Sincerity

"You are my teachers, how could I accept your money? As long as you give me some pointers on calligraphy, I'll be doing you a great job," Xu Xi said with a smile.

"How can that be? You don't earn money easily." Xiao Ruotong disagreed. She felt that this new painting technique was priceless, and three thousand taels was too cheap.

"If I were to accept your money as well, wouldn't people say I'm insensitive and even accept money from the teachers?" Xu Xi waved his hand. "It's settled then."

Nanny Yun tugged at her young mistress's sleeve.

Xiao Ruotong had heard Nanny Yun talk about "human relationships" countless times lately, and her ears were practically calloused from it. Knowing that she would need to talk about human relationships again now, she wisely kept her mouth shut and didn't say anything, lest she say something wrong.

After dinner, Xu Xi insisted on drawing some more pictures in the jewelry store, so Xiao Ruotong left first to return to the manor.

Sure enough, once they were in the carriage, Granny Nanny Yun instructed her young mistress, "Miss Xu refused your tuition fee. It was a token of Miss Xu goodwill. If you refused, she would feel embarrassed, and others would say she's greedy, accepting the teacher's tuition fee and being obsessed with money."

"But that would mean she'd lose three thousand taels of silver. If she takes three thousand less from me and three thousand less from Master Kang, wouldn't that be six thousand taels in total?" Xiao Ruotong said. "We can't take advantage of her like that. She's a pitiful child, trying so hard to earn money at such a young age. She must be having a hard time in the manor."

Although she doesn't handle household affairs and usually has Nanny Yun and the maids pay for and negotiate prices when she buys things, she often buys jewelry and clothes, so she still knows the approximate prices.

Three thousand taels wasn't much to them; it was only the price of one or two pieces of jewelry. But for ordinary families, it was a fortune. Not to mention six thousand taels.

Nanny Yun shared the same thought as Xiao Ruotong and felt great sympathy for Xu Xi. She suggested, "After the craftsmen have made the batch of novel jewelry that Miss Xu designed, wouldn't it be good if you gave Miss Xu a few good pieces? This way, you can make up for the small amount of tuition she gave up, and you can also express your feelings to each other."

The nine jewelry designs that Xiao Ruotong initially bought were extremely unique and novel. After discussing with Xiao Ruotong, Shopkeeper Wang decided to use the finest jade to carve them. Each piece of such jewelry would sell for one or two thousand taels of silver. Giving Xu Xi two or three pieces would be enough to make up for her losses.

"Okay, let's do it that way." Xiao Ruotong was finally Gao Xing.

Looking at the girl's smiling face, Nanny Yun sighed inwardly.

Three years into their marriage, the young lady's smiles became fewer and fewer. Now they live in a villa in Beining, where she teaches at the academy every day and also runs a jewelry store, which she takes care of. Seeing her smile more often, both she and the princess are very happy.

Of course, their worries remained. The Duke of Ying's heir has yet to ask the young lady to return, so this matter is unlikely to end well. They don't know what kind of life the young lady will lead in the future.

The painting class was only held the day after the ten-day break. Since the Women's Academy was all women, male teachers were not allowed to wander around the academy unless they had a class. Therefore, it took Master Kang ten days to see Xu Xi.

After patiently finishing the lesson, Master Kang called Xu Xi out, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "Madam Xiao sent someone to tell me that you're willing to teach that painting technique to everyone? You'll only charge three thousand taels of silver, and you don't even need the title of master and apprentice?"

Xu Xi: "..."

Three thousand taels of silver and they still say "only accepting"? Is Master Kang really that rich?

Considering that she is a master painter, whose paintings might be worth several thousand taels of silver, it's really too cheap for her to charge only three thousand taels for this painting.

She nodded. "Yes."

"Madam Xiao said I can learn from you too?" Master Kang asked, his small eyes widening.

Xu Xi laughed, "Of course. But I can't accept your money. If you really feel bad about it, how about you teach me your signature painting techniques?"

Master Kang frowned. "That won't do. I'm your teacher, it's my duty to teach you painting, how can I exchange my skills for that?" He waved his hand, then suddenly lowered his voice, "You can still take the money, just don't tell anyone. Just tell everyone you didn't take my money, okay?"

Is this even possible?

Xu Xi couldn't help but laugh, "Sir, when I said I wanted to learn painting from you, I didn't mean once every ten days, but rather whenever you're free, I'd give you a lesson. Just like when I teach everyone to paint in my style."

Master Kang stroked his beard. "I have no problem with that. But do you have the time? You have classes during the day and you teach painting in the evenings. I heard from Madam Cui that you're going to take the imperial examinations; and I also heard from Madam Xiao that you're painting jewelry designs for her silver shop. Where do you find the time to learn painting from me?"

Xu Xi choked.

She scratched her head.

She's actually starting to regret it.

When I first entered the academy, I wanted to find a powerful backer to stand against the Marquis's mansion, and at the same time learn some skills to improve my grades.

But now the Marquis's mansion is almost her support. Although the academy can help her improve her skills and score points, it's too restrictive. She spends most of her time there every day, making it inconvenient for her to do anything.

She had studied in modern times for over a decade, and continuing to study in ancient times was certainly not her original intention.

Moreover, there was a practical problem she had to consider. In modern times, you can study until your thirties, even get a doctorate, and no one will interfere. But in ancient times, you had to be engaged by the age of fifteen or sixteen. Once engaged, you weren't allowed to run around freely; it wasn't just your family who disagreed, but the whole society did.

She didn't want to fight against public opinion.

Therefore, she wanted to establish a solid economic foundation and enhance her social influence so that she could make her own decisions about whether to marry, what kind of marriage to marry, what kind of life to live after marriage, and whether to divorce if things didn't go well, instead of having to swallow her anger due to reality.

In this way, she only has one or two years to use.

"When are you free? I have some classes in the afternoon that I can skip. Is that okay if I can use that time to learn to draw with you?" Xu Xi asked.

She initially wanted to do everything because she had nothing else to do. But now that she thinks about it, she should be more selective.

For example, needlework can be completely abandoned. Modern girls don't know needlework, yet they still have clothes to wear. I heard that the First Madam's needlework is quite good, but the clothes she wears are all made by the embroiderers in the mansion. This shows that women in ancient times were the same. As long as you have money, even if you can't buy ready-made clothes that fit, you can buy or hire professional embroiderers to make clothes for you.

She is interested in playing the piano, and it would be nice to play some music to relax in her spare time. But there's no rush; she can put it aside for now and learn it again when she has more free time.

She was required to learn the rules of female virtue, but there was only one class every ten days, which didn't take up much time. As for the Wushi that Class Ding used to practice calligraphy and memorize the Four Books and Five Classics, she didn't need to attend them at all.