When Tong Cheng'er returned from the calligraphy room, she had a smile on her face. In contrast, Ying Yu returned with a look of worry on her face.
Seeing her like this, Yingyu couldn't help but say, "Judging from your appearance, it seems your tutor is a nice person?"
Tong Cheng'er nodded: "It's really good. We only need to submit 100 words a day, and she won't ask us anything else or keep an eye on us."
Yingyu said with envy, "Your instructor is so good. Unlike our instructor, who not only watches us without blinking, but also brings a lot of people to keep an eye on us. If we don't do it well, we have to redo it. I can barely pass my needlework, and I'm always afraid of doing something wrong and being used as an example."
As Yingyu spoke, she began to feel somewhat wronged.
Although she knows how to do needlework, she is usually a pampered girl at home, and no one would force her to do needlework, so this feeling is really not very pleasant.
Tong Cheng'er didn't know what to say upon hearing this. Besides, talking about her own situation would seem like showing off, and offering words of comfort would feel somewhat inadequate.
Fortunately, Yingyu wasn't saying these things to seek comfort from her; she just wanted to talk about it.
After venting her frustrations, Yingyu continued, "Although it's a bit tough, it's much better than learning manners, so it's not bad at all."
Tong Cheng'er nodded: "Yes!" Rules are so boring!
The calligraphy instructor only mentioned her rules yesterday and didn't assign any tasks, so the official "homework" will be due the next day.
Tong Cheng'er sat at her desk with the other three young ladies. The instructor came in, glanced at them, and then said, "I will have someone send some books to each of you. You can submit your hundred-word essays promptly at 7:00 PM. You can write whatever you want; you don't have to be limited to the books I send you."
After saying that, Aunt Cheng said to the palace maid beside her, "Distribute them!"
Tong Cheng'er didn't know what others thought after hearing this, but she felt that there was no one better than Aunt Cheng.
She writes a hundred characters a day, and she doesn't care what kind of characters they are; she just chooses those with simple strokes.
This is so awesome!
Because she was happy, she had a smile on her face the whole time. When the little palace maid handed her the book, she smiled sweetly at the little palace maid.
The young palace maid was probably charmed by her sweet smile, and her face flushed red instantly.
She only began reading after the palace maid left.
The books are quite traditional, including the Four Books and Five Classics, as well as some Buddhist scriptures.
Tong Cheng'er knew nothing about these things and didn't like reading them, but since it was the first day, she had to put on an act. So she started pretending to flip through the book, and when she opened it, she glanced at it casually and was stunned.
Even though I've never read the Four Books and Five Classics before, I know the difference between those books and vernacular stories. The content of this book is clearly a vernacular story!
What happened?
Tong Cheng'er looked shocked, closed the book, and looked at the cover, which read "The Doctrine of the Mean".
That's right!
When she opened it again, the contents were storybooks, specifically the detective storybooks that she liked to read.
She felt something was off, so she looked through the other books and then she had no choice but to believe it. The other books were all storybooks, and the covers were all very proper.
She was filled with doubt. Before long, a palace maid came over, walked up to her, and said, "Consort Tong said that Your Highness likes to watch it, and hopes that Your Highness will like it too."
Tong Cheng'er was puzzled. Tong Fujin was probably referring to her mother, who knew she liked reading storybooks. But if it was her mother who arranged it, wouldn't that seem a bit far-fetched?
She wasn't so brain-dead as to believe that her mother really had that much power to do something like this in the palace for her momentary "pleasure."
However, after hearing the little palace maid's words, she understood that it must have been done intentionally, and not some kind of supernatural event.
On one hand, there were the novels she loved to read, and on the other hand, there were the rules and regulations of the palace.
In the end, Tong Cheng'er decided to check the quality of the book first.
Once you start looking at it, you get completely absorbed.
It wasn't until lunchtime that I realized she had been watching for so long.
Then she couldn't bear to hand it over. Anyway, that unknown "good person" insisted that she read it, and even if she was exposed in the end, she could just say that she didn't know it was a storybook and deny it to the death.
The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was right.
In the afternoon, she hurriedly wrote a hundred words; it wasn't particularly serious, but it was passable.
After finishing writing, I began to concentrate on reading the storybook.
Because there were rules against moving around freely, and because there were few people and they were far apart, no one noticed that she was reading a storybook.
Perhaps because doing things that are forbidden in secret is more exciting, Tong Cheng'er found reading storybooks in secret to be more interesting than reading them on ordinary days.
What's even more interesting is that she gets to see new stories every day, which must have been quite a challenge for the unknown fairy godmother.
When the fairy godmother Yinzhen learned that Tong Cheng'er really liked these stories, he was very happy. His efforts had paid off, which was something to be happy about.
Tong Cheng'er was very happy in the palace, much better than she had imagined.
Half a month passed in the palace in the blink of an eye.
That evening, Yingyu excitedly said to Tong Cheng'er, "Our aunt said she'll give us a day to rest tomorrow. Do you want to go out for a stroll? I heard the Imperial Garden is quite beautiful. Do you want to go see it?"
Upon hearing about the Imperial Garden, Tong Cheng'er immediately declined, saying, "No, the Imperial Garden is always crowded. It wouldn't be good if I offended someone important."
Before she came, her nanny said that the Imperial Garden in the palace has always been a place where accidents are prone to happen, and it's best to avoid going there if possible.
She kept her distance from the Imperial Garden.
Yingyu looked disappointed upon hearing this: "Are you really not going? The instructor said that going to the Imperial Garden is a special privilege granted by the Noble Consort, and it's a unique privilege for this year's candidates. Previous candidates only get one day off and aren't allowed to move around freely. Besides, if we miss this opportunity, we may never see the scenery of the Imperial Garden again in our lives."
Tong Cheng'er shook her head: "Let's forget about it."
Yingyu has been getting along well with Tong Cheng'er these days and knows a bit about her personality. However, the Imperial Garden is a rare sight, and she really wants to take her there to see it.
So she continued, "Just go and take a look. Many young ladies will be going there tomorrow, and Auntie said there shouldn't be any problems."
Tong Cheng'er still refused to go.
Yingyu pressed on, saying, "Let's go take a look, and come back right away. We won't stay any longer."
Finally, Tong Cheng'er nodded; Yingyu was just too eloquent.
Moreover, thinking that she probably wouldn't be so unlucky as to encounter anything bad, Tong Cheng'er decided to go and see what the Imperial Garden was like.
She should come back as soon as possible to avoid getting into trouble. It's no wonder she overthinks things; some things are just too strange, so she can't help but think more.
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