8

Chapter 8: “Book Pavilion”

“You want to read?!” Sima Lie shouted aloud and started coughing as he choked on the food afterwhich he stared at her with a bewildered expression. His huge reaction made the whole kitchen focus on their Young Master, their interest piqued as they craned their necks and threw curious glances over.

In fact, one couldn’t really blame them for their reactions as the other name Sima You Yue carried with it was trash and having only attended the Academy for two days, other than recognizing a few words, a book had never been seen in this Young Master’s delicate hands. Not to mention reading a whole book! A sudden mention of ‘wanting to read a whole book’ and ‘going to the Book Pavilion’ was shocking news indeed.

“Cough, cough.” Sima Lie readjusted his mood and returned to his usual calm demeanor and said: “Since you want to have a look, let’s go have a look.”

As soon as he said it, he strode out of the kitchen in large steps as Sima You Yue quickly followed behind. They came before a large courtyard with three-storey building.

It was a simple looking building built in the middle of a plain looking yard, no one would have guessed that this inconspicuous building would be the Book Pavilion .

“Here we are – the Book Pavilion.” Sima Lie introduced as he flipped his hands and a large key suddenly appeared. After retrieving the key from his interspatial ring, he unlocked the door and gently pushed it open as the scent of musty books greeted them.

This was the first time she had been here, although the book Pavilion was located in between her courtyard and the main entrance, the past Sima You Yue had never once ventured in here.

“Here, this key belongs to you.” Sima Lie casually flipped his hands once again and retrieved another key and handed it over to her.

All the other four brothers each had a key to this place, however as she did not enjoy reading, this key was never passed to her, for fear that she might lose it.

Sima You Yue took the key and put it in her pocket. She could not cultivate and had no spiritual power hence she could not use the interspatial ring.

“Alright, go ahead and read whatever you want. Take your time, I’ve still got some things that I have to do, I’ll be in my study. If you need me, you know where to find me.” Sima Lie turned to leave after granting her access.

Sima You Yue nodded and only after she watched his fading back did she turn to take a good look at the interior.

Although she knew that there were some problems with her current body, there were still some differences with the herbs and materials from her world and this, at least she hoped that they were merely name differences. She needed to know more about the differences in the properties as well and study these more thoroughly to be able to cure herself and rid of this ‘trash’ label herself.

Sima You Yue gaped in wonder as she looked at the interior of the Book Pavilion, who would have thought that the exterior which looked like any other common building but the interior was unexpectedly different! What attracted her attention most was that right in the middle of the Book Pavilion, there was actually a grand spiral staircase, which connected all four storeys, and each level had books that were placed in shelves that reached the ceiling. Such grandeur and splendour!

Moreover, the scale was totally different! From the outside it did not look as big as what she was currently looking at. Surprisingly, the size of the first floor was as large as that of a soccer field. Although each level got smaller, however the size of the top floor was still bigger than a basketball court!

“Oh wow, what sorcery is this?! This is simply too mysterious!” Sima You Yue cried out in shock as she tried to compose herself. This had outrightly defied her logic and common sense that she was used to. Ever since she’s been in this world, everything had left her agape. Things that she had ‘seen’ from her memories were still foreign to her and it felt as if she was watching everything from a television and experiencing it herself still roused the adventurous spirit within her as her eyes sparkled with excitement. She was particularly fascinated by the vast disparity of scale and grandiose.

After she had finally regained her composure, she grew anxious. “With so many books, where should I even start looking? If I had known earlier, I should have asked Grandfather.” She sighed with regret as she looked on helplessly at the grand collection of books before her.

She started exploring the books on the shelves and after looking for a while, she discovered that the books were arranged according to different categories. If this row of books in this shelf was in one category, that following ten rows were in the similar category.

“Haha, found it!” She cried out in relief. After scouring for an entire two hours, she had finally found the category she had came here for! She earnestly started to look for the books she needed as she carefully combed the shelves that housed the medical related books.

She looked for quite some time until she found a book about the various herbs and materials for medicine and discovered that this whole shelf had the same genre of books.

Her stomach rumbled and she touched her belly as she groaned in defeat. She quickly pulled out several books and hugged them carefully and left the Book Pavilion, locking the door securely as she left.

By this time, day had already turned to night and it was completely dark outside. When Sima You Yue returned to her own courtyard, Yun Yue and Chun Jian noticed that in the arms of their Young Master were a pile of books. They hurried forward to assist, and asked: “Young Master, would you like to have dinner now?”

“Yes, I’m famished. Bring the meal directly into my room. Also, Yun Yue please pass the message to my Grandfather that for the next two days, I will be dining in my own room and will not be joining the family for meals.”

Sima You Yue rubbed her belly before returning to her room.

Chun Jian immediately went into the kitchen to prepare dinner for Sima You Yue, while Yun Yue brought the pile of books and placed them on the table before passing the message to Sima Lie.

Sima You Yue picked up a book and started reading, the books that she had selected this time round were all very general and were introductions to the basics of herbs and materials that were common in this world. It was a good start to help her identify the various herbs and materials and let her have a grasp of the differences of the two worlds. In her previous world, her intelligence quotient was higher compared with ordinary people, therefore whatever she studied took only a fraction of time. In addition, she originally majored in the study of Traditional Chinese Medicine so she was very familiar with the various herbs and properties. Moreover, she was just looking for the differences in these aspects hence her reading speed was exceptionally fast.

By the time dinner was prepared, she had already flipped through more than half of the first book. When Chun Jian came in with dinner saw that her Young Master was browsing the book in such a flippant manner, she could not help but shook her head. It was evident her Young Master was not reading it properly!

“Young Master, your dinner is ready.” Chun Jian placed the meal gently on the table.

Sima You Yue immediately put the book down, and her gaze rested on the dishes placed on the table. Seeing that the steaming hot dishes that were visually enticing was a stark contrast with meals before, she smacked her lips and gave a satisfied nod, and said: “This is what I call a meal!”

She guzzled her dinner down heartily and as soon as she was done, she called for the two maids to clear the table and she continued to read into the night.

After she read finish the first book, she discovered that here, the ordinary materials for medicine were similar to her previous world, but some had some minute discrepancies. For example, the name was different, or some had similar properties, but there were also some unfamiliar names that she came across.

However she discovered that this set of books that she had brought back was from the same shelve and it was further segregated into the similar materials and properties. Realizing this, she quickly looked up according to each particular material and herb and studied them carefully.

“Luckily I went through these books first! Almost half of the names are different from before..”

Sima You Yue stretched her body lazily and stifled a yawn as she looked at the prescription she had written down before realizing that dawn was soon approaching.

Because she did not manage to get a good sleep last night, and she worked hard throughout this entire night, after she relaxed, her felt her eyelids were extremely heavy. She crawled to bed and as soon as her head touched the pillow, and she fell into a deep slumber.

Tonight, she did not have a single dream, and by the time she woke up, it was already noon. When she opened her eyes, she looked around groggily as her eyes focused on the ancient pattern of the mosquito net. For a moment there, she thought that she was dreaming.

“Rumble -”

The hungry belly started to protest, making her consciousness slowly return, as memories flashed in her mind reminding her where she was. She put a hand and touched her forehead, and muttered: “So this is not a dream.”

She finally rolled out of bed, washed up and changed. Chun Jian quickly prepared lunch and brought it into the room. After lunch, she took the prescription that she had painstakingly written down last night and walked towards Sima Lie’s study.

When Sima Lie saw Sima You Yue, he was somewhat surprised. Wasn’t it only last night that she said that the next two days she would be busy reading in her own room? Why was she out so soon? She couldn’t sit still for just two days? Or…did anything happen?