Chapter 275 Giving My Stepbrother a Massage

The meat had just been marinated and hadn't absorbed the flavor yet, so the brother and sister weren't in a hurry to start the charcoal fire.

Lin Yuesha peeled some boiled peanuts and chatted with her stepbrother while eating them.

"Big brother, is it hard studying at the academy? Is anyone bullying you?"

Changqing Academy is the best academy in the North. Admission is extremely rigorous; it is not something that can be entered simply by having a degree in the imperial examinations.

Xiao Qi was a learned man, recommended by his former teacher, and went through several selections. Otherwise, a poor scholar would never have had the opportunity to study at the academy.

It's not that we discriminate against the poor, but education is expensive. Without money, how can you pay your teacher's tuition, buy writing materials, and even take the imperial examinations, which also cost a lot of money?

No wonder people say it's hard for children from poor families to succeed; ordinary families can't afford such a large sum of money.

"fine."

The person who bullied Xiao Qi is no longer alive, but in order to gain his younger sister's sympathy, Xiao Qi still unconsciously starts using tricks.

“There was a big rooster in the academy. It would get up to study at dawn and turn off the lights to go to sleep in the middle of the night. It did this every day.”

After Xiao Qi finished speaking, he pounded his back with his hands, but unfortunately his arms were not long enough to reach the sore spots.

"The desks and chairs in the academy are all the same height. I'm a bit tall, so I always have to bend over."

After Xiao Qi finished speaking, Lin Yuesha immediately imagined her older brother studying hard. In Daqi, the lives of these scholars were even more difficult than the cruel high school life in modern times. From morning to night, there were many mosquitoes in the summer and severe cold in the winter. They didn't even light a fire in their houses, which was called "training their physique."

Those scholars rarely saw the light of day, and each of them had a fair complexion.

"Brother, how about I give you a massage?"

After washing her hands, Lin Yuesha wiped them with a handkerchief.

Because they work as cooks, they stand all day, which causes back pain, so they have mastered some techniques of pounding and kneading.

The two are step-siblings, and there are no outsiders around, so there shouldn't be any problems.

"Little sister, then I'll have to trouble you."

Xiao Qi turned around, his back to Lin Yuesha, and squinted as he enjoyed his little sister's massage.

Lin Yuesha, a modern person, didn't think there was anything wrong with it. Among the cooks, regardless of gender, if anyone had a backache, they would occasionally punch each other, without realizing that there was anything wrong with their behavior.

"Big brother, is this force okay?"

Lin Yuesha pounded Xiao Qi's back while cautiously asking him questions.

My older brother looks very thin, but he has some muscle on his back, so he seems to have a good physique.

"A little more force, a slight sourness would be best."

Xiao Qi closed his eyes and instructed his younger sister. He realized it was good that his parents weren't home. If they were, the siblings wouldn't be so comfortable and would definitely be nagged about the strict separation of men and women.

"Isn't it big enough?"

Xiao Qi didn't know if her hands were sore or not, but Lin Yuesha's hands were already sore. However, since Lin Yuesha had offered to massage her, she felt embarrassed to refuse.

Sigh, her older brother is studying so diligently at the academy that she feels embarrassed to stop.

"It can be done now."

Xiao Qi remained calm and collected. Sensing that his younger sister was becoming a little lax, he began to recount some of his experiences at the academy.

"There were rats in the academy. One day I returned to my room and found the rats gnawing on my biscuits in my quilt, but I didn't have any biscuits."

As soon as Xiao Qi finished speaking, Lin Yuesha exploded, raising her voice, "Big brother, what else don't you understand? It must be someone who's jealous of your academic achievements and is deliberately causing trouble!"

I put a few rats in the blankets, and they're gnawing on things. What if my brother eats a pancake that the rats have gnawed on and gets the plague?

In the Great Qi, the plague breaks out every year, and people die! Their intentions are despicable!

"Big brother, who did this?"

Lin Yuesha continued, pressing for answers.

What kind of bastard is this, bullying my older brother? If she finds out who it is, I'll ambush him on the way and break his legs. A person with that kind of character doesn't deserve to be a scholar.

"It can't be deliberate, can it? We're all educated people, how could someone have such poor character?"

As a kind-hearted person, Xiao Qi naturally wouldn't speak ill of his classmate.

Lin Yuesha was even angrier now. Her older brother thought the best of people, but others might not think so.

"Brother, think about how terrible human jealousy can be. Can't you see a thing or two in Zhao San Niang and her daughter?"

Lin Yuesha educated Xiao Qi, and Jiang Baozhu was still the benefactor of Zhao Sanniang and her daughter. However, seeing their benefactor living well, the two of them had the same wicked thoughts.

And then there's Xiao Xi, such an innocent girl, who, like many others, became an accomplice.

“If I hadn’t arrived in time and reported it to the authorities, Baozhu would have been killed by those three men.”

Even now, Lin Yuesha still feels lingering fear when she thinks about it.

One should not harbor malicious intent, but one must be wary of others. If it wasn't intentional, did that pancake on the bed just fall from the sky?

“Well… what my little sister said makes sense.”

Xiao Qi nodded honestly. His little sister's face turned red with excitement, and he loved seeing her anxious.

“It’s not that what I’m saying makes sense, it’s just the truth. I know you don’t want to think the worst of people, but you still have to be careful.”

At the very least, the door to the room should be locked after leaving the house, just in case someone has bad intentions and tries to frame you.

"For example, secretly place Young Master Bai's jade pendant in your room."

Thus, Bai Dingfeng couldn't find the jade pendant, and things escalated. The teacher and the scholar searched together and finally found it in Xiao Qi's house, making it impossible for him to clear his name.

Anyway, there are plenty of cases of mutual framing, that's how it's portrayed on TV. Don't expect scholars to be naive; they all want to get ahead, and who doesn't have some ambition?

Lin Yuesha's logic was clear and reasonable, and while Xiao Qi hadn't encountered these things yet, some of his classmates had.

He wanted to say that those little tricks wouldn't stump him, but considering his public image, he held back.

"Little sister, the meat is almost marinated, let's fry it."

A layer of iron plate was placed on the stove. Xiao Qi told Lin Yuesha to stop what she was doing and brushed a layer of oil on it.

"good."

She pounded for at least a quarter of an hour until her hands were numb, but thinking about how hard her older brother had worked, she had no regrets. She even considered having a carpenter make a massage device specifically for pounding the back, which would also relieve muscle tension.

Lin Yuesha was still reeling from Xiao Qi's words. She was thinking to herself, "Why don't I ask Bai Youran's older brother, Bai Dingfeng, who bullied my stepbrother? I'll write them all down in a little book and take revenge on them one by one when it's convenient."

Putting aside others, Young Master Qin with his beady eyes is no good either; his verbal insults are another matter.

She wasn't a magnanimous person; she had no tolerance for others. She wouldn't tolerate those who were despicable, foul-mouthed, or who secretly plotted against her. She had to strike them down once and for all, to make them understand that not everyone was so easy to bully.

Xiao Qi is a kind-hearted person who is easy to bully, but Lin Yuesha is not a pushover!