Chapter13

Guest Arrival (Six)

The carriage jolted along; this time they were not going to the market but to the school just a hundred meters from the government office. The buildings here had changed little since the Qing Dynasty but lacked maintenance, so everything looked old and dull. The brightest spot was a nearby Temple of Wealth, bustling with worshippers. A tall locust tree stood inside, its branches tied with bright red cloth, surrounded by villagers paying respects.

"Why is everyone so obsessed with money?" Fang Qian said.

"Of course they love money. Who doesn't?" the Odd One classmate retorted. "If you don’t, it means you don’t lack it."

"Song Qi’s newspaper runs at a loss every issue. I think he’s quite short of money, but he just isn’t interested in it," Fang Qian said, glancing at him. "Right, Young Master Song?"

"Who said that? I'm very interested," Song Qi said, eyes closed, arms folded in rebuttal. "I just don’t approve of some ways of making money. Also, the newspaper has already recouped its costs through serialized novels."

The students booed. Yu Manyi watched them, not quite understanding. One thing was certain: Qi Song had brought Song Qi’s newspaper back to life, proving talent is a profitable business without investment. Yu Manyi pondered her own situation and realized that although she was a landlord’s daughter, she didn’t have anything valuable to offer and couldn’t help.

When Yu Manyi had sent Song Qi sample illustrations before, she mentioned her admiration for Qi Song in her letter, but he never brought it up after meeting. Suddenly, Yu Manyi wanted to ask him about it now, but she rarely spoke in front of so many people, and opening her mouth became difficult, especially with the noisy students easily drowning out her voice.

She tried several times but couldn’t say anything and finally lowered her head. This feeling was familiar; at the Yu family, she often experienced moments when she wanted to speak but held back.

Then she suddenly heard Song Qi’s voice: “Yu Manyi, what did you say?”

Yu Manyi looked up abruptly.

He was still sitting with his arms folded and eyes closed, head slightly raised, leaning on the carriage. She didn’t know how he heard those brief, probing syllables. His voice wasn’t loud but was clearly distinguishable among the students. Everyone immediately quieted, turning their gaze to Yu Manyi. After saying this, Song Qi slowly opened his eyes, leaned forward a bit, and looked at her intently, as if he hadn’t been dozing off at all.

Everyone was waiting for her to speak, a rare experience. Yu Manyi grew nervous. She took a moment to organize her words, finally mustering the courage to ask boldly, “The writer Qi Song who writes serialized stories for the newspaper, is he your classmate as well?”

There was a brief silence in the carriage, then bursts of laughter.Song Qi was momentarily stunned, then a smile appeared on his face, though compared to others, his smile carried a hint of bitterness. He had indeed received Yu Manyi’s sincere letter, read her praise and admiration for Qi Song, and at the time had found it amusing. After arriving in Shaoxing, he was busy with many affairs and had pushed the matter aside. He never expected Yu Manyi to bring it up in front of so many people.

“Miss Yu,” Fang Qian immediately joined the conversation, “you like reading Qi Song’s—” She glanced at Song Qi’s wry smile and said, “—serialized stories? What do you like about his writing?”

“Everything,” Yu Manyi unreservedly expressed her approval. Her education didn’t allow her to be so direct in expressing admiration for a male, but Qi Song wasn’t here now. “His stories are different from the traditional tales I’ve read before, and he doesn’t use obscure characters to make it difficult for me.”

“But you know,” Song Qi folded his arms, suddenly smiling faintly, “such stories are considered low-class by some scholars and looked down upon.”

“Why should they be looked down upon?” Yu Manyi shook her head and continued, “Stories are written for people to read. Isn’t it most important that people enjoy them? I hate those arrogant scholars who look down on everything but can’t produce anything decent themselves.”

Fang Qian clapped her hands and said, “Well said! Qi Song would be thrilled to hear that. Miss Yu, actually Qi Song is—”

“He’s my classmate in the neighboring class,” Song Qi interrupted without changing his expression. “When I return to Shanghai, I’ll definitely convey your impactful words to him.”

The carriage arrived at the school, and the group began to disembark one by one. Song Qi helped another girl and Yu Manyi down, then saw Fang Qian jump down on her own from the other side. She crossed her arms and suspiciously asked Song Qi, “What are you hiding from everyone?”

“I told them where to hear such sincere praise,” Song Qi gestured for her to enter the door, then followed behind. “If she knew I was Qi Song, she’d be too embarrassed to say anything.”

Fang Qian couldn’t help but stomp her foot, standing behind Song Qi, retorting with his earlier words, “You’re crazy.”

…

Compared to private schools, the academy was larger and brighter, with more students. Yu Manyi had never seen so many people outside of the market — people of different ages, skin tones, and statuses. Since this was a literacy course, not only scholars attended; many looked more like street vendors, farmers from the fields, and boatmen from the docks.After only a short while inside, Song Qi and the others were called away, leaving Yu Manyi squeezed noisily among the crowd. At first, she felt scared, but soon realized no one cared about her. These people came to learn knowledge—something once exclusive to the elite—but now someone had broken open a narrow gap, letting it flow from top to bottom, reaching here, to the fields and markets of Shaoxing’s countryside, even into the riverbanks. Yu Manyi was a witness to this gap.

The noisy scene quickly ended as the report concluded. Yu Manyi realized these people were squeezing in class time amid their livelihoods. Most could only attend the afternoon literacy class, while some who wanted to learn bookkeeping had signed up for arithmetic. After the crowd dispersed, only seven remained for the first English lesson.

Yu Manyi worried Fang Qian might be discouraged, so she actively sat in the front row. But sitting up front didn’t help her understand much of the lesson. By the second session, after Song Qi’s arithmetic class ended, Yu Manyi was completely overwhelmed.

It turned out the one who was discouraged was not Fang Qian, but herself.

There were still two literacy lessons in the afternoon. During the noon break, Yu Manyi quietly moved her seat to the last row. As more students trickled into the academy, she had only just sat down when suddenly a female voice sounded behind her: “Are you the second Miss Yu?”

She quickly turned and saw a gentle but somewhat haggard face, about in her twenties, hair pinned in a bun, with white strands at the temples that did not suit her age.

She immediately recognized her as the Miss You whom Song Qi and the others had persuaded to attend class.

This young lady had also appeared earlier during the Yu family’s breakfast gossip. The You family was indeed a source of many rumors in this place. As Yu Manyi knew, Miss You was betrothed at sixteen by Master You to a young man from a similarly matched family. However, after meeting her a few times, the young man suddenly claimed her appearance clashed with his and broke off the engagement. Second Madam said that Miss You had a birthmark on her face, and the young man probably disliked it.

After being rejected once, Miss You’s prospects became difficult. Yet the You family was a prestigious clan. Through matchmakers, she was betrothed to an accountant in a local gentry family. Unexpectedly, one day that accountant disappeared along with the gentry’s eldest daughter—the two had long been in love and eloped.

Thus, Miss You’s marriage plans were again put on hold. Having been rejected twice, though she did nothing wrong, she became the village’s discarded woman and suffered much ridicule. No one was willing to let their son marry a woman twice rejected; the matchmakers’ attempts also repeatedly failed. She was thus permanently kept at home.

Yu Manyi quickly identified her by the light-colored birthmark on her profile, then was surprised that Song Qi had managed to get her to join the literacy course. But she clearly had no plans to attend the two morning classes and only came now, presumably for literacy lessons.

The two were the only girls in the class, so naturally they sat together. Yu Manyi never expected Miss You’s arrival would greatly relieve her own discouragement—the afternoon lessons were ones she had some foundation in, and she spent the time helping Miss You clarify doubts, which boosted Yu Manyi’s confidence and made her feel less useless.

At first, Miss You was timid and awkward when asking questions, but seeing Yu Manyi’s enthusiasm and lack of prejudice, she gradually let down her guard. At the day’s end, she suddenly turned her body and whispered, “Miss Yu, you’re the first in these years… the first…”

Yu Manyi looked at her, puzzled.However, Miss You did not finish her sentence. She lowered her eyelids, her expression and demeanor showing even more weakness from being overly tamed than Yu Manyi’s. She hugged her book and self-mockingly said, “So I can still be treated this well.”

After speaking, she left, and Yu Manyi had no idea what she had done.

As Miss You left, the others attending the literacy class also gradually dispersed in small groups. Yu Manyi knew she had to wait to ride the carriage with Song Qi and the others, so she was not anxious but opened her textbook and began reviewing the day’s lessons.

She didn’t know when Song Qi had quietly come up behind her.

After some review, she realized she still didn’t understand the English and arithmetic lessons. Today’s literacy class was too simple for her, so she turned her attention to the cover of the lesson plans.

These three lesson plans were not officially published but compiled by the students themselves based on the literacy level of the attendees. Yu Manyi placed the arithmetic book on top and saw the familiar big characters “Basic Arithmetic,” underneath which were a “Song” she recognized and a “Qi” she didn’t.

She took a piece of blank paper and copied that character.

After writing it twice, she understood. The character looked complicated but was just a combination of the “deer” character and the “qi” character. She recalled her second uncle saying it was the “Qi” from “Qilin” (a mythical creature), and suddenly grew curious about how to write the character “Lin” (麟).

She couldn’t stop herself from talking to herself, muttering to the blank paper. Just as she finished speaking, a laugh came from behind her. Because the person making the sound was unexpectedly close, Yu Manyi’s back stiffened.

“The radicals are the same,” the other person said, not reaching out, only explaining, “The left side is a deer.”

So she wrote a deer.

“The top right is a ‘rice’ character, and below it on the left is a ‘sunset’ character.”

These were simple characters that Yu Manyi could write herself. But when it came to the last radical, trouble arose. Song Qi said the character was pronounced “kua,” but no matter what, Yu Manyi couldn’t remember ever learning such a character. Her pen hovered on the paper for a long time until Song Qi finally bent down, took the pen from her hand, and completed the character “麟” (lin) for her.

His brush strokes were gentle and delicate, but the three strokes he added were graceful and free. The long vertical stroke extended downward, turning this square character sharp, like a long sword piercing out from a four-sided courtyard.