Chapter 13 I’ll take it to coax your cousin to copy it…

At 3:45 PM, Wen Xilan and Wen Xixue finished their lunch and went together to the training ground. As soon as they entered, they secretly craned their necks to look for someone, especially eager to know what punishment Wen Ru had received.

In the past, Wei Niangzi had punished them harshly, with horse stance for one or two hours being considered light. This time, it should be Wen Ru’s turn, who always leisurely rode horses during martial arts class, right? They really hoped Wei Niangzi would punish her severely, make her do horse stance for two hours, no, three hours, and best not let her eat lunch either, making her do horse stance on an empty stomach.

But to their disappointment, there was no one on the training ground, only guards sitting in groups of two or three on the ground, opening their food boxes and eating hot meals.

Just as the two were feeling disappointed, they saw Tao Hong and Tao Lu supporting Wen Ru on both sides as she limped slowly down the stairs from the second floor of the training ground.

Wen Ru had changed into a short tea-colored silk shirt. Her face was slightly pale, but the color of the silk shirt was still bright enough, not making her look excessively frail.

Wen Xixue glanced at Wen Ru’s limping legs, stepped forward, and asked while holding back a laugh: “Cousin, what happened to you…” Were you beaten?

Hearing the voice, Wen Ru stood up straight. Although she was almost exhausted from the step training of running three laps around the track with sandbags tied to her, as the old saying goes, lose the person but not the stance: “Oh, you’re here. I just exercised a bit, sweated a lot, so I casually washed up and changed clothes. I have something to do, so I’ll go first.”

After saying this, she urged Tao Hong and Tao Lu to quickly take her away.

Wen Xilan quickly stepped forward to block her, smiling: “Cousin, Liu Xiansheng punished you to come to the training ground, you’d better listen to her words. Don’t skip the afternoon class again, otherwise, the family head’s wife will punish you again.”

Wen Ru’s current weak appearance clearly showed she had suffered quite a bit of hardship. Wen Xilan felt extremely pleased, the only pity was that she and Wen Xixue came too late to see it.

What a schadenfreude “good sister” indeed.

Wen Ru inwardly complained, too childish, I won’t play with them.

Wen Ru thought so, and did so, directly turning to leave.

Wen Xilan naturally wouldn’t let her go, reaching out to pull her back.

At this moment, Wen Ru’s feet were unsteady, and she stumbled when pulled. Slightly annoyed, she grabbed Wen Xilan’s wrist, gritted her teeth, and forcefully pulled her over, sticking out her foot to trip her to the ground.

Caught off guard and tripped, Wen Xilan fell to the ground with a dazed expression.

Wen Ru didn’t come out well either. After this series of movements, her whole body’s strength was practically exhausted, her right hand hidden behind her back trembling as if powerless.

Seeing Wen Ru trip Wen Xilan to the ground, Wen Xixue immediately exploded, pointing at the indifferent-looking Wen Ru and shouting: “Cousin, how could you hit second cousin! I’m going to tell Wei Niangzi!”

“Tell me what?” Wei Niangzi walked over, fanning herself. The sun was shining directly on her face, forcing her to squint, “Second Young Lady, your lower body… I’m afraid it’s not even as good as the Fourth Young Lady who is usually wayward and doesn’t attend class. Sigh, this afternoon, don’t practice any fist or foot techniques, just do horse stance for an hour.”

Wen Xilan had just gotten up from the ground and was bowing her head to pat the dust off her body. Hearing Wei Niangzi’s words, she immediately raised her head, her cheeks puffing up in anger.

She wanted to see Wen Ru do horse stance, not do it herself!!

Wen Ru poked her head out from behind Wei Niangzi and made a face at her.

Wen Xilan was extremely vexed, but she couldn’t argue back. After all, this was the training ground, and she had been easily tripped by the “weakling” Wen Ru who only knew how to ride horses every day. It was too embarrassing.

Wei Niangzi waved the fan in her hand: “Alright, young ladies, if you’re not resting at noon, we still need to rest. Go play somewhere else.”

After Wen Xilan and Wen Xixue reluctantly walked away, each entering their own rooms in the main building, Wei Niangzi turned around and carefully looked Wen Ru up and down. After a while, she smiled and said: “I almost missed such a raw jade. That’s right, after all, you’ve been practicing horse riding for over a year, I suppose your lower abdomen and waist must be quite strong.”

Wen Ru felt a bit embarrassed being praised, well, she was just generally capable.

“You’ve worked hard today, go back and rest. After finishing your literature class tomorrow, come to the training ground and wait for me,” Wei Niangzi said before leaving.

Tao Hong and Tao Lu showed delighted expressions: “Young Lady, you’ve made progress.”

Wen Ru also smiled proudly: “Let’s go home, your Young Lady will make even more progress in the future!” After taking two steps, she immediately broke down, letting out a couple of “ouch” sounds, “I can’t do it, I can’t do it. Tao Hong, come help me. Can you two carry your Young Lady back?”

Carrying was impossible, and Wen Ru couldn’t bear such embarrassment either. But she was really exhausted, barely able to stand straight, slowly inching towards the direction of the inner courtyard. Finally, the flower gate was in sight.

Tao Lu suddenly spoke up: “Young Lady, what about the five copies of ‘The Great Learning’?” Fearing Wen Ru would make them copy, she quickly added, “Young Lady, last time we were punished with ten strokes by the master.”

Faced with Tao Lu’s pitiful pleading look, Wen Ru had to swallow the words that were about to come out of her throat.

“It’s not good to find outsiders to copy either, you understand, right, Young Lady?” Tao Hong said with difficulty.

That’s not good indeed. If someone got hold of this weakness and spread it around that the legitimate daughter of the Wen family was an idiot, it wouldn’t be good.

Wen Ru pursed her lips, lowered her eyes, thinking back and forth, forth and back, and finally reluctantly raised her right hand, which was visibly shaking. She sighed: “I really can’t do it. How about I sit here and wait for you two to go buy some sour yogurt pastries from the next alley?”

Tao Hong and Tao Lu looked at each other in confusion, not understanding how eating would give her the strength to copy.

“I’ll take it to coax your cousin to copy it,” Wen Ru suddenly smiled, her eyes curving. “His status is different from yours. Even if mother finds out, she won’t punish him.”

Tao Hong and Tao Lu didn’t move, thinking, this doesn’t seem right. The cousin just came to the Wen family, and to trick him like this isn’t hospitable, especially since he’s a weak man.

Seeing they still weren’t moving, Wen Ru urged them again: “Trust me, it’ll be fine. I’ve noticed he likes to trace characters and copy books. He can do it… Besides, I have no other choice, right? I’ll definitely make it up to him in the future.”

Tao Hong and Tao Lu had no choice but to hurry off to buy the sour yogurt pastries the Young Lady mentioned.

“Also, get some writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone. I’ve noticed his ink always seems faint, it must be because it’s not very good,” Wen Ru called out, adding one more request.

*

Qingwu Courtyard.

The servants had each found a place to doze off, even Gu Fan was struggling to stay awake, leaning against the inner room’s doorframe with his eyes half-closed.

Only Fu Jizhou, because of the nap he took in the morning, was still alert, sitting on the couch, flipping through the book beside him.

The hot tea and pastries on the small table next to him were still steaming, and as the steam dissipated, one could see the stack of books Hua Ting had brought over in the morning. The one he was reading was one of them, the book of Wen family precepts.

“Gu Fan, you go take a noon rest. If I need anything, I’ll call you,” Fu Jizhou, seeing Gu Fan struggling to stay awake, couldn’t help but advise him.

Gu Fan came to his senses, apologized, and obediently retreated after hearing the instructions.

Fu Jizhou shook his head and continued reading the book in his hand.

The Wen family precepts weren’t thick, divided into sections for women and men, covering clothing, food, housing, transportation, etiquette, aspirations, friendships, and virtues.

Although there were many rules and regulations, it was evident that the person who wrote the book was only strict, not harsh. Some rules were even much kinder than what Fu Jizhou had heard about, especially when he saw that the Wen family didn’t punish runaway male in-laws but returned them to their original families. He couldn’t help feeling some self-reproach and fear. He had unknowingly lumped the Wen family in with the bad people of the corrupt world.

He had so little to begin with, and he almost lost some more, some very important things.

Just as he was lost in thought, Fu Jizhou heard the sound of the courtyard door creaking open. He leaned over and looked out through the window frame beside him, immediately spotting Wen Ru, dressed in a tea-colored short silk shirt, tiptoeing through the courtyard gate. The servants were dozing off, and no one went to greet her.

Didn’t she go to the academy to study?

He was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly closed the book in his hand, not knowing where to hide it. In the end, he could only press it to the bottom of that stack of books. Just as he finished tidying up, he inexplicably pulled that book out from the bottom, flipped through the pages, stopped at a certain page, and placed it face down on the small table. Only then did he run to the courtyard to greet her, his ears slightly red.