Chapter 53.1: About to Produce

Looking at Qi Xueyan’s envious and probing expression, Shen Jingshu did not feel comfortable. She did not like this feeling, she found Qi Xueyan increasingly more unbearable today. “Nothing, hehe. Let’s go!” Pretending not to care, Shen Jingshu’s expression was calm and Qi Xueyan couldn’t see anything unusual, but Qi Xueyan still didn’t feel relieved. “Jingshu, don’t you think of me as your friend now? Why didn’t you say anything to me?” There was a hurt expression on Qi Xueyan’s face, if this were seen by the former ignorant Shen Jingshu, surely she would have been tricked. But now, how could she still be fooled by Qi Xueyan?

“It’s really nothing. Master Hui only asked me to stay behind to inquire about my progress. You also know that most of the people here have a foundation, I just came and I don’t have any background,  Master Hui was afraid that I would not be able to keep up.” Shen Jingshu would never say anything about the medical knowledge Master Hui had given to her. She intended to study medicine, but she did not intend to let others know how much she was learning. For the most part, most of Master Hui’s lessons were only on medical treatments for the body, others were mentioned less, but Shen Jingshu was not worried.

In learning medicine, Shen Jingshu only wanted to make herself more capable of self-protection. She did not want to be as useless as before where she was controlled by other people with no way to resist,  the only thing she could do was desperately face death.

“Are you telling the truth?” Looking at Shen Jingshu’s dim expression, Qi Xueyan naturally believed it. Qi Xueyan understood what kind of person was Shen Jingshu before. Although Shen Jingshu had made some progress, how long had it been? She was not a true genius anyway.

“Of course it’s true, why would I lie to you? You don’t know, but I was really afraid that Master Hui would scold me a moment ago.”

“Relax, it’s okay.  You’ve just started learning, learning slowly is fine. When I first came wasn’t I the same? Going slow is fine, don’t worry!” Qi Xueyan did not want Shen Jingshu to progress too fast, how would she be judged if she were surpassed?

“En, it can only be like this now. Ai…” With a look of defeat, Shen Jingshu showed how hard she studied, this made Qi Xueyan very satisfied, “let’s go back!”

“En!”

……

The days at the school were fulfilling and happy. Shen Jingshu did not have many classes but she studied hard. Calligraphy was not a big problem but she had to spend a lot of time studying medicine. But in regards to needlework, she had not made much progress.

Today the master had asked them to embroider a small bird, Shen Jingshu had tried very hard and her hands were full of pinholes. The pain was severe, but the result was…

When Qi Xueyan saw this, she felt it was very humorous. Every time she saw Shen Jingshu’s embroidery she felt amused. “Heavens, Jingshu, what did you embroider? Is that a bird? Why does it look like a chicken to me?” Qi Xueyan’s voice was not low, almost all of the people there could hear it. Everyone heard Qi Xueyan say this and all came over at once to take a look at the “bird” Shen Jingshu embroidered. “ Shen xiaojie, is this really a bird? Why does it not look like one to me?”

” Shen xiaojie, master commanded us to embroider a magpie, not this!”

” Shen xiaojie, magpies are white here. You are not using the right color!”

“En, and the size seems too small. Shen xiaojie, you should pay more attention!”

……

Although some people were laughing maliciously, some were seriously giving guidance to Shen Jingshu. After all, her status still meant something and she had not been arrogant and was very amiable these past few days, many people wanted to make friends with her.

Shen Jingshu became the focus of everyone’s attention. Listening to everyone’s guidance or ridicule, she filtered their identities and found that those who ridiculed her all had intimate relationships with Qi Xueyan.

It seemed that Qi Xueyan certainly planned this behind her back, did Qi Xueyan think she wouldn’t know? She still wanted to deliberately ridicule her?  Looking at Qi Xueyan, although her face still looked caring, the mocking and proud look did not escape Shen Jingshu’s eyes. Because Shen Jingshu and Qi Xueyan sat very close to each other, some of their classmates pretended to discover Qi Xueyan’s work. They immediately appeared somewhat astounded, “Look, the magpie Qi xiaojie embroidered looks really lifelike, it makes me want to capture it !” Someone deliberately mentioned Qi Xueyan’s embroidery work which caused everyone to turn around and look, wasn’t it very different compared to Shen Jingshu’s?

“ Qi xiaojie’s embroidery work is getting more and more exquisite.”

“Look at this magpie, it looks real. Qi xiaojie, can you give me some advice? I don’t know how to do it. I always feel that I am not doing it right and that my magpie doesn’t seem lifelike!”

……

Qi Xueyan clearly understood the importance of embroidery so she spent a lot of time on it. She had been able to embroider like this from a very young age, of course it was pretty good. Listening to everyone’s praise, Qi Xueyan felt that she had finally pushed Shen Jingshu down a bit, how could she conceal the smile on her face? “Of course I can share some advice. If you want to embroider this magpie well, you should observe nature more and also practice drawing more. As for the magpie’s eyes, they should have a bit of a luster, you should embroider it with white lines and it will be better … ” Qi furen had taught Qi Xueyan all of this before and Qi Xueyan had carefully remembered. She was very happy at the moment, of course she was willing to guide others

“Oh, so that’s how you do it, no wonder!”

” Qi xiaojie is really observant, I never thought about it before.  It’s no wonder that my magpie is not lifelike.”

“Yeah, master said I still have to work hard, but Qi xiaojie is really intelligent, it makes me really envious!”

” Qi xiaojie, you have learned so much and have mastered every subject, you’re really smart!”

……

At that moment, the contrast between Shen Jingshu and Qi Xueyan became crystal clear. Qi Xueyan was especially pleased with everyone’s praise but at the same time she still did not forget to look at Shen Jingshu’s expression. Seeing Shen Jingshu sit there peacefully, it seemed that Shen Jingshu was unhappy because she was left out. Qi Xueyan became even more excited,” Jingshu, what’s going on with you? Are you unhappy? Haha, it is alright. You’re weak in embroidery so just work harder later, don’t worry!”Smiling as she held Shen Jingshun’s hand, Qi Xueyan could not let her go so easily!

Humph, Do you think you can fight with me? This is only the beginning, I will surpass you in everything to make you always live under my halo!

“Xueyan, how can I learn it well? Your magpie is embroidered really well, but mine …” disappointedly looking at her own embroidery, Shen Jingshu did not know what was wrong.  Since her rebirth, it seemed like she had learned everything fast but this embroidery never seemed good.

Was this “You win some, you lose some”? She had made great progress in other areas, so was she doomed to fall in embroidery?

Thinking this way, Shen Jingshu was relieved. Deep in her mind, she was actually not very concerned with embroidery.  Instead of spending so much time learning this, it was better to learn more useful things that would help her in the future!

Thinking this way, how could Shen Jingshu learn to embroidery well? Whether it was her previous life or this life, she was not particularly fond of embroidery!

Although she was not very interested in embroidery, but in other people’s opinion, Shen Jingshu was still working hard at it. At the moment, she seemed to be hit hard and her face was full of frustrations, this made Qi Xueyan even more excited. “You’ve just learned it, it’s okay. If you have something you don’t understand later, you can come to me and I will teach you!” In the school, Qi Xueyan had always kept a good relationship with Shen Jingshu, on this point, she was not stupid.

“Xueyan, you are so good to me!”

“We are good friends. I should help you!” Appearing like sisters, Qi Xueyan wanted everyone to see that their relationship was good so that everyone would respect her more. But secretly, she would always hint that Shen Jingshu’s temper was not and that she was quarrelsome because she did not want Shen Jingshu to have too many friends.

In the past life, Qi Xueyan had always done this, as a result, Qi Xueyan was Shen Jingshu’s only friend throughout her childhood. However, in this life, Shen Jingshu took the initiative to come to the school to study and never showed off. So, even though Qi Xueyan sometimes slandered her, this did not prevent Shen Jingshu from making friends!

After this matter, Shen Jingshu’s mood was very “bad”. Someone came over at that moment, ” Shen xiaojie, Qi xiaojie just embarrassed you in such way, don’t you feel angry?” The person speaking was senior official Yang’s daughter, Yang Huilan. This person’s face was quite beautiful and she was a few years older than Shen Jingshu. Because this person had the same classes as Shen Jingshu, Shen Jingshu had seen and spoken to her many times. But today, she had taken the initiative to come over and speak to Shen Jingshu for the first time.

“Hehe, why would I be angry about it? I’m not good at embroidery”, Shen Jingshu smiled uncaringly as she looked at the person in front of her and tried to recall her identity.

Yang Huilan was senior official Yang’s only daughter. Although senior official Yang was one rank lower than her father, his character was upright. So, Yang Huilan’s character was also frank, Shen Jingshu thought that having a relationship with this person was not bad and tried to make friends with her.  

“Shen xiaojie is magnanimous.” Smiling, Yang Huilan did not say anything else about it and came closer, “It will be time for calligraphy class soon, let’s go together. I was on my way just now!” Yang Huilan was much taller than Shen Jingshu, standing in front of Shen Jingshu, she was one-head-taller than Shen Jingshu. It made Shen Jingshu have to look up at the other person, ”En, ok! Let’s go!”

Not far away, Qi Xueyan was originally discussing tips with everyone, but when she saw  Yang Huilan and Shen Jinshu talking closely, she quickly came over, “Jingshu wait for me, I’m also going with you!” After saying goodbye to everyone Qi Xueyan joined the two, Qi Xueyan also wanted to make friends with Yang Huilan. However, this Yang Huilan had always been lukewarm towards her and their friendship had only been so-so. Seeing Yang Huilan actively talking to Shen Jingshu now, Qi Xueyan was not at ease.

“Let’s go together!” Without any ill feelings, Shen Jingshu smiled and waited for Qi Xueyan. Along the way, she chatted and laughed with Qi Xueyan. Seeing this, it made Yang Huilan feel very curious, she felt that Shen Jingshu was really interesting.

Arriving at the calligraphy classroom, Yang Huilan actually took the initiative to sit beside Shen Jingshu. This was rare, Shen Jingshu smiled at her and Yang Huilan also gave a smile in return. During the class, although the two people didn’t talk much with each other, they shared some opinions anyway. Shen Jingshu peeked at Yang Huilan’s calligraphy and saw that her calligraphy was full of ease. From her calligraphy, Shen Jingshu can tell that Yang Huilan was a broad-minded girl, Shen Jingshu naturally hoped that they could be friends.  

In the previous life, because of Qi Xueyan, she almost had no friends and the people she met were not very sincere towards her. Later, when her parents died, others naturally paid less attention to her. She was really lonely at that time. So, in this life, she wanted to have many friends so that she could have friends to lean on in the future,  wouldn’t that be good?

Moreover, she wanted to let Qi Xueyan know that she could friends other than her! “