On the third day of the first month, Er Nainai Zhao came to pay her respects to Yuxi and brought her daughter Ziyao with her, whom she had never brought over before.
The little girl was dressed in a peachy-coloured dress and wore twin spiral buns with rainbow-coloured tourmaline bead flowers tied to them. Her facial features were fifty per cent similar to Er Nainai Zhao's.
Yuxi smiled and praised, "What a good-looking girl." After saying that, she gave the little girl a crystal lotus hairpin as a first-meeting gift, and she naturally didn't forget to give her a red envelope.
The little girl looked at her mother, and when she saw Er Nainai Zhao nod gently, she took it with both hands and said in a crisp voice, "Thank you, Madam."
Yuxi smiled. "Your mother and I are like sisters. There's no need to call me Madam. Just call me Aunt." It was rare to find someone whom she could get along with. Apart from anything else, she would have someone to talk to if she wanted to chat with someone.
The little girl was not afraid of strangers. When she saw her mother give her consent, she called out to Yuxi once more with, "Aunt". She had a good impression of the gracious and generous Yuxi.
Er Nainai Zhao had come to talk to Yuxi with a purpose. After telling her child's wet nurse to withdraw with her daughter down, she immediately asked Yuxi, "I heard that you gave the concubine rewarded by His Highness the Crown Prince to someone else?"
Yuxi nodded. "Uncle Huo's favour towards the General is tantamount to giving him a new lease on life. When the General saw that Uncle Huo didn't even have anyone by his side to take care of him, he decided to give Yan Shi to Uncle Huo."
Er Nainai Zhao looked at Yuxi with admiration before praising, "You are wise, Meimei!" Seeing Yuxi's puzzled look, Er Nainai Zhao explained, "My Dasao didn't take the concubine rewarded by the Crown Prince seriously at first and took her too lightly. Now, on the 29th day before New Year, she discovered that the woman is pregnant."
Yuxi didn't quite understand what that meant. "Your Dasao already has her two sons, and so did the other concubines. Even if Ke Shi is pregnant, what does it matter?" The woman the Crown Prince had rewarded Zhao Zhuo was surnamed Ke Shi.
Er Nainai Zhao shook her head. "I just think that this woman is too calculating. When she was serving my Dage, my Dasao gave her pregnancy avoidance soup. My Dasao is smart, but somehow, that woman can still get pregnant under her nose." This woman was clearly not an oil-saving lamp. She would be a troublesome one in the future.
Yuxi heard a whiff of rejoicing in other people's misfortune in her words.
Er Nainai Zhao was actually very depressed inside. "That Ke Shi is truly something since she got pregnant as soon as she entered the Zhao residence. I didn't know how many medicines I'd taken over the past few years, but I still couldn't conceive. My condition has caused me to be worried to death." It was because she was close to Yuxi that she had misgivings about sharing her matter with Yuxi.
Hearing this, Yuxi could not help but ask a few more questions. "Ziyao seems to be four or five years old. Have you seen a physician yet?"
Er Nainai Zhao laughed bitterly. "When did I haven't seen a physician? I've seen several famous physicians in Yu City, but they all said nothing was wrong with me." If there were a problem, she would have treated herself, but when the physicians said there was no issue with her body, this showed that she just couldn't conceive.
Hearing this, Yuxi didn't know what to say. Although she had studied pharmacology, it was only on paper, and she did not dare to check Er Nainai Zhao's pulse. She couldn't afford to bear it if something went wrong. "I'm not saying that the physicians in Yu City are not good at gynaecology. I think you should find a famous physician in Xinping City who can take a look at you. If Xinping City doesn't work, you can try finding famous provincial capital physicians. This is better than sitting at home worrying."
Er Nainai Zhao was a little hesitant. This action would only make people think something was wrong with her health. She would lose face at that time.
Yuxi persuaded her, "Don't be afraid of losing face. Have you ever thought that you would be in an unfavourable situation if your husband had a concubine and gave birth to a shu son? Do you think it's important to save your face or be in a favourable position? It's up to you to decide." If Er Nainai Zhao couldn't have another child, just like her dasao, Ye Shi, then she could do nothing about it. Now that Er Nainai Zhao had the chance to fix herself, striving to make it work was necessary. If it were up to Yuxi, she would go straight to the capital once she found that the province's physicians could not cure her. She would have to find out what her problem was.
Er Nainai Zhao also understood that Yuxi meant well, so she nodded. "Alright, I will visit the provincial capital when spring starts." After a pause, she explained, "I have a guma there, so I'll write to her in the next few days and ask her to help me find a physician for me to see." She used to feel embarrassed, but now she thought it was silly. A momentary loss of face meant nothing.
Yuxi smiled. "That's right!"
Er Nainai Zhao liked talking to Yuxi because she would not ridicule her for speaking inappropriately; instead, she would come up with ideas and think of a way for her. "By the way, Meimei, a few days ago, several children from the school came over to pay their respects to you. Why didn't you show up?" After all, rumours were only rumours. Looking at these children's actions, it was clear that Yuxi's hard work had not been in vain.
Yuxi smiled and said, "I didn't want to see them." As for a reason, naturally, she wouldn't want to explain it.
Er, Nainai Zhao did not continue with the issue but requested, "Meimei, this time, I have a favour to ask you. Your handwriting is so beautiful. I wonder if you have any copybooks here? I would like to copy it for my Ziyao."
Yuxi smiled as she answered, "What's so difficult about that?" After saying that, she called Zijin and asked her to go to her study to fetch the book Teacher Song had given her. This book could be used as a calligraphy copybook.
Er Nainai Zhao took it and said gratefully, "Thank you so much, Meimei. I will return this book of calligraphy after some time." What was the most expensive thing in Yu City? Pen, ink, paper and ink stones were definitely at the top of the list, and calligraphy books were even more expensive since they were something that even those with money couldn't buy.
Yuxi shook her head and said, "That's too outlandish, Jiejie."
After talking to Yuxi briefly, she took her daughter back home. When the mother-daughter duo arrived at the main entrance, they ran into Fu Qingluo, who was just coming over. Er Nainai Zhao was a little surprised and greeted with a smile, "Happy New Year, Miss Fu." She silently cursed Fu Qingluo in her heart but didn't dare to show it on the surface. If a whip came at her, she would be the only one suffering physical pain.
With a brief response of acknowledgement, Fu Qingluo stepped through the main gate and went inside.
Er Nainai Zhao didn't care either. Fu Qingluo already had that kind of reputation outside anyway. Thus, it was impossible to expect a smile to come from her.
When Fu Qingluo saw Yuxi, she immediately made her intentions clear. "What do you think I can do in your school?"
The corners of Yuxi's mouth twitched. Why couldn't this girl leave her school alone? To Yuxi, Fu Qingluo was too energetic and had no place to release her energy. That was why she always wanted to do something. "Then, what do you want to do in school?"
Fu Qingluo turned into a rare silence when she heard Yuxi ask the same question as Da Nainai Fu. After half a second, she looked up at Yuxi and said, "Actually, I just want to do something that shows that women are not inferior to men. The fact that you started a school also shares my sentiment." In modern terms, Fu Qingluo was a massive supporter of feminism.
Yuxi's expression turned somewhat rigid. She only started the school to help people and not to compete with men! Fu Qingluo's idea was so avant-garde. "Why should you compete with men? Just live your own life!" She also thought the world was unfair to women, but it was not easy to change this phenomenon!
Fu Qingluo was a little disappointed to hear this. "I thought you would be different from the others!" At least what Yuxi had done so far was different.
Yuxi was silent for a while before saying, "You always want to prove that women are not inferior to men, but in fact, there is no need for that at all. Doing one thing with peace of mind is more meaningful than letting your imagination run wild." Always thinking of doing something amazing and significant was totally impractical.
Fu Qingluo asked, "Then what do you think is meaningful for me to do?" She wanted to go to war to fight and build a career from there, but she didn't even have the opportunity to do so, and she didn't know what else to do.
Yuxi was silent for a moment and suggested, "When I was in the capital, I heard that the Northwest Army lacked medicine, and many soldiers lost their lives because they did not receive timely treatment. If you have the will, you can work towards that."
Fu Qingluo shook her head. "No, this medicinal material business is not easy to do, and it is already being handled by Zhao's family, so it would be inappropriate for me to jump in rashly."
Yuxi smiled. "Then I don't have any other suggestions to give." Fu Qingluo said she couldn't do it before starting but still wanted to build something amazing and outstanding. It would have been good if she could stop making a mess of her life.
Fu Qingluo was silent for half a second before saying, "This matter of medicinal herbs is out of the question. Han Yuxi, tell me, how can we solve the problem of the lack of physicians?"
Yuxi answered, "There are 100,000 soldiers in the military camp, but there are only one or two dozen military physicians, which is far from enough, so I think we can train more talents in this area."
Fu Qingluo shook her head. "It would take at least ten years to train a physician. In ten years, even the cucumber dish will become cold."
One of the cucumber dishes in Chinese cuisine.
Yuxi tried to reason, "We don't necessarily need to train a physician. Training a group of apprentices who are good at caring for wounded soldiers is already good enough. If some wounded soldiers could receive good care, they would not have died in vain."
Fu Qingluo still shook her head and questioned, "How can it be possible for women to care for men's bodies?" By then, these women would not be able to marry.
Yuxi was discouraged and surrendered, "Then I have no other idea to give you."
Fu Qingluo said, "Actually, I have an idea. You should not dismiss the school at the beginning of spring, but keep it going. Not only that, but you should also recruit more girls. You can set up a female army if you train these girls well. By then, they can join the battle to kill the enemies."
Yuxi didn't even know what colour her face was. She felt that this girl was pestering her for this reason. "Miss Fu, I admire you for having such guts. But I let those girls learn martial arts so that they can strengthen their bodies, not for them to go to war." Unless they were the kind who were born with divine strength and had seen blood, such as Zijin, then it would be okay to send them into battle. If an ordinary girl joined one and fainted at the sight of blood, how could she continue to fight in a war?
In her anxiousness, Fu Qingluo let out what she was thinking. "Are you saying no to this?"
Yuxi shook her head. "I'm sorry, but there's no way I can agree to this." If the children's parents knew about it, they would have taken them home immediately.
Fu Qingluo asked, undeterred, "Is there really no room for manoeuvre?"
Yuxi said firmly, "There is no room for negotiation." She really admired Fu Qingluo for daring to think such a thing.
Seeing this reaction, Fu Qingluo stood up and said, "In that case, I will take my leave." She did not give up on the idea just because she had run into a wall on Yuxi's side; on the contrary, it had strengthened her belief. If Han Yuxi disagreed, she could just recruit and train some children herself, right?