Chapter 56 - 56 45 Soul Painter

Words : 1446 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

56: Chapter 45: Soul Painter 56: Chapter 45: Soul Painter Ms. Liu asked what he had learned that day. Bai Shanbao, experienced in dealing with his grandmother, only told her about the content of the class discussions with Mr. Zhuang, not mentioning his and Manbao’s plan to catch bugs to scare Second Cousin. Even without thinking too hard, Ms. Liu knew her grandson couldn’t have been behaving that well in school, especially since Mr. Zhuang had unusually brought up the responsibilities of the County Magistrate. There must have been a reason for this, but she didn’t ask too much. Instead, she waved her grandson over to explain to him what a County Magistrate was and the duties such a role entailed. Bai Shanbao listened attentively and decided he would tell Manbao the next day, smug in the knowledge that he knew much more than she did. Seeing her grandson so earnest, Ms. Liu spoke even more thoroughly and with increasing gentleness, unlike his previous rebellious attitude. When Bai Shanbao didn’t understand something, he would ask about it, and he eventually brought up how Manbao had said their County Magistrate was a bad person who had increased the entry fees to the city. Only then did Ms. Liu understand Mr. Zhuang’s methods of teaching, including watching ants, observing the autumn rain, and storytelling. Ms. Liu said, “Repairing roads costs money, maintaining dykes costs money, and improving water conservancy also costs money. If County Magistrate Fu has these expenses, increasing the entry fee isn’t necessarily wrong.” Bai Shanbao understood this point very well—everything needed money. His mother had told him that they moved to the mountain because the clan had bullied them, a widow and her orphan, trying to swallow up all their family’s assets. She said that those assets were meant to make money, and in the future, whether it was for his education, taking exams, getting married, or becoming an official, it would all require money, and all of that money was meant for him. Since then, Bai Shanbao understood money was very important, so important that even powerful people like the clan leader would shamelessly try to take it from them. But Ms. Liu felt this move to Qili Village was the right decision. Although there were many clan school teachers and more resources in Longzhou, her grandson was always isolated in the clan school, and the family’s issues somewhat affected him. He was smart but refused to listen attentively in class, misbehaving, getting into fights, and worst of all, the teachers in the clan school were not fair to him. Over time, if not spoiled into a playboy, he would become a jaded and cynical person, neither of which Ms. Liu wanted to see. Having raised her son alone after being widowed at a young age, she naturally could do so again with her grandson. Ms. Liu, with a resolute gaze, felt they had taken the correct step. And most fortunately, they had found Mr. Zhuang in this mountain valley—perhaps this was the Bai family’s fate. Ms. Liu called over her daughter-in-law and said, “Although we are close to Old Seven’s family, since we’ve decided to live here permanently, it wouldn’t be appropriate to keep staying with them. My idea is to buy a plot of land in the village, build a small separate residence to move into. This way our families will be close enough to look out for each other while still maintaining our own spaces, comfortable, right?” Ms. Zheng had no objections as she was used to following her mother-in-law’s instructions. But Bai Shanbao, with many ideas of his own, was playing nearby and when he heard his grandmother, he ran up saying, “Pick one near the river. That way we can bring water into our home, dig a big pond, and I can raise turtles.” “Why are you still thinking about raising turtles?” His previously sought-after turtle had caused a fight, resulting in Second Uncle’s grandson’s head injury. His grandmother had to make significant amends for that incident, and even now, Ms. Zheng felt the sting of loss. But Bai Shanbao insisted, “I want to raise turtles and, once they’re big, make soup for my grandmother.” Ms. Zheng’s expression was somewhat speechless, but Ms. Liu understood her grandson’s sentiments, patting his head and smiling, “Alright, alright, we’ll dig a pond for your turtles. Is there anything else you want? Say it all now so we can plan accordingly.” After thinking for a moment, Bai Shanbao said, “I need to think carefully about this.” “Go think about it then, and tell me once you’ve decided.” Ms. Liu couldn’t go forward with buying the land and building the house herself; that had to be discussed with Old Master Bai. Bai Shanbao didn’t worry about these matters. After reviewing his day’s lessons, he started to draw a sketch of his imagined house. However, at the moment he was what one would call an “artistic soul”—except for himself, nobody else was likely to understand what he had drawn. But Shanbao didn’t know that, and the next day, he eagerly showed his masterpiece to Manbao, telling her it would be his new home. Manbao looked at it up and down for a long time, scratching her head and asking, “Which side is the front?” Shanbao positioned the drawing correctly and explained, “This way, look, this is my room. I want to put a swing here so I can go swinging as soon as I wake up; this is where we’ll dig a pond to raise turtles. Then, I can swing and watch the turtles at the same time. Look, this is a turtle.” Manbao, who had never seen a turtle, asked, “Can you eat it?” “Yes, turtles live for a very long time. I plan to fatten it up and make soup for my grandmother so she can live a hundred years too.” Manbao’s eyes brightened, “Really?” Shanbao nodded, “Of course, back in my old home, everyone said that turtles represent longevity.” “How many do you have? Can you sell me one? I want to raise a turtle, too.” Shanbao asked, “What do you want a turtle for?” “For my mother to eat. She’s always sick. If she eats the turtle, she’ll live a hundred years, and then she won’t be sick all the time.” Bai Shanbao felt that turtles were hard to come by, or he wouldn’t have fought with his cousin over that one turtle. However, having just become friends with Manbao, he was reluctant to refuse her, hesitated a moment, and then said, “I’ll ask my mother to buy an extra one. If we can get one, I’ll give it to you. If not, then when my turtle has babies, I’ll give one to you to raise.” Manbao thought that didn’t sound right, “There need to be two turtles to have babies, a male and a female.” “Who says so?” “Chickens and pigs are like that, people too,” Manbao might have been young, but she knew a lot, listing examples, “Only the eggs laid with the rooster can hatch chicks, my mother says. In spring, Dazhu’s nephew brought in a boar from the next village to mate with their sow. And people also need to get married to have babies.” Therefore, “You need to buy two turtles, one male and one female. Then they can have babies. One per year, and in ten years, that’d be ten. Then we can eat the two grown ones, keep the rest, and let them have more babies...” Manbao counted and was shocked herself, “Wow, then we’d have lots of turtles.” Bai Shanbao felt she made sense, so he decided to talk to his mother about it that evening. Seeing he was willing to take her advice, Manbao got even more excited, pointing at his blueprint, “Besides turtles, you can even grow lotus roots in the pond. Do you know what lotus roots are? There are plenty by the river downstream from our village. The flowers are beautiful in summer, the lotus seeds are delicious, and so are the roots.” Excitedly, Manbao proposed, “Let me take you to dig for lotus roots. I went last year and already know how to do it.” Bai Shanbao asked, “Weren’t we going to catch caterpillars today?” Manbao casually replied, “We can catch them later. Let’s go dig for roots first. Lotus roots are much prettier than bugs.” Not particularly eager to catch bugs himself, Bai Shanbao nodded in agreement.

Chapter 56 - 56 45 Soul Painter

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