"When, when, when..."With a melodious bell sounding, Zhang Yucheng habitually woke up from his slumber. He knew that the ringing of the bell meant that the monks of the neighboring Guangji Temple had finished their morning class.

And this time is also the time when the children in the nursing home get up. He silently counted ten times in his heart before he opened his eyes.

Although when he opened his eyes, it was still dark at first, but gradually his eyes changed a little, showing a darker outline of the roof beams.

When he was about to get up, Liu Ergou, who slept in his bed, couldn't help but complain loudly after waking up: "These damn bald heads have to disturb the lord's sleep every day, and one day, Lao Tzu will smash their broken bell." ”

Adjacent to Zhang Yucheng's bed, Lin Hu, a boy on another bed, sat up with a grunt, groping for his own clothes that he had thrown away before going to bed, and said busily: "Damn, I overslept again today." Today is my day of sweeping, and if I am caught by the superintendent, I will be unlucky again..."

In just a moment, the quiet room became like a boiling soup pot. The room was dimly lit by a boy who lit it with a scythe, and the candle head placed on the table in the doorway.

At this time, many children realized that the clothes they had worn in the dark seemed to be worn backwards, and they had to take off their clothes and put them back on in the light.

While these children were busy, Zhang Yucheng had already finished dressing and was the first to stand on the ground. He glanced at the more than a dozen roommates who were still busy in the room, then took his toiletry and walked out shaking his head.

Although the children in the nursing home are all orphans, compared to Zhang Yucheng, who traveled long distances to the capital with his sister, they are still just a group of children. And Zhang Yucheng, who survived from the brink of death, seems to have really grown up. On weekdays, he behaves quite magnificently, and even the superintendent who presides over the management of the nursing home admires him very much.

When Zhang Yucheng walked out of the door with toiletries, the night sky was still shining with starlight outside. He walked to the pool in the middle of the courtyard, put the toiletry in his hand on the stone platform by the pool, then took the wooden bucket on the side, and went to the well by the stone platform to draw water.

It's late autumn in Beijing, and the early morning outdoors feels exceptionally cold, as if it's the season of dripping water into ice. However, the well water that Zhang Yucheng brought up emitted a white mist, as if the well water was still hot.

As Zhang Yucheng washed, figures began to slowly appear in the courtyard, and the wings around the courtyard began to brighten, and the crowd on the edge of the pool became more and more crowded.

When Zhang Yucheng finished washing up and returned to the room to tidy up the housekeeping before coming out, the sky in the distance had already begun to turn white. He looked up at the sky, then turned and walked towards the courtyard gate.

The almshouse is divided into three halls, the front cross is the residence of the boys and the male servants, the middle cross is the place where the children learn to eat, and the back cross is the residence of the girls, the warden, and several nurturing mothers-in-law.

After Zhang Yucheng walked into the middle cross courtyard, he came directly to the kitchen. He saw that several servant women were busy cooking porridge and steaming steamed buns, so he rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward, and said to a middle-aged woman who commanded everyone obediently: "Aunt Huang, Jiazi Courtyard is my wheel kitchen today, is there anything I need to do?" ”

The woman who was called Huang Da Niang turned her head to look at him when she heard the sound, and the expression on her face, which was originally frowning because she was busy, couldn't help but soothe.

"It turned out to be Yucheng, you can't help with this kitchen. You go to the front and set up the dishes and chopsticks, and then follow me to share the porridge. ”

Apparently the cook had a crush on him and arranged for him to do a light job. Zhang Yucheng hurriedly agreed, and went to do so.

When he placed chopsticks and pickles on the long table in the cafeteria, the courtyard outside the cafeteria began to bustle. After washing, the boys and girls in the almshouse also came to the door of the cafeteria, but they did not enter the cafeteria, but lined up in the courtyard according to the dormitory.

When all the boys and girls had arrived, a woman in her early 40s appeared in front of the children. This is the superintendent of this hospital, and when they saw her appear, the children, who were still a little playful, quickly quieted down.

This eunuch has the same surname as Zhang Yucheng, and it is said that she is a palace maid released from the palace, and because she is homeless, she was arranged here by the queen. She is a very clean person, and after taking over the nursing home, the rules of the home have become strict. What was once a chaotic hospice soon took on a new look.

When Zhang Yucheng and his sister first came here, it was simply a garbage dump, and several officials in the courtyard were basically in a laissez-faire attitude towards these children. And the food provided in the kitchen is either insufficient or rotten.

Zhang Yucheng once wanted to leave with his sister, but when the supervisor of Zhang Yuan was transferred, the situation here quickly improved. She drove out the servants and cooks who withheld the children's rations, and recruited several honest and reliable women in the neighborhood as cooks.

As a result, the children in the nursing home were finally able to eat enough, and the relative supervisor Zhang began to let the children wash and clean every day, and they were not allowed to live in a mess as before. Because of this, the whole staff of the nursing home was both respectful and afraid of the new warden.

After inspecting the personal hygiene of the children in the queue, Supervisor Zhang finally walked back to the front of the line satisfied, where she stood and lectured the children a few words, and then let them line up into the cafeteria to eat.

Zhang Yucheng, who assisted in the kitchen to distribute meals to the children, saw his sister Zhang Yuniang, who was sitting at the long table obediently and waiting for him to share the meal. Seeing his sister's pair of black and shining eyes staring at him, very excited, but not daring to make a sound, Zhang Yucheng couldn't help twitching the corners of his mouth.

Although he couldn't add more to his sister, he carefully and unobtrusively chose a relatively large steamed bun and gave it to him.

For these half-grown children, it is quite hard to work in the kitchen, not only to eat last, but also to assist in the distribution of food, the cleaning of dishes and chopsticks, and so on.

However, sometimes they will have some surprises, such as today, when Zhang Yu returned to the kitchen after finishing the meal and was ready to enjoy his breakfast, Aunt Huang brought him a fist-sized meat bun. It was breakfast for the wardener and a few servants, but sometimes someone didn't want to come to work so early, and it became a delicacy in the back kitchen.

It seems that Aunt Huang treats him very well, and actually gives him her share to enjoy. After Zhang Yucheng saw this intention, he quickly got up and thanked Aunt Huang.

After Mrs. Huang turned around and left, Zhang Yucheng looked at the fragrant meat bun in front of him and swallowed his saliva, he didn't eat the meat bun, but found a piece of wool paper to wrap the meat bun and put it in his arms, and then ate his pickled vegetable steamed bun with millet porridge.

After cleaning up the kitchen, Zhang Yucheng secretly found his sister and called her out of the crowd. Zhang Yiniang looked at the meat bun handed to her mouth, and without thinking too much, she took a big bite, chewed it a few times in her mouth, and then remembered something, handed the bitten meat bun to her brother's mouth and said, "Brother eats it too." ”

Zhang Yucheng shook his head with a smile, touched his sister's head and said, "My brother has eaten it, this is my mother's." Eat it quickly, it's not good if it's seen. ”

The young Zhang Qiniang did not doubt her brother's words, she obediently withdrew her raised hand, and ate the meat buns in her hand in two bites.

Zhang Yuniang's gobbling up made Zhang Yucheng worry that his sister would choke. Zhang Yucheng wiped his sister's mouth clean with the paper in his hand, and then said with a smile: "When my brother grows up, I will buy you meat buns to eat every day, okay?" ”

Zhang Yiniang hurriedly nodded and said yes, thinking in her heart that except for the big brother who rescued her brother, no one in this world has her own brother who is better for herself.

After Zhang Yucheng sent his sister back, he hurriedly went back to pack his schoolbag and prepared to go to school in the primary school on the side. In his heart, the two most important things in the world are taking care of his sister and going to school.

Since the death of his parents, he has not been able to join his relatives. Zhang Yucheng was very worried about how he could raise his eldest sister. Although they were lucky enough to get the help of nobles and enter this hospice.

However, after all, the almshouse only takes care of orphans, and he still has to leave when he becomes an adult. It wasn't until after the opening of the primary school that all children over the age of 10 in the nursing home had to go to school, that he saw a way out. He heard that after graduating from elementary school, he would be able to find a job in a workshop or shop, so he put a lot of effort into his daily life.

His efforts were not in vain, in his elementary school, he was the first in the grade in every monthly exam, and was therefore selected by the teacher as the class president. It is precisely because of his good academic performance that everyone in the nursing home also looks up to him.

However, his teacher also regretted him, thinking that it was a waste to use his talent not to be enlightened, but just to study in a primary school. But Zhang Yucheng doesn't see it that way, as long as he can find a job to support himself and his sister after completing his studies, it will be happiness within reach for him.

Fucaifang Primary School, adjacent to the magnificent Guangji Temple, was originally also the property of the temple, but it was divided by the imperial court and became a small school with 12 classes and more than 600 students.

Zhang Yucheng is a student in the first class of Fucaifang Primary School, and although most of the teachers in these government-run primary schools are still children and scholars, there are also some shops with accounts mixed in.

If it weren't for the imperial court's statement at the beginning that the establishment of primary schools had nothing to do with the industry, such an unorthodox primary school system would have been attacked and would not have been able to continue.

In addition to the teacher's background, the curriculum and teaching methods taught in primary schools are also very different.

4 classes in the morning, 45 minutes each, with a 10-minute break in between. After the lunch break, there are only 3 classes, and there are also physical education and labor classes.

Even after looking at the curriculum arranged in the elementary school, the officials of the imperial court no longer had the intention to attack the school system. Obviously, this kind of course arrangement is to train shopkeepers. However, there are still some people who complain that the right way is to use the funds for the opening of primary schools to various government schools and cultivate talents for the country.

However, for this sparse voice, Chongzhen simply ignored it. In order to ensure that the primary school can be handled steadily, he basically has to select a school for inspection every 3-5 days.

Today he happened to draw to Fucaifang Primary School and walked around the door of several classes. Zhu Youzhen randomly selected a class and walked in, and before he came, he had a general understanding of the teaching progress of this school.

So when he got on the podium, he said to the students below, "I'll give you a question, and if anyone can answer before the hourglass is finished, I'll reward him with a book." ”

The students in the audience were stunned, not knowing what this gorgeously dressed young man was doing. However, there were teachers and principals standing on the sidelines, staring at them sternly, and they didn't dare to make trouble.

So these students watched Zhu Youzhen write on the blackboard, after a long style full of blackboards. Only then did I hear him say, "What is the answer to this formula, start now." ”