"That’s not necessarily true. Some people who don’t care about cleanliness can live in a large mansion and still leave it a filthy mess." As Yang Chuxia spoke, she unrolled the calligraphy scroll, "Wow, did you write this?"
"Hmm." Seeing Ye Zi’an nodding, Yang Chuxia exclaimed again, "Such beautiful characters."
After flipping through two pages, she found something strange. There were three different types of writing, each written exceptionally well.
One page was in flowing script, as free as a cloud in the wind; an another page was in wild cursive, displaying overt boldness. Damn, even the small regular script, which is more suitable for women, was so well written. No wonder Qingrui insisted on learning calligraphy from Brother An. Judging from these characters, the writer indeed possesses deep thoughts, as well as reflections of life. Originally, she saw the wild cursive and first thought that it was the zeal of youth, as the passionate characters seemed to indicate the writer’s ambition to achieve great things. But upon seeing the flowing script, she sensed a serene indifference of someone experienced and calm, like watching the clouds roll and unfurl.
After reading the writing, she picked up a book. It was a travelogue, with interesting anecdotes and notable things about different places recorded inside - eminent people and events, or some historical relics. It was quite interesting.
"Tell me, why didn’t your brothers think to take these books back home?" Yang Chuxia asked curiously while flipping through the book.
Books in this era are very valuable. New books cost one or two ounces of silver each, and that’s just for common books. Supplementary books with annotations can be around four or five ounces. Even buying used books costs several hundred wen each.
These books of Brother An’s don’t look too old, probably this kid has been spending his silver on books these past few years. But how come such valuable items were not taken by those two thieves?
"In their eyes, a book is worth less than a meat bun. Of course, they wouldn’t value them."
"Pfft..." This reasoning is actually quite valid. Neither Ye Ziping nor Ye Zi’yong seemed like scholarly types. To them, food was indeed more valuable than books. And yet, Ms.Hua Jr always dreamt of her sons achieving scholarly honor. "Hey, can I discuss something with you?" Yang Chuxia, after scanning Ye Zi’an’s pens and inks again, added.
"When you teach letters to Qingrui, could you also teach me?" Actually, she could recognize traditional Chinese characters, but the original body had never learned them. If she suddenly demonstrated knowledge of characters, it would surely raise suspicion. It would be better to find a plausible excuse, and honestly, her own brush writing was pretty awful. In her past life, she had no time to learn these things, always preferring to spar and fight when she had spare time. But now, seeing Brother An’s beautiful handwriting, she suddenly wanted to learn something refined.
"That’s no problem. I can teach you once we go back." Ye Zi’an reassured. Naturally, he would be happy to teach Xiaxia if she wanted to learn.
"Great! Great!" Yang Chuxia nodded enthusiastically.
By the time she left Brother An’s house, it was already evening. When she got back home, Ms.Wang had started preparing dinner. After dinner, Ye Zi’an, as promised, began teaching Yang Qingrui to write, and Yang Chuxia as well. However, during the teaching process, he found that Xiaxia learned very quickly. Almost whatever he explained once, she could remember. She learned much faster than he did when he was a young prodigy.