Chapter 81 You are so awesome Qi Buchen raised his eyebrows: "Mother wants...

Qi Buchen raised his eyebrows: "What does mother want to say?"

"I want Wu Ge to be my study companion." Jueluo was unexpectedly frank.

Qi Buchen frowned: "Why would mother have such an idea?"

Jueluo stared at her: "Wu Ge is your biological brother, there is nothing left for him in this house."

Fei Yanggu was older. Although his previous wives had been childless, his two concubines had both borne sons. Because he was often on the battlefield and could die at any moment, they requested early approval for the heir apparent, the third son, Fucun. By the time Wu Ge was born, Fei Yanggu had passed away before the Jueluo family could even seek the position. Therefore, while Wu Ge was now considered a legitimate son, his future inheritance from the division of the family line would be similar to that of the other untitled illegitimate children.

Qi Buchen knew the original owner still had feelings for her younger brother. If she were here, she might have agreed. But she wasn't the original owner. She would certainly help her younger brother where she could, but being Fourteen's study companion was truly a poor choice. However, she couldn't explain the reason to Jueluo, so she decided to find another excuse.

"I'm not sure whether Fourteenth Brother's study partner has been decided. I'm not afraid of Mother finding out. The Empress in the Palace loves Fourteenth Brother the most and leaves nothing to chance. She doesn't like our Master interfering in Fourteenth Brother's affairs," Qi Buchen lied slightly. "Besides, the Empress even confined me to house arrest for six months a while ago."

Although Jueluo was also a princess of the royal family, her family had long been in decline, otherwise she would not have married the elderly Fei Yanggu as his second wife. Therefore, she was basically in the dark about the affairs in the palace and had no idea about the situation that Qi Buchen mentioned.

"How could that be? The Fourth Prince is Empress Defei's biological son." Jueluo frowned and said, "You too, since you married into the royal family, you should be careful with your words and actions. How could you have caused the Empress to be so angry? What daughter-in-law would be grounded by her mother-in-law as soon as she entered the house!"

Qi Buchen raised the corner of his mouth. "So what if they're biological children? Aren't mother and I biological children? And our grandfather was raised by Empress Xiaoyiren since he was a child. Can't mother imagine the entanglement?"

Jueluo heard her sarcasm, but acted as if she hadn't heard it. She only said, "No matter what, go and ask Fourteenth Prince if he has decided on a study partner."

Qi Buchen lowered his eyes and curled his lips, but finally agreed: "I understand."

After returning home, she did not give any perfunctory response and went to the study to ask Yinzhen.

"Fourteenth's study partner has been decided." Yinzhen said affirmatively, "One is from the royal family, and the other is from the Uya family."

"Wuya?" Qi Buchen expressed her doubts. She still remembered what Yinzhen said, that the Uya clan was still a bondservant and the children of the clan could only make haha ​​beads.

Yinzhen understood her confusion and explained, "There is more than one branch of the Wuya family. The current Minister of Works also has the surname Wuya, and Fourteenth's study partner is from his family."

"Oh." Qi Buchen nodded to show that he understood.

Yinzhen then asked, "What did Lady Juelu say to you?"

Qi Buchen nodded generously, not intending to hide it: "Mother wanted Wu Ge to be Shi Si's study partner, but I didn't agree."

Qi Buchen had already expressed his opinion on this matter, so Yinzhen did not ask why. Instead, he said, "Is the family dissatisfied that I didn't go?"

Today, Yinzhen had planned to go back with Qi Buchen, but when he was about to leave, someone suddenly came to Gu Badai's house and said that Gu Badai was ill and asked Yinzhen to help him find a doctor. Yinzhen always behaved politely to Gu Badai, but now that he knew his teacher was seriously ill, how could he not go to see him? Qi Buchen didn't mind and urged him to go.

The Ulanara family certainly had some opinions, but they only dared to grumble a few words. Moreover, Yinzhen's absence this time actually had the effect of making Jueluo think that Qi Buchen was not liked by Yinzhen, which was why she did not express any higher expectations for him to be her study companion.

"What's there to be dissatisfied about? It just so happens that something happened." Qi Buchen wanted to pass it over.

But Yinzhen felt sorry for her: "When I'm free later, I'll go back with you."

Qi Buchen was helpless. She really didn't want to go back to the mansion if she had nothing to do. "No need, just do your thing."

Yinzhen just thought that she understood him and didn't say anything more. However, he decided in his heart that he must find a good opportunity to accompany Fu Jin back and make Fu Jin look good at her parents' home.

Qi Buchen didn't want him to say anything else, so he looked at his desk to divert his attention. However, he saw something unexpected.

She picked up a cardboard book, looked at the familiar cursive letters on it, and asked in surprise, "What is this?"

Yinzhen glanced at the book in her hand and said, "This is a book from England. I've been looking into how foreign countries manage floods to see if there's anything I can learn from them."

"You also understand English?" Qi Buchen was even more surprised.

Yinzhen was amused by her surprised look. "What's the big deal? There are special missionaries teaching languages ​​in the upper study. I know some English and Russian. But the words used in these books on water conservancy are too uncommon, so I can only barely understand some of them."

"That's pretty impressive!" Qi Buchen exclaimed, unable to help but feel a little envious and admiring.

It's really not her fault that she is so narrow-minded. It's just that Yinzhen is really amazing. Although she learned English when she was fifteen, she still had difficulty reading original books of fairy tales like The Little Prince, let alone professional books like this.

Moreover, Yinzhen not only knew English, he also knew Russian, Manchu, Mongolian, and Chinese, which made him a total of five languages. Even in modern times, he would be a scholarly figure that people would look up to.

"Wow, seriously, how did you learn that? How did you get so smart! How can you be so amazing!" Qi Buchen exclaimed in admiration for the God of Learning from the bottom of his heart, "Are you still human? You're too awesome! How can we live like this?"

Yinzhen was embarrassed by her straightforward praise. His ears felt like they were burning. He stammered, "It's...it's not as exaggerated as you say. This is not normal."

"Normal?" Qi Buchen said exaggeratedly, "If this is normal for you, then what am I, a fool?"

Yinzhen was still shy, but he disagreed with her evaluation of himself: "You are not stupid, you are very smart."

"Stop talking. Compared to you, I seem like I was born just to make up the numbers." Qi Buchen said with despair.

Yinzhen was amused: "What nonsense! How can you say that about yourself?" He paused, then awkwardly imitated Qi Buchen's praise, "You are also very good."

Qi Buchen didn't respond, but shook her head in disappointment, then opened the book and started reading. She only knew some simple words, so she flipped through the pages quickly. As she flipped through the pages, she found some familiar things.

She pointed and asked Yinzhen: "This is also English, what does it mean?"

Yinzhen leaned closer and saw that it was a serial number on a picture: "Oh, this is not it, this is a number. It is said that foreigners call this Arabic numerals, which means one, two, three, four, and five. Look, this vertical line represents one."

Qi Buchen certainly knew that these were Arabic numerals, but she didn't know when Arabic numerals appeared or when they were introduced to China. She had been here for so long and had never seen them used anywhere, so she didn't dare to take them out rashly. Who would have thought that she would come across them here unexpectedly.

"Is this difficult to learn? Can you teach me?" Qi Buchen pretended not to know and asked to learn.

Of course Yinzhen would not refuse: "This is not difficult, it's very simple. Come, I will write it for you."

He walked to the desk, spread out a piece of paper, and wrote out the corresponding Chinese characters and Arabic numerals. He showed it to Qi Buchen: "Look, each Chinese character corresponds to the Arabic numeral of a number. The pronunciation is the same. Isn't it simple? Come on, try to write it."

Qi Buchen pretended to be a beginner and carefully copied what Yinzhen had written. When he finished, he said excitedly, "It's really not difficult. I think I've memorized it all!"

Yinzhen smiled inwardly at her excitement. This was certainly not difficult. His thirteenth brother had also mastered it after learning it once when he was six years old. However, he still had to encourage and praise her: "Not bad! Fu Jin is really smart!"

Qi Buchen could see that he was praising her like he was coaxing a child, but she didn't care. She asked again, "Then how do you write 12, 120, and 1020 using this Arabic numeral?"

Yinzhen also taught her how to write multi-digit numbers, and Qi Buchen learned it right away. After learning it, she sighed, "This is quite convenient. If I use it to keep accounts, it looks simpler than Chinese characters."

"It's meant to be simple," Yinzhen said, "but it's also easy to tamper with. Look, if you add one stroke to the character 'yi', it becomes 'qi'. That way, it's too easy to falsify accounts."

This is indeed a problem. Today's account books are still recorded in a running account format. Without modern forms and vouchers, it is indeed very easy to falsify accounts, and the resulting corruption problems will only increase.

However, Qi Buchen didn't think of using Arabic numerals to keep accounts right away. Many things needed to be planned slowly.

As for now, Qi Buchen decided to take a step forward. "So, is English... difficult?" Once he learned English, he could legitimately search for various books and then come up with something. Unlike the cake before, she had to work hard to come up with a set of excuses.

She looked hesitant, indicating that she wanted to learn but was too embarrassed to say it out loud, and was afraid that she wouldn't be able to learn it.

She wanted to learn, and Yinzhen was of course happy to teach her, not only because he could spend more time with her during the teaching process, but also because Qi Buchen's attitude was very much to his liking. Yinzhen was a very studious person, and he had a strong desire to learn about things he didn't understand. As such, he naturally hoped that his future wife, the one he would spend her life with, could keep up with his pace, have more common topics with him, and have a closer connection between them.

"It's not difficult!" he said firmly. "It's very simple. I'll teach you. You're so smart, you'll definitely learn it in no time!"

If Qi Buchen had not learned English in his previous life, he would have believed his nonsense.

You little rascal are so dishonest!

But at this time, you have to pretend to believe it.

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Author's Note: Qi Buchen: Who would have thought that after traveling through time, I would still have to learn English? And it was my own request! [Cat Tears.jpg]

Yinzhen: Come, my wife, repeat after me, I love you. This means "you are awesome." Come, am I awesome? Answer in English.

Qi Buchen: You! Really! Are! So awesome! [Hammerhead.gif]