chapter 16
2479 Words
Qi Ming came to see his second elder brother right after leaving Mrs. Liu's place. He heard the noise when he entered the courtyard, and stopped outside the wing room instead of going in, just called out from the doorway.
Ye Jiao remembered that Qi Ming said he would come over yesterday, so she thought nothing of it and said, "Come in."
It so happened that Xiaosu came back with the rice cakes, she lifted the curtain for Qi Ming to let him in.
Qi Ming first greeted Ye Jiao like a little grown-up, then looked at Shitou.
He usually spent most of his time at the academy, counting all the time, he had only spent a few days with Shitou since Shitou was born. Now he finally got to meet someone younger than himself.
Little Shitou had a round chubby face, especially his pair of round eyes, which were extremely cute.
Even though Qi Ming had a mature personality, he still couldn't hold it back. He reached out and picked Shitou up, glanced at the writing brush in Shitou's hand, didn't check carefully if it was dipped in ink, and said with a faint smile on his face: "Does little Shitou know how to read and write too?"
Shitou was not shy at all. Even though he had little impression of Qi Ming, he still replied crisply: "Read and write!"
Repeating adults' words is probably an innate instinct for every toddler.
Qi Ming was happy to hear that, and wanted to see Shitou's work.
He turned his head and saw a large piece of writing on the table.
It was called large characters, but these characters were much harder to recognize than ordinary ones. They were round and a bit flat. Qi Ming stared at them for a while before making out the character "Chu" (meaning beginning).
Qi Sanlang (Qi Ming) himself was not a good calligrapher. The academy teacher always told him that he needed to practice harder -- no matter how brilliant one's knowledge is, no one would appreciate it without good handwriting. But Qi Sanlang somehow regained his confidence from this character.
Obviously Qi Ming didn't think it was strange to compare calligraphy with a toddler.
He looked at Shitou in his arms, and said: "This character is a bit ugly, but Shitou is still young, he will definitely be able to write beautifully in the future."
The old nanny's face twitched. She thought to herself, is the third young master still young, or has he read himself silly? What does he take the young master for, a child prodigy? He can write before he's even two years old?
Xiaosu reminded in a low voice from the side: "Third young master, this character was written by Second young Madame."
Qi Ming: ... ah?
His face froze. He glanced at Ye Jiao, and saw that she was holding a piece of blue cloth, but her eyes were fixed on the large character on the table.
Although he had only met Ye Jiao a few times, she was his legitimate second sister-in-law. The words he just said... Qi Ming's face immediately flushed red.
Little Shitou craned his neck to look at him curiously, reached out to touch Qi Ming's red face, and said in a milky voice: "So red, like date cake. Shitou wants to eat cake!"
After all, Qi Ming was just a teenager over ten years old. He didn't even dare to check what expression Ye Jiao had on her face right now. He immediately handed little Shitou back to the nanny, stammered out "I... I'll come back to see second brother later", then turned around and ran off.
Of course the old nanny wouldn't meddle in the second branch's affairs. She just held little Shitou and used the rice cake on the table to coax him to eat.
Ye Jiao laid the blue cloth back out, then picked up her own character, studied it for a while, turned her head and asked Xiaosu: "Is it really that ugly?"
Although Xiaosu couldn't read, she could roughly tell good from bad. All the signboards she usually sees are neat and square. No matter what you say, Second young Madame's round font is definitely not good.
But in Xiaosu's opinion, they weren't going to take the imperial examination anyway, as long as the characters are passable it's fine. She was afraid Ye Jiao would feel bad because of what Qi Ming said.
But Xiaosu couldn't say anything against her conscience when she looked into Ye Jiao's eyes. The little girl thought it over and over, picked up a piece of rice cake and said: "Madame, why don't you have something to eat first?"
Ye Jiao: ... Hmph.
On the other side, Steward Song was extremely excited in the small room. He didn't have the calmness he showed in front of Qi's father at all, instead he was full of joy: "What Second young master said is right, now the reputation of our Qi family wine shop has been established. Can we go talk business with the taverns and inns in the town recently?"
Even though they sold the wine at a lower price, there was still profit. Otherwise they wouldn't have gotten that hundred strings of money.
But what made Steward Song even happier was that as more and more wine was sold, everyone in the surrounding villages and towns knows that the Qi family has fine wine. On top of that, Steward Song found some glib people to brag endlessly, an eight-point good wine got blown up to twelve points.
Moreover, Qi Yun gave the Qi family wine the beautiful name "Jade Liquid Wine", which is elegant and pleasant to hear, making the supply even fall short of demand.
Qi Yun had expected all this, but Steward Song was very capable, and everything got started even earlier than Qi Yun had imagined.
Putting the account book aside, Qi Yun adjusted the hand stove he held in his arms.
In front of outsiders, Qi Yun the Second Master of Qi wasn't as gentle as he was in front of Ye Jiao. He wasn't born fond of socializing, and couldn't be bothered to pretend to be all things to all people.
Wrapped in a thick robe, Qi Yun's face was still slightly pale, but the dark circles under his eyes were gone, making him look cold but no longer sinister.
In the past, Steward Song was also afraid of him, but now in Steward Song's eyes, he is the God of Wealth. He's too busy venerating him to remember to be afraid.
After hearing Steward Song's words, Qi Yun thought for a moment, and said slowly: "It's not time yet. Wait a while. Those taverns and inns don't lack wine suppliers. Let's stock up more, and talk about it at the end of the year."
Steward Song didn't ask why, and immediately agreed.
The two of them planned out the next steps together, and Steward Song saw that it was getting late, so he took his leave.
After Qi Yun saw Steward Song off and returned to the bedroom, he didn't see Ye Jiao, so he turned around and walked towards the wing room.
When he entered the door, the old nanny had already taken little Shitou back, Xiaosu was doing chores in the courtyard, and only Ye Jiao was alone in the wing room.
Right now the woman was standing in front of the table, concentrating on writing with a brush.
Qi Yun didn't disturb her, walked to Ye Jiao's side, and found that there was already a stack of large characters by her hand.
He knew Ye Jiao. Although his wife liked learning to read, she had never been this diligent. It looked like she hadn't rested for almost an hour already.
When Ye Jiao finished another sheet, Qi Yun reached out and wrapped his arm around her waist, took the brush out of her hand, and softened his voice: "Learning to read and write isn't something you need to rush into. Jiao Niang, don't be too hard on yourself."
Ye Jiao instinctively squeezed Qi Yun's hand with her backhand, looked up at him and said: "My handwriting is ugly, I need to practice more."
Hearing this, Qi Yun couldn't help but soften his voice even more: "You just started learning. Being able to remember so many characters and write them roughly is already very good."
Ye Jiao looked up at him full of expectation: "It's not ugly?"
Qi Yun smiled and said: "Not too ugly."
Ye Jiao: ...
Seeing her puff out her cheeks, Qi Yun squeezed her palm: "I don't mind you anyway. Besides, you can just practice slowly day by day. Don't rush."
If Qi Yun wasn't here just now, Ye Jiao was writing fine by herself. But now that Qi Yun was here, Ye Jiao didn't want to endure any hardship at all: "Practicing calligraphy is so tiring." She raised her hand to show him her sore wrist.
What a spoiled little wife.
It was she who said she wanted to insist just now, and now she's the one who's unwilling. But Qi Yun just thought his wife was tired and worn out. After sitting down with her, he gently kneaded her wrist.
The man's hand had already been warmed by the hand stove, it was lukewarm, and he was extremely careful when kneading her wrist. The corners of Ye Jiao's mouth lifted little by little.
Seeing that Ye Jiao had a smile on her face, Qi Yun said: "How about this, practice for half an hour every day, and you get two pieces of dessert at night."
Ye Jiao's eyes lit up, she hooked the man's hand: "Three pieces."
Qi Yun nodded with a smile: "Alright."
Ye Jiao was happy, she threw away her brush and dragged Qi Yun to eat. After finishing the meal, Ye Jiao carried her Shiya Cao around the courtyard for a while, helping the little plant absorb sunlight and also helping herself digest food. After Shiya Cao's branches and leaves stretched out, Ye Jiao went back to the bedroom and put it down, then undid her hair to take a nap.
But Qi Yun didn't have the habit of napping. After watching Ye Jiao fall asleep, he called Xiaosu over to the courtyard and asked in a low voice: "Who came here just now?"
Xiaosu was always afraid of him. When asked like this, she spilled everything just like pouring beans out of a bamboo tube.
After Qi Yun finished listening, he didn't say anything, just said calmly: "Okay, I got it."
Xiaosu: ... What did you get?
Qi Yun waved his hand: "Go call third brother here. It's been a long time since we met, I miss him quite a bit."
Xiaosu looked at Qi Yun's impassive face, it didn't look like he missed third young master at all, but she didn't dare to ask more, and trotted off.
Ye Jiao, lying on the bed, knew nothing of this and slept soundly.
When she woke up, instead of kicking shuttlecock or listening to Qi Yun explain medical classics as usual, she freshened up and went to Mrs. Liu's courtyard.
Mrs. Liu had invited a seamstress to the house today. She had mentioned making new clothes for Ye Jiao last time, but it had been delayed by various things, so they were going to get it done today all together.
Ye Jiao had never had clothes custom-made before, but luckily she didn't need to do much. The whole process was just raise your hand when told, lift your head when told, then pick out the colored fabric you like after the measurements are done.
After seeing the seamstress off, Mrs. Liu took Ye Jiao for a walk in the garden, and said to her: "You are still young, still growing. Your clothes need to be changed frequently for new ones to fit properly. The seamstress comes once every six months. If you can't wait for her visit, just ask someone to accompany you to the tailor's shop, that works just as well."
Ye Jiao always kept Mrs. Liu's words in mind. She didn't ask too many questions, and obediently answered whether she understood or not: "Thank you, mother."
That "thank you" was all Mrs. Liu wanted, and she nodded gently at her.
By this time, the two of them had walked to the outside of Qi Ming's courtyard.
Mrs. Liu was full of care and love for her youngest son, but she didn't go in right now, just stood at the courtyard gate, peeked inside and said with a bright smile: "Sanlang told me before, today he's going to write for a full two hours. My boy knows to work hard now."
Hearing this, Ye Jiao's eyes widened a circle.
No wonder little foxes like scholars, being a scholar really isn't something ordinary people can do.
She just wrote for an hour and her wrist was already sore from tiredness. A scholar actually has to write for two hours a day?
People who are going for the number one scholar really are different.
Ye Jiao also craned her neck to look inside. There were several sheets of large characters put out to dry in the courtyard.
Her eyesight was good, after looking closely she could recognize most of the characters, but when they were put together into those stodgy sentences, Ye Jiao didn't really understand them.
"Sincerity is within, and form is without. Therefore a gentleman must... what his solitude..."
She couldn't understand, so the little ginseng didn't look any more. She walked a bit more with Mrs. Liu, when the sky started to get dark she said she wanted to go back, and Mrs. Liu had someone give her a clay jar of stewed pork rib soup to take back.
Ye Jiao carried the clay jar, didn't ask anyone to see her off, and walked back quickly by herself.
But just as she entered the courtyard gate, she saw Tiezi holding a stack of papers about to send them to the small room.
Ye Jiao called out to him: "Tiezi, what's this?"
Tiezi stopped immediately. He was going through voice change, his voice sounded hoarse: "Second young Madame, these are characters for Second young master."
Ye Jiao didn't ask more after hearing that, walked over to him and said: "Then call my husband out, tell him to come eat after he's done with his work. Mother sent pork rib soup, let's drink it while it's hot."
Tiezi nodded immediately: "I got it."
Ye Jiao smiled, glanced at the thing Tiezi was holding, and caught sight of the topmost sheet. She unconsciously stopped walking, her mouth froze.
"Sincerity is within, and form is without. Therefore a gentleman...
Huh, isn't this what Qi Ming wrote just now?
- Writer
