Chapter 255 The Shellless Turtle
The Jiang family mother and her two sons spent an hour carefully reviewing the experiences of their fourth son over the past few days.
Song Chunxue pressed Sanwa for more details and came to the conclusion that the leader of the caravan that Lao Si was following was suspicious.
He not only harmed Lao Si and several other classmates, but also stole other people's children on the street.
More importantly, the bandits they encountered on the road were all very polite, indicating that they were very likely in cahoots.
Upon hearing this, the fourth brother was so frightened that he crawled into the quilt and trembled.
"Thank God, thank God! I felt like someone was watching me for several nights, but it turns out I wasn't just being paranoid." The fourth brother put his hands together and said, "Amitabha, Guanyin Bodhisattva, thank you for your protection."
Suddenly, Song Chunxue slapped her thigh, "I forgot something, I have to get up early tomorrow."
She had completely forgotten about the Nan family couple wanting to take over the shop.
"What are you busy with, Mother? I'll keep you company," the fourth son said pitifully. "I don't want to be alone these past few days."
“Okay, I have a shop I want to sell, but I was so busy today I forgot. I’ll go see if they still want to rent it tomorrow.”
The fourth son exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? Mother has a shop? How come I didn't know?"
“I was afraid you would start a business without knowing anything, so I didn’t tell you. It’s not too late for you to learn the skills later when you have the ability.”
The fourth son nodded, then slumped onto the kang (a heated brick bed) in a deflated manner. "Mother is right. Those people have a hundred or eighty schemes in every word they say. How can I compare to them?"
"Good to know. Go to sleep now. Come with me tomorrow morning. If they don't want to sell it, we'll sell it to someone else."
"Okay." The fourth brother nodded and got off the kang (a heated brick bed). "Then I'll go back to my room."
"Go to sleep, I'll learn a few words with Sanwa."
As she spoke, Song Chunxue took a piece of paper from the table beside her. It had many characters with many strokes on it, each one bigger and uglier than the last.
"Could you help me figure out how to pronounce these words? Mark them in the simplest possible way."
The third child asked curiously, "So many?"
As he looked at it, a blush crept onto his face. "Mother... which storybook did you read last night?"
Song Chunxue, without blushing or skipping a beat, recited, "The Romance of the Western Chamber."
"..." Sanwa's cheeks flushed even redder. He coughed lightly to cover his embarrassment, picked up a pen and paper, but didn't know how to teach him properly. "How about I go to my room and mark it out, then give it to you?"
"I can't read it. I know what it means but I can't read it. Marking it won't help. These words don't work with direct pronunciation or fanqie."
Sanwa touched his nose, looking quite troubled.
"This one, pronounced 'rui,' is the 'rui' in 'flower stamen,' cough, well, it means the core of a flower."
"This, musk, a precious spice, cough..."
Sanwa forced himself to read it aloud quickly, then got up and ran away.
"Mother, don't look at the storybook yet. Let's recognize all the characters first, then we can start recognizing them..."
“But that book is good. Although I don’t understand it very well, I can roughly understand it.” Song Chunxue looked at him seriously. “You guys have all read it, what’s there to be shy about?”
"Mother, this is different."
Sanwa stood at the door, thinking that he couldn't just say it directly. He was worried that if his mother read this kind of book, she might find him a stepfather.
"Give me back that book. Read something else first; there are many interesting ones. Or you could read 'The Art of War,' it might be useful. I'm a spiritual practitioner, it's best to avoid reading these kinds of unspeakable books, in case I break my vows..."
Song Chunxue crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't worry, I definitely won't break the rules. The characters in the book are just characters in the book. I'll just broaden my horizons, I won't do anything else."
Sanwa didn't try to persuade him any further, ran back, and quickly closed the door.
Looking at the words on the table, Song Chunxue carefully copied them once.
"Isn't this quite subtle? The wording is brilliant, and it makes sense with this explanation."
She studied under the oil lamp for another half an hour, copied some new characters, and then belatedly realized that she shouldn't have asked Sanwa for help.
But he couldn't very well ask Yao Man for advice other than Sanwa.
They're not that close yet, which would be even more problematic.
Forget it, she should watch something serious from now on.
However, after reading this book, she realized why she didn't want to find a son-in-law. Wasn't Zhang Junrui in the book the perfect man in a woman's heart?
Now that I've seen it, I'll consider it mine.
*
The next day, the fourth brother woke up to the aroma and saw the delicious food on the table. He almost cried again.
"Why do you think I have to go out and suffer? I haven't had a single bowl of soup or rice these past few days. I finally found an inn that had plain noodles, but they robbed me of my money before I could even take it out. After that, I could only eat dry bread and secretly scoop out a mouthful of honey to put in my mouth."
As he spoke, the fourth brother wiped away his tears, "My legs still hurt. They were like donkeys, kicking people at the drop of a hat."
"..." Even though he sounded pitiful, Song Chunxue couldn't help but want to laugh.
She meant to say he deserved it.
But that's how young people are; they won't turn back until they hit a wall, and they don't know the safety of their home until they see the dangers outside.
Everyone has their own ambitions. With Lao Si's personality, he forgets the pain once the wound heals, and he'll be causing trouble again in a few days.
"Let's eat. It's good to have seen it all. You'll encounter all sorts of people when you're out and about. It just depends on whether you have the discerning eye to pick out some good people to guide you."
The fourth brother wiped away his tears, picked up the bowl and slurped down half a bowl of soup. He then scooped out the white noodles inside, trying to hold back his tears, but his lips were trembling.
He felt even sadder after tasting such a delicious meal.
It seems that after he left home, Mom and Sanwa lived a better life.
After the meal, Sanwa went to the school, while Lao Si followed Song Chunxue to the shop to wait for someone.
Seeing his mother open the shop door with the key, the fourth son couldn't believe it was his family's shop.
"Did Mother buy this?"
"Actually, you can't make a sure profit in other businesses, but selling food is different. You don't earn much, and it's hard work."
Song Chunxue looked at him in surprise. He later dealt in things like grains, oils, and tea.
"Then you have to settle down and learn from others. If you can learn the craft steadily, I can let you use this shop for a year without charging rent, but you will have to save up for other expenses yourself."
The fourth brother's eyes lit up. "Really?"
"If I were to learn how to make noodles or steamed buns, would Mother think that's a good idea?"
"That's all good. It all depends on whether you're truly willing to learn," Song Chunxue said calmly. "Don't rush. Take a few days to rest and think carefully about what you want to do."
Just then, someone walked into the shop.
"I didn't expect it to really be you?"
Mei Yang looked at the fourth brother and asked, "Is this your son?"
The fourth man looked at the overly familiar man warily. "Who are you?"
"This is my fourth child. You probably don't know that. I have four sons and one daughter. I've had quite a few children."
Song Chunxue looked at him indifferently, her unspoken message being: if you want to get married and have children, find someone else; don't be so foolish as to try and make a scene in front of her.
"Wow, that's amazing. She's still so slim even after having so many children."
"..."
The fourth brother pointed at him and said, "Watch your mouth, this is my mother. If you're in heat, go outside. My mother likes scholars."
Mei Yang looked at him with great interest, "I can read too."
“My mother likes scholars like Lord Xie, and he’s good-looking too.”
"..."
Mei Yang looked down and said, "I'm not bad either."
The fourth brother pointed at him and said, "I think you're just a shell-less turtle used as a table leg!"
Mei Yang frowned. "What do you mean?"
Song Chunxue said calmly, "Just tough it out."
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