Chapter Fifty-two Fleeting Five Years

  It's been five years, and it's already the third month of spring in the sixth year of Chengqing. In three more months, Zhao Xuan will be seven years old. The little child who used to stumble on the road is now over four feet tall, taller than girls of the same age, with features that are becoming increasingly delicate and refined, and it can already be seen that she is a beautiful girl.

  As people grow up, they can't be compared to when they were young. She has also studied for several years now and learned a lot of skills such as needlework, household management, etiquette, etc. When she goes out, she is a young lady who is faultless, but at home, she sometimes reveals her true nature because she doesn't have to be so restrained. Zhang loves his granddaughter dearly and won't restrict her unless Zhao Xiu does something really wrong. In her heart, Zhao Xiu often feels grateful that having an open-minded elder in the family is truly a blessing.

  She finished today's 500-word calligraphy practice, rubbed her sore wrists, glanced at the thick stack of paintings beside her, hesitated for a moment, and decided it was better to rest first. After all, learning should be balanced with rest.

  The Zhang family was very strict in raising their grandchildren, and when the grandson grew up, he had to be sent away to school. The granddaughter, on the other hand, stayed with her every day. She was originally from a scholarly family, but due to poverty at home during her childhood, she had many regrets about not being able to study more. After marrying into the Zhao family and having better conditions, she made an effort to learn as much as possible. Although Old Duke Zhao was old and a military man, he truly loved and respected his young wife, and would buy or obtain anything she wanted within his means, whether it be famous paintings, calligraphy, or ancient books. He spent many years fighting wars abroad, but Zhangshi endured the difficult years calmly with her hobbies, never causing him trouble, which earned her even more respect from him.

  Zhang now has the time, conditions and academic level. Seeing that her granddaughter has a natural talent in this area, she is overjoyed and spared no effort to teach her.

  Zhao Xuan had indeed regretted it in her heart. At first, she showed off too much and didn't know how to hold back. As an adult who crossed over from modern times, she had also taken interest classes as a child and learned calligraphy and painting. Her level wasn't very high, but if she were to show off as a "beginner", it would naturally astonish people. Unexpectedly, Zhang's family misunderstood and thought she really had extraordinary talent, so they taught her with even more dedication. Zhao Xuan was secretly frustrated, but seeing her grandmother's high expectations, she didn't want to disappoint her either. Moreover, Zhao Xuan herself was indeed very interested in calligraphy and painting, so she studied even harder, and after a few years, the results were remarkable.

  Mr. Zhang was very satisfied with his granddaughter's learning results. He was even more surprised that she had some unusual skills in painting, and her techniques were different from others, showing signs of being unique. So he paid more attention to this aspect. Zhao Xiu couldn't explain that she actually applied the Western watercolor painting methods and light and shadow processing techniques she learned before to Chinese painting, which was not surprising in modern times. She had no choice but to continue working hard with a stiff upper lip. The result of this effort was that her daily practice volume doubled.

  Every day, she practices calligraphy for 500 characters and paints ten pictures. This is the most basic task, and as her level improves, she will have to add more. Zhao Xuan also has to study poetry, history, and needlework. The burden of learning is so heavy that it surpasses that of a high school student. Starting from this year, she also has to listen in on her grandmother's household management, and in two years, she will have to put it into practice herself. Little Zhao Xuan lives a disciplined but bitter life every day.

  Today's calligraphy task is completed, and I also recited the book this morning. Zhao Xuan calculated the remaining tasks, looked at the time and felt that today she could relax a bit, so she left her desk and went out to exercise.

  Mrs. Zhang was in the main room listening to Old Mother Lu's report on today's meat and vegetable purchases, how many catties of pork were bought for how much money, how many catties of greens were bought for how much money, what the current prices of rice and flour were at the market, and what the peasants who had transported their produce to sell in town said about the growth of grain and cotton in the countryside. Zhao Xiu listened for a while, feeling that it was all pretty much the same as yesterday, and quietly slipped out of the courtyard gate.

  Fortunately, she has grown up a bit now, and her brother has moved out of the yard. She has changed to live in the wing room, which is much more convenient for sneaking out. Otherwise, if she still lived in the room next to the main house, every move would be under her grandmother's eyes, and it would not be so free at all.

  Zhao Wei now lives in the courtyard next door, just a few steps away, but he is not at home every day to attend private school. Zhao Xuan came over not to find him, but to borrow a place to practice boxing. She learned three sets of boxing from Prince Gao Zhen and Lu Yunpeng in Guangping years ago, and she would take out three or four days in ten days to practice several times. On the one hand, it was to strengthen her body, on the other hand, it was also to increase her self-defense ability. Because she had been practicing boxing for a long time and often ran around the house, she had a lot of exercise, so she grew taller than girls of the same age, and her physical condition was always good, and she had hardly been ill in the past five years. Zhang Shi originally didn't like her to learn martial arts, but seeing her health improve, she no longer stopped her, just not allowing her to practice in front of people, and every time she saw her practicing, she would say a few words. So Zhao Xuan took advantage of Zhang Shi being busy and ran to her brother's courtyard to practice.

  Her brother Zhao Wei, who has just turned eleven years old, is already a handsome young man. He moved out of his grandmother's house three years ago and lives in a small courtyard house next door.

  When Zhang first returned to the Zhao family's old mansion in Fengxian, she was forced to move into the rear courtyard of the main house because Zhao Kuang had arrived earlier and occupied the main house. Although Zhao Kuang was not present when Zhang moved in, she was annoyed by his belongings and chose to live in the rear courtyard instead. This arrangement was actually intended for senior members of the household, so even without the upheaval, Zhang, as the widow of the old Duke, should have lived there anyway. Later, after Zhao Kuang fell off his horse and was injured, he was sent to the east wing by his servant Gao Cheng to avoid Zhang's wrath, leaving the main house empty. Zhang then used it as a place to receive guests. This arrangement continued until Zhao Kuang and Jiang were banished and the Zhao family lost their title, after which no one returned.

  Zhang Shi considered herself a widow and no matter who took over as the head of the household, she did not intend to move back into the main house as the mistress again, although at present she was indeed the undisputed mistress of the second branch of the Zhao family.

  The courtyard behind the main house is quite large, and the materials used for the buildings are of high quality. When the county magistrate ordered its construction, he had already planned to bring his wife back here to retire after a few years. Although this plan was never realized, no one dared to skimp on materials when building the house. Moreover, many ingenious mechanisms passed down by the great ancestor emperor were used in its construction, making it very comfortable to live in despite its ordinary appearance. If Zhao Wei hadn't grown older and Zhang Shi hadn't intentionally cultivated his independence, not wanting him to lose his masculinity from being raised by women for too long, he would have strongly supported him living alone in a separate courtyard. He really didn't mind staying in this courtyard for a few more years.

  However, Zhang also couldn't bear to have his grandson too far away. Moreover, the old house had a large area of land, with three roads in front and five rows of houses behind, as well as several small courtyards attached to it. Outsiders who didn't know the way might easily get lost while strolling around. Nowadays, only three people lived here - the grandfather, grandson, and granddaughter - and there were not many male and female servants. Many of the courtyards were locked up, and few people passed by nearby, so security was a concern that couldn't be ignored. Therefore, he arranged for Zhao Wei to live in the small courtyard next door, which made it convenient for him to come and go, and there wouldn't be too much change in his daily life, allowing Zhao Wei to adapt well.

  The yard is a bit smaller, with three rooms in the main house and one room on each side of the wing, all of which are flat houses. After planting several old trees, even the sky well is almost half the size of Zhang's yard. Zhao Wei has no problem living here, and practicing fist techniques is barely enough space, but wanting to practice riding and shooting is too narrow. Lu Yunpeng officially taught him horseback riding, archery, and eighteen kinds of weapons from last year, so Zhang let people dismantle the front yard on the east road and build a large training ground for their use. Zhao Wei usually practices martial arts outside this yard, but there are still some wooden men he used to practice with in the corner of the yard.

  Zhao Xun entered the courtyard, greeted the two old women in charge of sweeping and dusting, made an excuse to send them away, and began practicing her boxing. Within a minute, she had gone through two sets of boxing moves, broke out in a sweat, and suddenly felt refreshed all over. Seeing the two old women returning, she went back to her grandmother's courtyard, planning to continue practicing painting.

  Before returning to her room, Mrs. Zhang saw her walking in the courtyard and called her into the main house: "This year's spring rain in Shanghai is more than usual, although it's a good thing, but I'm afraid it might become a flood disaster. I've already instructed people to dig ponds and open canals around our family's land, just in case. Let Uncle Lu take care of this matter, the only thing is that we need to recalculate the expenses. The accountant has something to do and can't spare the time, and Aunt Lu isn't very good at arithmetic, so you go help her calculate the account."

  Zhaoyao had done this before, so she busily agreed and sat down beside her, taking the account book from Lu Mama's hands. She listened as Lu Mama reported each item one by one, then calculated the total amount of money and grain needed. She took a piece of paper and rewrote it neatly, even though there were no columns drawn, everything was clear at a glance.

  "Good heavens! Our eldest sister is truly clever! Who in the surrounding villages doesn't know that our eldest sister is a famous child prodigy? At such a young age, her writing and painting are better than anyone else's, the flowers she weaves look just like real ones, and she can do arithmetic calculations quickly and accurately - she's simply a fairy from the heavenly kingdom of Queen Mother Wang descended to earth!"

  Zhao Xuan almost every day had to listen to her boast about herself, and her face was already thick-skinned. She lightly coughed and handed the account to Lu Ma: "You take a look at it with Grandma, is there anything wrong or missing?"

  "How could there be a mistake? Eldest sister has never made a mistake!" Nevertheless, Lu Ma handed the paper over to Zhang Shi for her to check. After scanning it briefly, she didn't find any errors and handed it back: "According to this number, have the account room allocate the silver, and do it as soon as possible."

  Lu's mother responded and stepped down. Zhao Xuan was about to say something to her grandmother, then returned to her room to continue practicing. Suddenly, she saw her little brother Zhao Wei rush in from outside, his face looking very bad: "Grandmother, something big has happened! My son heard someone at school say that the Crown Prince led the army out of the city and blocked the Qing people's attack, but he was hit by a Qing arrow and is badly injured!"