Chapter 165

Chapter 165

This year’s New Year celebration at Cuiwei Academy was the most organized ever.

Shen Cui had made plans to make it lively and festive.

She personally prepared for the New Year, cutting meat, preparing New Year goods, making cakes, steaming buns, and pasting window flowers.

The young men couldn’t bear to see her busy alone, so they all scrambled to help.

On the 29th day of the lunar month, there were many visitors in the academy.

They were all nearby residents who came to request couplets for the Spring Festival.

Couplets were just a matter of a few strokes of the brush, and the red paper was brought by the visitors themselves.

With the constant sound of firecrackers outside and a strong New Year atmosphere, the young men couldn’t sit quietly in the classroom to study.

Shen Cui simply opened the front door of the house, put up a notice offering free couplet writing help, and let the young men practice their calligraphy, saving the trouble of the servants of the Wei family having to answer the door from time to time.

On New Year’s Eve, Cui Fei went home, saying he would come back to wish Shen Cui and Lao Buyu a Happy New Year on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

Yao helped prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner, so Shen Cui let her go back to reunite with her family.

In the evening, seven or eight hot dishes and several pots of fruit wine were served. Everyone had a lively New Year’s Eve dinner, stayed up late, set off firecrackers, and considered the New Year to be over.

After the New Year, around the Lantern Festival, the Imperial College also started classes.

The young men started their day just like the previous year, having breakfast early in the morning before heading to the prefectural school for classes and returning in the evening.

In the spring, as agreed, Master Liu Shan from Wenjun Academy came to the prefectural school to give lectures.

The prefectural school was a place where ordinary people couldn’t enter; only those who passed the examination could enter.

But Master Liu Shan was still concerned about Lao Buyu and invited him to accompany him for the lecture.

Lao Buyu had nothing to do during the day, and since he had a good relationship with Master Liu Shan during last year’s academy competition, he decided to go along.

Now, there was only Shen Cui left in the academy during the day.

Previously, she had taken Mu Erpang back to take the county exam.

When she saw Lao Buyu’s lifeless appearance, she felt he was like an empty-nest elderly person or a child left-behind by his parents.

Now it was her turn.

After sending everyone off in the morning, she would sit in the courtyard in a rocking chair, brew another pot of tea, have a casual lunch, and slowly pass the time during the day.

However, unlike Lao Buyu, Shen Cui had a system in her mind to chat with.

On this day, as usual, Shen Cui was lying in the rocking chair, chatting idly with the system.

The servant from the Wei family arrived at the second gate and said that the Cui family had sent a letter.

The only one in the Cui family who wrote letters to Shen Cui was Cui Wuniang.

Shen Cui got up to take a look at the letter and saw that it was indeed from Cui Wuniang.

The difference this time was that Cui Wuniang wrote in the letter that she wanted to bring Miss Sun to visit together—

After the engagement between the Cui and Sun families was settled in the first month, Miss Sun was confined at home by Madam Sun to learn etiquette.

Previously, she said that she could count the number of times she went out in a year on one hand.

Now, for the past two or three months, she hadn’t even been out once.

Cui Wuniang was very satisfied with her sister-in-law, especially since Miss Sun had thought of Cui Fei and helped persuade the elders of the Sun family to agree to an earlier wedding date.

She wanted to treat her even better.

So, she went to the Sun family to propose taking Miss Sun out, saying that she wanted Miss Sun to have a say in her own wedding and make sure she had a satisfying one.

In fact, she just wanted to take her out for fun.

Cui Wuniang went to talk in person, giving the Sun family face and showing the importance the Cui family placed on this marriage.

The elders of the Sun family also wanted Miss Sun to have more contact with Cui Wuniang—since Cui Fei’s mother passed away early, Cui Wuniang was like half a mother-in-law, and as the head of the Cui family, if Miss Sun got along well with her, her life after marriage would naturally be smoother.

So, they agreed.

Every month, Cui Wuniang took a day or two to take Miss Sun out.

However, she was nearly a generation older than Miss Sun and had grown up among boys, so she didn’t have much experience in taking girls out to play.

Before, she had only taken Miss Sun to clothing and jewelry stores.

There were only a few famous stores in the capital city.

After a few visits, Cui Wuniang couldn’t think of anywhere else to go. Moreover, although Miss Sun didn’t show it, Cui Wuniang noticed that she wasn’t interested in these things, so she asked her if there was anywhere she wanted to go.

Miss Sun thought for a moment and asked, “I heard from Fei that your academy is different from other places. I wonder if it’s convenient for us to go and have a look there?”

Cui Wuniang then sent someone to inquire, and Shen Cui, who was bored on her end, plus since Miss Sun was going to marry Fei, she was not considered an outsider, so she immediately replied welcoming them to come at any time.

The next day, Cui Wuniang took Miss Sun to visit.

Shen Cui personally went to the entrance of the academy to welcome them and took them on a tour.

The actual area of the academy did not include the front and rear rooms, only the middle area.

After a brief tour that took about half an hour, they had seen everything.

After the tour, Shen Cui invited them to the main house for tea and snacks.

“The students are usually at the prefectural school, and the master is also out. There’s actually nothing much to see in the academy. It’s my fault for thinking it was boring during the day and agreeing when you expressed interest in coming. Miss Sun rarely goes out, so she might feel stifled today.”

Shen Cui said this, and Yao, holding a tray, served tea.

Miss Sun immediately reached out to take it, first placing it in front of Cui Wuniang, then in front of Shen Cui, before finally taking her own cup.

“I heard from Sister Cui Wuniang that Brother Fei has been taken care of by you a lot in the past, so you are also my elder.” After serving the tea, Sun Ruowei continued, “And why would I feel stifled here? It’s very nice here, I can’t quite put it into words. It just gives me a warm feeling. Of course, there may be other unique aspects that I haven’t noticed, after all, I haven’t been out much before.”

No wonder Cui Fei was so fond of her, and Cui Wuniang also cared for her.

This lively Sun Ruowei was not at all delicate, her voice was clear, and her speech was sharp and refreshing.

Even Shen Cui, seeing her for the first time today, had a good impression of her.

She even couldn’t help but think that if her son brought home a wife like this in the future, it would be great.

Then, she would be as fond of this new daughter-in-law as she was of Cui Wuniang now, wanting to keep her by her side at all times.

Perhaps her thoughts were too obvious, Cui Wuniang smiled and pulled Sun Ruowei into her arms.

“This is my precious sister-in-law. If you want one, find one for yourself. But honestly, your family’s Hanshan is already fourteen. It’s time to start looking.”

Shen Cui covered her forehead and said, “Don’t talk to me about this. It gives me a headache.”

Cui Wuniang said, “How could that be? His character, appearance, and learning are all top-notch. If I didn’t know that his future is promising and that marriage should be approached cautiously, I would want to help him matchmake!”

Shen Cui helplessly said, “With his… forget it, let’s focus on his studies first.”

Notice that at the end of last year, when Mu Erpang went with Cui Fei to meet a prospective match, everyone was concerned about it.

Cui Fei was too absorbed in his silly joy to ask anything, and Mei Ruochu, because of his similar age, needed to avoid suspicion, so he couldn’t just look around casually or say too much as he was also in age with Miss Sun.

Mu Erpang, on the other hand, was different.

He was a teenager and didn’t need to be so cautious.

He had quite a lot to say and when asked, he said, “The plum blossoms in the courtyard are really beautiful, no worse than those in the Book Fragrance Temple. There are also sellers of sugar cakes, sugar-coated haws, pea jelly, and bowl cakes…

Have you ever seen bowl cakes? I saw them for the first time.

The vendor said they are snacks from the two Guang provinces.

In the past, some people traveled a long way just to have a taste.

They looked fresh, and the vendor praised them so much that I spent three wen to buy a portion, which I shared with Big Brother Mei.

They were indeed smooth and delicious, very fragrant… And so on.”

Shen Cui listened to him talk for a long time and finally asked helplessly, “Is that all?”

Mu Erpang nodded, “Yes, that’s all. After I finished eating, I wanted to buy some to bring back for everyone to try, but in the blink of an eye, the vendor sold out.”

Wei Shu was almost speechless, ” Headmaster Shen asked if ‘that’s all,’ not if the bowl cakes were sold out. He was asking about your other observations, are there none?.”

Mu Erpang scratched his head, “Other snacks are quite common, and the surface of the lake in the courtyard has also frozen, nothing special.”

With this kind of companion for matchmaking, only interested in enjoying the scenery and eating snacks, how could he talk about marriage?

Who knows when he will mature!

Shen Cui changed the topic and continued talking to them.

Sun Ruowei, like Cui Wuniang earlier, was very curious about how Shen Cui, a rural woman, had managed to start an academy.

When Cui Wuniang asked about it earlier, Shen Cui didn’t know her well, so she only mentioned a small part.

Now that everyone was familiar, she revealed more.

When they heard that she had won over Lao Buyu with her terrible cooking skills, Cui Wuniang and Sun Ruowei laughed so hard their cheeks hurt.

Sun Ruowei asked curiously, “Is your stinky tofu really that stinky?”

Her curiosity was written all over her face, and she really wanted to experience it.

But she definitely wouldn’t be able to experience it now because Shen Cui’s cooking skills had leveled up by 2, and she couldn’t produce the system’s evaluation of “ultimate failure” anymore.

Sun Ruowei was quite regretful.

After getting along for a while, she knew that Shen Cui was particularly kind, so she asked, “I just saw some open notebooks in the classroom…”

“Oh, you mean those. They’re not for them to read. They are very diligent and only read books related to the imperial examinations. Those are mine.”

“I thought so. If it weren’t for your kindness, I wouldn’t have dared to ask. I was afraid you would be unhappy. Since they are yours, I seem to have never seen them outside. Could you lend them to me to have a look?”

With this question, Shen Cui became a little embarrassed.

Because those notebooks were written by her.

A long time ago, when she was still in the village, she wanted to write her own notebooks, but she didn’t have much ink and money to buy and couldn’t come up with the ornate writing style of the current notebooks.

In recent years, she has also studied a lot of “cultural lessons” and finally wrote something that looks a bit decent.

Her notebook was about a story of cultivating immortality.

Unlike the current notebooks, there was not much love and affection in it, and the protagonist was not a man but a woman.

Before getting married, the woman found out that her fiancé had another love. Instead of thinking about how to retaliate against the man, she simply annulled the engagement, got a chance, and pursued immortality.

After writing it, Shen Cui took advantage of her leisure time during the day and went to several bookstores to inquire.

As a result, several bookstores rejected her, saying that there was nothing wrong with her writing style, but this story… was destined to be a loss.

People nowadays prefer the kind of affectionate stories in the notebooks, especially those about scholars and young ladies.

If it’s not about love, but about cultivating immortality, the protagonist should also be a man, and there should be interspersed dewy relationships with fox spirits and charming ghosts.

They also gave suggestions, asking Shen Cui to modify it according to this direction.

After hearing this, Cui Wuniang’s face turned serious, “We’ve known each other for a year and a half, and I consider you a close friend. How could you publish a book without first finding me? Why did you go to someone else?”

Shen Cui hurriedly explained, “It’s because we’re so close that I wanted to ask someone else first. I didn’t want you to feel obligated to publish something that was destined to be a loss.”

Since it had come to this, Shen Cui went to the classroom and brought back the notebooks, showing them to Cui Wuniang.

Cui Wuniang, who had been running a bookstore for many years, read the notebooks very quickly.

Miss Sun was also curious about the contents, so she leaned in with Cui Wuniang to read them.

After reading it, Cui Wuniang said, “Who said it’s destined to be a loss? I think it’s quite good.”

Sun Ruowei also nodded in agreement, “When I was at home, I occasionally got a few notebooks to read. Most of them were about poor scholars and rich young ladies, making these rich young ladies seem like they were very unhappy about their marriage. It’s boring. In my opinion, it’s just poor scholars writing to satisfy their own fantasies. This one is really good!”