Chapter 11 My Cousin Has Gone Mad
He didn't pay much attention, so Jiang Ru felt relieved and went to look at the words she had written.
Despite having memorized it many times, Jiang Ru inexplicably still wrote it wrong. Frustrated, she rewrote it, and this time she got it right.
“I taught you this word a long time ago. If you make the same mistake again next time, it means you weren’t paying attention.” Pei Wu’s voice was gentle, and although he was teaching her, it sounded exceptionally tender.
Jiang Ru nodded, making an excuse for herself, saying, "It was an accident just now."
Pei Wu seemed to believe her excuse and didn't say anything more, continuing to teach her to write.
After studying all afternoon, Jiang Ru wrote very small characters to save ink, filling the entire sheet of paper.
The rain outside the window pattered against the tiles, and the room was extremely quiet, with only the swishing sound of the brushstrokes breaking the silence.
As Jiang Ru was writing, she suddenly remembered something and turned to Pei Wu to ask, "Since you can write, and write so beautifully, why don't you set up a stall and help people write letters?"
Pei Wu simply said, "I've been there."
Jiang Ru thought he would continue by asking why he didn't go, but Pei Wu only said this one sentence and then said nothing more.
He always had some strange principles of his own, and Jiang Ru guessed that he must be having some kind of difficulty, so she didn't ask.
They studied until dusk, when Pei Wu went to make dinner. Jiang Ru stayed in the room. She secretly glanced outside, picked up a pen, and wrote Chinese characters next to the words she wrote.
That way you won't forget.
She wrote in Chinese with ease, and soon she had marked all the characters. After adding the annotations, she blew on the paper a few times, waited for the ink to dry, folded the paper, and stuffed it into her bosom.
Before long, the porridge was ready, and Pei Wu even cooked her an egg.
Jiang Ru looked at the half-bowl of thin porridge opposite her, cracked the egg, peeled it, and put half of it into Pei Wu's bowl.
Pei Wu raised his eyes and looked at her quietly.
Jiang Ru said matter-of-factly, "Next time cook two. If you hadn't cooked less this time, I wouldn't have only been able to eat half."
In the end, it all came down to Pei Wu's fault. Pei Wu had been so annoyed by her these past few days that he had lost his temper and could only say, "I know."
It was only evening, but the courtyard was already dark. Pei Wu had said yesterday that the rain would stop today, but now that I think about it, it will probably continue for several more days.
Jiang Ru couldn't sleep, so she sat in the courtyard watching Pei Wu study. There was an oil lamp in front of him, and he would turn the page of his book from time to time. He was engrossed in his reading, and Jiang Ru was also staring intently at him.
After a long while, Pei Wu looked at her, as if he had finally reached his limit and gently advised her, "It's very late, you should rest."
Unable to go out due to the rain, and having studied all afternoon, Jiang Ru felt nauseous at the sight of books, unable to understand how Pei Wu could study so much.
I secretly study every day, preparing to crush everyone else.
Jiang Ru couldn't stand him reading, always feeling that the closer he got to becoming the top scholar, the more her own head would be in danger. So whenever Pei Wu was studying, she would always try to find a way to interrupt him.
Jiang Ru was simply advising Pei Wu against taking the imperial examinations, which was like studying hard for over a decade in modern times only to give up the college entrance exam. It seemed impossible to do, but for the sake of her own life, Jiang Ru thought it was worth a try.
The oil lamplight cast a warm glow on Pei Wu's face. Jiang Ru suddenly asked, "Pei Wu, why do you want to take the imperial examination?"
Jiang Ru had been holding this question in for a long time, but she hadn't been able to find an opportunity because she wasn't very familiar with Pei Wu before. Now, perhaps, is the right time.
Pei Wu abruptly stopped turning the pages of his book. He simply said, "I believe that all scholars in the world should have only one goal."
He didn't speak clearly, but Jiang Ru understood his implied meaning.
In fact, Jiang Ru couldn't persuade him either. Not to mention that Pei Wu wanted the prosperity of the Great Xia Dynasty, even if Pei Wu sought fame and fortune, she couldn't give him those things.
You have to make conditions, and there has to be an exchange.
Jiang Ru looked at Pei Wu and pressed, "What if you lose your life?"
Pei Wu simply said, "The new emperor is young."
Emperor Yuantai was only eight years old. Everyone knew what a young emperor would face. But Pei Wu probably didn't know that he would become the real treacherous minister who controlled Emperor Yuantai in the future.
Perhaps people always change. The current Pei Wu wants to assist the new emperor, but the future Pei Wu will want to replace the new emperor.
Jiang Ru couldn't help but ask again, "What if your entire clan of nine generations were wiped out?"
This was tantamount to cursing Pei Wu, and Pei Wu was indeed moved by it. For the first time, he looked at Jiang Ru with a reproachful gaze and said, "Only those who commit heinous crimes are subject to the extermination of their entire family. Why would my entire family be exterminated when I am perfectly fine?"
After saying that, he took the opportunity to lecture Jiang Ru: "Also, don't say these things again. What you said..." Pei Wu frowned slightly and said in a low voice, "Isn't it just cursing yourself?"
Jiang Ru: "..."
"Fine, fine, so you know you'll drag me down with you. Then why did you have to do this to yourself?" Jiang Ru was so angry at Pei Wu that she laughed. She pointed at Pei Wu and said, "You'd better remember what you just said."
"If that really happens in the future, don't blame me for being impolite," Jiang Ru retorted fiercely.
If Pei Wu really does something foolish in the future, she will have to put righteousness before family.
It's normal for Jiang Ru to be angry, but in Pei Wu's eyes, it was as if she had suddenly lost her temper. Pei Wu was silent for a moment: "Cousin, you were a bit disrespectful today."
Jiang Ru thought to herself, "I'm not your cousin. She's lived two more lifetimes than Pei Wu. Pei Wu should be calling her grandma."
Thinking of this, Jiang Ru straightened her back. Yes, Pei Wu was just a grandson in front of her. What could she, as the grandmother, do if her grandson made a mistake? All she could do was stop him in time. She didn't believe that Pei Wu could do something so rebellious under her control.
Feeling increasingly confident, Jiang Ru reached out and snatched the book from Pei Wu's hand, saying fiercely, "What are you looking at? You'll go blind if you keep looking."
Pei Wu was caught off guard and was stunned when Jiang Ru snatched his book away.
He stared blankly at Jiang Ru's departing figure, his usually composed face crumbling. Jiang Ru snatched his book and turned back to hurl a harsh remark: "What are you looking at?"
Pei Wu looked helplessly at his empty hands. Just then, Jiang Ru suddenly turned around. Pei Wu thought she was going to return the book to him and was about to reach out to take it, his palm open towards Jiang Ru. Unexpectedly, Jiang Ru reached out and slapped his hand hard.
A stinging pain came from his palm. In the private school, Pei Wu had never been hit by the teacher because he was always very well-behaved and never troubled the teacher. But today, he was hit on the palm by his cousin.
Pei Wu stared blankly at Jiang Ru, his dark eyes filled with confusion. When he met Jiang Ru's gaze, his eyes were also filled with doubt.
Jiang Ru reached out and, ignoring the heat of the oil lamp, stubbed it out with her hand. Then she made a face at Pei Wu and strode away.
The girl's back view was arrogant and domineering, a far cry from the pitiful and cautious girl she had been when she first arrived home. She simply took Pei Wu's book and swaggered back to her room.
Pei Wu's book was well preserved; he wouldn't scribble on it. The pages were clean, though slightly wrinkled from being flipped through so many times. Jiang Ru flipped through a few pages under the lamp. She didn't recognize that many characters, and the book was like a book written in heaven; she couldn't understand it at all.
Having taken Pei Wu's things, even if she didn't like them, she had to keep them safe. So Jiang Ru found a safe place and put the books away properly.
Taking away one book leaves two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight more books, but it's just a drop in the ocean and not very useful. However, Jiang Ru is still very happy.
Pei Wu sat there blankly, and came to the conclusion that his cousin seemed to have gone mad.
His cousin's behavior today was quite abnormal. For example, in the afternoon, when Pei Wu was teaching her to write, she picked up the pen and wrote two unfamiliar characters on the paper that Pei Wu had never seen before.
Let's just call it a character for now.
Pei Wu remembered how those two characters were written. He picked up his brush and ink and copied them completely according to Jiang Ru's strokes from his memory.
It shouldn't be a character; the shape doesn't resemble it at all.
This may be an ancient symbol, or perhaps it is unique to the Shuzhou region, which is why Pei Wu could not recognize it.
He is still too young, and there is still much for him to learn.
Thinking of this, Pei Wu folded the paper up. He could ask the teacher when he returned to school. The teacher was learned and knowledgeable, and perhaps he would know what it meant.
After putting the paper away, Pei Wu looked at the oil lamp that he had lit again.
He was inexplicably vented his anger on his cousin today. He wasn't angry, but he felt innocent because he hadn't done anything wrong.
However, he was two months older than Jiang Ru, so as her older brother, he naturally wouldn't hold it against his younger sister. Besides, Jiang Ru probably took his book away because she was worried that the oil lamp wouldn't burn out and that he would damage his eyes. His cousin was probably quite considerate.
My cousin is too impulsive; she actually tried to extinguish the oil lamp with her bare hand, and her palm was probably burned.
It was getting late, and we didn't have any medicine at home. Luckily, there was a field outside the house where we could find medicinal herbs.
A light drizzle was still falling from the sky. Pei Wu walked to the edge of the field with an umbrella, bent down and searched carefully. Before long, he found several dandelion plants.
Pei Wu pulled up a few plants with his bare hands and hurried home.
He washed the mud off the dandelion leaves with water before walking to Jiang Ru's room, raising his hand, and knocking on the door.
It was the middle of the night, so the person knocking on the door could only be Pei Wu. Jiang Ru sat up abruptly, surprised that he dared to knock on the door after being scolded.
She strode over aggressively and opened the door.
Visibility was poor at night, and Pei Wu was wearing white clothes, so the raindrops were not very noticeable on his clothes. However, his shoes were covered in fresh mud, which even reached his trouser legs, making him look quite dirty.
He held a dandelion in his hand and handed it to Jiang Ru without holding a grudge, saying slowly, "Cousin, I saw you grab the oil lamp with your bare hands just now. I don't know if your palm was burned. This is dandelion. Crush it and apply it to your palm. Maybe it can relieve the burn."
The dandelion was wet, pulled up by the roots, with a little mud on the roots, but the leaves had indeed been washed and were very clean.
After a long while, Jiang Ru did not take it. Pei Wu wanted to look at her hand, but after his gaze moved halfway, he looked away and handed some dandelion grass forward: "Whether it's hot or not, take it first."
A note from the author:
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