Chapter 37: Exhortation

The capital city was bustling with flowers, breakfast stalls were everywhere on the streets, and Xu Qi’an was settling for food and drink at a breakfast stall two blocks away from the county courthouse.

The owner of the stall was a thin, middle-aged man with dark skin and a black apron, who smiled humbly at everyone he met.

Craftsmanship is not bad, Xu Qi’an ate very satisfied, the only drawback is that the people of the capital city of Dafeng sweet tooth, soymilk will be just, tofu brain is also sugar.

Xu Qi’an, not intending to settle for less in this heresy-ridden city, instructed the vendor to leave out the sugar and add soy sauce, pork fat, chopped scallions, and minced garlic.

In addition, there were four doughnuts, six meat buns, two steamed buns, a bowl of congee, and three small plates of vegetables.

After eating, Xu Qi’an was ready to pay the bill.

“Dispatcher, you’re being polite, it’s a blessing for me that you can come to my place to use the morning meal.” The stall owner looked at Xu Qi’an’s errand clothes and refused to ask for money.

His gaze swept over the empty disk Xu Qi’an had left behind, his eyes flashing with heartache.

“Really?”

The stall owner swallowed his saliva, Xu Qi’an had eaten the amount of four or five people for this breakfast. It was originally a small business to make ends meet, getting up early in the morning and working late at night, barely making ends meet.

But still afraid to ask for it ….. Really afraid to ask for it.

“No no no, how can I take your money.” The stall owner knew at a glance that he had been severely beaten by society.

“Well, I’ll sit and consume for a while, so go away and don’t bother me.” Xu Qi’an waved his hand to drive the stall owner away.

The stallholder coyly left.

“The system of the Da Feng Dynasty has accumulated evils for a long time, and as long as the Xu Xu officials are not fixed, the life of the common people will not get better.” Xu Qi’an looked at the busy figure of the stall owner, remembering the look in his eyes just now that he was both in meat pain and didn’t dare to ask for money, pitiful like a beggar.

“Throughout the ages, it has always been the flies invisible to the great ones that have done the most harm to the common people.”

He pulled ten cents from his pocket, folded it on the table, and left in silence.

“Finally gone …..” The stall owner sighed in relief and wilted over to clear the dishes.

What bad luck! He thought with chagrin in his heart.

When he came to the table, the stall owner froze, a stack of coins stacked on the tabletop, that constable not only paid, but also gave more.

The stallholder ran out a few steps in a hurry, only to see the official clothes that loomed in the crowd, already far away.

He opened his mouth, and his throat felt like it was stuck on something.

For the first time in so many years, he had encountered auxiliary who paid for his meals.

……

After Xu Qi’an’s pointing was over, he went to the back hall and asked Magistrate Zhu for a vacation, and old Zhu was quick to agree.

Hurriedly returning to the Xu Mansion, pushing open the door to Erlang’s room, the two brothers unspokenly nodded, and Erlang Xu held out a set of moonlight-white Confucian shirts that had long been prepared, covered in light gray cloud patterns.

Xu Qi’an glanced at the azure-colored robe with a dark pattern of returning clouds on his little old brother and proposed, “This one looks good on Erlang, let’s change it.”

Xu New Year sneered, the expression as if saying again: you’re thinking about fart eating.

For a martial artist in the Refined Essence realm, the scholar’s Confucian shirt was really ill-fitting, with full muscles and an angular figure that would hold up the loose Confucian shirt.

And the aesthetics of the readers are: two sleeves fluttering and a fluttering of the sleeves and a fluttering of the sleeves.

The brothers left the Xu Mansion, spent three taels of silver to rent two yellow hussar horses, and sped away from the capital.

The destination of their trip was Qing Yun Mountain, sixty miles outside of the capital, where there was a school, the world-famous Yun Deer School!

Qingyun Mountain was not called Qingyun Mountain, specific name forgotten, since the cloud Deer Academy in this site, the sound of reading books endlessly, clear air in the sky.

The name was changed to “Qingyun Mountain”.

The two of them drove alongside each other on the official road, and after an hour, Xu Qi’an looked far and wide, vaguely seeing the outline of Qing Yun Mountain, as well as the tiny-as-a-bean complex of the academy.

“Resignation, my brother has always been curious.”

Xu Qi’an slowed his horse’s speed, and after his cousin followed suit and reined in his horse, the two horses changed from a gallop to a trot.

“Did you say that saints are first class?”

He was immensely curious about the major systems of this world, but unfortunately lacked the avenues to learn about them.

Xu New Year raised his chin condescendingly, “You think I would know?”

If you don’t know, you don’t know, what’s the point of such a proud expression …. Xu Qi’an rolled her eyes and continued:

“How long did that saint live, do you know?”

Xu Xinxin nodded, “At the age of 82.”

A saint, the founder of Confucianism and Taoism, even if he didn’t have the first rank, he wouldn’t be worse off, and he only lived to be 82 years old?

Well, it’s kind of a high life expectancy for the average person in this era, but this world force value is unusual.

Even saints can’t live forever?

Well, I can’t jump to conclusions, after all, I know too little information ….

“Yunlu Academy doesn’t take in outsiders, that’s the rule, even I can’t get the teacher to agree.” Xu Xinxin said:

“Is big brother really sure?”

Xu Qi’an shook his head, “Things happen.”

They decided to send the female members of their family to Yunlu Academy before launching the operation, so that even if they were really retaliated against by the Minister of the Household, Yunlu Academy would be able to shelter the female members of Xu’s family.

Tax silver case almost let me land into a box, this shit can not pass is it ….. Hey, not dealt with well, another crisis of extinction ….. Xu Qi’an clamped the belly of the horse, threw Xu New Year behind him, and left in the dust.

Unconvinced, Xu Xinxin swings his horse whip and starts a race with his cousin.

……

Qingyun Mountain is neither majestic nor beautiful, and if it were not for the clear air that rushes through the sky, it would be no different from the ordinary wild mountains.

There are courtyards, attics, squares and waterfalls in the mountains …. The paths paved with green stone slabs were like spider webs, linking these places together.

In an attic on the edge of the cliff, the second-floor elegant room, with no wall on the side against the cliff face, stood by the corridor and looked out over the pale plains and the outline of the distant mountains.

Li Mubai, a great player who vowed never to play chess again, stood by the veranda with a scroll in his hand, listening to his two friends behind him as they argued heatedly:

“This is the wrong move for me, I’m going to start over, I don’t care.”

“No regrets about the fall, that’s the rule.”

“The sages say that there is no greater good than to learn from one’s mistakes.”

“Is that what the saints mean?”

“Isn’t it?”

“Old thief, you want to argue with me? That’s fine, only one of us can leave alive today.”

“The old man wasn’t raised a vegetarian either.”

Li Mubai shook his head, “Two stinky chess players.”

One of the two behind him was Zhang Shen, a great master of the art of war, and the other was an old man wearing a black robe with a long beard that grew to his chest.

Chen Tai, with the character You Ping, was one of the four great Confucianists of Yunlu Academy.

The four great Confucian scholars have their own specialties, Li Mu Bai is chess, Zhang Shen is proficient in the art of war, and Yang Gong, the Ziyang Jushi who became the Minister of Prefecture of Qingzhou, is good at governing.

And this Chen Youping, has the talent of ruling the country, the book “Strategy of Ruling the Country” is quite sought after in the Dabong officialdom.

Li Mu Bai turned around and left the corridor, returning to the elegant room and interrupting the arguing two:

“Where’s Dean?”

“The Eldest Princess is here, and the Dean is accompanying her.” Zhang Shen stared at the chessboard and casually replied.

Li Mu Bai let out an “oh” and nodded.

Chen Tai sighed: “In three months there will be the spring exam, the academy’s students read with little interest, last night I went around the dormitory, picking lamps and bitter readers are very few.”

“The only lights that shine are also on the chessboard ….” Said the man, reaching across the board and disrupting the pieces in a flurry of strokes, painfully, “Playing with things is not a good idea.”

“Shameless old thief!” Zhang Shen was furious, to lose is to play with things, to win is to flaunt, “Thou art the same as Li Mubai, you can’t afford to play.”

“What does it have to do with me!” Li Mubai got angry.

Speaking of this topic, the three great scholars sank into silence.

Cloud deer academy students, career is difficult, even if the examination in the lifer, jinshi, but also very difficult in the officialdom level, often is sent to the poor countryside as an official, or thrown into some corner of the nooks and crannies in the mold.

This has greatly dampened the enthusiasm of the academy’s students for science.

The elegant room was silent for a moment, Zhang Shen said in a deep voice: “This wind must not be long, we must raise the enthusiasm of the scholars for the imperial examinations.”

Chen Tai nodded with a serious face, “Even if it’s hard to support, we have to hold on, Yunlu Academy can’t extinguish the path of the officialdom.”

Li Mubai mused, “Let’s open a classroom and persuade the courtyard to step in.”

Zhang Shen twirled a chess piece, “The dean’s yearly exhortations, one drum and then another, won’t have much effect anymore.”

Chen Tai stroked his beard and frowned, “There has to be a new and innovative way to get the scholars to study hard on their own initiative and pay attention to the chunin exams.”

“How about writing an essay?” He suggested.

“The effort is not pleasing.” Li Mubai shook his head.

“Then there is only poetry,” Zhang Shen sipped his tea and said, “Since ancient times, poetry has moved people’s hearts, composing an ear-shattering poem is much more effective than opening a classroom to persuade people.”

After saying that, the three great scholars looked at each other and shook their heads in unison.

Dafeng Confucianism, poetry has been in decline for a long time.

PS: The most time consuming thing since starting the book is coding? No, it’s reading what you guys are saying in this chapter. It’s so showy, it makes my head spin. I’m proud to have you as readers. Each and every one of you is a gem in the nine-year education chain. Also, teens and troublemakers, slap me in the face with your recommendations, new book needs them.