Courtyard House: Rebirth of a Shopkeeper in 1937

After breakfast, Xingbao sat obediently at the small table in the room, took out paper and pen, and quietly began to recite poems from memory. His older brother led his second brother to their small classroom. Guixiang, however, slept exceptionally soundly, not until lunchtime. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and slowly emerged from the inner room, her eyes still hazy, a faint trace of sleep on her lips. Her voice was soft and sweet, carrying a languid quality: "Mom, I'm hungry!"

Upon hearing Guixiang's voice, her mother immediately stopped eating, turned to look at her with eyes full of heartache, and quickly beckoned, "Oh dear, my silly girl is finally awake! Come here and sit next to your mother, I'll get you some food right away."

Hearing Gui Xiang say she was hungry, her father immediately stood up and said with a smile, "Dad will get you some rice, I promise Gui Xiang will be full." He then turned to get the rice. Seeing this, Xing Bao also jumped off the stool, picked up Gui Xiang's usual teacup, and quickly poured her a cup of warm water—he knew from Gui Xiang's drowsy appearance that she had been woken up by hunger and wasn't fully awake yet, so he couldn't provoke her; if she got grumpy in the morning, she would be much harder to soothe than usual! Xing Bao kept a close eye on Gui Xiang until he saw her drink the tea with the added spiritual spring water, her eyes gradually clearing, and the drowsiness on her face lessening considerably. Only then did he quietly relax his worries.

After drinking the tea, Guixiang fully woke up and regained her usual lively self. She skipped and hopped to the table, took the bowl of rice her father handed her, and began to eat heartily. While eating, she wouldn't forget to look up at Xingbao, who was also eating, and would occasionally mutter, "Xingbao, how many poems have you written? Have you been slacking off? Don't sneak away to rest while I'm sleeping!"

Upon hearing this, Xingbao didn't even look up and vaguely replied, "I've written a lot, it's all piled up on this side of the table. After you finish eating, come and check it yourself, I promise I haven't been slacking off."

As soon as they finished lunch, Gui Xiang immediately put down her chopsticks and transformed back into the "little housekeeper" urging Xing Bao to get to work. She pulled Xing Bao to the desk, constantly nagging, "Hurry up, Xing Bao, keep writing! I'll personally grind the ink for you and supervise you. We can't delay any longer!" With that, she moved a small stool over, sat down beside him, and began grinding the ink earnestly.

Helpless, Xingbao had no choice but to sit down again and continue reciting the poems from memory. Because he had secretly added many poems he remembered from his previous life, even writing at a rapid pace, he still hadn't finished today. He could only secretly think that he would continue tomorrow. It's worth mentioning that while adding the poems, Xingbao almost accidentally wrote down two classic "Qinyuanchun" poems. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and rewrote them as Su Shi's "Qinyuanchun: The Lonely Inn Under the Green Lamp." He knew that although many people in later generations loved those two poems, it wasn't appropriate to write them down now, especially since one of them was written only last year and hadn't yet become widely known. Writing it down rashly would inevitably arouse suspicion. After much thought, Xingbao secretly decided that when his elder brother bound these memorized poems into a book, he would leave a few blank pages at the beginning and end, and add the two poems when the time was right.

Another day passed in the blink of an eye. Xingbao buried himself in his desk, finally finishing reciting all the poems from memory. After finishing his homework, his older brother came over to help him organize the completed pages, putting them together to be bound into a book. Xingbao leaned closer and, seeing the thick stack of dried ink on the table, froze, his heart sinking. He realized something was wrong—this was far more extensive than the teacher's book! His older brother hadn't seen the original book, so he could be easily fooled, but Guixiang had spent a long time flipping through it that noon; she must have remembered its thickness. How could he explain this?

Now that it's already written, there's no use in regretting it. Xingbao composed himself and quickly grabbed his older brother's arm, pretending to be obedient, and said, "Brother, when you bind it, please add two blank pages at the very beginning and some extra pages at the end, so that I have some blank pages to remember it by. If I come across any good poems in the future, I can add them in whenever I want, so that I don't have to go through the trouble of rebinding them later."

The older brother paused, looked up at Xingbao with surprise, and raised an eyebrow: "Xingbao, adding poems at the end is enough, why do you need to leave two pages at the beginning?"

Xingbao scratched the back of his head, his face flushed with embarrassment, but he said earnestly with his little neck stiff: "Big brother, I want to keep the first page! If I meet a talented gentleman or a powerful person in the future, I can ask them to sign their name; I'll copy my favorite poem on the second page and keep it as a souvenir."

Upon hearing this, the eldest brother stared at Xingbao in disbelief for a long time before finally bursting out laughing: "With your crooked handwriting, you think you can keep this booklet as a family heirloom?"

Xingbao immediately puffed out his little chest and retorted confidently, his voice rising a bit: "Why not! This is the first book I've ever seriously and painstakingly memorized and finished. It's so meaningful!"

Although the eldest brother complained, his hands didn't stop. Following Xingbao's instructions, he found some clean white paper, added two pages to the beginning and a few more to the end, and then carefully folded them neatly. The second brother stood aside watching, his brows slightly furrowed, looking thoughtful; Guixiang, on the other hand, was close by, her eyes darting around, her attention no longer on the poetry book in the eldest brother's hands, seemingly pondering something.

A moment later, Guixiang suddenly turned and ran into the inner room, then came out carrying the medical books she had copied. She piled them all in front of her eldest brother, looked up at him with her little face, and said, "Big brother, please add a new page to my books too. I need to keep them to store my things!"

The older brother looked down at the medical books. The handwriting was crooked and uneven, and the pages were not even neat. He couldn't help but twitch his lips. He wanted to say something to her to practice her handwriting, but when he met Gui Xiang's expectant and determined eyes, the words he was about to say changed: "Put them here first. Once you've finished your brother's book, I'll add yours too."

Upon hearing this, Gui Xiang immediately responded happily and stood obediently to the side to wait. Xing Bao, standing to the side, secretly breathed a sigh of relief, his little hand clenching tightly—thankfully, everyone had been misled. As long as Gui Xiang didn't mention in public that the poetry book was thicker than the teacher's, even if she remembered later, she could just find an excuse to brush it off. He could finally relax.

After his elder brother carefully bound the book, he handed the thick book of poems to Xingbao. Xingbao immediately took the book and sat down at the table. He carefully wrote on the cover of the book, stroke by stroke: Recorded by Song Yanxing on the 12th day of the 11th lunar month of the 26th year of the Republic of China.