TL:Proud Novelist
Edited by: TheJum
Chapter 80 Youth, Oh Youth
Ning Que felt a flash of cold run through his body. This feeling itself didn’t come from the scholarly looking figure; in fact, from head to toe—from interior to exterior of his body—the cotton-robed scholar didn"t slip the slightest hostility, but quite the opposite: he was like lotus flower—pure and harmless—that was able to make people wish to trust him just like they trust their own families.
He also felt cold because the scholar was able to see through his bag with just a glance. It was worth mentioning that his umbrella was so very big and so very black, to the extent of making it indiscernable. Moreover, this umbrella was very important for Ning Que and Sang Sang, and yet the scholar still wanted him to exchange it.
The ray of sunlight was unable to penetrate directly onto the roadway, making the temperature decrease slightly. Is this also the source of his coldness? Or maybe it was the irrational feeling of trust that was born towards the scholar? Was that what was making him feels anxiety?
Ning Que’s body froze just like an ice sculpture; his figure could be seen standing there for a long time. Just as he awoke, he glanced slightly behind him, but there is nothing—the scholar had already disappeared. He lowered his head and thought for a while, but he didn’t really understand his current situation. While shaking his head, he strode toward the hustle: he had decided not to think about it.
He doesn’t know that the future legendary master had ridden away. He doesn’t know that he missed a historical moment. He doesn’t know what kind of mistake it was that he rejected the scholar’s offer. He doesn’t know that this is the first lesson, but even if he knew he still wouldn’t have made such an exchange; using a thing you have to exchange for a thing you don’t, is just something he wouldn’t do.
Normally, the Academy"s first lesson is an important one. Students gather on the slightly cold pavement, looking forward to hearing some lecturer talk, daydreaming about the next two or three years of their life.
Just like with the exam, the Academy cla.s.ses are divided into six courses, with two hundred students divided into six rooms. The daily lesson is from morning to noon, which doesn"t seem long, but there is no rest time in between.
In the morning, the seven lucky people had the technical cla.s.s. After noon they needed to accept Academy related instruction, while common students will have free time; they can choose to study alone in the Academy, or to go back to the city and relax—with some sparkling wine. The chief professor is extremely kind, and he sincerely suggested for students to stay and study.
The Academy’s disciplinary requirements were very loose, focusing mostly on the bell’s sound deep inside the Academy: The first bell sounds as a warning, the second as admittance, third as dismissal, and the fourth as departure. In between second and third bells is the time when students study in the cla.s.sroom. The Academy demands that students focus on the lectures in this period—questions allowed but noise forbidden. As for cleaning duty stuff, it’s completely not of the students’ concern: the government spends a lot on Academy, it is unknown how many workers and cooks they hire.
Next is the dorm, Academy uses a simple and fair system—they don’t even care about student’s background. The result is that Xie Chen Yun and Zhong Da Jun were sent to Alpha dorm, Lin Chuan w.a.n.g was sent to Beta dorm, and Ning Que was sent to Gamma dorm.
After going to the flat side closet to take his own book, Ning Que and the others followed wooden plaques in the corridor and found Gamma dorm. Looking inside the dorm that had windows like paint and walls white like paper, Ning Que thought, “This is the place that I will live for years to come, and I have finally entered Da Tang Empire’s Qing Yun road.” Feeling a little excited, he took a breath to calm himself and stepped high over the door still.
“Ning Que! Sit here!”
In the room, he heard two surprising voices.
Looking up, he sees a wide back row in the room with Chu You Xian exitedly waving at him and seeming a bit pale, while in the last row, Si Tu Yi Lan was excitedly looking at him; she wore the blue uniform of today’s females under her robe, oblique lapels embroidered with a few plum blossoms, and inside the wide little collar showed a tiny white neck.
Suddenly, like a dream, he saw a past life. It was that most familiar, most unforgettable scene, and every year in this season he sees it once again, and only the amount of people that ask him to sit are greater.
As Ning Que stood silently at the room’s threshold, he forcefully closed his eyes, only then could he eliminate that falsely disturbed memory. Walking toward the excited Si Tu Yi Lan, he smiled an apology before walking further to the back row.
He didn’t know that Si Tu Yi Lan is the daughter of Yun Mo general, but he knew that she must be from a rich family. And even though all students in Academy are considered equal—such that yesterday he heard His Majesty wore plain clothes to study when he was young, and sat beside common poor students—having too much contact with this kind of rich lady, who knows what problems he will become involved in.
Putting down the heavy book, looking at Chu You Xian’s pale thin face, and staring at his slightly green lips, Ning Que frowned and asked, “You went to Hong Xiu Zhao yesterday?”
“Stayed for a night.” Chu You Xian sighed, not having the slightest concealment, and said miserably, “Ning Que, this world has problems; I can’t think it through, so I went to Hong Xiu Zhao to go crazy for a night.”
Ning Que, who was reminded about the scholar he just met, freezing his body, asked, “What problem?”
“I actually entered the Academy; this is the largest problem in this world.”
Chu You Xian look at him distressed and said in grief, “You know my father spent twenty-two hundred silver to buy me an exam entry pa.s.s; I am here just to find a plate of gold to marry. Yesterday I blindly answered the six tests so when the result is out I didn’t even look for my name, but the outcome… I got four subjects b+!!”
Ning Que was surprised and speechless, only after a long while he was fullheartedly impressed and sighed, “You really don’t expose your real ability.”
“‘Don’t expose’ your a.s.s!”
Chu You Xian’s, with a face as if he was driven to desperation by his father’s death, said, “The mathematic question answers I gave are that the master drinks till drunk, and chews half the mountain of the plum flowers, this is still consider b+?!… I can only say that the lecturers in Academy are crazy.”
Ning Que after thinking a while, guesses, "Could it be that your family used silver?”
Chu You Xian said angrily, “Who said Academy accepts silver to enter? And father only used two thousand two hundred! Twenty-two hundred silver is enough for me to stay at Hong Xiu Zhao for four months! Enough silver to have a fart!”
Far in Chang An city, in the east city on a round chair, deep in a random bank, a random fat bodied old man’s meat is quivering with pain over his family’s account book, sighing in tears, “Two hundred thousand silvers… Oh my son, father has spent half of our family property; I can only hope for you to succeed, so you better not let your father be disappointed. Whose mom said the Academy doesn’t accept money? Those sour thieves… they just don’t accept small money!”
Chu You Xian didn’t know that his father, in order to let him enter Academy, had done what even those peerless gamblers in volatile markets had never done before; he still indigently sat there, always thinking that the lecturers are crazy.
“Since I was a child, I didn’t like reading and wasn’t good at riding or shooting; I can’t play with those rich kids. Luckily, you are in Gamma dorm, if not I don’t know how I would spend the rest of these years.”
Chu You Xian said this sadly, but Ning Que noticed that Chu You Xian who said he didn’t like reading and wasn’t good at riding or shooting, surprisingly did not feel this shameful; he said all this especially naturally, even feeling quietly proud.
He smiled and comforted his only friend in Chang An, saying, “Since this is so we should just accept it: don’t think too much.”
“Makes sense.” Chu You Xian looked around his roommate, his eyes stopped on a slim lady, gradually becoming happy, “Get closer with roommates, future marriages have a landing.”
Ning Que had no words against him, no face against him.
Chu You Xian is open and l.u.s.tful, typical of a Da Tang person; if not, then when meeting Ning Que at the brothel that day, how else could he ask him to drink and play with girls? At this moment he adjusted his mood, suddenly recovering to normal, and extended two jade fingers to point at the black-hairpinned girls a few rows in front. He said quietly, “That soft girl is called Jin Wu Yan, our Da Tang Empire"s wine girl, her temperament docile but not good to mess with: a wine master’s temper is particularly serious, to the point of irascibility. And don’t mess with that tall girl: her surname is Gao, her uncle is an Official…”
“That fancy and frivolously dressed guy is named Chen Zi Xian, his house is a book store in west city; his family earns little money, so someday if we want to drink but are broke, we can call him. But do not care for the shorty beside him; I heard he is a Chen side honor student, and if he isn’t eating or sleeping, he is reading or shooting—very boring,”
Ning Que is very impressed, he thinks that for a person that didn’t want to enter Academy and only using half of a day, he still managed to check out fully 30 to 40 person’s backgrounds in this room—what kind of spirit is that? He must have mastered the Arts of Drinking and Playing, he put the spirit of a ‘cad’ in the Academy.”
“Ah, the girl who wears a shirt you must already know her, right; she is the famous Yun Mo general’s daughter miss Si Tu Yi Lan!”
Chu You Xian slapped the table lightly, his words picking up speed, “Ning brother, a moment ago you abandoned her and came for me; this has risen my fame, but I must warn you that you have already offended this famous lady in Chang An. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, but when Si Tu Yi Lan was 8 years old she rode a horse through the streets, commanding a same-aged army of girls. In those years, how many small fruit cake stores and brine toast restaurants have been frightened? How many brave men and ruthless thugs have been beaten up? You have offended her, you are going to find it hard to move around Chang An, just like those fruit cake stores, having a good taste of a fruit fart!”
Ning Que, who had been stunned by this guy who drooled like a waterfall, only responded after a moment, thinking, [This kind of thing, if I don’t mess with her it is going to be fine]. Si Tu Yi Lan in his eyes is just a harmless girl, so he naturally wouldn’t pay her mind. Conversely, he is amazed by Chu You Xian’s ability, saying, “Next time we go to Hong Xiu Zhao low on coin, I think we don’t need to force Chen Zi Xian: you go and say a few lines of poetry and the money will come back.”
He thought this was an extremely ridiculous idea, but unexpectedly Chu You Xian looked at him sideways, faintly mocking, “In the brothel, just saying a few words to earn back money—other than Ning brother, who else is capable?”
Ning Que’s face froze, wanting extremely to beat him to release his anger of shame; he finally restrained it forcefully, because at that moment the lecturer walked in with a serious face.
The room became very silent, those youthful sparrows and crows flew to who knows where.