Chapter 2 The School-Hating Teenager
The argument in the Yu family had been going on for nearly half an hour.
Wu Qiuniang coughed incessantly from anger, while Yu Dan argued until his face turned red. Both of them were clearly exhausted, yet they still showed no sign of stopping.
Yu Dan is fifteen years old this year, in the middle of his adolescence. He can't listen to reason and has no interest in studying. The world outside the courtyard wall is interesting to him, but the words on paper are dry and tasteless.
Wu Qiuniang had tried scolding and pleading, even to the point of tears, but Yu Dan still looked annoyed.
Ming Shu sat on the steps outside the door, also deep in thought.
She wished she could switch places with Yu Dan. She was willing to go to school, willing to take exams, she would study until she died. Going to school was happier than getting married.
Luo Yan, her face clouded with worry, saw Wu Qiuniang coughing violently with a handkerchief covering her mouth outside the door. She couldn't help but approach Yu Mingshu and say, "Miss, please persuade Madam. She is still recovering from a serious illness and should not get upset."
Yu Mingshu looked up at the sky, stood up and lightly brushed the dust off her skirt. A few withered grasses were embedded in the gaps between the warp and weft of the silk. She jumped up and down twice, and all the withered grasses fell off.
"Is the medicine ready?"
Luo Yan instantly understood Yu Mingshu's meaning and quickly ran towards the kitchen.
Soon, Yu Mingshu was given a bowl of slightly hot herbal soup. The steaming heat, along with the unpleasant smell, rushed into her nostrils, distorting her face. She could only walk into the house with her face turned to the side.
Inside the hall, a scene of utter chaos greeted the eye.
The tea set was scattered all over the floor, but fortunately, a carpet cushioned the spill, so it only tipped over and didn't break. Besides that, there were also many scraps of paper, smeared with ink, scattered in various corners.
Yu Mingshu carefully avoided these odds and ends, placed the medicine on the tea table next to Wu Qiuniang, hesitated for a moment after putting it down, and then pushed it further in.
In a fit of anger, the mother threw the object to the side.
Wu Qiuniang held her breath, and when she saw her, she covered her heaving chest and said in a long while, her voice trembling with sobs, "Mingshu, I really have no other choice. I haven't taught Sanlang well, and I'm afraid I won't be able to face your father after I die..."
“Sanlang simply refuses to study; he hasn’t done anything heinous,” Yu Mingshu comforted him gently. “When Father was alive, he often said, ‘I don’t seek fame or fortune among the princes, but only a clear conscience.’ You’ve endured so many years of hardship to protect the Yu family and raise us all by yourself. If Father knew this in the afterlife, how could he bear to blame you?”
Upon hearing this, a look of emotion flashed across Wu Qiuniang's eyes.
Her good mood didn't last long. Her gaze fell on the people below, where she saw Yu Dan slumped in his armchair, clutching a few scraps of paper from his books. Her anger, which had subsided, surged again.
Wu Qiuniang slammed her hand on the table, her index finger trembling as she pointed down to the hall below, and said to Yu Mingshu, "That's true, but we can't let him idle around with this young master and that young master all day long. If this continues, how will he live in the future? Do you expect me to ask my husband's family for money to support him for the rest of his life?"
Upon hearing the words "in-laws' family," Yu Mingshu instinctively frowned.
Yu Dan was also indignant and raised his head to argue: "There are other ways to make a living in this world besides taking the imperial examination and becoming an official! Aunt Liu who sells vegetables outside doesn't know a single character, and Butcher Li who runs a pork shop doesn't even know Confucius, but they're both doing just fine, aren't they?"
Before Wu Qiuniang could retort, he continued with a passionate speech: "On the contrary, my uncle back home has studied the Spring and Autumn Annals his whole life, but he is still a commoner and cannot even be a tutor. He has to beg my grandmother and second uncle for rice and flour every now and then! If I were to live like my uncle, I would truly become a burden to my elder sister!"
Wu Qiuniang was taken aback, almost letting him get confused, but then she laughed angrily: "Your father entered the Imperial Academy at the age of eighteen and passed the imperial examination at the age of twenty. With your talent, if you had studied hard, how could you have ended up like your uncle!"
“Father is father, and I am me! According to you, my second and third uncles are of the same blood as father, so how come only my father has the talent for studying?”
"That's all nonsense!"
Seeing that the mother and son were about to start arguing again, Yu Mingshu had no choice but to step forward and use his slender body to block their line of sight.
She patted her mother's shoulder repeatedly and comforted her in a low voice, "Mom, drink your medicine first, I'll talk to him in a bit."
Wu Qiu belatedly realized she was thirsty. The argument had raged for nearly an hour, and she hadn't had a drop of water. Qingque had come in to refill her tea, but Yu Dan had knocked it over during the argument, so she hadn't gotten a sip. Glancing at the dark brown herbal medicine beside her, she picked up the bowl and drank it all in one gulp.
Yu Mingshu frowned deeply.
The medicine smelled extremely bitter. When Qingque was decocting the medicine in the kitchen, she could smell the bitterness in her bedroom. Every time she went out, she wished she could hide in the back garden, where the smell of grass after the rain was much better than the medicine.
Once you swallow a bowl of bitter medicine, even the most intense anger will be extinguished.
Wu Qiuniang wearily grasped Yu Mingshu's hand and said, "I'm really tired. I won't ask about Sanlang's affairs anymore. If he's determined to go back to his hometown to farm, I'll be happy to return to my roots."
That sounds like something said in anger.
Yu Dan walked out without looking back.
Seeing his unruly appearance, Wu Qiuniang's heart pounded, and her head began to ache.
Without making a sound, Yu Mingshu squatted down, held her mother's knees, and looked up at her: "Mother, do you believe me?"
Wu Qiuniang smiled wryly and reached out to brush away the stray hairs from Yu Mingshu's forehead.
It seemed like it had been a long time since she had looked at her daughter's face so closely. Her slender face had gradually lost its childishness and gained a more serene, even heroic beauty.
Parents often focus more on their unruly children, inevitably neglecting the more sensible one. A wave of guilt washed over her, and Wu Qiuniang's tone softened considerably.
“You’ve been sensible since you were little. I’m in poor health, which has made you take care of the household chores at such a young age. If even you don’t believe me, who else can I believe?”
Yu Mingshu smiled brightly: "Then you should rest assured and recover, and do not get angry about Sanlang's matter again. Starting tomorrow, I will keep an eye on him."
…
The next morning, or perhaps it was early morning, before dawn, a rooster crowed loudly outside the east wall of the Yu family's courtyard.
Luo Yan pushed open the door to the bedroom in the east courtyard in the dark. Yu Mingshu was already up and was adjusting the buttons on his collar in front of the bronze mirror.
Yu Mingshu was wearing a light green round-necked robe, cinched at the waist with a black palace sash. Hearing the door open, she turned her head and met Luo Yan's surprised gaze.
"Is Sanlang up yet?" she asked.
"Still lounging on the couch," Luo Yan said, walking behind her and bending down to examine the girl in the mirror closely.
Yu Mingshu's eyebrows were drawn particularly thick today, with a thicker inner brow and sharper lines at the arch. At first glance, he really looked like a handsome young man.
Luo Yan picked up a comb from the vanity case and asked, "Are you dressing up as a man today?"
“Hmm,” Yu Mingshu replied.
Luo Yan knew what was going on and styled her hair like a young man's.
As they left for the west courtyard, the sky was just beginning to lighten. From the bedroom came the anxious urging of the pageboy Xia Man, as well as the commotion of Yu Dan, who refused to get out of bed.
Yu Mingshu flicked his sleeves, lifted the hem of his clothes, and kicked the door.
"Bang!"
A loud bang startled the two people who were struggling inside the room.
Yu Dan loosened his grip and forgot to resist. The thin blanket was pulled off, and Xia Man staggered a few steps due to the excessive force. Both of them looked blankly at the door.
When he came to his senses, Yu Dan stared at the figure at the door for a long time before recognizing who it was. He then protested loudly, "Sister! You scared me to death!"
Yu Mingshu strolled into the room, looking down at him with a gentle smile, her eyes crinkling into a gentle smile, once again displaying the demeanor of a kind older sister: "Is Sanlang awake? It's time to go to the academy."
Yu Dan felt a chill and slowly moved to the corner of the wall. He pulled the quilt over his head, lay down on the other side of the bed, and began a new round of playing dead.
Xia Man was both anxious and worried. She said to Yu Mingshu, "Miss, you saw it all. It's really not because I was lazy that my master was late. Sanlang is like this every day. I can't just wrap him in a blanket and carry him to the academy..."
Yu Mingshu crossed his arms, staring intently at the man wrapped up like a silkworm cocoon on the bed, and asked sincerely, "Why not?"
Amidst the astonished gazes of the others, she calmly gave instructions: "Xia Man, carry him directly onto the vehicle. Luo Yan, take Sanlang's clothes; he can change in the vehicle later."
Yu Dan opened his eyes wide under the covers, still holding a sliver of hope that his sister was just trying to scare him... In just a few moments, his upper body and legs were already dangling in the air.
"Sister! Sister! I'll get up, I'll get up, okay?!"
The person in the quilt suddenly started thrashing about like a fish out of water, and Xia Man quickly put the person back on the bed.
Yu Dan flung the blanket off and looked at Yu Mingshu with a resentful expression: "You're ruthless."
…
A quarter of an hour later, the siblings boarded the carriage to the academy.
This was Yu Mingshu's first time riding in this mode of transportation. Whether it was a problem with the carriage itself or the poor quality of the horses and carriages owned by the Yu family, the bumpy ride made her feel nauseous.
Yu Dan glared at her with a sour face, his tone extremely resentful: "I said yesterday that I have no desire to study, let alone take any exams for official rank. Even if you take me to the academy and tie me to a bench, I will not listen to a single word of the sages."
Yu Mingshu glanced at the sullen boy beside her, not at all angered by his harsh words, and calmly asked, "Why don't you want to study?"
“I just don’t want to, why is there a reason?” Yu Dan said irritably. “I feel nauseous when I see books, and I feel sleepy when I hear the teacher chanting scriptures. I would rather go with Uncle Zhang to slaughter pigs or with Aunt Li to grow vegetables than write any regulated poems or articles.”
Yu Mingshu fell into deep thought and remained silent for a long time, creating an eerie silence in the carriage.
Yu Dan sat upright, suddenly feeling a bit scared. He couldn't help but glance at Yu Mingshu's face, but unfortunately, there was no flaw on his face, as calm as a still pond.
Are you really angry?
So what if I'm angry? He's telling the truth.
Yu Dan turned his face away, pressed his forehead against the car body, and nervously lifted a corner of the curtain with his left hand. Sunlight streamed in through the window crack, blinding him. He squinted and it took him a while to recover.
The street scenes outside the car rushed past; we had only just entered the eastern part of the city, and there was still some distance to go before reaching the academy. Why hadn't this journey usually felt so arduous?
After an unknown amount of time of torment, Yu Mingshu's voice broke the silence in the car.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
