Mrs. Zhou kept nodding. After he finished speaking, she said to Zhao Yuanyuan, "What your uncle said is true. Back in the day when he had no books to read, he had to go to other people's houses to copy them. The books would be worn out by the end.
Jiao Jiao recognized the Three Character Classic and the Thousand Character Classic at the age of three. She was very smart. I secretly taught her and didn't dare let anyone know. When she was nearly four, she could recite many prescriptions casually—the ones I remembered from medical books. She would secretly run off to the ancestral hall and recite them before burning them. How old was she then? A single brush would be worn to tatters by the end.
