The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

Chapter 278 Learning to Recognize Characters

Tong Huaqiong gave Man'er an approving look.

Then he said to Chen Sufeng and Liu Yue'e, "Not only will Man'er go to school, but you two will also have to learn to read."

Chen Sufen and Liu Yue'e seemed to have heard something incredible, and the two sisters-in-law were completely bewildered.

They also need to learn to read.

Is literacy something that ordinary people can learn?

Of all the women in the village, only the mother-in-law and the sister-in-law were literate.

My mother-in-law learned it from my brother when I was young, and she taught me how to make peach blossoms.

All the other women are blind.

However, being illiterate did not affect people's lives. For many years, all the women in Qinghewan were illiterate, but that did not affect their ability to have children and manage their households and fields.

Chen Sufen and Liu Yue'e exchanged a glance, both looking confused and bewildered.

To be honest, Chen Sufen and Liu Yue'e were quite resistant to the idea of ​​learning to read.

Tong Huaqiong could tell what the two sisters-in-law were thinking just by observing their eyes and expressions.

"What are your thoughts on learning to read?" Tong Huaqiong asked.

Liu Yue'e said, "Mother, I think my aunt's writing is not simple at all. I don't think I can even hold that brush properly. It doesn't matter to us that we can't read."

Chen Su-fen nodded in agreement.

They don't have the talent of talented women, and they're already married with children, so why bother learning that nonsense?

Tong Huaqiong said, "Being illiterate has many negative effects. Take Taohua for example. Many people think that I became the second-in-command of Taohua Dessert Shop because I promoted her. Do you think that's true? Managing a shop is not a simple matter. For example, reading the accounts. If Taohua couldn't read, how could she read the accounts and find problems?"

"Take farming for example. Why does wheat turn yellow when it grows joints? How do you get rid of ear rot in corn? You know that I made those medicines from what I saw in my space. If I were illiterate, I would be guarding a pile of treasures and not know what they were for."

“You can see the importance of literacy from your aunt and from me. If you stayed at home and never went out, not knowing how to read wouldn't make a difference. You'd just be doing housework, cooking, raising children. But now that you're in the shop, not knowing how to read will affect you sooner or later. Yue'e, are you only willing to be a errand girl? Don't you want to be the shopkeeper? Su Fen, do you only want to bake pastries in the baking room? Don't you want to take on apprentices or write down the pastry recipes you've come up with?”

Chen Sufen and Liu Yue'e fell into deep thought after hearing this.

They hadn't really thought about what their mother-in-law said.

Take Liu Yue'e for example. She thought that since her son was born during the Great Heat period, her mother-in-law's future estate would eventually be divided among the second branch of the family, so she wasn't worried at all.

However, it would be a lie to say that she didn't envy Gu Taohua.

Sometimes she wished she could be like Gu Taohua, able to read account books, write, and do calculations.

Chen Su-fen felt the same way; sometimes she envied Gu Tao-hua.

She memorizes all the pastry recipes she's working on, and when she can't remember them, she draws lines on the wall with pebbles, such as how many grams of flour or how many eggs are needed. The walls of the entire baking room look like they've been scribbled by ghosts.

If I could read, wouldn't I be able to write it down on paper and just look it up whenever I forget it?

"Mom, you're right. I want to learn, but I'm so old, can I really learn it?" Chen Sufeng lacked confidence.

Tong Huaqiong was satisfied with Chen Sufeng's attitude.

She was more ambitious than Liu Yue'e.

If you're willing to learn, you can learn it.

Tong Huaqiong said, "How old are you? Can you be older than me? You never thought about doing business with me before, but now you're doing quite well."

Encouraged by her mother-in-law's words, Chen Sufeng regained some confidence and said, "Then I'll learn. Even if I'm not smart, I'll work really hard." Seeing that Chen Sufeng had expressed her determination in front of her mother-in-law, Liu Yue'e was unwilling to fall behind her sister-in-law, so she gritted her teeth and said, "I think the same as my sister-in-law. I'll learn too."

Tong Huaqiong expressed her satisfaction.

Gu Taohua said, “Sisters-in-law, don’t make learning to read a big deal out of it. Learning to read is like recognizing seeds in farming. Once you learn one, you can quickly learn the next one. You’ll remember it after learning a lot. We’re not like our third brother who has to study the Four Books and Five Classics to become a top scholar. We only need to know the characters we use in daily life. It’s not difficult at all.”

Tong Huaqiong agreed with Gu Taohua's words and said to her two daughters-in-law, "Your sister is right. You only need to learn the words that you can use in daily life. You don't need to hang your heads from the rafters or prick your thighs with awls to stay awake, and you don't need to practice in the sweltering summer or freezing winter."

Then Tong Huaqiong gave an example.

"For example, the crops in our fields, wheat, corn, and soybeans, are easy to remember when you see the real things and learn their names. For example, when you are busy in the shop, you can start by learning numbers, one, two, three, four, five to one hundred, which is simple and useful."

Tong Huaqiong felt that the reason why Chen Sufen and Liu Yue'e initially resisted being taught to read was mainly due to the influence of an environment where no women could read. Even if there were talented women in this era, they were extremely distant from their lives.

Women being literate was something only women from wealthy families could do; it had nothing to do with farm girls.

Therefore, people imagine literacy to be very difficult and unattainable.

Tong Huaqiong planned to teach them according to their individual needs, starting by teaching them simple numbers to build their confidence and make them realize that learning to read is a very simple thing.

Actually, it's a very simple matter. Judging from Tong Huaqiong's experience in modern times, if literacy were a difficult thing, the nationwide literacy campaign would not have achieved such great results.

Her great-grandmother was in her fifties or sixties at the time, but she still learned to read in a literacy class.

Chen Su-fen and Liu Yue-e are so young, with good memories and sharp minds, it's impossible that they couldn't learn to read.

Chen Sufeng thought for a moment and asked Tong Huaqiong, "Mother, who will teach me and my younger siblings to read?"

Liu Yue'e said from the side, "You're not going to make my sister-in-law and me go to school with Man'er and Yaozu, are you?"

If that's the case, they'll be so embarrassed.

Two grown adults, two women with children studying together—just thinking about it sends chills down my spine.

Tong Huaqiong said, "Of course, I'll teach you."

Chen Sufen and Liu Yue'e both breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as they are not allowed to go to school, that's fine.

Tong Huaqiong said, "I teach you three characters a day, so you have to study hard. Who am I working so hard for? It's all for your future."

Seeing Tong Huaqiong start teaching values, the two sisters-in-law promised to study hard, almost swearing an oath.

Tong Huaqiong had her own plan for her two daughters-in-law's literacy development, starting with three characters a day, which seemed like a small amount.

However, little by little, over time, one can accumulate more than a thousand Chinese characters in a year, which is more than enough for reading letters and keeping accounts.

We have nearly 70,000 Chinese characters, but only about 3,500 are used in daily life. In just two years, Chen Sufeng and Liu Yue'e will be able to understand Gu Jingzhe's books.

Moreover, Chinese characters follow certain rules. Usually, once you learn one character, you can apply that knowledge to other characters. It's even easier to learn the rules of radicals and components.

What troubled Tong Huaqiong was that writing in this era was done with a brush pen.

Tong Huaqiong, a modern woman, is terrible at calligraphy. Even Gu Taohua muttered that her mother's calligraphy was terrible, not nearly as good as it used to be.

You should know that in the past, the Spring Festival couplets for the Gu family were written by Tong Huaqiong, Gu Jingzhe, and Gu Taohua.

However, for the two daughters-in-law, it doesn't matter if their calligraphy is as messy as hers, as long as it's legible.

Her requirements are not high.