This was a minor matter, and Song Chaoyu had not given it much thought.
It wasn't until she returned to the painting academy that Tiaohong, while tidying up Song Chaoyu's book chest, suddenly exclaimed, "Miss... what is this?"
Song Chaoyu leaned over and saw that Tiaohong was holding a slip of paper with what appeared to be a four-line poem.
"Green, green, the grass by the river,
Lush, lush, the willows in the garden.
Graceful, graceful, the maiden in the tower,
Bright, bright, by the window she stands,
Exquisite, exquisite, adorned in rouge and powder,
Slender, slender, her fair hands emerge."
Tiaohong read the poem aloud from the slip of paper, but she did not understand its meaning. "Miss, what does this mean?"
Song Chaoyu's brow immediately furrowed. "Give it here for me to see!"
She took the slip of paper and saw that it was just a piece of ordinary Xuan paper with a short poem written on it. The paper seemed to be a torn corner from a larger sheet, and the handwriting was neither particularly good nor bad, just ordinary.
A thought surfaced in Song Chaoyu's mind, and she let out a cold laugh. "Poetry like this, pursuing a woman, is unlikely to be written by any proper young master in our manor."
Tiaohong's face flushed upon hearing this. She then snatched the slip of paper away. "What?! Poetry pursuing a woman? This thing absolutely cannot appear in your ladyship's book chest, or people will laugh at you!"
She also recalled what had happened earlier, and her brow furrowed. "Could it be that servant boy from just now? Miss, did that servant boy serve you on the estate?"
Besides that servant named Zhuzi, Song Chaoyu could think of no one else.
Song Chaoyu said to Tiaohong, "Burn this slip of paper, and do not tell anyone about today's events!"
Tiaohong knew the seriousness of the matter, but Song Chaoyu added, "And do not tell Xunlu either."
Though puzzled, Tiaohong nodded and left.
Song Chaoyu remembered that this Zhuzi had caused quite a bit of trouble in her previous life.
Because of his handsome appearance, he had developed many inappropriate thoughts.
He later stopped serving the Song family, claiming to have attached himself to a better household and gone to the courtyard of Zhang Jia, the Grand Chancellor.
Later, it was heard that he had somehow become involved with a concubine-born daughter of the Zhang family, bringing great shame to the Zhang family.
However, that concubine-born daughter was determined to marry Zhuzi, convinced he was the one.
In the end, Lord Zhang, with swift action, sent the "rule-breaking" concubine-born daughter to a nunnery in the suburbs, thus completely severing their relationship.
If it were only this, Song Chaoyu would probably have only pitied the concubine-born daughter for her ruined life.
But something even more unexpected was yet to come—
Zhuzi was reportedly beaten twenty times by the Zhang family and then driven out.
Yet, less than half a year later, Zhuzi, through some unknown means, had become acquainted with a concubine-born daughter of the Qian family, a junior official in the Guanglu Temple with a fifth-rank position in the capital!
This time, the incident was even bigger: they were discovered together in a dry well, and the Qian family was forced to publicly claim they had been childhood sweethearts, thus having no choice but to take Zhuzi into their family as a son-in-law.
From then on, Zhuzi's fate was to "soar to the heavens."
After these two incidents, everyone knew that Zhuzi was this kind of person, relying on attaching himself to noble ladies of official families to get ahead.
Song Chaoyu had not expected that he would now set his sights on her!
The dangers lurking within the Song family were indeed not solely from the First Madam's marriage plans with the Lin family.
—
Since the Lin family proposed to form a marital alliance with the Song family, Song Chaoyu observed that Song Yanjiao had lost all interest in attending school.
Every day, she feigned illness, and the school instead became Song Yanrou's "domain."
Song Chaoyu wished to avoid trouble and often kept her distance from Song Yanrou.
The summer weather grew increasingly hot. Aunt Liu often made iced fruit juices for Song Chaoyu to share with her friends at school. Song Chaoyu rarely brought them, fearing it would cause trouble or give Song Yanrou an excuse to find fault.
After the ink-splattering incident, Zhang Qiuhe had not returned to school and likely never would.
However, Song Yanrou's "clique" still had quite a few members.
The most ostentatious among them was Zhang Sipei, the eldest concubine-born daughter of the Zhang family, a commander in the capital's military guard.
Although Zhang Sipei was born of a concubine, the Zhang family currently had only one son and one daughter, both born to Zhang Sipei's mother.
Therefore, Zhang Sipei's life in the Zhang family was no worse than that of the legitimate daughters in other households.
She was usually high-profile and quite popular among the students at school.
One day, she arrived at school, and her maid carried two large pots of iced rose juice.
As soon as she entered the classroom, Zhang Sipei began distributing the rose juice to everyone.
However, when she reached Song Chaoyu, Zhang Sipei offered a perfunctory smile and apology. "I'm sorry, Fourth Sister Song. I don't have enough rose juice today, so I'm afraid I can't give you any!"
Wasn't this a blatant act of isolating Song Chaoyu?
Song Chaoyu, however, was not annoyed. She merely shook her head at Zhang Sipei and then smiled. "Thank you, Sister Zhang. But my grandmother and mother always remind me that even in the height of summer, it's not good to be too greedy for coolness. Otherwise, like Third Sister last time, if you eat something that disagrees with you and have a night of discomfort, that would be truly improper."
Upon hearing this, Song Yanrou turned and glared at Song Chaoyu.
Seeing Zhang Sipei's smooth demeanor, some other concubine-born daughters who were on good terms with her comforted Song Chaoyu. "Fourth Sister, don't take it to heart. That's just how they are. It's only rose juice, after all; who doesn't have it!"
Song Chaoyu shook her head and smiled, finding the scent of rose juice filling the classroom too cloyingly sweet.
"Ah!"
But as they were waiting for the female teacher, a girl beside Song Yanrou accidentally bumped into the rose juice, spilling the liquid all over herself.
Song Yanrou quickly jumped up. "Don't get my new dress dirty!"
For a moment, their area descended into chaos. It wasn't until the female teacher arrived that things settled down.
The lesson for today was tea ceremony.
However, before the class began, someone suddenly exclaimed, "Ah! My tea towel is missing!"
Everyone looked towards the source of the voice, which was Zhang Sipei.
A tea towel, also known as a teapot cloth, is used to dry the bottom of the teapot or tea caddy before pouring tea, or to wipe away spilled tea on the table.
Zhang Sipei's tea towel was a priceless item, which she had shown off in a previous tea ceremony class.
Her tea towel was made from Suzhou embroidery silk that the Emperor had bestowed upon the Zhang family, and her own First Madam had personally embroidered a hundred butterflies with pearls and gold thread onto it.
The Suzhou embroidered silk, paired with the golden wings of the hundred butterflies, made the entire tea towel shimmer and gleam under the sun.