Despite it being daytime, the room covered with Korean paper remained somewhat dim. Zhou Shaojin’s smooth face resembled glazed sweet white porcelain, its luster brightening the light in the room by several degrees.

So beautiful!

Zhou Chujin couldn’t help but touch her younger sister’s head, smiling as she said, “It looks wonderful! It’s just that I’ve never seen these patterns before, so I was a bit surprised.” She added, “I used to only see you writing and drawing in your room, but I never imagined you could actually design patterns yourself.”

She felt somewhat emotional, but mostly delighted.

Zhou Shaojin asked her with a smile, “Which one do you like? I’m planning to make two sets of clothes for you.”

In her previous life, after going to the estate in Daxing, she had nothing to do every day except worship Buddha at Dazhao Temple and tend to flowers and plants at home, along with embroidery and sewing.

What was designing a pattern?

She had even embroidered images of Guanyin.

Later, when she gave them as gifts through Lin Shisheng, she even received praise from nobles in the palace.

After hearing Lin Shisheng mention it, she had specially made time to embroider several more pieces to prepare as gifts for Lin Shisheng.

Who knew that Lin Shisheng would never mention this matter again.

She had never been one to initiate conversations with Lin Shisheng, so after some time passed, she had pushed this matter to the back of her mind.

She wondered where Nanny Fan had put those things?

Zhou Shaojin still felt it was somewhat regrettable when thinking about it now.

Zhou Chujin was very happy, but seeing that embroidering these patterns would take too much time, she said, “There’s no need to go to such trouble. A couple days ago, Eldest Aunt called Tailor Feng into the mansion and had several more outfits made for me. If you have nothing else to do, just embroider two handkerchiefs for yourself. Or you could embroider a skirt for Grandmother—that would be good too. In four more months it will be Grandmother’s birthday, and then you can give it to her as a birthday gift. Grandmother would definitely be delighted.” As she spoke, a trace of regret for her slip of the tongue flashed across her brow, and she hurriedly tried to remedy it, saying, “How about we also call Tailor Feng into the mansion to make you a few summer shirts? I remember you really liked that jade-belt white silver-striped gauze summer garment. Even when it got too small, you took it out to wear it twice. I happen to have two bolts of jade-belt white silver-striped gauze…”

Facing her eighteen-year-old sister, Zhou Shaojin felt extremely embarrassed.

In the past, whenever she heard that Eldest Aunt had acquired something for her sister, her mood would sink for several days, making even her sister and the people around her feel somewhat uncomfortable. Looking at it now, Eldest Aunt’s actions were more than appropriate. Never mind anything else—just take making clothes as an example. She was still young and at the age of growing taller. When too many clothes were made, some would become too small before they were even worn and could only be stored at the bottom of trunks. But her sister was about to get married. Even if she couldn’t wear them all, after going to the Liao family she could still reward them to the Liao family’s maids and pozi, which would also be a rare form of prestige.

“Elder Sister,” she interrupted Zhou Chujin’s words with a red face, “that silver-striped gauze is a tribute item that ordinary people have never even seen. It was specially obtained by Grandmother through the Old Madam of the main branch from the capital. It’s meant to be part of your dowry. If you give it to me, how will you complete the one hundred twenty carriages of dowry?” To put her sister’s mind at ease, after speaking she even mischievously winked at her.

Zhou Chujin was momentarily stunned.

Was this still her sensitive and suspicious younger sister?

But Zhou Shaojin’s heart was happy about her own change.

Wasn’t this how sisters should be—you yielding to me, and I yielding to you?

In her previous life, she had been immature. In this life, she would never make her sister so exhausted again.

She pushed her sister toward the side room, saying, “This time we’ll use the fabric from my storeroom—every time Father sends things back, it’s divided equally between us sisters. Although I don’t have silver-striped gauze here, I do have several bolts of emerald water-blue that are no less fine than silver-striped gauze!”

Only then did Zhou Chujin react, her face immediately flushing red as she stepped forward to cover Zhou Shaojin’s mouth: “You little girl, you dare say anything! Be careful or I’ll have Nanny Fan discipline you!”

“Nanny Fan wouldn’t bear to discipline me!” Zhou Shaojin said with a smile as she dodged.

The two sisters entered the side room.

Fan Liushi, Chi Xiang, and the others outside the inner room all breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

This could be considered the clearing of clouds after rain!

And Zhou Shaojin’s mood also became bright and cheerful like a clear sky.

No matter what would happen in the future, as long as she and her sister worked together with one heart, things would definitely gradually improve.

She concentrated wholeheartedly on her needlework, and by the time her menstruation ended, her sister’s vest only lacked the embroidered flowers on the cuffs.

Zhou Shaojin styled her hair in double-maid buns and wore a pale yellow vest trimmed with peach-red linked pearl patterns as she went with her sister to pay respects to Old Madam Guan.

Old Madam Guan held Zhou Shaojin’s hand and nodded repeatedly, saying, “You look so healthy—you must not have suffered much.”

Zhou Shaojin smiled bashfully.

Zhou Chujin thanked their grandmother: “That’s because the medicinal pills you sent over were good.” She added, “The Buddha Bathing Festival is approaching. When do you think would be a good time to start copying sutras?” Her tone suggested she couldn’t wait for Old Madam Guan to keep Zhou Shaojin right away.

Everyone laughed.

Old Madam Guan simply said, “Then let Shaojin stay. It won’t be too late to go to Jing’an Studio to study after the Buddha Bathing Festival is over.” Then she instructed Si’er, “Go tell Madam Shen that I’m keeping Second Miss here to copy sutras for me, and she can come to class after the eighth day of the fourth month.”

Si’er withdrew with a smile.

But Zhou Shaojin breathed a sigh of relief.

Having not attended classes for nearly ten years, she had completely forgotten about going to Jing’an Studio for lessons. Moreover, she had already learned everything that Madam Shen taught once before. In this life, she didn’t want to go to Jing’an Studio for classes anymore. Especially since there were only her and Cheng Jia as female students at Jing’an Studio—going there for classes would inevitably mean dealing with Cheng Jia every day. The memories from her previous life were too deep; she couldn’t be as intimate with Cheng Jia as before. It would be better for them to maintain an appropriate distance from each other.

However, now was not the time to discuss this matter.

Zhou Chujin followed Madam Mian to Hanqiu Hall to give instructions to the steward pozi, while she supported Old Madam Guan as they went to the small Buddhist hall.

The small Buddhist hall was converted from a side room. Though the space wasn’t large, the fresh flowers, fruits, incense, candles, and curtains were arranged very neatly. The seated Buddha statue of Guanyin, over three feet tall, was carved from a single block of rosewood. With smooth lines and exquisite craftsmanship, the Bodhisattva’s compassionate face was serene and peaceful, filled with loving kindness.

Zhou Shaojin loved it at first sight.

She skillfully drew three sticks of nanmu incense from the ghalewood box on the incense table beside her, lit them in the incense burner before the Guanyin statue, and handed them to Old Madam Guan.

Old Madam Guan nodded gently, accepting the incense with a satisfied smile as she knelt on the prayer cushion and murmured a few prayers.

Zhou Shaojin stepped forward to help the old lady up, helped her insert the incense, then offered three sticks of incense to the Bodhisattva herself before leaving the Buddhist hall with her grandmother. With Si’er’s assistance, they washed their hands in Old Madam Guan’s inner chamber.

“You can copy sutras here,” Old Madam Guan said, pointing to the writing desk by the window in the inner chamber. “The light is good here.”

Zhou Shaojin smiled and answered, “Yes.” Si’er and the others busily prepared paper and ink for her. She tested the brush, calmed her mind, and began copying sutras. Old Madam Guan sat beside her reading Buddhist texts. At noon, Old Madam Guan not only kept Zhou Shaojin for the midday meal but also moved to the inner chamber after the meal to drink tea, telling her about her own youth and using these stories to teach her how to conduct herself and handle affairs.

Warmth grew in Zhou Shaojin’s heart, and she felt that no matter what, she had to find a way to warn the Cheng family and prevent them from following the same path as in her previous life.

After that, every morning after breakfast she would go with her sister to pay respects to Old Madam Guan. Her sister would follow Madam Mian to learn household management, while she copied sutras in Old Madam Guan’s inner chamber. At noon she would accompany Old Madam Guan for meals, and after drinking tea they would talk for a while before each returning to their rooms for afternoon naps. In the afternoon she would make clothes at Wanxiang Residence.

After several days like this, Fan Liushi suddenly asked her for leave, saying that Lu’er had caught a cold and her family wanted her to hurry back.

Fan Liushi had two sons. Her eldest son was named Fan Lu, two years older than Zhou Shaojin. Her second son was named Fan Qi, the same age as Zhou Shaojin but fifteen days older, and was a posthumous child. Fan Liushi’s family only had two mu of poor farmland. To support her two sons, she had entered the mansion to be Zhou Shaojin’s wet nurse. Her two sons were entrusted to the children’s uncle.

When Fan Liushi mentioned Fan Lu, Zhou Shaojin suddenly remembered that in her previous life, Fan Lu had died of illness at this time, and it was because his treatment had been delayed.

Her heart couldn’t help but beat wildly as she hurriedly said, “You should go back quickly!” After the words left her mouth, she felt this wasn’t quite right and said, “I’ll have Shi Xiang get you ten taels of silver.” This still didn’t seem to solve the fundamental problem, so she continued, “I’ll speak to Ma Fushan right now and have him request Doctor Zhou to go back with you. If the silver isn’t enough, have Zhou Medical Hall settle accounts with Ma Fushan.”

Fan Liushi was moved to tears, her eyes reddening as she said, “How could it be so urgent! I’ll just go back and take a look.”

“Just listen to me and you won’t go wrong.” Better safe than sorry—Zhou Shaojin didn’t want to waste time going back and forth with Fan Liushi, so she directly instructed Shi Xiang, “Go tell Ma Fushan’s wife right now to have Ma Fushan’s wife hire a sedan chair to send Nanny Fan back.”

Fan Liushi knelt down to kowtow to Zhou Shaojin. Zhou Shaojin found her too long-winded and directly had Shi Xiang help her out.

After Zhou Chujin learned of Fan Liushi’s matter, she privately said to Zhou Shaojin, “You handled this well. If we can’t even take care of the people around us, how can we expect them to be wholeheartedly loyal?”

Zhou Shaojin humbly accepted the teaching.

Two days later, Fan Liushi returned.

She kowtowed to Zhou Shaojin repeatedly with loud thumps: “Thank you, Second Miss, for your life-saving grace—if Doctor Zhou hadn’t gone along, my Lu’er’s life would have been lost!”

Zhou Shaojin felt a surge of joy.

That meant Lu’er had survived!

Because of her warning, Lu’er had survived.

She felt even more confident about saving the Cheng family.

Zhou Shaojin asked about the circumstances of the matter.

It turned out that Fan Lu had been feverish for seven or eight days. Fan Lu’s uncle and aunt, being stingy with money, had only used folk remedies without calling a doctor. Seeing that the child had begun speaking deliriously and couldn’t take in food or water, they had finally panicked and sent someone with a message to Fan Liushi…

Zhou Shaojin couldn’t help but frown: “A child’s illness is a serious matter. Why didn’t they come to you for money?”

Fan Liushi’s eyes reddened as she said, “When I entrusted the two children to them, we agreed on how much money per year…”

No wonder!

Zhou Shaojin thought that Fan Lu and Fan Qi were both old enough to take care of themselves, and the Zhou family wasn’t short of this one mouth to feed, so she said, “Why don’t you bring them both to stay with you!”

“How could that work!” Fan Liushi shook her head like a rattle drum, saying, “The two young misses have shown me such profound kindness—how could I be so greedy and take further advantage of the Zhou family?” She added, “I’ve already thought it through. I’ll have Fan Lu farm at home, and send Fan Qi to apprentice at a silk and fabric shop. Both children will have a way forward.”

The eldest son inheriting the family business while the second son sought his own path—this was the customary practice in the countryside. In her previous life, after Fan Lu died of illness, Fan Qi had inherited the family business. Through hard work, he had not only acquired over thirty mu of good farmland but had also opened an oil press in the countryside, becoming a well-known capable person within ten li and eight villages. Seeing that her son had the ability to take care of himself, Fan Liushi had stayed by her side until she was about to assassinate Cheng Lu. Fearing that if something happened to her, Fan Liushi would be implicated, she had found an excuse to drive Fan Liushi away from the estate… But she had stuffed two thousand taels in banknotes into Fan Liushi’s bundle…

In this life, since she could change Fan Lu’s fate, she would definitely be able to change Nanny Fan’s fate as well!