Chapter 164 – Ti (5)
Little Five imdiately undermined him by blurting out, “He does know how. Oldest brother wrote his na on the wall yesterday. Look, it’s right over here.” He pointed at the scratches on the wall.
Li Mo felt even more embarrassed. How could it be good for her to see his ugly, crooked writing?
“Nonsense, oldest brother... I -“
While the two brothers were nosily going back and forth, Li Man wrote out two characters on the sand tray, ‘Li Mo’. Once she finished writing, she asked, “Oldest brother, is the Mo in your na this one?”
On the sand tray, Li Mo’s na was clearly written. His heart felt soft just looking at it.
Little Five imdiately answered, “Yes, yes, yes. It’s this one. It’s exactly the sa as what fourth brother wrote last ti. Oldest brother, look, is this what you wrote yesterday?”
By this ti, most of Li Mo’s embarrassnt had faded. At the very least, he could tell that Li Man genuinely wanted to teach them and wasn’t looking down on them. “This... I don’t think I wrote my na correctly.”
“Oldest brother, how were you writing it?” Towards Li Mo, Li Man was very courteous.
Li Mo glanced at her. He looked at her writing and carefully tried to imitate those characters as he wrote out his na below.
Since he never had studied how to write before, even soone his age wasn’t able to write any more nimbly than Little Five. By the ti he finished copying those two characters, sweat had appeared on his forehead.
“Is it like this?” He wiped his sweat. There was an embarrassed smile in his eyes as he looked at her.
Li Man nodded. “You wrote it correctly, but the order you wrote the strokes was wrong. Write it again by following my strokes.”
Then, she erased their writing.
Watching this, Li Mo felt a pang in his heart. Ah, it had taken him so long and such effort to write it the first ti.
“Co on. Let’s write it together.” Li Man walked over to Li Mo’s side and slowly wrote the first stroke.
Standing so close by, her body’s simple, elegant scent drifted to Li Mo’s nose. His face slightly heated up, and his mind felt a bit muddled too. There was a delay as he picked up the stick and lowered it towards the sand tray.
Li Man thought he was just nervous about writing. She chuckled. “Don’t worry. It’s okay if you don’t write it correctly. It’s not like we’re writing on paper. If you make a mistake, you can just wipe the sand and try again.”
“En.” Li Mo’s eyes flashed, and he quickly set out to write. But, because he was flustered, the straight horizontal stroke curved into a wiggly line. His face flushed red when he saw it. “I’ll redo it.”
“Oldest brother, like this, just draw the line quickly. The slower you do it, the more uneven it’ll beco.” Little Five leaned on the small table and gave his oldest brother advice.
“En,” Li Mo agreed and finally drew a straight line that he was satisfied with.
Li Man nodded, then she drew a vertical line under the first stroke.
Li Mo didn’t dare to get distracted again. He quickly copied her stroke. It was straighter and longer than her stroke.
However, Li Man shook her head. “This line can’t be too long.” And so, she erased half the line for him and continued with the next stroke.
Writing Li Mo (李墨) wasn’t as easy as writing Little Five (小五). For a beginner student, writing the two characters for his na wasn’t easy. There were too many complicated strokes. She had originally wanted to teach him the various types of strokes first, the sa way she had taught Little Five, but he insisted on mastering how to write his na first. Li Man could only go along with his wish.
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