Consort Zhuang doesn't want palace intrigue; she just wants to raise her child and live a caref

Chapter 146 How Did Rice Come About?

After finishing her English class, Su Nuannuan smiled at her two children and said gently, "Let's rest for a while." Hearing their mother's words, the two little ones cheered.

Although my mother's English lessons were interesting, who wouldn't want to play them!

Su Nuannuan turned to look at Yaoqin standing to the side and softly instructed, "Yaoqin, go and get the literacy cards."

Whenever the weather is sunny and clear, Su Nuannuan brings her two children to this pavilion for lessons. A gentle breeze brings a touch of coolness, making it exceptionally comfortable; the surrounding trees provide shade, and the air is fresh and pleasant, without any stuffiness. However, if it is rainy or the sun is scorching, they will move to the side hall next door to continue their studies.

Not long after, Yaoqin came back quickly, holding a stack of flashcards in both hands.

These flashcards were all meticulously made by Su Nuannuan herself. She selected high-quality wood chips as the card material, and then carefully wrote neat and beautiful Chinese characters on the front of each card with a delicate brush, while the back was decorated with vivid pictures related to the Chinese characters using colorful paintbrushes.

Su Nuannuan's teaching method is unique and effective. Initially, she did not require the children to learn too many Chinese characters at once, but taught only one character each day.

Some might think that just one Chinese character is too few, but that's not actually the case. Su Nuannuan knows that simply having children memorize Chinese characters is far from enough; only by truly understanding the meaning and cultural stories behind each character can they truly master them.

Therefore, when teaching new Chinese characters, Su Nuannuan always tells the children wonderful stories related to them in a vivid and engaging way, making those seemingly boring characters instantly come alive and interesting.

Of course, stories alone are not enough. To further deepen the children's memory and understanding of the Chinese characters they have learned, Su Nuannuan also designed a series of colorful and engaging games. Sometimes, she would lead the two children in playing fun finger rhymes, using flexible and varied hand movements to reinforce their recognition of the shapes of Chinese characters; other times, she would play some interesting character recognition games.

Su Nuannuan took out a character card from the flashcards and put it aside. This was the character she was going to learn today – “米” (mǐ).

After resting for a while, Su Nuannuan gestured to Yaoqin to strike the small bronze gong hanging in the pavilion.

Yaoqin nodded slightly, walked quickly to the small gong, picked up the mallet beside it, and rhythmically struck it. The crisp, loud gong sound instantly broke the tranquility of the courtyard and carried far and wide.

Before long, two small figures came running back as happily as the wind, followed by two nannies.

When they arrived in front of Su Nuannuan, they immediately stopped smiling and became obedient. They sat upright on the stone bench, looking at Su Nuannuan with expectant eyes, and waiting happily for their mother to tell a story.

For them, this was not a literacy lesson, but a story lesson.

Su Nuannuan picked up a card with a large character for "rice" written on it. Then, she turned the card over, revealing a vivid picture of "rice".

This is a unique right-brain literacy method that Su Nuannuan often used when she was a kindergarten teacher in her previous life. It can help children understand and memorize Chinese characters more deeply and intuitively.

Just as Su Nuannuan was about to continue her explanation, Canglan Jingcheng suddenly blinked his big eyes and asked curiously, "Mother, how exactly did we obtain this rice?"

Su Nuannuan smiled gently and looked at her studious son, replying, "Cheng'er, don't be impatient. Your mother will tell you in detail about the origin of this rice."

"Let me tell you a myth first."

In ancient times, before people cultivated rice, they asked the gods for rice seeds, but the gods refused. So, the people sent a nine-tailed dog to steal rice from the gods.

The nine-tailed dog arrived in heaven and saw the gods drying rice in front of the heavenly palace. It lowered its tails and quietly made its way to the threshing ground. Its tails were covered in dense, downy fur, and soon all nine tails were covered in rice grains. However, the nine-tailed dog was discovered by the gods just as it was about to return. The gods chased after the nine-tailed dog and cut off eight of its tails.

Finally, the nine-tailed dog hid in the bushes, thus saving its last tail and delivering the rice to the people. That's why rice stalks grow in the shape of curved dog tails. But the nine-tailed dog was punished by the gods for stealing the rice, and was condemned to have only one tail for every lifetime.

"This nine-tailed dog is so pitiful, and the gods are so cruel," Canglan Jingyao said angrily.

Su Nuannuan never expected that Canglan Jingyao would empathize with a mythological story.

"How about your mother tells you a story that isn't a myth?"

"Okay," the two little ones replied in unison.

“A long, long time ago, our human ancestors relied on fishing, hunting and gathering wild fruits for a living. Food sources were scarce, life was unstable, and they often went hungry.”

One day, people discovered that birds flying in the sky loved to eat a type of wild grain, so they gathered some to try. Sure enough, it tasted sweet and was filling. From then on, people began to cultivate this grain on a large scale, and this is what we now call rice.

"But Mother Consort didn't say how rice is formed?" Canglan Jingcheng pressed.

"Mother just told you all about it!" Su Nuannuan replied with a smile.

“Mother Consort didn’t mention that; she was talking about rice,” Canglan Jingcheng retorted.

Su Nuannuan thought it made sense, so she decided to explain to them how rice is made.

"Alright, then your mother will tell you how rice is made."

First, we have rice seeds, right?

The two little ones nodded.

"Once we have rice seeds, we can use them to cultivate seedlings. Once the seedlings have grown a bit, we need to transplant them into the paddy fields."

Then, during the rice's growth process, we also need to drain water, irrigate it, and prevent rice diseases and various natural disasters.

As the rice seedlings grow taller, they will produce clusters of rice ears. After the rice ears have grown for a certain period, they will gradually be covered with rice flowers.

“Mother, I know this. I’ve seen it in our palace,” Canglan Jingyao suddenly said.

"Yes, we grow rice in our Cuiwei Palace."

Last year, Su Nuannuan set aside a section of the vegetable garden to grow rice. It wasn't that she hoped to harvest a lot of rice, but rather that she wanted to broaden the horizons of her two children, since they couldn't leave the palace casually.

It seems that only Xiao Jingyao noticed it.

"After the rice flowers wither, the rice ears will gradually be covered with plump grains of rice. Once the rice is ripe, we can harvest it."

The harvested rice needs to be threshed, dried, and finally husked using a stone mill. The resulting white rice grains are the rice we eat every day.

“Mother, I know this. We aired it out in our palace last year,” Canglan Jingcheng said immediately.

Su Nuannuan: You have no idea why, but last year when the rice was being dried, you played with winnowing a lot of rice.