Chapter 48: Drunkenness and Graffiti
The meal was very enjoyable.
Midway through the meal, everyone was chatting happily, and Hu Qingshan even brought out his homemade rice wine, pulling Guo Baiwen to have a couple of drinks together.
Guo Baiwen smelled the alcohol and felt it wasn't too strong. Even if he drank a couple of small cups, it shouldn't be a problem.
So, with just this half-dish of braised peanuts, the two of them unknowingly finished the entire bottle of rice wine.
In his previous life, Guo Baiwen wouldn't have bothered to even glance at such a small prescription.
But he overlooked the fact that this was the first time he had drunk a proper liquor, unlike the sweet white liquor that Grandma Guo had remade for him before.
Although this rice wine doesn't smell strong, it has a powerful aftereffect. I lost control of my intake while drinking it.
He was fine while sitting, but when he left the Hu family's courtyard, he started to stagger.
No one knows how he managed to hold on and climb up the stairs of his own house. Anyway, when Guo Baiwen woke up the next day, he found himself lying on the footstool next to his bed.
One of her shoes had been taken off, and the other was half-dangling from her foot.
I dozed off on the footstool until midnight, and then, feeling cold, I reached out and groped around on the bed for a while before pulling off half of the blanket. I left one half exposed in the air and covered my stomach with the other half.
Thank goodness, even so, I didn't get seriously injured from the cold.
But when he rubbed his head and got up from the footstool in front of the bed, he found himself unconsciously sniffling.
Although I don't have a cold, I look like I'm not far from catching one.
While vowing to himself that he would never drink like that again, he staggered and began to change the clothes he was wearing.
Fortunately, although he was completely drunk, the ground and his clothes were still relatively clean, though they reeked of alcohol.
When she came downstairs, clutching her throbbing head, she saw Guo Xiaohua and Grandma Guo sitting in the main room having a meal.
It turned out that he slept straight through to noon the next day.
That's terrifying.
Seeing his expression, Guo Xiaohua quickly put down her chopsticks, got up and poured a bowl of hot water from the kitchen, saying, "Brother, have some water first."
She had gone to wake her brother that morning, but when she left her room, she found that his door was still half open.
Then she saw her brother lying on the ground, covered with a quilt, fast asleep.
She originally wanted to help him to bed, but she was weak and struggled for a while, lifting his feet and pulling his arms, until she was covered in sweat. She still couldn't move the prince.
Nothing in this world is difficult if you are willing to give up.
Instead of giving up, Guo Xiaohua simply closed the door and then pulled down a section of the blanket.
To prevent the cold wind from blowing into the house and making the prince feel cold.
Guo Baiwen listened to Guo Xiaohua's explanation while drinking hot water.
He then realized that after he fell asleep drunk, he hadn't even had time to close the door properly.
No wonder I had a runny nose when I woke up this morning after sleeping like that last night.
Grandma Guo shook her head as she looked at him. Seeing that he had finished drinking the hot water, she added a bowl and chopsticks for him and handed them to him, complaining, "Wenzai, your alcohol tolerance is still too low."
Grandma actually laughed at me.
But ironically, what he said was the truth.
So Guo Baiwen picked up his bowl and chopsticks, ate a couple of mouthfuls of rice, and without defending his drinking capacity, he just mumbled, "I won't drink this much in the future."
My headache didn't improve much after that lunch.
Grandma Guo knew that he had fallen asleep without closing his bedroom door last night, so she prepared to make him a bowl of ginger tea to ward off the cold.
Guo Baiwen nodded as he washed the dishes.
After finishing his ginger tea, he went upstairs to make himself a packet of cold medicine.
After all, at this time, a cold can really be fatal.
The three of them were busy in the kitchen, making it quite lively.
Although she drank too much last night, the matter of Guo Xiaohua going to learn embroidery from Lin Niangzi has been settled.
Because Madam Lin also had to take care of Abao, she could only spare half a day each day to teach Xiaohua embroidery after the Lantern Festival.
As for the remaining half day, Xiaohua could practice on her own or help Lin Niangzi with embroidery, whatever she wanted to do.
Although it was said in advance that there would be no tuition fees, I still had to help Sister Lin Yue with some odd jobs every day, such as arranging cables and laying base layers.
Moreover, one must study under her for at least three years to become a master. After that, if Madam Lin has a daughter, Guo Xiaohua will also help teach her for free.
As for Xiaohua, if she does a lot of embroidery or does it well during her studies, she can use Lin Niangzi's connections to sell her work to the cloth shop.
This way, the monthly income will not be small.
However, Madam Lin also told Grandma Guo that if she wanted to become a professional embroiderer, her hands would be very precious.
Although she was married and had children, she usually only helped with cooking and sweeping; she rarely did anything else herself.
Hu Qingshan would help with whatever he could, and if that wasn't possible, they hired helpers who would come to their house to do chores during the day.
These past few days, because of the New Year, the helpers have been resting, so Madam Lin has had to take over the work herself.
Moreover, after finishing her work, she would carefully apply her own homemade hand cream to maintain her hands.
Because doing embroidery can make your fingers rough, and hangnails can easily grow on the edges of your nails. This can not only scratch some expensive fabrics, but also make it difficult to split some of the silk threads used for embroidery.
It depends on whether Guo Xiaohua wants to learn some simple techniques or complex ones.
If you want to learn more difficult things later on, then you need to cherish these hands even more.
Grandma Guo expressed her understanding.
After all, embroiderers earn their living with their hands.
However, this means that Guo Xiaohua will definitely not be able to continue helping out at the store.
However, that's something that will happen after the New Year when the store opens for business. Now that he has a few days of free time, Guo Baiwen plans to take a look around the western part of the city when he has the chance.
Before going home yesterday, Grandma Guo specifically asked Lin Niangzi about the formula for her hand cream. Now that there are still ten days until the Lantern Festival, she is preparing to cram in some last-minute care for Xiaohua's hands.
As for household chores like washing dishes and cleaning these days, she and Guo Baiwen each take half, and they'll get used to it.
That was her original thought, but when she went out to buy herbs at the pharmacy next door, she suddenly remembered something. "When we talked about hiring, Grandma thought about it and realized that hiring just one person might not be enough."
Guo Baiwen had just finished drinking ginger tea and was about to sweep the floor when he heard this. He leaned the broom against a large tree and turned around. "How could it not be enough?"
"Have you forgotten? Xiaohua's matter is a done deal, and you will also be going to study at that academy."
"Grandma—", Guo Baiwen said, both amused and exasperated, "I already said I'd only go to the academy as a quarterly student during the summer vacation when the weather gets warmer. It's still too early now!"
"Alright, alright, you already have your own plan in mind. Grandma is just reminding you because she's afraid you'll forget."
Grandma Guo waved her hand, picked up her basket, and ignored him.
There were only some fallen leaves left in the yard, which Guo Baiwen swept up in no time. When he went back to his room to drink some cold medicine, he saw Guo Xiaohua take out a needle and thread and gesturing at a square white cotton handkerchief.
He thought for a moment, initially intending to take a ballpoint pen, but after some consideration, he took out an eyebrow pencil from the cabinet in his room instead.
"Xiaohua, why don't you try this?"
"Brother?" Guo Xiaohua put down her embroidery needle and took the eyebrow pencil. "What's this?"
"It's what you girls use to draw your eyebrows," he said, pulling it out. Because it looked like a pencil, even though it was a lighter color, he had always used it as a pencil.
“I sometimes use it for writing and drawing, and it’s more convenient than a feather pen. You can try it out.”
Although she didn't know when her brother bought the eyebrow pencil, it looked quite different from the ones she had seen before.
Guo Xiaohua didn't try it directly on the plain cloth. Under Guo Baiwen's watchful eye, she casually swiped her hand across a pillar in the corridor.
I was just about to exclaim with delight, "This thing is really useful!"
She then noticed the death stare coming from her own brother behind her.
Guo Xiaohua, belatedly realizing what she had just done, felt a pang of unease and slowly turned her face away.
Sure enough, she saw her brother looking at her with a forced smile. "Little Flower, you seem to be quite adept at scribbling on this pillar. Is this not the first time you've done this?"
A chill ran down her spine, and Guo Xiaohua forced a kind smile, tilting her small face up and saying, "Brother, how could I—"
But Guo Baiwen wasn't listening to her at all. Instead, he started to carefully check every pillar in the corridor. With each mark he found, Guo Xiaohua couldn't help but shrink back and lower her head.
It wasn't until Guo Baiwen found all the graffiti on the fence and the corridor that the problem was solved.
Guo Xiaohua's entire head was buried so that only the top of her black hair was still visible.
Under Guo Baiwen's burning gaze, which seemed to want to devour her whole, she remained silent for a moment before continuing to keep her head down and slowly said in a soft voice, "...I'll wring out the cloth with water and wipe all the graffiti off here in a bit."
"What if it can't be cleaned properly?" Guo Baiwen wasn't so easily fooled.
There was another silence. This time, the voice was even lower and seemed less confident. The voice said weakly, "...Then I'll go ask Brother Hu for some paint and repaint the pillars."
"Don't let it happen again." Giving the girl a break this time, Guo Baiwen thought for a moment and then continued, "After you've cleaned it up, I'll check everything again. If I find any more of your doodles—"
"...I understand, brother."
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Author's note: The eight-day holiday is over—time to get back to hard work! [laughing and crying emoji]
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