Shoutout to Tachibanaswife for the commission!
I thought to myself: I’ve already expressed my determination so clearly, could it be that it still doesn’t please him?
Qi Sheng lowered his head and focused on reading, ignoring me.
So I also lowered my head and flipped through the cheat booklet in my hands. Fortunately, it wasn’t too thick, about a hundred pages, with a preface and conclusion. The main figures were even paired with colored portraits, finely drawn and lifelike…
Hey, a genuine hand-drawn edition, very well produced.
Using this level of craftsmanship for a cheat sheet is really a waste…
Ahem… what I mean… you understand…
I couldn’t help letting out two dry chuckles.
Qi Sheng glanced at me. I quickly suppressed my smile and lowered my head, pretending to read the booklet seriously.
Qi Sheng’s eyes remained on his book, yet he said leisurely, “At this moment, it’s estimated there’s still more than one shicen before we reach Zhang Garden. That should be enough time for you to memorize everything.”
I first converted shichen into hours in my mind, one shichen equals two hours. I figured that memorizing dozens of pages smoothly would be somewhat difficult. But since they were short biographies, remembering the general idea should be enough, as long as I didn’t mistake people.
I opened the booklet and looked closely. On the first page was an old man dressed as a general. Beside the portrait were small characters: Grand General Protecting the Nation, Zhang Sheng, deceased.
Alright, since he’s already dead, I probably won’t see him this trip.
Flip past.
On the second page was an elderly lady dressed as an officially titled noblewoman, likely Zhang Sheng’s wife, the old matriarch of the Zhang household. I turned to the opposite page to read her biography. After one glance, I was a bit stunned.
Lady Yan wife of the Grand General Protecting the Nation from the Yan clan of Hexi a relative of Consort Yan of Emperor Chengzu beautiful yet jealous by nature there was a maidservant who saw Sheng enter and smiled while speaking to him when she noticed this she suspected that Sheng was secretly involved with the maid immediately she had the maid whipped to death…
Traditional characters I could tolerate, I could recognize seven or eight out of ten by guessing. Vertical layout I could also endure, cover both sides with my hand and I wouldn’t mix lines.
The problem was: I didn’t expect perfect punctuation, but at least give me some pauses!
There were none.
A full page of tiny brush characters, vertical script, traditional characters, no punctuation, half-classical style…
Oh my, what a headache!
Reading it as sentences was extremely difficult, so I could only sound it out character by character. Without realizing it, I started reading aloud:
“Lady Yan… wife of the Grand General… from Hexi… Hexi Yan clan… relative of Consort Yan… beautiful and jealous… at first there was a maid who saw Sheng enter… saw thought Sheng private… maidservant…”
Private maidservant? Illicit maidservant?
Could it be written wrong?
Qi Sheng suddenly said, “Lady Yan, wife of the Grand General Protecting the Nation, from the Yan clan of Hexi, was a relative of Consort Yan of Emperor Chengzu. She was beautiful yet jealous by nature. At first, there was a maidservant who saw Sheng enter and smiled while speaking to him. When she noticed this, she suspected that Sheng was secretly involved with the maid. Immediately, she had the maid whipped to death…
I looked up at Qi Sheng in surprise.
Qi Sheng looked at me. “Before we reach the Zhang residence, can you finish reading this page?”
I lowered my head and carefully checked the amount of text, then looked up. “Almost.”
Qi Sheng’s brows seemed to tighten slightly. He casually tossed aside the book in his hand and extended his hand toward me. “Give it to me.”
To be honest, I found his tone annoying, so I said, “No need. I can read it myself.”
Qi Sheng paused, raised his brows slightly, and said, “Fine. Then don’t read aloud.”
After saying that, he closed his eyes and leaned against the soft pillow, actually dozing.
D*mn! What are you acting arrogant for? Just because I’m not used to reading this? If I handed you something in English, you’d be worse than me!
I lowered my head and began to struggle fiercely…
An hour later, I had struggled fiercely… but… achieved nothing…
Looking at the more than half of the booklet still left, my eyes were starting to redden from anxiety.
Qi Sheng opened his eyes. “Give me the book.”
This time, I obediently handed it over.
He flipped it open casually, showing me only the colored portrait page, and asked, “Who is this?”
D*mn! So this wasn’t tutoring, it was a pop quiz!
I immediately felt nervous, as if I had returned to the classroom, when the geography teacher held up a picture and asked me: Which province is this?
I stood there sweating, wondering: Liaoning? Henan? Or Hunan?
That geography teacher had a bad habit, he liked pacing around the classroom while lecturing, then suddenly stopping beside your desk to ask questions.
He had an even worse habit: if you answered incorrectly, he’d casually grab anything from your desk and smack your head with it…
So whenever he walked near a section of the classroom, the students there would all become tense.
Every time he approached my seat, my desk mate would whisper urgently: “Idiot! Hurry and put away your pencil case! Idiot! He’ll use it to hit you!”
So I’d immediately clear my desk until it was spotless, almost wanting to shove even the geography textbook into the drawer, leaving only a sheet of paper on the desk…
Qi Sheng waved the book in front of me and asked again, “Who is she?”
I scratched my head and guessed cautiously, “Second Aunt? Oh, no, Second Uncle’s wife?”
Qi Sheng pressed his lips together and said nothing.
I quickly changed my answer. “Oh, I remember now, it’s Third Aunt!”
Qi Sheng raised his brows.
So I changed again. “Then… who do you think she looks like?”
Qi Sheng looked at me. After a long moment, he said lightly, “Perhaps your eldest cousin’s wife…”
I slapped my forehead. “Right! Now that you say it, I remember. The painting does make her look a bit older…”
Qi Sheng’s expression changed. With a bang, he threw the book at me. “This is your own mother, Lady Fan!”
Well then, I truly didn’t even recognize my own mother!
After being hit like that, I felt embarrassed and muttered, “I just… hadn’t gotten to her page yet…”
Qi Sheng laughed in anger. “Good, good, good… yet she’s exactly who you’ll be seeing shortly!”
I picked up the booklet from the ground, also feeling annoyed. If I was about to see her, why didn’t you say so earlier? Who hands out cheat sheets right before the exam?
I also sank into silence.
Qi Sheng instead calmed down a bit. After a moment, he suddenly said coldly, “Come here.”
I didn’t understand and looked at him.
Qi Sheng rubbed his temples and said somewhat helplessly, “I’ll first explain the people you’ll meet shortly. Memorize quickly. If you can’t remember later, then keep your mouth shut, no one will dare question you directly anyway.”
At present, it seemed I could only temporarily rely on this guy.
Though unwilling, I still crawled two steps toward Qi Sheng.
Qi Sheng frowned at me without speaking.
Helpless, I crawled two more steps forward.
Honestly, I really wasn’t used to sitting so close to another grown man.
Though not entirely satisfied, Qi Sheng reluctantly accepted. He took the booklet from my hand, flipped from the beginning, and started giving brief explanations according to the portraits.
At first were the main male members of the Zhang family. Qi Sheng only briefly mentioned their names and their relationship to me. But when it came to the women later on, his explanations became much more detailed.
Surprised, I looked at Qi Sheng, secretly thinking that this guy seemed quite familiar with all my sisters and female relatives.
Seeing me looking at him, Qi Sheng paused and explained somewhat weakly, “These women are the ones you’ll mainly interact with. You must not mix them up.”
I asked curiously, “How do you know them so well?”
Qi Sheng’s brow twitched again. Suppressing his temper, he said, “I already read this book once in advance!”
Ha, could this be the legendary photographic memory?
