Everyone else followed along the city wall, only two people went straight through the main gate.

Once inside, Yang Xiaole felt like Liu Laolao entering the Grand View Garden, everything was rare to him, after all, he had never been here in his previous life.

The floor was a bluish-gray color, with brick-red walls on either side.

Before he could even see the scene inside, the old man led him into an alleyway.

They twisted and turned inside until they arrived at an ancient room.

Once inside, it was just an ordinary hall, and it was unclear who had lived there before, but there were some people inside.

"Director Chen!"

"Director Chen!"

……

After entering, everyone greeted him one after another.

Director Chen smiled and nodded in response.

Once inside, it was an office, with the original structure mostly intact, except for a desk in the middle and several cabinets around.

"Have a seat!"

After entering, Director Chen pointed to a nearby mahogany chair, indicating for him to sit down.

As Yang Xiaole looked around the quaint room, he slowly took a seat.

Director Chen put down his notebook, took out a stack of clean paper, and then retrieved an old book from the bookshelf.

After sitting down, he opened Yang Xiaole's notebook and began translating on the paper.

As he translated, he asked, "You said you were found in the commune? Which commune? How did you end up there? By the way, where are you from?"

"Oh, I'm from the Hongqi Commune, that's where my family is! I came to the city to visit my uncle."

The old man was surprised and looked up, "Oh, you're from the commune! I thought you were a city kid! How did you find me then?"

"I went to the consignment store to look for old books, and then I asked the old master there, he told me it was near the Xidan vegetable market."

"Oh, that's probably Old Li, they often receive some cultural relics and then hand them over to us for processing."

Yang Xiaole nodded at the words, looking at the other person with unfamiliarity, searching and comparing.

The book was already a bit yellowed and curled up.

It looked quite old.

Curiously, he asked, "Professor Chen, is there still a comparison table? Who made this?"

"Oh, this, my father made it, and then I added to it, a good memory is better than a bad pen! We don't often use many of these characters, so we sometimes forget. By the way, did you copy this? It's very standard!"

The old man looked at the characters and was also surprised.

Yang Xiaole smiled, "Yes, I practiced writing characters on a sand table since I was young, so I'm curious about these things."

Professor Chen nodded, "Hmm, not bad."

The old man admired it and quickly translated a page, then frowned.

"Weird!"

He looked through his notebook again.

Then he asked Yang Xiaole, "Are you sure you copied it in order? There's not a single repetition, and you started with the simplest characters."

Yang Xiaole nodded gently, "Hmm, I don't know either! I just copied it in order of stroke count."

Okay. He copied it in order of stroke count.

Hearing this, the old man furrowed his brow.

This was similar to the order in his book, from the simplest to the most complex.

If there weren't so many differences in order, he would even suspect that this was leaked from his own book!

Without thinking too much, he quietly translated there.

Several thousand characters, most of which the other party only glanced at and then wrote the corresponding characters on the paper.

Some were written well, and he even checked the comparison table to confirm, and basically didn't make any mistakes.

This foundation was quite solid.

The first two thousand or so characters were done in less than an hour.

For the remaining few hundred characters, he needed to occasionally refer to the comparison table.

After more than two hours, there were still a few dozen characters left.

"Director, it's time for dinner!"

In his thoughts, a shout came from the door, it was an office worker here.

The old man didn't even lift his head and said, "Help me get some, I don't have time right now."

After speaking, he looked up at Yang Xiaole, "Do you want to eat? If you do, go with them, I'll pay."

Yang Xiaole looked at the remaining hundred or so characters and shook his head, "No, I'll just wait for you to finish."

Hearing this, Director Chen nodded gently and said to the person standing at the door, "Xiao Liu, you go eat, just get me a little."

Xiao Liu agreed and left.

After everyone left, the old man continued to translate.

An hour later, the old man finally put down his pen.He sighed, "This might be a monument for enlightenment of a big family or aristocratic family after the Qin Dynasty, specifically designed to teach children how to recognize characters. It's a pity, such a good thing has been wasted like this. These are much more precious than those bamboo slips!"

After speaking, he felt a pang of heartache.

Yang Xiaole didn't care about this.

Hastily, he asked, "Can I take a look?"

The old man sighed and handed him the letter.

Yang Xiaole glanced at it, and when he saw six circled characters on the last page, he felt strange.

"Professor Chen, what do the circled characters at the end mean?"

Chen Fuhai took a look, then said, "Oh, those characters, they are not in my reference table. I guessed them based on the handwriting. It shouldn't be too different. I'll look it up when I have time."

Yang Xiaole nodded at his words.

It's just a few characters, he can come back to look at it when he has time.

Then he said to the old man, "Professor Chen, I have to go home. Can I take this with me?"

The old man nodded slightly, feeling a bit lost in thought, "Take it. When I find a place to verify the characters, you can come back and ask me. Are you hungry? Let me take you to eat."

"Thank you, Professor Chen, but I have to go. It's already past twelve, I can't eat here."

Hearing this, the old man nodded and took out five dollars from his pocket, handing it to him.

"Take this, it's not much. It's just a pity that this thing wasn't preserved."

Yang Xiaole shook his head as he looked at the money handed to him, "No need, I'm just curious, I also like this thing. By the way, how do I get out of here?"

"Alright, I'll take you out, it's not far anyway."

Seeing that he didn't accept the money, the old man didn't insist, and after speaking, he stood up.

At this point, Yang Xiaole didn't have the mood to see what the Forbidden City looked like, so he hurriedly left with the old man.

As they walked, Chen Fuhai said to him, "When I finish researching the remaining characters, you can come back to find me. Or call me, I'll still be here on Sundays, and I have classes at the university on weekdays."

Yang Xiaole agreed.

After asking a bit, he realized that the old man was amazing, a professor at Peking University.

Back at Xihuamen, Yang Xiaole said goodbye and left.

Riding his bike along the edge of the Forbidden City, he headed north along the Tongzi River.

Arriving at a grove, he looked around and then pushed his bike inside, quietly entering the space.

Once inside the space, the first thing he did was to eat.

He reheated yesterday's meal.

While controlling the heat of the food, he took out his practice book and began arranging the contents of the book in the correct order.

He also boiled a kettle of water.

There were no coal balls, so he had to use firewood to burn it.

An hour later, after arranging the entire book, he couldn't hold back any longer.

He was too hungry.

He ate the meat soup with rice, along with braised pork and stir-fried leek scraps.

After drinking some already cooled well water, he quickly started reading the book.

The method of nourishing the body.

It's just that the last character was not recognized by Old Man Chen, so he circled the character for "method."

Sure enough, it was just as he thought.

The old man's guess might really be correct.

Then he started reading the content inside.

After reading for a while, he gradually understood that this was really a method for cultivation.

It seemed to be a Taoist breathing method.

There were steps, a fixed posture, and rhythmic cultivation according to the breathing method described.

After thinking for a while, he decided to give it a try.

But looking at so many words, he furrowed his brows, "Damn, can't there be a diagram to go with it?"

A diagram would provide a reference!

But without a diagram, he could only rely on his own understanding for now.

He slowly understood bit by bit according to the notes above, and then made a strange posture as described, and followed the required breathing rhythm.

To be honest, he didn't know if this was right.

He also didn't know what this was for.

After doing the strange posture for a while, besides feeling hot, he didn't feel any significant changes!

Shouldn't he be meditating?

Without thinking too much, he continued!

Gradually, he felt that his clothes were already soaked, and his body felt sore. But every time he breathed strangely, it could relieve the discomfort a little.

This feeling, he couldn't describe it, uncomfortable yet refreshing.

After more than an hour, he finally couldn't hold on and collapsed on the ground.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He was really tired.

It's probably because of his poor physical condition.

He had just finished eating a full meal two hours ago, and now he felt hungry again.Yang Xiaole quickly brewed some rice in the thermos, and ate the food with big bites.

While eating, Yang Xiaole held the ancient book in his hand.

Damn, is there only physical exercise?

Can't there be some martial arts moves?

He was thinking about fighting in the nursing home and kicking the kindergarten in the future!

Forget it, let's practice for a while first. It's good to be strong, and one can defeat ten.

With his brother's physique, there are really not many people of the same age who are his opponents.

It's a pity that two fists are no match for four hands.

And these people are not united. Otherwise, Yang Mancang and his family would not be at a disadvantage in the village.

At least they would definitely be able to get some good jobs here.

After eating and drinking his fill, he slowly got up, washed himself a bit, took a bath, and changed into his old clothes.

Looking at the time, it was already three-thirty.

He quickly rode his bike towards Fucheng Gate.

Can't afford to go back at night.

Riding to the vicinity of Fucheng Gate station, he found a garbage dump, quietly put away his bike, and then walked towards the station.

"Hey, wait for me! There's still someone here!"

As he approached the station, he saw the bus coming out and hurriedly shouted.

Fortunately, the ticket seller was leaning out of the window and shouting.

He saw him at a glance.

Yang Xiaole ran up to the bus and it had already stopped, so he got in.

The bus was not full, so he found a seat.

Seeing that no one else was getting on the bus, the bus started moving.

"Tickets, where to?"

The ticket seller went from front to back in order, collecting money from each person.

Yang Xiaole sat by the window, enjoying the breeze to cool off. The bus was too hot from being in the sun.

The seat cushion was burning hot.

"Where to?"

The ticket seller soon came to him and asked.

"Oh, the terminal."

"Do you have a student ID? Without it, it's 60 cents, with it, it's 30 cents."

(I'm speechless, many people accepted that price, and it was changed according to the price of ordinary buses in the city. Please forgive me.)

Yang Xiaole shook his head, "I came from the countryside, I don't have a student ID, but I have a production team certificate!"

The other party took the certificate and looked at it.

Although the certificate couldn't prove that he was a student, they still accepted his money at half price.

Yang Xiaole paid and sat quietly.

After a while, the bus started to feel like a roller coaster, but it was a bit faster than a coal truck.

But there were coal trucks everywhere on the road, so the bus couldn't go fast.

It was close to five o'clock when the bus finally arrived in the city district, and Yang Xiaole got off at the school gate.

He went straight into the school.

Today is Sunday, so there shouldn't be any classes.

But the school was in a mess at this time, and people were already setting up stoves on the playground, which was probably similar to the commune.

It wasn't cold yet, so he didn't need to hurry to get a quilt.

And he had to disguise it a bit, make a quilt cover out of some old cloth, so as not to attract attention.

"Yang Xiaomei!"

He shouted at the door of the girls' dormitory at the back, and soon a person came out.

He had never seen this person before.

The other person looked at him and asked, "Are you Xiaomei's brother?"

"Yeah, where's my sister? Isn't she inside?"

"She went to get water, she'll be back in a minute. If you want, you can go find her. She's in the front room, near the water room."

She pointed to a tiled house in the distance, emitting smoke.

"Oh, thank you!"

Yang Xiaole thanked her and walked towards that direction.

It wasn't far.

When he got there, he saw Yang Xiaomei queuing up to get water, and the tall and slender Jiang Yan was beside her.

"Big Sister! Yang Xiaomei!"

Yang Xiaole stood at the door and shouted to her.

Hearing the voice, Yang Xiaomei turned her head and was surprised, "Xiaole, Yan Yan, can you help me get some water? I need to go out for a bit."

Jiang Yan nodded and took the thermos from her.

After coming out, Yang Xiaomei was a bit surprised, "Xiaole, why are you here?"

"I went to the city with my brother, and I came to see you on the way. Have you gone home?"

"I've gone home, and brought back some sauce. I just arrived at school not long ago!"

Yang Xiaole nodded, looked around, and whispered, "Let's go, I'll take you to eat something delicious."

After speaking, he gestured to the lunchbox in his hand.

The food was being kept warm on the stove, and it was time to eat.

Yang Xiaomei looked at the water room behind her, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Can I bring Yan Yan with us? She's so pitiful."

Yang Xiaole frowned.

It's already so late, and she still wants to be a good person.

If something happens, it will be troublesome."Let's forget it for now, we'll talk about it when there's a chance in the future! I've brought some meat!"

Hearing his words, Big Sister nodded: "Alright, I'll tell her and be right back."

After saying that, she went inside and then ran out: "Let's go!"

The two of them walked out of the school.

Passing by the playground and looking at the earthen furnace, he asked curiously, "Are you guys also making steel here?"

"Yeah, we have to as well, it's been ordered from above."

Yang Xiaole nodded.

They reached the outside of the school and walked a bit further, then sat down by a grove of trees.

He took out the food from the lunchbox and handed it to her.

"Eat!"

Big Sister took the items and opened them, her eyes lighting up.

"Third Brother, where did you get this? There's so much meat!"

"Just eat if I give it to you, next time you ask, I won't bring it anymore. Are you eating or not? If not, I'll take it away."

"Eating, why wouldn't I eat!"

After saying that, she began to eat.

Afraid of being seen, the two moved to a more secluded spot.

"Can our mother and the others eat this too?"

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Yang Xiaole shook his head: "They can't. I don't want to either, but if the villagers find out, it would be troublesome. You know how our mother is, always asking this and that."

Hearing this, Big Sister slowed down her eating.

"Did you go sell things again?"

"Yeah, but I won't go to the black market anymore. We're delivering our goods directly to people's doors now, so it's not that dangerous. Don't go around talking about it, and don't let mother mention it either, or I really won't care about you anymore."

Yang Xiaomei nodded gently.

She quietly continued eating.

Thinking about what Big Sister had just said, he asked, "By the way, why did you call Jiang Yan over just now?"

Yang Xiaomei swallowed the food in her mouth and slowly said, "Oh, I thought she was from the countryside, but actually, she's from the city. However, she's an orphan and grew up in the orphanage. It was the orphanage director who paid for her schooling!

But the director also has his own children and limited means. Moreover, since she came here to study, she can't eat the food from the orphanage anymore.

She eats just some pickled vegetables every day and hardly ever buys any vegetables.

She's even more pitiable than me.

But her studies are really good, she scored full marks on the exams, and I always ask her when I don't understand something."

Yang Xiaole nodded.

He hadn't expected that she was as pitiable as he had been in his previous life, but at least he had enough to eat back then.

As for Jiang Yan's excellent studies, that wasn't too surprising.

Every era has its share of hardworking and talented people.

But previous achievements were from elementary school; middle and high school would be a different story.

Even he wasn't confident that he could continue to top the class in middle and high school, given his background, but he was sure he wouldn't do poorly.

Some people score 100 because the test only has 100 points.

He then looked at her with annoyance, "If I don't give you some money, you'll end up eating pickles every day too, right? By the way, did mother give you any money? Make sure you take it, or it'll give us away."

Yang Xiaomei giggled, "Don't worry, I'm not stupid. Mother gave me 20 fen this week!"

Yang Xiaole nodded slightly.

That was possible.

It didn't seem like much each time, but this was just for one week, and there were still many years to go!

One must save.

It was already dusk by the time Big Sister had finished eating.

Thinking for a moment, he handed her a wax paper package: "Eat a bit to get rid of the taste in your mouth. This doesn't require a ticket, buy a little less when you can and eat it secretly."

The package wasn't big, just half a jin.

Yang Xiaomei took it, sniffed it, and her eyes lit up.

Opening it and seeing the flaky pastries, she was delighted, took a piece, and bit into it, her face full of satisfaction.

Then she put the rest away: "Mmm, I just ate, I'll save this for later."

Seeing that it was getting dark, Yang Xiaole prepared to leave.

Otherwise, it would be very late by the time he got home.

"I won't keep you any longer, I'm heading back."

Packing up the lunchbox, he stood up.

The two walked towards the school.

On the way, Yang Xiaole reminded her of some things to be careful about and that he couldn't bring her too many things in the future.

They would call her out to eat outside in the future.

Big Sister naturally agreed.

They parted ways at the school gate, and Yang Xiaole headed towards the main road.

Having walked a bit, the bus to the city came by, and he rode it for a while.

By the time he got home, it was nearly eight o'clock.

Passing by Yang Guangping's house, he heard the voice of Xiao Hu and curiously glanced over, wondering why the guy had come back.

Not bothering with him, he continued towards his home.Back home, several people were enjoying the cool in the courtyard. Wang Qiuju sighed in relief when she saw him return.

"Why are you back so late? What's that in your hand?"

Yang Xiaole said with a grin, "Nothing much, just a little something," and then he went into the main hall.

Xi Zi and Xiaoli, knowing there must be something good, scampered after him.

Seeing this, Wang Qiuju stood up, locked the door, put away the small stool, and followed them in, fanning herself with the rush woven fan.

Once the kerosene lamp was lit, Yang Xiaole took out the peach pastries.

"One piece each, no taking more, no talking."

There were exactly four pieces, weighing over half a pound.

The two little kids happily took a piece each and ate without a word.

Xiaoli had lost a tooth and was breaking off small pieces to eat.

Yang Xiaole handed a piece of pastry to Wang Qiuju: "Mom, have a piece."

Wang Qiuju took the pastry but didn't eat it, instead frowning and asking, "Did you go sell fish again? How much did you make? And what about your elder brother's situation?"

Yang Xiaole knew she was conflicted.

Worried about his safety, yet wanting money, otherwise, she wouldn't have let him go to the city with his elder brother.

Holding the last piece of pastry, he began to eat.

"Don't worry, Mom, I'll tell you all about it in a bit, this trip to the city..."

He then roughly recounted the events.

Mainly, he talked about delivering fish to the Hua family and not going to the black market.

While speaking, he glanced at the ruby on the table, left behind when Yang Guangzhi exchanged it for gold.

The gold shop wouldn't take it.

Subconsciously, he picked it up and toyed with it.

After fiddling with the object for a while, he paused, looking at the soybean-sized gem in his hand.

He wasn't sure if it was an illusion.

Yang Guangzhi had held it before, and after returning, he hadn't touched it until now, when he felt a strange sensation.

"Answer me! Where's the money?"

Lost in thought, Wang Qiuju's voice brought him back to reality.

Yang Xiaole put aside his feelings, planning to test it later, and kept the gem in his hand without letting go.

The bank wouldn't accept it, and no one in the family cared for it.

He then took out six yuan and handed it to her: "Elder brother was there when I sold the fish, 35 cents a pound, plus I bought some things, so that's all the money. By the way, how did Little Tiger come back?"

"Oh, he got into a fight and was sent back from the construction site."

Wang Qiuju muttered, counting the money.

Yang Xiaole couldn't help but laugh upon hearing this. It had only been a few days, and he was already sent back.

That was quite a loss of face.

Xi Zi suddenly spoke up: "Tonight at dinner, Little Tiger was grumbling, asking Uncle why he only found a job for the elder brother?"

Yang Xiaole raised an eyebrow: "Oh, what did Mom say?"

"What to say? What's there to say? I just asked her about Tian Cuihua and Yang Lan getting them jobs, and how no one knew about it, and yet they got two jobs just like that. Always full and bored. And they still have the nerve to ask."

After counting the money, Wang Qiuju stuffed it into her pocket and said a word.

Then she muttered, "Honestly, I really don't know how she has the nerve. If it were Fourth Brother's family asking, I'd understand, after all, he and Uncle are from the same father, but how does Second Brother's family have the face to ask?"

While speaking, she shook her head in disbelief.

Only then did he remember: "Have you eaten? Are you hungry? I saved some food for you. You can soak it in hot water and eat."

"Forget it, you guys eat. I'm not hungry, I had some buns on the way."

At this moment, he was anxious to check what was going on in the space! Plus, he had eaten a bit while on the road in the space.

At the same time, he was thinking about how to discuss the job situation with Mom!

What a headache.