Yu Xiaoxiu cried enough before he stopped. He grabbed Yu Shu tightly and refused to let go. Yu Shu knew that she had scared him by leaving without saying a word for two days, so she pulled him and tidied his hair. She asked, "What's wrong?
"You haven't had breakfast, right?"
Yu Xiaoxiu shook his head. "I'm not hungry."
Yu Shu looked at Cao Zixin. Cao Zixin got up and said, "I'll go find something to eat."
After sending Cao Zixin away, Yu Shu moved closer to Yu Xiaoxiu and said softly, "Xiaoxiu, I've been driven out by the Ji family. Don't be silly. Go back to school and eat and drink. Don't break their rules again. Don't be driven out like me. Do you understand?"
Yu Xiaoxiu shook his head and said firmly, "I want to be with you. You've been driven out. Why should I stay in their house? I'm not a member of their family."
"Don't be stubborn. Where are you going after leaving the Ji family?" Yu Shu scolded him in a low voice, "I'm living in someone's house now. It's embarrassing enough. Where are you going after leaving? Are you going to be like me and cause trouble for others? "
Yu Xiaoxiu looked hesitant, but he still said stubbornly, "I can go out and work for others to earn money."
Yu Shu sneered, "Do you think it's easy to earn money? Carrying sandbags at the estuary will only earn you ten copper coins a day. You're so skinny that even the sandbags are heavier than you. What can you do outside?"
"I, I …" Yu Shu softened her voice when he was speechless. "Didn't we agree to open a trading shop and live a good life? If you leave the Ji family, where can you learn trading? Just stay in the Ji family and learn more so that we can make plans in the future. Even if we don't live together, it's not like we can't see each other. But if you really leave with me, life will be hard. Xiaoxiu, I don't want to be separated from you, but I have no choice. Do you think I want you to stay in their house?"
As she spoke, her eyes dimmed and she seemed to be on the verge of tears. She covered her face with her hands. Yu Xiaoxiu immediately panicked.
"Sister, don't cry. I'll listen to you."
"Really?"
"Really."
Yu Shu put her hand down and smiled again. She changed her expression like flipping a book. Yu Xiaoxiu knew he was fooled, but he couldn't go back on his words. He could only pout bitterly. After the siblings finished talking, Cao Zixin came in from outside. He was holding a bowl with leftovers from the morning and a bowl of hot egg soup. He said to the siblings embarrassedly,
"I won't do anything else."
The siblings didn't think anything was wrong. A gentleman should stay away from the kitchen. It would be strange if he knew how to cook. Yu Xiaoxiu had been hungry for two nights and was not picky about food at all. Besides, there was egg soup. He thanked Cao Zixin and started eating. After the meal, Yu Shu told Yu Xiaoxiu some things and asked Cao Zixin to send him out. She washed the bowl and went back to bed. Cao Zixin sent Yu Xiaoxiu out of the door. Seeing his sullen face, he wanted to coax him.
"Are you still worried when you see your sister? What are you unhappy about?"
Yu Xiaoxiu kicked the stones on the side of the road and said, "You don't know. It's all my fault. If it weren't for me, my sister wouldn't have been beaten and driven out."
Cao Zixin was puzzled. "Didn't you say she was caught for stealing fish? What does it have to do with you?"
Yu Xiaoxiu had something in his heart that he didn't tell Yu Shu just now. Now that someone asked him, he couldn't help but pour out his heart. "We are not popular in the Ji family.
I was often bullied. Last month, Young Master Ji brought people to bully me. He tied me to a tree and beat me. My sister saw it. She got angry and fought with them. In the end, she injured Young Master Ji and brought the matter to the Old Matriarch. The Old Matriarch didn't distinguish right from wrong and punished my sister with twenty rattan whips, all on her arms. "
Cao Zixin frowned. He had a worse impression of the Ji family. Yu Shu was lively and cheerful every day. He didn't expect her to live in such an environment.
"My sister was not convinced after she was beaten. She didn't eat well, so she got up in the middle of the night to steal the carp in Old Lady Ji's yard. When she came back, she made soup for me. We only ate two fish. I ate most of them. My sister ate two pieces of the fish tail with me." Yu Xiaoxiu said sourly. A child's heart was much more sensitive than an adult's. Yu Xiaoxiu was young and mature. He had accepted all the kindness that Yu Shu had shown him recently. In the past, Yu Shu didn't treat him well. Now that she was nice to him, the kindness was magnified. He looked at everything more carefully. "The night before yesterday," Yu Xiaoxiu said in a low voice, "We came back from outside. We didn't have money to eat. I said I wanted to drink fish soup. She wanted to steal the carp again. In the middle of the night, she took me to steal fish. Unexpectedly, we met a thief and got us into trouble. My sister was caught. She only said that she did it alone …"
Yu Xiaoxiu finished his story intermittently. He turned to look at Cao Zixin in frustration and said,
"Brother Cao, my sister was kicked out because of me. She's a good person. Don't look down on her because of this."
When Cao Zixin heard this story, he couldn't help but fall silent. The Yu Shu that he had come into contact with was mostly her quick-witted and active side. Now that he heard Yu Xiaoxiu talk about these stories that he didn't know about, he realized that there was another side to her. This feeling was very strange. When he had determined what a person was like and thought that he had seen through her, but then he realized that she was much richer than he had thought. The image of this person suddenly became deep in his heart, and it was no longer just a person that he admired. This kind of feeling caught him off guard. After a moment of silence, Cao Zixin raised his hand and patted Yu Xiaoxiu's head. He said in a serious tone,
"Stealing is wrong, but your sister didn't mean any harm. Strictly speaking, she didn't hurt anyone. Why would I look down on her? She's a good sister. But you have to remember that stealing is against the rules. No matter what you steal, whether it's to vent your anger or not, you can't do it again." It was the first time that Yu Xiaoxiu was touched on the head by someone other than his mother and Yu Shu. He felt uncomfortable all over. He wanted to avoid it, but when he thought that Yu Shu still needed his care, he stiffly endured it. Hearing that his words were reasonable, he nodded and said,
"I got it."
After sending Yu Xiaoxiu to the intersection of Changmenpu, Cao Zixin originally wanted to buy him some food, but Yu Xiaoxiu declined. He thanked him again and left alone. Cao Zixin didn't go back to the shop. He walked half a circle on the street and bought some snacks, flower cakes and other things that little girls liked to eat. He returned home and took out a set of paper and a pen. He stood at the door of Zhao Hui's house and knocked on the door. After a while, Yu Shu answered the door slowly.
"Brother Cao, why are you back again?" Yu Shu tilted her head and looked at Cao Zixin outside the door. He had just woken up from a nap. His hair was loose and a tuft was sticking up. His face was red and he looked confused and obedient. Cao Zixin looked away from her face, ignored the strange feeling in his heart, and handed the things in his hand to her.
"It's not convenient for you to go out these two days. If you're bored, you can practice calligraphy at home. This is a calligraphy book. I bought some snacks. Try them and see if they suit your taste. Don't eat too much. Sister Zhao will come back to cook for you at noon. "
"Oh." Yu Shu took the things. Seeing that there were snacks to eat, she subconsciously licked her lips and looked up at him with a smile. Her mouth was red with small wounds.
"Thank you."
Cao Zixin turned his head and coughed. "You're not wearing much. Go back to the room. I'm leaving." Cao Zixin turned around and left. Yu Shu closed the door and carried her things back into the house. She opened the packet of snacks, broke off a piece, and stuffed it into her mouth. She savored the taste, took off her shoes, and lay on the bed. She thought about what she had dreamed of and went back to sleep.
*****
Yu Shu had been lying in bed for four days. When the wounds on her back were all hard, no matter what Zhao Hui said, she insisted that she would not stay at home anymore. These days of reflection were enough for her to sort out her mood and move towards her goal again. She just lay on the bed and ate other people's food and drink. This made her, who had always advocated self-reliance, unable to sleep well. As a result, Yu Shu became busy again. During the day, she helped Cao Zixin with the accounts and chores in the shop. In her free time, she learned to read and write. At noon and dinner, she would help Zhao Hui at her wonton stew stall. Yu Xiaoxiu came back to find her every day after school. Several times, he brought out the clothes she left in the yard and some change for her. The most important thing was that Yu Shu wrote a lot of Feng Shui brochures. Because they were written in simplified charcoal, Yu Xiaoxiu couldn't understand what they were. He just thought that she copied them from a book and didn't ask much. Cao Zixin originally wanted to pay Yu Shu as usual, but she tactfully refused. Yu Shu asked Zhao Hui. She estimated that Cao Zixin had spent more than 20 taels of silver to find a doctor and take medicine for her that day. If she was asked to take a copper coin from him again, she would be soft-hearted. She loved money, but she had a principle. She would never take money against her conscience. She would not take less than what she deserved, and she would not be greedy for what she didn't deserve. Just like that, another three to four days passed. Yu Shu suffered from no one to teach her. She could only use a method to calculate the weather and try to remind Zhao Hui, who was running the stall, to close the stall early on rainy days and prepare herbal tea on sunny days to attract more customers. However, she didn't have more ability to carry out the original plan. Just when she was about to lose her patience and ask Yu Xiaoxiu to find Daoist Qing Zheng, the old man found her first.
"Give me a bowl of San Xian wonton noodles."
At noon, Yu Shu was squatting by the bucket to help Zhao Hui wash the dishes. When she heard the voice, she turned her head and saw Qing Zheng, whom she hadn't seen for a long time, sitting at the table opposite her. His wrinkled face was so ugly that passersby had to step back. Because Zhao Hui was facing him from the side, she didn't see his scary face. She buried her head in making wontons and answered, "Okay, please wait a moment."
When Yu Shu saw Qing Zheng here, she was very surprised. She took a rag and went to wipe the table. She took the opportunity to talk to Qing Zheng in a low voice.
"Master, how did you find me?"
Qing Zheng just raised his eyelids and glanced at her. Then he lowered his head to study the patterns on the short table. He looked completely unfamiliar, as if he didn't know her. Yu Shu was puzzled. She tried to talk to him a few more times, but the old man simply didn't look at her. She murmured in her heart, "Look at him, why does he seem to be angry? If I should be angry, it should be me, who was beaten and bullied. What's wrong with this old man? "
"Xiao Yu, come and serve the noodles to the guest." Zhao Hui called. Yu Shu dropped the rag and put the bowl down in front of Qing Zheng. Seeing that he still ignored her, she had to pick up the rag and go back to wash the dishes. After a long time, she heard a cold snort. She quickly raised her head and saw that Qing Zheng, who had been treating her as air, glared at her. He put down the money on the table and turned to walk to the opposite alley. Yu Shu curled her lips. She pressed the rag into the bucket and stood up to say to Zhao Hui,
"Aunt Huei, I'm going to the toilet."
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