The Rebirth of Han Yuxi

Chapter 372 : School Inspection (1)

Fourth Master Xu was actually not very badly wounded. He was a martial artist and had been in battle, so he was very sharp. When the knife stabbed him, he stepped back a bit. So, although the knife wounded him, it didn’t injure his vital parts, and he only shed some blood.

The family of four, who should have been happy and prosperous, all didn’t end up well because of Fourth Master Xu. If Fourth Master Xu was killed, and the person concerned had already died, the matter would have been easy to suppress. Contrary to others’ expectations, Fourth Master Xu only suffered a little. This time, the Xu family really stood where the wind and waves were highest. The clearest sign of this was that the Xu family’s store in Yu City was no longer patronised. Even to the extent that early in the morning, the store door and entryway had been splashed with faeces. There were also several Xu family children in the military camp who had been beaten up in a sack.

Yuxi was dumbfounded when she heard these rumours. “This is too exaggerated, isn’t it?” If such a thing happened in the capital, everyone would avoid the family and treat its members with cold shoulders. She didn’t expect that the people of Yu City would be so, um, straightforward.

Zijin curled her lips with disdain. “This is actually cheaper for them. If it were me, I would have beaten him until he couldn’t even be looking for his teeth all over the floor.”

After three days, Yun Qing shared some news with Yuxi, saying, “The matter of the Fourth Master Xu is the work of the Rong family. Since the Fourth Master Xu did not die, several younger generations of the Xu family suffered assassination, and these younger generations who were assassinated were all relatively outstanding in the Xu family.”

Yuxi’s face was shocked. “What kind of deep hatred is this?” Those people even wanted to kill off the other party’s next generation. This was definitely a blood feud!

Yun Qing responded in a solemn tone, “Rong family was also the offspring of a famous family in Xinping City, second only to the Zhao family and Xu family. In fact, the Rong family and the Xu family were originally aristocratic families, and their relationship was awfully good. But the previous generation head of the Xu family wanted to seize the Rong family’s properties, so he intentionally married his daughter to the Rong family head’s di son, ready to nibble away at the Rong family step by step. Although this matter was eventually seen through by the Rong family, they already paid the heavy price. Most of the Rong family’s properties had been taken away, and the head of the family was very angry that he vomited blood to death. At that time, it was the eldest son of the Rong family’s second house who raised the family status back. However, after this incident, the Rong family’s vitality was greatly injured that it could no longer be compared and stood shoulder to shoulder with the Xu family and the Zhao family.”

This was indeed a blood feud. Yuxi felt a bit strange and asked, “Since the Xu family is now in power, and the Rong family has already declined. Don’t tell me the Rong family aren’t afraid of their retaliation?” But from how they act, the Rong family was not vegetarian. Otherwise, they wouldn’t use such despicable means.

The Distance Between Suzhou and Gansu

The distance between Suzhou and Gansu

Yun Qing shook his head. “The Rong family’s roots are now in Suzhou, not in Xinping City.” In other words, these people weren’t afraid of the Xu family and the Qin family’s retaliation. Even if Qin Zhao was more powerful in Gansu, his hands couldn’t reach Suzhou.

Yuxi wondered how Yun Qing knew about this, but she didn’t ask. It was enough that he could tell her the news. There was no need to get to the bottom of it. “Did the Xu family find out about this?”

Yun Qing nodded. “They should have.” If he could find this out, there was no way the Xu family couldn’t! Xinping City was the Xu family’s territory.

Yuxi did not speak anymore about this matter. Talking too much about it would only make her sick. “Do you have time tomorrow? If you have, let’s go with me to Qingming Hall!” [Note]

Yun Qing looked at Yuxi’s belly and asked, “You still want to go to school in this great cold weather? Let’s wait until I have the chance to go later.”

Yuxi did not try to reason with Yun Qing as she said, “If you can’t agree with me, then I will go by myself.” She had wanted to go to the school for a long time, and she hadn’t even taken a look at the school she had run. What a joke! Before, it was because the child was not three months yet, but now, it had reached three and a half months.

Yun Qing still shook his head. “It’s very cold outside, and the road is slippery. You should think about the child if not yourself. What if you fall down?”

Yuxi responded, “The sun has been out for the past few days that the road is fine for anyone to move. How can it still be slippery? If you don’t want to, then forget about it. I’ll just take Zijin with me.” Yuxi was not a person who wasn’t measured. However, since the weather was good, there was no more snow, and the road was very good. That was why she wanted to go. After a few days, the weather would change. Even if she wanted to go then, she still could not go.

Yun Qing shook his head. “Not tomorrow. Tomorrow I still have a lot of things to deal with. Some other day. I will accompany you some other day.”

Yuxi didn’t want to. If the weather changed in the next few days, where would she cry then? “Since you are busy, you can go ahead and get busy! The first thing I want to do is to get a new one. I will take Zijin, Xu Wu and the others. If Master Yang and Yu Zhi are willing to accompany me, everything will be fine.”

Yun Qing then saw Yuxi’s stubbornness. After deliberating for a long time, he finally conceded. “Then, alright. You should wait for me to come back tomorrow, and I will accompany you.”

Yuxi wouldn’t listen to that as she said, “If you can not leave, there’s no need to come back. I’ll go to the school just to look at it, and then I’ll come back. It won’t take long.”

Yun Qing nodded. “I will come back tomorrow as early as possible.”

Unfortunately, when Yuxi waited until the end of chenshi the next day, she still did not see Yun Qing’s figure. Yuxi was not angry. She just called Zijin and the others as she walked out of the door.

When Yuxi arrived at Qingming Hall in the carriage, as soon as she got off the carriage, she heard the sound of reading coming from the school hall and couldn’t help but have a smile on her face at that moment.

The concierge had never seen Yuxi, but he knew Zijin. When he heard Zijin say that it was Yuxi who had come over, he hurriedly saluted Yuxi. “Greetings to Madam. Wishing Madam peace, health and longevity.”

Yuxi was so happy that if she hadn’t known, she would have thought it was a birthday celebration for her. She also didn’t let the concierge pass on the news of her arrival as she took a few people into the school hall. Yuxi told Zijin, “Let’s go to the kitchen first.” Zijin was very familiar with the two schools, so it was most appropriate for her to lead the way.

Before entering the kitchen, Yuxi asked Master Yang to wait outside the door with Yu Zhi and Xu Wu. Then, she just walked in with Zijin.

When Yuxi stepped in, she saw two women kneading the dough and three women wrapping the dough. The speed was so fast that they wrapped one in almost a blink of an eye.

Just as Yuxi walked inside the kitchen, the women noticed someone coming in. Zijin was a regular visitor to the school, and almost all of them knew her. But Yuxi, they only heard of her but did not know her face. The five people looked at Yuxi with her bulging belly, and their hearts jumped.

Yuxi was draped with a fine cyan-coloured cloak, and her hair was combed into a crescent moon bun, with only an emerald hairpin attached to it. She dressed in a very simple way. However, no matter how simple it was, a person’s bearing couldn’t be concealed.

Zijin took the initiative to introduce her. “This is Madam.”

Hearing this, several people hurriedly put down the work in hand and prepared to kneel down for Yuxi. Yuxi was startled that she asked Zijin to stop these people from kneeling.

Yuxi said, “What is this? You are all older than me. Aren’t you breaking my life by kneeling down for me?”

Among them, a shorter woman already shed her tears. As she wiped them away, she stated, “I don’t know how to repay you for your kindness.” She had given birth to three children. The eldest was eleven years old, the second was nine, and the third was four and a half. A widow had to raise three children alone, and they were all half-grown children, so one could imagine how challenging it was. In the early winter this year, all the family’s savings had been spent, so she didn’t know how to go through this season. At that time, she thought that if she could not survive, she would sell her second son so that the family would always have a way to live. But unexpectedly, at this time, news came that Madam Yun wanted to set up a temporary school, and those who met the requirements, children above five years old and below ten years old could be sent there. And her family just met the requirements. She enrolled her second son in the school, and she was paid monthly for her work. Therefore, she wouldn’t have to worry anymore about not being able to survive this winter.

Yuxi did not know their details, but she knew that these people were having a hard time, so she let out, “I’m just doing my part. I can’t let you say that.”

Zijin said, “You guys go about your business! I’ll take Madam to have a look around.”

Yuxi went inside a room. There were three people inside, two of them were cutting vegetables, where the vegetables were cabbages, and the other one was burning the fire with her head down.

Yuxi asked, “What is in this pot?”

This question startled these people who were concentrating on their work. The good thing was that there was a familiar face belonging to Zijin next to Yuxi, so they quickly put their minds at ease. The kitchen was an important place, so no one could come in or out easily. The exception was Zijin, the only exception. Yuxi was very concerned about hygiene, so Zijin would make a turn into the kitchen every time she visited. This also led to the kitchen being particularly clean, which was not bad when compared with Yuxi’s small kitchen.

This time, Yuxi also didn’t want Zijin to introduce her. She directly asked the person who was burning the fire. “What is put in this pot?”

The person burning the fire was a bit restrained and did not speak very well. “This is boiling water, ready to steam buns.” Two big buns for each child, plus the people working in the school, when added up, would be not more than a thousand. It was not difficult to wrap them, but it took a lot of effort to steam them.

At the beginning of the school year, because of inexperience, it was a mess, and two children were slightly injured. Later, Mr Chen suggested that the eating time be staggered to avoid chaos. So, no matter what, they had to get experience by practice. Only having it on paper wouldn’t do.

Yuxi went out after taking a round in the kitchen. The hygiene of the kitchen satisfied her, so there was nothing more to say. After leaving the kitchen, she walked to the door of a classroom and watched an old gentleman with a white beard holding a long wooden stick, pointing to the character ‘宓’ posted on the wall while saying, “This character reads fú. Come, follow me, fú.”

When Yuxi heard this, she was a little depressed that he could even mispronounce the word on the Hundred Family Names. What kind of person did Yun Qing invite? Before she could say anything, the old gentleman spotted Yuxi standing outside the door. [+]

The old gentleman walked out of the classroom and said, “This is a school. How can you just come in? Hurry up and leave. This is not a place for you to roam around.” The old gentleman would say this because a few ladies came some days ago and disturbed their class.

Yuxi did not respond to the old gentleman’s words but asked a question instead. However, she lowered her voice. “The character just now, it was obviously read as mì. How could you teach the children to pronounce it as fú?”

The old gentleman’s face changed, and said coldly, “What mì? Don’t be here to point fingers if you don’t know the characters.” It was even more shameful when you were pointed out for misreading the words.

When Yuxi heard this, her expression didn’t look good. “This character is polyphonic. Both fú and mì are correct, but the character is pronounced as mì in the Hundred Family Surnames. In the ⟨⟨Book of Han : Prominent People From The Past Until The Present⟩⟩”, Tai Hao Emperor Fu Xi’s surname is pronounced as fú.”

When the old gentleman heard that Yuxi could casually speak out the words from the ⟨⟨Book of Han⟩⟩, he was shocked and asked, “Who are you?”

Zijin rolled her eyes and introduced, “This is my Madam.”