Chapter 119 - 118: Emperor’s Aura, Personally Taught by Cui Jinghan
Chapter 119: Chapter 118: Emperor’s Aura, Personally Taught by Cui Jinghan
[Fifth Brother]: The way she holds the brush is indeed very skilled, showing at least seven or eight years of foundational practice. Nowadays, there are too few kids who have the time and can calm themselves down enough to learn calligraphy.
[Second Sister]: Xie Lin’s sheet music? Are you sure you didn’t see it wrong, kid? He’s a very cold person, and anyone who dares to touch his sheet music will definitely be beaten to death by him!
[Fourth Sister]: Last time, our master wanted to borrow Master Xie’s sheet music to admire for a few days, but was rejected. Master was heartbroken over it for a long time.
[Yan Sinian]: Of course I didn’t see it wrong. I was standing right next to Master at the time, admiring Mr. Xie Lin’s sheet music. His way of writing scores is still fresh in my memory.
[Seventh Brother]: Whoa... What’s her relationship with Xie Lin? Xie Lin was actually willing to just give his sheet music directly to her? That’s like Senior Brother giving away all his calligraphy tools one day!
Yan Sinian thought to himself that the latter was far more unbelievable.
He couldn’t imagine Brother Cui giving away his calligraphy tools. Once, he had accidentally used Brother Cui’s ink and was punished by being made to stand guard in the fields.
"I’m done writing." These three words pulled Yan Sinian’s thoughts back. He composed his expression and looked up, only to see six crookedly written words—
"I, the Emperor, am weary."
Yan Sinian was speechless.
It carried the imposing aura of an Emperor, looking exactly as if he had been tormented to his dying breath by his ministers.
Yan Sinian was utterly baffled. "Your grip on the brush was perfectly correct. There was nothing that needed correcting. Why on earth would you write such characters?"
Shi Changying crossed her arms and lied through her teeth, "Because I don’t know how to write."
Yan Sinian didn’t say a word. He carefully scrutinized the six words and suddenly noticed something off. "Did you write like this on purpose? This is definitely not your true skill level."
"Oh?" Shi Changying raised an eyebrow. "And how did you determine that?"
"My Senior Brother said that to judge whether a person knows how to write calligraphy, you first have to look at their brush control," Yan Sinian said. "Your wrist was suspended in the air, yet the brush was incredibly steady. It’s impossible for a beginner to achieve that. Furthermore, for these few strokes, you forcefully held back your strength and altered the direction of the lines."
Shi Changying looked somewhat dazed, suddenly recalling something from a long time ago.
When Cui Jinghan first started teaching her calligraphy, he had repeatedly emphasized the importance of brush control. A master of brush control could write beautiful characters even with a simple cotton swab.
At the time, she thought that since she could effortlessly wield the Yao Guang Sword, which weighed dozens of kilograms, how could she possibly fail to control a mere brush?
However, reality taught her a harsh lesson. She truly could not make a brush write exactly as she willed it to. She practiced brush control for three whole years, right up until the brush in her hand became as sharp as a sword.
Seeing that she had not responded for a long time, Yan Sinian raised his hands in surrender. "Miss Shi, I have no intention of lecturing you. I was just curious, that’s all."
When she was quiet, it inexplicably made him feel a bit terrified.
Shi Changying said coolly, "I was just thinking about the person who used to teach me calligraphy. He said something similar to me. Brush control isn’t as simple as one might imagine."
"So you definitely know calligraphy. Stop lying to me," Yan Sinian said with absolute certainty. "Though, from an outsider’s perspective, these six words really are quite ugly."
Shi Changying glanced at him. "Does it really matter whether I know it or not?"
"Of course it doesn’t matter. Everyone has different strengths. Just because you don’t know calligraphy doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish things in other fields," Yan Sinian said. "The only reason I learned calligraphy is because math is way too hard. I just couldn’t understand it!"
Shi Changying replied lazily, "Then I’m smarter than you."
"Are you good at math?"
"Just average. I was first in elementary school."
"..."
After a moment of silence, a flash of realization suddenly hit Yan Sinian. "Are you hiding your skills because of... your aunt? That night, your aunt’s entire family was targeting you, and she even insinuated that she didn’t know whose sheet music you had copied."
On the surface, Xu Zhao Yu’s words sounded fine, but they carried an extremely strong ulterior motive.
"Is that what she told you?" Shi Changying’s eyebrow twitched. "Then did she also tell you that her biological father swapped her life with my father’s?"
Yan Sinian was from Mingjing and was indeed unaware of such matters within the elite circles of Jianghuai.
He gasped. "It’s been a long time since I’ve heard such huge gossip! But my senior brother did say that the internal affairs of these prominent families are far more complicated than we could ever imagine."
Shi Changying said at a leisurely pace, "Therefore, I suggest you return to Mingjing right now. Tell her that I am incredibly stubborn and that trying to teach me made you cough up blood."
"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH!" Yan Sinian choked. "I can’t do that. Miss Xu hired me with a high salary, and the academy has already approved my leave. I have to earn this money while slacking off, otherwise, I’ll have to go back and run errands for my senior brothers and senior sisters."
He took this job specifically to have a paid vacation.
Shi Changying looked thoughtful. "Alright then, I’ll cooperate with you. You go ask her for more money, and then we’ll split it fifty-fifty. How about that?"
Yan Sinian was speechless. Something about this didn’t seem quite right.
When Yan Sinian looked at the group chat again, he found that the group name had changed from "Ten Dogs of the Sect" to "Nine Dogs and One Man".
[Yan Sinian]: What’s the meaning of this group name? Who changed it?
[The Only Man]: Of course it was me, your Sixth Brother. Your senior brother just got into a relationship, so now there are only nine dogs left among you.
[Yan Sinian]: ...
[Ninth Brother]: You got into a relationship? Who is it? Which family’s girl would actually fall for you?
[Second Sister]: There’s no justice in this world! No justice at all!
[Third Brother]: Counselor, I’m feeling sick to my stomach. Where’s my blade?!
Yan Sinian stared at his phone screen, his entire being sinking into an ocean of sorrow.
Shi Changying took in his expression completely. "Is my handwriting so ugly that it warrants such profound sorrow?"
"I’m not sad because of your ugly handwriting." Yan Sinian gritted his teeth. "I’m sad because a dog has actually managed to turn into a man!"
Shi Changying pondered this for a moment and realized she didn’t understand what he meant. Unashamed to seek guidance, she asked, "What does that mean?"
"The ten of us brothers and sisters of the sect are all ’single dogs,’ so our group chat was named ’Ten Dogs of the Sect.’" Yan Sinian grew angrier the more he spoke. "But just now, Old Sixth actually got a girlfriend! Now he’s the only ’man’ in the group."
Shi Changying was speechless. So this was the difference between a man and a dog. She finally understood.
Sneering, Yan Sinian joined the other brothers and sisters in blasting him in the group chat.
[The Only Man]: I’m treating everyone to dinner this weekend! Senior Brother, you definitely have to come @Cui Jiu. I’m inviting you to be my witness!
Cui Jinghan had just finished his work. The night was already deep, and the moon had once again climbed above the treetops. He preferred peace and quiet, so his phone was always on silent mode all year round, not even vibrating. If there was an emergency, the director of the academy would notify him directly.
By the time Cui Jinghan finally opened the group chat, there were already over nine hundred and ninety-nine messages, with several of them mentioning him.