The Pampered Concubine Gu Jiao Niang

Chapter 41: Alone

Gu Jiao never expected that after going through the gaokao, postgraduate entrance exams, and doctoral entrance exams in her previous life, she would have to start from learning calligraphy as a primary school student in this life, especially in the field that she was least skilled at - using a brush.

Gu Jiao was feeling miserable, and she wasn't in a good mood.

Although there was a beautiful man by her side, his looks were stunning, but she didn't want to practice calligraphy, no, no, no!

"Let's start with your name," Xiao Liu Lang said.

His voice was somewhere between the puberty period and a mature man's voice, without that unpleasant duck's throat sound, but with a hint of clean, low, and moist sound.

Gu Jiao was a bit powerless to resist, and she silently watched him write her name on the paper.

Unlike the signature on the informed consent form signed earlier, this time it seemed to be neater.

But Gu Jiao still didn't quite understand.

From Gu Jiao's angle, the characters were upside down, so Xiao Liu Lang flipped the paper over and let Gu Jiao have a closer look.

Then, he wrote down each stroke and stroke order on the paper.

Gu Jiao felt overwhelmed as she looked at so many strokes.

It was neither traditional nor simplified Chinese characters, nor was it regular or cursive script; it was a font that she was completely unfamiliar with.

Seeing Gu Jiao awkwardly holding the brush, Xiao Liu Lang said, "Your grip is not right. Move your hand up a bit more, and don't stiffen your wrist."

"Like this?" Gu Jiao adjusted as he instructed.

Gu Jiao's grip on the pen was actually considered standard in her past life, but it was a little inadequate in front of Xiao Liulang, the ancient man.

"Index finger," Xiao Liulang said.

"Hmm?" Gu Jiao was confused.

Xiao Liulang hesitated for a moment, stretched out his slender, jade-like fingertips, and gently flicked her index finger upwards.

If it were any other occasion, Gu Jiao would have thought, "He touched my fingertip, that's practically holding hands." But since he was teaching her how to read, that was like being in class, and Gu Jiao was always serious in class.

Gu Jiao took off her shoes, crossed her legs and sat facing him. Stroke by stroke, she practiced writing with great seriousness.

Xue Ningxiang was waiting in the main hall, wondering why Gu Jiao had been inside for so long. The letter wasn't even that long, did it really take that long to read?

Little did Xue Ningxiang know that the two people in the room had completely forgotten about the letter, one reading and the other practicing writing.

Occasionally, Xiao Liulang corrected Gu Jiao's grip on the pen, but he didn't insist on whether she wrote well or not. After all, it was her first time holding a brush, and it was already good enough that she wasn't writing off the paper.

If Gu Jiao knew what he was thinking, she would probably explode. As a modern academic overachiever, how could she be holding a brush for the first time!

Gu Jiao had a good memory, so she only had to write the complex strokes once to remember them, but her writing was so ugly that it was almost unbearable.

By Xiao Liulang's standards, she was just a primary school student who had just started holding a pen.

After a while, the two of them had unknowingly spent half an hour in the room. In the end, it was the old lady who was bored and came to find Gu Jiao, only to discover that the two of them were writing in the room.

The old lady didn't come closer to take a look, just glanced at the red paper at the door.

She immediately made a judgment in her mind: "Are you writing spring couplets? Hmm, you should be, if you don't hurry, you won't make it in time. When you're done, call me."

She wanted to paste spring couplets!

It was really a beautiful misunderstanding, but since the old lady brought it up, they returned to the main topic and started writing spring couplets!

"I'll cut the paper!" Gu Jiao put down the brush and went to find scissors in the room.

Thank goodness for her savior! If she kept practicing like this, her hands would be ruined!

Xiao Liulang looked at the red paper in front of him with a somewhat absent-minded expression.

But when Gu Jiao neatly cut them and placed them in front of him, he still picked up his brush and wrote a few couplets.

"Write a few for Xiao Xue too," the old lady reminded him.

With the old lady's reminder, the two finally remembered about Xue Ningxiang and her letter that they had forgotten about earlier, and felt a bit embarrassed.

Half an hour later, Gu Jiao arrived at Xue Ningxiang's home with her letter, the couplets that Xiao Liulang had written by hand, and a plate of sesame candy and chestnut cakes.

"Why so much?" Xue Ningxiang was surprised.

Gu Jiao naturally wouldn't say that she had come to express her apologies, so she said seriously, "It's almost New Year's, aunt-in-law asked me to bring them over. The couplets are for you, and the chestnut cakes and sesame candy are for your mother-in-law and your son."

Xue Ningxiang quickly thanked her.

"Just now..." Gu Jiao hesitated for a moment, but decided to explain.

But Xue Ningxiang gave her a mischievous smile and gave her a knowing look.

Gu Jiao: What do you understand?

Xue Ningxiang was an experienced person. When a young wife entered her husband's room and didn't come out for a long time, what else could she be doing? Why would she be angry about something like that? The reason she left without a sound was to avoid seeing what she shouldn't see and hearing what she shouldn't hear.

"Just... remember to close the door next time," she whispered to Gu Jiao.

Gu Jiao: I think you've misunderstood something...

Xue Ningxiang's younger brother-in-law wrote in the letter that he had achieved a small accomplishment on the border, was promoted to sergeant, and received ten taels of silver as a reward. He sent all the reward money back to Xue Ningxiang, asking her to take care of her mother-in-law and son and not treat him too harshly.

He would earn a lot more silver in the future, so she shouldn't be stingy.

This younger brother-in-law was not bad.

Gu Jiao asked if Xue Ningxiang wanted a reply, but Xue Ningxiang shook her head, saying that everyone had gone back for the Lunar New Year and there was no one at the post station to send letters.

After handing over the items to Xue Ningxiang, Gu Jiao went back home. Xue Ningxiang accepted the food, but only took one pair of couplets, saying they were too expensive. Gu Jiao explained that the paper was given by Feng Lin and she didn't pay attention to the price, but later found out that the paper used for writing couplets was several times more expensive than ordinary paper.

"They're not usually this expensive, but prices go up during the Lunar New Year," explained Xiao Liulang.

"Is Feng Lin's family well off?" asked Gu Jiao.

Xiao Liulang thought for a moment and shook his head, "I didn't ask, but I don't think they're too well off."