Cherishing You As Always - Chapter 26

Back home, I used to treat the teachers at the village school the same way, but they never dared yell at me. This teacher may speak softly, but he’s much harder to deal with. Turns out, my father really did send me here to suffer sent me to be tormented by others.

The teacher, hearing me finally back down, regained some of his pride. Given a step down, he immediately said,
“Enough. From today on, for the next three days, the two of you will be responsible for fetching all the water for the academy. If the water isn’t fetched, you don’t get to eat.”

Then he turned, his beard twitching with anger, and shouted at the students sitting silently in the hall like wooden dummies,
“If I see any of you helping these two, you’ll each copy out the thickest books ten times as punishment.”

Having thrown out those words, he turned back to us and said,
“Whether you like it or not. Song Lanlou, you may be a noble lady at home, but here, you’re just another student. If you want to have a peaceful time under my instruction, you’d better not make me angry.”

Just as I was about to argue back, Yin Yunchi suddenly grabbed my hand and dragged me away without giving me a chance to resist. Only after we ran far enough did she finally let go.

Panting, I asked, “Hey, why did you drag me away? I was just about to argue with that old man!”

That’s when I realized she had held my hand wasn’t she afraid of being touched by people?
Before she caught her breath, I asked again, “Aren’t you afraid of people touching you? Why did you dare hold my hand just now?”

Leaning against the wall, she gasped for air and said,
“You’re way too bold. Teacher Zhou is known for being strict. No one dares disobey his punishments. If you try to resist, it only gets worse. You were just bringing more suffering on yourself.”

I don’t care if I brought it on myself. The teacher was clearly unfair. This woman is too accepting of everything.

“I wasn’t just asking for trouble I just think it’s unfair. My handwriting is bad, and I was late twice, so it’s fair to punish me. But you were only late once. Why should you suffer along with me? I dragged you into this. Don’t you feel angry? If you’d spoken up a little earlier, maybe you wouldn’t have to be punished with me.”

She chuckled softly, and finally replied,
“You haven’t been here long, so you don’t understand the teacher’s personality. He doesn’t like others to oppose his decisions. If I’d spoken up, we might have been punished even more. You say you dragged me into it—maybe. But being late is still a fault, and if he wants to punish me for it, I’ll accept it.”

After a moment of silence, I muttered,
“I really don’t get you.”

Then I remembered she hadn’t answered my earlier question. She walked past me, and a fresh fragrance drifted by, making my heart stir. Feeling something shift inside me, I asked again,
“You still haven’t answered why did you dare touch me? Aren’t you afraid of being touched?”

She turned to me and answered seriously,
“Because you feel different from the others. I feel like you’re pure-hearted, a good person. That’s why I dared to touch you. I know you won’t hurt me. You even said it yourself last night you wouldn’t hurt me.”

I froze, then forced a cheeky grin.
“What if I end up hurting you someday?”

She didn’t answer, just smiled faintly.
Maybe right now, nothing is certain. Who knows which of us will end up hurting the other?

I didn’t dare let Zihui see the bruises on my arm and leg if she saw them, she’d go storming to the academy head. She always treats me like a child, convinced I need her protection, her care.

We didn’t attend the morning class. Yin Yunchi and I were basically driven out by the teacher. It was impossible to stay after that scene.

Since the teacher said no food without fetching water, we had no choice. But I, a pampered noble lady, was in for a rough time. The academy has no internal water source; all water must be carried from outside. Behind the academy’s kitchen is a narrow path leading to the other side of the mountain, where the water source is.

To get there, you have to go down hundreds of stone steps. Going down is easy, but hauling water back up? That’s torture.

One of us held two buckets; the other carried a shoulder pole. Yin Yunchi and I stood by the river for a while, dazed. I finally said,
“What a beautiful view.”

A small waterfall cascaded halfway down the mountain not majestic, but gently flowing. Trees surrounded us on three sides. The shallow stream rippled softly. As my hand skimmed the surface, the mirror-like water was broken.

My hair fluttered loose in the breeze. Droplets slipped through my fingers and fell back into the stream. In that moment, my mind felt clear, and I smiled without realizing it.

When I straightened, she looked at me and said,
“You really match this mountain scenery.”

I accepted her compliment. Seeing her gazing out at the landscape, I had been about to say the same to her. But she beat me to it.

Wiping off my smile, I asked seriously,
“So what now? Are we really supposed to haul water all that way? And there are so many vats behind the kitchen. Can we even fill them all in three days?”

She crouched to fill the buckets. I sat beside her, tapping the shoulder pole in my hands.
“What’s this bamboo stick for? Why do we need it to fetch water?”

She shook her head with a sigh.
“You really are a young lady. You don’t even know how a shoulder pole works?”

After filling four buckets, she slid the pole through the handles of two of them, then squatted down between them, lifting the pole onto her shoulder.
“This is how you use a shoulder pole. You think we have the strength to carry a bucket in each hand all the way up there? The pole helps balance the weight and makes it easier to carry. Miss Song, you truly don’t know what hardship is.”

Was she mocking me? Maybe. But it was true I didn’t know how to use it. I had never done this kind of work before. Seeing how skilled she was, I couldn’t help but ask,
“Do you come here often to fetch water?”

She nodded.
“Let’s hurry. Or we really won’t get to eat.”

I copied her movements and tried lifting the pole onto my shoulder. But I accidentally strained my wound. In pain, I dropped the buckets and clutched my side, feeling something warm begin to seep out again.

“So painful…” I muttered to myself.

I rolled up my sleeve and finally took a proper look at the wound she’d given me. As I unwrapped the cloth, a long mark about a finger-length appeared. It wasn’t deep, but it was bleeding again. A few drops had already soaked through to my clothing.

I turned away I didn’t want her to see it.
I didn’t understand why I didn’t blame her. Why I only thought about hiding it from Zihui.

Why was it that someone so dangerous could hurt me… and yet I still didn’t want to tell the academy head what she’d done?

She suddenly stepped in front of me. Before I could come back to my senses, she was already standing there, and said softly,
“…I’m sorry.”