Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 64 - 37: She Can Write 9 Characters!

Chapter 64: Chapter 37: She Can Write 9 Characters!

Nozawa brought A Qing back to Hosokawa Castle. The first thing he did was make his rounds, checking up on the patient Maeda Rikyu’s condition. Everything seemed normal, at least there were no signs of a fever. By the looks of it, the surgery was a success, and Rikyu wouldn’t have to be delayed at Hosokawa Castle for too long.

Since there were no problems, Nozawa just exchanged some brief greetings with Maeda Toshimasa, then went to rest in the room assigned to him, while the maids of the Hosokawa Family also brought him dinner—overall, the hospitality was fairly considerate.

After he and A Qing finished their meal, Nozawa took out all his books and lit the lamp to read by.

Of course, the first order of business was to relearn the characters—starting with the kana.

Japanese kana are named in contrast to the Chinese characters known as "true name"; any simplified or modified forms of kanji used for phonetic readings are considered kana. Since they were mainly used by women, they were also called "women’s hand".

In the beginning, a single sound would usually be written with several kana. It wasn’t until 1900 that Japan standardized them down to forty-eight, created the gojūon chart, and formally integrated it as part of modern Japanese.

So, even if you’re fluent in modern Japanese, traveling back five hundred years would make you half illiterate—there’s a huge pile of old kana you wouldn’t recognize or know how to write.

Fortunately, Nozawa had managed to get some teaching materials. He buried himself in the Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves, since most kana originated in "Manyogana"; once you’d read through that and then the Collection of Waka and the Colorful Leaf Category Collection, you’d basically have it covered.

Once he sat down, he didn’t move for nearly half the night—completely focused, committing everything to memory, and even making careful notes for quick reference in the future. When his eyes started to feel a little uncomfortable, he finally stretched, noticing that A Qing was sitting in the shadow of the oil lamp, spacing out at the books on the desk.

"Um... you can go to sleep first!" Nozawa reminded her, indicating there was nothing pressing now, and she could just go to bed—no need to sit there waiting on him.

A Qing shifted her gaze to him, hesitated a moment, then lowered her eyelids and softly shook her head—she’d already promised to protect Nozawa, so she’d do her best, striving to do the work expected of a guard, never slacking off.

Does she not want to sleep?

Nozawa couldn’t figure out what she was thinking, though he supposed it was a bit early to sleep right now. But sitting there silently, doing nothing, made him feel uncomfortable on her behalf—modern folks can hardly sit still for hours; usually they’d be secretly scrolling on their phone like crazy.

In any case, he himself couldn’t just sit around doing nothing, not even for half an hour, so by extension he figured A Qing wouldn’t like it either.

He hesitated a moment, pushed his book forward, and asked, "Do you want to read? There are some story collections here, too."

A Qing looked up at him, then lowered her head again, not saying anything. After a moment, perhaps feeling that there should be some respect between master and servant, and that ignoring Nozawa wasn’t proper, she softly said, "I can’t read."

"You can’t read at all?" Nozawa remembered that Ah Man knew some characters, so he’d assumed A Qing would know at least a few too.

A Qing lowered her head to stare at the ground, falling silent again.

"Then... how about I teach you how to read?" Nozawa was a bit tired of studying anyway, and figured this would be a good time to help A Qing learn to read, so she wouldn’t have to keep sitting there, bored out of her mind.

A Qing kept her head down without moving, so Nozawa thought maybe she didn’t want to learn. But then she quietly edged her way over to the desk, kneeling beside it and continuing to silently stare at the tabletop.

Does that mean she’s interested?

His mental label for her was [a bit odd, and a tad stubborn], and by now Nozawa was used to her temperament. He didn’t dwell on it and reached for a copy of Records of the Land.

This book records the place names of all the lands and counties of Japan, along with a few short comments on local customs. It was often used as a primer for learning to read—its use was basically equivalent to China’s Hundred Family Names or Thousand Character Classic. Records of the Land is primarily written in kanji; if you master it and then move on to the Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves, you’d pretty much have a foothold in classical Japanese.

He opened the book to the beginning and read aloud the first two lines, nine characters in total, to A Qing. He didn’t even go into the meaning of each character in detail—just told her these were place names, and that was enough for now.

Then he pulled out a sheet of paper, got some cinnabar from the medicine box, and copied out the nine characters in large script a few times. He told her to trace them with ink, so mind and hand would work together—improving memory and ensuring she could both read and write them.

It’s just that A Qing had spent more time wielding a glaive than a brush, and she’d never really written characters before. But she didn’t ask questions, just lowered her head and tried to figure it out—first gripping the brush tight, then pausing, recalling Nozawa’s usual grip, and adjusting to hold it with three fingers.

"Hold it like this, keep your wrist lifted..." Nozawa gave her some hands-on guidance, helped her get the grip right, and reassured her, "It’s always awkward at first; keep at it and you’ll get used to it."

A Qing nodded lightly, holding the brush as instructed, tracing the cinnabar characters. Then she tilted her head toward him, silently asking if her posture was correct.

Nozawa was briefly startled—he’d never actually taken a close look at A Qing’s face before, since she was [a bit odd, and a tad stubborn] and usually kept her head lowered. But now, as she tilted her head, with those fine willow brows and oval face, bathed in the soft glow of the oil lamp, she looked like a beauty straight out of an ink painting.

At the same time, her delicate eyes shimmered under the lamp, her lashes trembling with a bit of confusion—she actually looked... quite pretty.

Hmm, if she were willing to change that old-fashioned little boy’s hairstyle, undo the little topknot, let her black hair hang long, and put on some elegant ancient maiden’s robes, she’d for sure look like a refined, graceful young lady.

He’d never paid attention before, but A Qing was actually a budding beauty—who knows which rascal will end up with her someday.

A Qing wasn’t surprised to see Nozawa zoning out—he was always like this, prone to getting lost in thought. She was used to it by now; she just tilted her head a bit more, a deeper confusion in her eyes.

Nozawa snapped back to the present, quickly guided her through tracing the characters again, helped her learn the correct stroke order, then nodded: "That’s it, keep reciting the characters as you trace. After you finish tracing, practice writing them underneath. If you mess up the writing, that’s okay—just don’t write the wrong characters."

A Qing nodded gently, then earnestly began following Nozawa’s instructions—silently reciting, carefully tracing the cinnabar characters.

Nozawa watched her for a while, corrected a few small mistakes, then left her to it and went back to his own reading.

Once he sat back down, another half the night slipped by. When it was late and quiet, he finally put down his book and looked over at A Qing—she still wore a serious expression, eyes focused, and was still practicing those nine characters!

Nozawa really admired her dedication; she was absolutely diligent. A Qing and Ah Man were completely different—Ah Man spent her days looking for food and sleep, otherwise fooling around in the streets, the word "effort" had nothing to do with her. But A Qing was different—she was either rigorously practicing martial arts, her hair soaked with sweat, or proactively helping Yayoi with chores around the house; she was downright hardworking.

Nozawa thought, if she’d only been born in a better era, with that level of diligence, she’d have at least made it into a top university with some aptitude, or at the very least a decent college if not talented at studying!

Of course, she’d have to be born in the North of Tsukami for that—if she’d had the misfortune to be born in places like Minami River, East Mountain, or East Kō, she’d only make it into a second-tier school, maybe even a private one if unlucky.

"Alright, that’s enough for today. We’ll continue learning tomorrow!" Nozawa reminded her that it was time for bed, or else she might not be able to get up in the morning.

A Qing looked up at him, nodded softly, then glanced at the sheet in front of her, feeling a tinge of joy in her heart.

She could write nine characters now!

......

The night passed uneventfully.

By the time Nozawa opened his eyes the next morning, the sun was already high in the sky—mainly because he’d gone to bed late, so of course he got up late too. When he woke, A Qing was already up, quietly bringing hot water and a cotton towel to his side.

"You don’t need to do that," Nozawa quickly said politely. After all, A Qing wasn’t a real maid, and it was a bit different from Yayoi’s situation. Yayoi acted as a little maid and he’d given her rice and cloth as payment—a purchased ’guesthouse service’, kind of like staying in a hotel. But A Qing was the sister of Ah Man the ’righteous hero’, more like a guest herself.

No need to mention that unlucky wager, that was just a joke. Nozawa always kept things clear in his mind—he’d never thought of acting as A Qing’s master.

As he was fussing over it, A Qing glanced up at him, shook her head lightly to show she didn’t mind, then dipped the cotton towel in the hot water and wrung it out, hesitating over how to put it on his face.

"I’ll do it myself!" Nozawa quickly took the towel, not wanting her to fret over it any longer. She clearly wasn’t cut out for this kind of work—if she slapped a steaming hot towel on his face, his skin couldn’t take it.

While he was busy washing up, Okumura Iefuku appeared at the door, smiling as he greeted him, "Lord Nozawa, did you get a good rest last night?"

"Thanks to you, I slept quite well," Nozawa hurried to finish washing, offering a polite hand. "Lord Okumura, what brings you here? Please, come in and have a seat!"

It was mostly just courtesy, but to his surprise Okumura Iefuku actually did come in—clearly he had business. Sure enough, once inside, Okumura shot A Qing a glance without hesitation and got straight to the point: "Lord Nozawa, have you ever considered entering government service?"