Su Tang had always felt that she had no big ideals or lofty ambitions, and she had never thought that she could singlehandedly change the world. She just wanted to be happy. She just wanted to enjoy herself. Working backward, she had picked this new enjoyable life up for nothing, so if she decided to make things difficult for herself for no reason, wouldn’t that just be stupid?
“Then what if master says he wants you to read it with master as a peer?” When Song Yi heard Su Tang’s explanation, he somewhat understood the girl’s point of view. However, he also saw that if you were to say that she really had no goals and no pursuits, that would clearly be wrong.
It was just that her whole attitude was very aloof and detached. It was as if she wasn’t of this world, and also as if she had no desire to involve herself with the people of this world.
She was the type that wouldn’t take the initiative to ask for something, but if she received something, she would reward in turn. Looking at her, you might think that her daily life was very interesting and that she was making efforts to be positive and improve but, in reality, her heart was very cold.
Song Yi sometimes wondered how an eight-year-old girl had developed such a temperament, a temperament as if she had seen too much of the world and was weary of it all, but Su Tang herself would often say that she was a person who had died once, so perhaps that was an explanation. Or perhaps this was just the difference between a true born genius and other ordinary people.
After all, from the start, the way she saw and thought about things was very different from how ordinary people would see or think, and she had the ability to see the whole picture more clearly than many people could ever hope to. Because of that, the fact that her perspective was very different from an ordinary person’s didn’t come as a surprise at all.
Actually, until now, Su Tang still hadn’t understood why Song Yi was so adamant that she should study the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance. She had only felt that it was a meaningless and thankless task, a task that wouldn’t be fun and would only tire her out, but after hearing this question from Song Yi she suddenly seemed to realize something else.
This old man, who had already passed the prime of his life, should be very lonely. His wife, who had always been by his side, had already left this world, while his disciples and sons all had their own careers and pursuits in distant places. And, on top of that, he had come here to take refuge in the small Qinghe Town for some unknown reason.
Back when Song Yi had first accepted a small peasant girl as a disciple, Su Tang felt that he had probably only done so on a whim because he reminded him a bit of his late wife, and he felt that having her around would give him something to do. However, after he had seriously begun to teach Su Tang, he had realized that she was a rare person who could communicate with him almost as an equal, which was probably something hard to come by for Song Yi.
But although Su Tang was smart and could easily communicate with Song Yi without taboos, she really didn’t like to learn at all. Thus, Song Yi could only spend his time trying to plot methods to prompt Su Tang to want to study, learn, and discuss on her own accord.
Song Yi had spent his whole life in the Imperial Court, so he should have been used to having to speak each word carefully and with much consideration of how his words might be construed or misconstrued, so having someone he could communicate freely with back then was probably something impossible. In fact, he probably had trouble even communicating with other people normally after all of his experiences. If not, why would he have come to this small Qinghe Town and then rather not eat well than just invite some people to come and work for him?!
It shouldn’t just be out of his feelings for his late wife. Rather, it should also be because he didn’t dare to use anyone easily, for fear that a moment of carelessness may cause him a lot of grief. However, Su Tang was just a little eight-year-old peasant girl with a clear background, which was why he had dared to bring her in as a disciple, and from there it wasn’t long before she was the only one able to easily move in and out of the Song residence.
It was clear just how cautious Song Yi was. Even though he was kind to Su Tang, he would never show the same kindness to Su Nuo, who was just a small child. Probably, in the beginning, he had only thought he would teach this slightly interesting little girl for a while, but then he had unexpectedly discovered that she was a person that he could communicate with. From there, it was understandable that Song Yi’s feelings would change.
Su Tang, as a person, generally didn’t waste any energy caring about people that she didn’t need to care about. To put it bluntly, she was a cold person, and she had been that way ever since her previous life. Back then, she had only had one or two true friends, and the rest were just acquaintances or colleagues at most.
However, she did have people that she cared about, and to the people in that small circle, she would always show kindness.
When others were good to her, she would be good to them in turn. This was her iron rule and principle.
If Song Yi had been wanting to use this opportunity to corner her and force her to study against her will, then she certainly would never agree. But if Song Yi was instead asking her to learn and study with him out of his own loneliness, then Su Tang really couldn’t say no.
“Give me that loan I talked about first. The time period is three months, no interest. After that, I’ll study it, but you can’t ask for a specific time.” Knowing that the old man was just lonely and wanted someone to discuss things with, Su Tang eventually just sighed and agreed.
