Since that day when Vivi soaked her feet in mugwort water, Lucas's coughing was less the next day.
Vivi knew the mugwort water worked. Later, without her saying anything, Lucas and the others would take the mugwort packs from her to boil the water.
After soaking in the mugwort water for several days, Lucas hardly coughed anymore. This was good news for the guards.
It was also good news for Vivi.
Because Wuner finally remembered to teach her martial arts.
"Raise your hands higher. Step wider," Wuner said, holding a branch to adjust Vivi's horse stance.
Vivi bit her teeth and fixed her posture. Sweat kept flowing down her forehead. The sweat passed in front of her eyes, and she felt like she could barely keep them open.
Even worse, her legs were shaking.
She regretted it a little. She did not want to learn martial arts anymore. Someone please save her.
"Wuner," Yinu appeared at just the right moment. Vivi breathed a sigh of relief.
She saw Yinu lead Wuner away for a talk. Vivi gave up and sat on the ground, rubbing her shoulders and legs.
"Malia," Yinu appeared again, but Wuner was nowhere to be seen behind him.
"Where is Wuner?" Vivi asked, looking up.
"Don't worry, Malia. Wuner took on a mission from the prince and left."
"Oh." Did that mean she could secretly slack off?
"After what you did with the mugwort water, the prince is very grateful to you. So I am here to invite you to the study for a talk."
"Let's go." Vivi stood up and dusted off her clothes. She followed Yinu without hesitation.
The study was clean and tidy. Lucas sat by the desk reading a book, but his mind was somewhere else.
Vivi followed Yinu inside and saw this: Lucas held a book in one hand and rested his chin on the other. His eyes were vacant, and his face looked relaxed.
Today, he wore a white robe with cloud patterns. His illness had just healed, and he also wore a thin silver cloak, making him look handsome and noble.
Suddenly, the thought came to Vivi's mind: A person like jade on the path, the prince is unmatched.
"Cough cough," Lucas coughed awkwardly, noticing the girl staring at his face without blinking. He felt a little uncomfortable.
Vivi snapped out of it when she heard his cough. She met Lucas's meaningful eyes and felt embarrassed. Okay, she was clearly daydreaming about him.
Seeing Vivi's shy look, Lucas stopped teasing her and spoke directly.
"Malia, the mugwort foot bath you made really helped. After I soaked in it, my cold and cough got much better. I thank you for that."
He glanced at the girl who was listening carefully, feeling happy, and continued.
"What reward do you want?"
Vivi was a bit confused from this sudden reward.
"Prince, let me think about it…"
"Take your time."
In just a few moments, Vivi imagined again and again how likely it was that her request to leave the Hou mansion would succeed.
Thinking about how sharp Madam Yon looked, and that the prince might not agree to such a bad deal, after only a few bowls of mugwort water to trade for freedom, it really seemed unrealistic.
With this thought, Vivi sighed silently to herself.
"Young master, Malia cannot think of what reward she wants. Please choose the reward yourself." Vivi felt pain inside but showed a sincere expression as if she did not care about the reward.
"I heard you are learning martial arts from Wuner. Starting tomorrow, come to my study room. I will teach you reading and writing. That way, you will have both literary and martial skills. How do you like this reward?" Lucas looked at Vivi with interest.
Vivi remembered her dark three years in high school. As an orphan without support, her only hope was to pass the college entrance exam.
She worked hard memorizing and doing problems. Although she got into a good school, after that, she seemed to have developed a dislike for studying.
Vivi wanted Lucas to give up the idea of teaching her to study, so she carefully softened her words before speaking:
"Young master, this is not appropriate, how dare I trouble you to lower yourself and teach me personally."
"There is nothing wrong with it. I am willing to teach, and you want to learn. Who would say anything? What, don't you want to?"
"I do, I do want to. How could I not want to, haha."
"As long as you want it, then come to study with me every day at the time of Chen. Then at Wei, go to Wuner to practice martial arts."
"But before, you said I was forbidden to enter the study…" Vivi tried to resist a little more.
"No more," Lucas said casually. "From now on, you can come to the study anytime. You can also enter my bedroom after letting me know. The first rule is gone."
Vivi nodded in acceptance, showing she understood.
After the hard college entrance exam in modern times, she never expected she could not escape studying even in ancient times.
After Vivi left, Yinu stepped forward.
He looked at Lucas sitting calmly in his seat and hesitated to say, "Young master, letting her into the study may be too rash. What if she…"
Lucas said with a calm tone, "It does not matter. She has never acted out of line and even brought mugwort water, so she has done me a favor. I let her into the study partly because I sincerely want to teach her to read and write, and partly to watch and test her."
"If she really is someone's spy, no matter how well she hides it, she would not miss such a good chance. After all, the study is what they have been trying to spy on…" Lucas looked out the window with a deep gaze.
...
The next day, Vivi arrived early at the study, but surprisingly, someone was already there before her, standing with his back to the light as if waiting for a long time.
Lucas turned around when he heard Vivi's footsteps and pointed to the seat in front of him. "Sit down."
"Today, we will start with some simple characters and words." Lucas saw Vivi sit and picked up a book from the desk, then walked to her side.
"This is your name, 'Malia'. You can try to copy it." After reading some simple characters aloud, Lucas wrote her name on the paper.
Lucas's handwriting was flowing, strong, and beautiful, clearly practiced.
Vivi stared at the two characters 'Malia' on the paper and picked up the brush to imitate.
The characters of Sheng country looked like oracle bone script to Vivi, crooked and twisted like little tadpoles. She could not read a single character, let alone write.
Looking at her copy that looked more like a Taoist charm, Vivi had an urge to tear it up.
"Although the brush strokes are rough, the shape can still be seen. For a first time, this is not bad." Lucas appeared next to her and praised her work.
Vivi blushed. She really could not see any shape in those two characters.
Sigh, such awkward praise.
Lucas had the talent to be a teacher. After just one morning, the tadpole-like characters Vivi could not read seemed to make sense under Lucas's vivid explanations.