For the first time, Lin Ruhai’s gaze settled on Young Miss An. He quickly looked away again and turned to his own daughter.
Even Jia Min could not help glancing at Daiyu.
Lin Daiyu paused, then lowered her eyes with a smile.
Lin Ruhai asked, “How old are you two? You’ve already started lessons and even been given formal names?”
He laughed at himself.
“Look at my memory. I completely forgot to give Daiyu a formal name.”
Jia Min agreed.
“She really should have one. When she begins attending social occasions in the future, people will hear her name and know at once that she’s had an education. Naturally, they’ll think more highly of her.”
With a few words back and forth, husband and wife settled the matter then and there.
As for the actual name, that would require some thought.
There was no need to decide it now.
Lin Ruhai asked again, “Do you have childhood names?”
Young Miss An answered first.
“Yes! Uncle can call me Anguo.”
“I’m Anbang.”
Lin Ruhai stared at them.
“Anbang and Anguo?”
He looked toward Weisheng He’s mother and hesitated.
“Those are rather grand childhood names. Aren’t you worried names like that might be too much for children to bear and make them more likely to…”
He left the words “die young” unspoken.
Weisheng He’s mother did not understand.
“Are those names really that grand?”
The twins shook their heads in perfect unison.
Lin Ruhai looked at their plump, rosy faces, brimming with vitality, and suddenly laughed.
“I suppose I was overthinking it.”
After a pause, he added, “They’re certainly unusual names.”
He had never heard of a girl being given a name like that before.
And as a childhood name, no less.
He looked at Young Miss An.
“Your parents must love you very much.”
The thought left Lin Ruhai feeling somewhat humbled.
He had always believed he had done better by Daiyu than many parents did by their children. Now, it seemed he had been rather complacent.
There was still much he could learn.
Jia Min was taken aback as well.
But when she thought of her own health, she could only sigh softly, suddenly feeling a little discouraged.
Lin Ruhai continued, “Since you’ve already started studying, can you tell Uncle what books you usually read?”
Young Miss An answered, “The Three Character Classic, the Hundred Family Surnames, and the Thousand Character Classic!”
Young Master An added, “The Little Four Books!”
“The Rules for Disciples!”
“The Thousand Family Poems!”
“Qionglin for Young Learners!”
“Enlightenment on Sound and Rhythm!”
“Rhymes for Elementary Learning!”
“The Four Books and Five Classics!”
Young Miss An’s eyes widened as she turned toward her brother.
“We only just started the Four Books and Five Classics! We don’t even recognize all the characters yet. How can you count those?”
Young Master An grinned.
“But are we studying them or not?”
Well…
“We are, we are!”
Young Miss An started laughing too.
Lin Ruhai did not find it strange.
The list sounded long, but aside from the Four Books and Five Classics, they were all common primers for young children. It was nothing unusual for the twins to have finished them.
He himself had finished such primers by the age of three or four.
His daughter Daiyu had started even earlier than he had.
The twins were already five, which was indeed old enough to begin studying the Four Books and Five Classics.
Still, reading a book and remembering it were two different things.
And between memorizing a text and truly understanding it lay an even wider gulf.
Countless children could recite books backward and forward, yet when asked what the words meant, all they could do was shake their heads. Even those who managed to repeat their teacher’s explanations often stumbled through them.
With that in mind, Lin Ruhai began testing them.
“Heaven is dark, Earth is yellow?”
“The universe is vast and boundless!” Young Miss An answered first.
“The sun and moon wax and wane?”
Young Miss An looked at her brother.
Young Master An immediately understood.
“The stars and constellations spread across the sky.”
Lin Ruhai turned to Young Miss An.
“The famed sword is Juque, the treasured pearl is Night Radiance.”
“Among fruits, plums and crabapples are prized. Among vegetables, mustard greens and ginger.”
Then he looked toward Young Master An.
“Relieving the people and punishing the guilty were Zhou’s Fa and Yin’s Tang.”
“They sat in court to seek the Way, governing with folded hands and bringing peace.”
“Misfortune comes from accumulated evil, while blessings follow good deeds.”
“A foot of jade is no treasure. Every inch of time must be cherished.”
…
Lin Ruhai deliberately jumped around instead of following the text in order, yet the two children answered every line without hesitation.
He then quoted passages and asked them to explain what they meant.
They had no trouble with that either.
Their explanations were all in simple, everyday language, with little formal literary phrasing. Considering their age, however, Lin Ruhai had no intention of demanding more.
Eventually, even Daiyu was drawn in by the lively atmosphere and joined them, becoming a little examiner herself.
Because she was still young, she had no real sense of how difficult her questions ought to be.
Sometimes, what she asked was even harder than Lin Ruhai’s questions.
Yet the twins still answered smoothly.
The more Lin Ruhai tested them, the more impressed he became. His gaze toward the two children gradually grew warmer.
That lasted until Lin Daiyu asked them something from the Four Books.
The twins had not studied that far yet, so they exchanged a look and admitted frankly, “We haven’t learned that part yet!”
Young Miss An wrapped her arms around Lin Daiyu’s arm.
“Big Sister, ask us something easier. That one’s too hard!”
Young Master An crowded closer as well.
“You have to ask us things we’ve already learned!”
Lin Daiyu pursed her lips in a smile.
“All right. But first you have to tell me how far you’ve studied.”
The twins crowded around her and eagerly began helping her flip through the book.
Lin Ruhai stopped questioning them and turned toward Jia Min.
“These two children are remarkably gifted. Their natural ability is no worse than Daiyu’s.”
Jia Min laughed.
“Master likes them?”
“They’re quite good.”
There was a smile in Lin Ruhai’s eyes.
Seeing his expression, something suddenly occurred to Jia Min.
“If you like them so much, why not take them as your students?”
Lin Ruhai did not answer immediately.
He had indeed considered accepting them as disciples.
Both children were exceptionally gifted, and as descendants of a salt merchant family, they would never lack money. Their studies and future examination prospects would not be disrupted by financial hardship.
If he accepted them as disciples, they could also keep Daiyu company.
“Let’s wait until their mourning period is over,” Lin Ruhai said. “It wouldn’t be appropriate to bring it up now.”
After a pause, he added, “They can still come to the Lin residence and study under Jia Yucun in the meantime.
“For one thing, I’m occupied with official business and won’t have time to teach them personally for now. For another, they’re still observing mourning. Without studying as a reason to come here, visiting too often might give the Li family an excuse to make trouble.”
Jia Min nodded, pleased with the arrangement.
But students? How could students compare to children of our own?
Days passed.
Jia Min’s condition improved and worsened by turns.
On her better days, she could get out of bed and walk around, sit in the garden to enjoy the sunlight, and talk with Daiyu.
On her worse days, even turning over in bed was difficult. She coughed through entire nights, sometimes bringing up phlegm streaked with blood.
Now that the twins were studying under Jia Yucun, they rode to the Lin residence by carriage every day.
Each time, they brought Jia Min some soup.
After drinking it, she would feel somewhat better.
But the relief lasted for shorter and shorter periods.
At first, it lasted six to ten hours.
Then four hours.
Then two.
Then one…
By now, it barely helped at all.
Jia Min once again became too ill to leave her bed.
There was nothing anyone could do.
The spiritual spring water simply was not the right treatment for her actual illness.
Compared with Jia Min’s underlying condition, the aftereffects of childbirth were likely only minor ailments that would not have affected her daily life much in the first place.
Even curing them made little difference to her overall condition.
Her illness visibly worsened, and her body gradually weakened.
That day, Weiyang saw its first snowfall of the year.
By the next morning, heavy snow had blanketed everything in white.
Weisheng He sat beside the brazier, eating pastries and sipping tea as she watched the huge snowflakes falling outside with her children.
Snow this heavy must already be causing disasters, right?
Weiyang is in the south. I wonder how bad things are up north.
Her thoughts were wandering aimlessly when her heart suddenly gave a violent thump, as though something bad had happened.
Jia Min came to mind almost immediately.
“Shanhu, go to the storeroom and choose a gift. Have the steward send it to the Lin residence.”
She paused.
“And ask about Madam Jia while you’re there.”
Shanhu left.
But she returned not long afterward, still carrying the gift.
Her face was even whiter than the snow outside.
“Young Madam…”
Her voice trembled.
“The Lin residence sent someone over with news of a death. They said…”
“Madam Jia is gone.”
The teacup slipped from Weisheng He’s hand.
It struck the floor and shattered to pieces.