The Grand Secretary's Child-Raising Diary

Yang Jinshu was the only student left in the entire Ding class to sit and listen to the lesson. For the next half hour, Master Pei took his double standards to the extreme.

If he asked a question that Yang Jinshu couldn't answer, Master Pei would always stroke his chin and say very tolerantly, "You are still young and your knowledge of this kind of subject is not extensive, so there's no need to be impatient."

But if the small row of young men standing there couldn't answer, Master Pei would snort coldly, "Hmph, these children are beyond redemption!"

Lu Youning rolled her eyes inwardly and silently complained, "Isn't this just like the teacher I had in my previous life?"

When the bell rang, Lu Youning quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Based on past experience, Teacher Pei would never extend the class.

But today things were unusual. Even though the bell rang, Master Pei seemed not to hear it and insisted on finishing the remaining half of the article. If anyone dared to peek out and not pay attention in class, they would be warned with a ruler.

Finally, when Master Pei started collecting the books, Lu Youning and Xiao Shubai and the others breathed a sigh of relief once again. They all lowered their heads in tacit agreement, afraid that Master Pei would find fault with them again, causing the class to be postponed indefinitely.

"get out of class dismissed." These words, spoken by Master Pei, were like heavenly music.

Everyone said in unison, "Master, you have worked hard. We will take our leave now."

Xiao Shubai nudged Lu Youning, but before he could speak, Master Pei, who was at the head of the table, spoke again: "Lu Youning, come forward and let the master see how your calligraphy is progressing."

Lu Youning's heart skipped a beat. She couldn't understand what had happened after not seeing him for a while. Master Pei didn't seem like Master Pei at all.

Xiao Shubai turned and left as soon as Master Pei called out to Lu Youning, leaving Lu Youning alone, carrying her book bag, to slowly approach Master Pei.

Under Master Pei's prompting gaze, seeing that whether he sticks his neck out or not, he will also be stabbed, Lu Youning simply and quickly spread out his brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.

In fact, he had been practicing calligraphy these days, and Lu Shiyan had personally taught him how to hold the brush and copy model texts. His calligraphy had improved, and he believed that compared to his initial scrawled characters, his progress was already enormous.

However, by Master Pei's standards, it is probably still far from satisfactory.

He had already prepared himself to be scolded by Master Pei, or even to be slapped on the hand, but to his surprise, Master Pei's tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed after he simply wrote a few large characters.

After he finished writing, Master Pei commented, "You've made some progress. You must not be lazy and slack off in the future. You must be diligent in both studying literature and practicing calligraphy."

What could Lu Youning say? He stood obediently, cupped his hands in a respectful bow, and said, "This disciple will respectfully follow the Master's teachings."

As the sun rose high in the sky, Master Pei finally took pity on him, got up, rolled up his books, and strode out of the school.

Lu Youning had just exhaled when Xiao Shubai rushed in from outside, his innocent face betraying his hurtful words: "A-Ning, your handwriting is so ugly, did Teacher Pei hit you again?"

Lu Youning: There's no need to make a big fuss about this.

"No, Master Pei said my handwriting has improved a lot and that I might have the potential to become a master calligrapher in the future."

Xiao Shubai, a simple-minded boy, saw him speaking so seriously and immediately craned his neck to look at the large characters still spread out on Lu Youning's desk. Then, with a conflicted expression, he said:

"Does Master Pei have an eye ailment?"

Lu Youning chuckled twice, reached out and pinched the chubby boy's face, threatening, "Don't you dare tell the truth in a roundabout way."

Xiao Shubai offered her chubby little face to Lu Youning again, muttering, "A-Ning, the imperial kitchen made cherry pie with pickled cherries, let's go back and eat it."

Lu Youning was also a little hungry. Upon hearing this, she quickly packed up her book bag and went back to the schoolhouse in the backyard.

As the two young masters entered, Xiao Linzi and Gu An, the eunuch who served Xiao Shubai, hurriedly brought up warm water to help them wash up.

Seeing the red marks on the palms of the two children from the ruler, Xiao Linzi looked distressed and applied medicine again. If Lu Youning hadn't insisted, their hands would have been wrapped up like rice dumplings.

After tidying up, I sat comfortably at the table. Gu An had already laid out a table full of pastries that he had brought back from the imperial kitchen, and had also prepared hawthorn honey water to aid digestion.

But after only a few bites of the pastry, a commotion could be faintly heard outside the school. Gu An lifted the curtain to take a look, then came back and said in a low voice, "It seems that the Eighth Prince is scolding Young Master Yang again."

Xiao Shubai swallowed the pastry in his mouth before asking, "Is Meng Yue not here?"

Gu An: "Young Master Meng is a bit older, and Class C has three lessons a day. He hasn't returned yet at this hour."

Xiao Shubai puffed out her cheeks: "Xiao Shizhen is so wicked. It's really unlucky to be his study companion."

Although Lu Youning only learned today that the Eighth Prince's study companions had been changed, and he had never met this young master Yang before, he had already gleaned some information from the conversation between Xiao Shubai and Gu An. He asked, "Is the Eighth Prince taking advantage of Meng Yue's absence to bully people?"

Gu An and Xiao Linzi couldn't discuss the prince's affairs, but Xiao Shubai didn't care about that. He sighed like a little adult, "Meng Yue thinks he can protect that Young Master Yang from being bullied, but this is the palace. You can't solve problems with fists alone."

Yes, this is the palace. The Eighth Prince's mother is the favored Consort Zhao. If she wanted to deal with a study companion, she would definitely have plenty of ways. No matter how capable Meng Yue is, he can't always be by Yang Jinshu's side.

At this point, Xiao Linzi couldn't help but interject, "This servant noticed yesterday that Young Master Yang's meals hadn't been served."

Lu Youning was just about to say that life at Chongwen Hall seemed pretty good, but now even the imported cherry blossoms tasted bland. He only knew that unfavored concubines in the palace would have their meals reduced, but he didn't know that such things would happen to the princes' study companions.

The evil feudal imperial power sent perfectly good children into the palace to suffer all kinds of grievances, not even being given enough to eat.

Because of what happened in the dormitory, Lu Youning's good mood from the morning was completely ruined. When she woke up from her afternoon nap, the thought that she would be staying at Chongwen Hall tonight and could only go home once every ten days made her feel listless and unable to muster any energy.

He laid out his brush, ink, paper, and inkstone to do his homework. As he picked up the brush, he recalled the scene of Lu Shiyan holding him in his arms and teaching him to write stroke by stroke. He blinked and forced back his tears.

Seeing that Lu Youning was in a bad mood, Xiao Linzi asked cautiously, "Young Master, what's wrong?"

For someone like Lu Youning, who had experienced similar feelings, homesickness and longing for his father were things he was ashamed to talk about. He whispered, "It's nothing, I just haven't had enough sleep."

This explanation left Xiaolinzi even more confused.

It wasn't the first time he had served Lu Youning, and he considered himself to know Lu Youning's personality fairly well. This person wasn't the type to be unhappy about something as trivial as not getting enough sleep.

As night fell, Lu Youning's mood worsened. He stopped staying in the dormitory and went outside, squatting anxiously at the door like a puppy waiting to be taken home.