Chapter 39: Chapter 35, Vaccination_l
Translator: 549690339 |
“Cough cough-”
Yan Zhigao entered the main room. The previously jovial mother and her three children suddenly fell silent, all turning to look at him.
“Dad, why did you come here? Didn’t you go to Shuangxin Courtyard?”
Yan Wenkai had always spoken his mind. Seeing Yan Zhigao, he blurted out the question.
At these words, Yan Zhigao, who was about to sit down, showed an uncomfortable look on his face. Had he not known his son’s nature, he might have thought the boy was teasing him.
Glancing at his surprised wife and eldest son, he realized that he might have neglected the main courtyard somewhat usually.
Yan Wenxiu shot Yan Wenkai a glare, signaling him to stop speaking out of
turn.
Yan Wenkai pursed his lips, feeling curious. His father rarely came to the main courtyard for meals. This evening, his grandmother had asked everyone to eat in their respective rooms, so he naturally assumed his father would go to Shuangxin Courtyard.
Now that he saw him in the main courtyard, couldn’t he even ask a question?
Daohua, standing to the side, caught sight of her brothers’ interaction and lowered her head to suppress a laugh.
Her little brother was indeed adorably straightforward!
Madam Li smiled and added a set of chopsticks and a bowl for Yan Zhigao, asking, “Master, you didn’t eat at the old lady’s place?”
Yan Zhigao shook his head, his heart feeling a bit stifled as he recalled the old lady waving him away.
In the past, the old lady would never have treated him like this. She would have given him all the best things she could offer.
But now, after his return, he clearly felt that he was no longer the most important in the old lady’s heart. Now, it was his eldest daughter who was the old lady’s darling.
If he, as a father, said a few words about his daughter, the old lady would chide him for a long while.
Yan Zhigao glanced at Daohua and intended to reprimand her, but recalling the old lady’s words, he didn’t utter a sound. Because of this, his expression somewhat darkened.
Seeing that the master of the house held back from criticizing his daughter, Madam Li breathed a heavy sigh of relief and kept signaling her daughter with her eyes, “Daohua, quickly serve your father some of the soybean and pig’s trotter soup you made.”
Daohua, receiving the instruction, didn’t dawdle and confidently stood up to fill a bowl to the brim with pig’s trotter soup for Yan Zhigao, “Father, please enjoy.”
Yan Zhigao took a glance at his eldest daughter, who was beaming with a smile. Unable to say the words of censure he had intended, he merely grunted in acknowledgment and began sipping the soup.
Once he started, he couldn’t stop.
“This soup was made by Daohua?”
Madam Li nodded with a smile, “Isn’t it just? Aside from the pig’s trotters which were prepared with help from a cook in the kitchen, everything else was personally crafted by Daohua.”
Yan Zhigao looked at his daughter in surprise, “Daohua, your cooking skills are quite good.”
Daohua humbly said, “Grandmother and my third aunt taught me well.” Mainly it was because the soybeans from the space were of excellent quality.
Yan Zhigao then asked, “Did you send some of this soup to your grandmother’s too?”
Madam Li replied, “We couldn’t leave out the old lady. As soon as the soup was ready, Daohua sent some over there, and to the second and third branches as well.”
Yan Zhigao was about to ask if Shuangxin Courtyard had received any, but then he remembered that it hadn’t been long since Daohua arrived and had already had several conflicts with that side. He swallowed back the question.
Yan Wenkai had consumed three bowls of pig’s trotter soup in quick succession and was just about to help himself to another when Madam Li rapped his knuckles.
“If you drink any more, you’ll have indigestion tonight.”
Yan Wenkai reluctantly peered into his soup bowl but then turned to Daohua, “Big sister, can you make this soup again tomorrow?”
Daohua shook her head without even thinking, “I have to attend class tomorrow, and I have homework after that, I won’t have time.” The ingredients from the space were limited, she couldn’t afford to let such a large family eat them every day.
Besides, she was somewhat reluctant. The energy the space operated on was hard-won, collected by herself. It was one thing to share with those who were kind to her, but there were some in the family who were not so friendly towards her, and she certainly didn’t want to give them such benefits at her expense.
Hearing this, everyone at the table felt a bit disappointed.
The food Daohua made was very ordinary, but the taste was exceptionally good. Whether it was the previous lumpy soup or tonight’s pig’s trotter soup, they all left one feeling warm and extraordinarily comfortable.
Speaking of attending classes, Yan Zhigao felt compelled to say, “Tomorrow, when you go to class, you must apologize to Master Qin.”
“No!” Daohua replied directly.
Seeing Yan Zhigao’s face darken, Madam Li immediately tapped Daohua on the head, “How can you speak to your father like that?”
The smile on Daohua’s face also disappeared: “Master Qin doesn’t like me, and I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong.”
Yan Zhigao restrained his anger, “Talking back to your teacher is your fault. If word of this gets out, don’t expect to find a good family to marry into in the future.”
Daohua’s face was full of black lines. Why had it come to marriage again?
Could she never avoid this topic?
Seeing Daohua fall silent, Yan Zhigao’s tone softened a bit, “It’s wrong for Master Qin to target you, but you have your issues too.” Looking at Madam Li, he said, “Tomorrow you go talk to Master Qin. Our Yan Family’s daughter may be corrected by her master but should not be targeted at will.”
Madam Li smiled and agreed.
Seeing that her adoptive father’s attitude was fairly reasonable this time, Daohua said nothing else. But after thinking it over, she asked, “Can we switch to a different teacher?”
At these words, Yan Zhigao’s face darkened a bit more, “Do you think it’s so easy to invite a female teacher in Linyi County?”
Daohua furrowed her brows, “Master Qin doesn’t like me, and I don’t like her.
What if we have a conflict again in the future?”
Yan Zhigao frowned, “Why do you always think about conflicting with the teacher? Can’t you think of something good?”
Daohua shrugged, ‘Td like to, since I’ve started the lessons, when have I not been well-behaved? But if Master Qin is looking for trouble with me, what can I do? My great-uncle is right; getting along between people depends on fate, and it just so happens that Master Qin and I loathe each other.”
“You…”
Yan Zhigao glared at Daohua but, for the moment, could find no words to retort.
That’s when Madam Li spoke up, “Stop fussing, Daohua. Among the female teachers in Linyi County, Master Qin’s educational attainments are quite esteemed. You should learn humbly from her, do you understand?”
Seeing Madam Li’s serious face, Daohua knew that changing teachers was impossible. She muttered, “But what if she bullies me again?”
Madam Li: “Mother will speak to Master Qin.”
Daohua: “Okay then, but if she targets me again in the future, I definitely won’t endure it.” She had already set her precautionary warning here.
Hearing this, Yan Zhigao was about to erupt again, but Madam Li calmed him down.
Seeing that the children had almost finished eating, Madam Li signaled that they could leave.
As soon as Yan Wenxiu and her siblings left, Yan Zhigao turned to Madam Li and complained, “Look at the temperament of Daohua. She’s spoiled by you.” Madam Li laughed, “My lord, Daohua does have a direct nature, but you also need to be understanding of her. She has just returned to us and is unfamiliar with the customs here. In addition, to have classes, yet to be targeted specifically by the teacher, if she were to endure it, wouldn’t that mean anyone could bully her in the future?”
Yan Zhigao glared: “Who would dare? She is my eldest daughter, who could bully her?”
Madam Li smiled faintly: “Hasn’t she been bullied yet? It hasn’t been that long since she’s been with us, and it’s not like she hasn’t been driven to tears.”
At this, Yan Zhigao twinged with embarrassment.
His eldest daughter being driven to tears was actually his doing?
That night, Yan Zhigao stayed in the main compound.
In the Shuangxin Courtyard, Lin Family’s mother and daughter, who had been eagerly awaiting Yan Zhigao’s arrival and ready to whisper in his ear again, went to bed with faces full of disappointment.
“Mother, do you think father will punish elder sister?”
“He will. Your father highly values manners; if the eldest young lady disrespects her teacher, he won’t ignore it,” she answered.
Early the next day, every household in each courtyard rose early in anticipation of Yan Zhigao’s decision regarding Daohua’s punishment.
Regrettably, all the way until Yan Zhigao went to the yamen, no news of him punishing Daohua had been heard.
Instead, it was Master Qin who, unprecedentedly, was invited to the main compound by Madam Li.
You should know, to show their respect for Master Qin, whenever there was a matter, it was always Madam Li who personally went to the Virtue and Art Court to see Master Qin.