Miss and farmhand

An eerie silence remained throughout the afternoon.

The teacher who taught in the afternoon was Huang Xingyu. When he entered the room, he found two people standing at the back of the classroom like wooden stakes. There were no books, pens, or tables in front of them.

His eyes widened slightly.

So classes were suspended, and Huang Xingtong was called in.

The verification process was not complicated, since the items were just thrown outside and could be seen with a turn of the head.

The testimonies were simple: the others said that Huang Muyun and Shi Tou threw it out themselves, while Huang Muyun and Shi Tou said they didn't know and that they didn't see anything when they came back.

Huang Xingtong flipped through the books he had collected. It was quite a task; each page was covered with mud, as if a layer of skin had been applied to the paper.

Stone had no interest in acting and laughed gleefully, "This is delicate work; I can't do it."

He asked Huang Xingtong with a wicked grin, "Sir, now that the book is gone, can I go back now? I can't learn anything without the book. Once you find out who did it, have them restore the book to me, and then I'll come back to study. I promise I won't slack off."

Huang Xingtong sneered, "You don't need to worry about that. There are plenty of Three Character Classic books in the library. Go and get another one now. It won't delay anything."

Shi Tou's face fell dramatically, and he looked at Huang Muyun pleadingly. Before their eyes met, Huang Xingtong slammed his hand on the table and chased him out.

Huang Xingtong calmed himself down and turned to Huang Mujun, saying, "That's a boxwood table!"

Huang Muyun lowered his head and said, "No wonder it didn't crack; it's definitely good wood."

Huang Xingyu slammed his hand on the table: "Nonsense! Is this how you admit your mistake? The academy is not a place where you can commit such acts of violence!"

Huang Muyun didn't speak, but lowered her head even further.

Huang Xingyu turned to Huang Xingtong and said, "I had the same concerns, but since you brought them in, Second Brother, I couldn't say much. But as you've seen, how can people like them continue to stay in the academy? With such examples around, the students in the academy are bound to go astray. How can we be responsible for them, for their future?"

Huang Xingtong held up the mud-covered book in his hand and asked, "What do you mean by 'going astray'?" He then tapped the table. "Or do you mean this?"

"You don't need to nitpick. Whoever did it, they're the ones who started this trouble. If we don't handle it properly this time, there will be even bigger problems in the future."

"Really?" Huang Xingtong threw the book back on the table. "I don't think so. It's been handled pretty well, it's just a useless table."

"You're going to argue with them too?" Huang Xingyu asked incredulously. "Second brother, do you not take the academy seriously at all? Such a big thing has happened, and this is your attitude?"

Huang Xingtong rested his chin on his hand and said, "To be honest, elder brother, it is precisely because I take the academy seriously that I believe this handling is already quite appropriate."

He looked at Huang Xingyu, "Otherwise, what do you want me to do, brother? Get rid of them? That's easy. They weren't even regular students at our academy. They weren't even on the roster. They were just there to add a table. But once they left, would the problem be solved?"

"Why hasn't it been resolved?" Huang Xingyu said firmly. "Nothing like this has ever happened before they came."

Huang Xingtong then raised his chin and pointed to the mud-covered book on the table, "This one is still unresolved."

"I'd like to ask you, brother, do you think the problem is bigger with this book, or with that desk that was thrown out of the classroom but no one hit it or broke it?"

Huang Xingyu pursed her lips and didn't reply.

"Right, Big Brother knows what's important and what's not, not to mention there's the issue of order. The mud on this book is dry, and you heard the noise when the table was smashed; the mud on the corner of the table wasn't even dry yet."

"Brother," Huang Xingtong sighed, "the problems at the academy existed long before they arrived. Jianshan Academy wasn't like this from the beginning."

The room remained silent for a long while; neither of the brothers spoke.

Huang Muyun asked in a low voice if he needed to leave.

Huang Xingtong sneered, "Look at him, even a little kid who's only been in school for a few months knows this is something shameful, and he's afraid to listen. Brother, how many years have we been in school?"

He waved for Huang Muyun to go out and find stones.

Huang Xingyu spoke only after the outsiders had left.

"Second brother, our family has already suffered a setback because of your resignation. Fortunately, with the help of the county government, the academy has been reopened, and we have not fallen into a more despicable situation. The reputation of the academy is not just something the county magistrate cares about; we should both keep it in mind."

"How could I not care? It's precisely because I cared too much—"

"That's not what you call taking it to heart!" Huang Xingyu shouted. "You only want to use the academy as a place for your personal amusement and self-expression. You want to live a dissolute life, you want to emulate the Wei-Jin style, you haven't thought about doing anything for the future of the students who come here to study! They are not you, they don't have your luck. They can only painstakingly study word by word, reciting over and over again, hoping that the principles you can understand after just one reading will be fortunate enough to befall them through their repeated hard work! This is unfair to them! What you teach them is not what they really need!"

Huang Xingtong stared blankly at his elder brother.

Huang Xingyu seemed to realize his lapse in composure, abruptly turning his back away and falling silent, though his back remained ramrod straight.

"...I know all that," Huang Xingtong said carefully, his tone calm. "Otherwise, why would I keep saying that this academy truly cannot do without you, brother? I've always known that you are a better teacher than me; I don't have that ability. But this time is different, brother. Even if there are many disagreements between us, you should know that this matter is not about those two children. It's about another group of children we've been educating for many years who have run into problems."

"...But you can't just kick out all the other students."

Huang Xingtong shook his head, stood up, and casually tossed the mud-covered book into the wastepaper basket.

"Brother, you flatter me. I already said that this matter has been properly handled."

"What exactly happened—"

"Brother," Huang Xingtong sighed, "they are still just a bunch of kids, and only a few people from the academy. It's not about money or personal gain. Do you think they won't know how to weigh the future relationship after this whole mess?"

"..."

"Don't worry. If it were any other student, I would have to be more concerned and investigate their surroundings in detail. But those two, do you think we need to worry about them?"

"I'm not worried about them, but rather—"

"As for the others, there's even less need to worry about them; it's not like their books were ruined. On the contrary, think about it, brother, after this incident, the others aren't a monolithic group. Some of them will change their minds, after all—"

Huang Xingtong looked down at his desk and suddenly laughed.

"—Big brother, don't you think that someone who can pick up a solid wood table and throw it away, as stupid as they are, still has a skill that I can't help but admire?"