Rebirth: Not Being a Waste - Chapter 125

When His Royal Highness, Zhao Ningjin, Prince Cheng, heard the child crying and vaguely caught something about being scared by a bug, he immediately rushed out of the room to apologize to Zhang Shu and Li Mujin.

“I’m sorry, Chengzhang is just too naughty. He dared to scare people with insects. I’ll teach him a lesson later.” After he spoke, he noticed that Li Mujin and Zhang Shu’s expressions seemed a bit distorted, as though they were holding back laughter.

“Your Highness, you misunderstood. It was the little prince who was frightened. It was our ger who was wrong…”

Prince Cheng was dumbfounded. Looking carefully, he saw Qianjin lying in her father’s arms, looking wronged, while his son stood nearby, crying loudly.

After a while, Prince Cheng burst into laughter, which mixed with the little prince’s louder crying, creating a curious cheerful duet.

Zhang Shu and Li Mujin exchanged glances, and even Qianjin turned his head to look at him, puzzled.

“My child finally has someone who can handle him,” Prince Cheng said, still chuckling. “Usually, no one in the house dares to scold him. When I try to discipline him, someone always cries right away. Now that we’re here, I can finally work on his temper.”

Prince Cheng feared raising a spoiled child. Though his son was more well-mannered than most, he was still spoiled.

He squatted down and picked up Zhao Chengzhang, whose fists immediately gripped his neck, and his crying grew even louder.

The panic along the way, hearing people say that his father was gravely injured and seeing their sympathetic gazes—though he didn’t fully understand it—told him that if his father died, he might be harmed too.

Living in the palace all his life, he once witnessed his aunt, who lost her mother, being left in the winter with a window opened. He wanted to report it, but no one cared, and she eventually died.

Fortunately, his father didn’t die, and now, fueled by emotion, the young prince vented all his frustrations, unaware that he was already labeled a crybaby.

Zhang Qianjin also felt a little wronged. It seemed like he was the one who made a mistake, and others would surely say that he wasn’t a good child.

He cried, too, though his voice was soft and thin, but still very sad.

Zhang Shu took him from Li Mujin’s arms and patted him. “Qianjin didn’t do anything wrong. Don’t cry. Feed the insects you caught to the chickens. It’s okay.”

Qianjin choked and hummed, then went down to the ground. He picked up crickets with one hand and earthworms with the other, walking to the northwest corner where the chickens were kept.

Zhao Chengzhang, still crying, stopped and kicked his legs. “Father, I want to see the chicks too. Please put me down.”

Although his eyes were still filled with tears, his expression now brimmed with excitement. He had only seen birds like peacocks, cranes, and swans, but he had never seen chicks.

The chicks were fluffy and yellow, looking incredibly cute. As soon as Qianjin threw the insects in, the chicks scrambled for them.

The little prince stood outside, watching. He thought the chicks were much cuter than the birds in the imperial garden. His hands itched again.

Qianjin watched the crybaby open the door and walk in to catch the chicks. He didn’t say anything, just watched him.

Although the chicks were quick, they couldn’t outrun him, and soon he caught one. The little prince touched the soft fur of the yellow chick, mesmerized by its feel.

“Cluck, cluck,” came a cry from the corner. The little prince leaned over to look. A big, ugly chicken, its feathers ruffled, stood up and stared with wide eyes, slowly walking toward him with heavy steps.

The little prince, still engrossed in petting the chicken, didn’t know what was happening.

Qianjin, thinking for a moment, reminded him, “Put the chicken down. The big chicken pecks people, and it hurts.”

The little prince, still embarrassed from the earlier scare with the insects, sniffed. “I’m not afraid!” he retorted. The peacocks in the imperial garden had never pecked him, even though he plucked their feathers a few times.

Qianjin looked at him with sympathy. This crybaby was about to have a rough time.

The big chicken gradually approached the little prince and suddenly swooped down…

“Wahhh…” The little prince was pecked on the hand by the chicken and immediately started running. His clothes were covered in grass and chicken droppings, his face streaked with tears and snot bubbles. His new clothes, which were just changed at noon, were ruined.

Qianjin sighed, grabbed the stick his grandmother used to chase the chickens away, and used it to help the little prince. The big chicken, used to the little master who usually fed it, was easy to chase off, and it retreated with the little chicks.

The little prince looked at Qianjin with admiration. He wasn’t afraid of such a fierce animal. How amazing! Little did the young prince know that there was another animal in the world called a large white goose.

The little prince became Qianjin’s constant companion, following him everywhere. He discovered that life here was much more fun than in the palace. He could go to the back hillside to pick wild fruits, catch small fish from a nearby puddle, and collect crickets at night. In summer, there were even fireflies.

The cicadas chirped endlessly from the trees. They followed Zhou Dabao with a net to catch them, and afterward, Zhou Dabao’s father, Uncle Laiwang, roasted them for eating. He never knew they were edible.

It was also delightful to pick mushrooms after the rain. He always picked the biggest ones.

Here, there were no palace servants constantly telling him what not to do, and no one gave him reproachful looks for getting his clothes dirty.

Here, he could see his father every day. His father was just like Qianjin’s father, carrying him on his back or on horseback.

Here, no one indulged him in public and then avoided him in private as if he were a pest. He even had a fight with Zhou Dabao. Though he lost, it was only because Dabao’s younger brother came to help. If he had brothers to fight with, he was sure he wouldn’t lose.

The little prince, who lost the fight, cried for a while, but then began exercising with Zhang Shu every day. He wanted to be as strong as Qianjin’s father.

In less than two months, the little prince grew taller, and the fat on his body decreased. He transformed from a chubby white boy into a leaner, darker-skinned boy, much more handsome than before.

Days passed in this peaceful routine. Prince Cheng’s doctors boiled medicine every day, looking worried, as if his condition couldn’t be cured.

Indeed, in those two months, countless memorials were submitted about Prince Cheng’s serious illness. Finally, in early June, it was reported that he was stable and would return to the capital soon.

On the day of his return to the capital, the little prince suddenly disappeared. No one could find him, and this caused panic.

Prince Cheng sighed, walked up to Qianjin, and squatted down. “Qianjin, tell uncle, where is your brother?”

Qianjin lowered his head, saying nothing. His eyes were red. His little friend, who had been by his side day and night, was about to leave, and he felt reluctant.

Zhang Shu also squatted down and patted his head. Seeing his sadness, he comforted him gently, “Qianjin, your brother’s mother misses him. Let him go back and visit her. He’ll be back soon.”

“He won’t come back… This isn’t his home… He said…” Qianjin sobbed. “He said… he will be beaten if he goes back, and locked up and not allowed to go out… He said he won’t go home.”

Prince Cheng’s expression grew complicated. Didn’t he also not want to return? But as a member of the royal family, he had no choice but to leave. If Chengzhang stayed here, he would only bring harm to the Zhang family.

Qianjin sniffed, stopped crying, and said, “Brother Chengzhang… is hiding under the bed in the back courtyard.”

The adults were all a little surprised. The house was never demolished, and the things inside were old. Children often thought of it as a haunted house, but that boy dared to go there.

When the guards brought the little prince out, he was fuming with anger, kicking at them. Upon seeing Qianjin, he even started crying, cursing him as a traitor for betraying him.

And so, with cobwebs covering his head, the young prince was carried away, and the long convoy, which stayed here for more than two months, finally departed.

Qianjin stood by the door, leaning on Zhang Shu’s shoulder, watching them go. His cries were full of reluctance to see his friend leave and guilt for betraying him.

Zhang Shu sighed—there would be many more farewells to come in life.

Recently, Qianjin had been in a bad mood, so to cheer him up, his uncle gave him the twin cousins to take care of. Along with Zhang Erbao, who was now over three months old and becoming more lively, the three younger brothers completely exhausted Qianjin, keeping him so busy that he no longer had time to dwell on thoughts of the young prince.

Although Zhang Shu suffered an injury, he still made a lot of money from the spring potato business. Thanks to the prince’s name, he sold over 10,000 kilograms to officials alone. Zhang Shu wondered how they managed to eat so much when they took it home.

The pickled radish business was back on track, and the Zhang family store reopened. Thanks to the prince’s plaque, people flocked to try their goods.

Having made a considerable profit, Zhang Shu looked at his two children, the two children next door, and his brother-in-law’s two children. It occurred to him that there was no school in their village.

This was actually quite normal, as there were no schools in the surrounding villages. But after Zhang Shu returned from the village where he bought land, the idea stayed on his mind.

That village had many wealthy families, and they invited a teacher to come, even building a proper tiled-roof schoolhouse. When Zhang Shu checked on the crops, he heard the voices of children reciting: “At the beginning of human life, their nature is inherently good…”

Zhang Shu himself studied for a while, but the school he attended was in town. The journey took three to four hours round trip, meaning he could only study for a morning before heading back. It was exhausting, so he eventually gave up.

If their village had its own school, he thought, perhaps it would produce scholars who could bring honor to their families as they grew up.

But opening a school wasn’t something he could do on his own. He needed to consult the village chief first.

The village chief, sitting at home and enjoying a rare moment of leisure while smoking his dry pipe, was stunned when he saw Zhang Shu enter. “What’s going on? Are you planning to buy land again?”

Zhang Shu came to him several times before, each time with a similar request.

Zhang Shu handed something to the village chief’s wife and smiled. “I have something on my mind.”

“Why, what piece of land have you set your sights on? What kind of business are you planning?”

“Not for business.” Zhang Shu shook his head and then leaned toward the village chief. “What do you think about me opening a school?”

At first, the village chief didn’t react, but then his mouth dropped open as he pointed at Zhang Shu and said, “You rascal, setting up a school? Can you teach, or should I?”

His own child didn’t pass the imperial examination last year and had to wait three more years. He was in the capital now. The village chief didn’t mean to discourage Zhang Shu, but aside from his third son, no one in the village could read beyond a few words. How could they be qualified to teach?

“I was thinking of hiring a Xiucai to teach,” Zhang Shu said.

“Do you even know how much a Xiucai costs?” The village chief snorted. “That village where you bought land? Their teacher is a local and still charges two taels of silver per month. On top of that, the students’ tuition goes straight to the teacher. Add it all up, and it’s at least three to four taels.”

The village chief did the calculations, and Zhang Shu found that it didn’t seem like a lot.

The village chief, reading Zhang Shu’s expression, said, “Zhang Shu, I’ve watched you grow up. You used to be so timid, but you’ve taken on more responsibility in recent years. I know you’re a good person, wanting to do something for the village. But this isn’t something you should shoulder alone. If you do, people will appreciate it at first, but over time, who knows? If something is free, people don’t cherish it. They might even blame you for taking their children away from farm work. First of all, if the children don’t have to pay, they may not take their studies seriously, and parents may not push them to study harder. Second, during busy farming seasons, especially when making vermicelli, every household needs extra hands. If the school isn’t charging tuition, families might just pull their kids out altogether—after all, it’s free, so there’s no loss. Education is a long-term commitment. If they open a school but only manage to teach the children a few words, it won’t truly benefit anyone. Worse, it might even hinder the children who genuinely want to study.”

Zhang Shu realized that the village chief was wise and saw through everything, especially human nature.