Farmhouse Green Plum

Chapter 186 Grasshopper

September 9th is the Double Ninth Festival.

The sky was clear and almost transparent. The morning sun penetrated the thin clouds and shone on the tall city walls, creating a mottled appearance.

Song Ying glanced at the still green trees on the roadside, and couldn't help but yearn for the bleak beauty of falling leaves in the north in autumn.

"Song Ying?"

Suddenly, an uncertain voice sounded behind me.

Song Ying turned around and saw Yuan Qing holding an oil-paper bag, her face full of surprise: "It's really you! I saw your back at the pastry stand, and I didn't dare to give in to you with your clothes."

"Isn't it beautiful?" Song Ying smiled and shook the hem of her skirt. "My master bought it for me."

Song Ying in front of me had her hair in a bun, similar to the one she had on the night of the Lantern Festival, except that the plum blossoms in her hair were replaced with light pink pearls.

She was wearing a green cross-collared, waist-length skirt. The short jacket on her upper body was a lighter color, bean green, which made her look particularly quiet and beautiful.

She tilted her head slightly, smiled brighter than ever before, and exuded joy from the inside out.

As the autumn sun shone down, her whole body seemed to be glowing, especially her clear and bright almond-shaped eyes, which were filled with bright sunlight and sparkled so brightly that Yuan Qing felt dazed.

Song Ying didn't notice his absent-mindedness and continued to show off her new skirt. She reached out and picked up the longer belt hanging down from her waist: "Look, there's a grasshopper embroidered underneath. Does it look like a grasshopper jumping when you walk?"

As he said this, he took a few steps on the spot.

Yuan Qing finally came back to his senses, turned his eyes away awkwardly, and a suspicious red color flashed across his face.

Soon, he noticed the unnatural feeling in front of him and looked at Song Ying's hanging belt. He saw that the longer end had a green grasshopper embroidered on the hem, and some small flowers were embroidered sporadically on the skirt nearby.

As she moved, the belt fluttered like a grasshopper jumping on the green grass.

"This skirt is quite unique." Yuan Qing was very surprised. It was normal to have flowers, grass and butterflies embroidered on clothes, but this was the first time he saw grasshoppers embroidered on clothes. It was very interesting.

Song Ying was even happier: "My master specially asked the embroiderer to embroider this grasshopper. I didn't understand what it meant at first, but I realized it was so funny after I put it on."

When she bought clothes this time, she discovered that despite her cold appearance, her master was actually so interesting and thoughtful.

Yuan Qing also thought her master was very interesting. Hey, wait, master?

"When did you become an apprentice? Did you study medicine?"

Song Ying was somewhat speechless at his slow reaction, but still said cheerfully: "It was that day that I didn't buy the book, so I went back to borrow the medical book from Doctor Lin, and she accepted me as her apprentice!"

As she spoke, she couldn't help laughing again. Although several days had passed, she still felt a little unreal occasionally.

How could she be so lucky to meet such a good master who not only taught her medical skills but also supported her.

At yesterday's disciple-recruiting banquet, the maids in the Shen residence were envious and jealous, especially those who, like Xiao Fu, were dissatisfied with her and their faces turned green after they learned of her background.

Later, Lady Shun'an sent Mother Zhu to give her a jade bracelet of extremely fine water color, which made the maids even more envious.

Song Ying now feels very relieved when he thinks about it, and the frustration he felt from being slandered that day has been swept away.

"Congratulations." Yuan Qing said, pulling out a wooden box from his sleeve and handing it to her, "This is a gift for you."

Looking at the exquisite wooden box, Song Ying was very surprised: "What is this?"

"You'll know when you open it."

Song Ying took it and opened it. There was a piece of ink inside. It was shiny black in color, with a fine and solid texture. It was obviously good ink.

"Why do you still carry ink with you? But you should keep such good ink. When you use good ink during the exam, the chances of mistakes will be lower."

"This is the reward given by Prefect Shen for the last lunar month and lunar month exam. I still have a long way to go before the imperial examination, so there's no rush."

After hearing what he said, Song Ying happily accepted it and asked, "What place did you get in the exam? Did you get first place?"

Yuan Qing laughed: "There are so many talented people in this academy. How can I get the top score in the exam when I have only studied classics for a short time?"

Song Ying thought about it and felt that it made sense, and then he sighed, "I thought only the top-ranked one had such good ink. Prefect Shen is really generous. Well, Shen Jing's generosity turns out to be a family tradition..."

The two of them talked and laughed as they walked.

"By the way, Shen Jing was not convenient before, and I didn't even ask you, so why did you go to the Shen Mansion to do part-time work? Your grandmother and the others wouldn't allow you to do this, right?"

Song Ying was puzzled: "I haven't even mentioned the wages yet, how do you know they won't allow it?"

"As a girl, working as a temporary worker in a wealthy family like that, it's easy for people to misunderstand you as being sold into slavery. Your family must be afraid of being criticized."

At this point, Yuan Qing paused and said in a more tactful tone: "Moreover, even if there is no misunderstanding, given your family's temperament, they would feel ashamed to let an orphan like you do odd jobs, um, in front of your parents."

Song Ying naturally understood what he really wanted to say, that her grandmother and her family were too concerned about their reputation to let an orphan girl do odd jobs, which was embarrassing.

Song Ying was very surprised: "You see, he is quite sharp. He even knows the temper of my grandmother and others." Yuan Qing was from the next village and was a scholar. He seldom interacted with people from his own village, let alone those from the neighboring village.

In his interactions with him, Song Ying rarely mentioned his family, so all he knew about the Li family was the bits and pieces of information they heard from others in casual conversation.

Their personalities can be analyzed from these, so how could Song Ying not be surprised.

Yuan Qing smiled and asked, "So why did you do odd jobs?"

"It's a long story. Well, to make it short, our business of making money by selling herbs was discovered, and I took the opportunity to move out of the house and live on my own.

Brother Lin from the clinic was worried about me, so he asked his aunt to let me work part-time at the Shen residence."

Yuan Qing was stunned and stopped walking unconsciously. She tilted her head to look at Song Ying, "Single? You're a girl?"

After Song Ying nodded in confirmation, he was shocked and speechless. What did the Song family think? How could they agree to such a thing?

How dangerous!

Although they live in the same village and know each other well, their lives are safe, but the girl still has to consider her reputation!

How dare the Song family do this? Don't they worry about Song Ying's future?

This series of events all boiled down to He Tianyu, but Song Ying never understood why He Tianyu knew that they were making money by selling herbs.

Thinking that He Tianyu had a good relationship with the Yuan family, Song Ying naturally wanted to ask Yuan Qing if he knew about it.

She said, "You definitely can't imagine how this matter was exposed. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Miss He from your village went back to her parents' home with her sister-in-law and accidentally revealed it."