Chapter Seventy-Four Seeking Advice

  Early February, Beijing was still cold, a snowfall floated and fell down.

  The servants of the Zhou family were busy sweeping away the snow on the road.

  Coughing sounds came from Mrs. Zhou's house, and when the door was opened, a strong smell of medicine rushed out.

  "Madam." The servant woman knelt down and presented a name card, "The second daughter of the Chen family has come to see Mistress Cheng."

  Madam Zhou, who was just being fed medicine by Yatou on the couch, pressed her hand against her chest.

  "Don't even mention finding her to me!" she said in a low voice.

  My wife hastily complied with his words and quickly withdrew.

  "Now that it's already the first month of the year, Old Master Chen has also recovered from his illness. What's the point of keeping her here? We should either send her back." Madam Zhou said, looking at Old Master Zhou.

  "She was asked to leave but she didn't," said Old Man Zhou lazily.

  "This is our home, get her out." said Mrs. Zhou angrily.

  "Rush?" Old Mr. Zhou said, looking at his wife, "Do you believe it? We just drove her away, and then she dared to go out and say that the illness was cured, and she could come back to life?"

  Mrs. Zhou gritted her teeth.

  Old Zhou chuckled and stroked his short mustache.

  "He said, 'The mind of a child is clear in its calculations.'"

  "I think her light is beyond our reach, and it's not even worth trying. Since she came, nothing good has happened, but instead, we've added more jokes to the family." Mrs. Zhou said angrily, "The old surname Zhou left by Grandfather, which we've used for so many years, she came and in just one or two months, she's changed it to 'old foolish Zhou'."

  Old Zhou's eyebrows jumped, his hand trembled, and he plucked a hair from his beard.

  Old Fool Zhou

  "She can bring the dead back to life, that's true. Now she's just saying she's ill, not that she can't be cured. Since it's an illness, there will be times when she's better. Even if she's stupid, she can get better, let alone with this kind of illness that can't be explained. She knows this in her heart, we know it, and outsiders know it too."

  Mrs. Zhou nodded slowly after hearing it.

  The woman said at the time that she was indeed ill and could not be cured, but it did not mean that she would never be cured afterwards.

  "Isn't she just being stubborn? If we hadn't taken care of her earlier, she would still be being stubborn and wouldn't have gotten over it yet. In total, there are only two families, the Cheng family has given up on her, now that she has this kind of skill, isn't she just trying to show off to make us treat her better?" Old Master Zhou said, while patting his leg, "Besides, no matter what people outside say, it's all just rumors and not some kind of evil reputation that would affect anything major."

  When she heard this, Mrs. Zhou felt a sudden jump in her heart and a fit of coughing that she couldn't suppress came up.

  "Don't mention it, don't mention it," she said hastily.

  Old Zhou looked over in puzzlement.

  "Which one?" he asked.

  Mrs. Zhou patted her chest, and a maid on the side fed her some water before she calmed down.

  "Don't mention it, it's nothing, but as soon as you say this, my heart starts racing." She said breathlessly, "Every time they say it's nothing, nothing, but in the end, every time they make us restless."

  Old Zhou burst out laughing.

  "It's always because of this kind of thing, you look down on me, I don't look down on you, I beg of you, you don't beg of me, what's the point?" He stood up and smoothed his clothes, laughing.

  Mrs. Zhou also got up and saw him off.

  "A woman at home, what else can she do? You're idle and have nothing to do, don't go near her either. She eats, drinks, and uses everything without being mistreated. Let her do whatever she wants, let her be comfortable and at ease. You'll also avoid getting angry, taking good care of yourself is the most important thing." Old Master Zhou continued to say.

  Watching Mr. Zhou walk out, Mrs. Zhou leaned on the back of a chair, and the maids busied themselves massaging her legs and patting her back.

  "Hasn't the person who went to Jiangzhou returned yet?" Madam Zhou thought of something and asked again.

  "It's estimated that he is on his way back." The servant woman replied.

  Mrs. Zhou let out a sigh.

  "On the fifteenth, go to Puxiu Temple and burn twenty catties of incense," she said. "Drive away evil spirits."

  "Isn't Cheng's daughter a real person? Otherwise, shall we go to Chongdao Temple?" asked the servant woman.

  Mrs. Zhou suddenly became enraged and slammed the hand warmer on the low table in front of her.

  "Who wants to give her a hard time! And yet she really got what was coming to her!"

  A burst of begging for forgiveness in the room.

  Chen Dan Niang finished drinking the last mouthful of tea in her bowl, while Chen Shi Ba Niang's bowl remained untouched beside her.

  "Eighteen girl, Cheng Niangzi will wake up in a while." She sat down next to her sister, blinking and speaking softly.

  Chen Shi Ba Niang smiled at her.

  If it were someone else's home, even if the master was sleeping, they would immediately get up to greet them. But this time, Master Cheng did not do so. If it were any other time, the guest would inevitably feel slighted or intentionally ignored, and would have to get up and leave, and perhaps never come again.

  But this woman may be truly simple-minded, just like a child, who eats when hungry and sleeps when tired.

  "Yes, I know." She also said in a low voice.

  There were footsteps inside, Chen Dan Niang made a waking gesture to her sister, Chen Shi Ba Niang smiled and the two of them quickly sat up straight.

  Her clothes rustling, the maid lifted the curtain and Ching Yao-niang walked in wearing a straight skirted robe with wide sleeves, her black hair hanging loose without any powder or rouge.

  After sitting down, they paid their respects separately.

  "Unexpected visit, I hope your wife will forgive me." Chen Shi Ba said first.

  "It doesn't matter," said Cheng Jiaoniang, taking the water handed over by the maid.

  "Cheng sister, are you feeling better?" Chen Dan Niang asked.

  Jiang Nang nodded in response.

  Chen Shi Ba Niang couldn't help but think of the disputes among her sisters at home and her grandfather's words. In fact, this woman was deliberately using this matter to avoid treatment. With such divine skills and expensive precious medicines, why did she say that she wouldn't treat it just because she didn't want to?

  Jiang Yao's gaze turned towards her, and Chen Shi Ba Niang somewhat flusteredly averted her eyes.

  It was a bit awkward in the room, fortunately Chen Dan Niang kept talking nonstop.

  "Cheng sister, it's eighteen maiden who asked me to bring her to see you." Dan Niang said, with a few points of pride as a child being valued.

  Chen Shi Ba Niang's face couldn't help but turn red.

  "Is it?" Jiangniang looked at her, "You're looking for me, what's up?"

  Chen Shi Ba Niang felt a slight panic, this big and small, said it was too straightforward, how to answer?

  She raised her head and looked at the woman in front of her.

  Jiang Yao looked at her with a wooden expression and slowly took a sip of water.

  "I'd like to ask you, Miss, to teach me how to read and write." Chen Shi-ba's daughter said with a determined look on her face, bowing her head in respect.

  Chen Dan Niang and her maid were both shocked inside the house.

  "Eighteen girl, are you going to learn characters with Sister Cheng?" she shouted.

  "Yes." Chen Shiba Niang stated her purpose and became less reserved, raising her head to look at Cheng Jiaoniang and saying, "Eighteen Niang admires Madame Cheng's calligraphy, and presumptuously requests instruction."

  "Waiting for the plum blossoms to bloom at the mountain temple?" asked Cheng Jiaoniang.

  Chen Shi Ba Niang nodded.

  "Yes, your poem has spread throughout the capital. If I hadn't heard Dan Niang mention it, I wouldn't have known that you were the one who wrote it." she said.

  The maid's face was full of surprise, and those few words spread throughout the capital?

  She didn't quite understand the words, at the time she just thought it was great, but couldn't say why.

  But she knew that the world was infatuated with books. The Hanlin Academy had a Servant of Books, the Imperial College had a Doctor of Literature, and the Ministry of Officials judged people based on their literary skills. Not to mention others, even in her own family, father and son had once quarreled over books.

  The old master loved books, but Master Zhang Chun didn't quite like it. He thought that books were for literature, and felt that nowadays everyone's pursuit of books made literature subordinate to books, so his requirement for his disciples was that their calligraphy be elegant and beautiful, rather than being a mere tool for writing in the Phoenix Pavilion style.

  It can be spread throughout the capital city, and it's clear that the words written by the young lady are very good.

  "The characters written by the young lady are vastly different from the usual regular script, running script and grass script. Each character seems to have its own unique style." Chen Shiba said, "The character 'shan' is in running script, with a slanted brush stroke, the character 'si' is in grass script, slender and strong, yet elegant and beautiful. The character 'dai' is also in running script, but it's simple and delicate. The character 'mei' is in regular script, flowing like clouds and water. The character 'kai' is in grass script, with a hint of Huaisu's style, but amidst the elegance, there's also a sense of grandeur. These five characters, upon closer inspection, seem to have absorbed the essence of the Two Wangs' styles, combining the strengths of various schools, with bold and rich brushstrokes, truly exquisite."

  Dan Niang had just begun to learn characters, and Bi Nu was slightly familiar with poetry. Chen Shi Ba's words left the two of them bewildered.

  Chen Shi Ba Niang finished speaking, with a few points of excitement looking at Cheng Jiao Niang, just like smoothly and fluently reciting a scripture waiting for the master's judgment.

  Jiang Yao looked at her.

  "What you said is quite good," she said, "but what does it mean?"

  Chen Shi Ba Niang's excited expression suddenly froze.

  Still, is preparation not enough?

  Or maybe what I said still didn't get to the point.

  Chen Shi Ba Niang was slightly stunned, but Chen Dan Niang came back to her senses.

  "Really? What do you mean, sister?" she asked, "So many words, what are they saying?"

  What was that?

  Chen Dan Niang didn't understand, could it be that this Cheng Jiao Niang really doesn't understand either?