Time Travel: The Noble Family

Chapter 136: Chapter 57: The End of the Gentleman’s Task_2

In the afternoon, Embroidery Lady Mah taught embroidery. Embroidery Lady Mah actually liked Yueyao very much, but Yueyao’s heart wasn’t in embroidery, and her skills progressed slowly.

Initially, Yueyao never intended to master embroidery. As everyone thought, learning to embroider a pouch or personal bellyband was considered sufficient for her. However, during her time learning with Embroidery Lady Mah, she became increasingly interested. In Yueyao’s eyes, embroidery was no longer just a simple craft but a work of art.

With this thought in mind, Yueyao no longer thought of herself as doing embroidery but saw the needlework in her hands as painting. Once she started, she would visualize in her mind how to make the next stitch to create a beautiful pattern. Because of this, Yueyao, despite her short learning period, showed the most talent in this area, according to Embroidery Lady Mah.

For this reason, seeing that Yueyao had excellent concepts and color coordination, and her skills were also good, but her progress was the slowest, how could Embroidery Lady Mah not be anxious.

That day, Embroideress took Yueyao aside, “Third Young Lady, you asked me last time about the Gu embroidery technique. Over this period, I’ve seen that you indeed have the talent, but it seems like your heart is not in it. If that’s the case, I won’t teach you Gu embroidery.” Finding such an intelligent student who grasps things quickly is rare. She was eager to teach, but if Yueyao didn’t cherish the opportunity and took it as a game, rare as it might be, she would not teach.

Yueyao was stunned; she didn’t think she had shown any outstanding performance yet. But having this idea from the embroideress was a good thing for her. Yueyao then honestly shared her situation, “I have to teach my younger brother literacy at night. So, I don’t have time to practice in the evenings, but once my brother finds a teacher, I can focus on learning embroidery.”

The embroideress was somewhat surprised. She had heard that the Third Young Lady was arrogant and aloof. At first, she thought the Third Young Lady looked down on it, but she did not expect that she taught her younger brother every day, which was a rare quality to find: “Okay. Once you’ve taken care of your current responsibilities, then I will teach you.” Embroidery Lady Mah thought Yueyao’s fundamentals were solid and with another three to five months of training, she would be ready to be taught.

Yueyao immediately promised, “Okay.” Although Gu embroidery might not be the most secret technique of Embroidery Lady Mah, being deemed so highly regarded made Yueyao very grateful.

Nanny Deng watched her young lady working so hard every time, and it hurt her heart. But there was no solution to her heartache. She couldn’t tell the young lady not to go learn or to stop teaching Young Master Tingzheng, as that was impossible.

Hua Lei comforted Nanny Deng, “Mother, it’s good for the young lady to be busy; being busy is better than being idle. I’m very worried that once the young lady is idle, she will start copying scriptures every day. Although the young lady is busy daily, she eats two bowls of rice every meal and never skips her nutritional supplements. Though these days are busy, her complexion is becoming more radiant and she has gained some weight, so I’d rather have the young lady busy than copying scriptures like her life depends on it.”

Having heard this comfort, Nanny Deng could only sigh. Then, the only thing she could do was to make delicious food for the young lady every day. However, there was also a downside to this; over time, the people below started murmuring.

Hua Lei conveyed the kitchen staff’s gossip to Yueyao. Yueyao smiled lightly, “Let them say what they want; mother, don’t hold back on doing what you want to do.” With grandmother around, these people only dared to murmur quietly.

After teaching Tingzheng at night and finishing her washing up, Yueyao lay in bed thinking. Before she slept, she still wondered when her uncle would find a good teacher for Tingzheng. Unexpectedly, the very next day, there was news, and it was good news.

As it happened, it was quite a coincidence. Ma Chengteng was inadvertently overheard by Li Guoxing while he was looking for a teacher for Tingzheng.

After leaving the court, Li Guoxing walked with Ma Chengteng and smilingly brought up the matter, “I remember your youngest son is fourteen this year, now studying at the academy. Whose child are you finding a teacher for?” Li Guoxing was just a bit curious.

Ma Chengteng replied with a smile, “For Tingzheng.”

Li Guoxing was surprised, “Tingzheng? How are you finding a teacher for a child from the Lian family?” He knew that the next generation of the Lian family was denoted by the ‘Ting’ generation, but he really did not know who Tingzheng was.

Hearing that it was Lian Dongbo’s son, Li Guoxing was taken aback, “Ziming’s son?” He did not remember Ziming having a son. Perhaps it was an adopted one.

It was no surprise that Li Guoxing was unaware of Tingzheng’s existence. Lian Dongbo had never mentioned externally that he had a son, primarily because the son’s background was something he found hard to discuss; moreover, he was in Jiangnan, a thousand miles away.