After dinner, Yuxi walked around the yard to help with her digestion.
Seeing Mama Shen absent, Hongshan whispered to Yuxi, "Miss, at noon, the Old
Lady asked the Eldest Lady to intercede with Teacher Song regarding the Second
Miss' situation." Yuxi had been cold to her these days, making Hongshan feel very uncomfortable. She knew she had done something wrong, and now she tried to brush her presence in front of Yuxi. Her advantage was to spy on news of the inner residence. She believed that as long as the information was helpful to her Miss,
she would not always act cold to her.
Yuxi's face flashed with scorn. Her Eldest Aunt hated Concubine Rong and her daughter, but the Old Lady still asked her to plead with Teacher Song. This
was disgusting.
After Yuxi finished her schoolwork at the end of the day, she didn't sleep either. Instead, she reviewed her books. She studied not only what she had learned but also basic enlightenment books such as «One Hundred Family Names» and «Thousand–Character Classic». Based on Teacher
Song's progress, she would finish teaching them these books in less than half a month. This situation gave her a sense of crisis.
Yuru, who was also writing, could not do more than half of her schoolwork.
She wrote down too much, and her hands were severely hurt. "Zhuxuan, I don't want to go to
Magnolia Courtyard anymore." One or two days were tolerable. If, in the case of three months, she would have gone mad.
Zhuxuan also felt sorry for Miss. "Miss, we must find a way out. If you
don't want to continue, it can't be the same as the Second Miss."
Yuru nodded. "I really can't stand this." She couldn't stand it any longer. She had to think of an excellent way to get rid of it.
On the other hand, after writing for half an hour, Yujing cried out, "Mother,
my hand hurts. I can't write anymore. Mother, my hand is about to break off."
Concubine Rong hardened her heart and said, "Write even if your hand hurts, or
you will have to take care of yourself again tomorrow." The beating was a trivial matter. What they were terrified of was Teacher Song expelled Yujing from school for her poor performance.
Yujing was forced to continue writing. However, being forced to learn by oneself was pretty different from learning by oneself. She had been writing until midnight but still had more than one hundred words to write.
Concubine Rong had no choice but to say, "Go to bed first and get up tomorrow
morning to write."
Yujing sobbed, "Even if I finish my homework, I will still be punished if I
can't recite the text." Tomorrow, she wouldn't be able to escape the ten strokes.
She felt very miserable. Although she wrote with her left hand, it also affected her writing speed. Teacher Song was indeed a devil.
The next day, Yuru was hit six times. While Yujing was struck eight times. Yuchen was still the same as yesterday. Not only was she able to recite it smoothly,
but she could also explain it accurately. Yuxi had no problem reciting and analysing the text but paused twice.
Teacher Song was quite satisfied with Yuxi's performance. It was terrific that she could perform so well, even without any foundation. She
praised Yuxi, "Excellent, but you still have to continue to work hard."
Yuxi did not feel any joy when she received Teacher Song's praise. Although she deliberately paused two times, Yuxi knew that even if she didn't have any self–deception, the best she could do was to draw even with Yuchen. This situation was a blow to her, who had lived an extra lifetime.
Yujing felt it was unfair. "Teacher, Si Meimei1 also made mistakes. Why not hit her, too?" Even if there was no mistake in her
analysis, Yuxi paused twice.
How could Teacher Song fail to see the jealousy in Yujing's eyes and say with
a straight face, "If you feel unfair, you can leave."
Under the eaves, people had to lower their heads2, so yesterday, they made a concession. She would never let Yujing appear in her class again if there was a second time.
Yujing thought of yesterday's incident. She was afraid of being expelled from the class, so she didn't dare to pick any more faults. At this
moment, she could only bitterly look at Yuxi, waiting to find a chance to
punish the smelly girl.
Once the class was dismissed, Yuxi shook her sore arm. She had written too much these two days till she felt like her hands were no longer hers.
When Yuchen saw Yuxi's movement yesterday, she didn't say a thing. She did not expect Yuxi to repeat the same action today. At last, she could not help but say, "Si Meimei1, this move of yours is very indecent. You can't do it again." Ladies from good families should smile without showing teeth and walk gracefully like their feet were in lotus shoes. Where should there be such rude movements? This was also the case when they went to socialise in the future. Indecent gestures would make people think the ladies of their residence were ill-bred. Yuchen felt that she should tell Grandmother about Yuxi's lack of etiquette.
The end of Yuxi's mouth twitched. Then, she said, "I only shook my arm because
it was sore." She had a sore hand. She was not swinging her arm around for fun.
Yuchen was so surprised that Yuxi would refute her words that she was silent for a moment. The people around her were always obedient to her. Even the tyrant
Yujing didn't dare to talk big in front of her.
Yuxi ignored Yuchen's reaction. Everyone used to indulge in Yuchen. Only she didn't want to do the same. At the same time, she was unwilling to offend her.
After packing her things, Yuxi said, "If San Jie3
has nothing else to say, I'll go back first."
A noob translator, きつね, translated this noob translation. Please read this chapter at xin-shou.site. If you read this in another location other than the site stated, it has been taken without the translator's permission. Please don't support this kind of act.
Shishu gazed at Yuxi's back view and regrettably said, "She is such an ignorant person. Miss, let's leave her matter alone next time."
Yuchen pursed her lips and said, "How could I?" Yuxi was also her younger sister. If she indulged her, later on, people would accuse both of them of being uneducated.
Yuxi wrote dozens of words till she couldn't write anymore. She had been writing too much these days. Her hands were burning with pain, and her arms were also aching badly.
Upon seeing this, Mama Shen could only help massage Yuxi's shoulders. It took less than half an hour before Yuxi's shoulders felt much more comfortable. The same happened to her hands after being applied with ointment.
Yuxi bitterly said, "What can I do later on?" It had only been two days. She worried that her hands were going to break if this thing continued.
"Don't worry, Miss. Teacher Song was only this strict at the beginning. Just
wait until you pass this hurdle," Mama Shen comforted her.
Yuxi seldom went out in her previous life and spent most of her time in her courtyard. Despite Teacher Song teaching Yuchen in the government for five years, she still did not understand her and asked, "Why was she only very strict at the start? It will not be this tough later on?"
Mama Shen did bother to inquire about Teacher Song, "Studying is a hard job. How can one last if one can't bear the first bit of suffering? This old
servant speculated that Teacher Song wanted to see whether Miss could endure
hardships. "
Yuxi was sceptical. No matter the result, she must stick to it for
several months.
It took Teacher Song only two and a half days to finish the «Three-Character
Classic» and half an hour to check out their schoolwork, pointing out the
shortcomings of their big characters.
Of the four, Yuchen wrote the best; the worst was not Yuxi but Yuru.
When Yuru heard Teacher Song say that her handwriting was vain and weak, like
that of a patient, she burst into tears again.
Teacher Song felt that it was really impossible to carve rotten wood4. She taught so fast not to mess with the four girls but to let them learn all the basics of enlightenment books. It was equivalent to saying that she was now reviewing what the four people had memorised, doing more analysis, and, at the same time, deepening her impression of the four of them. As a result, the Second Miss did not need to be evaluated, while the Eldest Miss was also in a mess. She didn't want to work hard even though she had no qualifications. She cried when she met a
little bit of hardship. Watery mud couldn't be used to plaster the wall5.
A strangeness sprang up in Yuxi's heart. Based on reason alone, she should be
the weakest in writing among the four people, but somehow Yuru took the title.
Teacher Song ignored the weeping Yuru and said, "Words are also a person's face. If the words were not written well, others would laugh at the writers later. The second thing is it will show whether you have learned well. So, you must write the words nicely. In the future, you must practice writing your characters well. "
Yuxi felt that the words were golden. Unfortunately, when she did her homework that night, she felt uncomfortable. She wrote too much until her hands were filled with blisters, which looked very scary. Mama Shen took a
needle to break them and then applied ointment.
Looking at Yuxi's gnashing her teeth and bearing the pain, Mama Shen also felt a little sorry, "Miss, just endure this period. An old saying goes, eat bitterness among the bitter; upright man will be exalted6."
Yuxi looked at the ointment in Mama Shen's hand and asked, "Will this ointment
leave a scar?" It reminded her of a prescription for removing scars.
Mama Shen shook her head with a smile and said, "Don't worry, Miss. This
ointment will quickly relieve swelling and pain and not leave a scar."
She said this to let Yuxi know that the Old Lady cared about her.
Yuxi was not ungrateful. It was estimated that she used the jade cream on its way to Yuchen. So she said lightly, "Okay."
After applying the medicine, she took a short rest and then went to the table to continue writing. Mama Shen was busily stopping her, "Miss, don't write today because you just put some medicine on your hand. Write tomorrow! "
Yuxi shook her head. "There are still more than one hundred characters left. If I don't finish them today, I can't get up and recite them
tomorrow morning. "She always heard that Teacher Song's teaching was horrible.
Now, her personal experience showed that those rumours were not exaggerated.
Moju was quick–mouthed and said, "Miss, how do you write with all the
medicine on your hands?" Looking at her Miss's suffering, she felt terrible too.
Teacher Song was too horrible.
Yuxi said with a smile, "If the right hand can't do it, then the left hand
will have to take over."
In her previous life, she was unpopular in the Jiang home and disliked social interaction. She stayed in her courtyard all day and could do nothing but embroidery. Embroidered every day made her right hand a little tired. Once, she tried to use her left hand. After several years of practice, she was able to do it. However, she didn't use her left hand to write. She didn't have a good command of strength when she wrote. The words she wrote were all a mass of inks. After she had mastered the force, the words were also written similarly to how her right hand wrote. Yet, they varied in length, thickness, and ugliness.
Mama Shen looked at Yuxi dumbfounded. She never expected that Fourth Miss had this skill. Moju was stunned, speechless, with her mouth hanging open.
Yuxi spent twice as much time writing the rest of her homework. Before she
could go to bed, she took out her books to review.
Moju saw that the candle was almost burnt out and fetched another one.
Footnotes Full List
- si=fourth, meimei=younger sister
- meaning when a person has to depend on others for food, pay, etc, that person has to do what they say
- san=third, jie=elder sister, short form for Jiejie
- share the same meaning as you can’t teach an old dog new tricks
- meaning, some people are hapless beyond helping
- mean the same as No Pain No Gain
Noob Translator's Musing
Darn, Chelsea got beaten. (ʘ言ʘ╬)
Oh, the meaning of the title of this chapter is 'in extreme misery'. It was a
Chinese idiom 水深火热 (shuǐ shēn huǒ rè).
Tags:
The Rebirth of Han Yuxi