chapter 18

Yuxi was a little too happy.

Next was Yuchen’s turn.

Teacher Song said, “Third Miss, recall what you have written.” For Yuchen, she still held great hope. She was willing to come to the Duke of the State’s residence because she knew that Yuchen had extraordinary qualifications and was outstanding in every way.

When Yuchen recited the text in má liū (Chinese dialect, meaning fast) style. It was finished in a blink of an eye. There was no pause in the middle, no mispronounced word, and even the analysis was perfectly answered.

Although Yuxi did not make any mistakes in reciting the text or analyzing it, she was slightly inferior to Yuchen.

Teacher Song was somewhat surprised. Yuchen performed so well as she expected. After all, she was not only highly qualified, but she had learned all these things. But Yuxi did not learn it before, and the news she heard also said that she only had general qualifications. She put down her doubts, opened the book and said, “Good, now open the book.” Yujing’s departure had not brought any effect on her.

In Pleasant Courtyard, Concubine Rong, who was doing embroidery work, saw Yujing crying all over her face. She got a fright. She put down her embroidery and asked, “What’s the matter? What happened? “ At this time, Yujing was supposed to listen to Teacher Song’s lecture in class. Why did she run back crying?

Yujing kept on crying, unwilling to tell her mother that she had never been so humiliated since she was young. Concubine Rong could only ask Yunbo, Yujing’s personal servant girl.

She finally knew that Yujing ran from her class, so she scolded her, “You dare to run from your class. Do you have any brains?”

For the first time, Yujing was scolded by Concubine Rong. She forgot to cry and stared at her mother with two lines of clear tears on her face.

Concubine Rong was almost furious, “Go back with me now and apologize to Teacher Song.”

Yujing was unwilling to go, “I won’t go. She hit me and now my hand has swollen.” After a pause, she embraced Concubine Rong and cried, “Mother, I almost die of pain when that ruler hit my hand. Mother, I don’t want to go. Mother, let me learn from you, okay?”

Hearing this, Concubine Rong tried hard to suppress her anger and said, “No. You should never quit school. If you grind your teeth, you have to stick for me just for a few months.“ In fact, she also had a headache. Her previous energy was focused so much on finding ways to give birth to a son. When she finally felt hopeless after two years of trying, she found out that Yujing had been malnourished. She had always wanted to straight out Yujing, but with little success.

Yujing still did not want to, “Mother, I wrote all night last night. I can’t even hold a pen today. If she really beats me ten times, my hand will surely be broken. ”

Concubine Rong said with a cold face, “If you want to marry a low-income family in the future, I will not stop you from living that bitter and cold life.”

Yujing’s greatest wish was to marry into a high-ranking family and become a rich, powerful lady. To let her marry a poor man was equivalent to bring her early death.

Concubine Rong hugged her and said, “Dearest child, Jing-er, you have to suffer now if you want a good future life.” In those days, she recited poems all night in order to gain the favor of Duke Han of the State. At least this bit of suffering in the end paid her something.

Yujing was silent. She did not want to learn from Teacher Song or married into a low-income family.

Concubine Rong didn’t give Yujing time to think about it. She took Yujing’s hand and said, “Go to Magnolia Courtyard now and apologize to your teacher.” Seeing that Yujing did not understand, she stopped reasoning with her and said, “If you don’t go there with me today, I’ll not have you as my daughter anymore.”

Yujing was frightened. “Mother…” She didn’t want to go there and lost face. But under the pressure of Concubine Rong, she finally went to Magnolia Courtyard, feeling grievance.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t enter the class because Teacher Song won’t let her in.

Yujing wanted to leave but Yunbo took her hand and said, “Miss, if you leave, there will be no room to turn around. Miss, please think about what your mother had said.“ She didn’t stopped her Miss before, but now she couldn’t let her go any more, or else Concubine Rong will hold her responsible.

Yujing remembered what her mother said, and if she left again now, there would really be no room for her to turn around. She felt like there were one thousand heavy things on her feet, dragging her down.

Standing at the door waiting, Yujing found that time really passed very slowly. Every second was a suffering for her. She even felt that all the maids in Magnolia Courtyard were secretly laughing at her. Thinking till here, her face became more and more ugly.

At last, class was over, and Yuxi shook her hand, which was very sore.

Yuru walked up to Yuchen with some embarrassment and said, “Third Sister, can you lend me your notes?”

Yuchen smiled and handed her notes to Yuru while saying, “You’re welcome, Eldest Sister.”

They didn’t have to pack their things, since they had to use them again for the afternoon class. Outside of the room, Yuxi saw Yujing apologizing to Teacher Song. Unfortunately, Teacher Said did not accept, “I have already said, do not come back after class.” She did not continue talk to Yujing. She turned and walked away.

Yujing tried to catch up, but was stopped by the old woman next to Teacher Song. “Miss, my Master is tired and needs to rest. Please, Miss, go back!”

Yujing noticed that Yuru was looking at her as the three people came out from the room. Her face turned color as red as a pig’s liver.

Yuchen said, “Second Sister, come with me to see Grandmother!” Yujing couldn’t solve the problem herself. Only her grandmother could solve it.

Yujing was not stupid. Naturally she knew what this means. She was now extremely regretful. If she knew earlier that she would be humiliated like this, she would not have run out of class just now.

Yuxi won’t take care of Yujing’s misdeeds. But when Yuchen came forward to help, and if only Yuxi went straight to her courtyard, she would be considered disregarding sisterhood. For the sake of reputation, she decided not to leave her spot.

Yuru hesitated for a moment and said, “Second Sister, this can only be said to Grandmother. Otherwise, teacher won’t let you join.”

Yuxi accidentally took a glanced at Yuru. Her words sounded like a plea, but why did she heard a trace of schadenfreude in them?

Old woman Ding told her Master what she saw in the yard. “Ma’am, the Third Miss is really talented.” In her eyes, Yuchen was good in everything, with no single flaw.

Teacher Song nodded her head. “I’ve been teaching for more than ten years. It’s the first time I’ve met such a talented person.” Excellent appearance, excellent qualifications, and more importantly, good temperament. Yuchen was very familiar with what she teached, but not only did she not show any impatience in class, but she also listened carefully, and did very good in her homework. It was Teacher Song’s good fortune to meet such a student.

Old woman Ding added, “but that Second Miss…” She did not know how to describe her but in four words, she was terribly awful.

Teacher Song smiled and said, “Even the girls of Yu’s family cannot all be good.” She was making reference of a famous family in the south of the Yangtze River, which had served as Imperial Official Assistant for two terms.

Old woman Ding shook her head and said, “But there is no one in this mansion that is talented except for Third Miss. Eldest Miss qualifications are poor, and can not bear the hardships. She certainly would not go through the first few months.”

Teacher Song smiled and said, “Fourth Miss is also very good.”

Old woman Ding shook her head and said, “Fourth Miss qualifications are not bad, but her character is still questionable.” Through today matter, she felt that Fourth Miss was being unkind to her sisters, and had a high attitude of indifference.

Teacher Song also saw that Yuxi was somewhat aloof. She thought for a moment and said, “There are causes and results in everything. It is definitely not by chance that she developed such temperament.” Today was her second day in the residence, thus she was afraid to make any judgment.

Old woman Ding was surprised. “Ma’am, you’re thinking of taking her as your student?” Those who wanted to become Teacher Song’s students must had a good combination of aptitude, perseverance and character. In character alone, she felt that Fourth Miss could not pass the test, not to mention that her qualifications was a bit lower than Third Miss.

Teacher Song shook her head and said, “It takes a lot of effort to teach one, but it is definitely impossible to teach two.” It took a lot of energy to teach a student and she didn’t have that much energy for more than that.

The Old Madam was well informed and soon learned about Yujing’s escape from the classroom. Although she was angry but it was not much, since she had no expectations for her.

She sat on the couch and listened to Yuchen’s story. She then looked at Yujing and asked, “Why did you run out of class at that time?”

Yujing stretched out her swollen hand and cried, “Grandmother, my hand hurts.” Her hand was still burning with pain.

Yuru looked down at her own swollen hand, with inexplicable mind.

The Old Madam glanced at Yuchen without trace, and when she saw that her hands were still fine, she felt relieved, “Now that you have left, why do you want to join back again? After going back to class, your hand will still need to be hit. “

The Old Madam’s eyes just now seemed to have no trace, but she was still perceived by the keen Yuxi. She sneered in her heart. From this small matter, she could see how biased the Old Madam was, but fortunately she did not care anymore.

Yujing winced when she heard her Grandmother’s words, but she still said through her gritted teeth, “I was just frightened and did not meant to disrespect Teacher Song. Grandmother, I still want to learn from her.”

Yuchen also began to plead, “Grandmother, we only went to school yesterday, and Second Sister only didn’t go today. If this goes out, it will ruin her good reputation.” If Yujing had a bad reputation, it would not also be good for them.

The Old Madam thought for a moment and said, “You all go back. I’ll take care of this.” Even if Yujing couldn’t suffer and refused to learn, she couldn’t leave this way.

Yuxi woke up at noon and began to write. In the light of yesterday’s situation, she should write a thousand words today, but she would not be able to finish them in the evening.

Mama Shen knew much earlier that Teacher Song was harsh, but it was one thing to hear and another thing to see. “Miss, take it easy.” If Yuxi went on like this, her hand would soon be useless.

Yuxi also wanted to take her time, but Teacher Song wouldn’t let her. She did not want to be hit by her tomorrow, and she also did not want to leave a bad impression on her.

In the afternoon class, Yujing also appeared in class. Yuxi looked at Yujing’s hand which was as red as a pig’s hoof and smiled unkindly. It seems that she missed a lot of good shows because of her illness in her last life.

Yuxi had to gather more than one hundred percent concentration during class. She had no choice. Teacher Song spoke too fast. If she slipped, she would miss a paragraph.

After the class was over, Teacher Song assigned them homework. To Yuxi’s surprise, she only asked them to write down the texts written in the morning and recited what they had learned today. In other words, they would only write more than 600 words, but less than 1,000 words as she first expected.

She breathed a sigh of relief. She had written nearly 200 words at noon. With this, she could finish her task early in the evening.