Misty Rain of the Old Times

Chapter 52 Don’t talk nonsense everywhere...

After returning safely to the Gao family mansion, the servants and guards dispersed and reported their tasks.

The word "交撒" here doesn't mean to deal with it, but to report, similar to signing in. It's still early, and other tasks will be arranged later. The Gao family doesn't want to keep a bunch of idle people...

After entering the mansion and returning to the courtyard, Gao Jingming's joy was still evident. However, he guessed that the teacher's authority was like a mountain pressing down on his small heart, so he collected himself and looked at Chen Xuan weakly, saying, "Xuan, after the joy, you have to start doing your homework. Otherwise, you will be punished if you don't finish your homework when the teacher checks it in class the day after tomorrow morning."

"Okay, young master, I'll come after I put my things away," Chen Xuan nodded. Children are afraid of having their homework checked.

"Well, hurry up, we'll try to finish it sooner."

The teacher won't check my homework. You just want to find someone to suffer with you, right?

Chen Xuan felt a dull pain in his arm when he thought about writing with his wrist suspended for a long time. The pain from yesterday hadn't even healed yet...

However, Chen Xuan would not avoid this matter. Instead, he would be happy to see it happen. He also wanted to learn to read as soon as possible so that he could quickly absorb useful information from books and ask about the inconveniences of the "age" issue.

Arriving at his room, Chen Xuan quickly put the gifts and income he had received, as well as the pocket money that Gao Jingming had not used up on this trip, into the closet.

"This guy is unreliable. He said he would ask Zhou Lin about the details of the third shift's officers, but he never mentioned it. He must have forgotten."

Chen Xuan was secretly complaining in his heart. When he came to the study, Gao Jingming was already waiting at the door. Well, the key was with Chen Xuan. Didn't he have a spare one? So they had to be inseparable, right?

The two men opened the door and walked in. Although they had experience before, Chen Xuan still specially asked Xiao Ye to come and give him some advice as he was not familiar with some details.

There was no need to light a lamp in broad daylight. They just lit a stick of refreshing incense, spread out paper and ground ink, and then both of them gradually got into the mood.

It was still an exercise in breaking down ten characters. In Gao Jingming's words, the homework for taking home this time would be completed. There were only twenty characters in total, which was not a lot, but it was not easy to complete, especially for beginners like Chen Xuan.

But if this continues, it will take me forever to master the basic commonly used characters, not to mention rare characters and even some professional terms...

"No, I have to find a way to speed up my learning progress," Chen Xuan thought to himself while practicing calligraphy with Gao Jingming.

Although he could follow Gao Jingming's steps, it would be a waste of time for Chen Xuan to do it a little bit at a time every day, like squeezing toothpaste.

They took two breaks in the middle, and it took them almost two hours to finish the ten characters. There was no other way. They were not used to writing with a brush, and writing with a suspended wrist was really tiring. Afterwards, both of their arms were sore. Gao Jingming had a maid to massage them, but Chen Xuan could only rub them himself.

"Ah Xuan, pack up. I'll go and keep Mom company. I have to leave for school tomorrow morning and won't see her for ten days. She'll be happier if I can keep her company longer."

After saying that, Gao Jingming left. He would probably have dinner at Mrs. Gao's place, and maybe even sleep there.

After tidying up the study, Chen Xuan remembered what Gao Jingming had said in the morning, that he would make up for what he had missed, so he took out his past manuscripts and brought them back to his residence to work overtime to make progress.

He is not a really playful kid, so Chen Xuan can still distinguish between what is important and what is not.

Looking at Gao Jingming's previous manuscripts of character analysis exercises, there was no problem practicing by comparing them, but what troubled Chen Xuan was that he didn't recognize these characters at all, let alone what they meant. What was the point of just being able to write them?

Fortunately, this problem was easy to solve. Although Gao Jingming went to Mrs. Gao's place, Xiao Ye and Xiao Cai did not go with him, so they were free. So Chen Xuan asked them to help solve the problem. Naturally, they were happy to do so and just treated it as a way to pass the time.

They were quite active in teaching Chen Xuan the pronunciation and meaning. It was probably because her interest in teaching was aroused. Besides, as a girl, she didn't have many opportunities to teach others.

During this time, Chen Xuan would say a few nice words from time to time, which didn't cost any money, such as "the two female teachers taught really well" and so on. This made the two little girls feel embarrassed and even said they were not worthy of the honor, but they taught more actively.

Originally, they had suggested teaching Chen Xuan only ten or so characters today, considering the workload was double what Gao Jingming had learned. However, Chen Xuan insisted they teach Gao Jingming all the characters he had previously learned. He also explained that it wasn't that he was being overly ambitious, but rather that these were his own shortcomings. They could practice calligraphy slowly, but they had to learn it quickly. They should teach it once today to get a solid impression, and after repeated practice, they would quickly recognize it.

His words were well-reasoned, and Xiao Ye and Xiao Cai were happy to help. Instead, they praised Chen Xuan for his diligence and eagerness to learn.

There were more than 200 characters, and it took quite a while just to teach them the pronunciation and meaning. It was almost dark after two rounds of teaching, and the two little girls were a little thirsty, but they were still very interested.

Chen Xuan used the excuse that he had to practice calligraphy and thanked his two sisters profusely, saying that he would not bother them anymore. So the two sisters left with some reluctance, and told Chen Xuan not to practice calligraphy too late, to rest early, and to pack some clothes, as he had to set off for school early the next morning.

Originally, Chen Xuan needed to prepare various matters for Gao Jingming to go to school in advance, but considering that he was not familiar with it yet, Xiao Ye and Xiao Cai took the initiative to do it for him, and would later remind him of these trivial matters so that he could get familiar with it.

After they left, Chen Xuan hurriedly lit the lamp and closed the door, like a thief.

When he was alone, he came to the table again, quickly picked up his pen, and while he still had some memory of the words Xiaoye and Xiaocai had taught him, he pulled out a piece of paper and marked the pinyin...

Thanks to our predecessors, Pinyin can now mark almost any pronunciation!

This is the method Chen Xuan has currently thought of to master the characters as quickly as possible, and it can be considered his unique learning technique.

The reason for doing this secretly is that it would be difficult to explain if others saw it.

He also didn't know whether there was a quick learning aid method similar to phonetic symbols for this language. In any case, he had never heard Gao Jingming mention it when they were practicing calligraphy together.

Unfortunately, Chen Xuan's memory was limited. After a lot of hard work, he could only remember the pronunciation of thirty or forty words and mark them in pinyin to avoid confusion. He had to give up for the time being.

"Reading and learning to read are things that are gradual and coherent. Xiaoye and the others taught me once before, and although I only remembered thirty or forty characters, I had some impression of them. Next time, I will definitely remember more. In this way, it won't take more than a few times for me to mark the pinyin of everything Gao Jingming has learned before and master it as soon as possible. The ones he hasn't learned yet can also be done the same way. I just need to be cautious and not make things worse. Forget it, take your time and get the current ones done first."

After summing up his thoughts in his mind, Chen Xuan blew the ink on the marked pinyin dry and folded it to keep it close to his body. Then he felt hungry, so he asked someone to bring him some food.

Qingdou was once again bringing Chen Xuan food, and he also brought a piece of gossip. He whispered to Chen Xuan that Young Master Ning had been punished by the Fourth Madam today, and it seemed quite serious. The details were unclear, but the rumor was that Young Master Ning had said something he shouldn't have said. Anyway, not only was Young Master Ning punished by the Fourth Madam, but he was also taken to Madam Gao to apologize...

She spoke with such detail that it seemed to have spread throughout the Gao family. I wonder how many people were discussing this matter that night.

Chen Xuan listened to her talking while eating, with a curious expression on his face, but he was surprised in his heart. Is it that serious?
Qingdou didn't know the details, but Chen Xuan could roughly guess that Gao Jingning must have gone to his biological mother to ask her to take him over to be her servant, which ended up violating the taboo.

Is it necessary to make such a big deal out of such a small matter? Punishing him and asking him to admit his mistakes and apologize?

Tsk, life is not easy for the wealthy families either. It's like walking on thin ice, especially for the status of concubines and illegitimate children. There are some things that others may not care about, but you must have an attitude!

Otherwise, who knows, one day, because of some trivial matter, he might think of it and find a reason to cause trouble. The consequences would be unpredictable...

After gossiping for a while, Qingdou told Chen Xuan not to tell anyone about it, and then she packed up the dishes and left after he finished eating.

Chen Xuan felt amused and warned me that rumors and gossip were spread by the constant shouting of "Don't talk nonsense".

Gao Jingming went to Mrs. Gao's place and probably wouldn't come back to the courtyard at night. After eating and drinking his fill, Chen Xuan endured the discomfort in his arms and continued to work hard. He practiced a dozen or so characters and stopped when he could hardly lift his arms.

Sleep, sleep, I have to rush to school tomorrow. I don't know why the Gao family wants Gao Jingming to study elsewhere given their financial situation. I'll find a chance to find out...

(End of this chapter)