On their first day of school, Molan, Rulan and Minglan did their make up together, they all wore green jacket that was round neck and long sleeve, at the chest was an embroider of apricot and broken branches of flowers, paired with it was a long skirt that was as white as clouds, and in their necks was a jade lock, a brilliant golden collar that was made with Ying Luo [1] strips and a fine beautiful pendant made with golden silk.

"This golden collar looks so nice, it must have cost grandmother a fortune, when I get back, I will have to properly thank her." Molan said to Minglan while wearing a smile; as lessons were in the morning, Old Madame Sheng let everybody proceed to school, such that to avoid any mishaps.

"It is good-looking, but the weight is not to be underestimated, I once had a golden collar, and it weighs a few kilograms." Rulan said uncaringly, while Changbai whom was looking at a book unhappily glanced at her.

"A few kilograms?! Then won't it break the neck? No wonder I never saw you wearing it, and I thought that this collar is very heavy." Minglan rubbed her neck and muttered.

"Sixth younger sister, this jade lock is of superior quality, it seems like the jade came from the Western Kunlun Mountains." Changfeng closely examined Minglan's jade locket.

Molan actually noticed that jade locket quite early ago, seeing that her brother started a conversation topic, she then went to look at Minglan's jade locket. At first look, Molan saw that the lock piece was only jade white, with a faint touch of crimson that was forming a shape like a phoenix [2], the Jade's texture was fine, elegant and refreshing, crystal rounded and pure and flawless, "This is a a really good jade, I have never seen any jade as good as this." Molan commented.

She felt jealous in her heart, and started thinking that Minglan's jade is better than hers, if she enters Shou'an Hall with her own jade, she'll be laugh at but if it was Minglan's jade... But that jade is not hers, thinking of Old Madame Shen rejecting it if she ask for it, she cannot help but feel frustrated.

Rulan from across the room, does not have much understanding of jades, she has been staring at the piece of Jade in front of Muolan's chest, thinking about Wang Shi's reminder has made her patient but now that everyone is talking about jades, she could not help but said, "Sixth younger sister, you have to be careful, now that fourth sister has taken notice of your jade, she could go back to father and ask for it. There is no saying that piece of jade your wearing might end up in her pocket."

Changbai frowned, and returned back to reading his book; Molan's face turns red and angrily said, "Fifth younger sister, what is the meaning of this? How could I possibly be intentionally trying to take away my sister's items?"

Rulan saw Changbai's warning eyes and thought of the planking session; she softened her voice and slowly said, "Nothing? Just that I had some strange thoughts when I saw fourth older sisters's jade locket, please pay it no mind."

Minglan immediately went to see the jade locket that was in Molan's chest, only to see that it is also a warm and fine white jade, especially since it was a rare, odd one, most of the color was as dark as an ink, shiny and pleasant, at first glance, it was as if a magnificent painting of a flowing ink besides a mountain, could not help but be secretly be amazed. Molan furiously say, "This jade that uncle Wang gave is not fake, father gave me this jade in significance of my name [3], right after giving me this jade, father also ordered people to look for another even higher quality Hibiscus jade for you, so why do you still not giving up?"

Rulan faked a laugh and said: "I, as a younger sister doesn't know if a jade is high quality or not, all I know is that the meaning behind it was that it was my uncle's gift for me."

Molan smiled hypocritically: "Fifth younger sister, do not forget, that he's also my uncle!"

Rulan gritted her teeth and glared at Molan, but doesn't dare to mention anything more about the legal status of one another.

....

"Today, most of the students are studying for the imperial examinations, everything lies in the gods, 'I want to be official' this is not something you can't tell others but after the examinations, those with no big dreams and those with shallow and boring words are bound to fall eventually despite having a lasting career! Homeworks must be done with your heart and soul, poetry and literatures must be memorised at your finger tips, and learn from the beginning."

Mr. Zhuang is very clear of his student's target, more clearly the purpose of students to study, thus he went straight to lessons on the first day of school with the history of the peripheral content of the native around accompanied by many exams because almost all of his students went there for the imperial examinations, so he also gave a lot of model cases of success and failures; he will come up with articles and use it as an example then he points out which are the best examples and points out the weak points of those that had failed the examinations.

This clear goal and clear teaching methods immediately made Minglan respect the teacher in awe, she has always felt that some of the ancient Confucianism are hypocrites, all of them are clearly aiming for the imperial examinations but still keep acting like studying is to cultivate moral education but Mr. Zhuang does say much about this: "The ancient desire of the wise and benevolent in the world; To rule over a country, one must first wants to rule a country, to start a family, one must first desire to start a family, to refine its mind and body, one must first desires to refine its mind and body; you must have the will... Only when you have the will than you can refine your body, only when you refine your body then you can start a family, only when you have a family then you can rule a country, only when you can rule over a country then will there be world peace; learning is not just reciting a few articles a few poems, it is to a long road of refining your mind and body, to have a long foothold, you have to learn through solid foundation!"

In this private school, there were a total of six students and a teacher, outside of the school has maidservants and servants waiting to pour tea and add firewood, in the old times, class always has this unavoidable routine reading poems aloud in ecstasy.

It's doesn't matter if you have memorized it thoroughly; you will still have to shake your head, bump your head, squint slightly and have an elongated tone reading; this is not only to make reading appealing but also to read out the essence of the words; Molan felt that this does not look good when a girl does it and always refuses to do it; saying that she will get dizzy after shaking her head, besides since Mr. Zhuang doesn't really care about them, she decided that it was useless.

Only Minglan felt good, this activity of shaking the head in circular movement before looking down to read is actually good as to avoid the pins and needle in the neck and the pain in the cervical spine; a few shakes and the neck and shoulder are already comfortable, Minglan finally understood how the ancient scholars who spent all their time looking down to read books did not acquire cervical spondylosis [4]; causing her to shake her head harder the harder she studies. Causing Mr.Zhuang to look at her twice in the morning.

Mr. Zhuang has big rules which does not allow the servants to come in, so the grinding of inks and pasting of papers had to be done on their own, the others are okay, but Changdong is still young, it's hard to grind small ink ingots and he just happen to sit behind Minglan.

Minglan can hear behind her the constant panic and the frequent collision sound and decided to give a helping hand, while Mr. Zhuang is not paying attention, she quickly turned back and swapped her ink set with Changdong's; this action was so clean cut and perfect, when Mr. Zhuang rose his head, Minglan has been sitting and grinding her ink with a serious and focused eyes.

Mr. Zhuang 's little eyes flashed as he continues lecturing, Minglan was relieved. At this time, the little boy came with a soft voice: "...Thank you sixth older sisters."

Minglan did not look back but only nodded, signifying that she heard it.

Changdong despite being encouraged, still stammered to explain that he was not significant and was only Wang's maidservants son, it wasn't that the master is illiterate but he was never enlightened until he was five years old, listening to Mr. Zhuang's class is like reading the heaven's book; both hard and shameful: "Older brother... Taught me few words before but then he need to prepare for the exam and I do not want to bother him... Sixth older sisters, I ..."

He does not meet people that much that's why he was timid and does not speak quickly.

Minglan gently said, "Oh" secretly thinking, helping people or helping herself, which is better? In a blink of an eye, she saw Changdong with a weird face, as if he was looking forward and full of eagerness while also cautiously hiding it with fear of being rejected.

Minglan is compassionate, she first looked inside and sees the old lady is talking with Wang Shi and thinks about how long before they have to go to school, then she led Changdong to a cupboard with pears engraved in it and found a book with red dots and gave it to Changdong, she softly said: "This is what the old lady have me to learn words, I have not used this and its new; I will give this to you for you to practice on it, you are young, so do not worry, learning ten words a day would be very smart. Next time every day before school; I will assign you few words and while you listen to Mr. Zhuang lessons you must memorise the words, ok?"

Changdong's small face bloomed a big smile, he desperately nodded as he repeatedly thanked Minglan; Minglan looked at his grateful look, thought of her own little nephew that was being begged by five adults to go to school and suddenly felt very sad.

On that day, she taught Changdong five characters and shows the pen strokes, Changlong stared with his eyes wide open, summoned the effort to memorise all of them at one go and then wrote them in the red book during Mr. Zhuang's lessons, after writing, he still practiced writing on the back of the rice paper until the end of class, Minglan looks back and sees the five words already properly written.

"Changdong is really smart, if father finds this out, he must be very happy." Minglan's smile touches Changdong's soft heart.

Changdong's little face was so delighted that it was filled with happiness as he blushes.

Minglan thought that this child will sooner not have the will to learn but little did she know that Changdong would come to look for her as early as half an hour before the time to wake but it just that Minglan loves to sleep and would always wake up after everybody' wake up, her waking habit is so bad that Danju almost had to splash water on her face before the proper waking time just to get her to wake up at the right time and now with Changdong, this is going to get even worse.

"Sixth older sisters, sorry, sorry, you sleep well yet I came early, I will be waiting for you outside..." Changdong knows that Minglan is still in the bed that's why he was standing politely at the stairs that was right before the door and after repeatedly saying that, the small body turned around to run but was grab by Danju and orders Minglan, who was now standing but still refused to let go of her blanket with Cui mama [5] at the bedside who gave a wry smile, it was just then Minglan finally got up.

A four-five years old Changdong, just when he is supposed to be ignorant and sleepyhead had just wake up before the sun just to study. If he is born in a modern family, the seniors might be so happy that they would be setting off fireworks every night in celebration that this child have such an attitude towards studying, Minglan couldn't bear to keep Changdong wait so she had to endure the ordeal, and wake up early every day.

"Remember, write from left to right, then from top to bottom. When you start a stroke, make sure to pull your brush to the right and then to the left. When you end a stroke, make sure to pull up slowly, when you press the brush down to write, make sure to lift your wrist up slowly, this way your brush head will look nice..." Minglan and little Changdong were sitting side by side in front of a chimney, with Minglan demonstrating stroke by stroke, Cui mama came from outside, carrying a small tea tray that was engraved with black painted flowers, on top of it were two white porcelain cups with colorful flowers engravings.

"Thank you Cui mama. I'm causing trouble for you, it's all my fault, making you have to work more." Changdong's face blushed a little as he took the porcelain cup that Cui mama passed to him while saying a gentle thank you. When he was at Wang Shi's place, he would not dare to move around; he had only talked to Concubine Xiang the whole day but still didn't say much either, after several days since Minglan started teaching him, not only did his learning improved; he can also finally speak neatly.

"Oh Buddha, my little boy, why would you say this, it's all thanks to you coming or else I will have to work a lot harder just to wake this lady up!" Cui mama laughs as she scolds Minglan but Minglan choose to ignore what she heard and only lowers her head and blow the porcelain cup in her hands, Cui mama looks towards Changdong, "Fourth young master you better drink the tea; this is stewed from the new mahogany and plum brown sugar to become a sweet tea; it moisten the lungs and warms the stomach, this is best to drink in the morning, it can also serve as an appetizer for breakfast."

Changdong held the cup with his two hands and took a sip of the tea, his little mouth was covered in red because of the smoke [6]. He puffed his white cheeks out and tasted the sweetness of the tea wholeheartedly and shyly said, "It really tastes good, thank you mama... But if I would be drinking this every day, then wouldn't it be hard in your pockets, you don't have to do this for me in the future, I do not need to drink this..." his words getting softer and softer.

Cui mama said, laughing, "Fourth young master is actually worrying for us, how could this small amount of tea be hard on us? If you come every morning, then I shall serve you tea every day! Just that we don't know, whether you sixth older sister would have the will..."

With mirth, she looked at Minglan; Minglan forced a hearty smile. Which book said that time traveling to the past to be a young missy would let her sleep the whole day, all lies!

Outside the cabinet with engraved pears, Danju was tasked to help Minglan pack up her bags and put out papers to be used for calligraphy in a bamboo case. Xiaotao who was helping her from a side, obtusely asked, "Older sister Danju, Fourth Young Master coming here is a good thing, but our young lady looks very tired, look at her; yawning with all her might. I would rather let her sleep more, why can't she teach Fourth Young Master at noon?"

Danju's wrinkled her delicate eyebrows, and gave a hand signal to Xiaotao to shut her mouth and softly told her, "Don't gossip! This residence houses many young masters and young ladies. Nobody is better than anyone else. The old madam is already having a hard time, having to make sure that she is not biased to anybody. We have the blessing of getting to live by following the old madam and being safe because of Concubine Wei, who did not say any bad thing to the head, that's it. you have no idea how much terrible things happened! Minglan's flatteries and the secret slandered is just one of the many, we should not spread baseless rumors, but fortunately, our lady has a big heart, and never put these things on her heart.

If she continues to be so close to the fourth young master and make him keep on walking in and out of Shou'An Hall, at that point it would be something else different. One can see that fourth young master looks really pathetic; the young lady is not easy to take care of and the old lady doesn't seem to care and now that he is yearning to learn new words, it is just right."

Xiaotao was dazed for a moment and her small face which was filled with freckles suddenly looks so lost: "...Older sister Danju, our young lady is polite and had never fought with her sisters, but the old madam pities her and treats her better, if so how would these be gossips?"

Xiaotao nods seriously, then looked down and started working again but then suddenly says: "Oh yeah, I better go and tell those four plants [7] not to gossip about our lady teaching fourth young master!"

Danju covers her laughs and mimicked Minglan and says: "Very good, very good, you pick up things fairly fast."

Part 2

Time flew by and the Sheng Household was peaceful and eventless. Old Madam Sheng had tidied up the rules of the house, the major power in the household slowly returned to Wang Shi's hand but people still had their own power in their courtyards and they would ask Old Madam Sheng whenever they had uncertainties. Upon seeing that the household was in order and the maids were able to manage the house better and were more obedient, Sheng Hong felt very satisfied. Only Concubine Lin complained. Regardless, Sheng Hong remembering Governess Kong's words, stubbornly chose to ignore Concubine Lin even when the siblings, Changfeng and Molan, interceded. Sheng Hong would respond by standing his ground and scolding them.

Concubine Lin refused to let things be. A good few years of spoiling her made her get used to being spoiled, so she resorted to underhanded means like a sudden illness, a sudden resentment, a child crying, a sudden provokation but Sheng Hong in the end, had been sharing a bed with her for more than a decade so no matter how many schemes she used it would be no more than an old trick. Because of this, Sheng Hong had built an immune system against these tricks. He was reminded of back when he was young, when Old Madam Sheng was still serving him; she had been kind to him. Thinking of how their relationship became how it was now made him feel that he was lacking filial piety. This caused an emotional domino effect, resulting in him having an even colder heart towards concubine Lin and devoting his heart into his job.

Encouraging farming, dispatching merchants, within just three years of service under the Deng Prefecture's governance the place became rich, turned over a lot of taxes, made good performances and with the help of his good connections, there would often be people taking care of things from afar. When the three-year term expired; he would retake and score the evaluation test, rise to a fifth rank officer and assume position again.