Chapter 40

Chapter 40

The next morning, Lu Maomao woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed; staying up late had little effect on him. After washing up quickly, he hurried off to the vegetable patch to pull weeds and water the plants. Once he finished the farm work and returned to the courtyard, he paced back and forth holding his book, reciting from memory and reviewing what his brother-in-law had taught him the day before.

Based on his past life’s experience, teachers liked to pop questions in class. If his brother-in-law asked him something and he couldn’t answer, a rap on the knuckles or some mockery was no big deal. What Lu Maomao couldn’t bear was losing face in front of Yu Xiaoyu—and having Xiaoyu think he was a dunce.

As a cat, he had already passed the “noob” stage. As a human, he had to keep up the pace.

Because he had been reading and reciting intensively these past few days, Lu Maomao recited the texts very fluently, without a single stumble. After flawlessly reciting everything he had learned once, he wrapped up his morning recitation, satisfied.

In the morning, when Yu Changan arrived at the study room, Lu Maomao had already placed the characters he’d practiced writing the night before on Yu Changan’s desk. Yu Changan gave them a brief glance, pushed Lu Maomao’s homework aside, and began questioning him on the content learned the previous day.

Lu Maomao was well-prepared and answered several questions in a row very well. Yu Xiaoyu watched him admiringly and gave him a thumbs-up. “Well done, Cat.”

Lu Maomao returned a look that said, “This is nothing.”

“Xiaoyu, you’re up.” Yu Changan called on Yu Xiaoyu, interrupting the two who were blatantly ignoring the class—and him, the teacher—with their private little exchanges and gestures.

“Xiaoyu, stand up.” Yu Xiaoyu looked questioningly at Yu Changan, so Lu Maomao reminded him to stand up and answer the question.

Once Yu Xiaoyu stood straight, Yu Changan asked him, “At the beginning of life?”

“Human nature is fundamentally good.”

“As nature draws near?”

“Habits drift apart.”

“Not bad. You may sit.”

After asking Yu Xiaoyu a few questions, Yu Changan didn’t continue. Lu Maomao secretly gave Yu Changan a disdainful look. He had already drilled those opening lines with Xiaoyu countless times. His brother-in-law specifically asking those was definitely trying to slack off on teaching Xiaoyu.

Hmph.

Before Lu Maomao could voice his dissatisfaction, Yu Xiaoyu turned to him with an expectant look. Lu Maomao gave him a reassuring smile. “You did great, Xiaoyu.”

Yu Xiaoyu gave a satisfied hum, also thinking he’d done pretty well himself.

Now it was Yu Changan’s turn to look disdainfully at Lu Maomao. He’d only asked Xiaoyu things he knew—to spare his feelings if he got it wrong—hadn’t he? What difference was there between that and Lu Maomao’s mindless praise of Xiaoyu all day? And yet the cat had the nerve to roll his eyes at *him*? Didn’t he know that from his higher vantage point, he could see every expression the two of them made down below?

Thus, feeling slighted by his student, Teacher Yu proceeded to question Lu Maomao on the day’s lesson. “What are the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches?”

This question didn’t stump the cat.

The Ten Heavenly Stems were that string of characters—Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, etc. The Twelve Earthly Branches corresponded to the twelve zodiac animals, which the cat was somewhat familiar with.

“So you also understand using the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to denote dates?”

This hit the cat’s blind spot. Animals and spirits instinctively understood certain things about weather and seasons, able to sense the occurrence of disasters or major events. This was actually similar to humans living according to calendars. The difference was that spirits relied on intuition and perception to survive, while humans compiled their observations and experiences into written calendars. Calendar calculations involved many complex issues—celestial phenomena, phenology, ecliptic angles, the moon’s rotation, and so on. From the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties to now, calendars had been revised who knows how many times; there was no way to pass them all down intact. Might as well just use the one humans were currently using.

“I don’t understand.”

“Then follow along and learn properly.”

Yu Changan didn’t know that Lu Maomao had a whole theory about animal instinct and a “use-what-works” philosophy. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t pay it any mind. He carefully explained the method of using the sixty-year cycle of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to mark years, months, days, and hours to both of them. Lu Maomao could follow at first but gradually got tangled up, especially when Yu Changan gave examples. His brain couldn’t keep up; his reactions were slow. The terrible part was that once that section passed, his mind would have the illusion that he had missed something important—becoming anxious and frustrated, leading to dizziness and vertigo.

Today, Lu Maomao finally understood how struggling students were made. He really couldn’t keep up.

Meanwhile, Yu Xiaoyu, when Yu Changan started talking about the string of Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, had already stopped troubling himself and started playing on his own.

“Did you learn it?” Yu Changan asked Lu Maomao after finishing his explanation with lingering enthusiasm.

Lu Maomao’s expression was already numb. “I understand a bit.”

“It’s fine if you didn’t learn it today. Have the steward find you a few almanacs. You’ll get it if you cross-reference them in your spare time.”

Lu Maomao had no choice but to agree. No wonder they said: first fate, second luck, third feng shui, fourth studying. Studying could change destiny because it was truly difficult. Once you learned it, it really could open your wisdom.

Seeing Lu Maomao listless, Yu Changan considerately ended the class. “Take Xiaoyu out for a walk.”

After strolling outside with Yu Xiaoyu for a while, Lu Maomao’s condition visibly improved.

“Cat, all better?” Yu Xiaoyu held Lu Maomao’s right hand with both of his own, leaning sideways to look at his face.

“Yeah, I’m better. What we just learned was too hard; I couldn’t keep up.”

Yu Xiaoyu thought Yu Changan had bullied Lu Maomao again. “Wuwu, bad.”

Hearing this, Lu Maomao immediately looked toward the study room. Seeing his brother-in-law wasn’t outside, he sighed in relief and whispered very quietly to Yu Xiaoyu, “Wuwu isn’t bad. Don’t say that next time.”

Yu Xiaoyu also whispered back to him, “Not bad?”

Lu Maomao nodded with certainty, affirmation, and conviction, hoping Xiaoyu would abandon the idea that his brother-in-law was bad. “Yeah, Wuwu is a good person.” Although he often acted less than human when dealing with him, his brother-in-law did everything an elder brother should. Lu Maomao repeatedly instructed Yu Xiaoyu, “Don’t say Wuwu is bad again.”

After all, his brother-in-law was teaching the two of them diligently. It was bad enough they weren’t learning well; if they were caught badmouthing him in private, Lu Maomao felt he’d be done for.

“If you say it, I’ll be in trouble.”

“Like last time, pass out.” Or more likely, get knocked out.

Yu Xiaoyu didn’t want the cat to die, so he whispered a promise, “Won’t say.”

“What are you two whispering about? Hurry back to class.” Yu Changan, seeing that Lu Maomao and Yu Xiaoyu had been out for a long time without returning, came out to hurry them along.

“Coming, coming.” Lu Maomao, holding Yu Xiaoyu’s hand, ran toward the study room.

“Coming, Wuwu.”

Fortunately, what followed was mostly memorization. Yu Changan didn’t add extra flourishes, and Lu Maomao understood very well, regaining his confidence.

During the afternoon calligraphy lesson, Lu Maomao received his characters corrected by Yu Changan. On the one hundred characters, two red circles were reluctantly drawn.

“The dot in this character is somewhat passable. The left-falling stroke in another is relatively fluid.”

Lu Maomao sighed inwardly. “Must have been hard for you, Teacher.” Finding two merits among one hundred large characters.

Yu Changan hadn’t expended much effort but still said reservedly, “As long as you know.”

The afternoon continued practicing the character “永” (yǒng), but the practice method differed from yesterday’s. Yu Changan wrote the eight strokes contained in “永” separately on paper, taught Lu Maomao how to write them a few times, then guided Yu Xiaoyu’s hand to trace them a few times before letting them practice on their own—first the strokes, then the whole character.

“Today’s homework is still one hundred large characters. Just write each stroke twenty times.”

Knowing he could only practice with ink at night, and his brother-in-law wasn’t so unreasonable as to make him write each stroke one hundred times, Lu Maomao actually felt somewhat grateful. He earnestly studied the strokes, practicing with water from time to time. But while he wasn’t paying attention, Yu Xiaoyu had already reached into his water dish and was leaning over to watch him write.

Yu Xiaoyu leaned so far toward Lu Maomao that he soon lost his balance. To avoid falling, he hurriedly grabbed the table tightly. Then, with a thud, he knocked over the inkstone, soaking the practice strokes Yu Changan had written for Lu Maomao. The ink quickly spread across the paper, soon blurring into a mess, completely obscuring the original forms.

“Xiaoyu!” Lu Maomao looked helplessly at Yu Xiaoyu.

Yu Xiaoyu looked back at Lu Maomao at a loss, his eyes showing a hint of pitifulness. The delicate, frail Little Fairy Boy made the cat’s judgment clouded by his looks, so naturally, he chose to forgive him.

But Yu Changan wasn't about to let this go so easily. He told Yu Xiaoyu sternly, "Xiaoyu, stand up."

Yu Xiaoyu looked at Lu Maomao, then at Yu Changan, and slid reluctantly off his chair.

"Hands out."

Yu Xiaoyu obediently extended both hands. Seeing Yu Changan take up the ruler to strike his palms, he thought it would be just like yesterday—not painful at all—so he didn't take it seriously. But when a slight sting shot through his palms, he yanked his hands back in surprise. Forgetting all about Lu Maomao's earlier warning not to say bad things about Yu Changan, he turned to Lu Maomao with an accusatory look and complained, "Maomao, he's mean!"

Lu Maomao felt terrible for him. "Master, how could you actually hit him?"

"You didn't actually think this ruler was just a prop to scare you, did you?"

Lu Maomao really had thought so.

"Lu Feifan, if Xiaoyu's behavior can't be kept under control, I'll have no choice but to separate you two for your lessons."

Separate them? That was unthinkable. Without Xiaoyu by his side, Maomao's drive to study would vanish. "Master, it's only the second day. Please give Xiaoyu a few more days to try."

"Alright, we'll try a bit longer then," Yu Changan said noncommittally.

Yu Xiaoyu was frightened by Yu Changan's stern demeanor and didn't cause any major disturbances before the break. However, having been punished, he was kind of mopey. When the break ended, he hesitated, not wanting to go back.

"Xiaoyu, how about letting Cui Xi take you to play with the rattan ball?"

Yu Xiaoyu's eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly. "Mhm, mhm!"

Yu Xiaoyu started to follow Cui Xi, but seeing that Lu Maomao wasn't coming along, he turned back. "Maomao?"

Lu Maomao pointed toward the study room and then held out his own hands. "I have to go back and practice my writing. Otherwise, I'll get my palms hit too."

Yu Xiaoyu hesitated for a long moment. "Me, go back?"

"You don't have to go back, but I do."

"Together," Yu Xiaoyu sighed, out of loyalty as he followed Lu Maomao back into the study room. While Lu Maomao practiced his characters, Yu Xiaoyu held a brush and traced the strokes in the air, but he didn't touch the inkstone again.