Chapter 20 : Deep Water and Scorching Fire (2)

Yuxi had some symptoms, just like what Yuru and Yujing currently had.

Yuru looked at her hand full of blisters and said in a low voice, “Qingxuan, what method should be used to avoid being punished, where people wouldn’t question it?” She could not stand such intense study, and on the other hand, she felt ashamed. Out of them four sisters, she was the worst. Every time teacher hit her, she wished she could get into a hole. Every day was hard on her, both mentally and physically.

Qingxuan muttered in her heart that it would be inappropriate to withdraw voluntarily by any means. After thinking for a moment, she still felt that she should tried to advise her Miss again, “Miss, let’s hold on for a few more days. When Second Miss or Fourth Miss withdraws, we’ll try our best to follow suit. In this way, Miss, you won’t be conspicuous. “ In this family, her Miss was the oldest daughter, but if she quit first, then her face at that time would be disgraceful. Looking at Second Miss and Fourth Miss, they were not in good condition either. Why not wait for another two days, for surely they would quit?

Yuru shook her head and said, “No, I can’t stand this any more. I have already recognized so many words. In the future, I will only be in charge of accounts and household matters. No matter how much I learn, it will be useless. Later, it will be enough just to learn needlework and managing well one household. “

Qingxuan didn’t even know how to persuade anymore. Contrarily, Qingye was the one fetched and brought over the ointment. When she heard this, she couldn’t help adding a few words, “Miss, when you apply the ointment, your hand will not hurt so much.”

Hearing this, Yuru could no longer contain her anger, “Do you know that my hand now feel like it’s not mine? You’re happy to see my hand becomes useless, aren’t you?“

With such a big burst from Yuru, how would Qingye still dared to speak.

As Yuxi used her left hand smoothly, it was obvious that there was a big difference between the words written at the front and behind. Old woman Ding suspected that she was cheating. During the break, she told Teacher Song, “Fourth Miss has problems with her schoolwork today.”

Teacher Song went out and turned cold after looking at Yuxi’s schoolwork. “Please invite Fourth Miss to come here.” The words in front were absolutely neat and the words behind were extremely ugly. Even if the words were written with painful hand, they couldn’t be looking so bad. It was hard to not doubt them.

Yuxi followed old woman Ding to the opposite room. This room decoration was very simple. In addition to the table, chairs and soft couch, a landscape painting was hung on the wall.

Teacher Song put Yuxi’s schoolwork on the table and asked, “Fourth Miss, what’s going on?” She only hoped that she made a mistake, or she would immediately kicked Yuxi out from her class if this was true. It didn’t matter if the homework wasn’t finished, but finishing it by cheating meant that Yuxi had a character problem.

Yuxi said sheepishly, “Yesterday I could not write with my right hand. I was afraid that I could not finish my schoolwork, so I wrote with my left hand. It’s just that I haven’t written with my left hand before, so the words I’ve written are not good – looking. “

Teacher Song was stunned for a moment, but she quickly responded, “Bring me pen and ink.” Never relied on what the mouth said, but believed in what you saw.

Yuxi did not have stage fright either. She raised a pen in her left hand, dipped it in ink and wrote the word ‘诚 (chéng = sincerity)’ on a piece of white paper. After putting down the writing brush, she said seriously, “Ma’am, even if I personally suffered a deadlock, I wouldn’t resort to deceit, by asking someone to help me with my homework.” If she really did this, once it spread, her reputation would be completely destroyed. If a girl’s family did not have a good reputation, she would definitely not going to be chosen as potential daughters-in-law by good family in the future. By then, everyone would be sure that she couldn’t bring any benefit to the family. So, The Old Madam would definitely abandon her.

Instead of being embarrassed by misunderstanding Yuxi, Teacher Song said, “It’s good that you think so. If a person’s character is not good, no matter how smart he is, he will be in vain.”

Yuxi nodded heavily, “Ma’am, I understand.“

After Yuxi went out, old woman Ding said, “I didn’t expect that Fourth Miss could write with her left hand.” Originally, she was feeling uncomfortable for such a small girl to be interrogated, but somehow, Fourth Miss unexpectedly gave them many surprises.

Teacher Song nodded and said, “This child is good. She didn’t say a word despite her hand hurting so much.“ Unlike Yuru who easily cried, or Yujing whose face always gave the appearance of great bitterness, deep hatred (Chinese idiom which mean deeply ingrained long-standing resentment), which made Teacher Song felt uncomfortable just by looking at her. As for Yuchen, she knew all the ins and outs of her daily life from early in the morning, so she was not surprised. The only person that surprised her was Yuxi, who was able to bear hardships, and with a good talent.

In the classroom, Yuru whispered to Yuxi in a soft voice, “Fourth Sister, why did Teacher Song called you over?” Looking at Yuxi’s appearance, it seemed like nothing bad happened.

Yuxi also didn’t hide or made up anything. She just told her what really happened.

Now, let alone Yuru and Yujing, even Yuchen was shocked, “Fourth Sister, you said you could write with your left hand? Is that true?”

Yuxi wrote her name with her left hand with a smile, “Yesterday my right hand was unable to write, so I wanted to try my left hand on a whim. I didn’t think that I could really write with it, but the words I wrote were not very good – looking.”

Yuchen’s eyes were somewhat complicated. She was accustomed to being better than other people in everything. Suddenly, Yuxi had one thing better than her which made her heart not feeling quite good.

Yuxi didn’t know what Yuchen was thinking. She just felt that Teacher Song had no objection on her writing with her left hand today. When she was tired of writing with her right hand later on, she could just change to her left hand.

Mama Shen was overjoyed when she knew that Yuxi had won Teacher Song’s respect, “Miss, Teacher Song was impressed by this. As long as Miss continued to work hard, she won’t be sure to not take Miss as her student. “

Yuxi smiled and asked, “Do you think Teacher Song will choose me over Third Sister?”

Mama Shen didn’t want Yuxi to compete with Yuchen either. They were not on the same level. “Teacher Song didn’t say that only Third Miss would be selected. If you are liked by your teacher, it is not impossible for her to accept both of you as students. “

Yuxi shook her head and said, “I hope so, but it is very difficult.” Deep down, she also hoped to learn from Teacher Song. However, she knew that this idea was very difficult to realize.

She was doing her homework that night when Mama Shen brought a bowl of bird’s nest porridge and said, “Miss, eat the bird’s nest porridge first, then continue writing!”

Image credit and

From what I read on , bird nest porridge would enhance immunity for kid like Yuxi. Yes, Yuxi is still a kid in this chapter since she’s still a four years old kid.

I thought you need to use rice to for this porridge, but I was wrong. Based on the recipe I saw in , it only need bird nest, rice wine and suitable amount of filtered water. Just put everything inside a stew pot, then boil for 2 hours. Once ready, just add one tablespoonful of pure, natural bird nest, then reheat it.

Yuxi felt a bit strange. “Haven’t we finished using all the bird’s nest? Did my aunt sent bird’s nests again today? ” In her previous life, she didn’t care about anything happened in her courtyard, which led to the disappearance of the precious jewelries left by her mother. Now she had learned her lesson as she took note on everything happened inside Rose Courtyard. In this way, she would not be afraid of people around her trying to cheat or did anything to damage her interests.

Mama Shen shook her head and said, “This is the Old Madam’s gift to Miss. Miss Cuiyu just sent it here. “ This gift from the Old Madam meant that Teacher Song had praised her Miss.

Yuxi, without any joy, asked, “Is it just for me, or is it for all?” She didn’t want to be special.

Mama Shen said with a smile, “Third Miss received it too.“

Yuxi finished up the bowl of bird’s nest porridge and then continued to write.

Mama Shen was a little disappointed. She tried hard for so long, but Fourth Miss still didn’t want to show up in front of the Old Madam. Fourth Miss was very independent, which was beyond her control. However, the Old Madam didn’t like this trait of her. Because of this, Fourth Miss would suffer in the future.

At this time, Yuru was writing her homework under an open window.

When Zhuxuan entered the room, she saw the window open and was ready to close it. Yuru stopped her and said, “I’m a little hot, don’t close it.”

As Yuru’s personal maid servant, how could Zhuxuan not understand Yuru’s intention, “Young Miss, do you really want to do this? Miss, once you do this, there is no room for regret. “ Her heart ached for her Master, however, she always felt that the first person to quit was quite shameful.

Yuru looked at her swollen hand and gritted her teeth. “I won’t regret it,” she said. She was not as intelligent as her Third Sister, nor as persistent as her Fourth Sister. She could not bear it. In order to guard against being laughed at, she could only use this kind of bitter trick.

Zhuxuan was a little sad, “Miss, please think again properly. I heard it was just hard for the first few days. Just try to get over the first half of the month.“

Yuru shook her head and painfully said, “I can’t endure another single day.“ Her left hand was almost broken, while her right hand was almost useless. She wouldn’t wait for a day, let alone half a month.

Zhuxuan sighed slightly. She knew her Miss very well. Now she couldn’t endure the pain, so she wanted to quit. Once Third Miss and Fourth Miss finished their learning, she would regret it. Nevertheless, Zhuxuan also knew that it was useless to say anything now.

Next day, Yuxi didn’t see Yuru in class. Her mind muttered, did she gave up? She always thought that Yujing would be the first to back down, not Yuru.

During break, she heard Shishu said, “The doctor said Eldest Miss was weak. She fell ill after overworking during this period of time. The doctor also said that she needs to be well taken care of while she is in this circumstance.” What the doctor said was equal as saying that Eldest Miss would not come to school anymore.

When Yujing heard this, she snorted coldly and asked, “Is she pretending to be ill?” It was not a wonder for her to have this doubt. It was true that Teacher Song’s teaching method was so tormenting that even she couldn’t stand it anymore. If her mother had not forced her, or if the prospect of marriage to rich family had not tempted her, she would have given up too.

Yuchen glanced at Yujing and said, “Doctor Bai is a famous doctor in Beijing. He wouldn’t lie.” Eldest Miss was also half transparent in the residence. Where did she had the skill to let Doctor Bai lied for her?

Yujing looked at Yuxi with a puzzle face and said, “Why didn’t you fall ill?” Before Yuxi got smallpox, she would get sick three or five times. She had the worst body health among the four of them. Now, with Teacher Song tormenting them, Yuru was the one who fell sick, while Yuxi was still fine. She felt there was something wrong with this situation.

Yuxi said expressionlessly, “My body has gotten well.” In the past six months, she had worked hard to exercise, ate properly and had a supper in the evening. Her health had been much better than before.

Yujing snorted coldly, “I told you long ago that you have hard life fate, otherwise… “

Yuchen said with a cold face, “Second Sister, there are some things you can’t say.” Bearing a hard life reputation, it would be difficult for Yuxi to get married in the future. So, Yujing could ruin Yuxi’s life with just a few words.

Although Yujing was extremely dissatisfied with Yuchen, as she looked at Yuchen’s indifferent expression, she dared not say the rest. In fact, she still had some lingering feelings in her heart.

Yuxi was unwilling to bear the title of a person with hard life fate. She looked up and said, “This is a blessing in disguise for me. My blessing is yet to come.”

Hearing this, Yujing was annoyed with Yuxi’s vile manner.