Since there were no phones in this era, Yan Mu’s reading efficiency had increased a lot.
By the time Father Yan came back that night, Yan Mu had completely memorised the whole “Three Character Classic”. Unfortunately, there were a few traditional Chinese characters that she wasn’t quite familiar with.
Father Yan checked Yan Mu’s homework, and his expression was very pleased.
He held up the big carp in his hand, smiled at Yan Mu and said, “This is the rice fish[1] sent by Aunt Zhou next door. Since you’re going back to school tomorrow, let’s have braised big carp today as a good omen.”
Yan Mu smiled and nodded. Father Yan busily prepared the fish while she helped by his side.
Looking at the bubbling and burbling pot, Yan Mu couldn’t help but remember the scene of eating rabbit meat together with Yu Yuan last night. Thinking of his current situation, she couldn’t help but feel a little worried.
“Daughter, what’s wrong?” Father Yan asked as he served the carp on the plate and saw Yan Mu’s unhappy expression.
“Dad, what do you think will happen to Yu Yuan when he goes back?” She looked up with a heavy heart.
“…… It probably won’t be good.” Speaking of this, Father Yan also sighed, “But it’s uncertain. The school will reopen tomorrow and Hunter Zhang must be forcing Zhang Goudan to revise his lessons now. He might not have time to pay attention to Yu Yuan today.” Zhang Goudan was famous for being lazy at studying, so Hunter Zhang would have a headache tonight.
Yan Mu was feeling complicated. She looked at the fish on the plate and suddenly lost her appetite. While they were eating, she kept her ears pricked up for any movements next door, but it was awfully quiet, and there was no bloodshed like she had imagined.
I hope what Father Yan said is true. Yan Mu took a bite of a vegetable millet dumpling, feeling distressed.
*************
It was said to be a private school, but it was actually a slightly more spacious room in the teacher’s house.
The room was well lit, and the set up tables and chairs were wiped clean. Although it didn’t look very spacious or rich, it had obviously been meticulously decorated and maintained.
Yan Mu took out her textbook and sat upright in her seat. She used it to cover the lower half of her face, only revealing her big vividly dark eyes.
Her wandering eyes were looking around carefully.
As expected, there was no sign of Yu Yuan’s silhouette. Everyone else were supporting characters who had never appeared in the book and had ordinary appearances.
Yu Yuan wasn’t here and there were no other handsome guys either. Yan Mu frowned and suddenly lost interest.
Currently, there was still some time before the teacher started the lesson and a few students hadn’t arrived yet. Yan Mu was extremely bored but she could only obediently review her lessons.
As she was reading, Yan Mu realised that the people around her kept pointing their fingers at her.
Yan Mu was the only female student in the private school, and was both beautiful and elegant, so all the male students avoided her. It was to the extent that a circle of no man’s land had formed around her.
Yan Mu felt that it was quite funny and didn’t bother to pay attention to them as she minded her own business.
The others saw Yan Mu being uncharacteristically reserved, instead of being angry or tearful like before. After a while, those male students felt like they were overreacting[2], so they stopped paying attention to her.
But there was still someone who just had to come forward.
“Sister Yan Mu, I haven’t seen you for a few days. Did you miss me?” asked Zhang Goudan cheekily.
Yan Mu ignored him and focused on reading, as if she didn’t see Zhang Goudan.
“Sister Yan Mu, stop looking at the book and look at me.” Zhang Goudan said mischievously while he took away Yan Mu’s textbook.
“…… What are you doing?!” Yan Mu was frightened as Zhang Goudan’s face suddenly appeared in front of her. She felt like she’d been hit in the face by his ugliness.
What’s this? I might as well just read the textbook!
Yan Mu was angry at Zhang Goudan, but also found it laughable.
Seeing Yan Mu laughing, Zhang Goudan suddenly got excited, “Sister Yan Mu, I’m better to look at, right?”
“Zhang Goudan, what do you want?” Yan Mu asked with a straight face.
“Sister Yan Mu, I want to sit next to you.” Zhang Goudan said, beaming.
“Teacher said that men and women are different. If you keep behaving like this, he’ll scold you.” Yan Mu didn’t want to deal at all with Zhang Goudan. Since she was the only female student, Teacher took very good care of her, and arranged for her to sit at a table alone instead of sharing two to a table like the rest.
Although the teacher was usually refined and gentle, he could be really scary when he was angry.
At Yan Mu’s words, Zhang Goudan suddenly felt uncomfortable.
“Yan Mu, are you trying to use Teacher to intimidate me?” Zhang Goudan was angry.
“If you say so.” Yan Mu didn’t want to look at Zhang Goudan, but her textbook was still in his hand.
So she reached out her hand, looked directly at Zhang Goudan and said, “Return my textbook.”
“I don’t want to.” Zhang Goudan was stunned by her bright apricot eyes for a moment, but he quickly came back to his senses, straightened his neck and said, “Sit with me today, otherwise, I’ll rip up your textbook.”
“Zhang Goudan! You’re going too far.” Yan Mu’s eyes were red with anger.
“What are you, a sickly person, being so stuck up for? Isn’t getting married what girls are for? You’re lucky that I’ve taken a fancy to you.” Zhang Goudan scoffed.
“Zhang Goudan, is this what you normally learn in your lessons?” a stern male voice suddenly rang out, followed by a slender and slim hand snatching the textbook out from Zhang Goudan’s hand.
“T-teacher!” Zhang Goudan suddenly panicked.
“Go out and stand for an hour to reflect on your mistakes in front of the portrait of Sage Confucius,” the teacher frowned. He looked about thirty or so, dressed in white, his features were good looking and his temperament was very outstanding.
“Yes, teacher.” Zhang Goudan lowered his head dejectedly and obediently went out to stand.
Yan Mu originally lost interest after being disturbed by Zhang Goudan and was in low spirits. But at the sight of the teacher’s face, she was instantly refreshed.
The teacher looked gentle and refined, a different type from Yu Yuan. Although she had a vague impression of the teacher’s looks based on the original owner’s memories, when she saw him in person, his rate of attractiveness[3] still made an impact on Yan Mu.
“Yan Mu, has your health been better recently?” After reprimanding others, the teacher looked at Yan Mu much more gently.
“Thank you teacher, for your concern. My body is still the same.” Yan Mu answered sweetly. Seeing how handsome the teacher was, she felt like her mood had improved.
“Alright.” Yan Mu nodded.
With the teacher supervising, the private school quieted down. Originally, Yan Mu thought that she would struggle to listen to the class, but she was surprised to find that the teacher taught really well. Even she, a person from the modern era, listened with great interest.
So much so that when she returned home from school, Yan Mu realized that she had wasted yet another day. She stood in the courtyard, looking somewhat ruefully at the hole in the short wall.
She had struggled to poke that hole out with a wooden stick when she was worried about Yu Yuan before. She had thought that Yu Yuan would block it up tightly like before, but surprisingly, he didn’t?
Did Yu Yuan forget about it? Yan Mu was somewhat perplexed.
Zhang Goudan’s voice suddenly rang out next door. He cursed and complained about what had happened in the private school, and Yan Mu heard her name.
“Dad, if Yan Mu wasn’t pretty and she didn’t have a few good acres at home, I wouldn’t bother with her.” Zhang Goudan complained.
“Yan Family’s fields are the best and he only has one daughter, Yan Mu.” Hunter Zhang smiled while comforting him, “With just a look, you can see that Yan Mu won’t live long. If you manage to chase Yan Mu, those few acres of fields will be ours.”
“Those fields are worth a lot of money. When the time comes, dad will sell them and get you a daughter-in-law.” Hunter Zhang comforted him and said, “Dad will go to the river to deal with the newly gathered animal skins, you review your lessons and don’t slack off.” As he spoke, the sound of his footsteps faded away.
Yan Mu felt furious in her heart but she heard Zhang Goudan suddenly rudely say, “B*stard, this young master is thirsty. Go pour me a cup of water.”
…… B*stard? Yan Mu froze for a moment before realising that Zhang Goudan was talking about Yu Yuan.
Yu Yuan is here too? She was surprised.
“B*stard, I asked you to pour me a cup of water, why aren’t you going?” Zhang Goudan started to yell in dissatisfaction as Yu Yuan seemed to not move for a long time.
Yan Mu was slightly worried about Yu Yuan, and she was torn between if she should peep or not. Just then, Yu Yuan’s voice suddenly rang out.
“What did you do to her today?” He spoke in a calm tone, but when you listened closely, you could hear a coldness in his tone.
Like cobwebs under the moonlight, it was thin and unnoticeable. But by the time it was discovered, the prey was often too deeply caught to move, reduced to a fish on the chopping block, left to be slaughtered by the hunter.
Yan Mu noticed with hindsight that—— Yu Yuan seemed angry.
*****************************************************
The author has something to say:
Yu Yuan: Woman, I allow you to look at me. (Bring in the overbearing president expression here)
[1] fish found in paddy fields
[2] 小题大做 (xiǎotí-dàzuò) – make a big fuss over a minor issue/ make a mountain out of a molehill
[3] ’Attractiveness index’ – Rating of how good-looking someone is.