Chapter 15 : Teacher Song (1)

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How could Qiu Shi didn’t know of Yuchen’s intelligence? In order not to hurt Yuxi's self-confidence, she immediately changed the subject, “The copybook your Er Ge found for you is inappropriate.
So, is there any copybook that you want to find?“

 

Yuxi shook her head and said, “I don't know either.“

 

Zanhua Xiaokai (簪花小楷) was created by Lady Wei, the most prominent female calligrapher during Jin Dynasty.
It was based on Zhong Yao's regular script but written a bit narrower than him.
This type of calligraphy is one of the most used copybooks for students of calligraphy.
Image Credit: TodayOnHistory

Qiu Shi thought for a moment and said, “Teacher Song wrote a beautiful zanhua xiaokai script.
If you want to practice calligraphy, you better find a copybook on that script.” Yuxi already studied zanhua xiaokai in her last life, so she didn't want to bother herself to find another copybook on it again.

 

Seeing no response from Yuxi, Qiu Shi reminded her, “Yuxi, you are the youngest out of the four girls in this residence.
Teacher Song will examine you first, and only through this examination can you succeed.
If you can't write, she definitely won't accept you.”

 

Yuxi really didn't expect this, “Then, what can I do?” This was a rare opportunity that she didn't want to miss! But, wouldn’t it be strange, if she suddenly could write with Teacher Song’s favourite script – zanhua xiokai?

 

Qiu Shi turned around and asked Mama Li, “Do I have a zanhua xiokai copybook here?” There were too many things for her to remember.

 

Mother Li shook her head and said, “No, my Lady.“ Qiu family was the home of military generals.
All the men in the family were required to be able to read and write.
Even better, if the girls in the family would also learn the same thing.
But, they won’t be forced, if they had decided not to learn.
Even Qiu Shi didn't like studying.
After reading a few books and knowing how to do accounts, she stopped her study.

 

Qiu Shi thought for a moment and said, “I'll find the copybook for you.
When I find one, you have to begin practising your calligraphy.” She also hoped that Yuxi could follow Teacher Song's class.
Yuxi lost her mother at an early age and was not loved by her biological father.
It would not have been easy for her to find relatives later on.
If she could get Teacher Song's approval, then she could also find a good household in the future.
When that time came, Qiu Shi could also relax a lot.

 

After Yuxi left, Qiu Shi's face fell and said, “Mama Li, go and bring over Ziyi!” Just now, when she heard what Yuxi had said, her heart had already burnt with anger.
But she didn't want Yuxi to see her ugly face, so she pretended to be okay.

 

When Yuxi returned to her courtyard, she read with Mama Shen again.
Enlightenment books, women's books, she had learned all of them in her past life.
In order not to arouse suspicion, she slowly learned them again this time around.

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After taking a nap, Yuxi took the embroidery basket to do some embroidery work.
Hongshan came in with a white face, looked at Yuxi, and asked, “Miss, did you tell the Lady about the copybook?”

 

Yuxi blinked her eyes, “Yeah! What’s up? “

 

Hongshan was going to cry, “Miss, Ziyi Jiejie is going to be released by the Lady.”

 

Old woman Shen who was also there asked, “What’s going on?“ Ziyi was the Shizi’s personal maid, so, how did she get involved with her Miss?

 

Yuxi explained the matter in a few words to Mama Shen and then said to Hongshan, “I didn't know it would be like this.
When I saw my aunt today, I just said it offhandedly.” A four-year-old child would be guarded against if the child had too many intentions, so Yuxi wouldn't admit that she said it intentionally.

 

Old woman Shen said, “Miss did the right thing.
This matter should have been told to the Lady.
This Ziyi was too daring.
To let her stay would only bring disaster.“ For her to even dare to frame the Second Young Master for not being uptight and honest.
If such a maid had not been kicked out of the residence, she didn't know what would happen in the future.

 

Hongshan did not dare to speak anymore.

 

Yuxi deliberately pretended to be worried and said, “Mama Shen, I'm afraid my Grandmother will blame me.” The four pretty maids around the Shizi were all given by the Old Lady.
Now, by getting rid of one of the maids, her grandmother would surely become more displeased with her.

 

Mama Shen said with a smile, “Miss, don’t worry.
Ziyi isn’t one of the maids given by the Old Lady to Master Shizi.
Ziqing, one of the maids sent by the Old Lady, will get married at the end of the year, so she was released.
Ziyi came as her replacement.
“

 

If Yuxi could tell Qiu Shi about this, she would not be afraid of retaliation.
Yuxi took one thoughtful look at Hongshan.
She thought Hongshan was clever, but this time she did something stupid.
If she didn't guess wrong, Hongshan even did it on purpose.
As for her reason, Yuxi didn't know.
She asked, “Hongshan, what is the relationship between Ziyi and you? “

 

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Hongshan saw Yuxi's displeasure, and her heart was still pounding.
She lowered her head and said with a lovable look, “Miss, Ziyi Jiejie is my first cousin.”

 

In front of Yuxi, old woman Shen said, “Your cousin, nine times out of ten, has been planned on.” It was said that the Shizi liked this Ziyi very much.
It was expected that the other maids were jealous of her, which was why this thing had happened.
But she was only a maid beside the Shizi, so it was not her concern.

 

Hongshan's face turned pale.

 

Yuxi thought this Ziyi was really stupid.
Wasn’t it stupid to arrange the fault of one of her master? Even without her getting involved, Ziyi would still be kicked out.

 

Yuxi went to greet the Old Lady the next day.
The Old Lady rewarded her with a pair of twisted suede jade rings, and a zanhua xiaokai copybook.

 

The Old Lady said, “You did a very good job.“

 

Yuxi knew what the Old Lady was referring to, so she smiled happily when she received the gift.
However, the Old Lady was satisfied with Mama Shen by two points for her report.
Anyway, she also felt that Yuxi was easily tempted by money, just like the girls from her maternal home who were extremely shallow.

 

When Yuxi was alone in the Rose Courtyard, her expression was complicated.
As could be seen from this copybook, the Old Lady knew whenever there was trouble on her side, which meant that no matter what she did or said, she would forever be under the Old Lady's eyes and had no privacy.

 

She was glad that she was very well-behaved in other aspects besides showing her genius in embroidery, which was different from that of ordinary people.
She was just like a normal four-year-old child, otherwise, the Old Lady would have been suspicious of her.
It was also because of this, Yuxi became more cautious in the future.

 

In the following period, Yuxi was having a hard time in her life.
Usually, she slept until the end of maoshi.
As a result, Mama Shen woke up at the beginning of maoshi and started chanting about Yuchen’s excellence in Yuxi’s ears.
She then said that Yuchen had started learning to play the zither after she had done with women's literature.
Currently, she was learning the art of painting and zither.
Yuxi reluctantly got up and practised her calligraphy.
However, she was only willing to sit on three things, namely, reading, practising calligraphy, and embroidering.
She was unwilling to learn other things, for example, if she was persuaded to learn zither, for the life of her, she would never let herself learn.
She would just give an excuse that she had a headache, then ran away.

 

Was Mama Shen kidding around? Was Yuchen comparable? She had lived an extra life and learned things very quickly, but she was still incomparable with a monster like Yuchen.
Comparing oneself to Yuchen, made it easy for one to lose one’s heart.

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When Mama Shen saw that her talk for half a month had no effect on Yuxi, she finally decided to give up.

 

More than a month passed in the blink of an eye.
Today was the day when Teacher Song would come to the residence.

 

As Yuxi had done memorising books and practising writing words in the morning, she noticed that Motao did not come back.
After she waited for a while more, she ordered a nearby maid, “Go and see why hasn't breakfast been brought in yet?”

 

After half a column of incense, Motao came back with the food box in her hand and angrily said, “Miss, the crispy thick congee was stolen by Yunbo, the Second Miss’ maid.
She said her Miss wanted to eat it.” The effect of the crispy thick congee was to nourish the five Zang organs, tonify Qi and blood, and moisten the hair.
Yuxi's body was well-known for being weak.
She was eating this congee just for nourishing it.

Crispy thick congee is a food made with ghee, honey, and glutinous rice.
Just cook it like the usual way you make normal rice congee.
Image Source | Baike Baidu

Despite losing her congee, Yuxi’s expression stayed the same.
Then she said, “I'm hungry, set out my meal.” It was not that she had a big heart, but today was a special day.
She would suffer if she made any trouble today.

 

Speaking of Concubine Rong's ability, she was currently put under house arrest in Pleasant Courtyard by the Old Lady.
In the case of a Concubine Lian, she could still be able to pull the other half of the Duke Han of the State back to her by using the hand of Yujing.
The reason why she had only half was that Concubine Lian was also favoured by Lord Duke.
But despite this, Yuxi still admired Concubine Rong's means.
Of course, Concubine Lian would never let Concubine Rong succeed in her plan.
It was known that the concubines that Eldest Aunt gave to Eldest Uncle in the past could not compete with Concubine Rong.
Yuru's mother died in her hands.
It must be said that the Old Lady was still the most powerful in the government.

 

After breakfast, Yuxi changed her clothes and went to the main room.
By the time she arrived, everyone was already there.

 

When Yujing saw Yuxi, she deliberately pretended to be surprised, “Si Meimei, you are only four years old.
Do you want to study together with us?”

 

Yuxi despised Yujing so much.
She also had to learn from Teacher Song.
Though, no one in the whole mansion knew about it.
Yujing knowingly said, “Well, Teacher Song is a famous lady in the capital city.
If I can learn anything from Teacher Song, I will be satisfied.”

 

Yujing sneered, but she also wanted to learn a little.
Not to mention whether Teacher Song would accept her or not, it would certainly not last more than three days.

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Old Lady Han glanced at Yujing and she dared not speak anymore.
Yujing's worst fear was the Old Lady and no other.
As long as she did something wrong, the Old Lady would shut her up in the Buddhist temple to copy Buddhist scriptures.

 

Yuxi also knew that the Old Lady did not like Yujing too, but this Second Miss had good luck.
She was her father's favourite child.
Nobody dared to provoke her for being arrogant and domineering in the state residence.

 

Qiu Shi seemed to ignore the contradiction just now and said with a smile to the Old Lady, “Mother, Magnolia Courtyard has already been set up, but the maid has not been chosen yet.
I think it is better to let Teacher Song choose the maid herself.“ She had prepared several maids, but she did not know Teacher Song's preferences, so she did not want to be a good advocate.
In doing so, she also expressed her respect for Teacher Song.

 

Old Lady Han always believed in Qiu Shi's ability to handle internal affairs, “Well, you think so well.” If you rushed to send a maid to Teacher Song, she would think that they were trying to pry into her privacy!

 

At the end of the morning, the long-awaited Teacher Song finally arrived.
She went up to Old Lady Han and gave her a gift.

 

Today, Teacher Song was wearing a gold butterfly patterned cyan-coloured beizi, a brown skirt, and black hair combed into a bun, adorned with a pair of double-happiness hair clasps inlaid with cat's eyes gems.
This dress was very old-fashioned.

 

Yuxi had seen Teacher Song several times in her previous life.
Every time she saw Teacher Song’s facial impression, she would feel afraid.
But now she didn’t feel afraid at all.

 

After exchanging a few words of greetings with Teacher Song, Old Lady Han then introduced Yuru and her other grandchildren one by one to Teacher Song.

 

Teacher Song only glanced at Yuru and Yujing, and then her attention was focused on Yuchen.
When Old Lady Han talked about Yuxi, Teacher Song shook her head and said, “Old Lady, Fourth Miss is too young to join.”

 

Yuxi stood up and said, “Ma'am, it was me who asked my Grandmother and Aunt, and they couldn't resist me.
I want to learn Chinese characters with Ma'am.” After a pause, she continued, “Don't worry, Ma'am, I won't hold back my other three sisters.”

 

Before Teacher Song came, she had made a clear inquiry on the situation inside the State House and also made a lot of inquiries on the Fourth Girl.
However, all Teacher Song knew was the news before Yuxi fell ill, which made her feel that Yuxi was different from the information she had received.
However, she still shook her head and said, “You are too young.” If teenagers couldn’t even stand the way she thought, let alone a four-year-old child.