Li Mingwei and Wang Dazhuang made plans together and set a time. Li Mingwei bought herself a new hair ribbon and then went home.
Thinking that doing this bit of work would earn her more money so she could buy the children better gifts, Li Mingwei decided to postpone going back to Xinghua Village and asked Wang Dazhuang to go back and spread the word for her.
Wang Dazhuang agreed and, after spending the night in town, went back first.
Wang Chunhua thought it was silly of Li Mingwei to get up so early every day to do embroidery work at the workshop in order to buy gifts for the village children. She felt the girl was too foolish and reckless, spending all her money on these unimportant things. What would she do if she suddenly needed money in the future?
Wang Chunhua had already said what she wanted to say about it, but the girl insisted she knew what she was doing and wouldn't spend it all, telling Wang Chunhua not to worry. So Wang Chunhua couldn't be bothered to interfere anymore.
When Dong Lei told Mr. Jin that Li Mingwei had been back for several days but hadn't come by the school yet, Mr. Jin thought she was trying to get out of work. He told Dong Lei to notify her to come over and get scolded.
"Get scolded?"
Li Mingwei looked up from her needlework, wondering if she had heard wrong. Why would Mr. Jin want to scold her?
Dong Lei shrugged, indicating he didn't know. Mr. Jin had simply said so.
Fine, if she was going to get scolded, then she'd get scolded, Li Mingwei thought. She tidied up the handkerchiefs in her basket, got up and stretched. Her eyes were tired and her neck sore from all the embroidery work. It would be good to get out and walk around a bit.
Mr. Jin was still marking the students' dictation from that day. Li Mingwei trotted up the stairs, and he immediately put down his pen and glared at her, "You've been back from Xinghua Village for days but still haven't come to work. What are you up to?"
Li Mingwei pulled over a chair and sat down across from Mr. Jin. "Nothing much, I still have to go back there in a few days."
Mr. Jin was about to continue scolding her, but seeing how tired she looked, slumped over the table with her eyes almost closed, he reluctantly let her off the hook.
Li Mingwei just dozed briefly before opening her bleary eyes and saying softly to Mr. Jin, "I'm so tired from all the embroidery work these last couple days."
"If you're tired, go home and sleep for a while," Mr. Jin said.
"Mm," Li Mingwei murmured in agreement but didn't move. She looked at Mr. Jin and suddenly gave a little cough. "Um, has Scholar Liu been back recently?"
Mr. Jin hesitated a second before answering with amusement, "You still have occasions to ask about him?"
"No, I didn't mean I wanted to ask him anything."
The other day on her way home from the embroidery workshop, she had run into Old Lady Wang hiding in a small alley, leaning against the wall and sighing, as if she were unwell. Since Liu Yizhu wasn't home, there was no one to look after her.
Old Lady Wang came to the school every morning to cook, and Mr. Jin had seen her at noon. She had seemed fine, so he guessed, "Maybe she was in a hurry and needed to rest for a bit?"
"Maybe."
What Li Mingwei had seen was from two days ago already. Since Mr. Jin saw today that Old Lady Wang was fine, then she must be alright.
No one knew that Old Lady Wang was only trying to avoid Li Mingwei. Ever since she had taken her son to visit his grave last time, she hadn't felt right. Seeing Li Mingwei made her feel guilty, so she hid whenever she could.
Li Mingwei didn't dwell too much on this. She and Old Lady Wang were hardly on good terms, and she was only asking out of consideration for the fact that Old Lady Wang was Liu Yizhu's mother. Liu Yizhu had copied so many books for her and hadn't asked for payment. She hadn't even gotten a chance to thank him.
But it didn't matter anymore. It wasn't as if he lacked her thanks.
When Dong Lei heard Li Mingwei was going to the county seat to buy gifts for Xiao Gang and the others, he almost twisted her arm into a pretzel. He insisted on going with her.
"Auntie, auntie, I want to go too!"
Li Mingwei yanked her arm out of his grasp like pulling out a radish, only to be grabbed again a second later. "I already promised to buy you a gift. Why do you still want to go?"
But it was the county seat! His mother had said the county seat was even bigger than the town, with lots more people and livelier. Dong Lei just wanted to go see it. "I want to help pick out gifts too. They're all around my age. I know what they'd like. Please let me go!"
Li Mingwei threatened, "If you go, then there'll be no gift for you."
She thought that would make Dong Lei back down, but after hesitating a moment, he agreed.
"You want to go that badly? Don't even want a gift?"
"Yeah, I want to go."
Seeing his determination, Li Mingwei had no way to stop him. It was Wang Chunhua who gave her the idea to get up early while Dong Lei was still asleep and leave first.
Whether they were overheard making this plan or Dong Lei figured it out himself, that night he brought his pillow to sleep beside Li Mingwei.
Li Mingwei refused on the grounds he was too old for that now, so he took his pillow and went to sleep by his father instead. Either way, he wasn't going to let them sneak off without him. They could only wait until his school holiday and all go together then.
The school gave a three day holiday each month - one day in the middle and two at the end. With only two or three days until mid-month, the delay wouldn't hurt anything, so Li Mingwei waited.
The academy had a similar schedule, so Tang Jue naturally wanted to take the rare break to go out for a drink with a few good friends.
He crumpled up a piece of paper and tossed it onto Yang Jingyuan's desk. Yang Jingyuan unfolded it to find a blank scrap, then crumpled it back up and threw it back.
Tang Jue caught it and raised an eyebrow at him. "Let's go drinking tomorrow."
Yang Jingyuan loved drinking more than anything. How could he refuse? He immediately answered in a much louder voice, "Drinking! I'm in!"
He turned to Zhong Liangyu, "Old Zhong, you coming?"
Zhong Liangyu hesitated a moment and looked to Liu Yizhu. "Are you going?"
Liu Yizhu said, "I'm not going."
"Then I won't go either."
Yang Jingyuan was hopping mad. "You two are really joined at the hip now, aren't you? Wherever you go, I go; wherever I don't go, you don't go. Gotta stick together all day, huh?"
"You wouldn't understand!" Tang Jue stretched his legs up onto the desk and leaned casually back in his chair. "Old Zhong's been forever number two. With number one never taking a break, he doesn't even dare take one if he wants to."
Liu Yizhu's writing paused a moment as he glanced at Zhong Liangyu's rigid back. He nodded. "Go on. I won't drink much."
"As if you drank a lot last time," Yang Jingyuan sneered. How could someone not enjoy such a fine drink was beyond him.
Liu Yizhu gave him an icy look. "Have Zhong Liangyu carry you back tomorrow then."
"No, don't!" Yang Jingyuan panicked immediately. "Bro, big bro, I was wrong, okay? Still gotta trouble you, sir. With those little arms and legs of his, I'd just get tossed again."
Last year when Liu Yizhu had left early, the three of them went drinking and, as usual, Yang Jingyuan got dead drunk. The next morning when he woke up, he found himself in terrible pain all over. He'd gotten drunk plenty of times before and had at most a headache. He'd never hurt all over like this.
When he went out and asked about it, he learned that Zhong Liangyu hadn't been able to carry him and had simply thrown him on the ground, more than once. From that day on, if there wasn't a brawny fellow around, Yang Jingyuan didn't dare drink too much.
Tang Jue still laughed whenever he recalled this incident. He had been there that day too but was also drunk and couldn't look after Yang Jingyuan, only able to hand him off to the sober Zhong Liangyu before going home with servants. As a result, the next day they saw Yang Jingyuan's face bruised on one side.
Tang Jue had nearly died laughing.
