With just one sentence from Wei Yutang, Xia Xia understood his purpose, and she frowned, not very willing to continue listening.
“But Da Niu and Er Hu are both older than me, and they haven’t gone to school yet.”
These two are Xiaxia's best friends in the village. They have never gone to school, so Xiaxia can play very freely. Who would have thought that her father would not play by the rules?
Wei Yutang thought back to Da Niu and Er Hu's families and realized that they probably didn't have enough money to send their children to school. If they had extra money, they would have preferred to save it.
It's not difficult to teach a child to read, but even after ten years of hard study, they might not pass the imperial examinations and still not achieve official success. The money spent on these studies is substantial.
In the minds of most people in the village, if the child didn't actually have talent, it would be better to spend so much money to let the child learn a skill properly.
"Da Niu and Er Hu, go too."
"Really?"
Xiaxia was still somewhat skeptical after hearing what his father said. He hadn't heard Da Niu and Er Hu mention this to him when he went to play with them before.
Wei Yutang could see Xia Xia's resistance to going to school. Since Xia Xia always felt that he would only go to school when all his friends did...
For Wei Yutang, sending those two children to school wouldn't cost much money; he could easily afford it.
"Xiaxia, is there anything else you want to say?"
"Am I only allowed to read books?"
Studying hard for years... Xiaxia had only heard this saying from other people before. If the window was freezing cold, then he must be even colder.
"If you don't want to study and learn to read, learning martial arts is also a good option."
"Then I'll learn martial arts!"
Xiaxia chose the latter without almost any hesitation.
"Alright."
Old Qi, standing nearby, smiled without saying a word upon hearing the young master's choice. If he wasn't mistaken, the general who wanted to teach reading and writing probably wanted to bring over the old tutor who had recently retired to his hometown to tutor the young master.
As for practicing martial arts...
Throughout the entire dynasty, no one is better than the general. The general is right in front of us now, and no one else would be more suitable than the general.
However, for the young master, this was hardly a good teacher.
Xiaxia was still basking in the thought of how smart she was, completely unaware of what was about to happen.
That afternoon, Wei Yutang went to Da Niu and Er Hu's house, approached their parents, and asked if they would be willing to let Da Niu and Er Hu learn martial arts with him.
When the parents of the two children heard this, they agreed without hesitation. If they could learn a little martial arts, they could become servants to those wealthy merchants, which would be much better than spending their whole lives in the fields.
Xiaxia breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Da Niu and Er Hu enter his yard. He knew his father wouldn't lie to him about this.
With his two best friends here, he felt a little more at ease, but he didn't know why he hadn't seen the martial arts teacher who was instructing them yet.
I wonder what this gentleman looks like, and whether he's fierce or not.
Wei Yutang, now dressed in clean and neat clothes, stood there and, seeing Xiaxia looking around nervously, asked with a cold face:
"What are you looking at?"
Where is the gentleman?
"As long as I am in charge of martial arts training, there is no need for anyone else."
Wei Yutang nailed the wooden stakes he had prepared earlier into the ground, and after confirming that they were very stable, he glanced at the three little kids standing there.
He had taught the young emperor in the same way. The young emperor, who was originally very close to him, ignored him for half a month after he started teaching him martial arts.
"Father? You, you, you, you teach me?"
Xia Xia's eyes widened; he was still reluctant to accept this. Not only him, but Da Niu and Er Hu were also somewhat shocked.
They were all not much older than Xiaxia. They had been threatened by their parents with the village hunters before, who said that if they didn't behave, the hunters would capture them.
Even though the hunter has shaved his beard and doesn't look so scary now, the shadow left in my mind isn't so easy to erase.
"Okay, stand up there and start practicing the horse stance."
Wei Yutang walked over, picked up all three children, and first demonstrated the movements to them.
Although Xiaxia had begun to regret it, she dared not disobey her father's orders.
At first, his movements were very standard, but after a while, he started sweating and his movements gradually became awkward and clumsy.
Wei Yutang frowned when he noticed this. Xia Xia saw her father's serious expression and hurriedly forced herself to maintain the standard posture.
Sweat began to bead on his forehead, quickly soaking his dark hair. Just when the little guy couldn't take it anymore and wanted to give up, his father's stern gaze seemed to follow him everywhere.
Later, he was really exhausted and simply lay on the ground, refusing to get up. Da Niu and Er Hu didn't dare to do the same, but their gazes began to linger between Xia Xia and Wei Yutang.
It was as if if they saw that Xiaxia wasn't punished, they would immediately follow suit.
Wei Yutang took out a stick he had prepared long ago and stood in front of Xiaxia. When Xiaxia saw the thick stick, she climbed up on it without her father's prompting.
She moved quickly and looked obedient, but there was a hint of resentment in her eyes.
"Since it's the first day, it's alright if you get up a little late. Tomorrow you'll start practicing at dawn."
Xiaxia gave a soft "hmm," then sniffed, holding back her tears in front of her friends. At that moment, her longing for her father reached its peak.
Author's Note:
Xiaxia: *sobs*
Chapter 119
The training ended around noon. Xiaxia, Da Niu, and Er Hu were almost soaked in sweat and lay there, unwilling to get up.
This time, Wei Yutang did not insist that they stand up. The old woman who had brought them back served each of them a bowl of mung bean soup that had been chilling in the well.
Chu Qing returned from practicing medicine and, seeing this scene, was somewhat surprised. She walked up to Wei Yutang and asked:
"What's wrong?"
"It's like this on the first day of training."
Wei Yutang himself had practiced martial arts since childhood, so he knew very well how much hardship one had to endure to develop such skills.
Since Xiaxia himself is unwilling to learn to read and write and only wants to go down this path, then he can't blame anyone else.
Chu Qing walked over and picked up Xia Xia, who was lying there unwilling to get up, and massaged him with a light touch, following the massage techniques that Lao Qi had taught him before.
Xiaxia felt as if she had lost all feeling in her legs. She hid in her father's arms and sobbed pitifully. She wanted to tell her father how fierce he was, but she didn't dare to because her father was standing right next to her.
All I could do was sob and whine, trying to vent all my grievances in this way.
When Lao Qi saw Chu Qing massaging Xia Xia, he realized that he had indeed overlooked this point before, so he also started massaging Da Niu.
It's tough for children when they first start learning martial arts. There are many children of generals on the border who have to start practicing in the middle of the night. He felt a pang of heartache seeing that.
Judging by the general's severity, he was probably even more ruthless than those people.
In the end, only Erhu was left. Wei Yutang had learned some massage techniques during his march.
Xiaxia, who had initially planned not to argue with her father, suddenly became unhappy when she saw him massaging Erhu. She buried her head in her father's arms and whispered:
“Father, Father really didn’t hit me with a stick…”
“Even when Xiaxia was so tired that she couldn’t stand up, her father didn’t use a stick to push her up.”
Xiaxia originally just wanted to act pitiful to his father, but the more he talked, the more aggrieved he felt. Tears started to well up in his eyes. He sniffed and couldn't hold back any longer. He threw himself into his father's arms and burst into tears.
He was a pampered little prince, and it was hard for him to adapt to suddenly having to endure so much hardship. Now, being held by his favorite father, his grievances were almost overflowing.
In other matters, Chu Qing would not agree with Wei Yutang being so strict with Xia Xia, after all, she is still young.
However, Wei Yutang didn't intend to interfere too much in education; Chu Qing understood the principle that spoiling a child is like killing a child.
When her father didn't join her in criticizing her father, Xiaxia had already guessed that her father was on his side. She wiped away her tears, sat down, and told her father that there were other places that hurt and that she wanted him to rub them.
Forget it, if his father doesn't care about him, he should side with his father and stop crying. Crying is pointless anyway.
Wei Yutang was both amused and exasperated by how quickly his son wiped away his tears. He and Chu Qing exchanged a glance, wondering who the child took after, as he was quite adept at reading people's expressions.
Chu Qing stood with Wei Yutang in front of the children, but that night after Xiaxia fell asleep, he still decided to talk to Wei Yutang.
Xiaxia is still young, so it would be quite tiring for him to do his best right away.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
When Wei Yutang held him in his arms, he patted his back reassuringly, just like he usually did when comforting Xiaxia.
Xiaxia is also his biological son, so he will definitely be careful about what he does in this matter. If he hurts Xiaxia while he is still young, he himself will not be able to forgive himself.
"Okay, I'll probably be gone for five days before I can come back. There's a patient in the prefectural city."
Chu Qing learned about this incident while treating a patient today. The patient in the prefectural city suffers from a strange illness that he has been researching recently. There are not many people with this illness, and he had finally encountered one, so he did not want to miss the opportunity.
"Alright, bring a servant with you."
Wei Yutang did not object to what Chu Qing was doing. If practicing medicine was something Chu Qing wanted to do, then he chose to respect it and was willing to accompany him.
Unfortunately, I need to teach Xiaxia martial arts recently, so I can only let one of my subordinates, who just arrived yesterday, accompany Chu Qing for the time being.
There are many people in the prefectural city, and Wei Yutang is not comfortable with Chu Qing going alone.
"A servant? That one..."
Chu Qing thought of the person she had just seen; judging from his demeanor, he didn't seem like a servant at all.
"In our family, he's just a servant."
"good."
Wei Yutang then realized that he had never told Chu Qing about his true identity. At first, he felt it was unnecessary, but later, as the time he had kept it a secret increased, he didn't know how to bring it up.
"When you get back, there's something I need to tell you."
"Um."
Chu Qing leaned against Wei Yutang's chest, their breathing almost in sync, and slowly, a strange sense of warmth arose within them.
"It's so good to have you."
When Wei Yutang heard him say those words unconsciously, his thin lips curled up imperceptibly. To him, this was the highest form of praise.