Annual Ceremony

Chapter 10: Waking of Insects (Part )

Zhenyi was grabbed by her mother's wrist and left the study. She didn't dare to speak all the way. Wang Yuan whispered, "Look, the second sister is so scared that she doesn't even dare to breathe..."

Zhan Mei looked over and vaguely felt that Zhenyi seemed to be distracted... maybe she hadn't yet gotten the numbers out of her mind?

The person involved, Zhenyi, didn't say a word, but Orange kept meowing and talking all the way, like Zhenyi's defense lawyer.

Zhenyi was taken to her grandparents' home. The two old people were so worried about their granddaughter that they could not rest in peace.

With tears in her eyes, Yang Jinniang told Zhenyi what she had done and asked her to apologize to her grandparents, saying that she shouldn't have made them worry so much.

Zhenyi knelt down and bowed properly towards the sky.

Wang Zhefu naturally would not blame his granddaughter for this, he just asked Zhenyi: "Tell your grandfather why you want your academic qualifications to count?"

The little girl knelt there and answered without hesitation: "Yes."

"Oh?" Wang Zhefu: "Then why do you like such boring and obscure things?"

"Grandfather, Zhenyi doesn't feel bored." The girl's hair was a little messy due to the wind, and her big eyes were serious and innocent: "Zhenyi feels that there is infinite magic in this."

Zhenyi started to learn at the age of three, and it has been four years since then. She always has many questions to ask, but there are few people who can really give her answers.

She liked words and poetry. Although she couldn't explain the reason clearly at that time, as she grew older, she realized that she liked the principles, scenery, feelings, civilization and its expressiveness.

The calendar is different, it is cold, fair, constant, no external force, no emotion can change its answer. It is not for people to express, it is there, for people to explore and use.

Zhenyi was attracted by this absolute and constant justice, but at the age of seven she was still too young to clearly analyze this feeling.

The source of Zhenyi's idea was related to the Suiyuan Lantern Festival on the Lantern Festival half a month ago.

That night, Zhenyi witnessed a group of scholars and writers gathered in the moonlit courtyard. They erected a five-inch long wooden ruler in the center of the courtyard. At midnight, they observed the length of the moon's shadow to judge the drought or flood situation of the year.

This is one of the customs of the Lantern Festival, called "testing the water meter."

The female members of the family also went to watch the fun. Zhenyi heard from her mother that it was a divination of heaven's will, asking the heaven about the rainfall this year.

Can God’s will be predicted?
On the way back, Zhenyi asked her grandfather.

Her grandfather told her that this had to do with astronomy and mathematics.

Afterwards, Zhenyi begged to learn mathematics, and Wang Zhefu followed her instructions. However, it was not until this time, when he heard the words "miraculous and infinite", that he took the matter seriously.

Wang Zhefu stood up from his chair, his expression moved with surprise and joy: "...What a wonderful thing, indeed!"

“The study of mathematics can trace the true nature of all things in the world.”

The old man pulled the little girl up from the ground, his eyes filled with love a hundred times greater than before, as if he saw the way of inheritance that he had given up hope on, and finally he sighed: "Our Deqing, you are really a good child!"

Seeing Zhenyi being recognized, Juzi was pleased but also felt a little regretful. If it were in modern times, he would definitely enroll Zhenyi in ten or eight cram schools to let her learn enough.

Wang Zhefu said quite solemnly that he wanted to teach Zhenyi how to learn calendar calculation.

Wang Xirui suggested that Wang Yuan and Wang Jie should also study together, as well as the guest Zhan Mei. Zhan Mei came to Nanjing to study, and the two families were old friends. Zhan's father hoped that his son could receive guidance from Wang Zhefu.

Zhan Mei was still lost in thought because of the words "infinite and miraculous", but Wang Yuan was so shocked by this sudden disaster that he saw black spots in front of his eyes.

——It was clearly the second sister who was being tried, so why did he become the one being executed? Excuse me, can these smart people live their own lives? Don't implicate these useless people, wuwuwu!

Yang Jinniang didn't understand the situation and became more and more uneasy, but she didn't dare to question or oppose her father-in-law's decision, so she could only try to ask her younger brother and sister-in-law.

The third wife comforted her, saying that this would not be a problem and she could just think of it as learning how to do accounting in advance. If a woman wanted to take care of the household, she must know how to read the account book.

Yang Jinniang felt relieved, and after calming down, she couldn't help but regret her anger towards her daughter in the study. After returning to the courtyard, Zhenyi was very tired, and fell asleep on the edge of the small bathtub while taking a bath.

Chun'er poked Zhenyi's chubby cheek with a smile, carried Zhenyi out, dried her body, put on a soft undershirt, and tucked her into the quilt.

Zhenyi was sleeping soundly with the quilt in her arms, and Juzi was lying beside her, also sleeping comfortably with her arms and legs spread out, her furry belly exposed - being a paperweight is a strenuous job.

Yang Jinniang and her husband sat by the bed, looking at their daughter's sleeping face. They felt a little soft-hearted and a little self-blaming, and choked up in a low voice, "Today in the study, I don't know what happened to me. It was like I was struck by some evil wind. I don't know if I scared her..."

"Look at the look on your face, you're not scared at all." Wang Xichen comforted his wife, looked at his daughter, and said slowly: "This is the first time I've seen a father praise and love a child like this. If Yi'er were a boy, he would definitely be a hundred times better than me as a father..."

Yang Jinniang lowered her head to wipe away her tears, and said in a low voice: "It's my stomach that's not doing well..."

"Jinniang, is that what I meant?" Wang Xichen smiled and sighed, wiping his wife's tears: "Besides, you and I will have children again in the end..."

He embraced his wife and said, "It's not a bad thing that Yi'er is smart and studious. In the future, you can let her discipline and teach my younger brother..."

Yang Jinniang's face turned slightly red, but she suddenly felt inexplicably relieved, as if she had finally found a "proper and respectable" use for her daughter's love of learning.

Hearing the couple whispering in private, Orange felt that it was a bit presumptuous, so he turned over, faced inward, stretched his legs over his head, hugged his legs with his hands, buried his head, curled up like a snail shell, and continued to sleep.

The turmoil caused by Zhenyi's study of calendar calculation subsided during this Jingzhe solar term.

It is advisable to avoid cold and keep warm during the Jingzhe period. Besides reading, the old man occasionally takes the children to bask in the sun by the Defeng Pavilion, and sometimes they practice Tai Chi. Orange also learns a few moves and plans to go back and find a civet cat to practice with them.

On this day, Zhenyi ate too much and had difficulty digesting it, and had some abdominal pain. Wang Xichen prescribed a prescription for her daughter to boil some medicine, and also boiled some white radish, red dates, and hawthorns to make water for her to drink.

The water tasted sweet, so Zhenyi scooped a few spoonfuls into the small wooden bowl on the small table.

Orange jumped up lightly, took two licks, liked it very much, and started drinking it seriously.

Wang Xichen likes to cook soup instead of tea. He cooks different things in different seasons and even in different solar terms. Zhenyi sits in the chair obediently and asks, "Father, why do people eat different things in different solar terms?"

"You often read the Seventy-two Phenological Notes, and you should know the way the universe and all things change with the seasons. Little do you know that humans are one of the creatures, and are naturally subject to this change. The hair, skin, bones, and meridians of humans also change with the solar terms, but it is not as obvious as the growth and decline of plants, so it is not easy to detect."

Wang Xichen is always very interested in talking about this: "Adapting diet and daily routine to the changes of the weather is the way to stay healthy."

Juzi feels that if Xichen were alive in modern times, he might be able to become a health blogger.

The last time Orange had diarrhea, in the Qing Dynasty where there was no pet medical care, Orange was about to die, but unexpectedly he was saved by two prescriptions from Wang Xichen.

At that time, Orange meowed and suggested - listen to the cat, change your career to become a doctor, don't take the imperial examination, there is no future.

After drinking the water boiled with radish, Orange shook his paws, sat upright on the small table, and licked his fur.

Zhenyi curiously asked Juzi why he shook his paws every time after drinking water, even though his paws were clearly not wet at all.

Orange meowed and continued to wash himself. He had no answer to this question. He just wanted to shake his head. How could a cat have a reason for everything it did? If it did, it wouldn't be a cat.

But people mostly have reasons for what they do. Orange vaguely felt that the atmosphere at home seemed to have changed recently, but he didn't know why.

Xirui and Xichen were always frowning and whispering. There were always people in long gowns coming to their house. When they bowed and said goodbye to the old man, they would often shake their heads and sigh.

However, the old man, who always had a smile like a chrysanthemum, was the same as always. After seeing off the guests that day, he returned to the study, smiled and told the children that he would take them to see the dragon in the evening.

Orange, who was lying openly on the desk, shrugged off the remark.

Wang Zhefu added that it was not a paper dragon, but a dragon in the sky.

The orange's eyes widened and it looked up. Where is it? Let's take it to see it now!

　The fourth solar term is about to begin~I will definitely update next week!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)