Chapter 42
Early the next morning, just as the sun was beginning to rise, Gang Gye was still asleep when he felt someone moving him.
He barely opened his eyes and saw his mother dressing him.
Gang Gye obediently stretched out his arms to cooperate and mumbled sleepily,
"Mother."
"Yes."
Jang Un-chu continued dressing him.
"You're starting at the academy today."
"Munsaeng is already awake too."
"You'll leave together."
"If you're still sleepy, you can sleep a little longer. Mother will prepare everything you need."
Gang Gye wanted to get ready by himself, but a child's body naturally needed a lot of sleep.
Before he knew it, he had fallen asleep again.
When he woke a second time, he was already being carried on his father's back.
Gang Gye stared blankly at the scenery around him.
Then he looked at his father.
After that, he noticed his second uncle and Munsaeng beside them.
Only then did he seem to fully wake up.
"Father."
Gang Jo-hang turned his head.
"You're awake."
"Yes."
Gang Gye struggled slightly.
"I want to walk."
Gang Jo-hang lowered him to the ground.
"If you get tired, tell me. Father will carry you."
"Okay."
The second son also spoke.
"Second Uncle can carry our Little Six too."
"Your Brother Munsaeng is older, so he doesn't need to be carried anymore."
Although the second son had once harbored some selfish thoughts regarding the children's studies, he had always been very fond of Gang Gye.
Gang Gye didn't dislike him because of that matter either.
He smiled brightly.
"Thank you. I can walk by myself for now."
Hearing such words from the tiny child, the second son unconsciously imitated Gang Gye's childish voice.
"All right. Then Uncle will carry you later."
"Okay!"
Gang Gye nodded.
Gang Jo-hang took out a flatbread from inside his clothes and handed it to Gang Gye.
"This is your breakfast."
"Aren't you hungry? Eat one."
Gang Gye accepted it.
It was still warm.
Eating while walking wasn't exactly a good habit, but people in modern times did it all the time.
And now that Gang Gye had the Health Preservation Heart Method, he didn't worry much about something like that.
He slowly ate the flatbread bite by bite.
After a while, Gang Jo-hang handed him a bamboo tube filled with hot water to drink.
By the time they reached town, the sky was fully bright.
Since Gang Gye and Munsaeng attended different schools, they eventually split up.
Gang Jo-hang took Gang Gye toward White Crane Academy.
When they arrived at the academy gate, they saw a boy in silk robes holding a folding fan and looking around the open space.
One glance at his clothes was enough to tell he came from a wealthy family.
The moment the boy spotted them, his eyes lit up and he ran over.
"Are you Young Master Gang, the new student assigned to Class C?"
"Yes."
Gang Jo-hang answered for him.
"And you are?"
The boy smiled.
"I'm Fang Liang from Class C."
"I came out to welcome Young Master Gang."
Fang Liang reached for the book box Gang Jo-hang was carrying on his back.
"I'll carry it."
"I can take Young Master Gang inside myself."
Gang Jo-hang shifted slightly away.
"Thank you, but the book box is very heavy."
"I'll carry it."
"And I haven't yet seen where my son will be studying, so I'd like to look around while I'm here."
Fang Liang thought that made sense.
Gang Gye was so young.
Naturally, his parents would worry.
"Then follow me! It's this way."
As they walked, Fang Liang constantly asked Gang Gye questions and told him things that had happened in class.
His mouth barely stopped moving.
He clearly had a cheerful and outgoing personality.
By the time they reached the classroom, the teacher was already inside.
This wasn't somewhere Gang Jo-hang could casually enter.
"Study hard."
"Father will come pick you up this afternoon."
"Okay!"
Gang Gye nodded.
Gang Jo-hang once again asked Fang Liang to look after him.
Fang Liang agreed readily.
"Don't worry. I'll take him around with me."
Fang Liang also took Gang Gye's book box.
Gang Jo-hang watched his son enter the classroom and saw the teacher seat him in the front row.
Only then did he leave.
The moment Gang Gye entered the classroom, every student's eyes turned toward him.
The lively Fang Liang had already told the entire class and the teacher that a four-and-a-half-year-old child would be joining them.
The teacher had also been the one who asked Fang Liang to go out and welcome him.
Once Gang Gye entered, the teacher seated him in the very front.
That seat had clearly been prepared specifically for him.
With everyone staring and even the teacher watching, Gang Gye felt slightly nervous despite himself.
He opened his book box and took out an introductory text.
Then he arranged his brush, ink, paper, and inkstone on the desk.
He poured water into the inkstone and began grinding ink.
All the while, not a single person made a sound.
Everyone just kept staring at him.
"..."
Gang Gye became speechless and hesitated.
Seeing the nervous expression on his face, the teacher on the platform coughed awkwardly, looking slightly apologetic.
Then he addressed the class.
"This child's name is Gang Gye."
"He is four and a half years old."
"From today onward, he is one of your classmates."
"His health is somewhat weak, so none of you are allowed to bully him."
"Yes, Teacher!"
The students answered together.
Some even shouted the response in an exaggeratedly loud and playful voice.
Gang Gye finally turned around to look at them.
Judging from this, the atmosphere in the class seemed fairly good.
White Crane Academy divided ordinary students into three levels:
Class A, Class B, and Class C.
That didn't mean every student in the academy was divided purely by academic level.
White Crane Academy had many children of officials and sons of wealthy families.
They paid expensive tuition.
Some families also donated large sums.
Naturally, the academy couldn't leave such students permanently in Class C simply because their studies weren't strong.
So the A, B, and C system mainly applied to ordinary students.
Students with strong foundations, exceptional talent, and rapid progress were placed in Class A.
Those with decent foundations but who still needed effort went into Class B.
And those without a foundation entered Class C.
Gang Gye had only just begun learning.
He didn't even recognize most characters yet.
Without question, he belonged in Class C.
The number of classes at each level wasn't fixed.
It depended on how many students there were.
A class usually held a little over ten to a little over twenty students.
If too many students entered the same level, it would simply be divided into two classes.
On the surface, the teachers assigned to Class A had the highest academic level and the deepest understanding of the classics.
But Liu Yunhe hadn't founded White Crane Academy merely to create divisions between students.
He wanted fame.
And he wanted as many academy students as possible to pass the Imperial Examinations.
So the teachers assigned to Classes B and C were also very capable.
They simply specialized in different areas and had different depths of scholarship.
For example, teachers in Class C were especially skilled at basic education.
They were patient and had good temperaments.
But if one asked them to personally train a whole group of juren, even they probably wouldn't dare guarantee success.
The teachers in Class A, however, had that kind of confidence.
It was difficult to say which group had better teaching ability overall.
Still, the teachers assigned to Class A undeniably possessed deeper scholarship than those in Class C.
Of course, Class C was more than enough for Gang Gye right now.
Every teacher at White Crane Academy was at least a qualified xiucai.
Outside the academy, an ordinary private school often had only one xiucai serving as the sole teacher.
Here, several xiucai were assigned to teach a single class.
That was more than sufficient.
At present, there was only one Class C in White Crane Academy.
So people simply referred to it as Class C.
After introducing Gang Gye to the class, the teacher explained the class's situation.
"Most students in our class have only been enrolled for two or three years."
"The books we study are all introductory texts."
"Right now, we're studying the Thousand Character Classic."
"Take out your textbooks."
Introductory learning referred to the stage where beginners built their basic foundation.
Naturally, introductory texts were usually books intended for children.
But that didn't mean they were trivial.
There were actually many things that had to be learned.
There was no fixed period for completing this stage.
For most students, it took around seven or eight years.
During that time, students mainly learned to recognize characters and write them.
They also studied basic ethics and morality, history, poetry, classical customs and stories, etiquette, and other foundational knowledge.
The Thousand Character Classic was commonly used for learning characters.
Similar books included the Three Character Classic and the Hundred Family Surnames.
Different introductory books covered different subjects.
Altogether, there were at least several dozen commonly used texts.
As for literacy primers, Gang Gye had no idea whether the academy had already taught the Three Character Classic, Hundred Family Surnames, or Di Zi Gui.
All of them were popular introductory books, and different teachers preferred different orders.
They would eventually have to learn them all anyway.
So the exact order didn't matter much.
Gang Gye had learned Di Zi Gui from his father.
That meant his progress didn't match the academy's.
Gang Gye took out the Thousand Character Classic and opened to the page the teacher named.
Then he straightened his back and listened seriously.
At this level, students mainly focused on memorization and handwriting practice.
The teacher lectured for a while before stopping.
"Memorize everything we studied today."
"I'll check it during tomorrow's lesson."
"If you have any questions, come ask me."
After saying that, the teacher sat down at the front desk and beckoned toward Gang Gye.
Gang Gye blinked and looked around.
Once he confirmed the teacher was definitely calling him, he picked up his book and walked over.
"Teacher."
"Yes."
Teacher Lin said,
"The students in our class are all at different levels, so many of them need separate instruction."
"What I taught just now was mainly matched to the progress of most of the class."
"But there shouldn't be much harm in you learning that section first."
After all, the main point of the lesson was recognizing characters.
Learning characters that appeared later in the book before earlier ones wouldn't cause any serious problem.
This kind of situation was extremely common in academies.
In private schools, it was probably even more common.
A private school usually had only one teacher.
Yet the students could range from complete beginners all the way to older students preparing for the Imperial Examinations.
In that situation, the teacher would often sit at the front while each student brought his own book forward.
The teacher would advance that individual student's lesson according to his current progress.
After having the student repeat it once, the student would return to his seat and study it alone.
This was also one of the reasons Gang Gye had wanted to attend an academy.
He had seriously doubted that a single teacher in an ordinary private school could properly manage so many students.
