After finishing her meal, Xu Miaozhen returned to her room.
She first completed her assignments for the women’s academy, then practiced her calligraphy, and only after bathing did she sit at her desk to recite the Pharmacological Nature Rhapsody.
She had spent about half a month memorizing the Pharmacological Nature Rhapsody.
Back in modern times, she had already memorized the Tangtou Gejue while studying medicine, and with Ru Shi giving her herbs to look at, she was willing to put in the effort. Every day, from the hour of Xu to Zi, she devoted herself to reciting these texts.
From autumn to winter, Xiao Xi would get up at night to add charcoal to the brazier, shivering from the cold and stomping her feet, only to find her young lady still at her desk.
She would hurriedly add charcoal to the hand warmer and pass it over.
Come to think of it, Xu Miaozhen hadn’t worked this hard even in modern times, but in the past, she had no choice.
Most girls married at sixteen or seventeen.
After marrying, raising children was a given, but many women fell ill and hid their sickness.
She didn’t speak of grand ambitions like curing all the women in the world; even if she only learned to treat herself, it would be worthwhile.
After finishing the last passage, she heard the night watchman striking the hour, announcing that it was Zi hour.
Only then did she go to bed.
After rising at Chen hour, Xiao Tao fetched the little jacket from the warmed bed.
The inner lining was plain silk, with two or three layers of cotton in the middle, and the outer layer made of plain satin.
Over that, she put on a tender yellow under-jacket, and over that, a peach-red cloak.
Life in the Xu Family’s second branch was much better than before.
Xu Erpeng had suffered hardships; it was said that when he studied as a child, the family was so poor that his jacket was thin and old, so he always had a runny nose and walked hunched over.
So as soon as winter arrived, he took out ten taels of silver to buy cloth and hire a tailor.
Xu Miaozhen got a rabbit fur jacket, two little jackets, a cotton under-jacket, and a thick vest.
Suzhou was not the north; even though it was the twelfth lunar month, and cold, it hadn’t snowed yet.
Two layers of lined jackets were enough.
Xiao Tao brought in breakfast from outside: scallion flower rolls, walnut porridge, and a plate of scrambled eggs.
“Have you two eaten yet?”
Xu Miaozhen asked.
Xiao Xi and Xiao Tao both smiled and said,
“We’re not in a hurry. We’ll send you to the academy first, then come back to eat.”
After escorting their young lady to the academy, they’d return home to do laundry, sweep, and work on needlework.
Fortunately, their young lady was well-educated and reasonable, and the Xu Family never mistreated their servants—much better than their own homes.
When they arrived at the academy, Miss Tong Pan’er was eating a meat bun, baring her teeth and grimacing because it was too hot.
Xu Miaozhen took off her cloak and put it aside, smiling as she said, “You’re getting bold, eating a meat bun here when Qiu Niangzi is a vegetarian.”
“I woke up late, so I just had my maid buy it from a street vendor with a donkey cart,”
Miss Tong Pan’er replied carelessly.
Xu Miaozhen knew that although Miss Tong Pan’er was the daughter of a jiansheng, her father worked in Suzhou Prefecture as a clerk, but she was born of a concubine.
The main wife had no children, so a concubine was brought in, but that concubine died giving birth to Pan’er.
She was raised under the main wife’s care, and later, the main wife bore a son and a daughter.
People said Pan’er had brought the son with her, so the main wife raised her equally with her own children.
Still, she wasn’t her birth mother, so Pan’er’s life at home wasn’t always easy. But she was broad-minded and never took things to heart.
After devouring the bun in a few bites, she started choking, so Xu Miaozhen quickly patted her back.
Just then, Miss Wang Xie and Miss Lin Xiaoxiao came in together.
Miss Ma Yulan lived closest but was the last to arrive.
Lin Xiaoxiao teased, “Dragging your feet again, huh?”
“How could I? It’s just that we had relatives over, so my mother prepared forty dishes. We had to entertain guests and even hired two singers. I went to bed too late and couldn’t get up this morning,”
Ma Yulan yawned as she spoke.
Everyone was astonished and asked who the relatives were.
Ma Yulan glanced around, lowered her voice, and said, “That old lady is my grandmother’s cousin. Our family declined from my grandfather’s generation, but theirs kept rising, becoming high officials in Jing. But I heard they offended someone in Jing and had to come back. Oddly enough, their ancestral home is in Wuxi, but now they want to settle in our Suzhou.”
“Our Suzhou is wonderful! Who doesn’t love our Suzhou?”
Miss Tong Pan’er laughed.
Everyone joined in the laughter.
As the year’s end approached, it was the first time their family would celebrate the New Year on their own, and the house was lively.
They bought two sheep and two geese early on, not to mention the cured meats, fish, and sausages hanging under the eaves.
Mei Shi sent someone to buy several Tiger Hill spring platter boxes, two of each size, with melon slice patterns and red lacquer chrysanthemum petal patterns.
With the women’s academy closed for the holidays and Ru Shi saying she had business, Xu Miaozhen could rest at home for a few days, so she brought her shoe uppers to Mei Shi’s place to work on needlework.
She was making two pairs of shoes for Ru Shi.
The soles were made by Fengniang, and the uppers were embroidered by her: one pair of Phoenix Toed Shoes with a red satin base and Eight Treasures Pattern, and another pair of Lotus Pattern Cloud Shoes made of plain silk.
Mei Shi said, “You’ve really learned embroidery from Qiu Niangzi. I just worry about your work.”
“Qiu Niangzi teaches everything. I never even set foot in the kitchen before, but now I can make several kinds of snacks, wontons, vegetarian dishes. It was worth learning,”
Xu Miaozhen smiled.
Mei Shi joked,
“You’re even more capable than your third aunt now. She can’t even make a pair of shoes.”
When she was in school, Xu Miaozhen never attended family gatherings, so Mei Shi would tell her bits and pieces about family affairs: how her eldest uncle often came over for meals since her aunt and cousin Miaoyun rarely came home; how her third aunt fought with a yamen runner and even chased him with a knife—her third uncle had to apologize and pay compensation to settle it.
Then there was her Qiao uncle, who took a concubine in Hangzhou Prefecture—counting those outside, he now had five wives.
Qiao aunt’s face was as dark as ink, but she still had to act virtuous.
These bits of gossip added flavor to life, and Xu Miaozhen listened with great interest.
She also brought up the neighbors: “A few days ago, I heard from Sister Ma that her family had important guests, forty dishes, and even hired musicians. Quite the spectacle. Do you know who they are?”
“It’s all over town, of course I know. They even brought two grandsons and bought a house near Xumen, which is being renovated, so they’re staying at your Sister Ma’s place for now.”
Before she finished speaking, a maid from the Ma family arrived, asking Mei Shi for pickled Spring Immortelle.
Every year, Mei Shi’s pickled Spring Immortelle was tastier and more appetizing than anyone else’s, so people would come with bowls to ask for some.
Mrs. Ma was a neighbor and a good friend, so Mei Shi immediately sent over a jar.
The Ma family’s maid said their guest had lost her appetite, but after eating Mei Shi’s Spring Immortelle, she finished a whole bowl of rice, which was why Mrs. Ma came to ask for more.
After the Little New Year passed, Xu Miaozhen finished making the shoes.
Her mother brought the festival gifts to Ru Shi, who was very pleased with the shoes and said, “Such fine stitching, and the design of the uppers is lovely too. Xu Taitai, I almost want to steal Miaozhen away as my own daughter.”
Xu Miaozhen quickly replied modestly, “I’ve only just started learning embroidery, so my skills aren’t refined yet. Thank you, Master, for not minding.”
In truth, Ru Shi was quite strict in teaching her, but whenever she went out to treat patients from wealthy families, she always took Ru Xiniang instead.
At first, Ru Xiniang was friendly to her, but after seeing how quickly she learned, she became awkward and often kept things to herself.
Xu Miaozhen was always very goal-oriented.
In modern times, after her parents divorced, she was unhappy at first, blaming herself for spending too much since they didn’t pay child support on time.
But after entering society, she realized that no matter what she said, getting the money was what mattered.
It was the same now.
As long as Ru Shi taught her seriously, she would absorb everything she could, and as for the rest, she didn’t care for now.
“Dear sister, let’s meet again next year,”
Ru Shi said with a smile.
Leaving the Tao Family, Mei Shi asked her daughter,
“How are your studies going?”
“I’ve just started, and I’m already learning fast. It’ll take at least a year or two,”
Xu Miaozhen replied with a smile.
Last year, during the New Year, Mei Shi was heavily pregnant.
This year, they had their own house, maids to serve them, and Xu Erpeng even repaid fifty taels of silver to the previous owner, reducing their debt from the three hundreds to the two hundreds.
Still, Xu Erpeng kept working hard, and Xu Miaozhen only relaxed for a few days, spending her time at home reading Danxi Xinfang.
In fact, in the year after the New Year, she hardly went anywhere in her spare time, but her progress was remarkable, and Ru Shi began teaching her acupuncture.
Normally, she would visit the Tao Family rain or shine, but today, for the first time, she asked for leave.
“Master, tomorrow a close friend is leaving, and a few of us want to send her off.”
Ru Shi knew that in the past year and a half, not even heavy rain or snow had made her late or absent.
Hearing it was for a friend, she agreed cheerfully and added, “But the day after tomorrow, I’m going to a free clinic. It’s a good opportunity for you to practice. You must come.”
Free clinics were mostly for diagnosing the poor, and the women she met were all commoners.
Ru Xiniang looked down on this kind of work and just distributed medicine in the front, reminding others, and enjoying their gratitude.
“Don’t worry, Master,”
Xu Miaozhen replied.
“No matter how solid your theory is, you have to practice to really learn.”
Lin Xiaoxiao’s mother had passed away, and her father didn’t plan to remarry, so her mother’s family planned to take her in.
They had already left Nanjing.
The farewell banquet was held at the Ma family’s house.
The four of them pooled together eight qian and arranged for more than fifty dishes, not counting the fruits, cakes, and wine.
Miss Tong Pan’er lamented, “Qiu Niangzi said she’d teach us how to make abalone with bones in the spring, but you’re going to Nanjing.”
Lin Xiaoxiao was also reluctant to leave.
“Yes, it was so much fun being together, but there’s nothing I can do.”
A girl without a mother’s guidance was easily gossiped about as the eldest daughter of a widower.
Besides, Lin’s maternal grandfather worked as a clerk in the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing, her uncle was a Baozong, and the family owned several shops—quite a well-off family.
Seeing everyone’s sadness, Xu Miaozhen smiled and said,
“Nanjing is the Southern Capital, a first-rate place. I think, Lin sister, you’ll get to experience the charm of the old capital. My eldest uncle once studied at the Guozijian in Nanjing, and he still talks about it fondly.”
As she spoke, she opened a box containing a pair of clay figurines—one of Lin Xiaoxiao and one of herself.
The figurines were so lifelike that Lin Xiaoxiao burst into tears.
After much comforting, she finally stopped crying.
When the banquet ended, Xu Miaozhen walked her out.
Lin Xiaoxiao held her hand and said, “Sister Xu, I know you’re studying medicine. You know my mother and I have always been sick, and we’ve seen countless doctors. My health only improved thanks to Yang Ruren of Wuxi. She’s your master’s maternal aunt, surname Tan, and her medical skills and character are both outstanding. Madam Tao’s skills are good, but can’t compare to Yang Ruren. Trust me, if you want to learn from the best, have your teacher introduce you.”
Tan, Yang Ruren?
Isn’t that Tan Yunxian?
Xu Miaozhen felt a sudden enlightenment, squeezed her hand, and said, “Good sister, thank you.”