Ye Jiu, not seeing Yun Jia come out, asked Yao Yishui, "Isn't Yun Jia practicing with me?"

Yao Yishui stretched and slapped her on the back of the head again. "He's a man, and he's not in good health and can't stand the cold. What nonsense are you talking about, expecting him to keep you company?"

Ye Jiu covered her head. "Why do you like hitting my head so much? What if you make me stupid?!"

"It's okay, you don't study anyway."

Ye Jiu took a deep breath and then exhaled, feeling a surge of anger. Damn it, she had a point.

From then on, Ye Jiu began practicing martial arts 007 (meaning 24/7, from morning till night, all year round).

——

It is said that a child will be raised with a stick, and the same applies to martial arts training. Ye Jiu was beaten every few days. In particular, she was extremely fond of light-body skills and practiced them to perfection. Yao Yishui often chased her onto the roof.

The leaves outside the window grew and fell again, and five years passed in the blink of an eye, but Ye Jiu was still incorrigible.

The cicadas' chirping in summer is a headache, but the trouble Ye Jiu brings to Yao Yishui is even more of a headache.

"Ye Jiu, get down."

"I don't!"

"Are you coming down or not?"

Ye Jiu lay prone on the roof, avoiding Yao Yishui's gaze, "I didn't mean to!! I'm sorry, okay!"

"The Liu family's daughter next door is about to take the imperial examination. If you go and provoke her now, what if she fails and tries to blackmail you?!"

"She really can't do it. She insisted on challenging me to a duel. How could someone like me, who hasn't even finished three months of schooling, possibly do better than her? She deserves to be discouraged!"

"I'll count to three, three..."

"I'm coming down, I'm coming down! I was wrong, Master's wife! I'll apologize to her, okay?" Ye Jiu climbed down from the roof, head bowed, admitting her mistake.

Yun Jia leaned against the doorpost watching the farce unfold, shaking her head helplessly. "Master's wife, I can testify that it was the Liu family girl who provoked Ye Jiu."

Ye Jiu gave Yun Jia an approving look. Yes, it wasn't my fault!

As always, Yao Yishui liked to tap her on the head, giving Ye Jiu another sharp rap on the forehead. She said slowly:

“I know you didn’t start this, but why didn’t you know to hold back? The husband of the Liu family is not someone to be trifled with. He came to me demanding an explanation from me.”

"Go apologize to the Liu family girl today. Remember to go easy on her next time. If you want to take revenge, do it discreetly and don't let anyone come after me again."

After Yao Yishui finished speaking, she stroked her chin and said, "Tsk, I've studied for several years and I'm still not as good as you. You're even making me proud." She frowned and said, "Should I have forced you to study back then? If you had continued studying, wouldn't our family have produced a top scholar?"

Ye Jiu looked terrified and waved her hands repeatedly, "No, no, please don't! Besides, I'm already twelve, it's too late for me to start school. It's Liu Yuanshuang who's not smart enough, she hasn't figured things out in years."

Yun Jia laughed out loud, "Teacher's wife, forget it. Ye Jiu only studied for those three months because he lost a bet and didn't want to lose face. His handwriting is like a dog's scribbles. Don't offend the examiners' eyes."

Ye Jiu: ...It seems like I was scolded. I'm not sure. Let me hear it again.

Yao Yishui thought about it and agreed, "Go apologize quickly, and come back for dinner after you apologize."

Once Yao Yishui returned to the room, Ye Jiu approached Yun Jia with a grin, "Hehe, thank you for helping me, Senior Brother! Would you like some pastries from Shangshifang? I can go buy some for you when I come back after apologizing."

Ye Jiu only calls Yun Jia "senior brother" on occasions like this. She always feels that they are about the same age, and it would be strange for her to call him senior brother.

The Liu family lives right next door; it wouldn't even take half a quarter of an hour to walk there. Shangshifang is in the west of the city, several miles away, so it's definitely not on the way.

Yun Jia laughed, "I don't want dessert, I want candied fruit."

"Then I'll buy you some candied fruit."

Ever since she fed Yun Jia candied fruit after he took the medicine, she discovered that he had a sweet tooth, and she would always bring him some when she went out.

The area around this house is full of merchant families, and each family has a girl about the same age as Ye Jiu. Apart from those who are studying, the rest are all Ye Jiu's good friends. There's no way around it, she's just that lovable (flips her hair).

These families naturally had boys, but the requirements for men in this era were extremely strict. Men over ten years old had to wear veils to cover their faces when they went out, and after marriage, they had to cover their faces even more completely. Therefore, most boys did not go out.

Yao Yishui didn't make such a request of Yun Jia, and Ye Jiu also felt that there was no need for her to wear that veiled hat, so Ye Jiu would often sneak out with Yun Jia.

Ye Jiu once tried to invite Yun Jia to play with her friends, but because of his presence, she was always unable to relax. Yun Jia also knew that she couldn't fit in, so after going once, she stopped going with her.

Moreover, after Yun Jia became sensible, she stopped following her around, and for this reason, she regretted losing a revolutionary comrade.

The pastries at Shangshifang in the west of the city are the second best in the entire capital. As for why not go to Lihuaju, which is the best? Well, because there's a long queue and they might sell out before you even get a turn...

People only remember the first and forget the second. Shangshifang is much easier to buy from. The taste is not bad and there is no need to queue. Even a fool knows how to choose it.

Ye Jiu patted the dust off his clothes from lying on the roof, smoothed out the wrinkles, and strode towards the Liu family's house.

Liu Yuanshuang was the woman she disliked the most among those who studied. She looked down on Ye Jiu for spending her days climbing trees to catch bird eggs and doing nothing, while she felt that studying made her superior.

If that were all, it wouldn't be so bad. But Liu Yuanshuang is also petty and narrow-minded. Ye Jiu lost a bet and was forced to go to school for three months, where she became classmates with Liu Yuanshuang. Before Ye Jiu came, Liu Yuanshuang was the teacher's favorite student.

After Ye Jiu arrived, her husband "fell in love with someone else" in just three months. He would praise Ye Jiu to everyone he met as a promising student who just wasn't ambitious.

Ye Jiu is wronged! They think she's a genius because they believe she learned so much in just three months from the time she first learned to read. But she's actually been studying in modern times for decades and has taken the college entrance exam three times. It's perfectly normal for her to grasp even the simplest knowledge so easily.

The key issue is that there's no way to explain it, so we can only suffer in silence.

Liu Yuanshuang found her nose and eyes disagreeable, and couldn't stand her no matter what.

Ye Jiu knew she was in the wrong and didn't argue with her, but she still insisted on coming up to her! It was she who suggested the couplet competition, blocking Ye Jiu who was walking along the road and refusing to let her go unless she competed with her.

What could Ye Jiu do but compete with her? She thought Liu Yuanshuang, having studied for several years, would easily defeat her. Little did she expect that Liu Yuanshuang was truly incompetent. Although the imperial examination did not test couplet writing, Ye Jiu was still quite surprised to narrowly defeat her.

Now look what's happened! She's messed things up. Liu Yuanshuang couldn't take it anymore and went to the parents, which led to today's scene.

Ye Jiu curled her lip, "If you can't play, then don't play! Pah! Why are you telling your parents?"