Younger Sister An Yuzhi

Anyuan County's funeral customs were rather strange, at least in An Ziran's eyes.

After their parents passed away, it was not the eldest son but the eldest daughter who kept vigil. However, the eldest daughter here did not include daughters born to concubines; it referred to the eldest daughter of the principal wife.

During the three days An Ziran had been bedridden, An Yuzhi had been keeping vigil. She had only returned to her room that morning and happened to miss him. As her elder brother, he naturally had to go see her.

"Brother..."

An Yuzhi looked at An Ziran, who had come to visit her, with timidity. There was a trace of awe in her beautiful eyes, along with a faint sense of distance. An Ziran could tell at a glance that he was probably not close to this younger sister.

An Ziran looked at her. An Yuzhi was very beautiful, with willow-leaf brows, phoenix eyes, and a cherry-red mouth—the image of a traditional classical beauty. At fifteen, she had already reached marriageable age in this era. It was said that many people had proposed to her, but An Changfu, wanting her to marry better—or rather, to make the most of her value—had not casually agreed to any match.

An Ziran spoke with her for a while, his words carrying concern.

An Yuzhi seemed somewhat surprised. The emotions she could not hide showed plainly in her eyes, and she answered with a slight stammer, clearly still unaccustomed to his concern.

After a while, An Ziran finally left.

Out of sight of the others, An Yuzhi let out a sigh of relief. She was still very unaccustomed to having a brother who cared for her so much, but she also knew that after their parents' deaths, the only people closest to her in this family were her brother and her younger brother, who was barely a month old. She had to adapt to getting along with her brother as soon as possible.

Seven days later, according to Anyuan County custom, it was the day An Changfu and Liu Meixiang were buried.

The An Family was a prominent household, so the burial ceremony was conducted with considerable grandeur. However, An Ziran did not know much about such matters, so he left everything to Steward Su. Steward Su did not disappoint him, handling every detail flawlessly.

Once the two of them had been properly laid to rest, the An Family finally no longer felt quite so oppressive.

The festive New Year passed through the An Family just like that, and no one felt any of the holiday spirit.

Over these days, An Ziran had mostly recovered as well. His body had merely been invaded by the cold, and under the care of Qiulan and the four maidservants, there was no longer any serious problem. He finally had time to confront his weight problem, as well as the An Family's businesses. Although Steward Su assisted him, some matters still required him, as the head of the household, to handle personally.

For this reason, An Ziran tailored a weight-loss plan for himself.

The first step of the plan was getting up early each morning to run and exercise. This shocked everyone in the An Family, because the An Ziran they remembered had been an extremely lazy person, especially during winter.

Because winter was so cold, An Ziran used to sleep every morning until the sun was high in the sky before crawling out of bed, usually when it was nearly noon. This habit had continued for almost sixteen years. An Changfu knew his son feared the cold, and indulging him had resulted in this habit. He had never once appeared at the breakfast table, so when everyone saw him there, they were all astonished.

The An Family was not some royal or noble household, so there was no rule forbidding concubines from dining at the same table as the principal wife.

At first, everyone assumed he had changed because his parents' deaths had dealt him a severe blow. They thought he would not last more than two days, but the result exceeded their expectations: An Ziran persisted.

Not only that, he now entered and left An Changfu's study with great frequency. In the past, he had never had any interest in managing accounts. Though he had studied before, he had no real talent for it and only recognized a few words. An Changfu had originally wanted him to earn scholarly honors, but after discovering that his eldest son truly was not cut out for study, he had no choice but to give up and shift his attention to the newly born An Ziming.

Wang Qinglan and the others all felt uneasy. They were not pleased to see An Ziran becoming so diligent and ambitious.

If An Ziran became smarter, it would be difficult for them to gain benefits from him. Yet if no one stepped forward to support the An Family now, it would surely collapse before long. Besides, An Changde was watching from the side like a tiger eyeing its prey. Rather than let the An Family fall into his hands, they would rather An Ziran take control of it.

At the very least, they were still An Ziran's concubine mothers, while An Changde would never support them.

At that moment, the subject of their thoughts was in the study, gnawing on the end of his brush.

The original An Ziran had terrible calligraphy. His writing looked like tadpoles swimming across the paper, and he had never written with a brush himself, so there was no need to worry about exposing himself.

But if he wanted to handle the account books better, he had to improve his handwriting.

After Steward Su learned of his determination, he found several copybooks for him. Each used a different style of script; An Ziran could practice whichever one he liked. He copied several sheets every day, and once he could write it himself, there was no further need to copy.

Good handwriting required the accumulation of time. Reaching the heavens in a single step was impossible.

An Ziran understood this principle. Fortunately, patience was what he lacked least. Thus, his daily schedule soon became almost completely full.

However, someone clearly did not want him to live so peacefully and leisurely, and wanted to make his life more eventful. Therefore, only three days after An Changfu and Liu Meixiang were buried, An Changde and his wife came knocking.