Chapter 32
The waiter unconsciously straightened his back and began speaking even more enthusiastically.
"There are four private schools on this side of town. One was opened by a juren, while the other three were opened by xiucai."
"All four have been around for more than ten years. Some have even been operating for several decades."
"But only the school run by the juren has produced any xiucai. Three of them, in fact."
"The other schools haven't produced even one yet."
"...!"
Gang Gye was shocked.
Was becoming a xiucai really that difficult?
If that was the case, then the headmaster of White Crane Academy, who had once produced four juren and several xiucai...
Wasn't that practically godlike?
No wonder so many people respected him.
"The juren master's school probably has a little over ten students."
The waiter continued,
"He's very strict about accepting students. Only those who pass his test and are judged to have talent can enter."
"His personality is strict too."
"I heard he keeps a very close eye on his students."
"Any assignment he gives must be completed. If it isn't done properly, students get beaten or punished by standing."
"And during lessons, no one dares talk or laugh loudly."
"Quite a few students originally went there simply because he was a juren, but many of them have already fled."
Gang Gye paused.
But after thinking about it, having a strict teacher wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
He wasn't noisy by nature.
And he genuinely liked studying.
Even in modern times, he hadn't been bad at schoolwork.
Now he had been born with even better talent.
If anything, studying hard would probably be enjoyable.
So this private school was worth considering.
Then the waiter added,
"I've also heard that the juren master teaches quite well."
"But his tuition gift is expensive."
"Two taels of silver a year."
"..."
Nope.
Absolutely not.
"Brother Waiter, tell us about the other schools too!"
Two taels just for tuition?
There would also be gifts during festivals, plus all sorts of other expenses.
That was far too expensive.
"All right."
The waiter moved on to the next school.
"Among the three xiucai, Scholar Zhou lives in Anping Alley."
"He has more than thirty students."
"His tuition is cheap."
"If you want to eat and sleep at the school, there's an additional fee, but altogether it's only a few hundred copper coins a year."
"Of course, no matter which private school you attend, you'll still have to buy your own brush, ink, paper, inkstone, and books."
"Book costs aren't included in the tuition."
"Anyway, Scholar Zhou isn't especially strict."
"But he's not exactly warm and gentle either."
"Then there's Scholar An's school."
"He's said to be extremely quiet."
"He rarely gets angry and doesn't really manage the students much..."
Gang Gye suspected this Scholar An was probably the teacher from Daejang's old school.
After hearing about all three xiucai, Gang Gye couldn't help feeling that none of them sounded particularly reliable.
They had been teaching for ten or twenty years without producing even a single xiucai.
It made him wonder whether they were simply teaching carelessly.
And more importantly, every one of them had a large number of students.
They were probably accepting so many because of the tuition.
They couldn't really be blamed.
Without enough students, it would be difficult to support their wives and children.
But with that many students...
Everyone would be progressing at different speeds.
How much time could the teacher possibly spend on each individual student in a single day?
No matter how he thought about it, it didn't seem ideal.
From time to time, Gang Gye rose onto his toes to refill the waiter's tea.
Seeing how carefully the child served him, the waiter smiled so widely that his eyes nearly disappeared.
They had been talking for quite a while when someone suddenly shouted,
"Feng Youming! Are you sitting at a customer's table chatting again?!"
The next instant, a large hand grabbed the waiter's ear.
The waiter screamed in pain and hunched over.
"Uncle! Uncle, easy! Easy!"
"You're really too cruel to your own nephew!"
"My ear is going to fall off!"
But the shopkeeper snorted.
"If you weren't my nephew, I'd have thrown you out long ago!"
Feng Youming immediately grinned.
"Hehe. I knew Uncle treats me best."
The shopkeeper finally released him with a displeased expression.
Then he turned to Gang Jo-hang.
"I'm terribly sorry. My nephew has no sense of shame..."
Gang Jo-hang hurriedly stood and thanked him instead.
"What are you saying? We should be the ones thanking him."
"If not for him, we wouldn't have learned all this in such detail."
Gang Gye also smiled brightly.
"Thank you, Brother."
"Oh."
Feng Youming's eyes narrowed into crescents again.
He reached out and rubbed Gang Gye's head.
"It was nothing."
After exchanging a few more polite words, both the shopkeeper and the waiter left.
Gang Jo-hang and Gang Gye finished the remaining food and walked out of the restaurant.
The father and son went around to look at the places the waiter had mentioned.
They wanted to go inside and see how the private schools actually conducted lessons.
Unfortunately, they were stopped at the gates.
With no other choice, they gave up.
It was time to return home.
After thinking for a while, Gang Gye said,
"Father, what do you think about Scholar Zhou's school?"
There was no complicated reason.
Scholar Zhou simply had the fewest students.
Though even he already had more than thirty.
Since none of the three xiucai had produced notable students after so many years, it was difficult to judge who was truly better.
Scholar An could be excluded first.
Daejang had skipped class several times, yet his teacher had barely managed him at all.
Gang Gye already had a poor impression of Scholar An's school.
That left Scholar Zhou and the other xiucai.
The other one was Zhao Yongchang's teacher.
Looking at it that way, perhaps that teacher was actually the best of the three.
After all, Zhao Yongchang would become a xiucai two years from now.
But Gang Gye didn't particularly want to attend a school connected to Zhao Yongchang.
After considering everything, Scholar Zhou's school was the only one left.
Gang Jo-hang didn't immediately agree.
He thought for a while before saying,
"Father will ask some other people later too."
"Then we'll go take another look at how Scholar Zhou teaches."
"If everything seems fine, we'll choose his school."
In truth, Gang Jo-hang wanted his son to study under the juren.
First, a juren was obviously far more accomplished than a xiucai.
Second, among the four teachers, only the juren had produced students who later became xiucai.
But after thinking about it again, having such an accomplished teacher teach a child who had only just begun learning characters might be excessive.
Gang Jo-hang currently had a fair amount of money.
Between the eight taels earned from selling the massage prescription and the ten taels taken from Jang Un-mo, there were already eighteen taels.
Paying the juren's tuition itself wouldn't be an unbearable burden.
But studying required many other purchases too.
Looking at the long term, it might be better to let Gang Gye study under a xiucai for several years first.
Then, once he reached the point where he needed deeper instruction, they could send him to the juren.
The juren teacher would be more valuable in the later stages than in the beginning.
No matter how remarkable Gang Gye's memory was, Gang Jo-hang didn't believe his son could achieve success after studying for only a few years.
At the very least, he would probably need to reach his late teens or even twenty before seeing real results.
That meant making plans for money in advance was extremely important.
When the time came to truly support him heavily, they couldn't afford to suddenly run out of silver.
But if the huiyu business succeeded...
Then perhaps they could send him to the juren earlier.
Gang Jo-hang explained these thoughts to Gang Gye.
Gang Gye nodded repeatedly.
"Father, you really thought this through carefully."
"I think that sounds good."
His father was right.
Having a professor teach a very young child really wasn't the most efficient choice.
After returning home, Gang Jo-hang handed the oil paper to Old Madam Gang and told the family what they had learned about Gang Gye's schooling.
The second son, who had been listening nearby, said,
"If Little Six is going to start studying now too, why not send him together with Munsaeng?"
"Munsaeng is a little older, so he can look after Little Six at school."
"And it'll be much easier for us to take the children there in the morning."
Since Gang Jo-hang had trouble walking, the second son seemed to be thinking of taking both children together.
If the two children attended different schools, transporting them would be troublesome and waste time.
The class schedules at most private schools were fairly similar.
But the schools themselves weren't close to one another.
If the children attended different places, whoever took them would have to wake up much earlier to deliver both before lessons began.
But that wasn't a serious problem.
They could simply send both children to the same school.
The second son had originally assumed Little Six would wait another two years because he was young and physically weak.
That was why he had hurried to choose a school for Munsaeng first.
But now that the situation had changed, sending them together sounded even better.
The only reason the second son and Madam Sun had planned to send Munsaeng to Scholar An's school was because Daejang had studied there before, so they were familiar with it.
They didn't know much about the other schools.
That was why they had simply chosen Scholar An again.
If Gang Jo-hang found another school that seemed better, they were willing to change their plan.
The eldest branch loved Daejang.
Gang Jo-hang loved Little Six.
Neither family would deliberately choose a bad teacher for their child.
So the second branch felt comfortable following whatever decision they made.
Gang Jo-hang had no objection.
"But Little Six's teacher hasn't been decided yet."
"You may have to wait a little longer."
"That's fine."
The second son said,
"Tell us once you've decided."
When Munsaeng heard this, his face brightened.
He had been nervous about going somewhere unfamiliar.
If he could go with his younger cousin, nothing could be better.
Gang Gye was happy too.
The two children sat side by side and smiled brightly at each other.
For the rest of that day, the three Gang daughters-in-law stayed busy making huiyu.
Once it was finished, they sliced it into thin strips and scored the surface several times.
The three brothers continued making the table and small bamboo picks.
Gang Gye and Munsaeng studied characters together for a while, then went to play with Howa and the others.
The next morning, Old Madam Gang woke before dawn and took out the frozen huiyu to thaw.
By the time everyone sat down for breakfast, it had thawed enough and was already steaming in the pot.
Everyone in the Gang family had woken much earlier than usual today.
Only the children were allowed to sleep as normal.
Once the steaming was finished, they seasoned the huiyu and tasted it.
It was still excellent.
Old Madam Gang nodded in satisfaction.
"Then who's going to sell it?"
Only now did she suddenly realize they had forgotten to discuss that problem.
Logically, since the recipe had come from Gang Gye, the third branch should probably take the lead.
But Gang Jo-hang had a cool, stern face and a quiet personality.
He had no problem speaking politely to people.
But imagining him standing on the street enthusiastically calling out to customers was difficult.
Jang Un-chu had once been bold and good with words.
After marrying into the Gang family, however, she had become calmer and quieter.
Still, Old Madam Gang thought she would probably do well.
So she asked,
"How about you try selling it?"
Jang Un-chu paused for a moment, then nodded.
She wasn't shy around strangers.
She didn't know exactly how to attract customers yet, but she didn't think she would be incapable of doing it.
"I'll give it a try."
Old Madam Gang looked at her and said,
"Then maybe all of us should go together."
"It's the first day, and we have a lot of things to carry."
"No one in our family has ever done business before."
"Wouldn't everyone feel braver if we went together?"
"Once the goods are moved, Second Son and Third Son can go look at the private schools."
"We should settle where the children will study soon too."
Everyone agreed with that plan.
Howa immediately shouted excitedly,
"Grandmother! Grandmother! Take us too!"
"We want to go to town too!"
"Grandmother! Me too! I want to go!"
Dohwa joined in.
To the children, the bustling town filled with delicious food was extremely tempting.
Old Madam Gang readily agreed.
"Fine. We'll all go together."
"Yay!"
The children cheered.
"Everyone hurry and change your clothes."
"We should leave soon."
