After eating, she did not return to her room. Instead, she moved a small stool to the corner of the courtyard, sat beneath the Chinese toon tree, and copied characters onto the ground with a stick while following along in a book she had selected from the Small Study.
There was no other way. If she wanted to leave the ranks of the illiterate, she had to put on an act and slowly make everyone believe she was learning to read and write.
Second Brother Su Yihe walked over with a smoothly shaved wooden toothbrush handle.
"Danie, what do you think of this?"
"It's great. Second Brother, your craftsmanship is really impressive."
Looking at the toothbrush handle, which was almost identical to the one in her memory, Su Qiao was pleasantly surprised.
She took it and examined it carefully.
Not only was its shape quite similar, but it also felt smooth to the touch, without any roughness or splinters.
Su Yihe looked a little embarrassed by her praise. "Don't praise me anymore. This thing is simple. Anyone would know how to make it after taking a couple of looks."
"But no one else could make it as finely as you did, Second Brother. You even carved beautiful patterns into it."
The more Su Qiao looked at it, the more she liked it.
She felt even more confident about her upcoming plan.
Su Yihe rubbed his head and said somewhat awkwardly, "I got the pattern from watching Ernie embroider a sachet, so I carved it on a whim. If you don't like it, I also have some that aren't carved."
As he spoke, he pulled another handful of uncarved ones from his clothes. There were more than ten of them.
Su Qiao's eyes widened. "You made so many?"
Su Yihe smiled.