Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 22: If You've Got the Skill

Chapter 22: If You’ve Got the Skill

“General, please look. These are the papers my elder brother used to verify the figures at home, along with some of the original documents. The seal of the Ministry of Revenue is stamped on them!

“My brother was afraid he might misread a line, so he listed the quantities of each type of grain separately. There can be no mistake!”

Mu Sheng respectfully presented the papers.

“These originals must be documents my brother secretly took out before they had time to be bound. That is why they were mixed in with his calculation papers.”

Cang Chuli looked at the papers in his hands and the densely packed handwriting on them.

“At least you’re not completely stupid. I’ll take this matter on.”

Mu Sheng kowtowed heavily to the floor.

==========

Zhao Die finished showing her face at the General’s Mansion for the day and returned gracefully to the little courtyard.

Naturally, she had no idea that while she had been away, her younger sister had spent the entire day weeding someone else’s field.

For some reason, she glanced toward Xia Heng’s room.

Xia Heng was holding a thick book in both hands, staring at her chili seedlings with a miserable frown.

The moment she saw Zhao Die return, she hurried over impatiently.

For some reason, Zhao Die suddenly had a very bad feeling.

“Zhao Die! Quick! Help me take a look. Are these seedlings yellowing from withering, or are they scorched?

“The book says if they’re yellowing, I should fertilize them, but if they’re scorched, I should check the soil… So what exactly am I supposed to do?”

Before Zhao Die could even react to Xia Heng’s barrage of questions, a book was shoved right up to her face.

Xia Heng truly felt that this was far too difficult. How on earth were plants supposed to be raised?

Were all the farmer uncles really this amazing!?

They could actually cultivate such tiny crops into fresh vegetables people could eat?

She swore that in this lifetime, she would never waste food again.

After waiting for a long while without any response, she turned back and saw Zhao Die holding her book, her expression complicated.

She seemed a little angry, yet also a little hesitant.

When Zhao Die saw Xia Heng looking back at her, she hastily threw the book at her.

“Who could understand this stupid book?! This isn’t something women should be reading! If you want to farm, then go farm for the rest of your life! I’m not playing along with you anymore!”

After saying that, she stormed back to her room in a fury. Not long after, the sounds of things being slammed and knocked about came from inside.

Xia Heng stood there, stunned from being yelled at. After a moment, she put the book away.

She had barely paid attention to anything that came after. All she remembered was the first thing Zhao Die had shouted at her.

“Who could understand this stupid book?!”

Oh no. This girl couldn’t read. Xia Heng had jabbed her right where it hurt…

Xia Heng studied the matter on her own for a while longer. By the time the sky darkened and she could barely see what the seedlings in the field looked like, she finally returned to her room unwillingly.

As she walked, she smiled bitterly.

Other people transmigrated into perfectly good sweet romance stories. In her hands, the script had been swapped for a farming-and-employment drama. Truly, comparing people could make one die of frustration, and comparing goods could make one throw them away!

She should think about how to coax the two Miss Zhaos next door.

Sigh. She really hadn’t said anything, had she!?

Zhao Siyan also felt that she must have lost her mind today. Who cared if that woman’s vegetables died? How had she failed to control her own hands?

Could it be that she really didn’t have the fate to rise above others? Was she destined to scratch a living from the dirt for the rest of her life?

Zhao Die sat on the bed, one hand pounding at her waist.

She felt certain that wretched woman had done it on purpose. She had actually brought a book over to disgust her! Was she mocking her for being illiterate?

But after thinking about it again, she felt that with that woman’s brain, she probably couldn’t have come up with such a nasty idea.

No, wait. She had clearly been insulted, so why was she making excuses for her?

That only made her angrier.

The legitimate daughter of Zhao Mansion was named Zhao Miaoling, and she was a famous talented young lady in the capital.

From childhood, she had studied the qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting. By the age of five, she could already compose verses on the spot.

But when Zhao Die and her sister were five, they had still been in their little courtyard with their mother, starving and freezing.

The legitimate sons and daughters attended the household school every day, while all she had cared about back then was whether the three of them-she, her mother, and her sister-could survive.

They lived in the same estate. She could not understand why, when they were all Father’s children, the difference between them could be so great.

Even after she and her sister grew up, no one ever mentioned teaching them to read, to be cultured, or to know proper manners. They were only taught to be obedient and to think of Zhao Mansion.

One day, their legitimate mother finally hired a teacher for them, but that teacher only taught them music and dance.

It was so they could please their future husbands’ families.

That damned Xia Heng-how dared she stab her right in the heart?

Zhao Die was still immersed in her own emotions and did not hear the soft knock on the window.

By the time she noticed it, her younger sister had already opened the window, revealing a foolish face red from the cold.

“Well… I brewed some medicinal broth. It’s for driving out the cold. Do you two want some?”

Zhao Die grew angry just looking at that face. She was about to open her mouth and say no when Xia Heng spoke first.

“It was my fault. I wasn’t careful with my words just now. It was all my fault. Sisters, please do me the honor and don’t stoop to my level.”
“This humble young lady offers her apologies to you two ladies!”

As Xia Heng spoke, she even gave them a formal bow.

Zhao Siyan couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing. No one had ever given her a proper bow before.

Besides, Xia Heng was holding a pot in one hand, so no matter how you looked at it, the bow seemed a little rough around the edges.

All Zhao Siyan could do was laugh as she called her inside.

For some reason, after watching Xia Heng finish that bow, some of Zhao Die’s anger faded.

She knew it. That idiot didn’t have the brains to mock her on purpose.

Xia Heng carried the little pot into the Zhao sisters’ side room.

It was a bit warmer inside than outside. Xia Heng sat down by the table and poured tea for the two Zhao sisters as she explained, “Last time I went out to buy supplies, I picked up some brown sugar. Today I boiled some brown sugar ginger tea. It’s perfect for drinking now that the weather’s turned cold. Didn’t your period come? Drink some of this. It’ll make you feel better.”

“How did you know?” Zhao Die walked toward the table.

Her face flushed despite herself, and she thought in annoyance, It couldn’t have gotten on my clothes, could it?

“Your face is so pale, and after standing for a while you keep thumping your waist. I figured your period must have come.”

Mainly, your temper got even worse, Xia Heng silently added in her heart, but she absolutely did not dare say the last part out loud.

As she spoke, she pushed the cups of ginger tea toward the Zhao sisters.

Zhao Die sipped at the ginger tea in small mouthfuls. It was sweet and warm. After she swallowed, a little spicy heat lingered in her mouth, but it wasn’t unpleasant.

Even the dull ache in her lower belly had eased quite a bit.

Xia Heng watched the two sisters happily drink their ginger tea, then quietly reached toward the small of her back. The moment Zhao Die saw the book she pulled out, her expression was about to change.

She actually dared to take it out again!?

“I don’t know how to do anything. Back home, my father always said I was useless.”

Once again, Xia Heng seized the initiative.

“To be honest, this is my first time leaving the estate.

“Ever since I was little, I was kept under pressure at home. When I was young, I learned to read. If I couldn’t remember the characters, the teacher would hit my palms with a ruler. That teacher was a failed scholar, and he hit hard. Ten strikes, and your skin was guaranteed to split.”

Zhao Die instinctively glanced at Xia Heng’s hands.

“If it was winter and the skin on my hands had split before it could scab over, I still had to hold a brush and write. That feeling! By the time I opened my hand again, a whole layer of skin would be torn off, with little strands of flesh still attached.”

Zhao Siyan imagined the scene, and her teeth ached.

“But that was all I learned. So aside from recognizing a few characters, I really don’t know how to do anything else.”

Xia Heng lifted her face and looked at Zhao Die earnestly.

“The first time you taught me how to hoe the ground, I realized it. You two elder sisters are truly amazing! Even when hoeing, you hoe so quickly and so deeply! So neat and orderly!”

“If it weren’t for the two of you, who knows whether my little vegetable seedlings could have been planted properly, let alone sprouted!”

Zhao Die and Zhao Siyan were so dazed by the flattery that they almost forgot when exactly they had taught her how to hoe the ground.

Clearly, they had just been unable to stand watching her dig random holes.

“Growing vegetables is serious knowledge! And it’s knowledge where you can actually see real results!

“A person can go without reading, but they can’t go without eating! Isn’t that the truth?

“I know asking you elder sisters to help me read and look for answers is me being lazy, but I truly don’t know anyone else this capable!”

Zhao Die, the capable one, felt that if not for the faint dragging pain still in her lower belly, she might have floated straight into the air.

She had grown up this old, and no one had ever praised her like this before! Her entire life felt elevated.

“How about this? I’ll read the book. If there are characters or sentences that are hard to understand, I’ll read them a few more times. If that doesn’t work, we’ll write them out and practice more.

“Some of the seeds in this batch came from foreign lands, and there are still some that haven’t been planted.

“For things we haven’t seen or don’t know about, we can look for the answers together, then try them out in practice.

“Just consider it helping out this little useless thing. Can you?”

Under the table, Zhao Siyan squeezed Zhao Die’s hand tightly. Zhao Die was stunned for a long while, then felt even her breathing turn hot.

She bit her lip and said, “Fine, then. I’ll treat it as helping you out. But you’re the one begging me!”

She took a sip of tea to suppress the tangle of thoughts in her mind, then added, “Let’s make this clear first. We have to choose times when we’re free. If the general calls for us, we won’t have time to play around with you on these things!”

“Yes, yes, of course! Thank you, elder sisters!”

Xia Heng had achieved her goal! She held her teacup and smiled like a blooming flower.

At last, she began sipping the ginger tea in small mouthfuls, occasionally hissing when it scalded her.

Zhao Die and Zhao Siyan held hands as they looked at their “neighbor,” Miss Xia.

For the first time, the two of them felt that this girl’s crescent-moon eyes when she smiled were actually rather cute.

She just wasn’t very smart!