Married to a Villainous Minister - Chapter 25

Yu Qizhe stepped aside, allowing Yu Jiao to enter his room. Standing at the doorway, Yu Fuling was so angry she nearly stomped her foot. 

She had just told her younger brother to keep his distance from Meng Yujiao, and now here he was, agreeing to teach her calligraphy.

Thinking back to what Yu Qizhe had said in the main hall before dinner, Yu Fuling’s expression darkened further. 

“Could it be that her little brother had actually been bewitched by that vixen Meng Yujiao? Was he really thinking of taking her as his official wife?”

Seeing Yu Fuling still standing at the door, Yu Qizhe turned his head and asked, “Sister, would you like to practice calligraphy too?”

Yu Fuling huffed and shook her head. She had always loathed reading and writing, but she also didn’t like the idea of Yu Qizhe being alone with Yu Jiao. 

After thinking for a moment, she returned to her room, brought out her sewing basket, and dragged a small stool to sit at the entrance of the inner room, just close enough to keep an eye on them.

Yu Qizhe laid three sheets of yellow hemp paper on the desk, each covered with calligraphy, and handed Yu Jiao a few fresh sheets of white xuan paper.

Yu Jiao glanced at the yellow paper, it was filled with the names of medicinal herbs. It was clear Yu Qizhe had genuinely put thought into preparing this and wasn’t just going through the motions when he agreed to teach her.

Her mood lifted unexpectedly. Even her eyes and lips softened a little. She picked a fine-tipped wolf-hair brush from the brush rack, laid the xuan paper over the sample, and sat down at the desk. Dipping her brush in ink, she began to carefully trace each character stroke by stroke.

Yu Qizhe gave a quick glance at her grip on the brush, then turned his gaze away and picked up a volume of essay samples used for the imperial exams. He sat on his bed and began to read quietly.

The fact that the two of them weren’t speaking at all actually pleased Yu Fuling. Still, she stayed alert. She stitched a wedding robe with one hand while raising her head every so often to check on them, afraid that if she looked away, Meng Yujiao would pull some trick to seduce Yu Qizhe.

The room was unusually quiet, broken only by the occasional sound of a page turning and the soft scratching of Yu Jiao’s brush across the paper. When Madam Song returned, she peeked into the inner room, exchanged a few quiet words with Yu Mengshan, then grabbed a basket and left again to gather mushrooms at the foot of the mountain.

At first, Yu Fuling had been watching the pair like a hawk, but over time, as she saw them each focused solely on their own tasks, one reading, one writing, she gradually turned her attention back to sewing the wedding robe. 

It wasn’t until her needle refused to thread properly that she looked up and realized the sky outside had already grown dark.

She rubbed her sore wrist and set down the sewing basket. Glancing at Yu Jiao still seated at the desk, writing diligently, Yu Fuling was a bit taken aback. 

She had assumed reading and writing were unbearably tedious. If it were her, she’d be exhausted after even an hour, let alone an entire afternoon.

Yu Qizhe was still on the bed, in the same posture as before, absorbed in his book. Yu Fuling got up and lit the candle on the table with a fire striker.

The sudden light startled the two who had been lost in their tasks. Seeing the dim sky outside, Yu Jiao finished the last character, then put down her brush. She was a little surprised herself, it turned out she had been writing all afternoon.

Back when her grandfather made her practice calligraphy, she could never sit still for long. But in this new world, she found it surprisingly calming. Practicing calligraphy quieted the mind and cleared the head.

She counted ten sheets of large characters. Not a wasted afternoon, after all.

Just then, her view of the candlelight was blocked by a shadow. Yu Jiao looked up to see Yu Qizhe standing at the desk. 

Though his figure was lean, now that he was up close, she realized he was already quite tall, more than a full head taller than her, even at his young age.