“How does it taste, Hua’er?” Nan Si Qiao asked in light tone.
Nan Hua nodded. “It taste good, Aunt.”
“When something tastes good, you can’t just point it out blankly like that.” Nan Si Qiao was helpless. “You need to describe it through other words because it’s considered to be impolite to just say it out like that.”
Nan Hua blinked her eyes. “The tea smells sweet and good.”
Nan Si Qiao: “…”
In the end, Nan Si Qiao spent the next hour teaching Nan Hua how to praise something. This was the first time she felt that Nan Hua’s vocabulary was severely lacking. Did she not know any word to praise someone other than it’s good?
How would she survive when those girls started to use poems?
This couldn’t do!
Nan Si Qiao chose to teach Nan Hua everything from the very basic once again, spending the next few days drilling everything she knew about poems to her niece. How could she possibly let her niece suffer from those annoying women’s attack?
Thus, Nan Hua had to go through Nan Si Qiao rigorous training for the next few days.
…
“If only I can stay for a long time, I would have stayed.” Nan Si Qiao sighed. She naturally couldn’t stay in her father’s house forever. People would start pointing fingers at her if she did so.
“Tomorrow will be Old Madam Long’s birthday party.” Old Master Long looked at his daughter. “I’ll need to trouble you to take care of Hua’er and Luo.”
“Don’t worry, I will naturally guard them properly!” Nan Si Qiao promised.
Old Master Nan had no intention of going out of his house and visited that annoying old woman. Besides, he was staying at the Capital City with the excuse that he was sick. How could he possibly go out and saunter around?
Thus, he would leave it to his daughter to take care of his grandchildren.
“Hua’er, don’t forget what I taught you, understand?” Nan Si Qiao asked sternly. Her niece was really…really bad at picking words. It was good that she had good memory or Nan Si Qiao would have long gave up teaching Nan Hua.
“Yes, Aunt.”
“Good girl.”
The three of them bade farewells to Nan Si Qiao before Nan Luo turned to look at Nan Hua. He grinned. “It’s been some time. Shall we have a spar again, Hua’er?”
“Okay.” Nan Hua nodded.
For the past few days, Nan Luo spent most of his time in the academy. He didn’t want to be dragged by his grandfather to stay with Nan Hua, thus he chose to scram to the academy and stayed there for good. It wouldn’t do him any good to stay back at home and possibly suffer by having to copy the poems book.
Old Master Nan looked at his steward. “Tong, no one is to come to Ning Shu Pavilion.”
“Yes, Master.”
Hou Liang didn’t need anyone to remind him because he had already followed them to the Ning Shu Pavilion. Looking at the two children traded blows with wooden sword, he noticed that Nan Hua was still as energetic as ever. Her moves had gotten better and it was getting harder and harder for Nan Luo to match with the young girl.
Tak! Tak! Tak!
The training didn’t last long because the two of them had to rest early for tomorrow’s event. Nan Luo was itching to give a good beating to Long Xu Nian, but he knew that he couldn’t act rashly because it would only end up making things difficult for his little sister.
“Miss, who will you bring with you tomorrow?” Bai Yin asked as she helped Nan Hua to clean up.
Nan Hua had three servants and after several weeks, she had started to get to know these three better. She looked at her servants for a moment before she replied, “Xiao Yun will come with me.”
“Yes, Miss,” Xiao Yun curtsied slowly and her eyes were brimming with determination. She would make sure that there was no one who could possibly harm her miss.
“Leave me.”
“Yes.”
Nan Hua was never a person who loved to talk a lot. She sat down on her bed as she thought about Old Madam Long. Her grandfather might not say much but she could see that he must have done something to displease the Old Madam recently.
Hmm, she had never met with her, so she had to be cautious.