Chapter 14 Chapter 14 Playthings
"Miss Lin Shu, our young master is quite fond of lamb wine."
"I'm a bit of a blockhead, and I can't make this wine right. Could you please share the recipe? Our master said he could teach you the art of archery and horse riding."
"A gentleman studies the six arts, and I'm not boasting. Our young master is the most skilled archer, horseman, and archer. Even in... Baoding Prefecture, no one can match him."
Su Peisheng's eyes were full of pride. If the Fourth Master had not deliberately concealed his shortcomings and restrained his edge, it might not have been those masters who took the top spot in the annual riding and archery tests of the princes.
"make a deal."
Chi Zheng's move was exactly what Chu Xian wanted. She was worrying about how to have more contact with Chi Zheng and find out his flaws.
Chu Xian rolled up her wet sleeves and took the pen to write a recipe.
Su Peisheng tucked his things into his sleeves and peered over to see Lin Shu writing.
Lin Shu's handwriting is so ugly that it's unbearable to look at it carefully. In just twelve characters, he made three mistakes...
"Cough cough cough..." Sui Qing couldn't help but cover her mouth and cough.
Chu Xian came back to her senses and handed the pen to Sui Qing: "I'll dictate, and you write it down."
Chu Xian was really helpless with traditional Chinese characters.
Manchu women were not required to write Chinese. They only needed to recite "Nu Ze" and "Nu Jie" fluently and be able to write a few common Chinese characters.
Although she is proficient in Manchu, she is not good at writing traditional Chinese characters.
On weekdays, if anything needed to be written in Chinese, Sui Qing would do it for him.
Su Peisheng pretended to be nonchalant as he took Lin Shu's recipe full of typos, quietly crumpled it into a ball, and stuffed it into his sleeve.
"Suiqing, please write down the recipe I told you carefully."
"One stone of new glutinous rice, seven catties of tender and fat mutton, fourteen ounces of fermented rice, one catty of almonds, seven pineapples, and one ounce of costus root."
"Steam the glutinous rice as usual, cook the mutton, koji, and almonds until soft, mash the pears to extract the juice, mix it all into the steamed glutinous rice, add the wood fragrance, and brew it together. Don't add water. After ten days, you will have mutton wine."
“The fresher the lamb wine, the richer it tastes. Remember not to age it beyond summer.”
"Oh, thank you Miss Lin for your instruction. You can come to me to learn archery at any time." Su Peisheng took the recipe and expressed his gratitude repeatedly.
"Then I'll have to trouble you from now on, Mr. Chi." Chu Xian bowed politely to express her gratitude.
Su Peisheng bowed and walked back to the side room. After hesitating for a moment, he first handed the recipe written by Lin Shu with many mistakes in it to the Fourth Master.
"Master, this is written by Lin Shu. It's full of typos. She must have felt embarrassed and asked Sui Qing to copy it for her."
Su Peisheng brought the recipe copied by Sui Qing to the Fourth Master's desk.
Yinzhen took the scribbled recipe and couldn't help laughing.
He casually handed the completed calligraphy copybook to Su Peisheng: "Give it to Lin Shu and ask her to practice diligently, write two pieces of calligraphy every day, and hand them in to me for personal inspection."
Chu Xian got the calligraphy copy and turned around to throw it to Sui Qing, but Sui Qing returned it to her.
"Lin Shu, everything else can be discussed, except practicing calligraphy. Xianrong and I have already agreed that no one else can help you."
Sui Qing shook her head and stepped aside. There were countless rumors about the girl in the outside world, but the only one was that she was uneducated and unskilled, and she had no way to refute it.
The Emperor promoted the idea of Manchus and Han being one family, and issued an edict ordering Manchu and Mongolian nobles to study Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese literature. However, the girl refused to listen.
Not to mention reciting poems and composing couplets, even writing beautiful articles in Chinese.
Even her Chinese name, Ulanara Chuxian, which consists of only six characters, was written incorrectly with two syllables, and she made the same mistake over and over again, refusing to repent.
Sui Qing just glanced at the calligraphy, and she must have mispronounced more than half of the words such as radish, apple, cherry, bird, beast, insect, fish, carriage and horse.
Sui Qing was worried that the girl would be laughed at by outsiders, so he couldn't help but move closer to the girl who was practicing calligraphy with a sad face.
"Miss, these words have been taught to you by the female teacher and the servant. Do you remember them?"
Sui Qing pointed out several words that the girls must have mispronounced.
Chu Xian stared at the copybook, feeling bitter and resentful.
Turtle, radish, victory, calendar, fight, gathering, ginger, hall.
She knew the first character, the traditional Chinese character for "Wu", her name.
Hiss... She took a breath and didn't recognize the rest of them.
"Sui Qing..." Chu Xian tugged at Sui Qing's sleeve pitifully, pouting, her chin trembling slightly, and muttering something incoherent.
"Black hair, grapes, Teng, Zhi, Men, Huai, Jiang, Cong."
"......" Sui Qing's mouth twitched, she wanted to cry but had no tears, so she could only comfort herself that the girl at least pronounced the word "Wu" in her name correctly, and the girl pronounced the word "Jiang" correctly by half guessing.
Sui Qing pointed to the word "Jiang" tremblingly: "Miss, please give me a word for this word."
"Reins? Territory? Stiffness? Anyway, this word should be pronounced this way even if it came from Cangjie."
“It’s ginger.”
Click..
Chu Xian put down her pen in shock. What the hell?
What does this word have to do with ginger?
Sui Qing didn't give her a chance to relax, and her little mouth kept stabbing her heart like a knife.
She only read one and a half out of ten words correctly.
Who can guess that turtle is pronounced as turtle, radish is pronounced as radish, instead of grape, win is pronounced as win, li is pronounced as li, fight is pronounced as fight, hui is pronounced as hui, ginger is pronounced as ginger, and hall is pronounced as hall.
"How do you pronounce this word? Think about it carefully."
Chu Xian scratched her head in pain, stared at the word "stove" with wide eyes, and smiled instantly. She was not stupid enough to forget the word "turtle" that she had just read.
"turtle!"
When Sui Qing ruthlessly said "Zao Nian Zao", Chu Xian was so angry that she cursed and threw her pen.
"I don't want to study anymore! I'm not going to take the exam for the female scholar, so why should I learn these things?"
"Miss, there's an old saying that goes, 'A man who doesn't understand the past and the present is like a horse or an ox with a collar and skirt.' I've seen Master Chi's writings, and they're so beautiful and elegant, so transcendent and otherworldly. You must write well, and don't let Master Chi laugh at you."
Chu Xian leaned over and picked up the brush with a dull look, then replied in a muffled voice, "Okay."
"You go out, I will practice calligraphy by myself."
After Sui Qing left, Chu Xian took out the dusty dictionary. When she looked up the word "軒马領牛", she held her forehead and laughed awkwardly.
What a jerk Sui Qing! He even indirectly called her a foolish and ignorant beast in clothes.
Chu Xian touched her nose dejectedly and copied the four words "Ju Ma Jin Niu" onto rice paper. She would ask Sui Qing to frame it and hang it by her bed so that she could reflect on herself from time to time.
Sui Qing stood outside the door for a while. The girl was humble and kind-hearted, and would never vent her anger on her for her unpleasant but honest advice.
After standing there for a while, she peeked through the window and saw the girl diligently practicing calligraphy at her desk, and then she breathed a sigh of relief.
Sui Qing didn't dare to go far. She found a needle and thread basket and sat on a bamboo stool at the door to guard it.
An hour later, Sui Qing looked up at the sky and put away her sewing basket. She knew that the girl's patience had reached its limit.
The door opened at the right moment, and Chu Xian stretched herself and yawned.
"Is the ice ready?"
"It's ready. Madam Zheng has also prepared the ingredients."
"Okay, for lunch today we'll have candied pear soup, summer pastries like citrus fruit cake, and locust leaf cake."
"Let's go to the mountain behind Tanzhe Temple to pick locust leaves and water chestnuts to make cakes."
When Sui Qing heard the name of the snack, she couldn't help swallowing.
The pears filled with honey and refrigerated in the ice cellar for half a day are crispy and sweet. Chip the ice and mix it evenly. Take a bite of the fragrant and refreshing locust leaf jelly, and the heat of summer will disappear instantly.
She secretly murmured that if the girl could devote half of her passion for delicacies to studying, the most talented woman in the city might not be the third daughter of the Tong family.
Chu Xian casually picked up the straw hat hanging under the corridor, and the master and servant strolled towards the back mountain of Tanzhe Temple.
When we reached the stone steps at the back of the mountain, we came towards seven or eight strong and rough men with bare chests, panting heavily as they walked down the mountain.
Sitting on the shoulders of those men were young women crying, and there were also several girls aged five or six.
Sui Qing saw the red silk cloth on the man's shoulders, and immediately stood in front of the girl in an unlucky manner to avoid polluting her eyes.
"What are these for? Why are they crying?"
Chu Xian stared at a crying young girl in confusion.
"During the famine years, people had no choice but to sell their wives and daughters, either as slaves or concubines. The worst was falling into prostitution."
"Even prostitutes are divided into different classes. Not all prostitutes can become famous courtesans. If a patron sends a flowery invitation to invite them, if they don't want to respond, they can politely decline."
Sui Qing lamented, "If a woman is lucky, she only needs to serve one man throughout her life. If she is unlucky, she will have to be with many men and be a bride every night."
Chu Xian was shocked when she heard this. "So what if I only have to serve one man my whole life? I'm just a man's plaything. Why can't a man just stay with one woman his whole life?"
"If there were no clients, how could there be prostitutes? The ones who should be ashamed are the clients who force women into prostitution through their indulgence in sensual pleasures. The prostitutes are not at fault; they simply cannot help themselves. So who is the cheapest and who is the most expensive? I think the clients are the cheapest!"
"Lin Shu..." Sui Qing was so frightened that he looked around and made sure that the people behind him were far away and could not hear the unorthodox words the girl had just said. Then he breathed a sigh of relief and used a low voice to comfort the girl in panic.
".Lin Shu...Which prominent man doesn't have three wives and four concubines? But there is only one legal wife, and no one can surpass her."
Chu Xian was disappointed and looked at Sui Qing thoughtfully: "From now on, you need to find a good man who doesn't take concubines, so as not to be tortured by an unfeeling man."
Sui Qing was about to persuade the girl to be magnanimous, but the words stuck in her heart. The girl was promising her that she would find a good man for her to marry who would not take concubines.
The girl at her lips was unexpectedly changed to Lin Shu. Sui Qing was so moved that her eyes turned red. The servants who served the girl closely all guessed that the girl did not want to marry the Fourth Prince.
Their girl was the best girl. She chose the fire pit herself, but she couldn't bear to see the slaves suffer.
"Let's not talk about this." Chu Xian absentmindedly broke off a bunch of tender green locust leaves.
"You asked me before when the relief porridge station arranged by the imperial court would start distributing porridge?"
"I heard that the court will start distributing porridge in two days." Sui Qing rolled up his trouser legs and went to the lotus pond to pick chicken head rice to make water chestnut cake.
"Oh, how many disaster victims are stranded in Tanzhe Temple?"
"I estimate there are three to four hundred people, all crowded around the mountain gate."
"Well, let's go back."
Sui Qing had just picked half a basket of water chestnuts and locust leaves when the girl anxiously urged her to go back.
As soon as Pu Yi returned to the village, the girl went into the kitchen without saying a word and started busying herself.
Sui Qing found an axe and hid in the shade of the corner to chop wood.
"Hey, I'll do it."
Su Sheng was a man of good sense. Sui Qing didn't bother to be polite with him and handed him the axe.
Suddenly, the sound of clear Zen bells came from the stupa of Tanzhe Temple, and Chu Xian slowly moved out of the stuffy kitchen.
"Dinner is ready. When the sun goes down a little, we'll go to the gate of Tanzhe Temple and take advantage of the situation!"
Sui Qing was about to go to eat, but stopped in surprise. No, where did the girl say she was going?
Sui Qing was puzzled and followed the girl to the stove.
Suddenly, he saw Madam Zheng putting trays of steaming buns into a large wooden barrel, and he was so surprised that his mouth opened wide.
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