Outsider: The Fifth Young Master of the Kang Family

Chapter 22 Class
Brother Kang Ershou and mother Wang Yulian took Sachiko to fly to the United States. Second sister-in-law and Zhang Yongfang also went to Metersbonwe headquarters for training on the first day after National Day. Second brother was alone to look after the hardware store and oversee the decoration of the clothing store.

Everyone has their own things to do, and Kang Qirui is no exception. Today is his first day of class.

The students finished their military training and National Day holiday and officially started their college life. For the first class, the freshmen of the Chinese Department came to the classroom early. After half a month of military training, everyone became familiar with each other and started chatting.

"I heard there is a new teacher this year?" said one of the students.

Then a student who was more informed said, "Yes, the teacher of this class is new. I heard that she was a student of our school before. She is quite young."

As we were chatting, the bell rang. Kang Qirui appeared at the classroom door on time, walked up to the podium, and introduced himself: "Hello, students. I am your ancient literature history teacher this semester. My name is Kang Qirui. I also studied my undergraduate degree at our school, and my master's degree at Gangcheng University. I am currently studying for a doctorate under Professor Huang. So I am a student like everyone else, haha. Let's start calling the roll now."

The purpose of calling the roll in the first class is mainly to get to know each other among the students. If calling the roll every time, Kang Qirui would not do it.

After calling the roll and confirming that everyone was present, Kang Qirui said, "Let me announce the church rules. First, you are not allowed to talk. If you have any questions, raise your hand first. Second, you cannot be late or leave early more than three times. If you are late more than three times, you will be deemed to have failed the course."

The students were waiting for Kang Qirui to continue, but he stopped talking, and the two rules were over. Now the students understood that they could not talk, but they could sleep. They could not be late, but they could not come. However, those who could be admitted to Shuangyashan were all students who loved to study. For a compulsory course like the history of ancient literature, it was basically impossible for students to not come or sleep.

"The above is my classroom discipline, and I hope everyone can follow it. Now let's start the class." Kang Qirui officially began his responsibilities as a university teacher.

"The establishment of the Zhou Dynasty was a very significant historical event. This was not just because it was a change of regime, overthrowing one dynasty and establishing a new one. Rather, it was because during the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, it carried out a series of political and cultural changes, which we usually attribute to the establishment of rituals and music."

"What is ritual? Confucius often mentioned ritual in The Analects, especially the ritual of Zhou. Confucius said, 'I can talk about the ritual of Xia, but Qi is not enough to verify it; I can talk about the ritual of Yin, but Song is not enough to verify it. This is because there is not enough literature. If there is enough, I can verify it.' Confucius believed that the ritual of Zhou was the most prosperous and complete."

"The Master said: 'The Zhou dynasty supervised the two previous dynasties, and was full of culture! I follow the Zhou dynasty.' In his view, the rituals of the Xia and Shang dynasties had been lost, and there was not enough documentation. Only the rituals of the Zhou dynasty were very prosperous and perfect. So Confucius admired the Zhou rituals the most."

"So what exactly is Zhouli? We just said that it is mainly reflected in the system. On the surface, it is a variety of etiquette and rituals. A country's highest political life and the daily lives of ordinary people are inseparable from etiquette."

When Kang Qirui finished speaking, a student raised his hand. He stopped and asked the student to stand up and speak. The student introduced himself first: "Teacher Kang, I am Song Wen. Teacher Kang just said that ordinary daily life cannot be separated from etiquette. Now it is the 21st century, do we still pay attention to Zhou etiquette?"

"Of course, you know that you should raise your hand to ask questions and stand up only when the teacher calls on you. Isn't this just the etiquette in our daily lives?" Kang Qirui gestured for Song Wen to sit down, and then continued,
"We are in college now. When you were in middle school, what did you do when the teacher came in? Stand up, then the teacher bowed, and the students sat down. That's etiquette, right?"

"In addition, I have found that in the past one or two years, every time the teacher finishes a class, the students applaud. This is also a courtesy, expressing gratitude to the teacher. In fact, it does not necessarily mean that the teacher's teaching is very good, so when the students applaud, the teacher must be self-aware and have a respectful attitude, right? When the students applaud me, I must teach better and live up to my classmates. This is also a courtesy. Etiquette is not one-way, but two-way. Only in this way can the relationship be harmonious."

Kang Qirui used practical examples to explain how etiquette is used in daily life, winning applause from everyone.

"Then, in conjunction with etiquette, there is also music. But this kind of music is not for people to enjoy and entertain. It is mainly used together with etiquette in various ceremonial occasions." Kang Qirui began to talk about music again.

"First, there are sacrifices, sacrifices to heaven, sacrifices to gods, and sacrifices to ancestors. Secondly, there are various secular ceremonial occasions, national events, interactions between people, and various activities in life. Of course, national events include the enthronement of the emperor, military parades, etc."

"Let's talk about daily life, such as the meeting between scholars and ordinary nobles, drinking parties in the countryside, and various major events in life, such as weddings and funerals. There are weddings for marriages and funerals for deaths, and these all have music."

"The music at the wedding includes the Guanju from the Book of Songs that we have studied. What music do nobles use when they meet? They use the Deer Singing, the deer sings, eating wild apples. I have guests, and I play the harp and the flute. So what is the role of music?"

"What is the characteristic of music? It is infectious. When we listen to music, we will have various emotions. Different people will have roughly the same emotions when listening to the same music, right?"

"Of course, due to different life experiences, appreciation levels and specific real-life situations, everyone's acceptance of music may vary, but generally speaking, it is unlikely that someone will suddenly feel happy after listening to a sad song, or suddenly feel sad after listening to a happy song. This is relatively rare. In other words, when different people face the same music, they will have roughly the same emotions and reactions." "So why is music needed in ceremonial occasions? It is to make us have common and similar emotions. Isn't this unifying everyone's emotions?"

"So, rituals distinguish differences, and music harmonizes the same."

Kang Qirui ended the first class with eight words. He was quite satisfied with his performance in class. This could be seen from the expressions and states of the students. Everyone listened very attentively.

After class, Kang Qirui went home. Being a teacher is like this, after finishing your class, you can go home.

I got home just in time for lunch. My sister-in-law Xianglan was also home today. Recently, Xianglan has been working the night shift and comes home in the morning. She sleeps for a few hours, gets up to eat lunch, then goes back to sleep again. After dinner in the evening, she goes to work. It's quite hard.

"Uncle Yao, I heard that the store you opened with Uncle Er and Yongfang is looking for 10 shopping guides, right?" Xianglan asked when she saw Kang Qirui after getting up. When she came back in the morning, she heard Uncle Er Kang Qizong calling the agency.

When the boss heard his wife ask this, he also helped to speak up: "If you want to recruit someone, A Rui, can you take a look at Xianglan? She is working the night shift every day and it is very hard." In fact, the boss just thought that Xianglan worked the night shift every day, which was different from his schedule. So when would she be able to have a baby? He also wanted Xianglan to change her job.

Originally, Kang Qirui was thinking about helping Da Laoguang open a store after he was laid off, but now that his sister-in-law asked in advance, it would be okay to practice in a clothing store first. If Da Laoguang and his wife really want to open a store in the future, it can only be Xianglan who makes the decision, because Da Laoguang is too shy.

"Sure, there's absolutely no problem for sister-in-law to come to work in the store, but the position of shopping guide is not suitable for her. How about a cashier?" However, Kang Qirui did not recommend Xianglan to be a shopping guide, mainly because Xianglan's Cantonese was not good, and sister-in-law had a very strange aesthetic, hahaha.

Xianglan didn't think there was any difference, as long as she didn't have to work the night shift every day. She didn't want to do it anymore, in fact, the real reason was similar to what the boss thought. Her husband was 40 years old, and now he worked night shifts and day shifts. She didn't see him every day. When would she be able to get pregnant? Xianglan still wanted a child of her own. Others looked up at the bright moon and thought about their hometown, but she thought about having a child.

Seeing Xianglan nodded in agreement, Kang Qirui said, "Then sister-in-law should resign in the next two days."

Da Lao Guang and Xiang Lan looked at Kang Qirui in confusion, and Kang Qirui explained: "Second sister-in-law and Yongfang will be back from training next week, and the decoration here is almost done. Second brother and I have decided to open the business on October 10th for good luck. So it's about time for eldest sister-in-law to resign now."

"Okay, I'll talk to our supervisor later."

"Yeah, then I'll talk to the second brother when he comes back." Hearing Kang Qirui's words, Xianglan secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She was embarrassed to ask A Zong, mainly because she had just married into the family and was not very familiar with and understood everyone. She only knew that the fifth brother was easy to talk to, and she didn't dare to ask anyone else. In fact, after a long time, she would find that the Kang family was easy to talk to.

In the evening, Kang Qirui waited until Xianglan finished her meal and went to work before he pulled his second brother Kang Qizon to sit in the patio and talk about Xianglan wanting to go to the store.

"I thought the Fifth Young Master was pulling me to talk about something, is it just this? Why doesn't the eldest sister-in-law say it herself?" A Zong said helplessly. Is his image so bad?
"Don't think too much, brother. I just happened to be at home." Kang Qirui helped Xianglan to smooth things over.

Then he said, "By the way, Er Lao, do you know anyone who does advertising? This is the first Metersbonwe store in Guangzhou, so we need to do some advertising to warm up the store."

"What does preheating mean?" A Zong didn't quite understand.

"I just want to tell everyone in advance that there is a clothing store here. The goods are of good quality and at good prices. Come and buy." Kang Qirui said briefly.

"A-Zu knows someone at the TV station, we can just ask him for help." A-Zong thought about it and decided that he should do some advertising. A store worth hundreds of thousands is not something that can be opened casually.

(End of this chapter)