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nChapter 19 : Deep Water and Scorching Fire (1)

nAfter dinner, Yuxi walked around the yard to help her digestion.

nSeeing Mama Shen absent, Hongshan whispered to Yuxi, “Miss, at noon the Old Madam asked Eldest Madam to intercede with Teacher Song and Second Miss situation.” Yuxi had been cold to her these days, making Hongshan feeling 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 news was useful to her Miss, she would not always acted cold to her.

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nYuxi’s face flashed with scorn. Her Eldest Aunt hated Concubine Rong and her daughter, but the Old Madam still asked her to plea with Teacher Song. This was disgusting.

nAt the end of the day, Yuxi finished her schoolwork, but she didn’t went to sleep either. Instead, she reviewed her books. Not only did she reviewed on what she had learned, but she also review on basic enlightenment books such as “One Hundred Family Names” and “ Thousand – Character Classic”. Based on Teacher Song’s progress, these books would be finished in less than half a month. This gave her a sense of crisis.

nYuru, who was also writing, could not write more than half of her schoolwork. She wrote too much and her hands hurt badly. “Zhuxuan, I don’t want to go to Magnolia Courtyard any more.” One or two days were tolerable. If in the case of three months, she would go mad.

nZhuxuan also felt sorry for her Miss. “. Miss, we have to find a way out if you don’t want to continue, but it can’t be the same as the Second Miss.”

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nYuru nodded and said, “I really can’t stand this.” She couldn’t stand it any longer. She had to think of a good way to get rid of it.

nOn the other hand, after writing for half an hour, Yujing cried out, “Mother, my hand hurts. I can’t write any more. Mother, my hand is about to break off.”

nConcubine Rong hardened her heart and said, “Write even if your hand hurt, or you will have to take care of yourself again tomorrow.” Beating was a trivial matter. What they were really afraid was Teacher Song expelled Yujing from school for her poor performance.

nYujing was forced to continue writing. However, being forced to learn by oneself was quite different from learning by oneself. She had been writing until midnight but still had more than one hundred words to write.

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nConcubine Rong had no choice but to say, “Go to bed first and get up tomorrow morning to write.”

nYujing sobbed, “Even if I finish my homework, I will be punished if I can’t recite the text.” Tomorrow, she wouldn’t be able to escape the ten strokes.

nShe felt very miserable. Although she wrote with her left hand, it also affected her writing speed. Teacher Song was really a devil.

nThe next day, Yuru was hit six times. While, Yujing was hit eight times. Yuchen was still the same as yesterday. Not only she recited it smoothly, but also explained it accurately. Yuxi had no problem reciting the text and analyzing it, but she still paused two times.

nActually, Teacher Song was quite satisfied with Yuxi’s performance. It was really good that she could perform so well even without any foundation. She praised Yuxi, “Very good, but still have to continue to work hard.”

nYuxi did not felt any joy by receiving Teacher Song’s praise. Although she deliberately paused for two times, she knew that even if she didn’t have any self – deception, the best she could do was to draw even with Yuchen. This was a blow to her who has lived an extra lifetime.

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nYujing felt unfair, “Ma’am, Fourth Sister also made mistakes. Why not hit her too?” Even if there was no mistake in the analysis, Yuxi did paused two times.

nHow could Teacher Song fail to see the jealousy in Yujing’s eyes and said with a straight face, “ If you feel unfair, you can leave.” Under the eaves, people had to low their heads (meaning when a person has to depend on others like foods, pay etc, that person has to do what they say), so yesterday they made a concession. If there was a second time, she would never let Yujing appeared in her class again.

nYujing thought of yesterday’s incident. She was afraid that she would be expelled from the class so she didn’t dared to pick anymore faults. This moment, she could only bitterly look at Yuxi, waiting to find a chance to punish the smelly girl.

nOnce 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.

nWhen Yuchen saw Yuxi’s movement yesterday, she didn’t said a thing. She did not expect Yuxi would repeat the same movement today. At last she could not help but said, “Fourth Sister, this move of yours is very indecent. You can’t do it again.” Ladies from good family should smile without showing their teeth and walked gracefully like their feet were in . Where should there be such rude movements? This was also the case when they went to socialize in the future. Indecent movements would make people thought the ladies of their residence were ill – bred. Yuchen felt that she should tell grandmother about Yuxi’s lack of etiquette.

nEnd 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.

nYuchen was 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 dared to talk big in front of her.

nYuxi ignored Yuchen’s reaction. Everyone used to indulge Yuchen. Only she didn’t want to do the same. At the same time, she was unwilling to offend her. After packing up her things, Yuxi said, “If Third Sister has nothing else to say, I’ll go back first.”

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nShishu gazed at Yuxi’s back view and regrettably said, “She really is such an ignorant person. Miss, let’s leave her matter alone next time.”

nYuchen 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.

nYuxi wrote dozens of words, till she couldn’t write anymore. She had written too much these days. Not only her hands were burning with pain, her arms were also aching badly.

nUpon seeing this, Mama Shen could only help massaged Yuxi’s shoulders. It took less than half an hour before her shoulders felt much more comfortable. The same happened to her hands after being applied with ointment.

nYuxi bitterly said, “What could I do later on?” It was only been two days. She worried that her hands were going to break if this thing continued.

n“Don’t worry, Miss. Teacher Song was only this strict at the beginning. Just wait until you pass this hurdle,” Mama Shen comforted her.

nYuxi seldom went out in her previous life and spent most of her time in her courtyard. Despite Teacher Song taught Yuchen in the government for five years, she still did not understand her and asked, “Why did she only be very strict at the start? Will it not be this tough later on?”

nMama Shen did bother to inquire about Teacher Song, “This study is a hard work. If one can’t bear the first bit of suffering, how can one last? This old servant speculated that Teacher Song want to see whether Miss can bear hardships. “

nYuxi was skeptical. No matter what the result was, she must stick to it for several months.

nIt 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.

nOf the four, Yuchen wrote the best, and the worst was not Yuxi but Yuru.

nWhen Yuru heard Teacher Song said that her handwriting was vain and weak, like that of a patient, she burst into tears again.

nTeacher Song felt that it was really impossible to carve a rotten wood (share the same meaning as you can’t teach an old dog new tricks). She taught so fast not to mess with the four girls, but to let them learned all the basic of enlightenment books. It was equivalent to say that she was now reviewing what the four people had learned, did more analysis and deepen her impression on four of them. As a result, Second Miss no 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 wall (meaning, some people are hapless beyond helping).

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nA strangeness sprang up in Yuxi’s heart. According to reason, she should be the weakest in writing among the four people, but somehow Yuru took the title.

nTeacher Song paid no attention to the weeping Yuru, and said, “Words are also a person’s face. If they are not written well, they will be laughed later on. The second thing is it will show whether you learn well or not. So, you must write the words well. In the future, you must practice writing your characters well. “

nYuxi felt that the words were golden. Unfortunately, when she did her homework that night, she was not feeling so comfortable. She wrote too much, until her hands were filled with blisters which looked very scary. Mama Shen took a needle to Yuxi, broke them and then applied ointment.

nLooking at Yuxi’s gnashing her teeth and bearing the pain, Mama Shen also felt a little sorry, “Miss, just endure this period of time. There is an old saying that goes, eat bitterness among the bitter, upright man will be exalted (mean the same as No Pain No Gain).“

nYuxi looked at the ointment in Mama Shen’s hand and asked, “Will this ointment leave scar?” It reminded her of a prescription for removing scars.

nMama Shen shook her head with a smile and said, “Don’t worry, Miss. This ointment will quickly relieve the swelling and pain, and won’t leave a scar.” She said this to let Yuxi knew that the Old Madam cared about her.

nYuxi was not ungrateful. It was estimated that she used the jade cream on it way to Yuchen. So she said lightly, “Okay.”

nAfter applying the medicine, she took a short rest, 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 them tomorrow! “

nYuxi shook her head and said, “There are still more than one hundred characters left. If I don’t finished them today, I can’t get up and recite them tomorrow morning.“ She always heard that Teacher Song’s teaching was horrible. Now, from her personal experience showed that those rumors were not exaggerated.

nMoju was quick – mouthed, and said, “Miss, how do you write with all the medicine on your hands?” Looking at her Miss suffering, she felt terrible too. Teacher Song was too horrible.

nYuxi said with a smile, “If the right hand can’t do it, then the left hand will have to take over.”

nIn her last life, she was unpopular in Jiang home and disliked social interaction all her life. She stayed in her courtyard all day long and could do nothing but embroidery. Embroidered every day made her right hand a little tired. Once, she tried to used her left hand to embroider. 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 the strength when she wrote. The words she wrote were all a mass of ink. After she had mastered the strength, the words were also written in a similar way with her right hand. Yet, they varied in length, thickness and ugliness.

nMama Shen looked at Yuxi dumbfounded. She never expected that Fourth Miss had this skill. Moju stunned speechless with her mouth hanging open.

nYuxi spent twice as much time writing the rest of her homework. Before she could go to bed, she took out her books to do some review.

nMoju saw that the candle was almost burnt out and went to fetch another one.

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