As the young couple exchanged glances in secret.
Zhang Huizhi asked the plain woman, "Yunniang, where's Fu'er?"
The woman lowered her eyes and replied, "Fu'er took a short nap at noon, then continued with the assignments you set for him this morning, for an hour. After finishing, he's been practicing his writing in the north room until now, waiting for you to assign more tasks..."
"Let him continue practicing writing."
"Yes."
The plain woman responded softly and withdrew.
Zhang Huizhi turned his head, gazing toward the north room, where a slow young boy was quietly copying books and practicing writing.
The young Confucian scholar from Siqi Academy was silent for a moment, then glanced towards the direction of the western side kitchen.
There, several poor old servants, missing limbs or scarred faces, were busy under the plain woman's call, chopping wood, boiling water, fetching wine, and cooking.
Rumbling along with occasional gasps and coughs.
