"What if the girls at home just can't learn and don't absorb the studies?"
"Then they still need to be sent to school," the village chief said, "Otherwise, the government will charge them all with an offense."
Seeing their discontented expressions, the village chief continued, "You know, this year the court is not imposing labor, and if any village wants, it can organize its own people to dig canals and repair roads, so the county roads are very bad and waiting for someone to fix them."
"If you commit an offense, the county government will be happy about it. When the county's officials come down to inspect, if they find out there are eligible children in your home not attending school, you'll have to go serve at the county. Calculate it—if you start your service in September, you'll have to work until next January, and if there's a pause in between, it'll happen right during the farming season, which will ruin your livelihood for the whole year."
