Cunning General Si Ning

When Elder Qin came back with two palace maidens with the writing materials for Xiu Yuan. All what Si Ning expected was just to help Xiu Yuan with some spelling but the first lesson was calligraphy. Si Ning was a bit shocked because there was no way a small child-like Xiu Yuan hand would be stable when holding the brush but Xiu Yuan proved him wrong after picking up his brush carefully and after his third try still making mistakes all Si Ning had to do was to hold his hand as a guide when Xiu Yuan got to the difficult stroke and it was the fourth try they became successful.

From the analysis Si Ning did it seemed Xiu Yuan had already practiced calligraphy to the extent of controlling his hand to become steady. 

"Imperial Aunty... says it makes... my hand... steady which... is good... for... when I start ... training." Xiu Yuan told Si Ning as he placed his brush down while a maidservant moved forward to pick the calligraphy card gently. 

Liu Ting was right, having a steady hand would make training with a sword and learning archery better and when the hand is steady it would always aid in fighting smoothly without making an error.

Elder Qin quickly set down the next note and Si Ning read the content to see it says Xiu Yuan should write word for word the poem the first Empress of Xiu wrote for the first Emperor. Having knowledge about poems was something Si Ning considered as unnecessary so he never bothered to learn them but right at that moment, he would rather than admit it so he wore a wise man look while searching for a way out but before he could say a sword Xiu Yuan started writing.

Instead of Si Ning to check what he was writing, he laid back to rest as a means to avoid looking and reading a poem he never heard of and if he was looking at what Xiu Yuan was writing placed him in a position of correcting Xiu Yuan if he makes any mistake but he doesn't know the poem so he had no way to detect if a mistake was made so for the main time he was going to think of a solution. 

"General." Xiao Pei called after some time. 

Si Ning turned to see Xiao Pei extending a white porcelain cup to him, it was different from the cup he do use to drink water and it wasn't a teacup nor a wine cup which made him wondered what was in it so he accepted it. The moment he checked to see it was a cup of milk, a vein almost popped out of his head in anger. He sent Xiao Pei to bring cooled boiled water which he did but Si Ning doesn't like the taste but Xiu Yuan drank it all.

"Nin Nin... I am done." Xiu Yuan said extending his note to Si Ning. 

Si Ning placed the cup of milk on the table and accepted the note. "Milk is good for growth, do you want some?" He asked Xiu Yuan and the boy nodded.

Before Si Ning could tell Xiao Pei to give Xiu Yuan some milk, Elder Qin took the cup swiftly and without tasting it, she gave Xiu Yuan directly which was kind of surprising to Si Ning but he doesn't have time to think about it so he directed his attention to the note he was holding. First, he was shocked by Xiu Yuan's calligraphy but now he was so shocked to see how neat and nice Xiu Yuan's writing was. This showed that Xiu Yuan had been writing for a long time that Si Ning was impressed.

"Nin Nin."

Si Ning glanced at Xiu Yuan whose cheeks had a bulge to show it was filled with cookies and this made Si Ning smile before turning back to read the poem. To his surprise, it wasn't a romantic love poem like he expected but a farewell poem, it was confusing to know if it was a farewell to the Emperor on his death bed or a farewell poem when he was going to war and after reading it twice the only thing he detected was the spelling were correct but he had no idea if the poem was. 

"Xiao Pei check it and tell me what you think?" Si Ning said with an all-knowing expression and stance that anyone that saw him would know he knows the poem and was giving his guard a chance to be enlightened.

Internally Si Ning wasn't panicking, he was sure Xiao Pei would know so he doesn't need to use the last card he had which was to consult a textbook and make it look like he wanted to show and teach Xiu Yuan correctly.

"Forgive me General but I do not know about the first Empress of Xiu poem." Xiao Pei replied. 

Eh!? 

This was unexpected as Si Ning turned with a confused look to Xiao Pei, no matter what he wasn't going to break his intelligent appearance and wasn't going to use his last card, it was this time he wished Xiu Junjie was around because the boy loves to show how intelligent he was and if he was around, without asking he was going to start reciting the poem.

"King Consort I know it."

"General Si Ning let me try."

Elder Qin and Yang Sheng's words overlapped, their focus was on Si Ning so without hesitating he handed it over to them. He couldn't wait for them to point out the errors so he could act like he knew it.

"King Consort, at the end here the Empress used an Imperial 'I' to show how deep her feeling was to the Emperor, the founder of Xiu." Yang Sheng pointed out and Elder Qin nodded.

"Feelings?" Si Ning collected the note knowing it must be a feeling of remorse. 

"Feeling of love because it was written on their wedding night." Yang Sheng said. 

Eh...?

From what Yang Sheng said, the poem was some sort of deep affection of love which made him quickly scan over the poem, to be honest, he doesn't understand how a poem like that could be related to love, he wondered if it was misinterpreted wrongly but without much thinking, he passed the note to Xiu Yuan. 

"I will... have to rewrite... it." 

"No no no, all you have to do was to cross over it like this." Si Ning took the pen and neatly crossed out the word before writing the corrected word above it. 

"Oh." Xiu Yuan nodded.

"Do not let the Imperial Tutor mark it wrong, tell him it was General Si Ning that told you to write it like this." Si Ning told Xiu Yuan.

"Hm." Xiu Yuan nodded.

"Good." Si Ning pats his head when he saw that Xiu Yuan drank all the milk. He was glad to see the boy eating healthy without a care in the world.

A maidservant moved forward to take the note while Elder Qin opened to the next lesson before stepping back. 

"Write out the list of the ten codes of the Imperial hidden guards according to the Nation Xiu dragon ancestor." Si Ning read out loud as he found himself in another dilemma. He had no idea of what the question means, he was about to tell Xiao Pei to recite it when Xiu Yuan took the note and started to write.

"An Imperial... hidden guard... must protect... and never harm... or betray... the Imperial family." Xiu Yuan said out loud as he was writing. "An Imperial... hidden guard.. must is... own by.. the... Empress and Emperor..."

What Xiu Yuan was saying was something Si Ning could guess but he didn't expect the code to be simple, he was glad to know the hidden guards belong to not only the Emperor but the Empress too and seeing how Xiu Yuan concentration wasn't waving and how cute he looked being brilliant and all made Si Ning smile brightly, he was proud of Xiu Yuan.