Chapter 190: Manor Management Quest Five
After the villagers left, Lin Sanniang remained where she stood, unable to calm her emotions for a very long time.
Could she… also become a teacher?
Could she also teach people?
Back in the Great Liang Dynasty, she was merely a member of the impoverished masses—even among the poorest of the poor. As a widow raising three children by herself, she would have succumbed to despair long ago if it weren’t for the dynamic pulls and mutual aid of her sisters. But now, she had actually become a teacher.
Although the uncles and aunties of Lu’an Village constantly cracked witty, casual remarks that made people somewhat self-conscious, and they couldn’t resist laughing and joking while learning… they didn’t find the fact that Lin Sanniang was acting as a “teacher” strange in the slightest.
It seemed that here, anyone could be a teacher—as long as you knew something others did not. Nor did anyone think that just because they reached an advanced age, they should sit around and wait to die, or that they shouldn’t or couldn’t learn new things. Even the elderly in their sixties and seventies were vibrant, filled with absolute hope for life.
The courtyard was serene, holding only the rustling sound of wind blowing through the leaves. Lin Sanniang covered her face and suddenly burst into a bitter cry.
If… if the Great Liang Dynasty also possessed this kind of “freedom,” and could value people like this, would so many commoners have been pushed to the brink of death?
“Sanniang?”
Jian Xingxia was currently sorting the vegetables brought over by Da Hei. This fellow carried several hundred catties on his shoulder every single time he came. Just yesterday, she had sent a cartload down the mountain to hand over to Auntie Lu to help distribute them for pickling and drying, and here he was again today.
As a result, the moment she turned around, she saw Lin Sanniang’s shoulders shaking as she wept beneath the tree.
“What’s wrong?”
Jian Xingxia was immensely startled. She hurriedly went over to pull Sanniang up. “Did they scare you? Or do you not want to be a teacher? It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll tell them in a bit to just find videos online and learn on their own.” Jian Xingxia worried that Lin Sanniang had been thrust into the teacher role too suddenly, causing her mental state to grew overly tense.
Lin Sanniang couldn’t stop her tears. She wanted to speak, but the moment she opened her mouth, she wept all over again. After wiping her tears for a long time without success, Lin Sanniang simply wrapped her arms around Jian Xingxia, burying her head into Jian Xingxia’s shoulder and crying her heart out.
“No, Miss. I like being a teacher, I like being valued by others, and I like having the ability to teach others…” Lin Sanniang choked out. “I just feel that the common folk of my hometown have it too hard. How could they suffer so much?”
Although she also heard the tourists and villagers speak of various inconveniences in their lives and hurl criticisms at society, even so, life here was something she wouldn’t have dared to dream of back home.
Jian Xingxia supported Lin Sanniang to sit beneath the tree. She could understand Lin Sanniang’s current feelings. Over a hundred years ago, when the people of the Qing Dynasty first ventured into the world to study abroad, what they witnessed… their feelings were likely not much different from hers right now. Just like how she faced the system—this advanced product whose origins in whichever plane or world were unknown—she would similarly feel insecure and panicked.
However, keeping one’s gaze fixed solely on the disparities and wallowing in sentimentality was utterly useless. When sensing a vast chasm in thought and capability, it was far better to pull back one’s gaze and focus on what one could actually do. Perhaps she could exert massive effort today and only narrow the gap by a tiny fraction. But over the past century and more, wasn’t it precisely because people across all walks of life worked hard to close their minor gaps with the world bit by bit that we transformed from lagging behind to catching up, and eventually leading by a wide margin?
Thoughts were advanced and ethereal, but actions were concrete and down-to-earth. Jian Xingxia rephrased her thoughts into terms Lin Sanniang could grasp and explained them to her.
Sanniang gradually ceased her tears. Looking at Jian Xingxia, she suddenly blurted out, “Miss, I want to learn characters. I want to study.”
Lin Sanniang’s gaze grew exceptionally clear, and she summoned her courage to state, “Miss, I often see you writing and sketching in your notebook, and I admire it tremendously. But I didn’t dare mention it to you before, because I felt I came here to perform labor and couldn’t waste time learning characters. But now I understand. Miss, in your place, even sixty and seventy-year-old elders can learn the language and customs of the Great Liang Dynasty from me. I want to learn too.”
The rims of Sanniang’s eyes were still red, but her spirit was highly sharp. “Now that I am a formal worker, the time I spend at the manor is longer. Miss, please teach me how to read!”
Having spoken in a single breath, Lin Sanniang grew a bit bashful again, feeling she had been too presumptuous. “If… if Miss carries no time, you don’t have to mind me… I can teach myself by following the characters on the price sheets.” She felt anxious and uneasy, worried that she was letting her head turn due to her master’s favor. She had only leveled up to a formal worker a few days ago, yet she dared to raise such a demand.
One had to know that in the Great Liang Dynasty, studying was an endeavor only wealthy families could pursue. Poor commoners could standardly not afford tuition and book fees, let alone paper, brushes, and ink. Lin Sanniang acted with absolute caution, yet she couldn’t resist raising her head to look at Jian Xingxia expectantly.
Who would have thought she would bump right into Jian Xingxia’s delighted gaze.
“That’s spectacular! Sanniang, for you to hold the thought of studying and learning characters is simply fantastic! As expected of the person I chose!” Jian Xingxia was highly delighted. She had wanted to bring it up long ago—Sanniang went through immense trouble utilizing all sorts of drawings to keep accounts in the logbook. Sanniang recorded it with painstaking effort, and she read it with equal effort. She had only held back her words because she worried the employees, who were already few in number, would be too overworked by the guesthouse operations.
Now hearing Sanniang bring it up proactively, Jian Xingxia was thrilled.
“It just so happens that A-Feng and Taoya are also at the age where they should be studying. Why don’t we call them along—”
[Ding—]
Jian Xingxia froze. The system had unexpectedly sent a notification at this exact moment.
[System Detection: The current manor’s operational status is excellent (specifically referring to the current tier). The manor employees are developing and promoting reasonably, and they have voiced demands for self-improvement. Adhering to the principle that employee development equals manor development, Manor Management Quest Five is now issued to unlock a new sector of the manor.]
[Manor Management Quest Five: Within 24 hours, enable three or more employees to recognize > 100 characters of the current world. Current Progress: 0/100. Upon completion of the quest, the reward will be: Manor Academy 1.]
“Manor Academy?”
What manner of thing was this? It sounded like a corporate training center. Truth be told, the vast majority of modern employees thoroughly loathed corporate training and studying, holding zero affection for things like training centers or corporate academies. But it might not be the same for ancient employees.
As for Jian Xingxia, she was a Manor Owner who had received numerous system rewards and had never been disappointed by a single one. Even as a modern person, she was filled with immense curiosity and expectation toward this “Manor Academy.”
“Learn, learn, learn! Set to learning immediately!”
