WK Chapter 13

The tutor began questioning, calling on the Crown Prince first, then interspersing questions to the other princes, asking more than once.

 

This was to avoid the lucky mentality of relaxing after being questioned once.

 

Qu Dubian listened for a while and noticed that Master Fang mainly directed his questions at the three older princes.

 

The content of the questions was varied, mostly from the Four Books: The Analects, Mencius, The Great Learning, and The Doctrine of the Mean. The difficulty of the questions was tailored to each prince’s knowledge, emphasizing Confucian and Mencian doctrines.

 

The youngest, the Sixth Prince, was four years old. He had entered the study hall at three and a half and had only been studying for half a year.

 

Now he was mainly learning by osmosis from his brothers, starting to recognize characters. So Master Fang only asked him some content from the Three Character Classic, like completing the second half of a phrase when given the first half.

 

It seemed that although there was no Great Zhou dynasty in history, the cultural background was very similar to the various dynasties of Chinese history.

 

In the end, the Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince were hit on the hands with the ruler.

 

The Crown Prince was caught because his study companion secretly tried to give him hints, while the Fourth Prince was punished for yawning continuously during the tutor’s questioning, looking as if he was about to fall asleep.

 

After being hit, the Crown Prince glared fiercely at his study companion, whose face turned pale, fingers unconsciously fidgeting with his sleeves.

 

The Fourth Prince, on the other hand, acted as if nothing had happened, rubbing his eyes as he sat down.

 

Only then did Master Fang formally begin the lesson.

 

Even though he was teaching two groups of princes with completely different progress levels, he seemed to handle it with ease.

 

He first distributed individual test papers to the older princes, then led the younger princes in reading the Three Character Classic and the Thousand Character Classic. He stopped after reading about a third, then went back to explain the meanings of some words and characters.

 

When lecturing, Master Fang liked to walk around the study hall, occasionally sitting down in the chair behind this desk. Qu Dubian noticed that the old man’s shoes had a patch of the same color sewn on the edge.

 

He listened very attentively, silently mouthing the words, precisely locating where the tutor was based on his memories from his previous life.

 

His left hand occasionally circled and dotted with the charcoal pen, marking characters with complex strokes that he couldn’t remember in one go.

 

Some characters had pronunciations or meanings that differed slightly from his era. He marked all of these with pinyin or simplified characters, since no one else could understand them anyway.

 

Understanding the meanings of words and characters was the most difficult part for the other princes, but for him, it was the easiest. What he needed to do now was to first integrate these characters with his memories from his previous life, then he could quickly master them.

 

Qu Dubian, in his current two-year-old shell, if Master Fang were to observe closely, would definitely find that this learning progress was not much different from those child prodigies who could compose poems at two or three years old.

 

–

 

Outside the East Six Palaces.

 

Wen Xiaochun and Ye Xiaoyuan had been waiting nearby for a while, like two parents who had just sent their child to kindergarten, anxiously squatting in a corner, occasionally peeking into the garden.

 

Fortunately, there were no patrol guards nearby, otherwise, the two of them would have been at least questioned, if not arrested.

 

They hadn’t eaten breakfast when they left in the morning, and by now they were starving.

 

Ye Xiaoyuan swore he had heard Wen Xiaochun’s stomach growl at least five times.

 

Looking at the sun’s position, he said: “Unlike the older princes, the younger ones only study in the East Palace in the morning and leave in the afternoon after lunch. Estimate the time carefully. When the sun is almost at its zenith, go in and take His Highness out during the break between classes.”

 

Wen Xiaochun nodded.

 

Ye Xiaoyuan: “I’ll go prepare more food. His Highness must be studying hard and will need to eat well.”

 

“Take this,” he gave Wen Xiaochun the snacks hidden in his chest, “You’ll need to carry His Highness back, so you can’t be too weak from hunger and risk dropping him.”

 

“Alright.”

 

Ye Xiaoyuan gave a few more instructions before leaving the vicinity of the East Six Palaces.

 

–

 

As noon approached.

 

Master Fang closed his book and assigned homework to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Princes who wouldn’t be attending class in the afternoon. “Also, remember today’s lesson content well. Don’t slack off. If you don’t, next time it won’t just be a hit on the hand.”

 

The three young princes repeatedly agreed.

 

As they packed up their things, the Crown Prince and the other two also bowed to Master Fang to say goodbye, heading to the side hall for lunch and rest before continuing classes in the afternoon.

 

Naturally, there was a scene of respect between teacher and students, and harmony among brothers.

 

After the six princes left the study hall area, they immediately split into small groups.

 

The Crown Prince and Third Prince exchanged a few words, with the Second Prince mediating between them as they walked towards the side hall.

 

Once out of the East Palace garden, the youngest Sixth Prince suddenly threw his scroll at the Fifth Prince, “Hey, carry this for me.”

 

The Fifth Prince lowered his head to pick up the scroll, silently following behind the Sixth Prince.

 

The Fourth Prince seemed not to have noticed this scene, turning to his personal eunuch and lazily extending his hand: “Tired, carry me.”

 

Under the desk.

 

Qu Dubian had fallen asleep.

 

With a child’s body, he was most prone to drowsiness after mental exertion. About a third of the way through the Three Character Classic, the tutor had the three young princes practice writing, turning to teach the other three the content of the Four Books.

 

Qu Dubian tried to listen for a while, but without a book to follow along, he couldn’t resist his body’s natural urge. Hugging a half-eaten sweet cake, he began to doze off.

 

While there were sounds of teaching in the study hall, he was subconsciously still somewhat alert, sleeping quietly. Now that the princes had all left, the child under the desk began to snore softly.

 

“Snore…”

 

Master Fang, who was tidying up the desk and scrolls, paused.

 

“Snore…”

 

Master Fang rubbed his ears and went to the window to look out, but didn’t see any stray cats wandering in the cold palace grounds.

 

Was he hearing things? Touching his still black and shiny goatee, he thought he wasn’t that old yet.

 

“Snore… snore… hiccup.”

 

Master Fang whipped his head towards the desk!

 

Aha! So that’s where it was coming from.

 

It didn’t sound like a cat, more like someone hiding.

 

Master Fang inwardly snorted coldly. This was where the princes studied. He wanted to see who dared to hide here!

 

His mind jumping to conclusions, Master Fang raised his ruler, his beard almost bristling as he strode over. If it was someone planning to harm the princes, he would show them what it meant to be filled with the martial spirit of Great Zhou…!

 

Whoosh!

 

The curtain was lifted.

 

A sleeping child smacked his lips, and the worn Three Character Classic beside him fell to the ground with a thud.

 

Master Fang: “…”

 

Master Fang: “!!!”

 

The old man closed his eyes, opened them again, closed them once more, opened them again, and then suddenly widened them.

 

Huh??

 

Amitabha Buddha, Infinite Heavens, Confucius above, could someone tell him why there was a baby here?!!

 

The curtain being lifted let in a slight cool breeze, and Qu Dubian slowly woke up. He rubbed his eyes, sat up, checked the time on the simulator, and stretched.

 

Then he turned his head and met the face of an old man, all his wrinkles scrunched together, looking at him sternly.

 

Qu Dubian: “…”

 

Oh my!!

 

His first reaction was to turn and crawl away, but the old man’s beard fluttered as he quickly grabbed him with one hand, “Still trying to hide? Come out for this old man!”

 

The voice was familiar, it was the tutor who had been teaching the princes.

 

Qu Dubian, dangling in the air, waved his arms and legs futilely, then realizing he couldn’t struggle free, squeezed out a smile at Master Fang and began to act cute.

 

“Master, please put me down first. We can talk properly.”

 

Master Fang was struck by a subtle sense of familiarity in the child’s delicate features. His eyes flickered, then he put him down but still held onto one of the child’s hands. “Speak.”

 

He noticed a bruise on the back of the child’s hand and frowned, unconsciously loosening his grip.

 

“This is where the princes study. Where did you come from, little one, and why are you here?”

 

Master Fang looked him up and down.

 

The child seemed to be only two or three years old, thin and small. His clothes… the material wasn’t distinguishable, but they looked a bit old. He used his other hand to pull out the other things from under the desk.

 

The bundle contained various small items.

 

Half a nibbled cake full of bite marks, one and a half charcoal pens, three sheets of paper, and the only slightly valuable items were two old books: a “Three Character Classic” and a “Thousand Character Classic”.

 

The “Three Character Classic” had folded pages. Master Fang opened it and found that it was exactly where he had just been teaching. The previous pages had many circles and dots made with charcoal, as well as some strange tadpole-like writing that looked like a child’s scribbles but also like some kind of annotation.

 

It seemed as if someone had come here to learn secretly.

 

Master Fang’s expression grew increasingly strange as he looked.

 

Qu Dubian inwardly wailed.

 

A bad start!

 

Caught on the first day!

 

It was all because of this useless body, otherwise how could he have fallen asleep? Qu Dubian, fearing he might be grabbed and spanked, considered whether to reveal his identity.

 

But whether to reveal it or not, it didn’t seem hard to guess. How many children were there in the palace altogether—

 

“Are you the child born from a palace maid’s secret affair with a guard?”

 

Qu Dubian’s eyes widened slightly: “Palace maid…?”

 

Master Fang told him about an incident with a solemn face.

 

The previous emperor had poor personal morals, and the harem had become chaotic to a certain degree, still criticized by the court today.

 

When the current emperor had just ascended the throne and was cleaning up the mess, there was a palace maid in her twenties who couldn’t leave the palace. She had a secret affair with a guard and soon became pregnant, giving birth to a child in an abandoned palace in the harem.

 

Later, when the matter was exposed, His Majesty thoroughly investigated the palace and even found two more such examples, but those children had been secretly sent out of the palace right after birth.

 

His Majesty was furious. The palace maids and guards were all executed, and the children were taken away by shadow guards, their whereabouts unknown.

 

What truly angered the emperor wasn’t the defilement of the palace by the maids and guards, but that living infants had been taken out right under his nose, and the servants checking people entering and leaving the palace hadn’t noticed at all.

 

If they could secretly take out a child today, tomorrow they might secretly smuggle in rebels!

 

Since then, all the unruly guards and palace maids in the palace were replaced, and checks for entering and leaving the palace became extremely strict.

 

Master Fang only mentioned this briefly, without going into details. “Are you a child secretly born to a palace maid?”

 

Qu Dubian blinked, then followed his lead: “If I were, would you turn me in, Master?”

 

Master Fang’s eyebrows raised slightly, the serious expression on his face already fading. He picked up the “Three Character Classic” from the ground and casually flipped through it.

 

“How long have you been sneaking into the study hall? Can you recognize characters? How much have you learned?”

 

“Just came today. Before… I learned some, but at most only up to where Master taught.” Qu Dubian cautiously gave a progress report.

 

Master Fang remembered that he had only taught the meanings of characters for about a third of the Three Character Classic, mainly for the slowest-learning Sixth Prince.

 

“Do you know everything that was taught?”

 

Qu Dubian played dumb: “Some I know, some I don’t.”

 

Master Fang smiled ambiguously, “Then let me test you. If you answer correctly, I’ll let you go and pretend I didn’t see anything. Palace affairs don’t concern me much as an outside official, and this old man doesn’t want to get involved. Of course, if you answer incorrectly, I’ll have to hand you over to the palace staff on duty here.”

 

Being discovered by Master Fang was unexpected, but not necessarily bad. Qu Dubian thought for a moment and agreed, thinking he might even be able to increase his presence in his nominal father’s mind.

 

He said: “Keep your word. Swear by your ancestors, whoever breaks their word, may their ancestors become poor ghosts without companions in the underworld.”

 

Master Fang’s hand trembled, pulling out two strands of his beard as he coughed violently.

 

“…”

 

Yi Shi’er deliberated for a long time but still decided to record this sentence as well.

 

 

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