Those years when I was Cannon fodder

THE RICH FATHER CHU 

Chu Yu's little life was quite fulfilling.

In the morning, she followed Mrs. Mo in the study to learn to read and write, and in the afternoon she completed her homework.

  Mrs. Mo assigned five big words everyday, and then she was free to spend the rest of the time however she wanted.

  She put her attention to the many flowers and plants in Qinglan Court. And she found quite a few plants with medicinal value.

 There were some that she recognized, and some that she did not.

But relying on her intuition, Chu Yu offhandedly tagged them, and also specially reminded the only maid in Qinglan Court - Qingyu, to not get rid of the plants she marked as weeds. Although Qingyu did not quite understand why, she agreed.

The only thing that was rather unfortunate was that her golden finger of taste was probably ravaged too hard and was not online yet.

  Or maybe in this different world, it will never come online again.

  Chu Yu, who was frustrated for a while, quickly collected herself. After all, In her previous life, she had bagged so many achievements and it wasn't just because of her golden finger.

  ......

  Time went by slowly, two months had passed, and the common words Chu Yu knew reached three hundred.

  Her handwriting no longer looks like a muddled mess. One can roughly infer the shape of the characters.

  It should be mentioned here that it took two months to know three hundred common characters, not because Chu Yu intended to hide using her clumsiness, but because this world's writing was too complex.

  Many times more complex than traditional Chinese characters.

  It was more like the oracle bone script written by the uncivilized primitive people.. it is possible to guess the meaning from looking at the glyphs.

  But that degree of complexity can drive people to vomit blood.

  Chu Yu once pretending to be naive asked Mrs. Mo, if reading and practicing words are so difficult, shouldn't only a few people be able to recognize them?

  Mrs. Mo smiled a little mysteriously, "Common people have different words, which is naturally not so complicated."

  She casually used a brush to write Chu Yu's name on a paper.

  The script looked very close to the modern simplified characters in Chu Yu's previous life.

  At that time, she was shocked, "Why didn't you, Mrs. Mo, teach me this?"

  Mrs. Mo said, "Those are very simple characters, there is no need to specially teach them. If you want to learn them, just flip through some books yourself, you will know, the characters that I am teaching are different."

  "What is the difference. Since the characters are simpler, isn't it more convenient to use this?"

  In Chu Yu's perception, words are just a tool for communication. What other special meaning could it have?

  Mrs. Mo laughed but did not elaborate, as if afraid of being pestered by her further, she finally only said, "If not, why would the city lord pay 300 taels of gold a month just to teach Third Miss?"

  Chu Yu's face was as steady as an old dog showing her incomprehension, but her heart was very shocked. Three hundred gold, is this gold the gold she knows?

  Later, she learned from Nanny Xu that this gold was indeed the same gold.

  But gold does not seem to be worth much here.

  Nanny Xu's monthly allowance for one month was one tael of gold, which was equal to about ten taels of silver.

  Of course, it is also possible that the level of the city lord's mansion is relatively high.

   Hence, The city lord, who had a way of making money, could afford to hire a governess for 300 gold a month.

She later inquired and knew that three hundred gold was enough to feed and clothe several the small rich families in the city for a year, Chu Yu realized the weight of the position of the city lord.

  She finally had the notion that she might not only be a minor concubine's daughter, but also a real wealthy and noble daughter of high lineage.

  ......

  During this period, the city lord only came three times.

  The first time he came, he was caught by the Third Lady. He probably couldn't stand her zeal, so the next two times, he came over in the afternoon, pretending to pass by, taking a look at Chu Yu who was tinkering with the flowers and plants in the courtyard.

  Seeing that she liked them, He gave her some seeds, warily slipped away before the Third Madam found out.

  It's almost like both the third lady and the city lord had a radar on them.

  The first time, when Chu Yu saw him leave hurriedly, she thought there must be something urgent in the mansion that he had to deal with.

  The second time he left, Chu Yu saw the third lady hurriedly running over to chase, only to return not long after, full of disappointment.

  Outside of Qinglan Court, although there are no guards to prevent them from going out.

  The second lady was in charge of the backyard, and the city lord of the front yard, there are many maids who stand guard. They will simply not let the third lady break through.

  Of course, the third lady also has her own calculation, such as letting Chu Yu go visit the city lord.

  It's a pity that the city lord will find someone to block the third lady everytime.

  After numerous attempts, the third lady has also become much more prudent, not daring to easily expose her cards.

  After all, no matter how many loopholes she tried to exploit in the past five-year period, the result is almost the same.

The third lady hounded Chu Yu all afternoon. She asked what her father was talking to her about. She also took Chu Yu's bag of seeds.

  If she hadn't already picked out some seeds of the bag, intending to sow them, she might not have been able to keep even this.

  The lady justifiably said , "You are a child, what do you know about seeds, mother would plant them for you, you can look at them later."

  What could Chu Yu do?

  Although she was in a child's shell, she really can't do such things as pouting and throwing a tantrum .

  She could only silently remember this lesson.

  Probably because Chu Yu's health was much better, the third madam did not keep a watch on her as much as before.

  Chu Yu squatted in the courtyard to play, and the third lady did needlework in her own house. She also concocted herbal medicines.

Chu Yu discovered it when she went to call her mother for dinner. Her mother was handling a herb that Chu Yu had seen in the courtyard. Chu Yu curiously asked about it.

  The third lady said that her father was a doctor, she often followed her father when she was little, so she also knew a little bit about handling medicinal herbs.

  "If I didn't have this skill in concocting medicinal herbs, could I have raised you so big?"

  "Only a pity, your grandfather was only a barefoot doctor. He did not know much so I can only grow these kinds."

  Chu Yu couldn't help but ask about the herbs she didn't know about in the garden.

  Some of them, the third lady recognized and told her in detail about, and some of them, the third lady said the she did not know.

  "They have been here since I lived in this courtyard. I don't know what they are, but when I was going to pull them out, I found out that keeping them would prevent snakes, insects and rats."

  "I have lived in this yard for five years and have found only one slightly poisonous snake, which was quickly killed by your Aunt Qingyi, and later sold to a pharmacy."

  " Hence I kept it."

  "These kinds of plants do not grow much, five years have passed and they still look the same."

  Chu Yu couldn't help but say, "Maybe the growth is from underground roots."

  The Third Lady froze.

 She then said, "However it grows, since it protects us against snakes, insects and rodents, I will keep it. You, my child, do not pull it out. We, only a few lonely women, live here. If there are poisonous snakes, I cannot stand it."

  Chu Yu unhappily accepted the explanation. She couldn't help but think, could she ask Nanny Xu to bring her a medical book?