Chapter 31 It’s better to treat each other with courtesy
Rong Shi didn't expect Su Ying to come back so early. She smiled and said, "The list you made was seen by my aunt when she entered your room this morning."
Before she could finish her words, Su Ying spoke up, "I knew you'd already accepted it. I came back to tell you that you don't have to prepare the rest for me. Wanyi asked me to help her with her books, and we agreed that she would cover the rest."
Rong Shi thought about it after hearing this. Although the candlesticks, books, and other items that Su Ying had listed were a bit complicated, they were not too expensive.
Over the past few days, her niece and Wanyi had been copying scriptures together, and their relationship had grown much closer. She also hoped that they could get to know each other better, so she smiled and said, "Okay, you two sisters can discuss it, and I won't interfere."
Su Ying took off her cloak and held it in her hands. Before she could put it down, she said, "You've already spent a lot on me. Don't give me such expensive things in the future."
Seeing her niece holding the imperial red brocade cloak with cloud patterns, Rong Shi assumed she was referring to this piece when she said "precious," so she said with a smile, "What's so expensive about it? Auntie happens to have it, and you happen to be in need of it, so it's perfect for you, isn't it?"
As fate would have it, the matter of renovating the library was misunderstood by Rong and Su Ying, the aunt and nephew.
As she had agreed to help Wanyi repair the "Internal Training" as soon as possible, Su Ying started making paste by herself after noon.
The paste is made from glutinous rice. While the process is simple, it is time-consuming and laborious. It takes half an hour to boil the rice thoroughly, and another hour to pound it carefully, before a small jar is ready.
Unexpectedly, when she was carrying the small jar and walking on the way to the library, she met Du Heng again by chance.
But this time was different from the other times. Before she could react, Du Heng took the lead and turned away.
Because of his exploration of the library last night, Du Heng went to bed very late. Although he still got up at dawn as usual, he was a little tired after studying from morning to noon. He thought of taking a leisurely walk to calm his mind.
Normally, Su Ying should have been counting the books in the library by now. Du Hengyuan had never expected to run into her on the road.
Ever since he learned from his mother that she had become wary of Su Ying because of him, he had felt guilty towards her. Even though he had some appreciation for her talent, he still suppressed his curiosity and deliberately avoided suspicion.
So, he originally wanted to go to the garden to relax, but when he saw Su Ying, he turned around and returned to the west courtyard.
Qingquan, who was accompanying them, could not pretend to be blind. After paying his respects to his cousin, he hurriedly caught up with his own master.
Qingquan hadn't entered the house that day, so naturally he had no idea what the young master and his wife were talking about. As clever as he was, he couldn't figure out what the young master was up to now. He openly kept his distance from his cousin, but secretly told him to look after her in every way.
Take this morning, for example. While his cousin was copying scriptures in the East Courtyard, he quietly took his men to the library to make some preparations. When he returned to the study to report, he heard the young master casually instruct, "Tomorrow is Minor Cold. There's only one charcoal basin for warmth, so you need to bring hand and foot warmers. You need to pay more attention to these things in the future, and don't keep me on top of them."
There are some things that, when you do them yourself, you have a good reason and a reason to do them, and even though you might feel a little rude, you still have your own justification. But when someone else does the same thing in front of you, you can't help but feel a bit of an inexplicable feeling.
Su Ying paused, her face slightly hot. Seeing Qingquan bowing to her with a bit of embarrassment, she was actually a little at a loss.
Seeing Qingquan jogging to catch up with the figure in the dark fur coat, Su Ying realized that he was tall and slender, and was actually much taller than Qingquan.
After Qingquan caught up with him, he followed him, but he still had to jog a few steps from time to time to barely keep up with the man's steady pace.
A gust of cold wind blew past, and Su Ying couldn't help but shiver, and the heat on her face disappeared in an instant.
She sighed softly, thinking to herself that she still had some prejudice against Du Heng because of Cheng. "Don't do to others what you don't want done to you." If they met again in the future, as long as it wasn't beyond the pale, it would be best to treat him with courtesy.
She tightened her cloak and turned to enter the library. She wanted to repair Wanyi's book as soon as possible and didn't want to have any more thoughts.
When the concubine's red cloak disappeared into the library, he withdrew his indifferent gaze and turned back to the west courtyard.
You don't feel much cold on the day it snows; the coldest days come a few days after the snow stops falling. She hurried into the house, put down the small pot of paste, and started to light the charcoal brazier.
When she returned from copying the sutras, she noticed only that the objects on the desk had been replaced, not her feet. Only then did she realize that her aunt had even replaced the charcoal in the basin with smokeless silver charcoal. Su Ying's eyes moistened slightly, and she became even more determined to properly organize her bibliography.
Although she didn't understand much about love between men and women, she could clearly feel that her aunt had placed her thoughts of her uncle in the library. There was not much she could do for her aunt, and taking care of the library was one of them, so she had to do her best to do it.
Having made up her mind, she immediately set about repairing Wanyi's "Inner Training". Only after finishing it as soon as possible could she continue to organize the bibliography.
Fortunately, this book is only missing a corner at the beginning, and there are no other major problems.
She first dipped the brush in water, moistened the curled footer, and gently smoothed it with her hands before beginning the formal repair.
She first took a piece of cooked rice paper of a similar color to the frontispiece and cut a slightly larger piece along the missing corner, leaving enough space for trimming later. Then she took another piece of soft raw rice paper, cut a piece the size of a book page, and pasted it under the frontispiece as the backing paper.
After meticulously applying a thin layer of paste to the raw rice paper, Su Ying held her breath and carefully affixed the backing paper to the underside of the scroll's front. After confirming that the front was flat and smooth, she took up the freshly cut cooked rice paper, held her breath, and slowly joined it at the missing corner, then gently lowered it until it was completely attached to the backing paper.
Then she carefully trimmed the extra parts along the edge of the page.
This time, the two newly replaced bamboo paperweights also came in handy. Su Ying pressed them on the paper and just had to wait quietly for a day and the job would be done.
After some careful repairs, Su Ying finally breathed a sigh of relief and stood up.
She put the revised "Internal Training" aside, and her eyes fell on the two newly placed white silk-covered booklets.
Remembering the page of borrowing details that she had casually clipped into the catalog yesterday, she planned to copy it onto the new booklet right away in order to avoid missing it. However, when she opened the catalog to look for it, she couldn't find the paper.
She was clearly in the catalog, but how come she disappeared?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
