Chapter 17 : Teacher Song (3)

Moju’s eyes were sharp. When she saw a person standing outside the room, she immediately whispered to Yuxi’s ear.

Yuxi stopped arguing and obediently sat in the back. Although she was not afraid of anything, she did not want to leave a bad impression on Teacher Song, especially on the first day, because of a quarrel with her sister.

After they all done choosing their seat, Yuchen’s maid immediately took out a white cloth to wipe the table and stool. Then she spread out a tablecloth mat.

Yuxi looked at the already spotless desks and chairs, and did not understand why they needed to be wiped again.

Yuchen’s maid immediately attracted everyone’s attention as soon as she pulled out all Yuchen’s study utensils one by one. This set was made of top-grade sapphire material, with each of them carved with simple patterns. In a glance everyone could see that they were worth a lot of money.

Yuxi originally thought that her set of equipment was very good, but when compared with Yuchen’s four treasures, they turned into junks.

Shishu looked at Yuxi’s green eyes with disdain in her heart. Before Fourth Miss fell ill, she had this look of a frail girl who could easily fall over even from a wind blow. After she got better, her eyes became more shallow. The last time she saw her Miss double-sided embroidery, her eyes were glistening. Now, they were glowing green when she saw her Miss stationery, like she hated not having them for herself.

Yuxi was not a fool. How could she not feel Shishu’s disdain stare. But she was puzzled. Shishu had gone as far as guarding against her like she had a general appearance of a thief, just because she took Yuchen’s double-sided embroidery.

Yujing also took noticed of Yuchen’s whole set of things and could not hide her jealousy. The Old Madam was too eccentric. Everything good was given to Yuchen, as if she was her only granddaughter.

Her jealous eyes were so obvious that they managed to make Yuchen frowned. However, she didn’t care that much, as she knew Yujing won’t dare to bully her.

After a while, Teacher Song walked in with a few books. Their eyes only stop only for a second on them. Their eyes were fixed on a piece of ruler on the books.

Yuxi looked at Teacher Song’s black and bright ruler with some trepidation. No wonder many people were shocked when they heard Teacher Song’s name. She was also shocked when she saw the ruler.

Teacher Song placed the book and ruler on the table, frowned and said, “Second Miss, you change seat with Fourth Miss.”

Yujing was unwilling, “Ma’am, my Fourth Sister don’t like to sit in the front. She like to sit at the back.” She really didn’t want to look at the back of Yuxi’s skull.

Yuxi felt very angry in her heart, but she knew that she should not argue in front of the teacher, so she kept her head down and stayed silent.

Teacher Song said with a cold face, “Second Miss, you and Fourth Miss will switch positions.” This was a direct order, not a consultation. Inquiries revealed that Yujing was arrogant and domineering, and now it seemed even more unbearable than the rumors. She didn’t even know modesty and propriety, also had a mouth full of lies.

Yujing didn’t want to change her seat, but seeing Teacher Song indifferent expression scared her. Thinking of her mother’s warning, Yujing reluctantly stood up with Yuxi to changed their seats.

Yuxi didn’t show any reaction on her face, but her heart was feeling very comfortable. After the two exchanged positions, Teacher Song asked them, starting from Yuru, what books they had read.

There was no doubt that Yuchen read the most books. Yuxi thought she had read the least, but then she realized that Yuru read much lesser than her.

Yuxi took the book handed out by old woman Ding and opened it to read the Three-Character Classic, which was written in zanhua font. She heard before that all textbooks that Teacher Song used for teaching were copied by herself, so she didn’t need to buy them from outside. This also led to the fact that all the girls who studied with Teacher Song were also able to write in zanhua xiokai.

The book was handed out to the four of them. Instead of giving a lecture immediately, Teacher Song asked the maids around Yuru and the others to emptied out their masters’ prepared inks.

Then she ordered, “Grind your own ink.”

Yuxi was somewhat puzzled, but she did not say anything as she saw Yuchen poured out her ink, washed it, and poured in clean water. Then she picked up the ink stick and began to grind the it. Yuchen listened to what Teacher Song said, so Yuxi dared not say anything.

Two minutes later, Teacher Song said, “You are all grinding ink with wrong posture. When grinding ink, you should not only keep a calm mood, but also be gentle and slow. Maintain the ink level. Circle the inkstone vertically and not grind it obliquely or push it straight.” After that, she demonstrated to the four girls.

Yuxi recognized a few words uttered by Teacher Song from her previous incarnation but she blink foolishly, like she knew nothing.

How would she know that there were so many things to learn in grinding ink, not to mention other studies.

When the posture of the four girls was correct, Teacher Song said, “Write a line of words with your own ink.”

Yuxi was doing fine. She had been grinding her own ink for more than a month now. This was also her habit of doing everything by herself. The other three did not. The ink used to write on weekdays was all polished by maids, so when Yuchen looked at the words written in her own ink, her face changed for the first time.

After reading the words written by the four girls, Teacher Song did not praise or criticize anyone, but said, “The ink should be ground to a moderate shade, and the words written with too strong or too weak ink are not good. In the future, you should practice more. In addition, it takes a long time to grind ink. In order to prevent the right hand from getting tired, it is better to practice grinding ink with your left hand. “

Yujing shrugged it off. There were so many maids around her so she didn’t need to grind the ink herself, but she didn’t dare to refute Teacher Song’s words during class.

Teacher Song’s sharp eyes naturally saw Yujing’s expression, but she did not care. Over the years, she had taught many girls, and seen many others with such temperament as Yujing. “Today, let’s start by learning the Three-Character Classic.”

There was nothing special about Teacher Song’s teaching. She explained it sentence by sentence and then left some time for the four girls to take notes before she continued. It took one morning for her to read out a quarter of the “Three–Character Classic”. Luckily, all four girls already had foundation. Even though Teacher Song spoke quickly, they could still manage to catch up.

When the class was over, she assigned them homework, which was to write down all the words they learned today.

Yuxi’s face almost cracked. If she wrote more than 500 characters in one night, and none of them could be wrong, wouldn’t her hand be broken? She felt the horror of Teacher Song for the first time.

Yujing directly objected, “Ma’am, it is impossible to write more than 500 words in such a short time which we only have this evening till tomorrow morning.”

Teacher Song replied with a straight face, “Then, no need for you to write. No one forces you.”

Yujing face flushed bright red.

With this such precedent, naturally, others didn’t dared to raise objections. Yuxi glanced at Yuru and Yuchen secretly. Yuru had a bitter face, while Yuchen’s face still looked so light, like writing more than 500 words for her was just a piece of cake.

On the afternoon of the ninth month, although it was relatively cool, Yuxi was sweating after walking for more than a minute. As soon as she entered the Rose Courtyard, the maid immediately brought Mung Bean soup to relieve her from the summer heat.

“How are you doing today, Miss?” asked Mama Shen with concern.

Naturally, Yuxi could not say that she understood everything during class, but she vaguely said, “I understand everything Teacher Song said.” Originally, she felt that she had some advantages. After all, she had learned zanhua xiokai in her previous life, but now, when she saw Yuchen’s beautiful handwriting, she wanted to drill a hole in the ground. Despite her extra lifetime, she still couldn’t even be compared with the present Yuchen. She was ashamed to be complacent there.

During dinner, she noticed that there were six dishes and one soup on the table and asked, “Why are there so many dishes today?” On weekdays, usually there were only three dishes and one soup.

Mama Shen smiled and said, “The Old Madam said that you have worked hard, so she ordered the kitchen to add more dishes for Miss.”

Yuxi said nothing. Anyway, these too many dishes won’t be wasted. If she couldn’t finish them, then she could leave the dishes for the maids around her. Yuxi deliberately pretended to be casual and asked, “Is it for today only or every day?”

Mama Shen turned pale and said, “Only for today.”

Yuxi no longer spoke.

The way to keep fit was to eat till seven percent full, so that meant more than half of the dishes would be left on the table. After Yuxi done with her dinner, she did not rush to do her homework. Instead, she went out for a walk and began to do it after she came back.

Fortunately, she had learned the “Three Character Classic” by heart, and could write it without reading the textbook. Thus, she could write the text much faster than normal.

She did not finish writing until the end of Haishi (9-11pm) hours. Before she fell asleep, she said to Mama Shen, “Mama, please wake me up at two or three o’clock tomorrow.” She had done with her homework today, but she didn’t have time to check it. In order to not be beaten up, she wanted to got up early tomorrow, so that she could check and corrected her mistakes as soon as possible.

The next day, she first recited the text and then began to check her homework. After everything was in order, it was time for her to have her morning meal.

When she arrived at Magnolia Courtyard, she saw Yuru and Yujing had panda eyes, just like her. Obviously, neither of them slept well last night. However, Yuchen’s manner was natural, and she could not see any signs of exhaustion.

Well, Yuxi couldn’t help sighing in her heart. Sure enough, there were always talented people that gave people feeling of irritation. Therefore, it really took great courage to learn with such person. Otherwise, you would feel inferior if you were not careful.

Teacher Song examined their homework, brought by old woman Ding. She asked them four to recite the text. It wasn’t just for reviewing what they wrote, but rather to recall every single words they had written.

Yuru could only recite half of the text, so she was hit five times on her hand. The first time her hand was hit, her tears immediately fell down.

Teacher Song did not seem to notice that Yuru was crying. The ruler still hit her hand with a loud noise.

Yujing’s face was blue, didn’t know if it was because she felt frightened with the scene. When it was her turn, she could only recite two sentences.

Teacher Song said, “Put our your hand.”

Yujing reluctantly put out her hand. After her hand being hit, she refused to put it out again. She was pampered and spoiled since she was a child. Not to mention being beaten by a ruler, she had never been treated roughly by other people.

Teacher Song said coldly, “Get out.” Seeing that Yujing did not move, she viciously said , “If you don’t go out by yourself, I’ll let the maid drag you out.” If Yujing couldn’t suffer this much hardship, then it was better for her to leave. She would not teach such a person without character.

Yujing ran out crying.

Yuxi mulled happily in her heart. Teacher Song was indeed fierce. Good. Very good.