The System Wanted Me to Be a Landlady (GL) - Chapter 44: Supplementing the Heart

Chapter 44: Supplementing the Heart

Song Zhu tested Ye’er a little and discovered that he really could recite the Three Character Classic, and the characters he wrote were quite neat. His heart tightened with a start: he seemed to have truly underestimated Song Yuyan somewhat.

“Is this something your big brother taught you?” Song Zhu asked.

Ye’er nodded. Bing’er, on the side, also showed off by taking out the characters she had written. “Thirteenth Uncle, I can write characters too.”

Song Zhu took her paper in surprise again and examined it, then compared it with Ye’er’s. Ye’er’s characters were neat and elegant, while Bing’er’s were neat but still lacked any spirit. Although the characters from these two were not the same, from the writing habits, it was clear they shared the same root and origin.

Song Zhu always felt like he had missed something, but he soon remembered and said to Song Yuyan, “Your characters, bring them here for me to see too.”

Song Yuyan: “…”

She was confident that Du Yan, Tang Haogen, and the others could not recognize from her handwriting that she was not the real person, but Song Zhu had definitely seen the original owner’s characters. She had no assurance she could fool him.

Under Song Zhu’s questioning gaze, she steeled herself, picked up the brush, and wrote a few characters. However, to lower Song Zhu’s guard, she deliberately wrote them in a wild and rough manner.

But she forgot that Song Zhu had been watching her closely from the side the whole time, so he saw that her posture and expression while writing were extremely relaxed. She picked up the brush naturally, her strokes flowed smoothly, and those characters were done in one go. If it were not for habits formed over many years, there simply would not be this kind of charm.

He did not think Song Yuyan’s characters were sloppy at all. After all, he had a friend who was extremely skilled at cursive script… that’s right, it was Du Yan, Du Shichang.

Although he did not understand cursive script, after appreciating his friend’s cursive script for so long, he felt that Song Yuyan was writing cursive script… probably.

Waves rose in Song Zhu’s heart. In the past, he had only heard others say that this collateral nephew had done some foolish thing again and was chased and scolded by people, but those were all things he had heard secondhand. As for what the nephew was really like as a person, he had never seriously tried to understand.

Thinking of this, he mockingly thought that his past self had been seeing flowers in the fog and had almost misjudged, missing such a good seedling.

“Could it be that he has been persisting in writing characters all these years?” Song Zhu thought to himself.

The more he thought, the more he felt his guess was correct, and his heart felt even more guilty. Thinking of this, he took out his money pouch and handed it to Song Yuyan. “This is private money from Thirteenth Uncle for you to buy brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. Normally, there is no need to be stingy over buying brush, ink, paper, and inkstone and begrudge buying good food…”

Song Yuyan: “?”

Could it be that Thirteenth Uncle saw her characters were too ugly and could not stand it, so he had started to despise her?

The more she thought, the more she felt it made sense. What Thirteenth Uncle said clearly meant: “Oh, your characters are too ugly. You probably do not practice writing much usually, right? I am giving you money, so go buy more brush, ink, paper, and inkstone to practice a lot, lest it is too harsh on the eyes!”

Thinking this way, although she had deliberately written sloppily, she surprisingly felt quite hurt…

Fortunately, this heavy money pouch soothed her wounded heart. She decided that later she would buy a pig heart to stew in soup and supplement her injured heart.

Song Zhu’s trip here could be considered as confirming that Song Yuyan truly and sincerely hoped Ye’er would go to school. He asked Song Yuyan, “Where do you plan to have him go to school?”

Song Yuyan looked at Ye’er and said, “Let him decide!”

Song Zhu did not quite agree. “Such a big matter, how can it be decided by him alone? He is still small and does not understand so much!”

But Song Yuyan said, “He is eleven years old now. He can decide this kind of thing himself.”

Song Zhu was very annoyed and directly asked Ye’er, “Your big brother is not reliable. How about Uncle picks for you?”

But Ye’er was somewhat dazed. He had originally thought that Song Zhu came today just to sit casually, but he had not expected their following conversation to somewhat exceed his imagination. After listening this way, he finally understood. It turned out that Song Yuyan wanted to send him to school!

He was shocked, then lifted his head and looked at this “older brother” who seemed like he was meeting him for the first time.

Going to school, he also really wanted to go to school, but he knew that was a luxury. Even his own birth parents were unwilling to let him start enlightenment lessons, yet this cousin who had a grudge with their family was willing to let him go to school. Was this a dream?

“You have money, why do not you go to school yourself?” Ye’er asked Song Yuyan.

Song Yuyan said, “If I go to school, who will earn money?”

Ye’er’s heart struggled a bit. He really wanted to go to school, so he should go along with Song Yuyan’s words and agree! But another voice told him that if he really agreed, the debt he owed Song Yuyan would be impossible to repay.

“Are you stupid?” Ye’er muttered.

Song Zhu heard it all clearly from the side. Although he also thought that since Song Yuyan had this money, it would be better for her to go to school herself, and the clan also had subsidies. But he also knew clearly that the Song family’s labor force consisted only of Song Yuyan. Once she stopped working to go to school, she ultimately would not be able to study for long, and in the end, it would all be for nothing.

It was just like him and his older brothers. They were three brothers, but for the family’s prosperity, someone had to make a sacrifice. By the time it came to their generation of brothers, the eldest brother managed the family business at home, while the second brother focused on studying. He was relatively young and only responsible for playing.

When he grew up, the eldest brother had managed the family business in an orderly manner, and the second brother had also passed the jinshi exam. The family neither needed him to manage the household nor needed him to pass the jinshi exam with high honors, so after failing the jinshi exam several times, he gave up the imperial examinations and chose to return to the county school to teach.

So between Song Yuyan and Song Yuban, someone had to make a sacrifice. Now, Song Yuyan had already made her choice.

“Ahem, Ye’er, you must not speak to your older brother this way!” Song Zhu reminded.

Ye’er had originally been looking up at Song Yuyan, but at this moment, Song Yuyan seemed to grow much taller in his eyes all at once, making his eye sockets ache and swell, so he lowered his head and said, “I also want to earn money.”

He could earn money now… although it was still not even a fraction of Song Yuyan’s. But in another two years, he definitely could earn enough money to support himself and his little sister!

Song Yuyan saw that he was still in this stubborn manner, so she rubbed his head and cursed out the first rude word of her life: “What the hell do you want to do. Among us, someone must go to school. Not for yourself, but you should also think about the future, think about Bing’er. Compared to having me enter school, what you need more is to learn and gain knowledge.”

Song Yuyan had a foundation and could adopt a learning mode of “mainly self-study, ask the teacher when there are problems.” But Ye’er could not. He recognized individual characters, but if they were connected into sentences, he probably would not know what they meant.

Ye’er did not push away the hand on his head either, but his small face showed a serious expression: “What I am thinking is earning money. I did not think about the hell.”

Song Yuyan: “…”

The sand sculpture system caught too many jokes, and she had forgotten that besides the sand sculpture system, no one else could understand her jokes.

_____

Song Zhu looked at these two “brothers” being so close and loving, with brotherly harmony and respect for the younger, and suddenly a strong desire to write a book arose in his heart.

The story of these two brothers was simply a living positive teaching material! After he went back, he definitely had to write a book and turn this matter into a short story to educate the clan’s children!

Song Yuban and Ye’er did not know that they were about to become cases in the “Song Clan Version Language Textbook.” After Song Yuyan’s explanation, Ye’er finally accepted the reality that he was about to go to school. As for where to go, Song Yuyan let him decide for himself, and he naturally chose the small private school that was relatively close to home.

That private school was right next to the county school, and the one running it and teaching was a Jie Juren named Qi Ru.

Qi Ru was originally from Zhuangyuan Ward, and his home was not close to the county school. However, his family was poor, and he could not afford books, so he could only thicken his face every day, run all the way from far away to the county school to squat with those friends of his who were studying at the county school, and borrow their books to read.

Although the county school was rundown, with low enrollment and promotion rates, it was still an officially run school after all, so those rich second-generation heirs who were just muddling through days and degrees were stuffed in to gild themselves. They had money and books but no heart for learning, while Qi Ru was eager to learn but short of money, so he could only first befriend the rich second-generations, then borrow their books to read while they sneaked out to play during class time.

However, he lived far away and often forgot the time while reading and missed the time to return the books, so he was disliked for it. For this, he came up with a method: he simply moved his home next to the county school, so that when returning the books, he would not worry about delaying the time.

But after he moved, he discovered that he was truly penniless. For a living, he could only run a school and teach to earn some living expenses. However, based on the fact that he still wanted to take the imperial examinations and needed to spend a lot of time studying, he could only teach the children enlightenment lessons.

Moreover, he only taught half a day, and the remaining half day he needed to study. But relatively, the tuition fees would also be halved.

Song Yuyan asked Ye’er, “Are you sure you want to choose Qi Juren’s private school?”

Ye’er said, “I decided myself to choose Qi Juren’s private school. No matter how I study in the future, I will not regret it.”

Song Zhu saw that his mind was set and did not speak further.

With Ye’er’s schooling matter settled, Song Zhu returned to Jinchuan Village. Song Yuyan saw him out the door, and he asked, “That Qi Juren only teaches half a day. I am only worried that Ye’er will not study deeply enough.”

Song Yuyan said, “Thirteenth Uncle, to tell the truth, the original intention of my sending him to school is not for him to focus solely on the path of the imperial examinations in the future… Of course, if he has the heart to take the imperial examinations and the heart to learn, that would naturally be best. But I only hope that he can stand on his own in the future.”

Song Zhu thought what she said made sense, but he also hoped Ye’er was studying for the imperial examinations. After all, if this branch could also produce a jinshi, that would naturally add to the Song family’s prosperity.

Song Yuyan knew that this stern and rigid uncle definitely did not agree with her words, so she added, “Besides, Ye’er is only eleven years old. Let him study enlightenment books for two years first, then return to the county school for further study, and it will still be in time.”

Song Zhu nodded in satisfaction. With Du Yan as an example, he felt that as long as one truly sought learning, even starting to study at seventeen or eighteen was not too late.

Before leaving, he remembered something else and grabbed Song Yuyan to ask further: “By the way, you still have not told me, how old is that young lady from the Tang family, and is she betrothed?”

Song Yuyan’s heart tightened with tension: “Why are you still thinking about this matter?”

She pondered for a moment and smiled as she asked, “Why is Thirteenth Uncle suddenly asking about the lifelong matters of the Tang young lady?”

Song Zhu saw her so tense and vigilant, how could he not understand what was in her heart—she was worried he would抢 her beloved, right?!

Was he so improper in his old age? But upon careful thought, his own behavior of suddenly asking about a young lady’s age did seem quite inappropriate, no wonder this fellow was so guarded!

Song Zhu pulled a straight face and snorted: “Her older brother was once my student. I cannot care about my student’s family situation?”

Song Yuyan had a look on her face that said “Caring about a student’s family situation should not mean caring more about the student, how come you are caring about the little girl?” which annoyed Song Zhu so much that he smacked Song Yuyan’s head with a slap: “Blockhead.”

He had made it so obvious, yet this kid still thought he had ulterior motives?!

He stormed off angrily, determined in his heart not to pay attention to this fellow anymore!

“Blockhead” Song Yuyan was stunned for a moment. Could it be that she had misunderstood? If she really had thought wrong, she must apologize to Thirteenth Uncle.

However, if not, then why did he ask about the Tang little girl’s age and marriage situation for no reason?

Song Yuyan thought for a good while but could not figure it out. The system asked her: “Do you not think he seems like he is investigating household registration?”

Song Yuyan felt it was quite like that, but Thirteenth Uncle was not a neighborhood committee director either, so why would he investigate someone else’s household registration?

The system prompted her again: “…Think carefully, under what circumstances do elders automatically and consciously act as neighborhood committee directors to investigate family household registrations?”

“Blockhead” Song Yuyan was enlightened. She was silent for a long time before she said: “He is preparing to look for a wife for his own son?!”

The system: “…”

This host of it was toxic!

Song Yuyan saw that the system did not answer, so she pondered a bit more and suddenly realized: “Could it be that he wants to matchmake me and that little girl?! But I am a woman!”

Besides yourself, no one would think you are a woman! For the first time, the system felt that being a system was difficult: “Have you forgotten that you are now Song Dalang?”

Song Yuyan: “…Oh!”

Sorry, she had really forgotten that she was disguised as a man.

Then…

She lowered her head and glanced at her chest: “Should I bind my chest to better fit my persona?”