Chapter 6

Facing the astonished young girl, Zuo Xiaoyou asked, "Do you know who the Four Great Beauties of ancient China are?"

"No," the girl shook her head and wrinkled her nose, seemingly uninterested in beautiful women.

"Then do you know about 'sinking fish, falling geese, closing moon, and blushing flowers'?" Zuo Xiaoyou asked with a smile.

"Yes," the girl nodded, "many books describe beautiful women using these eight characters."

"That's quite natural," Zuo Xiaoyou said, "the so-called 'sinking fish, falling geese, closing moon, and blushing flowers' refer to the Four Great Beauties of ancient China. Sinking fish is Xi Shi, falling geese is Wang Zhaojun, closing moon is Diaochan, and blushing flowers is Yang Guifei."

"Oh?" The girl seemed to regain interest, "Big Brother Zuo, why do the Four Great Beauties have such strange titles?"

"I'll tell you about that later," Zuo Xiaoyou waved his hand, "let me first tell you about the 'closing moon' Diaochan. You must have heard of Diaochan, right?"

"Yes," the girl nodded, "I've heard about Lü Bu and Diaochan, and Guan Yu beheading Diaochan under the moonlight."

"Ha ha," Zuo Xiaoyou laughed and shook his head, "actually, there was no such person as Diaochan in history."

"Ah?" The girl was surprised, "there wasn't?"

"No," Zuo Xiaoyou nodded firmly, "in the original history, Lü Bu had a bit of a romantic dispute with one of Dong Zhuo's concubines, which gave Wang Yun the opportunity to use a wedge strategy, turning Lü Bu against Dong Zhuo and killing him. As for Diaochan, she did not appear in official history; her name only appears in unofficial histories."

"What are unofficial histories?" The girl was confused.

"They are folk legends."

"Oh," the girl understood, then sighed, "so even a famous historical figure like Diaochan could be fictional! Chinese history is indeed not very rigorous."

"History is just like that," Zuo Xiaoyou smiled, "it's enough to know the general idea; don't get too caught up in the specifics, or you'll lose."

The girl nodded, propped her chin on her hand, and blinked, smiling, "Big Brother Zuo, you know so much."

"Because I read a lot of books," Zuo Xiaoyou smiled, "knowledge changes destiny, so you should read more books in the future. The knowledge you learn is something no one can take away from you, and it will be useful someday."

"Okay," the girl nodded repeatedly, finished the ice cream in her cup, and licked her lips, "Big Brother Zuo, thank you for telling me so much. If I have more questions in the future, can I ask you to explain them to me?"

Seeing the girl's expectant look, Zuo Xiaoyou nodded with a smile, "Sure, I live in Room 202, second floor, XX District. You can come to me anytime you have questions."

"This..." The girl looked hesitant.

"What's wrong?" Zuo Xiaoyou looked at her.

"Nothing... nothing," the girl pursed her lips, blushed a little, and stood up, "Big Brother Zuo, thank you for helping me today. It's getting late, I need to go home."

"Okay," Zuo Xiaoyou nodded, "be careful on your way home."

"It's fine," the girl smiled, waved, and said, "Goodbye, Big Brother Zuo."

After watching the girl leave, Zuo Xiaoyou finished his melting ice cream, paid the bill, and left.

For some reason, Zuo Xiaoyou felt the girl was familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen her before.

The movie "Ip Man" only has one female lead, Ip Man's wife, Zhang Yongcheng. The only other female character who left an impression was Aunt San, who hung the sheets. Apart from that, there were no other female characters in the movie, so Zuo Xiaoyou was puzzled as to why he felt familiar with a girl he didn't know. It was strange.

"Maybe there's a girl in the real world who looks a bit like her!" Zuo Xiaoyou could only think that.

Evening.

Zuo Xiaoyou returned home. Zhang Yongcheng, who was heavily pregnant, was cooking in the kitchen, little Ye Zhun was doing his homework in his room, and the old homebody Ye Wen was sitting in the living room drinking tea.

Since the Ye family moved in, Zhang Yongcheng had taken charge of all three meals. Her cooking was quite good, not as good as a restaurant chef, but she could still make delicious dishes and soups. She was indeed from a well-off family.

In comparison, the old homebody Ye Wen was of no help at home. He couldn't cook, sew, or do housework, and even the heavy lifting was done by his disciple Zuo Xiaoyou. Every day, he could only drink tea at home.

"Ah You, did you buy more books again?" Ye Wen smiled when he saw Zuo Xiaoyou bring back an old book.

"Yes, Master," Zuo Xiaoyou sat down on the other side of the table, placed the book on the table, and said, "Our country has experienced a hundred years of war, and many books have been destroyed. I want to collect as many old books as possible, maybe they will be useful in the future."

Ye Wen sighed, "The times are tough!"

"They will get better," Zuo Xiaoyou comforted him, "at least the Japanese have been driven away, and although Hong Kong is still under British control, there is no more war. After a few decades of development, everything will be better."

"Yes," Ye Wen smiled, "it will be better."

"Stop chatting, go wash your hands, it's time to eat," Zhang Yongcheng placed two dishes on the table.

"Okay, let's eat," Ye Wen smiled, stood up, and called to Ye Zhun's room, "Ah Zhun, it's time to eat."

"Coming!"

The days passed quietly for a few more days.

During these days, Zuo Xiaoyou's martial arts skills did not improve much, which was normal. Martial arts is not a short-term activity; even a single set of boxing techniques can take a lifetime to master. After the rapid growth period, Zuo Xiaoyou entered a stable transition period, during which he could only improve through persistent effort.

But even with little progress, he was still able to maintain his authority as the senior disciple. All the young disciples, including Huang Jiaozhu, had been disciplined by Zuo Xiaoyou, and no one dared to challenge his authority. Ye Wen was also very satisfied with Zuo Xiaoyou, as he handled many trivial matters, such as collecting tuition fees, which saved Ye Wen from the awkwardness.

Now, Ye Wen's only task was to teach his disciples martial arts, and he was living a very comfortable life.

However, that night, after dinner, Ye Wen encountered a sad event while taking a walk.

Zhou Qingquan, who was mentally unstable, had stolen a roasted duck and was being chased and beaten. His son, Zhou Guangyao, pleaded bitterly but could do nothing because they had no money, and could only watch his father being beaten.

This tragic scene deeply saddened Ye Wen. Although he paid for the duck, seeing his old friend, who had helped him escape to Hong Kong, end up like this made him feel ashamed and almost brought him to tears.

Learning that Zhou Guangyao had no formal job, Ye Wen put aside his pride and went to Liang Gen at the newspaper to secure a job for Zhou Guangyao, which somewhat alleviated his guilt.

Ye Wen did not tell anyone about this, so Zuo Xiaoyou naturally did not know. Moreover, he had no time to worry about such trivial matters, as he was now focusing on tutoring the girl.

Speaking of the girl, she was quite bold. Only three days after they parted, she came to Zuo Xiaoyou's house.

It was 5 PM that day, and Zuo Xiaoyou was reading at home. Zhang Yongcheng, due to her pregnancy, had been sleeping since lunchtime, Ye Zhun had just finished school and gone out to play, and Ye Wen was drawing advertisements in Ye Zhun's room.

Creating advertisements in those days was quite a laborious task, as each one had to be drawn by hand, unlike in modern times when thousands could be printed easily.

It was during this quiet afternoon that the girl came to knock on the door.

"Big Brother Zuo."

The door opened, and the girl, dressed in a white dress and carrying a schoolbag, called out sweetly.

"Why did you come?" Zuo Xiaoyou was surprised. Since they parted, he hadn't seen the girl again and thought he wouldn't see her again.

"Didn't you say I could come to you if I had any questions?" The girl took out "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" from her schoolbag, held it with both hands, covering her mouth and nose, and smiled.

Zuo Xiaoyou also smiled and stepped aside, "Come in!"

From that day on, the girl almost came to Zuo Xiaoyou's house every afternoon. At first, she would ask Zuo Xiaoyou to explain parts of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" that she didn't understand, but gradually, it turned into tutoring in other subjects.

The girl was in the second year of junior high school, and every day after school, she would have some homework, which was quite challenging for her, especially in physics and mathematics. Zuo Xiaoyou, having graduated from high school, still remembered his junior high school knowledge well, and the curriculum in 1950 was even easier than the higher grades of elementary school in his time. So, when Zuo Xiaoyou easily solved the difficult problems in the girl's homework, she became dependent on him.

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