boy Huang Ping really liked her, he could arrange a marriage for them. After all, he was already fifteen.

Getting a wife in Lingao was a rather difficult matter. If he really had the ability to get a wife on his own, it would save him the trouble of finding a wife for Huang Ping. This would also be an easy way to win him over.

As he was calculating, two children suddenly ran out from the crowd at the gate. The slightly older boy pulled his younger sister, broke away from their playmates, and trotted to Liu Dalin’s wheelchair. They bowed respectfully to Liu Dalin and said, “Good day, sir.”

“Good, good,” Liu Dalin chuckled as he looked at the brother and sister standing before him. “No need for ceremony, no need for ceremony.” He then asked them about their life and studies at school. He learned that in the most recent annual selection assessment, both the brother and sister had risen several dozen places in their respective grade rankings and were now in the selection group of the top three hundred in their grade.

This selection group was no small matter. At Fangcao, the top three hundred students in each grade’s annual general assessment were members of the selection group. Not only did they enjoy scholarships, but they also had the opportunity to challenge for further selection into the fast-track group.

Once in the fast-track group, as long as they were not eliminated by exams, they would be guaranteed admission to the middle school department as full scholarship students in the future. They were the undisputed future “elite.” Not only did every student know this, but their parents were also very clear about the difference. Huang Binkun had also learned about this system from Huang Ping and knew that many students, in order to get into the grade selection group, never went home on rest days and studied day and night.

Even with such diligent study, to enter the top three hundred from a base of several thousand students in each grade, the difficulty was imaginable. Therefore, each grade’s general assessment would cause a great deal of emotional turmoil among the students. Huang Ping’s grades were far beyond the thousandth place, so he had long given up any such thoughts.

He never expected that the two children from the Liu family would be so outstanding! Huang Binkun couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe. Truly a family of scholars!

Liu Dalin seemed to know what he was thinking and said with a smile, “These are the grandson and granddaughter of my housekeeper, Zhao. Now that they have entered the Australians’ school, they have also become promising. I never thought they were also seeds for scholarship.”

“Hehe, your household is a scholarly family. Even the children of your servants can be so well-nurtured,” Wang Ci quickly chimed in.

In the eyes of the scholars, these were all compliments. Unexpectedly, after hearing this, not only did the brother and sister not bow in thanks, but they also showed displeasure on their faces.

Liu Dalin was kind-hearted and quickly came out to smooth things over. He changed the subject and asked Housekeeper Zhao’s grandson who was the first in this year’s high primary school first-grade general assessment.

“It’s a girl this year,” he said. “Her name is Dai Yan.”

“It’s a girl?!” Everyone showed surprise on their faces. The fact that Fangcao had female students was no longer shocking news to them, but for the top student among more than a thousand high primary school first-graders to be a girl was too subversive to their worldview.

In their view, the short-haired bandits’ large-scale education of girls was purely a transplant of an “overseas strange custom,” and it was a kind of charity for the girls. No one had ever thought that the top student in the high primary school first-grade general assessment would be a girl.

“That’s Dai Yan!” Housekeeper Zhao’s grandson suddenly pointed behind them. “I saw her at the general assessment assembly! She’s amazing at studying!”

Everyone turned their heads and saw a teenage girl with the standard short hair of a female student, wearing the dark blue uniform of Fangcao, walking with her weather-beaten father. The child’s father was wearing patched homespun clothes and still had a topknot, so it was clear he was not a naturalized citizen. He also exuded a strong fishy smell of seafood, so he was probably a fisherman or a beachcomber.

Originally, when they saw that the girl had a pleasant face and fair skin, they thought she was the child of some middle-class family and wanted to greet her and get to know her. But when they saw that she was just an ordinary person from a poor and ignorant background, they immediately lost interest in talking to her.

Huang Binkun waited for Huang Ping with mixed feelings. Huang Ping did not seem particularly grateful that the second young master was personally waiting for him to go home. Instead, he showed a sense of restraint on his face. When Huang Binkun asked him to bow to the members of the visiting group, he had a very reluctant expression. Huang Binkun couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. He recalled how efficient Huang Ping used to be when he went out to pay respects and deliver messages, as if he had become a different person.

As the scale of Fangcao School grew and more and more children were enrolled, the Lingao city railway was extended to Fangcao, connecting the county town and Bairen City. The members of the inspection team parted ways at the station, as they lived in different places. Huang Binkun, on the one hand, volunteered to send Liu Dalin home, and on the other hand, he also had to go to the public transfer station outside the county town to take a public horse-drawn carriage back to Huang Family Village.

The platform was crowded with students queuing up to take the train home. When they saw Liu Dalin and his group approaching, the students on the platform automatically made way for them, letting them go to the front of the line.

Liu Dalin praised the children for being sensible. One of the children replied, “The teachers have taught us to respect the old and love the young, and to help the disabled. Sir, your legs are not good, so it’s right to let you get on the train first.” Liu Dalin laughed heartily.

Woo! With a whistle, the iron wheels of the train began to roll, carrying a full car of people, spewing black smoke as it traveled along the railway towards Lingao County. The members of the inspection team bought first-class tickets for the last car to avoid being crowded with the former tenant farmers, long-term laborers, and other workers in the front cars.

Everyone respected Liu Dalin as an elder and let him sit by the window to enjoy the scenery along the way. Liu Dalin looked at the scenery outside the window. In a daze, he could no longer remember what it was like before the Australians came. It seemed as if the smoking factories on the other side of the Wenlan River had existed since the beginning of time. And the vast fields of good farmland, the rows of houses in the new villages built by the Australians for their immigrants…

The farmers working in the fields and the lush crops indicated that this would be another good year. A good year. Before the Australians came, it seemed that Lingao had never had a good year.

“How beautiful, what a pity—” Liu Dalin muttered.

“What is a pity, sir?” asked the granddaughter of Liu Dalin’s housekeeper, Zhao.

What was a pity? Liu Dalin suddenly realized he didn’t know what was a pity. He stroked the head of Zhao’s granddaughter and said after a long time, “This Lingao is so beautiful. What a pity that my body is useless and I am of no use.”

Zhao’s granddaughter was very well-behaved and said, “What are you saying, sir? The chief teachers said that you are the first Jinshi in the history of Lingao. As long as you can come out and walk around often, it is a great benefit to the people.”

Of course, these words contained a deliberate compliment from the girl, but Liu Dalin also knew that the Australians did indeed think so. He was a well-known figure in the county. As long as he often came out to participate in activities, it was tantamount to recognizing and supporting the Australians’ rule here, which was an excellent subject for winning the hearts of the people.

He said with a smile, “You exaggerate, you exaggerate.”

Huang Binkun sat in the back of the carriage, whispering with Huang Ping.

He asked Huang Ping who the girl who hugged him was, how old she was, and what her family did. When Huang Ping heard this, his face immediately turned red, and he said shyly, “Young master, why do you ask this?”