In the afternoon, after they had all used up their own dish of dye-fruit liquid, Chen Qi handed them the sand trays he’d made and they used wood sticks to practice writing on the sand trays. After writing, they could smooth the sand out with their hands and use it repeatedly, which was much more convenient than using the exhaustible gum tree leaves.

Studying was a very boring activity. Although Chen Qi disliked his own handwriting, he couldn’t stand practicing it for a whole morning. While the others repeatedly practiced writing names, he ran off to pick out some sweet potatoes. He pulled out some cooled charcoal from the fire and buried the sweet potatoes into the charcoal, then added some red-hot charcoal over it to start roasting the sweet potatoes.

Strong winds occasionally forced some snowflakes to break in through the heavy fur door-curtain. The sudden gust of cold air made Chen Qi shiver. For the first time, Chen Qi regretted not having a wooden door for his new home. If they were to add a wooden door now, it would have to be after the snowstorm stopped. Chen Qi threw a few sticks of wood into the fire to let it burn more vigorously and found several heavier pieces of wood to hold down the hide curtain so that the wind would not blow in as easily.

“Chen Qi.”

Chen Qi, who was standing by the window watching the snow, was lost in thought when he heard someone calling him. He turned back and saw Aze approaching. Chen Qi smiled and asked, “What is it?”

Aze glanced through the window at the white snowfield outside. The yard that had been cleaned up before was covered with thick snow again. “I have learned to write everyone’s names. Can you teach me new characters?”

Chen Qi was a little surprised. “Then write them out and show them to me.”

Aze nodded, and the two men walked over to the table. Aze sat down, took a new leaf, and used the ink brush to write everyone’s names on it, stroke by stroke. Chen Qi leaned over and looked at it. He found that even the little wolf cub’s name had been written down.

“Aze, you are really amazing.” Chen Qi praised. Just how long had it been since he learned to write? Aze even went out to hunt most of yesterday and hadn’t had time to practice much. Not only was his handwriting better than Chen Qi’s, but as a beginner, these names could already be considered to be quite complicated. Yet Aze wrote them all without any mistakes.

Hearing Chen Qi’s praise, Aze’s ears turned reddish and a thin smile formed on his lips.

Chen Qi wrote a simple sequence of the Arabic numerals 0 to 9 on a leaf and explained it to Aze. Although the beastmen did not understand the written characters, they could still understand their meanings. Chen Qi only had to say it once and Aze understood it.

While Aze was practicing, Chen Qi went to check on the others and found that besides Ka Luo and Ajing, the rest were already able to proficiently write down everyone’s names too. They could also distinguish them even when the characters were scrambled, with the correct pronunciation and meaning of each word.

One on one, Chen Qi taught them simple Arabic numerals. While everyone was immersed in their writing practice, he estimated that the roasted sweet potatoes should be ready, and took a wooden stick to rummage in the fire.

“Chen Qi, you’re actually sneaking off to eat on your own.” Smelling the fragrant scent of the roasted sweet potatoes, Ka Luo shook out his slightly sore hand and muttered discontentedly.

Chen Qi grinned mischievously and tossed a still hot roasted sweet potato directly at Ka Luo. Ka Luo hurriedly put down his writing stick and scrambled to catch it. Then, it burned him and he let out a cry.

Chen Qi rolled all the roasted sweet potatoes out and piled them to one side. He picked one up and broke it in half, then blew on the steaming orange-yellow sweet potato flesh and took a bite. The sweet potatoes that had been left out for a long time in winter were soft and sweet. While eating contentedly, Chen Qi said to the few of them sitting at the table, “You’ve all been writing for a long time. Are you hungry? Do you want to have a snack before continuing?” 

The people at the table looked at each other, then all of them put down what they were holding and went over to the fire. Each of them picked up a hot roasted sweet potato and ate it. The hot sweet potato entering their mouths made their whole person feel warm from the inside out.

“Aze, here’s one for you.” Chen Qi handed half of his roasted sweet potato to Aze, who was sitting beside him. Aze accepted it with a smile, peeled off the slightly burnt potato skin and took a bite.

After eating, everyone continued their writing practice, while Chen Qi tried to work out how to teach them how to read.

Chen Qi, who learned how to read in primary school, had long forgotten how he started learning the written characters. He wished he could follow the ancient scholars by commencing his teachings from the Three Character Classic* and the Thousand Character Classic**. Alas, all he could remember from the Three Character Classic and Thousand Character Classic was ‘Man at birth is fundamentally good in nature’*** and ‘The sky was black and the earth was yellow’****. Reluctantly, he gave up that idea.

*(From wikipedia) The Three Character Classic is one of the Chinese classic texts. The text is written in triplets of characters for easy memorization. With the short and simple text arranged in three-character verses, children learned many common characters, grammar structures, elements of Chinese history and the basis of Confucian morality, especially filial piety and respect for elders (the Five Relationships in Chinese society).

**(From wikipedia) The Thousand Character Classic is a Chinese poem that has been used as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children from the sixth century onward. It contains exactly one thousand characters, each used only once, arranged into 250 lines of four characters apiece and grouped into four line rhyming stanzas to make it easy to memorize. It is sung in a way similar to children learning the Latin alphabet sing an “alphabet song.” Along with the Three Character Classic and the Hundred Family Surnames, it has formed the basis of literacy training in traditional China. 

***人之初 rén zhī chū man at birth (is fundamentally good in nature); the first line of Three Character Classic.

****天地玄黄 tiān dì xuán huáng The first line of the Thousand Character Classic.

Chen Qi did not have any experience teaching people, and he was not sure how to make them not feel bored when learning. In the end, he thought that since the beast people liked to listen to his stories so much, he would start teaching with words from those stories. Fortunately, these beastmen students were very enthusiastic about learning, and were very smart, that they could afford to let Chen Qi, this inexperienced teacher, toss them about at will.

Chen Qi simply recorded the mermaid story he’d first told them on the gum tree leaves. It was just to help with character recognition, so he only wrote the story’s summary. He wrote several characters incorrectly in the middle. In the end, he could only transcribe it again. Although the story was not long, it still filled two gum tree leaves.

He’d already taught them the new Arabic numerals today, so he didn’t plan to teach another new thing yet and put away the two gum tree leaves. Then Chen Qi also picked up a brush and continued to practice calligraphy.

The snowstorm showed no sign of stopping until the next day. There was much less wind and the roof was already covered thickly with snow. Chen Qi was worried that the roof would collapse from the weight and asked Aze to clear the snow from the roof. It was then that Chen Qi learned that the beast people did not have the habit of clearing snow from the roofs.

“Letting the snow accumulate on the roof all winter… Aren’t you afraid the house will collapse?” Chen Qi’s head was full of black lines.

The beastmen were silent for a moment before Azhang asked, “Why would the house collapse if the snow was not cleared?” He only knew that several houses in the tribe would be destroyed every winter. He always thought it was because of a problem with the viscosity of the melted gum fruits, and had never considered the issue of accumulated snow.

“Naturally, snow has weight too. Before the snow freezes, better clear the snow off the roof first.” Chen Qi said, supporting his forehead.

The few people looked at each other then split up to clear the snow from their new houses. Their new houses had just been built and the gum fruit was not completely dry yet. They absolutely can’t let them be destroyed because they didn’t clear the snow off the roof.