During lunch, Yu Shu was a little absent-minded and didn't talk as much as usual. Yu Xiaoxiu noticed and couldn't help but say,
"If you're tired, don't do any work in the afternoon."
Yu Shu shook her head. It wasn't because she was tired, but because the rat she caught in the morning ran away. She couldn't tell Yu Xiaoxiu that it was a rat that stole his money. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn't have believed it.
"Why don't I do it for you? You tell me what work to do." Yu Xiaoxiu suggested. He was very concerned about the injury on Yu Shu's arm. At noon, he finished the rest of Yu Shu's work and the first thing he did when he came back was to check her injury and apply medicine on her wound.
"It's okay. I wanted to talk to the shopkeeper about buying paper yesterday, but I went to Vientiane Street with him and didn't get it. Today, I have to bring some paper and ink back." Yu Shu picked up some food for Yu Xiaoxiu with her chopsticks to stop him from talking. She changed the topic.
"By the way, why are there so many compasses in Jing Shang Hall? I think the Headmaster only needs one."
"I can tell that you never listen in class." Yu Xiaoxiu stared at her, but still explained, "The Ji family is a special sect. Their divination mainly depends on the arrangement of the compasses. There are three hundred and sixty days in a year, and there are twelve hours in a day. There are four hours in a day, and one hexagram compasses every two hours, which means there are four thousand three hundred and twenty compasses. There are more than a thousand hexagram compasses in Jing Shang Hall, and all of them are useful. Do you think they're just decorations?"
"So troublesome."
"It's not easy to make mistakes this way. Although the flexible compasses are convenient, the slightest mistake will cause a mess."
"Flexible compasses? What's a flexible compasses? " After coming back from Wan Xiang Street yesterday and witnessing the Yi School raking in money every day, Yu Shu's interest in Yi School had increased.
"It's a hexagram compasses that can be rotated. There are twenty-four solar terms in a year, and each period is fifteen days. Every fifteen days is one yuan, and each period is divided into upper, middle, and lower yuan. Each yuan can be represented by a flexible compass, divided by the nine escapes of Yin and Yang. Eighteen flexible compasses can represent the pattern of the whole year."
Yu Xiaoxiu's explanation was detailed enough, but Yu Shu lacked basic knowledge. She could barely understand the gist of it. Instead, she thought of something else and asked,
"By the way, the Headmaster assigns us to test the rain every day. Do we need a compass? We don't have one at home. How do you calculate it?"
"The method of arranging the compasses is taught in the book. Without a ready-made compass, we just need to draw it. It's more troublesome and easy to make mistakes, that's all."
Yu Xiaoxiu said it lightly, but Yu Shu knew it was not that easy. After all, she had been wiping the plates for a whole morning. She knew it was one thousand and eight sets of hexagram compasses. The situation was ever-changing, not one thousand and eight numbers. It was not easy to do it. To be honest, the lessons in Sanjue Study House were quite rigid. Yu Xiaoxiu must have put in a lot of effort to learn to draw the compasses and calculate by himself.
"Xiaoxiu, you're so smart." Yu Shu praised him sincerely. Once again, she felt that this new little brother was not bad. He was hard-working and kind-hearted. It was rare that he was a diligent and studious child.
Unexpectedly praised by her, Yu Xiaoxiu squeezed the chopsticks in his hand uncomfortably. He lowered his head and urged,
"Hurry up and eat. The dishes are getting cold."
"Oh." Yu Shu pretended not to see his blushing face. She picked up the bowl and slowly ate the rice. Lunch was stir-fried vegetables and a small plate of pickled melon. It was so vegetarian that not even a speck of oil could be seen.
It was also Yu Shu's fault. After eating mutton for the first time the night before, she became greedy. Eating bland food made her stomach uncomfortable. She wanted to make something more fragrant, but she didn't have much money in her pocket. As she ate, her mind started to wander.
Last night, she had gone to Old Matriarch Ji's place to receive a beating. When she passed by the courtyard's small garden, she had seen a nest of carps in the pond under the veranda. It was spring, the time for them to spawn. They were big and fat, and the thought of them made her salivate.
She loved eating fish the most.
After lunch, Yu Shu went to find Aunt Liu.
"Aunt Liu, do you have shrimps in the main kitchen?"
"Yes, what's wrong?"
"Can you make me some shrimps when you come back tonight?" Yu Shu gestured with her fingers. "Just a little will do."
Aunt Liu thought she was greedy at first. But when she heard that she wanted shrimps, she thought it was not the case. She asked,
"What do you want that for?"
It was not convenient for Yu Shu to explain to her. In spring, carps liked to eat fish, especially shrimps. She fooled her, "I need it. Just tell me if it's okay."
"Okay."
"Aunt Liu is so nice." Yu Shu grinned and pretended to be a good girl. She asked her for a thick needle for sewing mattresses.
Returning to his room, he rummaged through the small box he had seized the day before. After rummaging around for a while, he picked out a handful of long, thin red threads, and tied them together one by one. He inserted the needles into the wooden seam of the bed, twisted the end of the needle, and tied the red thread securely to one end. After pulling hard several times to test his strength, he was satisfied with the thread, and tucked it under the mattress at the end of the bed.
Yu Xiaoxiu was lying on the bed reading a book. Seeing her fiddling, he said, "You have to go out to work later. Stop playing and go to sleep."
"Okay, I'm going to sleep now." Yu Shu closed the box and kicked it to the end of the bed. She put her feet on it, squinted her eyes, and stopped fiddling.
Yu Xiaoxiu looked at her for a while. Seeing that she was not fiddling anymore, he closed the book, smoothed the corners, and pressed it against the head of the bed. He pulled up half of the curtain and closed his eyes to dream.
***
After a short nap, when Yu Shu arrived at Mianzhai, she was a quarter and a quarter later than usual. There were two customers in the shop who were picking out paper. Cao Zixin was accompanying them. When he saw Yu Shu enter the door, he only froze for a moment. He didn't even greet her, then turned his head and continued to introduce his new jade paper to the customers.
Yu Shu didn't feel anything was wrong at first. Seeing that he was busy, she didn't say anything. She walked behind the counter with familiarity, took out the account book, pulled out the abacus, and opened the account book. She found the most recent account and looked at it for a while.
She didn't come this morning, but the shop's business was good. They made about one tael of silver, which was better than two days ago.
Yu Shu remembered that Cao Zixin went to Wanxiang Street to invite a Fengshui master yesterday. She thought that he should have come to take a look in the morning.
She looked around the shop with the account book in her hand. On the counter at the entrance, there was a jade beast that she couldn't name. It was palm-sized, green with a hint of yellow, and had a square base. It was squatting obediently on top of the counter. The Evergreen at the entrance had also been moved into the shop and placed under the shelf. It didn't take up much space, but she could still see it when she entered the shop.
While Yu Shu was looking around, Cao Zixin sold two more sets of paper. He sent the customers to the door and returned to the long counter to collect money.
Yu Shu saw him put a few pieces of silver into the money box. She rested her hand on the counter and tilted her head with a smile.
"The person I invited this morning came to take a look, right? He's really fast. Business is good."
Cao Zixin closed the money box and turned to tidy up the shelf, as if he didn't hear her.
Seeing this, Yu Shu was puzzled. She just came here not long ago. Did she offend him?
Yu Shu and Cao Zixin had become familiar with each other these days. She didn't mind his cold face. She put down the account book and followed him to ask,
"Shopkeeper? What's wrong with you? You don't want to talk because your throat is not feeling well? Did you eat something salty at noon? Oh, I know. The Fengshui master you hired must have cheated you. You're not happy because you spent too much money. Hehe. "
As Yu Shu spoke, she was the first to laugh. Ignoring Cao Zixin's darkening expression, she followed behind him and muttered, "You're a good girl.
"I saw you bought a piece of jade. It's not cheap, right? To tell you the truth, when I went back to Wanxiang Street for the first time yesterday, the things there were really expensive. You know the trading house of the Kong family? A broken rope there costs a dime. At that time, I thought that if I worked here for a month, I could only buy three ropes. It's not even long enough to hang myself. It's such a scam, don't you think? "
Cao Zixin sighed and put the inkstone on the shelf. He turned around and said with a straight face,
"Where did you go yesterday afternoon?"
"Ah?" Hearing his question, Yu Shu couldn't help but feel strange. She said, "Didn't I go to Wanxiang Street with you? Then we got separated. I wandered around the street and went back by myself."
The more Cao Zixin heard, the angrier he became. 'This brat, I've been looking for him for the whole afternoon yesterday, but he just went back and doesn't even know the way. It's a shame that I didn't lose him.'
Yesterday, the two of them met a swindler who sold fake paintings under the memorial arch of Wanxiang Street. Yu Shu extorted a box of fake paintings from him. Because of this, Cao Zixin and Yu Shu quarreled. In a moment of anger, he turned around and left. He didn't go far when he found that Yu Shu didn't follow him. He quickly went back to look for her, but she was gone.
Recently, Yiyang City wasn't peaceful. There were often teenagers who disappeared for no reason. Some rumors spread from the yamen. Cao Zixin heard about it. He was afraid that Yu Shu had been harmed. Last night, he couldn't find her and didn't know where Yu Shu's home was. So he went to the yamen first. Later, he slept in the shop for a night and didn't dare to go back home.
He thought that if Yu Shu got lost and didn't go back home, her family would come looking for her, so he could know that she was safe. He slept like this until dawn. No one came looking for her. Then he was relieved and slept for a while.
"Shopkeeper, are you angry that I didn't wait for you and went back first?" Yu Shu finally saw some clues. "Then you misunderstood. Yesterday, I was looking for you on the street, but the street was too big. I couldn't find you for a long time, so I went back."
Listening to her eloquent words, Cao Zixin said in a deep voice,
"Since you don't know the way, why did you run around? Why didn't you stay where you were and wait for me? Recently, there are often boys who get lost in Yiyang City. Didn't you hear Shopkeeper Wu say the day before yesterday? If you were kidnapped by bad guys, didn't you think about what would happen to you? "
Being reprimanded by him, Yu Shu was stunned. After a while, she came back to her senses and looked at him carefully. It wasn't difficult to find that this face, which was always smiling and elegant, was now full of depression. There was no elegance to be seen, but for some reason, it was much more pleasing to the eye than usual.
Yu Shu was indeed narrow-minded, but the more narrow-minded a person was, the easier it was for them to feel that others were good to them.
"Shopkeeper, are you worried about me?"
Cao Zixin was dumbfounded by her sudden question. He wanted to say yes, but he was still angry. He wanted to say no, but he was indeed worried all night. He didn't know how to answer when Yu Shu patted his shoulder a few times.
"Shopkeeper, you're really a good person."
Before Cao Zixin could understand the strange meaning of this praise, he heard Yu Shu say seriously,
"Don't worry. The next time we go on the street, I definitely won't wander around. If I get lost, I'll stand where I am and wait for you to find me. Don't be angry."
Shopkeeper Cao was, after all, an adult and could not bicker with a child. Hearing her words, although Cao Zixin vaguely felt that he had forgotten something to tell her, he still softened his expression and said, "Don't worry.
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