At this, not only did Yunxi’s eyes widen, but even Duoduo, who had been peeking in from the doorway, couldn’t help but quietly edge closer.
Duoduo put down the brush in her hand and admired the few characters she had just written.
She found Yunxi’s wide-eyed expression amusing.
“Princess, can you write with your right hand?”
Duoduo tilted her little head.
“Writing with the right hand isn’t hard! The hard part is writing with the left hand!”
“Look, the characters I write with my left hand aren’t as good as the ones I write with my right!”
“That’s why I say, anyone who can do things with their left hand must be a really remarkable person!”
Yunxi’s eyes shone with excitement and gratitude.
She liked this little cousin of hers!
“Princess, you’re the truly amazing one!”
“You can write with both hands—that’s incredible!”
Yunxi praised Duoduo.
“What’s so great about that? As if nobody else can do it!” said Yunmeng, feeling irritated as she heard Yunxi compliment Duoduo.
Duoduo shot Yunmeng a glance, picked up the writing brush from the table, and handed it to her.
“You think you can? Go ahead and try!”
Yunmeng reluctantly took the brush, forcing herself to appear confident.
“How hard can it be?”
The Su family, having produced a princess consort like Su Xian, ensured that all the children—boys and girls alike—learned to read and write from a young age.
But everyone’s level of skill differed.
Yunmeng awkwardly lifted the brush and carefully made a stroke on the blank part of the paper at the far right.
The stroke came down too heavy, turning into a blob of ink.
“That doesn’t count. I wasn’t ready yet,” Yunmeng quickly defended herself.
Yunxi was about to tell Yunmeng to stop embarrassing herself, but she noticed Duoduo give her a glance.
Biting her lip, Yunxi understood that Duoduo was helping her, and she couldn’t be ungrateful.
So Yunxi chose to stay silent.
Yunmeng moved to another spot and started a new stroke.
This time, she was so tense that she managed to finish just one horizontal line.
She looked at Duoduo triumphantly, but Duoduo raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t tried with your left hand yet.”
Yunmeng switched the brush to her left hand, fumbling for a good while just to hold it correctly.
She tried to write, but her left hand trembled so much that the brush either made blobs on the paper or turned straight lines into wobbly curves.
Yunmeng grew so frustrated she wished her right hand could help her left.
Seeing both Duoduo and Yunxi watching her, she had no choice but to grit her teeth and continue.
Having never written with her left hand before, how could she possibly produce decent characters on the first try?
Being able to write smoothly right away would take talent.
And Yunmeng was no talent.
After struggling for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, the page was filled with nothing but squiggly lines that looked like earthworms. Her face flushed bright red.
So this is how hard it is to write with the left hand!
Yunmeng put down the brush and said nothing.
Delighted, Duoduo handed the brush to Yunxi. “Third cousin, now it’s your turn!”
Yunxi quickly waved her hand. “Princess, I’d rather not make a fool of myself.”
“My handwriting isn’t even close to yours.”
Duoduo insisted and shoved the brush into Yunxi’s hand.
“Third cousin, don’t sell yourself short!”
Yunxi looked at the brush in her hand, then at Duoduo’s encouraging gaze.
She stepped up to the desk.
When she was little, her second aunt once mocked her for using chopsticks with her left hand.
So her mother made her work hard to learn to use her right hand for everything.
Now, although both her left and right hands were equally dexterous, she tried to avoid using her left hand in front of others.
Yunxi lifted the brush and began to write on the paper.
She had learned the art of delicate flower-style calligraphy from her mother.
Yunxi wrote only two characters: "Left, Right."
After finishing with her right hand, Yunxi switched to her left and wrote the same two characters again.
Duoduo leaned in to take a look and was filled with admiration.
"Cousin Yunxi, your handwriting with both hands is so beautiful!"
"I can never write well with my left hand no matter how hard I try!"
Yunxi put down the brush and finally broke into a smile.
"You flatter me, County Princess. With your intelligence, given time, you will surely write even better than I do!"
Yunmeng watched the two of them exchanging compliments, then glanced at her own handwriting, which looked like crawling insects.
She felt ashamed and stomped her right foot in frustration. "Hmph!"
With that, she ran out.
"Seventh Sister!" Yunxi tried to go after her, but Duoduo held her back.
"Qingliu, go keep an eye on our cousin," Duoduo instructed.
"Yes." Qingliu acknowledged and was gone in a flash.
A flicker passed through Yunxi's eyes.
Duoduo pulled Yunxi over and asked for advice on how to control her left hand.
Yunxi looked a little embarrassed. "Just practice more. When I first started with my right hand, it felt very unnatural too."
"Later, my mother forced me not to use my left hand."
"The more I used my right, the smoother it became."
Duoduo nodded in agreement. She, too, felt that her handwriting had improved significantly.
Duoduo spread out a fresh sheet of rice paper and began working on her homework. Worried that Yunxi might be bored, she said,
"Cousin Yunxi, since both your hands are so dexterous, have you ever tried doing things with both at the same time?"
Yunxi shook her head. "No."
Duoduo handed her another brush.
"Why not give it a try now?"
Yunxi's eyes lit up. "Alright."
Duoduo focused on completing her assignment with her left hand, while Yunxi began writing with both hands simultaneously.
The study was incredibly quiet, broken only by the sound of Lüdou grinding ink.
When Duoduo finished her calligraphy exercise, she carefully set it aside. She noticed that Yunxi was still practicing, her forehead covered with fine beads of sweat.
Duoduo leaned in to see what Yunxi had written.
The earliest characters were rather hard to look at.
The ones after that were slightly better, beginning to take shape.
The characters Yunxi was currently writing were almost as good as the ones she had written earlier.
"Cousin Yunxi, you're amazing!"
Duoduo was full of admiration. She had only made the suggestion on a whim, worried that Yunxi might feel bored, but she never expected Yunxi to actually succeed.
Yunxi put down the brush, her face flushed with a shy red.
"I'm just showing off my limited skills in front of an expert."
Duoduo shook her head in disagreement. "Cousin Yunxi, modesty is a virtue."
"But being overly modest will only make people look down on you."
"My father says a person must have self-confidence."
"We're not begging for anyone's money, nor are we asking for a meal. Why should we feel inferior to others?"
"But Grandfather says that no matter how much a woman learns, it's all useless."
Yunxi's voice dropped low as she spoke.
Duoduo stepped forward, took Yunxi's hand, and looked at her with encouragement.
"Who says so? When you learn, at least it makes you happy, doesn't it?"
"Doesn't the Sage say that reading makes one reasonable?"
"In my opinion, you are far more reasonable than that Seventh Cousin!"
Hearing this, Yunxi's eyes sparkled.
"County Princess, you are such a kind person!"
Duoduo flashed a smile, revealing her small, milky-white teeth. "You are kind too!"
The two looked at each other and broke into bright, radiant smiles.
“Third Cousin, why did your grandmother travel all the way from afar to bring you and Seventh Cousin to the capital?”
