My Daoist Life Chapter 60

Chapter 60 Construction of a new house

Since the one who needed to be taught a lesson was from Ba Jiao Village, so all the high school students that had come were from other villages. That leader was from the Luo family, Luo Yuge. One kick of mine had broken several of his ribs and he would be sent to the hospital. As for this kind of a thing, he could only blame his luck, but he didn't die, that was also his luck.

Huang Shulang stepped up and started slapping Ma Yushun with both hands. Huang Shulang still hadn't vented his anger.

"Fine! Ma Yushun, from now onwards, don't let me see you! Otherwise, you'll just get humiliated!" I glanced at Ma Yushun who was trembling right now. He was still under the impression that I had actually killed that Luo Yuge, unaware that Luo Yuge had just been knocked unconscious.

At this time, a large group of adults from the village came running over.

Huang Zeyu was leading them. This fellow had seen from afar that we were being stopped at this place, so he sneaked away and ran to inform the elders.

Huang Kui was running the fastest, he was practically mad-das.h.i.+ng his way to the place while holding a butchering knife.

"Where are they? They dare to come to our Ba Jiao village, I will hack them to death!" Huang Kui said with a fierce expression on his face and his eyes betraying a feeling that he was going to what he said. The high school students who had been led here were now feeling quite scared.

Huang Kui upon seeing that Fatty and I were alright, whereas the High School student was lying on the ground as if almost dead, laughed and said: "You can only consider this your bad luck in coming to find trouble with Yangyang."

If the children in the village fought, parents would ask if they won or not. So if they didn't win, they would fight again, and keep fighting till they won. Otherwise, they wouldn't be allowed to fight in the future.

Upon seeing that we had prevailed, Huang Kui's anger dissipated. Looking at the person still lying down on the ground, he nervously asked: "Yangyang, what happened to him?"

I glanced at Luo Yuge who although had suffered injuries but had already woken up and was playing dead right now.

"He's just had one-two bones broken, he won't die. He's just playing dead."

"It's fine then. They came to our village to beat up little children, these kinds of people shouldn't be allowed to leave without being taught a lesson. Let's see if they still think they can bully us of the Ba Jiao village." Huang Kui kicked Luo Yuge who was lying down on the ground.

The villagers were very angry at these people who had come over to blockade primary school students. After tying up each and every one of them and calling home, they weren't going to set out a meal for them. The villagers were not so kind to these children who had come from other villages but dared to fight the children of their village. It was quite acceptable to just toss them here and there. Luo Yuge was also tossed just like that, with his followers not faring any better.

Later on, I came to know that Luo Yuge had been expelled from Ba Ling School, and those who had accompanied him had all received disciplinary punishments.

Ever since that day, the reputation of my fierceness spread. At least in the Ba Ling range, everyone knew about that really fierce second-grade primary school student. This can't be considered a good thing, but it wasn't a bad thing either. At least during the lessons in Ba Jiao school, n.o.body dared to jump out.

Usually, adults are loath to interfere in the fights between children. A group of high school students blocking the path of primary school students caused the adults to be shocked at first, but the end result made them feel more rea.s.sured and even more resolved than earlier. Our martial arts cla.s.ses had even more students than before.

Although there was no Teacher Lin to supervise me daily, I never relaxed my daily brushwork practice. All the characters in the book sent by Teacher Lin had been practised by me. This oracle bone script was no longer posing much trouble to me and I could already able to directly make out the intent behind the characters.

The mid-term exams shocked the school teachers. The school's results had improved by quite a bit. There was nearly two hundred per cent improvement in each grade's performance. For a mountain village primary school like Ba Jiao Primary School, this was simply miraculous. The rural children didn't attach much importance to studying, but this time, the performance of Ba Jiao Primary School was not at all inferior to the Primary Schools in town.

Basically, the students who had improved by a lot were those who had joined the martial arts cla.s.ses. Although there were quite a few students who hadn't joined the martial arts cla.s.ses whose performance had also improved. Initially, I was worried that with the prevalence of martial arts, the performance of students would decrease, but now it seems that worry was completely unnecessary. The practice of martial arts every day did not affect the results rather it improved the performance.

When the students' results reached home, the adults were naturally very happy. The number of students registering for martial arts cla.s.ses increased. There were altogether more than two hundred students in Ba Jiao primary school. Barring a few who had difficult circ.u.mstances at home, the rest all had registered their name. At this time, the wages for those working in Guangdong was already two thousand kuai per month. It was not difficult to spend one or two hundred kuai per year on their child's results. After all, the child's results were not something they could use the money to get back.

The training fee received supplemented by the earnings from rheumatism treatment of people, made me quite a bit of money. I had about forty-fifty thousand kuai in my hand. This kind of speed in earning money was very astonis.h.i.+ng in a backwoods area like Ba Jiao mountain village.

One day, Huang Shulang's father Huang Kui came to our house for a matter.

"Uncle, just leave it to me. Since Yangyang is determined on building this house, why don't we listen to him. We can start the construction of the house right away. I calculated it, the total cost of building a house requires a hundred thousand or so kuai, but we don't need to spend this much in one go. A major portion of it goes towards wages. This part can be delayed. We just need to take out some money at the beginning to buy the construction materials. I calculated it, with forty-fifty thousand kuai, the basic framework can be set up." Ever since Huang Shulang became my apprentice, Huang Kui had treated our matters as if his own.

"Ai, it's not like I was anxious about it, rather, the last time your seventh elder brother and sister-in-law had taken away Yangyang's money." Grandpa couldn't bear to look at me as he spoke.

"This matter is troublesome. Seventh Elder Brother and Seventh Sister-in-law are too excessive. Second Uncle, this matter can also be solved if you wish. I have some money at my house. I will discuss this with my wife to see if she agrees. If you fall short of money during the construction of the house, I will advance you some money. Furthermore, all the workers would be from Ba Jiao village, so we can tell them that for a temporary period a part of their wages will be held due. On the whole, there shouldn't be much problem."

"I don't want to let your seventh elder brother know about this matter. If that husband and wife couple came to know that Yangyang has gathered some more money, who knows what they will do. Therefore, request you to decide on this issue first." Grandpa looked at Huang Kui want to know his idea.

Huang Kui didn't hesitate for a second: "Second Uncle, you rest a.s.sured and leave this matter to me. On the way back I will find people. Furthermore, as regards the construction of the house, you can already count my wife and me as workers. Although we can not match skilled labourers, we won't fall behind in strength. Also, I am saying this in advance, you don't need to pay our family any wages."

As of now, I had 200 students. Those with poor financial condition had had their fees exempted. Only, Ma Yushun had been ostracized. He was isolated in school also. Just his single act of calling outsiders to come into the village to beat people up had made everyone in the Ba Jiao village dislike him. He couldn't continue in Ba Jiao Primary School. After that day, I never saw Ma Yushun never went to school. I never saw his figure in school. Only later I came to know that he had gone to his aunt's house and joined the school there.

Huang Kui went around the village to make this all happen and the villagers responded one by one. This matter spread very quickly. More than two hundred children equated to more than two hundred families. Although a majority of the youngsters had already left the village to seek work, there were still many middle-aged and elderly people residing in the village. In the rural areas, you won't find a place to retire or talk of retirement. Whether or not you retire, your daily need to make a living won't retire. Many people had reached old age. This year, there was no shortage of labour.

Huang Mingge's father Huang Changmao was the village's chief labour contractor. He would also frequently take up contracts outside the village. The first thing Huang Kui did was to find Huang Changmao who immediately promised to find someone to take measurements and prepare blueprints for my house.

Very soon, Huang Lisheng came over with my house building permit and the construction of my house officially started. The old building was torn down, while Grandpa and I went to Huang Shulang's house. Huang Shulang was beyond happy. He and I would share the same bed at night.

The money in my hand was insufficient to buy all the materials for the house, the remnant portion was paid by Huang Shulang's family. Amongst all the people in the village who had come to lend a hand, n.o.body was willing to accept any pay.

"Since everyone has agreed to not take any pay, then please don't hesitate to take the meals." Huang Kui said.

"In the future, all the children in the martial arts cla.s.ses will no longer need to pay tuition fee." I said after a bit of thought.

"That won't do. It's propriety to pay Master's tutors.h.i.+p, how can we skimp on that, wouldn't that upset the customs? If Master is building a house, then the family of the apprentices are helping in the construction, it's only natural. In the past, I had taken in an apprentice, if anything happens in the Master's house, then obviously the Apprentice would handle it." Huang Kui put out a resolute opposition immediately.

"Yangyang, you don't need to feel overwhelmed. Each and every one of the villagers who has come to help is doing it voluntarily. Just take for instance my family's Mingge, this year's exams scored 100 in Mathematics and 90 in Literature. This kind of a thing was unthinkable earlier. Last year, even the Literature exam was flunked. If Mingge continues in this way, definitely she would be able to get into a good school. You see, you have done such a big thing for us and if we were to still ask you for wages, would we even be considered human?" Huang Changmao said.

"Yangyang, you dedicatedly take this group of stinky brats to school and teach them martial arts. Compared to this, the rest is nothing." Huang Kui said laughingly.

The rest of the villagers also chimed in one by one.

Very quickly, new year arrived and the construction of my house was almost complete. Huang Changmao said that my house is the best house in the entire Ba mountain range right now. On the day that construction was to be completed, the Upper Beam Ceremony needed to be held. Grandpa didn't inform my parents, and just invited people in the village. A hustling and bustling banquet was organized.