The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 392

If any of these students came here against their will, Yan Shifan would definitely be the first to be blamed.

Although life at the academy was far less carefree and joyful than in Suzhou, and although his bad temper led to his isolation by many students, this did not affect Yan Shifan.

But things were different when he arrived at Zhangjia Village. He ate and lived the same as the villagers. Yan Shifan found it difficult to adapt to both food and lodging. Although the Yan family had declined somewhat when Yan Shifan was a child, they were still a scholarly family and had some wealth.

As Yan Song's only son, Yan Shifan was extremely favored by Yan Song, who would boast to everyone how intelligent his son was.

In Zhangjia Village, Yan Shifan had to get up at the crack of dawn every day and also had to go to the fields with the farmers to do farm work. Zhou Chu assigned these students to each farmer's household, and they ate whatever the farmers ate and did the same work as the farmers.

If you don't work, you won't get to eat.

Yan Shifan toiled in the fields every day, his fat hands blistered and bleeding, making him wince in pain.

However, as a result, Hu Zongxian and the others who used to beat him up all day long no longer had time to pay attention to him, because Hu Zongxian and the others were either busy with farm work or went hunting in the mountains.

Zhou Chu would arrange for some Xuanwu soldiers to secretly follow these people who went into the mountains to hunt, in order to prevent any accidents from happening to them.

These students went to work in the fields, and Zhou Chu naturally had to set an example. After so many days of rest, Zhou Chu's injuries had almost healed. Although his injuries looked exaggerated before, they had not broken any bones. It was just that he lost too much blood, which led to his coma.

At that time, Zhou Chu had lost a lot of blood, exceeding the safe limit, so the village doctor said that whether Zhou Chu could wake up was entirely up to fate.

This kind of injury heals much faster than a broken bone or tendon.

Although Zhou Chu has not fully recovered, he can still perform some simple tasks.

"Hai Rui, out of all of us, you're the only one who truly understands our teacher. Tell me, what was the purpose of the teacher arranging for us to do farm work and go hunting in the mountains?"

Zhao Zhenji was puzzled by Zhou Chu's arrangement. He had grown up in a wealthy family and found it difficult to empathize with farmers.

Hai Rui, on the other hand, came from a humble background, so he was better able to understand Zhou Chu's intentions in making such an arrangement.

"I think the teacher wanted us to understand how difficult life is for ordinary people and how hard it is for people at the bottom of society. Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, once said, 'The people are the water, and the ruler is the boat. Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it.' But even the people that Emperor Taizong referred to were never ordinary people at the bottom of society; they were referring to the scholar-officials."

Hai Rui thought for a moment and then spoke slowly.

Hu Zongxian, who was standing nearby, agreed wholeheartedly with these words.

"That's right. The real people are the common people all over the world, the farmers who make up the largest number of people. But few people care about the farmers' thoughts. It seems that as long as they can survive, that's all that matters."

After two days of farm work, Hu Zongxian had a deep feeling, especially the fact that after a long day of hard work, he often ate coarse grain and wild vegetable porridge, foods that he had never eaten before and even found hard to swallow.

When he saw the farmers wolfing down their food, as if this bowl of coarse grain and wild vegetable porridge were some kind of heavenly delicacy, Hu Zongxian was deeply shocked.

Only then did he truly see the lives of ordinary people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty, things he had never seen before.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Zhenji suddenly realized that, recalling his experiences in Zhangjia Village over the past few days, he truly felt bitter, having never suffered such hardship before.

In just a few days, Zhao Zhenji lost a lot of weight. It wasn't that he wasn't eating enough, but rather that he couldn't eat most of the food.

At first, Zhao Zhenji couldn't eat, and he found that he didn't have the strength to work. So later he could only force himself to finish the food that he thought was hard to swallow, and only after he finished eating did he have the strength to work.