The vegetables in the vegetable garden were taken care of extremely well by the diligent elders.
The cucumbers, eggplants, bitter melons, green beans, peppers and so on were all covered in fruits. The leafy greens like napa cabbage, bok choy, sow thistle and so on were also very lush.
Seeing no one around, Jiang Yuqing condensed some spiritual spring rain and thoroughly watered the vegetable garden.
She also gave them some psychic energy, and before her eyes, the vegetable babies grew noticeably faster, only then was she satisfied and stopped manipulating.
Jiang Yuqing pulled up a large cucumber to hug while nibbling on it as she walked to the front yard. After all, it had just been showered with spiritual spring water, so washing was unnecessary.
She looked around, and none of her little bird friends were around.
She figured they must have gone out to look for food to eat while it was cool in the early morning. Since this was the case, she would come to see them again in the evening.
Lu got up and didn't find her daughter, she was just about to go to the back yard, when she saw her precious daughter hugging an enormous cucumber, crunching on it as she came over.
The cucumber was half as long as her, and with her baby teeth, she had nibbled all the way without biting off much. Her cheeks were puffed out, her little mouth opening and closing, looking just like a furtively nibbling little animal.
Lu's face melted at the sight of her precious daughter being so cute. She took the large cucumber from her daughter's hands, kissed her cheeks, and led her back into the room to wash her face.
After washing her face, Lu gave the cucumber back to her and let her keep nibbling. She had just taken two bites when her big brother saw it. He said eating so much cucumber in the morning was not good, snapped off a piece and walked away nibbling it.
Before she could react, her second brother Jiang Yuhe came over and snapped off another piece.
Then it was her third brother Jiang Yuhu...Yuanzi looked at the small piece of cucumber left in her hand, completely speechless...
Old Lady Hu happened to catch this scene. The old lady immediately flared up, "Do you guys not have hands?
There's so many in the garden out back, if you can't pick them yourself, what's the skill in snatching from your sister's mouth! All of you, asking for a spanking."
Jiang Yuqing didn't doubt at all that if she spontaneously cried out loud, not a single one of these brothers would get away with it. Male and female group beating was guaranteed.
But for the sake of familial harmony, Jiang Yuqing magnanimously decided to let them off. It was just one cucumber after all, there were plenty more in the back garden.
Humph! This young lady is just that open-minded!
After breakfast, Jiang Wenyuan gathered his sons and nephews to tutor them.
Being able to receive tutoring from the third-place winner in imperial examination was treatment not just anyone could get. The Jiang boys were pained but happy. Little Yuanzi had nothing to do, so she also held a book in her arms.
Books of this time were printed in traditional characters and stitched together, mostly hand copied, and the content was abstruse. They were read from right to left, top to bottom, and most annoyingly didn't even have punctuation, truly giving people a headache.
Seeing his little daughter reading with utmost seriousness, flipping through for a while, then closing the book heavily with her little brow furrowed tightly, Jiang Wenyuan was quite amused.
He guessed that she was angry because she didn't recognize the characters and couldn't understand. His precious daughter was just too cute.
So he rubbed his little girl's soft hair and gently said, "My good girl needs to learn to recognize characters. As long as you learn to recognize characters, you'll be able to see many more interesting things."
Yuanzi's eyes instantly lit up. Right when she wanted to learn, someone delivered a pillow. She immediately nodded heavily, "Want!"
Receiving an affirmative answer, Jiang Wenyuan spread out some paper and wrote out the three big characters "Jiang Yuqing".
Pointing to it, he said, "Look, our family's surname is Jiang. Jiang is our surname.
For example, my good girl's name, and your dad and brothers' names, the first character is all this Jiang character."
Yuanzi nodded, indicating she remembered.
"This is read 'Yu'. Yu is the generational name for our Jiang clan, our seniority.
Your big brother is called Jiang Yujiang, second brother Jiang Yuhe, and my good girl you are called Jiang Yuqing. Yu is the character for your generation." Yuanzi nodded again.
"The last character is read 'qing'." Because when you were born, there was already a lotus flower between your brows. The lotus is also called furong.
Qing is taken from the meaning of clear water producing furong.
Daddy hopes my good girl will become someone of noble character in the future. So these three characters together form your full name, Jiang Yuqing. Does my good girl remember?"
Yuanzi nodded again: "Jiang, Yu, qing. My, name!" She spoke very slowly, enunciating each character clearly.
Jiang Wenyuan was quite surprised. He had just casually explained it. Who would've expected this little tot not even two years old to actually remember it so clearly.
His precious daughter not only remembered it in one go, but remembered it so clearly. Could it be...his daughter was a genius?
To verify his guess, Jiang Wenyuan taught his daughter ten more characters in one go.
Afterwards, he crumpled up the written paper into a ball and tossed it away. Then he jumbled up the order of the ten characters, even combining them with other characters, and had his daughter recognize them again. Jiang Yuqing accurately recognized them every time without fail.
Photographic memory! His daughter really was a genius! Jiang Wenyuan was so excited he paced around the study, this feeling was no less than when he had been named third-place winner back then.
Afterwards, he thought again, since his daughter was a fairy reincarnated, of course she would be smarter than others, so Jiang Daddy calmed down again.
Jiang Yuqing's slick move didn't just show off to Jiang Daddy, it also showed off to her brothers.
After the excitement, the boys lowered their heads again to keep diligently reading. Even the usually mischievous second brother Jiang Yi behaved himself.
Their little sister was already so awesome at such a young age. If they didn't work hard, they would soon be surpassed by their sister.
What a beautiful misunderstanding!
Little did they know this beautiful misunderstanding prompted the Jiang boys to start down the road of becoming top students from then on. They rose to the top of their family school, then the top of the village school, and kept rising all the way up the road to success.
Jiang Yuqing felt she had only recognized a few characters, yet Daddy reacted so dramatically.
If in the future she showed off some other skills, wouldn't her dad be so happy he fainted.
But learning to recognize characters was imperative, and had to be done quickly.
Then find a reliable master to study medicine under, that way, the skills from her past life wouldn't go to waste and she could become famous for her talents, not buried and forgotten.
One willing to learn, one willing to teach. In just one morning, Jiang Yuqing had gotten through half of the Three Character Classic.
If he wasn't afraid of tiring out his daughter, Jiang Wenyuan really wanted to teach through the whole Three Character Classic in one go.
At lunch, when Jiang Wenyuan told the family about this, they were all shocked beyond belief.
Jiang Wenyuan even asserted that if Jiang Yuqing had been born a boy, the Jiang family could produce another top examination graduate.
After eating, the sun was at its most vicious time of day. Everyone happily ate a huge watermelon, then contentedly returned to their rooms for an afternoon nap.
In the afternoon, Jiang Wenyuan didn't keep the children reading. With nothing else to do at home, Jiang brought his grandsons basket after basket, bamboo basket after bamboo basket, those with shovels grabbing shovels, all rushed down to the riverside to dig up sand and stones to pave roads, even the youngest Jiang Yuchuan wasn't spared.
The old man said the Jiang men could not be idle in four ways or unskilled in the five grains. Even though your uncle (dad) was a third-place winner, when he got home he still rolled up his pants and went into the fields to work. Are you more delicate than your uncle (dad)?
And so, Jiang's seven calabash brothers, with no arguments, obediently did as told.
With the boys of the house gone to dig up pebbles, Jiang Wenyuan carefully put a small hat with lotus leaf edges on his precious daughter, then carried her out the door. He planned to go take a look at the school grounds.
The foundation of the school had already been laid, the workers were building up the walls, which were about one man high. At this speed, it would only take a few days before they could put up the roof beams.
When they went over, the old clan chief and a few senior clansmen were sitting in the village shade by the school cooling off, each holding a large palm leaf fan.
Chatting while fanning themselves, occasionally raising their heads to look at the workers. Next to them was a teapot missing its spout and an earthenware bowl.
Seeing the father and daughter come over, they hurriedly stood to greet them.
"Wenyuan, when did you come back?"
"I came back last night. The yamen is closed today, so I came back to take a look. I was tutoring the children at home this morning, and this afternoon I'm taking my daughter out for a stroll."
"Clan chief uncle, third grandpa, seventh grandfather, please sit. No need to stand on ceremony."
Jiang Wenyuan chatted casually with the elders while looking for a clean brick to sit on, just like before when he wasn't an official yet.
His easygoing and casual manner truly comforted the elders.
They marveled that the child was so good, he didn't look down on them old fellows even after becoming a big official.
"Here, let sixth grandpa hold you!" The clan chief reached out his hands to Jiang Yuqing.
Jiang Yuqing did not want to disappoint these kind elders, so she slipped out of her father's arms and ran over to hug the clan chief.
The chief was overjoyed by her affectionate intimacy. Laughing heartily, he said, "That old fogey your grandfather is so stingy, keeping you hidden away like a treasure. We old folks miss you whenever we want to see you, and have to go over to your house."
Stroking her hair, he asked, "Sweetheart, do you miss your Sixth Grandfather?"
"Yes, Sixth Grandfather," she nodded.
"Oh, so you only miss Sixth Grandfather, and not the rest of us?" the other two elders protested unhappily.
Realizing her mistake, Yuqing immediately tried to smooth things over. "Miss you too, Grandfather!" she said, addressing each of them.
The two old men were promptly mollified.
The clan chief asked Jiang Wenyuan, "How come it's only darling granddaughter here, and not those seven rascally grandsons of yours?"
Jiang Wenyuan smiled and said, "Their grandfather has taken them to shovel rocks by the river."
The clan chief laughed and gave a thumbs up. "That's just like your family."
After chatting with the elders a while longer, Jiang Wenyuan finally picked up his daughter to take their leave, heading towards the road construction site.
When he had returned to the village yesterday, he had taken a quick look and seen that at least two li had been completed already. At the time, he had wondered how the progress was so fast. Now he could see that most of the villagers were working on this road, even the elderly, women and children.
Some families were even out in full force. Some shoveling sand, some breaking rocks, some mixing lime, some tamping down and leveling the surface - everyone was busy as bees, backs soaked with sweat.
As Jiang Wenyuan walked along, he greeted the villagers, feeling both delighted and moved.
Worried they might suffer heat stroke laboring in the intense heat, he called over a sister-in-law who was also his childhood friend's wife.
He gave her a handful of silver coins, asking her to start making mung bean soup every day from tomorrow onwards, to bring to the worksite for everyone to cool off with.
This thoughtful gesture moved the villagers deeply once again. They all praised Third Young Master Jiang for not forgetting his fellow villagers even after becoming an official.
First he had built a schoolhouse and hired a teacher for the village, then provided money to construct the road, and now even hiring someone to make mung bean soup because he was worried they might get heat stroke. Where else could you find such a good son, or such an upright official?
Moreover, ever since he had risen in status, the villagers gained much face whenever they traveled outside. Even when peddling vegetables in the city, as soon as people heard they were from the same village as Top Scholar Jiang, their produce would sell faster than others.
When the village youths wanted to propose marriage, things proceeded extremely smoothly. Any potential bride who was unattractive or came from a problematic family would not even be mentioned by the matchmakers.
There were countless visible and invisible benefits like these.
The villagers had no valuable possessions to repay him with. All they could offer was their labor and sweat, hurrying to complete the road as fast as possible. This way, travel would be easier for everyone in future, and the Magistrate could return home quicker too.
After leaving the construction site, father and daughter went next to the sweet potato field.
In the month since planting, the vines had grown over a foot long, vibrant with life. Not a single weed could be seen in the entire field, proof of attentive care.
Jiang Wenyuan gazed at the sweet potato plants, eyes deep and brooding, as if trying to foresee the harvest through the thick soil.
Seizing the chance, Yuqing called over some birds and asked them to help look after the field, catching any insects promptly and reporting any destructive humans or animals. The birds happily agreed.
That night when it was time for bed, Yuqing insisted on having her own room again, saying she was too big to sleep with Mama and Papa now.
The couple had no choice but to indulge her demand and let her move back to her own quarters, with Lu Chun and Gu Yu taking turns keeping watch through the night.
At first, Lu felt a little sad that her daughter didn't want her company anymore, thinking she had grown up and didn't need her Mama's affection.
But suddenly her fair face flushed crimson, and she punched her husband in embarrassment, as if recalling something.
Seeing his wife's maidenly reaction, Jiang Wenyuan's handsome face also reddened slightly.
Could it be that their precious daughter had seen something inappropriate in the early mornings? Knowing what a precocious child she was, it was not impossible.
That night, the couple got up twice to check on her. Seeing her sleeping peacefully under a thin blanket, belly covered, they finally relaxed and went back to their room.
The next day, they hugged and kissed their daughter repeatedly before reluctantly leaving her in Lu Chun and Gu Yu's care.
