Chapter 98 – Suspicious (8)
In order to ease the mood, Li Man changed the topic by asking, “So, what kind of books do you study in the town?”
Li Hua raised his head and slightly smiled at her. He stuck his lip out towards the stool by the bed. “The books are all there. You can look at them.”
“En.” Li Man was quite eager. She hastily brought over the bag and took out a few books from it.
One book was The Analects of Confucius, and the other book was The Book of Songs. As soon as she flipped one book open, she saw that it was handwritten copy. Li Hua’s excellent handwriting was delicate and pretty.
“Did you copy all of these books?” Li Man was very curious. She flipped through two more books and saw that these were filled with annotations.
“En.” Li Hua nodded. Books were very expensive, so he had borrowed the original copy from his teacher and made his own copy.
Li Man flipped through the books with annotations, but the content of these books seemed liked a teacher’s lesson plans. These looked like annotations for the first two copied books.
“Does everyone have to copy a book in order to have a copy to read?” Li Man shook the two books as she asked this question. Although this paper was coarse enough to look like poor quality modern-day toilet paper, they still had paper, ah.
“Yup, books are very expensive.” Li Hua bit off the last piece of thread and brushed away the dust on the newly altered pants. Then, he called Little Five over and said, “Try this.”
“Okay.” Little Five animatedly took the pants. Just as he was about to change into them, he glanced at Li Man, and his little face turned red. He bashfully held the pants and ran out.
A giggle escaped from Li Man. Even that brat could feel shyness.
Seeing her smile, Li Hua felt joyful too. He casually picked up The Analects of Confucius and asked her, “Have you studied this book before?”
“Yup,” Li Man nonchalantly replied without thinking. However, once the word left her mouth, she immediately realized that she had made a mistake.
Sure enough, Li Hua’s eyes flashed. In this era, there were only a small number of women that were literate. Even the ones that were literate only read books about proper female behavior. For a book like The Analects of Confucius, even if they wanted to read it, they wouldn’t be allowed.
Li Man hastily changed her answer by saying, “Uh, I haven’t studied much or to a high level.”
Li Hua flipped a book and pretended to be casual as he asked, “Which ones have you studied?”
Li Man waved her hands. “I already forgot it all. I only learned a little bit in the past. It was only superficial knowledge.”
Li Hua didn’t know if she was just being modest or if she was deliberately trying to conceal her knowledge. But, since she definitely wouldn’t speak more of this matter, he tactfully stopped asking follow up questions.
Li Man secretly bit her tongue. If she came off as a very learned individual, it would probably make people feel suspicious, right?
Moreover, the stuff that she had learned in modern-day might not be the same as what was taught here. It would be better to show off less.
With both of them hanging their heads and not saying a word, the room felt stuffy.
While Li Hua absent-mindedly flipped through the book, Li Man felt bored to death. She didn’t enjoy reading these types of books. If Li Hua had a book like Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio or something similar, she would be willing to read it to pass the time.
Suddenly, Li Hua pointed out a part in the book that he was reading to Li Man. “This part is my favorite.”
Li Man glanced over and read it. ‘Zigong spoke of others’ defects*. Confucius replied, “How worthy you are! As for me, I have no time for that.’
(T/N: Zigong was Confucius’s senior disciple. Translation was taken from .pdf)
“En.” Delight appeared in Li Man’s eyes. She had once liked that part too. It had been pretty interesting to think about Confucius idly chatting with his disciples in the afternoon.
Li Hua glanced at her. With a slight smile, he said, “I’m curious, what did Zigong look like? How could a person be square-shaped*? And, Confucius said that he was real, so he definitely couldn’t be fake. Haha.”
* (T/N: The original Chinese character here has multiple meanings. Li Hua is just joking around and choosing a silly meaning.)