Because what the School would be teaching was the very first beginner level, and the children would be starting from scratch, they actually didn’t need many books.

Just elementary books were enough, and she figured they wouldn’t be able to enroll too many children at the start anyway, so there was no need to prepare a lot of books; when there were more children later, they could slowly add more.

So they only took twenty copies. Since the shopkeeper knew Xiaoxiao, and after hearing the books were for the children at the School, he gave them a big discount. Of course, he also wanted Xiaoxiao to do some writing for him again, but Xiaoxiao refused. She would never do it again; she couldn’t go around flaunting the ancients’ poems and essays anymore. Before, she’d had no choice. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

These twenty copies were all hand-copied, so the price was much cheaper, and fortunately the money Silver and Li Chuntao brought was enough.

The three of them left the Bookstore soon after buying the books.

What Xiaoxiao hadn’t expected was that the news about a woman in Yang Family Village wanting to open a School spread through the town like a category ten gale, blowing everywhere, and of course it blew all the way to the Chu Mansion.

"My lady, everyone outside is saying Yang Family Village is going to open a School, and it’s a woman who’s opening it."

Wang Xiangxiang, sitting there, was very surprised. Other than Xiaoxiao, there was basically no woman in Yang Family Village who could read and write. If you said someone was opening a School, it had to be Xiaoxiao; she said very firmly, "It must be Xiaoxiao, it must be Xiaoxiao who opened it."

Chu Lian thought so too. Opening a School was such a bold thing to do, and done by a woman at that—who else could it be but her? "Mm, it should be."

"Husband, why don’t we go to Yang Family Village? We haven’t been there for a long time, and isn’t it about time to start making this year’s spicy cabbage and pickled cabbage? Don’t you need to go talk to Xiaoxiao about it too?"

Ever since that incident with Chu Lingling, they hadn’t gone to Yang Family Village. Now they might as well take this opportunity to go have a look.

Chu Lian glanced at Wang Xiangxiang’s belly. It was already quite big, not really suited for jostling around, but if he refused her, she probably wouldn’t be happy.

After thinking it over, he figured Yang Family Village was very close to Shibao Town; by carriage it was less than an hour away.

Besides, the spicy cabbage and pickled cabbage business really did need to get started, so he said, "Alright, then let’s get things ready, and we’ll go over first thing tomorrow morning."

Wang Xiangxiang nodded and started chattering, "Mm, then we’ll go early tomorrow. I wonder what Xiaoxiao and the others are doing now—did they buy that mountain or not, did those hazelnuts sell out or not, and that fishpond, I heard they pull out so many fish every day, it’s really something, I have to see it for myself."

"And how did Xiaoxiao come up with opening a School anyway? I really didn’t see that coming."

"..."

"..."

Listening to Wang Xiangxiang chatter on, asking questions without even waiting for him to answer, Chu Lian felt that after his wife got pregnant she’d picked up another little quirk—she’d started going on and on like this. But he liked her chattering by his side; if one day she stopped, he’d actually feel a bit out of sorts.

He took Wang Xiangxiang’s hand and said dotingly, "My lady, we’ll know all of that once we go tomorrow."

"Oh right, Mother raised so many ducks. Have you collected them yet? They should be fully grown by now, right?"

"I’ll go collect them right away."

"You really have to keep that in mind; I bet they’re all waiting for you."

"Mm."

It had to be said, Wang Xiangxiang was right. The ducks had grown up already, but they’d been busy with the fishpond business, so it had been delayed. And since this matter had long ago been agreed on with Chu Lian, the elder Yang Family members weren’t anxious; they were just waiting for Chu Lian to come to collect the ducks. They had no opinion on when he came.