chapter 77

Yuchen acted quickly by telling the Old Madam about it sooner. Then, she went to Biteng Courtyard and told Wu Shi about it, “Mother, I can’t teach Yurong any more.”

Wu Shi was so angry that Yurong herself didn’t even dare to tell her about this matter, “Your Fifth Sister was still young to understand. You don’t have to worry about her. I promise she won’t dare to act like that again.“ She let Yurong learned from Yuchen because Yuchen’s rules and etiquette were especially good. There was a saying, ‘don’t need to worry about not knowing goods, but about comparing them (Chinese proverbs : The true value of a person or good can only be determined through comparison)’. Yuxi’s rules and etiquette were also good, but if compared with Yuchen’s, the difference was more than one margin. If one wanted to learn, naturally, one should learn from the best. Facts had proven that she was right. Yurong had made great progress in less than half a month, and the effect was much better than being taught by an invited teacher.

Yuchen shook her head and said, “Mother, I’m of humble talent and shallow learning, that’s why I can’t teach my Fifth Sister any longer.” She had her own rules of conduct, that was, the opportunity came only once, and you would never be given a second chance.

Wu Shi looked at Yuchen and refused to give her any face. Her heart felt as if it was being crushed by a stone. She stopped her discomfort and still wanted to help her daughter to get another chance. “Yuchen, Yurong is your own sister. Don’t you want her to be good too?”

Yuchen didn’t like being pushed around. On that day, she was willing to teach Yurong not for Wu Shi’s sake, but for her father’s sake. “Mother, I have to learn a lot every day, so I don’t have time and energy to teach Fifth Sister. Moreover, I have already told Grandmother about this matter. She also felt that it was inappropriate for me to teach Fifth Sister. She has already said that she will invite a teacher and the nurturing momo (wet nurse) to teach Yurong as soon as possible.“ She now agreed with Yuxi’s remark that there were specialists in every technical fields. It would be more effective to ask someone who was proficient in that field to teach Yurong.

Even when the Old Madam’s name had been brought up, Wu Shi still didn’t want to give up. With a forced smile, she said, “You’ve been working hard these days.” She thought Yuchen was easily open to persuasion, but she did not expect that was her own delusion. Neither of her two stepdaughters took her seriously.

Yuchen shook her head before saying, “If it’s okay with Mother, I will go back first.” Her impression of Wu Shi was already bad because of the gifts before, so she was not going to get close with her. Of course, she wouldn’t be afraid if Wu Shi dared to provoke her.

Wu Shi’s face was very ugly, but she also didn’t want to lose her temper at Yuchen. Wu Shi belonged to a typical case of bullying the weak but feared the strong. Yuchen had a strong backer that she did not dare to offend, “Mama Chen will go send Third Girl off.”

When Yurong entered the room, she could see that her mother’s face was livid. She cried out with some fear, “Mother, what’s the matter? Did Third Sister disagree? “

Wu Shi tried her best to calm her anger and she politely said, “Your Third Sister is busy. After a while, mother will invite a teacher to come over for you.”

Yurong’s face was pleasantly surprised, “Could you invite Teacher Song, please?” (T/N : I don’t know why, but if she learns from Teacher Song, I believe she will end up like Yujing. They kind of have the same attitudes. Maybe because both are extremely pampered by their mothers.)

Mama Chen could not help sighing beside her. She used to think that her Miss was innocent and lovely, but now, compared to Third Miss and Fourth Miss, her Miss was kind of pathetic.

The anger in Wu Shi’s heart could no longer be contained. She angrily scolded, “Why are you so disappointing? You couldn’t even finish writing 100 characters a day. Then you also asked me to intercede with Yuchen. Now, it’s good that I’ve just lost all my face. “

Yurong had been Wu Shi’s precious darling since she was young. Today was the first time that she had been scolded, thus she immediately cried disorderly.

When Han Jingyan came back that night, he saw Wu Shi’s eyes were red, obviously she had been crying, and he asked, “What’s the matter?” His first two wives died young, made him bearing the title of a jinx to his wives. Fortunately, Wu Shi was able to live in peace with him for so many years and gave birth to three more of his children. In his heart, Wu Shi’s status was quite high.

Wu Shi told Han Jingyan about what happened that afternoon and said, “Yurong, this child is too ignorant. Yuchen is also good for her. How can she don’t want to write because she is afraid of having scars?”

The Old Madam told Han Jiangyan regarding this matter two days ago and condemned him for being an incompetent father. Yuchen was already so busy every day that he didn’t know how to cherish and instead increased her burdens, which made Han Jingyan felt guilty.

Han Jingyan said, “Yuchen has a lot to learn and her daily schedule is very tight. Because of these, I still don’t want Yurong to learn from her. Since Yurong needs to learn piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, just hire a teacher. You can always get a good one if you spend more time on it. “

Wu Shi’s heart was stifled. After all, her husband still leaned towards Yuchen, but this was something she could not say out loud. She deliberately said bitterly, “My husband, a good gentleman can’t be invited any time soon. Isn’t this just wasting time?” When she was in Hebei, she thought that Yurong was very good in all aspects, but when they returned to the state residence, there were Yuchen and Yuxi in front, and Yurong had became a slag. She did not want her daughter to be a foil to others, so she urgently started to change the status quo.

Han Jingyan thought for a moment and said, “Yuxi also learned from Teacher Song. All her aspects are not bad, especially her embroidery which is very good. Let Yurong learns from Yuxi first!” Yuxi could do double-sided embroidery. At least, Yurong embroidery skill would not be bad!

When Wu Shi heard this, her mind was extremely unwilling. Yuxi was just a guest student, how could she be compared with Yuchen, the last disciple? Even though she was unwilling, she was currently did not have any better way.

Ming Dynasty Xuande Emperor playing touhu (pitch pot game), 15th century.

Source | Sina.com via Wiki

Early morning next day, Yuxi got up to do . Momo Quan once said that wuqinxi movements were unbecoming, and she had asked Yuxi to exercise by playing pitch pot game or walked longer every day, just like Yuchen. Yuxi was almost obedient to Momo Quan, and she would always listen to everything Momo Quan said, but in this case, she simply did not agree. When Momo Quan saw Yuxi being persisted, she could only back down.

After completing a set of wuqinxi, Yuxi’s whole body was warm all over. Since the weather was cool, she didn’t sweat. On her way to enter the room, suddenly a bird flew overhead.

Zisu turned pale with fright, “Miss, don’t move. Something dirty has fallen on you.”

Yuxi turned her head and saw that bird droppingshad fallen on her clothes. “Bird dropping has properly dropped from the sky. I’m afraid, something bad is going to happen today.”

Kufu spit twice and said unhappily, “Miss, you only happy events in the residence. Where will you met any bad thing?” Her Miss usually didn’t pay attention to anything.

Yuxi smiled, “I just said without thinking.”

As soon as the conversation was over, an old woman servant came over and said, “Fourth Miss, Madam requesting you to come over.”

After the old woman servant left, Zisu reminded, “The weasel goes to pay his respects to the hen.—with bad intentions (Chinese idiom : beware of suspicious folk bearing gifts, they are sure to be ill-intentioned). Please be careful this time, Miss.” The maid beside Yuxi was the most sensitive one.

Yuxi smiled, “Don’t worry, she can’t eat me alive (phrase : completely destroyed or defeated by someone).”

When Yuxi arrived at Biteng Courtyard and heard Wu Shi’s request, she was rather surprised, “Mother is asking me to teach Fifth Sister?” She felt that things in the world were really changeable. Especially in her previous life where Wu Shi would look down on her very much, and now, she let Yurong learn from her.

Wu Shi politely said, “I’m currently trying to invite a teacher, but it takes time to invite a good one. Therefore, I want your Fifth Sister to follow your teaching for a period of time. “

Yuxi laughed in her heart, but did not show it in her face, “I don’t know if Mother knows or not. I only attended a few classes and didn’t even learn much except superficial knowledges from Teacher Song. I’m afraid I can’t teach Fifth Sister well.”

Wu Shi’s face was looking bad. First Yuchen, now Yuxi also acted like this. One by one didn’t put her in their eyes. Yuchen’s background was too hard, added up with the support from Old Madam, she couldn’t do anything about it, but even Yuxi, she herself still could not hold on. Her tone of voice couldn’t help getting a little tougher, “I’ve already planned to find a teacher for Yurong first, but I can’t find a good teacher for a while. I just want you to lay the foundation for Yurong before her teacher comes.” Seeing Yuxi wanted to refute, she immediately said, “This is also your father’s wish.”

Yuxi sneered in her heart. She knew that the soft persimmons people chose to squeeze (Chinese idiom : it’s the weak who always been picked on), “If my mother doesn’t mind, I’ll let Fifth Sister come to my Rose Courtyard every morning. Then Fifth Sister and I will learn and improve together.”

Wu Shi’s expression slightly relaxed.

Yuxi said face to face with the unwilling Yurong, “Fifth Sister, the best thing I learned from Teacher Song is chess, and I have been studying with her for five years. Although I can’t compare with Third Sister, I am still much better than the average person. If Fifth Sister doesn’t mind, I can teach Fifth Sister chess and embroidery.“

Yuxi’s words were too modest. Although Yuchen was intelligent, she had too much to learn, while Yuxi had specialized in chess all these years. However, she didn’t want to let people know that she was good at chess, so she deliberately won less and lost more with Yuchen. Yuchen didn’t know about them at first, and was later reminded by Teacher Song. However, when Yuchen knew about it, she didn’t expose it. This led everyone to think that even if Yuxi worked hard, she still could not be compared with Yuchen.

Yurong was unwilling to learn from Yuxi. The reason was very simple. Yuxi was too weak which made her looked down at Yuxi. But with the previous incident, she did not dare to challenge her father’s patience.

This matter was settled. The next day, Yurong arrived at the Rose Courtyard half past chenshi (7-9 a.m), which was quite different from her previous attitude of going to Tingyun Pavilion where she arrived before chenshi.

Yuxi did not take this too seriously. When she saw Yurong, she smiled and said, “Fifth Sister, let me teach you chess first!”

Yurong listened to Yuxi’s preaching on her chess skills, and her eyes flashed with contempt. However, at this time she also learned to be good and did not dare to confront Yuxi. She nodded and said, “Okay.”

Yuxi took out the notes she had taken in class before and read them loud.

Yurong listened for less than half an hour and she was furious. Was this how she going to teach her chess? This was no different than a monk chanting sutras. Yurong was not a patient person, so she immediately said, “Fourth Sister, you can just give me your notes. I’ll look at them myself.” If she had to continue listening to Yuxi read them there, she would go crazy.

Yuxi pointed out, “In fact, the notes made by the Third Sister are much better than mine. If Fifth Sister really wants to learn chess, why don’t you borrow the notes from Third Sister?”

Yurong naturally knew that Yuchen was better than Yuxi, but she was also a proud person. She had been rejected as such, so how could she find Yuchen without feeling ashamed! She didn’t want to borrow Yuchen’s notes, so she took Yuxi’s notes and read them.

If one could learn it well by just relying on a notebook, there would be many self-taught people everywhere. Yurong did not understand it after reading it for a long time, “Fourth Sister, if you’re not scare, why don’t we play a game of chess!” She remembered Yuchen said that if someone accompanied her when learning chess, she would learn quickly.

Yuxi was not impatient at all as she responded with a smile, “Okay then!”

Zisu listened to this talk with a strange look. Others might not know but she could understand it clearly. It took only half a month for Fifth Miss to learn to play weiqi, but she dared to say that she wanted to play with her Master in a disapproving tone? Was she being over confident or just too foolish?