The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 652 - 641: Climbing The Wall

Chapter 652: Chapter 641: Climbing The Wall

Finally, Wei Chen was stopped by the gatekeeper while holding an empty book basket.

After examining his wooden tag, the gatekeeper asked, "This isn’t your tag, are you a boarding student? Where is your own tag?"

Wei Chen looked at Bai Shan, his face turning green.

Bai Shan walked past him without a glance to the side, an expression of "I don’t know him" on his face.

The gatekeeper also looked in the direction Wei Chen was gazing and stopped Bai Shan, "Classmate, do you know this person?"

Bai Shan lifted his eyelids, glanced at Wei Chen, and nodded, "I know him, we’re in the same class."

The gatekeeper narrowed his eyes, "Did you help him skip school?"

Bai Shan shook his head, "Not familiar."

Wei Chen glared at him.

The gatekeeper asked, "Is he a day student or a boarding student?"

Bai Shan continued, "Not familiar."

Wei Chen secretly breathed a sigh of relief and quickly said, "This really is my tag, maybe it’s because I’ve grown a bit, so you don’t think it looks like me..."

The gatekeeper waved his hand to interrupt him, "I know this Ji Hao."

Wei Chen: ...

The gatekeeper: "He just took a basket of books inside."

Wei Chen: "..."

Bai Shan had already walked past him with his basket, floating by without any pause.

Wei Chen could only watch his figure disappear and was unable to drag him down with him.

All he could do was let out a long sigh and admit guilt.

The gatekeeper also looked away, adding an extra remark for once, "Do you know why I checked your tag?"

"Yeah, why did you check my tag? There are so many students coming in."

"Because you kept talking to Bai Shan," said the gatekeeper: "For three months, except for the initial times I don’t remember, I’ve seen him every time since then, whether coming to school or leaving, he was always alone. You were with him early this morning, and seemed a bit unfamiliar, so I couldn’t resist."

Wei Chen: ... He was filled with hatred. He would have known better than to enter with Bai Shan.

Bai Shan of course heard this reasoning later on and made a mental note that if Manbao needed to use her tag to pass in and out of the school, she’d also have to keep some distance.

"How did the school discipline officer punish you?"

"What else could be done for punishment? Kneeling before the statue of Confucius, copying books, and the school rules," Wei Chen said, his head drooping, "You’re really harsh to just leave me behind."

"If I hadn’t left you, wouldn’t I have had to be punished with you? Then who would help you with copying?"

"Eh? You’re going to help me copy? That’s great," Wei Chen got excited, then his mood fell, "No, no, your handwriting doesn’t match mine, the teachers surely will compare them."

Bai Shan stretched out his hand, "Show me your handwriting."

Wei Chen eagerly pulled out his own handwriting for Bai Shan to see. After looking at it, Bai Shan frowned and said, "You are so much older than Manbao and me; how can your handwriting be this bad?"

Wei Chen: ...

Bai Shan’s brow was deeply furrowed, "I might not be able to imitate it well. I can copy Manbao’s handwriting, but our teacher will recognize it, though we can’t tell ourselves. I can also imitate Bai Er’s handwriting, but Manbao can tell, let alone the teacher..."

Hearing that his skills were so unreliable, Wei Chen immediately decided not to entrust him with such an important task and snatched back his writing, saying, "Don’t cause me trouble. If the disciplinarian discovers the cheating, the penalty will be even heavier."

Bai Shan then regretfully said, "Looks like you’ll have to do the copying yourself."

Wei Chen was very unhappy.

Bai Shan asked, "Do you want me to bring you some snacks as consolations?"

Wei Chen looked at him and said, "Offering unsolicited help is either scheming or thieving—speak up, what do you want?"

"Let’s go to the Book Collection Tower together tomorrow. You’ll definitely be bored copying by yourself, and we can keep you company," Bai Shan said, "After school, we have to do our homework when we go home anyway, we can just do it here at school."

Wei Chen guessed what he was up to and wasn’t too keen on the idea, "What if the disciplinarian catches us..."

Bai Shan: "It has nothing to do with you. I’ll take full responsibility."

Wei Chen hesitated.

Bai Shan said, "A serving of ice desserts from Honey Heart Hall!"

"Two servings!"

Bai Shan raised his hand, "Deal."

Wei Chen high-fived him, "If I’d known, I would have said three."

"Even if you had, I would have bargained you down," Bai Shan patted his behind, stood up, and said, "I’m going home now, see you tomorrow."

The following day, after having lunch at the pharmacy and asking Doctor Ji a few questions and making notes, Manbao packed up and prepared to head home.

Doctor Ji curiously asked, "Why are you going home so early today?"

Manbao explained, "I have a lot of homework lately, I’m afraid I need to go back a bit earlier."

Doctor Ji nodded, understanding that in addition to studying medicine here, she also had to study with Mr. Zhuang. She was learning fast now, mostly through case studies, so apart from seeing patients, there wasn’t much more he could teach her, and he did not keep her from leaving.

As for the preparation of medicinal herbs, that was what the herbal farmers and merchants were good at. For them as doctors, it was basically enough to know how to discern the quality.

Manbao returned to the small courtyard, rested for a while, then ate some snacks while listening to Mr. Zhuang’s lecture or sorted out her own manuscripts.

Thinking that Bai Erlang should be finishing school soon, she changed her clothes and went to pick up Daji to go to the school together.

Mr. Zhuang had no classes at Dazhi Academy today, so he stood by the window with his hands behind his back, watching her leave. Something occurred to him, he shook his head with a smile, then sat down at his desk and continued to write his lesson plan.

Manbao said to Daji, "Let’s go pick up Bai Erlang first."

Daji nodded.

After picking up Bai Erlang, without needing to say anything, Daji drove them toward the school on West Lane.

Seeing this, they couldn’t help but chuckle, climbed out of the carriage, and patted Daji on the shoulder, "Daji, you’re quite smart."

Daji remained silent; he wished he could be more simple-minded, so he wouldn’t have so many troubles.

When they reached West Lane, they all began to look up for a spot. Manbao, with her sharp eyes, spotted a piece of cyan cloth sticking out from a wall, swinging as if to attract more attention, and immediately said, "There it is, there it is."

Daji naturally saw it too and drove the carriage closer.

As they approached, they realized there was a pile of straw under the wall, almost half the height of the wall. Manbao’s eyes sparkled, "We won’t need the stools we brought."

Bai Erlang also said, "This is better than stools."

The two jumped down from the carriage, climbed up the straw pile, and with just a slight leap, reached to grab the top of the wall...

When they were in Qili Village, they used to be quite mischievous, climbing trees and the like, and because they were young and agile, with Bai Erlang giving Manbao a boost, she managed to climb to the top of the wall despite being small.

Manbao, panting, sat on top of the wall. Once she was steady, she reached down to pull up Bai Erlang.

Daji stood below the wall, looking up at them without stopping them or offering to help.

Bai Erlang was a bit taller than her, he grabbed her hand with one hand and the wall with the other, and in no time, climbed up. Only then did they look down.

Bai Shan and Wei Chen were standing below, smiling and waving at them, "Jump down quick."