The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 658 - 647: Stealing the Lotus Seed Pod

Chapter 658: Chapter 647: Stealing the Lotus Seed Pod

Manbao and Bai Shanbao sat in the study, each taking up a small desk, glanced out the window at Bai Erlang who was speaking with the teacher, and sighed in unison.

Then, resigned to their fate, they lowered their heads and started writing characters.

They had been punished. In addition to their usual homework, they had to write three pages of characters in "medium" size. As Mr. Zhuang put it, "A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor can you two pieces of jade without some cutting."

Once the three pages of characters were completed, the two submitted them honestly to the teacher for review.

Mr. Zhuang took the papers, looked at them for a while, then shook his head, "Still lacking in skill. From now on, you will write two pages of medium characters every day. There’s no need to practice large characters anymore."

The two respectfully acknowledged the instruction.

Mr. Zhuang then waved them off, "Go play."

Manbao and Bai Shan breathed a sigh of relief, approached Bai Er from both sides, and began dragging him out of the room.

Taken by surprise, Bai Er was lifted out of the yard, then came to his senses and asked, "What are you guys doing?"

"Practicing wall climbing."

"Don’t we have a ladder? Why do we need to practice climbing walls?"

Manbao said, "Are you silly? The whole point is to learn how to climb walls. If the ladder is discovered, we still need to be able to escape or get back in. The ladder is just a temporary solution."

Bai Shan said, "You really think I’m going to set up and move the ladder for you every day? Dream on."

That was exactly what Bai Erlang had thought.

However, outmatched and alone, and seeing Bai Shan and Manbao practicing stretches and jumps under Daji’s instruction, already able to take a couple of steps up the wall, Erlang joined in their training.

Bai Erlang found that sneaking into the Book Collection Tower to read was an activity that was fun but also exhausting.

The miscellaneous books in the tower were interesting, but they couldn’t beat playing outside.

So, after a few days of behaving himself, he eventually couldn’t resist sneaking off to play with Wei Chen and left Bai Shan and Manbao behind.

At first, they only played within the confines of the academy.

With so many students there, the servants couldn’t recognize everyone, not to mention the lower officials and scholars.

So he was quite safe in the academy.

Later, seeing that they could come and go so freely, Wei Chen started using their ladder to sneak out and took Bai Erlang out to play with him.

Of course, Manbao and the others would occasionally join them.

Unfortunately, Mr. Zhuang kept a tight hold on the two, assigning them heavy reading tasks, and every time they returned home, Mr. Zhuang would quiz them.

He asked about the contents of the books, what they learned, and if they had any questions...

To Bai Shan he said, "We had originally planned to try for The Six Academies in the capital after three or two years in the academy, so your time is limited. I don’t mind you playing, but you must watch the time. You don’t have much of it to waste every day."

Turning to Manbao, he said, "The subjects you study are different from those of Shanbao Erlang. Overall, your studies are more profound. Although I only know a bit about medicine, I am aware that medical skills for treating and saving lives cannot be learned overnight. You must persevere every day without laziness."

"So I’m allowing you to spend half your time studying medicine at the pharmacy. You have less time to study than they do, but the content is no less substantial. Where will the time come from? You’ll have to squeeze it out somehow," Mr. Zhuang echoed Zhou Si’s most common refrain, "Hard work now, for success and achievements when you grow up."

Manbao wasn’t sure if Mr. Zhuang believed it himself, but she certainly did.

With Mr. Zhuang’s supervision and the arrival of the cooler autumn weather, Manbao found that reading was no longer so stifling and frustrating.

Moreover, after relentless practice, they had managed to climb over the wall without the ladder and then jump down on the other side.

It wasn’t just the somewhat shorter wall on the west side of the academy, but also the taller wall surrounding the Yan Residence; they could now leap on top of it and safely jump down.

Thus, when Manbao managed to catch the top of the wall with one grab and leap over, she glimpsed the lotus pond hidden behind the trees and couldn’t resist. She leaped down towards the Yan Residence side.

Bai Shan and Bai Erlang, who were cheering for her, were stunned and immediately backed up a few steps, then climbed onto the wall and followed her down.

Daji: ...

Resigned, he followed them over. By the time he arrived, the three had already run some distance away.

The three reached the lotus pond, where the lotus pods were just right. Without a boat and not knowing how to swim, they could only stand on the edge and stare. After stretching out their hands several times and realizing they couldn’t reach, they looked to Daji for help.

Daji turned his head to one side, pausing slightly.

Everyone followed his gaze and saw the abandoned small boat on the shore. Without fear of being heard, they immediately cheered and ran towards the boat.

Bai Erlang was the quickest. He reached for the boat and as soon as he grabbed it, he felt it was as heavy as a thousand pounds. He heaved to move it, but it didn’t budge. He pushed against it, still no movement.

Bai Erlang straightened up to look at Bai Shan and Manbao.

The two had already bent down to find the reason. It took a full circle around before they realized that the boat had been grounded on the shore for too long and might have been caught at the bottom, making it impossible to move.

Bai Shan felt the wood of the boat, knocked on it and said, "It seems pretty sturdy. Why don’t we flip it over?"

That was a good idea. They positioned themselves on top of it, pushed together, and managed to flip the entire boat over, revealing an obstruction stuck to the bottom.

Seeing that they had managed to turn the boat over, the three laughed, flipped it back over, and then pushed it into the water.

The three of them crowded onto the boat and sat for a while, noticing it was drifting back and forth but not moving from the spot. For a moment, they were perplexed.

Daji found two wooden planks from somewhere and boarded the boat as well.

Since all three were "land ducks," there was no way he would let them run off into the water to play on their own.

Handing the planks over, Daji sat down at the stern while Manbao paddled in the water with one of them, asking, "How do you paddle this?"

Bai Erlang tried to take the plank from her, saying, "Just paddle any old way. As long as it moves, it’s fine."

Manbao slapped his hand away without courtesy, exclaiming, "I know, you have to paddle backwards. Let me try first."

Bai Shan had already started rowing with the plank in the water. As it was everyone’s first time, their first strokes caused the boat to spin in place.

Daji didn’t interfere with their fun, letting them splash around. After all, they’d have to return once it got dark.

After a while of laughing and random paddling, they gradually got the hang of it and managed to row the boat to the middle of the pond.

Since it was the end of summer and the lotus seeds were ripe, Manbao and the others purposefully picked the ones that looked large and ripe. Working together, they quickly collected over twenty pods.

Daji, seeing their enthusiasm only growing rather than waning, reminded them, "If you pick too many, you won’t be able to eat them all."

Bai Shan glanced at the pile of lotus pods at their feet and said, "Let’s pick a few more. There are many people in our house; each of them can have a few and they’ll be gone."

Manbao nodded eagerly, pointing to one, "That one’s big, that one’s big, let’s get closer."

Bai Erlang pointed to another area, "Those over there are numerous and big. Let’s go there first..."