Besides that, when Mr Wu felt like it, he taught the girls how to make wine and prepare sauces and pickles like soybean paste, fermented bean curd, hot sauce, soy sauce, sesame paste, sesame oil, etc. He also included some simple home-cooked recipes and cooking techniques for food, herbal medicine, dietary guidelines, and diet taboos. This made the girls more interested in his lessons. Some girls were incredibly talented, and they also loved discovering new things. After they got married, they made a successful living out of making pickles and became rich. It was nothing that Mr Wu could have predicted.
As expected by clever people, the girls from Feng Ye Village were hard to seek after. Men from everywhere wanted to marry the girls from there. Thus, it made everyone more eager to send their daughters to school as if not attending school for two or three years made them unable to call themselves a girl from Feng Ye Village.
Soon, many of the other villages got jealous, so they decided to hire a teacher to their village to give lessons to their girls. They did not want Feng Ye Village to be the only one to get all the advantages.
However, they did not expect that the parents would gladly agree to it, but finding a teacher was tough!
Once they knew that they had to teach girls, most gentlemen rejected the offer without hearing them out. They must be joking! Who could be that bored to give lessons to girls? They wanted to teach male students who would bring them pride from becoming a scholar and a Juren!
Meanwhile, some poor scholars agreed to give lessons for the sake of making some money, but they were not that good at teaching. They only knew things like the Three Character Classic and the Tales from the Hundred Surnames. When it came to painting, medicine, farming, cooking, etc., they were sorry to say that they did not know any of it, and they only had knowledge like the Four Books and Five Classics to teach. The main lessons were reading and reciting, making the learning miserable for the girls, and the villagers were disappointed. Soon after, they could only cancel the lessons.
Because of that, it made Feng Ye Village’s reputation even better.
There was only one Mr Wu in the world.
Lu Xiao Shu and her sister had studied for almost two years at his academy now. Xiao Xue became more gentle, but what about Lu Xiao Shu? She only had her mind trained on painting, and she had no interest in anything else. This was because she thought that painting could help her earn a living, so she did not have to worry about her future no matter where she went. Moreover, she was very talented in painting in her past life, so she had strong basics in that field, unlike menial things like embroidery.
As for medicine, she earned herself a scolding and a punishment to copy a thousand words after asking Mr Wu, “Sir, what do you know about poison?” She was greatly depressed from that and she did not dare to bring it up ever again.
Anyway, she had a knack for painting and would put in effort for it. That made Mr Wu very pleased, so he put in more effort into teaching her. However, once she was nine, her paintings of flowers, birds, and people made Mr Wu’s jaw drop as he complimented her work as a spiritual piece. So, he began teaching her more challenging techniques and advanced paintings of mountains and sceneries.
Now, Mr Wu began to have high expectations from her as if she was a real student. He not only rented a lot of famous rubbings of inscriptions to explain, copy, and research for her; he also brought her up into the mountains in different weathers and seasons. They observed how the mountains and the rain became one as they connected with the dark forest; how the sunrise rays blanketed the entire valley, how the morning mist floated above the forest at dawn, and so many more sceneries. When she was careless with the painting, she would be reprimanded for it. Since it was Lu Xiao Shu’s nature to be competitive and with money waving at her in the future, she persisted and made tremendous progress in less than three months. She had drawn the landscapes in her unique style; clear, elegant, and majestic, putting Mr Wu in awe.
She just finished a painting of the Song Xi Spring which immediately earned her a huge compliment from Mr Wu. Watching Mr Wu’s twinkling eyes filled with satisfaction, she smiled and piqued, “Sir, the spring is so interesting. Since you said that there would be frogs and fish at night, I’m sure they would taste delicious! Sir, we should get my brother, father, and uncle to catch frogs and fish tonight. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
For a moment, Mr Wu agreed with her as he found it funny how she was watching him with those eager eyes. He sighed, “How could a girl be so naughty like you? Look at Xiao Xue and the other girls and compare yourself to them. The two years you spent learning was in vain!”
Lu Xiao Shu rolled her eyes in her mind. She thought to herself: They’re all real ladies while I’m just an amateur. How can I compare myself to them? Since Mr Wu did not refuse her suggestion, she tugged on his sleeve and said playfully, “Good sir, just promise to bring me there! I’ve been good for such a long time without causing any trouble!”
“Stop pulling!” Mr Wu frowned and pulled his sleeve back with a sigh, “Fine, I think the weather tonight isn’t bad too. We’ll go tonight! Ask your parents to prepare food earlier today. I’ll come over to have dinner, and we’ll leave after that.”
Lu Xiao Shu was delighted to hear that. She hurrah-ed without replying to Mr Wu and ran back home with a wide grin. Ever since she started learning painting from Mr Wu, she hiked through many forests and picked up almost everything Mr Wu knew about hunting wild animals. She could practically do everything by herself by now.
Lu Xiao Shu rushed home cheerfully. Her mother was out selling beancurd, so she started to prepare dinner with her auntie. Tong Yu Er could not help but laughed and shook her head at Lu Xiao Shu as she recounted what happened earlier today.
It was the metropolitan civil service examinations again this time of the year. Initially, Miao Chu He was supposed to join the exams, but unfortunately, Jin Er got sick right before he left for the capital. His sickness became worse, making the entire family worry for him, especially Tong Yu Er, who was very worried, secretly cried and could not fall asleep at night. With this situation, how would Miao Chu He have the heart to take his exams? It made no difference to take the exams next year, but if he went now and tragedy struck, what good would it do everyone even if he had gotten a Zhuang Yuan? Everyone in the family agreed with him. He stayed home to take care of Jin Er. Half a month later, Jin Er slowly recovered, but it was already too late to hit the road for the exams. Not to mention that Miao Chu He was not completely assured of his son’s health, so he decided not to go for the exams. Because of that, everyone was home at the moment.
As for Lu Qi, he had successfully joined the Lin Family’s apprenticeship. Since he already had strong basics and good endurance, not to mention that he attended school for several years, he clearly had an advantage compared to others to be taken into consideration by the Lin Family. Now, he was fourteen and was already a team leader of messengers at the Lin Family’s pier. He was technically a little boss, and he would return home once every few days. Coincidentally, he was at home today.
Once Miao Cui Lan and Lu Zhong returned home, and Mr Wu arrived, the family sat together to have their dinner and set out into the forest after that. Miao Cui Lan could not help but nag her daughter a little, but Lu Xiao Shu did not care about that as she hugged her mother with a cheerful grin, “Mother, I’ll catch you some fish from the streams in the forest. The water there’s clean, sweet, and full of nutrients, so the fish from there must be very delicious! Besides, I’ll catch you frogs as well. It will be this big, and it would taste amazing if we cook it with garlic and chili!”
“Gosh! You only ever think about playing with those things! What else can I say? Why don’t you take after your sister?” Miao Cui Lan chuckled and playfully pinched her cheeks.
Lu Xiao Shu hated that the most as she avoided her mother with a laugh, “Mother, wouldn’t it be enough just to have one good daughter? Won’t it be boring if you have too many obedient ones?”
Miao Cui Lan responded, “Never. Instead, it would make me feel more relaxed! What makes life a nuisance is when you try to piss me off every day.”
“Mother, you must be joking again!” Lu Xiao Shu clapped her hands as she giggled. Then, she dragged her father and brother out of the house before setting out for the forest. Xiao Xue hesitated for a moment before deciding that she did not want to join them. She merely said to Lu Xiao Shu, “Xiao Shu, remember to be careful, it’s very dark there!”
“Only my sister loves me the most!” Lu Xiao Shu smiled sweetly as they said goodbye to Miao Cui Lan and Tong Yu Er.
As the group left, the sky had just started to get dark. It should be completely dark out when they arrived at Song Xi, but there were still about eight or nine miles of road ahead.
Lu Zhong held his daughter’s hand as they walked. He wanted to carry her on his back, but Lu Xiao Shu refused. She had always been restless from when she was young, but back then, her legs were not strong enough yet. Now that she was older, of course, she would not want to be carried as she chatted happily on the way.
When they entered the Song Xi mountain hole, the sky turned dark, and the dense forest engulfed them. They could barely make out anything in the darkness. Even the light of the half-moon could not penetrate the thick forest canopy. Only then, Lu Qi and Lu Zhong lit up their pine resin torch to light up their path. Only a pine resin torch could withstand the mountain winds, and it was essential for anyone who was out in the forest at night.
A halo of light spread out, but it did not cover a large area. As the light shone, long shadows formed, making the surrounding area eerier. Owls and insects were hooting and clicking in the dark. Their sharp, high-pitched screeches varied in length, and they harmonized into a unique forest song. Simultaneously, the night breeze swept past everyone, making them feel cold all of a sudden.
“Scared?” Miao Chu He smirked at Lu Xiao Shu.
That earned a low chuckle from Mr Wu and Lu Qi.
Lu Xiao Shu shook her head as her eyes shone with excitement, “Nope! I love it here!”
Lu Qi responded, “Uncle, you should know the answer without even asking. If she were scared, she wouldn’t have begged to come.”
Lu Xiao Shu turned around and made a face at them.
After a few turns, they exited the dense forest and it slowly brightened up since the moonlight was no longer obstructed anymore. From there, they could hear the running water of the streams nearby. The sound was clear and musical as if they could know that the stream was crystal clear without even looking at it.
“There it is!” They suddenly felt refreshed at the sound of that.
As they got closer, the humid mist started to get heavier and the sweet sound of water was getting more precise. After another turn, the stream appeared in front of the happy group—large rocks of various sizes laid under the moonlight in the clear shallow stream. The moonlight shone on the water, lighting up the surrounding. They could hear frogs croaking lowly along with the sound of flowing water.
“There are so many frogs!” Lu Xiao Shu could not keep her excitement grounded.
Then, everyone lit their torch and split up around the stream. Lu Zhong yelled a warning at Lu Xiao Shu, “Be careful of where you’re stepping! The rocks are really slippery!” And he ordered Lu Qi to follow Lu Xiao Shu.
