On the seventh day of the fifth lunar month, more than a dozen carriages drove out of Qingzhou Prefecture and headed north straight into the capital city.
Shopkeeper Qin had already cleaned the house. As soon as the Jin Shanyao, he directed his servants to start unloading the cart. By the time everything was unloaded, it was already completely dark.
Zhou Xiaosi paid the freight for the carts and horses, closed the courtyard gate, and plopped down on the steps, too tired to move for a long time.
Qing He came out of the kitchen carrying a large bowl of noodles, calling out to his retreating figure, " Xiaosi... eat quickly, wash up after you finish eating and go to bed early. Leave these things here and we'll clean them up tomorrow."
Zhou Xiaosi sighed and stood up, supporting himself on his knees. He followed Qing He into the side room. Nanny Chen and Nanny Li were already eating. Qing He ladled out a bowl of noodles and handed it to him.
The group, who were usually chatting and laughing, suddenly fell silent. Zhou Xiaosi said dejectedly, "You guys think Sister Qing Yang is all alone in the prefectural city. I wonder if she's lonely."
Nanny Chen slurped her noodles, "What's there to be lonely about? The Second Estate is full of our own people, how could she be bullied..."
"No... I meant that we've all come out, and leaving her alone just doesn't feel right."
Qing He placed a piece of pickled vegetable in his bowl. "Don't think about useless things. Ask her if she wants to come to the capital as a shop assistant or if she'd prefer to be the second manager in the prefectural city."
Qing He didn't actually spell it out. Anzhi Hall's entire business was in Qingzhou Prefecture. Without leaving a trustworthy person to oversee it, how could their master feel at ease leaving? It was Zhou Xiaosi who was reluctant to give up this and that...
Wait a minute, Qing He paused with her chopsticks, looking at him suspiciously. Could this kid have something on his mind about her sister? Considering they're together every day, it's possible he's been won over by her sister's charm.
Zhou Xiaosi felt someone watching him and turned his head in confusion, "What's wrong?? Is there noodle on my face?"
Qing He, holding her chopsticks, said "oh" and didn't continue. Instead, she started eating on her own. It was better to ask her sister for the right answer.
Nothing more was said that night.
The next morning, Zhou Xiaosi came to help at the shop. Although he was an old hand at the Anzhi Hall, he was a novice in the shop in the capital. The doctors there didn't take him seriously at all and just treated him as a waiter.
Zhou Xiaosi wasn't annoyed at all. He cheerfully served tea and water, and by the end of the morning, he had become quite familiar with the shop.
At lunchtime, Su Mu brought his bowl over and looked him up and down. "Are you really the young master's apprentice?"
Zhou Xiaosi nodded with a smile.
Su Mu thought to himself... This kid looks ordinary, and after half a day, I haven't seen anything special about him. Why did the young master take him as an apprentice?
He thought for a moment, then asked, "So, how many years have you been learning from the young master?"
Three years.
"What did you learn in those three years?"
Zhou Xiaosi picked up some food and put it in his mouth, mumbling, "I'll learn whatever my master teaches me: memorizing medicinal properties, recognizing herbs, and remembering prescriptions."
Su Mu thought to himself, "Isn't this just misleading me?" Just as he was about to ask again, he heard a shout from inside the hall, " Xiaosi, get me some medicine: three qian of angelica root, two qian of chuanxiong rhizome, three qian of white peony root..."
"Hey... coming," Zhou Xiaosi put down his bowl and chopsticks, gestured to Su Mu, then lifted the curtain and went into the shop. Su Mu sat in the back room for a moment, put down his bowl, and followed him out.
Zhou Xiaosi skillfully pulled open the third drawer, grabbed some angelica root; then turned and pulled open the seventh drawer, grabbed some chuanxiong rhizome; then turned to the other side and pulled open the twelfth drawer...
All the medicinal herbs were prepared in one go; in the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, all three doses of medicine were ready.
The doctor took the medicine and examined it; the dosage was precise, not a single ingredient was missing. He glanced at Zhou Xiaosi, then handed the medicine to the patient without saying a word.
Su Mu, hiding behind the curtain, was stunned. When Physician Li announced the names of the medicines, he hadn't mentioned how many doses were needed. How did Zhou Xiaosi memorize the proportions for three doses after hearing it only once?
Seeing Zhou Xiaosi turn back, he lifted the curtain to let him in. "How did you know which drawer the medicine was in?"
Zhou Xiaosi sat down, picked up his bowl, and shoveled some rice into his mouth. "I took a look around last night when I had some free time."
Su Mu, "Carry it all night?"
Zhou Xiaosi laughed, "I'll just take a look." If he wasn't afraid of getting the wrong medicine and embarrassing his master, he could have just glanced at it during the day while he was at work.
Su Mu wanted to say, "You're really good at bragging. You can memorize all the medicinal herbs in one go. Who knows how long it will take you to memorize them?" But Zhou Xiaosi didn't admit it, and he didn't need to expose him.
Zhou Xiaosi finished eating, put down his chopsticks, and got up to leave when a girl dressed as a maid walked in. "Excuse me, is this the Zhuangyuan Meng family's home?"
Zhou Xiaosi stepped forward and said with a smile, "Miss, what business do you have with my young master?"
The young girl said in a clear voice, "I am from the Left Prime Minister's family. My mistress is hosting a flower-viewing banquet on the 20th of May and has specially invited Zhuangyuan Meng and his family to attend."
As she spoke, she handed the invitation to Zhou Xiaosi, saying, "I hope you can help me deliver this invitation."
Zhou Xiaosi took it, "Please wait a moment, young lady... I'll go and inform my master right away."
"No need... Just take it in," the little girl said, turning and leaving. Zhou Xiaosi, clutching the invitation, watched her retreating figure in silence for a long while before turning and going to the backyard.
Inside the study.
Zhou Xiaosi handed the invitation to Meng Anci, saying, "Young Master, the Left Prime Minister's family is probably not the type to fawn over the powerful and bully the weak. That little maid was smiling, but she didn't take us seriously at all."
Meng Anci put the invitation aside. " Xiaosi, do you know how many top scholars are produced in the capital every three years?"
Zhou Xiaosi was taken aback for a moment, "One?"
Meng Anci nodded, "Yes, one every three years. Going back thirty years, there were ten top scholars in the imperial examinations. Of those ten, how many are still serving in the court?"
Zhou Xiaosi shook his head.
"Three. Of the remaining seven, some were sent to distant posts, some were in mourning for their parents, and some... no one remembers them anymore."
Zhou Xiaosi was stunned.
Meng Anci smiled at him, "Being the top scholar is not a get-out-of-jail-free card, nor is it proof of superiority. The capital city has no shortage of top scholars."
These words weren't spoken to Zhou Xiaosi by him, but to Su Wenqian yesterday. His expression at the time was the same as Zhou Xiaosi's; his cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment, and he even felt ashamed. Any smugness vanished instantly.
Zhou Xiaosi's face was burning hot. He wished he could turn back time and swallow back the words "they don't take us seriously at all." Who knows which year the Prime Minister would be the top scholar in the imperial examinations?
He lowered his head and admitted his mistake, "Young Master, I misunderstood."
Meng Anci, "It's alright... The capital is not like Qingzhou Prefecture. It's always better to keep a low profile. Go and get busy."
Zhou Xiaosi left the room, patted his burning cheeks, and was so embarrassed that he dared not go back into the shop for a long time.
After Zhou Xiaosi left, Jin Shanyao peeked out from behind a pile of books. "Sweetie? Did that old geezer Su Wenqian scare you again? I was wondering why he keeps nagging you all the time."
Meng Anci and said, "My teacher is doing this for my own good, afraid I'll become arrogant."
"What pride? Do you think I don't know whether you're proud or not? Besides, I use an encouragement-based teaching method... What does he know?"
Meng Anzhi, "Auntie, it's recorded in ' The Record of Admonishing Evil—Prefectural City Section ' that what you're doing isn't encouraging teaching, it's called 'killing with praise'..."
"Praise to death?? I praised to death??" Jin Shanyao stared at the two of them in shock.
The siblings nodded in unison.
With a gentle Jin Shanyao, something was amiss... Wasn't this clearly encouraging teaching? How did it turn into overpraising? Where exactly did she go wrong?
Is it a matter of location? In Qingzhou Prefecture it's called encouragement-based teaching, but in the capital it's called "overpraise to death."
No, she needs to figure out what encouraging teaching is and what overpraising is. She can't say something wrong and lead the child astray.