Chapter 5: Punishment Copying

Chapter 5: Punitive Copying

"Grand Tutor Cui, isn't this a bit too much..."

Yun Shu wanted to bargain further, but Grand Tutor Cui had already flicked his sleeves and turned away from her in anger.

"If the Princess is unwilling to be this old official's student, feel free to petition His Majesty for an edict!"

Great, he was even bringing her cheap father up to threaten her!

Yun Shu shut her mouth in frustration.

Taking advantage of the fact that today's lesson hadn't started yet, Yun Shu propped her head up with one hand and, pretending to look down at her book, closed her eyes. Her consciousness swiftly sank into the grand villa, where she used her phone to check the word count of the complete *Doctrine of the Mean*—

The good news: as a book, its word count wasn't that high.

The bad news: it was 3,568 words.

If she had to copy it ten times, that would be 35,680 words!

On average, she would have to copy about 12,000 words a day, and they had to be written with a brush...

Old Man Cui really wasn't acting like a human being!!

Inside the villa, Yun Shu clutched her head and let out a painful wail.

...

Because she was preoccupied with the 12,000 words of punitive copying per day, on her first day of school, Yun Shu's interest in the gossip regarding the future male and female leads wasn't even that great.

She finally endured until three in the afternoon and could finally leave the Imperial Study.

Just as Grand Tutor Cui stepped out the door, the Sixth Prince unceremoniously rushed up to Yun Shu

"Fifth Sister, we agreed today that we were going to eat fried chicken!"

"Let's postpone it to three days from now."

Yun Shu stood up dejectedly

"I still have to go back and copy books!"

"Eh... don't!"

Seeing her promised fried chicken about to fly away, Yun Chuhuan hurriedly stopped her

"Isn't it just copying books? Just have Ziming help you and it'll be done!"

Liu Ziming, who was currently tidying up his book box for him: "?"

The unfortunate Liu Ziming looked up in confusion. Receiving the visual signal from the Sixth Prince's gaze, he hurriedly nodded in agreement

"Yes, yes, yes! Isn't it just copying books? In the past, whenever His Highness the Sixth Prince was punished with copying books, I was the one who helped him!"

"That's right, Ziming is very good at imitating other people's handwriting!"

Yun Chuhuan promoted him vigorously

"With Ziming here, what's a mere ten copies of the *Doctrine of the Mean*? Even if it were twenty or thirty copies, there would be no problem if you gave it to him!"

"Then... I'll have to trouble you?"

Unexpectedly, the fried chicken she had casually promised this morning could actually bring her such a benefit. Yun Shu's spirits instantly lifted again, and she led the Sixth Prince and the others out of the Imperial Study.

Facing Ting Xue and the others waiting outside, Yun Shu waved her hand grandly and spoke heroically

"Quickly go to the Imperial Kitchen and ask for three—no, five chickens!"

"Princess, won't five chickens be a bit too many?"

Cen Yiyi followed behind Yun Shu and spoke cautiously

"We probably won't be able to finish them."

"We can finish them! I have a whole crowd of people in my palace!"

The bun-faced little cutie was truly adorable and was more than a head shorter than her. When Yun Shu raised her arm, she could comfortably rest it on the young girl's shoulder.

"Besides, regarding this fried chicken, although every part is edible, my favorites are usually just the drumsticks and the wings. Five chickens only add up to ten drumsticks and ten wings, it's not much!"

"Oh..."

Cen Yiyi nodded obediently and said no more.

However, upon hearing this, the Sixth Prince turned to the little eunuch beside him and gave an order as well

"Xiao Anzi, you come along too. Bring back two more chickens!"

"Yes!"

Xiao Anzi responded and hurriedly left along with Ting Xue.

The time it would take to go from the Imperial Study to the Imperial Kitchen and then loop back to Fengyang Palace was certainly much longer than going directly from the Imperial Study to Fengyang Palace.

Yun Shu didn't want to waste the waiting time in between. After returning to Fengyang Palace, she immediately had someone prepare brush, ink, paper, and inkstone—

Even though she had already agreed with Liu Ziming in the Imperial Study to have him help her with the punitive copying,

Even if one is imitating handwriting, one must first have an original copy!

Yun Shu sat upright in front of the desk. After imitating the writing of thirty characters with some semblance of effort, she gave up

"No, no, I can't write this. This is too hard to write!"

Given Grand Tutor Cui's serious manner today, Yun Shu could tell even with her toes that if she handed in a pile of chicken scratch, the old man would definitely fly into a rage again.

He might even, in a fit of anger, make her copy it another ten times!

But these brushes were so soft and floppy, and she hadn't practiced them back in the modern era. Just trying to write thirty characters that were barely decent had already made her hands feel so sore they were starting to tremble!

If she had to finish three thousand words, wouldn't it take her life?

She slammed the brush down heavily to the side,

Yun Shu leaned back against her chair, looking like a salted fish that had lost its dreams

"I have to think of another way..."

"If Fifth Sister really doesn't want to copy, just let someone else do all ten copies!"

Yun Chuhuan offered a bad idea from the side

"Anyway, Old Man Cui hasn't seen your handwriting before."

"But, he will see it eventually."

Cen Yiyi mustered her courage and retorted in a small voice

"If we're caught, the Grand Tutor will definitely be angry!"

"Then do you have any better ideas?"

Yun Chuhuan glanced at Cen Yiyi dismissively, and the latter immediately shrunk her neck like a little quail and fell silent.

However, after saying that, Yun Chuhuan probably suddenly remembered that the fried chicken hadn't reached his mouth yet.

After a pause, he kicked Liu Ziming's butt

"Go take a look. Hasn't my Fifth Sister already written dozens of characters? Can you imitate the handwriting based on these?"

"This... this is too few!"

As soon as Liu Ziming heard this difficult task had fallen on him again, his face immediately turned bitter

"I really can't do it!"

"You're so useless!"

Yun Chuhuan glared at him

"Aren't the horizontal strokes, vertical strokes, and dots already there? How can you..."

"It's fine, I've thought of a way!"

Completely undisturbed by the clamor of Yun Chuhuan and the others, Yun Shu suddenly sat up straight. Meeting their curious gazes, the corners of her lips slowly curled up into a mysterious smile.

One stick of incense later,

Outside the small kitchen in the backyard of Fengyang Palace,

Yun Chuhuan looked at the seven lively, jumping roosters with great interest but also immense confusion

"Fifth Sister, are you sure plucking the tail feathers of these things will work? I've never heard of writing being easier just because you use a brush made of chicken feathers!"

"Won't we know if it works once we pluck a few?"

Yun Shu lifted her chin, intending to have her palace's little eunuch do it, but before she could speak, she was excitedly stopped by Yun Chuhuan

"Don't, Fifth Sister! Since we're all idle anyway, why don't we have a competition?"

Yun Shu raised an eyebrow: "A competition for what?"

"To see who can pluck more tail feathers!"

Yun—the brat—Chuhuan had already begun rolling up his sleeves and was directing the waiting little eunuchs

"I've never seen live chickens like this before! You guys, hurry up and untie the ropes tied to their legs so they can run around!"

(End of Chapter)