Chương 532: Class

Finally, there were the textbooks: from first to sixth grade, Chinese, math, science, geography, and moral education—dozens of them neatly arranged on the table. He had even changed the covers to silk cloth, giving them an antique feel, to avoid making them too conspicuous.

The eunuchs in charge of tidying up the palace were dumbfounded when they saw the strange and wonderful things Liu Ce had brought out. Their eyes were as wide as copper bells.

"Your Majesty, what are these white stones? How can you write on them on the blackboard? And how can you erase them?" A little eunuch picked up a piece of chalk and curiously drew on the blackboard, leaving a white mark. He was so surprised that his jaw almost dropped.

"This is called chalk," Liu Ce said with a smile.

"We'll use this to write in class from now on. It's much more convenient than a brush. No need to grind ink or wash the brush. Just dip it in water and you can erase it. It saves time and effort."

The eunuchs marveled at the sight, exclaiming that His Majesty was truly omnipotent, able to create even such a wondrous thing.

And that round globe—the eunuchs thought it was a new ornament and almost put it on the altar with the ancestral tablets.

Liu Ce quickly stopped him, saying with a wry smile, "This isn't a decoration, it's a globe. We live on this globe."

The eunuchs were completely bewildered, thinking that His Majesty must be talking nonsense again. The earth is clearly square, how could it be round?

But they didn't dare ask, so they could only scratch their heads and nod, "Oh, oh."

...

The next morning, Liu Ce had the eunuchs summon all his older children to Chang Le Palace.

There were eleven children in total: Liu Chen, Liu Ying, Liu Heng, Liu Yao, Liu Sui, Liu Yi, Liu Mei, Liu Yong, Liu Ran, Liu Nong, and Liu Yan. They sat in a row on small stools, looking curiously at the strange things in the room. Their eyes were wide open like copper bells, their mouths were wide open, and they touched and looked at everything, chattering incessantly.

"Daddy! What is this round ball?" Crown Prince Liu Chen was the first to run over, pointing at the globe and touching it with his little hands.

"This is called a globe," Liu Ce said, pointing to the yellow part on it with his pointer.

"Look, this is our Han Dynasty, this is the Xianbei, this is the Western Regions, this is the sea, and on the other side of the sea there are other countries, some called Rome, some called Parthia. This world is very, very big, and we only live in a small part of it. When you grow up, you can go and see those places."

"Wow! It's so big!" The children gathered around, chattering and asking questions, pointing at the globe with their little hands, wishing they could touch every country.

Are there fish in the ocean? Are there big fish?

What do people from other countries look like? Are they the same as us?

"Do they speak the same language as us? What do they eat?"

Liu Ce clapped his hands and said loudly, "Quiet! Starting today, you will all come here for class every morning. Your father will personally teach you to read and write. If you behave well, you will get candy; if you behave poorly, you will not get candy and will have to stand in the corner and copy ten times! Lunch will be provided, and your father will eat with you."

Upon hearing that there was candy, the children all sat up straight, their little hands on their knees, each one sitting upright like a row of little wooden stakes, their eyes sparkling as they looked at Liu Ce, their mouths practically watering.

The first lesson teaches recognizing characters and Arabic numerals.

Liu Ce wrote the four large characters "big, small, many, few" on the blackboard, the chalk scratching as he explained:

"This 'big' means very, very big. For example, our palace is very big, a hundred times bigger than the courtyard where you live; this 'small' means very, very small. For example, ants are very small, so small that you can't even step on them..."

Then he wrote down 12345, his handwriting neat: "These are called Bertrand numerals... 1 is one, 2 is two, 3 is three, 4 is four, and 5 is five. Got it?"

"Come on, repeat after me: one, two, three, four, five!"

"One, two, three, four, five!" the children chanted in unison, their voices clear and crisp, like a flock of birds chirping.

The children learned very quickly. Crown Prince Liu Chen was the smartest; he could learn something after being taught it only once and could even apply what he learned to other situations, counting on his fingers by himself.

Liu Yan was the most mischievous; he wrote the number 8 as two circles stacked together and proudly held it up to show Liu Ce.

"Daddy, look, doesn't the '8' I wrote look like a candied hawthorn? If we string them together, can we eat them?"

The children burst into laughter, and Liu Ce couldn't help but laugh too, patting his head: "It looks like it, but next time you should write it more rounded, otherwise it looks like two eggs stacked together."

After teaching numbers, teach addition.

Liu Ce took out fruit candies as teaching aids, the colorful wrappers gleaming in the sunlight: "Chen'er, you have 2 candies in your hand, and Daddy will give you 3 more. How many candies do you have in total?"

Liu Chen counted on his fingers and exclaimed, "5! 2 plus 3 equals 5!"

"You got it right! Here's a candy for you!" Liu Ce handed him the candy, and Liu Chen was so happy he couldn't stop smiling. He unwrapped the candy and stuffed it into his mouth, his eyes squinting from the sweetness.

When the other children saw that they would get candy for answering correctly, they all eagerly raised their hands to answer the questions, their little hands raised high, making the classroom atmosphere incredibly lively.

"Father! Ask me, ask me!"

"I can! I can too!"

"Let me do it! I'm the best!"

Liu Ce was sweating profusely, handing out candy and maintaining order...

The second lesson covers general natural knowledge.

Liu Ce took out a globe and told the children that the Earth is round: "Look, the place we live in is not flat, but a round sphere, just like this apple."

He picked up an apple, placed a small ant on it, and the ant crawled around on the apple.

"Look at this ant, crawling on the apple, it won't fall off, right? We on Earth are like that ant on the apple, we won't fall off either, because Earth has gravity, just like a magnet attracts iron, it holds us on and we won't fall off."

The children listened intently, their eyes wide and mouths agape, forgetting even to swallow their saliva.

"Then why don't we feel the Earth spinning when we're standing on the ground?" Crown Prince Liu Chen asked, raising his hand and frowning as he pondered seriously.

"Because the Earth rotates very, very slowly, and we rotate along with the Earth, we can't feel it," Liu Ce patiently explained.

"It's like when you're sitting in a carriage, and the carriage is moving very smoothly, you don't feel the carriage moving. You only feel it when you brake suddenly or when the carriage is jolted. The earth rotates so smoothly that we don't feel it."

When the teacher mentioned that "humans evolved from ancient monkeys," the entire classroom erupted in chaos.

"Huh? We're monkeys turned into humans? Impossible! I'm not a monkey! Monkeys have tails!" Liu Heng stared wide-eyed, his face filled with disbelief.

"Why didn't that monkey turn into a human? Why is our monkey still climbing the tree?" Liu Yao asked, tilting his head.