Chapter 295: Chapter 291: Breaking the Rules_1
The next day, Yingbao got up early, got ready and left the house.
Jiang Quan thought his younger cousin was going back to the dical office and wanted to see her off.
“No need, I am going to the county governnt office before returning to the dical office.” Yingbao didn’t want her second cousin to accompany her because she would not be able to go for the apples with him around.
Jiang Quan could only watch helplessly as his younger cousin bounced off happily.
The county governnt office was not far from the county school, and Yingbao arrived shortly after.
Seeing no one around, she took out a basket full of apples and walked towards the entrance of the governnt office.
The gatekeepers at the county governnt office already recognized this little girl. Seeing that she wanted to see the prefect, they didn’t say anything, but went straight in to report her arrival.
Shortly after, an old woman ca out to lead Yingbao inside.
Yingbao gave the two governnt officials two big apples before following the old woman into the inner courtyard.
“Sister!” Jiang Jie ca running and hugged his sister happily, “You’re here!”
Yingbao patted his head, “I brought apples for you.”
Jiang Jie was surprised, “Are our apples this big already?”
“They’re not ours, I bought them from outside.” Yingbao put down the basket and moved it under the eaves with her brother.
Old Mr. Wu and his son Wu Daozi stood under the eaves, smiling at Yingbao, “It’s been a while since you’ve visited, it’s a rare occurrence today.”
Yingbao chuckled, “I figured the health pills for old sir and the prefect might be running out, so I specially delivered so.” She took out two bags of health pills from her bag and gave one to Old Mr. Wu and the other to Wu Shi.
Old Mr. Wu quickly stuffed the bag of dicine into his sleeve and stroked his beard, “Have you had breakfast? Would you like to join us?”
“Sure.” Yingbao didn’t refuse, and followed Old Mr. Wu and Wu Daozi into the living room.
The breakfast was simple: a plate of halved salted duck eggs, a plate of salted vegetable strips, and a plate of stead salted fish. The main course was rice porridge and plain buns.
While eating her porridge, Yingbao listened to Wu Daozi asking her, “Now that you’re studying at the dical office, what are you studying?”
“I’m studying the Forbidden Curse Technique.” Yingbao took a bite of her bun.
Wu Daozi slowly picked a few strips of salted vegetables and asked, “Why study the Forbidden Curse?”
Yingbao: “Because I like the Forbidden Curse.” After thinking for a while, she added, “Actually, there’s an irritating ghost always following , so I had to study the Forbidden Curse.”
Wu Daozi looked up at her, “An irritating ghost?”
“Yes!” Yingbao told Wu Daozi about Chen Tiantian, “She was supposed to stay in the Qing Palace as a palace maid, but for so reason, she suddenly ca to Qinchuan County and was assigned to study dicine with . Isn’t that strange?”
Wu Daozi and his father exchanged glances, both frowning.
It was indeed very strange.
“So, I decided to study the Forbidden Curse Technique, hmph! I don’t want to be with that Chen Tiantian.” Having found soone to confide in, Yingbao let out all her grievances, “I even suspect that she is a fox spirit, specifically coming to suck my energy.”
Wu Daozi couldn’t help but laugh, “Fox spirits are known to feed on n…” Suddenly realizing that he shouldn’t say such things to a young girl, he corrected himself, “There are no such thing as fox spirits, her coming here is just a coincidence.”
Yingbao pouted, “It’s not a coincidence.”
There must be a deeper aning for Chen Tiantian to return to Qinchuan County.
If not, she might consider joining the Yin Yang Departnt.
If she tries to join the Yin Yang Departnt in the days to co, then there will definitely be a big problem.
It’s possible that her getting close to is with a big motive. Yes, if she’s not trying to suck my energy, there’s another possibility— she’s trying to take my luck.
Isn’t there the saying in the storybooks about a son or a daughter of fortune?
I have a magical cave mansion, I must be considered a woman of fortune in this world, right?
So, does Chen Tiantian want to seize my cave mansion? Or does she want to steal my fortune in order to rise above the clouds effortlessly?
Mister Wu, having finished his porridge, put down his bowl and chopsticks, then said to Yingbao, “Since you’ve studied the Yin Yang Departnt, you should read more of the Accounts of Strange Matters or the Records of the Strange, or perhaps the Extensive Records of the Taiping Era. The mysteries hidden within these might help clarify your doubts.”
Previously, an old friend from the capital wrote in a letter, ntioning that the Xiao Family once had the Qin Tianjian calculate the star destiny for a young girl, and it turned out that the girl was the lucky star of a certain prince. However, for so unknown reason, the Xiao Family actually returned the girl to her original place of birth.
Looking at it now, that girl must be Chen Tiantian ntioned by Yingbao.
Yingbao nodded. “Mmm.” She definitely needed to read more books about ghosts and spirits, and look for the peculiarities within.
Her own rebirth could indeed be considered a strange tale, and owning a cave mansion made it even more bizarre.
But that Chen Tiantian is sticking to her like a dog-skin plaster, there must be sothing fishy about it.
The words in her head were even more disturbing.
If she wasn’t careful, she might very well fall into soone else’s trap.
If it weren’t for the fact that these words couldn’t be told to others, she would want to ask Mister Wu for advice, to understand what was going on.
After breakfast, Wu Daozi took so ti to rummage around his study, eventually finding a few books on the supernatural that he passed onto Yingbao to take back to the dical bureau for reading.
Then he ntioned, “Yingbao, I’ll probably have to step down from my position at the end of this year and return to the capital to continue my service. By that ti my father will be taking Jiang Jie for a tour of learning and then send him back here to take the county examination when he turns eight.”
“You’re leaving?” Yingbao opened her eyes wide, her heart a bit saddened.
Wu Daozi stroked her head, saying, “Yes, my term has ended, and I must leave. Little Yingbao, I haven’t thanked you yet for helping cure my illness.”
Now, the tumor on Wu Daozi’s neck had completely disappeared, his whole person was brimming with vitality, and he looked rather elegant. He also looked a lot younger than he had a few years ago, not at all like a man in his thirties.
All this was thanks to the health pills Yingbao had given him.
“You don’t have to thank , we haven’t even thanked Mister Wu for instructing my younger brother yet.” In truth, Mister Wu and Wu Daozi have given so much more to her family.
Because the county magistrate looked after them, no one dared to covet their shop in Qinchuan County, she could dare to compete against Xiao Mo, and her family was able to steadily grow in Chuanhe Town until now.
And her younger brother, Jiang Jie, might even be able to embark on a career in officialdom and beco a high-ranking official in the future, all thanks to Mister Wu’s teachings.
Wu Daozi just smiled, not saying anything else.
His father had dedicated his blood, sweat, and tears in teaching that child and wished that he could impart onto him everything that he had learned over his lifeti. The child was also very intelligent, able to learn everything that was taught to him, and even capable of analysis and inference. He was far more capable than Wu Daozi had been at his age. His old father even wished that he could literally take himself back to the drawing board by keeping his disobedient son in his stomach and starting all over again.
Sigh, thinking about it all just made him want to shed tears. It was best not to speak anymore.
Seeing that it was getting late, Yingbao excused herself from Wu Daozi and Mister Wu and left.
Wu Daozi then ordered the house servant Wu Rui to take a carriage to send the young lady back to the dical bureau.
After she returned to the dical bureau, Yingbao quietly walked to the Yin Yang Departnt classroom, and as expected didn’t see her master.
She knew that Master Zhou was going to the Taoist Temple to perform rituals today, so he didn’t co back in the morning, which made her relieved to go to the county governnt office for a bit.
Sitting by the desk, she took out forbidden curse books to read out loud, casting glances out the window from ti to ti.
She saw Second Senior Brother swaying as he walked in, glaring at her as soon as he saw her. “Where did you go this morning? You didn’t even co for the morning session!”
“I didn’t go anywhere.” Yingbao held a book and said earnestly, “I went to wash my clothes.”
Zhang Min showed his disbelief: “Humph! You breached the rules!”
“I didn’t!” This morning she only had a bowl of porridge and a bun for breakfast, she didn’t even dare to eat the salted duck egg. How could he know she broke the rules?
Zhang Min sat across her at the table, “You breached the rules about falsehood! Humph! I was practicing the Yu Step at the riverside early in the morning, I didn’t see you washing your clothes at all.”
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