Chapter 71.3

Translated by Aviana

Thinking that the eldest sao’s anger at his wife earlier, Yang Tiezhu was disinclined to wrangle with her and He-shi any longer. Hoisting up his wife’s treasured rocking chair, he followed in after his wife. Under his strength, lifting such a huge chair seemed to be tantamount to a trifling play.

After carrying it in, he again turned around, picked up the table on which the snacks were placed, and brought it into the house. This while, he didn’t pay any heed to He-shi and Wang-shi, angering the two.

Stepping into the room, Lin Qingwan removed her shoes and got onto the kang. The place where Yang Tiezhu used to lie down previously now became her sole throne. Adjusting the cushion behind her to lean upon, she commanded Yang Tiezhu to bring her needlework basket.

These days, Lin Qingwan began giving Yang Tiezhu commands spiritedly. Knowing that there wasn’t any major issue with his arm and that it could be restored to normality in die course, she began tossing him from here to there. Not to mention, Yang Tiezhu himself was fond of getting tossed by her. Once Lin Qingwan perceived this; naturally, she began ordering him to do this and that. For she was aware in her heart that after lying on the kang for a few months all the time, he wanted to show off now all the more. Thus, she simply fulfilled his wish.

Inside the needlework basket were the tiny clothes for infants that Lin Qingwan was making. Initially, Yang Tiezhu refused to let her do needlework, but she persuaded him, saying that pregnant women make the clothes for babies by themselves. Only then did Yang Tiezhu let her do it.

“Wife, are you making clothes for the baby?” After bustling around, Yang Tiezhu sat near her on the side of kang.

“Yeah, I want to take advantage of my comfortability now and finish it now itself. Otherwise, later once my belly grows even bigger, I won’t be able to sit for long.” Lin Qingwan replied as he picked up the needle and thread and resumed making a piece of baby clothes that she had almost finished making last time.

The baby’s clothes were quite small, just palm-sized. Lin Qingwan reckoned that the baby would be born around the seventh or eighth month when the weather would be neither too hot nor too cold. By that time, the clothes for the baby should surely be finished. Thus, she made a lot of clothes and cotton-padded coats for toddlers.

Now that she had a lot of silver in her hands, Lin Qingwan was willing to spend it on the baby. All the inner wear were made with first-rate cotton fabric. After buying the cotton fabric, she thoroughly scrubbed them first while washing and dried them before making clothes. In this way, the soft texture of the fabric would not scratch the baby’s tender and delicate skin.

These tips were all given by Yang-shi. That’s why Lin Qingwan made sure to sew the edges on the outer side while sewing.

Lin Qingwan’s pair of hands was quite agile and dexterous. The clothes that were almost done last time were wrapped up by her, and soon a set of baby’s clothes were finished.

Yang Tiezhu held it to take a close look. When placed in his huge palm, the size of the baby’s clothes was almost equal to the size of his palm. His face turned into a 囧. After glancing at the clothes made by Lin Qingwan, he exclaimed that these clothes would not be enough for the baby. Amused, Lin Qingwan let out a peal of laughter before telling him that baby would be tiny after it was born and the clothes needed to be this small.

After this, whenever Yang Tiezhu glanced at the clothes made by Lin Qingwan, he couldn’t help but feel amused.

“Did you practice writing characters today? Don’t just keep sitting here and watch me do needlework. Go and practice the characters you had learned yesterday.” Glancing at Yang Tiezhu’s listless appearance, Lin Qingwan couldn’t help but say so.

Yeah, Yang Tiezhu was now precisely literate.

But of course, he didn’t know many characters yet. As recently, the two of them were just lazing around in the room and had nothing to do; Lin Qingwan taught him how to write. The original Lin Qingwan was literate. Though she couldn’t compose poetry and the likes, reading simple characters wasn’t much of a problem. And as Lin Qingwan inherited the original owner’s memories, she was able to understand the traditional Chinese characters quite easily.

Lin Qingwan had the idea of teaching Yang Tiezhu how to read for quite a while. She doesn’t expect him to become a xucai or something. It was fine as long as he was able to read and write. She was planning on having him go out and work, do ‘business promotion’, which is not possible if he remained illiterate, no? Thus, in the past few days, whenever she had time, Lin Qingwan began teaching him how to read every day; not much, just ten characters every day.

秀才 (xiùcai): a person who has passed the county-level imperial exam

For this reason, Lin Qingwan had the carpenter make a red-lacquered wooden slate board from him to practice on with charcoal.

From a young age, Lin Qingwan had been familiar with the practice of using blackboard and chalk in school. Thus it was easy for Lin Qingwan to come up with the idea of making a simple blackboard for beginner students to practice.

At Lin Qingwan’s words, Yang Tiezhu obediently took out his ‘blackboard’ and placed it on the table. Then he took out a charcoal wood pencil and began honestly practicing the few characters his wife taught the previous day.

Lin Qingwan sat on the kang and resumed stitching baby clothes while glimpsing him from the corner of her eyes. Seeing his clumsy appearance of her man as he obediently practiced writing characters, she couldn’t stop from covering her lips and chuckling.

At that moment, it was tranquil all around, as the rays of sunlight spilled in, brightening the room.

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