Chapter 648 - Captured
Yunshu’s Record? Yunshu wrote this?
When Liu Qingping saw that booklet in his hands, he sighed and started to reminisce. “Every word in that book was written by Yunshu. In the past, there were also many characters that she did not recognise, so she wrote down all these characters in this book. However, there were some characters that even this official doesn’t recognise.”
As he talked about Ji Yunshu, his eyes started turning red. Yunshu, oh Yunshu, when are you going to come back? He heaved another long sigh, lifted his sleeve to dab away the tears at the corners of his eyes, and continued looking for Wei Yi’s books.
Wei Yi held up Ji Yunshu’s little booklet and gently flipped the pages. The words on the first page were twisted and crooked, irregular in thickness and shape. Some of them were even so squished that the character was unrecognisable. As he flipped through the book, the handwriting slowly became more regular.
The writing on the last page was even more like Ji Yunshu’s own personality, clean and graceful. This was certainly a perfect example of a handwriting primer!
Actually, this wasn’t strange either. How could Ji Yunshu have known how to write with a brush when she just arrived? She didn’t even recognise some characters, so it was already pretty good that she could have practiced her writing to this level. [1]
Wei Yi smiled and asked Liu Qingping, “Could you give me this booklet?”
“Of course! When Yunshu returns from Yufu, you can just return it to her.”
He nodded and placed the booklet safely within the front of his robes.
After the time needed to burn a stick of incense, Liu Qingping had finally found all the books that Wei Yi wanted to borrow. However, there was a thick layer of dust on the books, so he patted them several times. Clouds of dust flew up into their faces.
Cough cough! The two of them coughed and choked from the thick dust.
Liu Qingping smiled awkwardly and apologised, “Please forgive me, Young Master Wei. Yunshu had always been the one looking after these books. Now that she isn’t around…” Haha.
Wei Yi didn’t mind at all, and wrapped up all the books. “If it’s alright, I can come over to help you look after the books.” He volunteered his services.
“Wouldn’t that be troublesome for Young Master Wei?”
“It’s no trouble at all. I’m very happy to be able to read in here.”
“Alright then, you can come whenever you’re free. The yamen is so quiet anyways, so if you came, it would at least be a little livelier.” Of course it would be fun to have this silly little boy around.
Liu Qingping patted his shoulder again. “Take your time to read these books. If there’s anything that you don’t understand, you may come and ask this official anytime.”
“Many thanks, Milord. I’ll bring the books home first, and will return them immediately after I’m done reading.” Wei Yi was modest and polite, wholly unlike his foolish and simple self in the past.
“There’s no hurry. You can return them whenever you’re done reading.”
Wei Yi nodded. “I’ll leave first then. My tutor is still waiting for me at home.”
“Take care, Young Master Wei.”
Wei Yi hugged the books and left.
Liu Qingping was dumbfounded as he watched him leave. He scratched his head and wondered to himself, is this person really a fool or just pretending?
After he returned to the Wei estate from the yamen, Wei Yi dived straight into his own study, accompanied by the tutor. If there were any characters that he didn’t recognise, or parts where he didn’t understand, he would just ask the tutor.
Wei Yi also learned things extremely fast. Sometimes, the tutor would only be halfway through his explanation and he already understood the concept. He would also remember complicated characters after just seeing them once and could even write them out with his eyes closed.
The tutor said that his brain was gifted to him by the Heavens, and he would surely be uncommonly intelligent with extraordinary accomplishments in the future. In short, he was a late-blooming genius.
That evening, he was reading till late and his tutor was napping in a chair nearby. A sudden gust of wind blew in from the open window and made him shiver, so he stood up to close the shutters with his book in hand.
However, just as he reached the window, a shadow darted in from outside.
“Ah!” A black-clad man covered his mouth to muffle his shout.
Wei Yi’s eyes grew round with surprise and started struggling with all his might as the book in his hands dropped onto the ground.
The next moment, someone hit him hard on the back of his head and immediately knocked him unconscious. He was dragged out from the window. In the process, his arm was scraped by a sharp nick in the window and his blood spilled onto the windowsill and the ground. However, this entire process didn’t create much commotion at all.
Even the tutor was undisturbed by it and continued to doze off in the pear blossom chair.
After some time, Uncle Fu brought in a steaming bowl of noodles, intending to serve supper to his Young Master. But there was no sign of Wei Yi.
There was only that book that had fallen to the ground, and the bloodstains on the windowsill.
The bowl of noodles smashed onto the floor with a loud clatter.
The tutor was shocked awake by the noise. In his confusion, he asked blearily with half-open eyes, “Is there a character that you don’t recognize? Which is it…?”
Instead, there was only Uncle Fu who shouted in alarm, “Summon the guards, hurry! Something has happened to Young Master!”
In a flash, the entire estate was roused to look for Wei Yi. Every single inch of Wei Estate was searched, no stone left unturned.
Uncle Fu also quickly had someone go report to the yamen and Liu Qingping hurried over with a group of yamen runners. “Just what happened here?”
“Our Young Master has disappeared! There are also bloodstains on the windowsill. Milord, you must find our Young Master. If anything happened to him, how am I to account for it to Old Master and Madam?”
Liu Qingping led his men to investigate the study. There was a book on the ground and bloodstains on the windowsill. What?
Liu Qingping inspected the room. The books that Wei Yi had borrowed from him were still laid out on the table. He pondered for a moment, then had the tutor brought over for questioning. “At the time of the incident, there was just you and Young Master Wei in the room. Tell me, just what exactly happened here?”
That tutor was already over eighty years old and couldn’t even fully open his eyes. He shook his head. “I don’t know either. Although there was only Young Master Wei and I in the room at that time, I didn’t see anything at all because I was resting in the chair.”
“Old man, you better not be hiding anything! Otherwise, this official won’t let you off lightly.” A threat!
“Milord, I’m already so old and my bones are in such a state. How would I be able to commit such a crime?!” As the tutor finished speaking, he started to cough.
Liu Qingping quickly patted him on the back. In any case, this person was still a wise teacher and a scholar. He naturally wouldn’t be involved in any shady business that might harm people, and it wasn’t appropriate for Liu Qingping to force him to speak either. There’ll be trouble if this old tutor died in front of him!
He reached out a hand to support the tutor, “Teacher, don’t be too agitated. This official just needs to ask some questions according to procedure. Please sit down first.”
“Haiz…”
Uncle Fu stepped forward to ask, “Magistrate Liu, would our Young Master be fine?”
“This official is also very worried that something has happened to Wei Yi. Don’t worry, this official will immediately send out a search party.” He ordered, “Immediately seal the city gates and dispatch search parties within the city. Young Master Wei must be found.”
“Yes!” The city of Jinjing became very busy overnight. They went searching for Wei Yi from door to door, creating an uproar throughout the city.
[1] Wow wow wow what is this? Someone didn't transmigrate with all the skills she needed to survive and actually had to work at it?