Chapter 189: Chapter 188: A Slap in the Face Chapter 189: Chapter 188: A Slap in the Face Ye Shuzhen’s bold gaze was not unnoticed by all of her nieces.
Ye Luoqi, already ten years old and the eldest sister among her siblings, was sensitive enough to notice Third Aunt’s look. The young girl had co to understand so things, and although she didn’t dare remind Third Aunt, she would not imitate such shaless behavior.
Ye i Qi, now eight, was at an age of innocent ignorance. Having always followed her elder sister, with an honest and stable personality, she noticed Third Aunt’s gaze but deliberately avoided looking back.
The younger sisters were all so diligent, and the elder sister was equally hardworking. She certainly couldn’t fall too far behind the youngest sister. As she grew older, at eight she already understood that not spending the best years studying and learning would lead to nothing accomplished in the future and becoming a useless person.
Since their family had beco prosperous, the girls’ mindsets had begun to change. With wealth ca the ability to hire a teacher, which ant an improved life ahead.
They might not be like those ladies from rich families in the city or daughters of officials, but as daughters of a rich man in the countryside who had made their own fortune, they couldn’t afford to be outdone.
Everyone wanted a better future when they grew up, a future that had to be cultivated from childhood.
Ye Shiqi’s Divine Sense was not unnoticed by everyone, Mr. Chen saw it, and so did Ye Shuzhen, who was always watching Mr. Chen.
Initially, Ye Shuzhen paid no attention to Ye Shiqi. What could a re child of a little more than a year do?
Her elder brother hired a teacher to educate the girls; he himself thought it a waste of money. Yet, Ye Shuzhen, following her fiancé’s suggestion, joined the lessons but didn’t believe her nieces could learn much.
“Report… Mr. Chen…”
Mr. Chen was in the middle of teaching a text when Ye Shuzhen spoke up, and he had no choice but to stop and look at Ye Shuzhen, waiting for her to say sothing.
“Mr. Chen, Ye Shiqi is daydreaming.”
Ye Shuzhen had co to know her nieces’ nas, nas that Mr. Chen ntioned daily during roll call.
She, as their aunt, had finally learned her nieces’ nas and realized they were the youngest. These nas, given by the most junior in the family, were nothing special to her, all ending with Qi, as if they were well-versed in the ga of Go.
As Ye Shuzhen entertained these thoughts, she regarded her uneducated nieces’ chosen nas as poor; they didn’t even rely on elders for naming.
She didn’t consider that her own na had been chosen by an elder and contained Shu from ‘ladylike,’ although none of the sisters were particularly ladylike.
Ye Shiqi…
“Ahem, Ye Shiqi is still young; it’s okay for her to daydream…”
Mr. Chen hadn’t expected Ye Shuzhen, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, to quibble with a little girl scarcely over a year old. It was like telling tales out of school in front of the other teachers.
Could Mr. Chen have higher expectations of a little girl barely past her first birthday?
Mr. Chen’s children, one over four years old and another barely a year old, could not even recognize or write their own nas, let alone other characters, nor could they do arithtic like these children, despite being the offspring of a teacher.
He couldn’t say his children were less intelligent, perhaps he had spent more ti on himself and less on their education.
If a teacher’s children were not as clever and quick as the young girl before him, could he truly demand more from this child?
“Mr. Chen, you can’t treat us differently. Surely you wouldn’t ignore a student daydreaming, would you?”
As Third Aunt was complaining to the teacher, Ye Shiqi had already snapped back to reality, retrieving her Divine Sense from the space and wordlessly watching Third Aunt make her complaint alongside her sisters.
“Well… Ye Shiqi, recite the Three Character Classic.”
“Mr. Chen, if I’m to recite the Three Character Classic, could we please be a bit fairer? You can’t possibly expect to be the only one reciting, right?”
“If Mr. Chen asks you to recite the Three Character Classic, do you need a reason to refuse? Do you want to be punished?” Ye Shuzhen glared fiercely at Ye Shiqi.
“Third Aunt, I can recite the Three Character Classic, but surely I can’t be the only one reciting! As an aunt, you should also accompany and recite with ! If you’re testing , you can’t just not perform!”
Ye Shuzhen…
Mr. Chen thought Ye Shiqi was right; it was only fair if he also recited when challenging others. In fact, he would assign howork and have students morize texts; his expectations for these girls’ studies were not high.
“Ye Shuzhen, do you think this competition is fair? If not, let’s forget about it, shall we?”
“Hmph, let her recite first…” Ye Shuzhen, with a fierce look in her eyes, pointed at Ye Shiqi.
“Ye Shiqi, you go first then!”
No sooner had Mr. Chen finished speaking than Ye Shiqi began to recite the Three Character Classic, from the first word to the last, without needing to look at the book.
She had already read the Three Character Classic in her previous life, and the teacher had been teaching it to them recently; she had heard it so often that she could “recite it by heart” and could now recite the entire book without looking.
Ye Shiqi’s clear voice, the voice of a young girl, pronounced each word so clearly that not only was Mr. Chen pleasantly surprised, Ye Shiqi’s elder sisters all bead with smiles.
Ye Shuzhen making it hard for Ye Shiqi, all her elder sisters looked at Third Aunt with angry eyes. No words were spoken, but that didn’t an there was no bla in their gazes.
Ye Shuzhen had originally wanted to tattle to get Mr. Chen’s attention but hadn’t expected her young niece to have such a good mory.
It was a slap in the face, no, she couldn’t lose…!
“Ye Shuzhen, it’s your turn to recite…”
“Teacher, can I look at the book while reciting?”
Ye Shiqi…
“You may…” Mr. Chen, seeing the pleading look in Ye Shuzhen’s eyes, could only relent. When he had stated the rules earlier, he hadn’t said that they couldn’t look at the book while reciting.
Mr. Chen’s expectations for the girls weren’t too high, and Ye Shuzhen challenging her own niece lacked the confidence to recite from mory…
Ye Shuzhen, whose young niece could morize the text, lacked the confidence to do so; her focus had been more on pleasing the teacher.
When Mr. Chen explained and taught them to read, she would follow along.
There were so characters in the book she still wasn’t completely familiar with.
Mr. Chen had taught them the entire Three Character Classic, but Ye Shuzhen couldn’t recognize every character; this was because she hadn’t known many characters before and found learning sowhat difficult.
“People at birth, are inherently good…” Ye Shuzhen could recite the beginning, but later on, there were so characters she didn’t recognize. She would pronounce the ones she knew, but when she didn’t, all she could do was leave a space, making the entire reading sowhat ridiculous.
As Ye Shuzhen recited, the young girls watched the book; when Ye Shuzhen couldn’t recognize a character, everyone noticed, but no one interrupted her.
The teacher didn’t say stop, so they didn’t dare to laugh at the aunt in front of the teacher after completing their own recitations.
Ye Shuzhen beca more and more nervous as she read, her face turning red with sha. This ti she had gone too far, embarrassing herself in front of Mr. Chen.
In the end, she couldn’t continue reciting and hung her head, wanting to cry.
“Ye Shuzhen, keep working hard in the future. There are so characters you don’t recognize, rember to read and write these unfamiliar characters more.”
That was the only conclusion Mr. Chen could give in the end.
“Wuu wuu…” Ye Shuzhen covered her face, crying as she ran out.
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