Chapter 19 : Deep Water and Scorching Fire (1)

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After dinner, Yuxi walked around the yard to help with her digestion.

 

Seeing Mama Shen absent, Hongshan whispered to Yuxi, “Miss, at noon the Old Lady asked the Eldest Lady to intercede with Teacher Song regarding Second Miss situation.” Yuxi had been cold to her these days, making Hongshan feel very uncomfortable.
She knew she had done something wrong and now she tried to brush her presence in front of Yuxi.
Her advantage was to spy on news of the inner residence.
She believed that as long as the news was useful to her Miss, she would not always act cold to her.

 

Yuxi’s face flashed with scorn.
Her Eldest Aunt hated Concubine Rong and her daughter, but the Old Lady still asked her to plead with Teacher Song.
This was disgusting.

 

At the end of the day, Yuxi finished her schoolwork, but she didn’t go to sleep either.
Instead, she reviewed her books.
Not only did she review what she had learned, but she also reviewed basic enlightenment books such as  «One Hundred Family Names» and «Thousand–Character Classic».
Based on Teacher Song’s progress, these books would be finished in less than half a month.
This gave her a sense of crisis.

 

Yuru, who was also writing, could not write more than half of her schoolwork.
She wrote too much and her hands hurt badly.
“Zhuxuan, I don’t want to go to Magnolia Courtyard anymore.” One or two days were tolerable.
If in the case of three months, she would go mad.

 

Zhuxuan also felt sorry for her Miss.
“Miss, we have to find a way out if you don’t want to continue, but it can’t be the same as the Second Miss.”

 

Yuru nodded and said, “I really can’t stand this.” She couldn’t stand it any longer.
She had to think of a good way to get rid of it.

 

On the other hand, after writing for half an hour, Yujing cried out, “Mother, my hand hurts.
I can’t write anymore.
Mother, my hand is about to break off.”

 

Concubine Rong hardened her heart and said, “Write even if your hand hurt, or you will have to take care of yourself again tomorrow.” The beating was a trivial matter.
What they were really afraid of was Teacher Song expelled Yujing from school for her poor performance.

 

Yujing was forced to continue writing.
However, being forced to learn by oneself was quite different from learning by oneself.
She had been writing until midnight but still had more than one hundred words to write.

 

Concubine Rong had no choice but to say, “Go to bed first and get up tomorrow morning to write.”

 

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Yujing sobbed, “Even if I finish my homework, I will still be punished if I can’t recite the text.” Tomorrow, she wouldn’t be able to escape the ten strokes.

 

She felt very miserable.
Although she wrote with her left hand, it also affected her writing speed.
Teacher Song was indeed a devil.

 

The next day, Yuru was hit six times.
While Yujing was hit eight times.
Yuchen was still the same as yesterday.
Not only she was able to recite it smoothly, but she could also explain it accurately.
Yuxi had no problem reciting the text and analyzing it, but she still paused two times.

 

Teacher Song was quite satisfied with Yuxi’s performance.
It was really good that she could perform so well even without any foundation.
She praised Yuxi, “Very good, but still have to continue to work hard.”

 

Yuxi did not feel any joy when she received Teacher Song’s praise.
Although she deliberately paused two times, she knew that even if she didn’t have any self–deception, the best she could do was to draw even with Yuchen.
This was a blow to her who had lived an extra lifetime.

 

Yujing felt unfair, “Teacher, Si Meimei also made mistakes.
Why not hit her too?” Even if there was no mistake in her analysis, Yuxi did pause two times.

 

How could Teacher Song fail to see the jealousy in Yujing’s eyes and said with a straight face, “If you feel unfair, you can leave.” Under the eaves, people had to low their heads, so yesterday they made a concession.
If there was a second time, she would never let Yujing appeared in her class again.

 

Yujing thought of yesterday’s incident.
She was afraid that she would be expelled from the class so she didn’t dare to pick anymore faults.
At this moment, she could only bitterly look at Yuxi, waiting to find a chance to punish the smelly girl.

 

Once the class was dismissed, Yuxi shook her sore arm.
She had written too much these two days till she felt like her hands were no longer hers.

 

When Yuchen saw Yuxi’s movement yesterday, she didn’t say a thing.
She did not expect Yuxi would repeat the same movement today.
At last, she could not help but said, “Si Meimei, this move of yours is very indecent.
You can’t do it again.” Ladies from good families should smile without showing their teeth and walked gracefully like their feet were in lotus shoes.
Where should there be such rude movements? This was also the case when they went to socialise in the future.
Indecent movements would make people think the ladies of their residence were ill–bred.
Yuchen felt that she should tell Grandmother about Yuxi’s lack of etiquette.

 

The end of Yuxi’s mouth twitched.
Then, she said, “I only shook my arm because it was sore.” She had a sore hand.
She was not swinging her arm around for fun.

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Yuchen was surprised that Yuxi would refute her words, that she was silent for a moment.
The people around her were always obedient to her.
Even the tyrant Yujing didn’t dare to talk big in front of her.

 

Yuxi ignored Yuchen’s reaction.
Everyone used to indulge Yuchen.
Only she didn’t want to do the same.
At the same time, she was unwilling to offend her.
After packing up her things, Yuxi said, “If San Jie has nothing else to say, I’ll go back first.”

 

Shishu gazed at Yuxi’s back view and regrettably said, “She is such an ignorant person.
Miss, let’s leave her matter alone next time.”

 

Yuchen pursed her lips and said, “How could I?” Yuxi was also her younger sister.
If she indulged her, later on, people would accuse both of them of being uneducated.

 

Yuxi wrote dozens of words, till she couldn’t write anymore.
She had been writing too much these days.
Not only her hands were burning with pain, but her arms were also aching badly.

 

Upon seeing this, Mama Shen could only help massage Yuxi’s shoulders.
It took less than half an hour before Yuxi's shoulders felt much more comfortable.
The same happened to her hands after being applied with ointment.

 

Yuxi bitterly said, “What can I do later on?” It had only been two days.
She worried that her hands were going to break if this thing continued.

 

“Don’t worry, Miss.
Teacher Song was only this strict at the beginning.
Just wait until you pass this hurdle,” Mama Shen comforted her.

 

Yuxi seldom went out in her previous life and spent most of her time in her courtyard.
Despite Teacher Song taught Yuchen in the government for five years, she still did not understand her and asked, “Why did she only be very strict at the start? It will not be this tough later on?”

 

Mama Shen did bother to inquire about Teacher Song, “Studying is a hard job.
If one can’t bear the first bit of suffering, how can one last? This old servant speculated that Teacher Song wants to see whether Miss can bear hardships.“

 

Yuxi was skeptical.
No matter what the result was, she must stick to it for several months.

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It took Teacher Song only two and a half days to finish the Three-Character Classic', and half an hour to check out their schoolwork, pointing out the shortcomings of their big characters.

 

Of the four, Yuchen wrote the best, and the worst was not Yuxi but Yuru.

 

When Yuru heard Teacher Song said that her handwriting was vain and weak, like that of a patient, she burst into tears again.

 

Teacher Song felt that it was really impossible to carve a rotten wood.
She taught so fast not to mess with the four girls, but to let them learn all the basics of enlightenment books.
It was equivalent to say that she was now reviewing what the four people had learned, did more analysis, and at the same time, deepening her impression on four of them.
As a result, Second Miss no need to be evaluated, while Eldest Miss was also in a mess.
She didn’t want to work hard even though she had no qualifications.
She cried when she met a little bit of hardship. Watery mud couldn’t be used to plaster the wall.

 

A strangeness sprang up in Yuxi’s heart.
According to reason, she should be the weakest in writing among the four people, but somehow Yuru took the title.

 

Teacher Song paid no attention to the weeping Yuru, and said, “Words are also a person’s face.
If the words were not being written well, the writers would be laughed at by others later on.
The second thing is it will show whether you learn well or not.
So, you must write the words well.
In the future, you must practice writing your characters well.
“

 

Yuxi felt that the words were golden.
Unfortunately, when she did her homework that night, she was not feeling so comfortable.
She wrote too much until her hands were filled with blisters which looked very scary.
Mama Shen took a needle to break them and then applied ointment.

 

Looking at Yuxi’s gnashing her teeth and bearing the pain, Mama Shen also felt a little sorry, “Miss, just endure this period of time.
There is an old saying that goes, eat bitterness among the bitter, upright man will be exalted.“

 

Yuxi looked at the ointment in Mama Shen’s hand and asked, “Will this ointment leave a scar?” It reminded her of a prescription for removing scars.

 

Mama Shen shook her head with a smile and said, “Don’t worry, Miss.
This ointment will quickly relieve any swelling and pain, and won’t leave a scar.” She said this to let Yuxi know that the Old Lady cared about her.

 

Yuxi was not ungrateful.
It was estimated that she used the jade cream on its way to Yuchen.
So she said lightly, “Okay.”

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After the medicine had been applied, she took a short rest, then went to the table to continue writing.
Mama Shen was busily stopping her, “Miss, don’t write today because you just put some medicine on your hand.
Write them tomorrow!“

 

Yuxi shook her head and said, “There are still more than one hundred characters left.
If I don’t finish them today, I can’t get up and recite them tomorrow morning.“ She always heard that Teacher Song’s teaching was horrible.
Now, her personal experience showed that those rumors were not exaggerated.

 

Moju was quick – mouthed, and said, “Miss, how do you write with all the medicine on your hands?” Looking at her Miss suffering, she felt terrible too.
Teacher Song was too horrible.

 

Yuxi said with a smile, “If the right hand can’t do it, then the left hand will have to take over.”

 

In her last life, she was unpopular in the Jiang home and disliked social interaction all her life.
She stayed in her courtyard all day long and could do nothing but embroidery.
Embroidered every day made her right hand a little tired.
Once, she tried to use her left hand to embroider.
After several years of practice, she was able to do it.
However, she didn’t use her left hand to write.
She didn’t have a good command of the strength when she wrote.
The words she wrote were all a mass of inks.
After she had mastered the strength, the words were also written similarly to how her right hand wrote.
Yet, they varied in length, thickness, and ugliness.

 

Mama Shen looked at Yuxi dumbfounded.
She never expected that Fourth Miss had this skill.
Moju was stunned speechless with her mouth hanging open.

 

Yuxi spent twice as much time writing the rest of her homework.
Before she could go to bed, she took out her books to do some review.

 

Moju saw that the candle was almost burnt out and went to fetch another one.

 

NOOB TRANSLATOR'S MUSING

 

Darn, Chelsea got beaten.
(ʘ言ʘ╬)

 

Oh, the meaning of the title of this chapter is 'in extreme misery'.
It was a Chinese idiom 水深火热 (shuǐ shēn huǒ rè).