Heaven's Motion Is Ever Vigorous; Thus the Gentleman Never Ceases to Strive

[The Xie Clan's ancestral home lay in Rongyang, and after rising to prominence, they came to be known as the Rongyang Xie Clan.]

[The manor had countless rules, every corner exuding the majesty and solemnity of a great lineage.]

[In a household of such standing, every young lady and young master had a kitchen in their own courtyard. For three meals a day, midnight snacks, and pastries, the stoves never ceased burning through all twelve hours.]

[Yet the small courtyard where you and your mother lived did not even have a stove for making a fire.]

[Ever since you had been given a surname, a portion of vegetarian pastries had been sent over for every monthly festival and birthday in the household.]

[By the time those delicacies reached you and your mother, they were often only scattered leftovers or food from the night before.]

[In the vast Xie Manor, you and your mother received only five taels of silver each month. That was already barely enough to make ends meet, and after the household stewards skimmed their share layer upon layer, only four or five taels of loose silver usually remained by the time it reached your hands.]

[You were at the age when you needed to grow, and Mother spent nearly all the little silver she received on you.]

[Yet Mother grew thinner by the day!]

[This year, you had just turned three. The young ladies and masters in the other courtyards had long since begun learning to read and write under the guidance of their "family tutors." This was what they called "early education."]

[Among the common folk of Great Qing, children began their elementary education at six. They were first taught numbers and the names of the four directions, then from six to eight they studied such