Yan Li was practicing with Gu Chenzhou in the courtyard. Gu Chenzhou's injuries had mostly healed, allowing him to begin practicing some martial arts.
As they were training, cheers echoed from the woods outside the courtyard.
"Second Brother is amazing!"
"Wow, Second Brother is so powerful!"
"Second Brother, do it again!"
The master and disciple were both agitated by the amplified voices, which were enhanced by supernatural abilities.
They couldn't understand why that little girl had such a loud voice!
Yan Li waved for Gu Chenzhou to go inside. "We'll stop practicing for today. Go back to your room and read. I'll go see what mischief she's up to now."
Gu Chenzhou nodded and obediently went into the house.
Yan Li followed the sound into the woods. Not far in, he saw Jiang Wan jumping and cheering for Erlang.
Erlang was dodging and weaving through a series of suspended stones, his reactions and movements incredibly swift.
Yan Li, a master himself, immediately recognized the purpose of this training method.
His gaze swept over Erlang a few times. Seeing Erlang handle the stones with such ease, a hint of approval flashed in his eyes.
He was a good prospect for martial arts.
It was a shame he was a bit older, fourteen or fifteen, and hadn't formally started practicing martial arts. If he had waited another two years, it would have truly been a waste of a good talent.
But what did that have to do with him?
After watching for a while, Yan Li spoke to Jiang Wan, "Can you keep your voices down?"
Jiang Wan lifted her chubby face and replied, "No, this mountain isn't yours!"
With that, she turned back to clap and cheer for Erlang. Because of the proximity and Yan Li's martial arts background, he felt his ears buzzing.
Yan Li's lips tightened. He glanced at Jiang Wan, his face dark, and walked away.
After he was gone, Erlang quickly extricated himself from the stone array.
"Wanwan, aren't you… afraid of getting beaten?"
The man's face had been so dark just now; he had worried the man might resort to violence.
Jiang Wan scoffed dismissively, "He can't hit me."
In terms of martial arts, she was certainly no match for Yan Li. Her own skills were not even comparable to a beginner in front of someone like him. Otherwise, she wouldn't have asked Yan Li to teach Erlang martial arts.
But she had great strength and supernatural abilities to back her up. It was impossible for Yan Li to openly beat her.
Erlang didn't quite understand her confidence. He scratched his head, "But if we do this, will he really be willing to teach me martial arts?"
He felt like this would only make him disliked. The way that man walked away just now, his face was as long as a donkey's, as if he wanted to throw them off the mountain.
Jiang Wan was very confident. "Sooner or later. Let's go, we'll come back tomorrow."
Erlang led the now-fed horse over and took Jiang Wan down the mountain.
After they were far away, Yan Li suddenly returned to the woods. He pushed aside the stones hanging by ropes and jumped into the stone array himself, dodging the incoming stones just like Erlang.
Despite his agile archery skills, with so many stones attacking simultaneously, he was initially a bit flustered.
After being hit a few times, Yan Li slowly adjusted.
When the round ended, Yan Li turned and walked towards the small courtyard. A moment later, he brought Gu Chenzhou back.
The little pony, seeing Gu Chenzhou enter the stone array, flapped its wings and flew down the mountain to deliver the news to Jiang Wan.
"I knew he'd be interested."
Jiang Wan didn't know the identities of the master and disciple. However, their reclusive life in the mountains, their injuries, their martial arts skills, and the brands on their horses all indicated that these two were not ordinary people.
According to common tropes, they were likely being pursued by enemies or were people with deep, bloody grudges.
Her stone array, though seemingly simple, was a training tool validated by countless ability users and mutated beings in the apocalypse.
It was within her expectations that Yan Li would be interested in it.
As long as he was interested, she would come up with more training projects later. She wasn't afraid that Yan Li wouldn't agree to her requests.
Even if Yan Li truly refused, she wouldn't be worried, as the pillow offered by his disciple was quite substantial.
In the evening, after Wang Hongye finished preparing the meal, she hurried back to her own village.
However, Jiang Pan and the others didn't return home until dusk.
There was no other way; Doctor Jin's clinic was quite far. Jiang Pan had to pick up Sanlang first, then go out of the city to pick up Chen Yuezhi. By the time they returned, it was already dusk.
Jiang Wan ran forward, smiling and asking, "Mom, how was it? Did you understand what your master's master taught you on your first day of learning?"
Chen Yuezhi's face was full of excitement. "Wanwan, your master's master is truly amazing. Those medical principles, which I never understood before, he explained them with just a few simple words, and I gained so much knowledge today."
Seeing her like this, Jiang Wan was also very happy.
See, she had said it before, women shouldn't just revolve around the kitchen their whole lives. As long as they had the conditions, they should pursue what they wanted to do and not let trivial matters hold them back.
After dinner, Chen Yuezhi pulled Sanlang aside and said, "From today onwards, you teach me to read!"
After following her master today, she realized how shallow her previous knowledge was.
The clinic had a library filled with all sorts of medical books, covering everything from introductions to medicinal herbs to the diagnosis and treatment of various difficult diseases, all incredibly comprehensive.
But she could barely recognize a few characters and couldn't understand any of those books.
Just recognizing words wasn't enough; she had to be able to write them!
Because in the future, she would be writing prescriptions for patients!
Chen Yuezhi was full of enthusiasm for learning. Just as she was about to go into the house with Sanlang to learn to read, she looked at Dalang and Erlang cooling off in the courtyard and stargazing, so she called them over.
"Come on, let's learn to read together!"
The two brothers were a bit resistant. "Mom, we don't need to, right? We don't need to read medical books or take imperial examinations, what's the point of learning?"
Chen Yuezhi snorted, "You don't need to read if you don't read medical books or take imperial examinations? Look at you, such unmotivated good-for-nothings! Don't you think about your future?"
"Erlang, you always say you want to be a general. You can't read a single character. If I give you a military book, can you understand it?"
"Dalang, you've always wanted to be a village chief. If you can't even write a word, when villagers need you to write something, can you do it?"
The two brothers had no grounds to refute.
Jiang Wan felt that her mother's words were very reasonable.
"Why don't we have sister-in-law learn to read with us too! That way, our whole family won't be illiterate!"
Su Shi, who was pregnant, looked confused.
She was just embroidering, she really didn't need to know how to read!
But Jiang Pan directly waved his hand, "That's settled! Come on, let's go learn to read!"
He was still learning to read at his age, so why should those two brats be exempt?
Thus, regardless of willingness or unwillingness, they were all pulled into the house.
Sanlang looked at his parents, elder brother, sister-in-law, and sister, and suddenly felt a bit nervous.
He only knew a few characters, and they wanted him to teach? Were they not afraid he would lead them all astray?