At this point, Sun Kang's worries were completely healed.
He then called Zhao Zhitong to him and looked at her earnestly and seriously said, "Girl, I'm happy that you can learn medicine with grandpa. But I must say the ugly words first.
Learning medicine is not child's play, it cannot be mastered in a day, it requires a long-term process. Once you agree, you must take it seriously, no complaining, no giving up halfway, can you do that?"
Zhao Zhitong nodded her little head: "Tongtong won't complain, and Tongtong won't give up either."
Sun Kang smiled with relief: "Good job! You really are my granddaughter. Grandpa has high hopes for you."
Saying this, he took out a book from his arms and asked: "Girl, are you learning to recognize characters with the teacher?"
Zhao Zhitong nodded proudly and said: "Yes, yes, Tongtong knows a lot of characters now."
Sun Kang: "Good, then you hold onto this book first, it's an enlightenment book on medicine, you need to memorize the entire book."
Zhao Zhitong happily accepted the book, holding it like a treasure: "Grandpa, is this for me?"
Sun Kang chuckled and reached for the tobacco pouch at his waist: "Yes, it's for you."
Zhao Zhitong was overjoyed. This was her second book: "Wow, thank you, Grandpa. I will cherish it."
This book seemed to be quite old, the pages were slightly yellowed, but from how clean and tidy the book was, it was clear that its owner protected it well.
Zhao Zhitong pointed with her small finger at the three big characters on the cover, and said happily: "I recognize these three characters, it's 'Yao Xing Fu'."
Old Mr. Bai, who had been silently watching, spoke up to remind: "Girl, this is a good book, very suitable for beginners in traditional Chinese medicine, it's an introductory book on Chinese medicinal herbs, its summary of the properties is insightful, once memorized, it will benefit you for life."
Hearing Old Mr. Bai's words, Zhao Zhitong's eyes shone even brighter.
Seeing the girl's fond attachment to the book, Sun Kang laughed with delight: "This book categorizes 248 commonly used medicinal materials into four categories according to their properties: cold, hot, warm, and neutral. Girl, you must memorize them well.
Also, in the future, you won't have much time for play. After your schooling, or during your rest days, I'll take you to gather herbs, or you can follow your uncle to collect medicinal materials. At first, you need to see and learn a lot."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Zhitong was so happy that she couldn't contain herself. She excitedly twirled around Sun Kang: "Grandpa, Grandpa, does this mean I get to learn how to process the medicinal materials with you too?"
Sun Kang laughed heartily: "Of course!"
With this one concern now settled, Sun Kang felt more spirited, and his laughter was more hearty.
While this grandfather and granddaughter had a harmonious atmosphere, on the other side, Sun Mei and others had already set the dishes on the table.
Grandmother also called them to eat.
The little children yelled enthusiastically and rushed to the dining table.
Zhao Zhitong, however, ran to the room first, placed the book on the table by the bed, and then came out running, climbing into her chair with effort.
Once all the dishes were laid out on the table, everyone sat in their place.
Zhao Zhitong sat with her two little cousins, boasting to them about how she already had two books, and how many characters she knew, blah blah blah, her mouth never stopped moving.
The little cousins were quite envious.
Sun Xiaoxue: "Little cousin, you're amazing! We also learn characters with grandpa, but those characters are so hard! Twisty and complicated, we can't learn them and don't like to learn."
Beside her, the second cousin Sun Daqing nodded repeatedly in agreement: "Those characters are like ghost drawings, too hard to remember. I would rather not learn them. Anyway, learning them is useless."
Hearing this, Zhao Zhitong put on a serious face: "Little cousin, little cousin, you are wrong. The teacher said that reading and recognizing characters can enlighten us, teaching us the principles of life and conduct. How can it be useless?"
Sun Daqing was indifferent: "When people grow up, they naturally understand principles, there's no need to read."
He went on to say he would grow up to be strong like his father and be good at farming, not wanting to be a weak scholar.
Zhao Zhitong pouted: "Second cousin, you're stupid."
Sun Mei, who had just come over to give out buns to the children, heard this insulting remark and immediately reached out to tap Zhao Zhitong's little head: "Hey, you can't insult people."
Zhao Zhitong defended herself confidently: "Mom, it's second cousin who said reading and recognizing characters are useless, just like Zhao Yue that stupid, saying he would grow up to kill pigs and sell meat in the market."
Sun Mei was helpless: "You still shouldn't insult people, everyone has their ambitions, what they want to do is their own freedom, you can't impose your ideas on others, understand?"
Zhao Zhitong: "Oh."
Actually, she didn't listen at all, and after Sun Mei left, she began quietly persuading her little cousin and cousins again.
"Recognizing characters can earn a lot of money, much more than farming."
This sentence successfully caught the attention of her little cousin and cousins.
Sun Xiaoxue said with difficulty: "But, I can't learn it."
Zhao Zhitong mimicked her mother's tone when coaxing children: "It doesn't matter if you can't learn, you have to persist. The teacher said if you can't learn it once, you can learn it a few more times, you'll eventually learn it."
So, a few little kids, all expressed that they would follow Zhao Zhitong to learn to recognize characters in the future.
Zhao Zhitong's little face was full of pride, patting her chest saying no problem.
Seeing the little kids bowing their heads murmuring instead of eating, Zhao Guifen coughed and said sternly: "What are you guys doing? If you don't eat, there won't be any left."
The little kids quickly sat upright, picked up their porridge bowls, and buried their heads in eating.
But as they ate, they didn't forget to sneak a peek at each other and then smile gleefully.
The dishes on the dining table were mostly cooked by Sun Mei, needless to say, everyone ate heartily.
The braised pork, especially, was frantically snatched up by the kids, except for Zhao Zhitong.
After taking a happy bite, she didn't reach for it again with her chopsticks.
This also included Zhao Dong and Sun Mei, both of whom only had one bite.
It wasn't that it wasn't well made or that they were reluctant to eat it, but rather, the taste was vastly different from what they expected.
It's like when a northerner first goes to the south, opens a zongzi, smells the sweet aroma of the bamboo leaves, and already tastes the sticky rice sweetness in their mouth.
But eating it, they find it's salty and even more shocking, there's a big chunk of fatty meat.
The meat was like this, the envisioned savory meat flavor didn't come, instead, there was a strong gamey taste.
Sun Mei carefully went over the entire process of making the dish and confirmed that she didn't miss any green onions, ginger, or garlic, so it had to be the flavor of the meat itself.
While washing the dishes, Sun Mei subtly asked her two sisters-in-law: "Elder sister-in-law, second sister-in-law, how was today's braised pork?"
Mrs. Liu laughed heartily, praising: "Delicious, especially delicious, better than what's sold in restaurants!"
Little Miss Zhao also smiled and said: "Yes, although I haven't been to a restaurant, what little sister makes is really delicious."
Sun Mei asked in confusion: "Didn't you find there was a gamey taste?"
Seeing Sun Mei ask this way, Mrs. Liu was puzzled: "Isn't pork supposed to taste like this?"