Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 415: Check the homework!
Although he had only moved into Zhang Garden a few months ago and had not yet fully established a sense of home here, Zhang Shou, who was exhausted from a whole day, fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow that night after returning from Cangzhou. Moreover, the emperor gave him three days of vacation, so if he wanted, he could sleep until he woke up naturally.
When he finally opened his eyes sleepily, he couldn't help but rest his head with the back of his hand. It took him a long while to realize that he was no longer in Cangzhou, nor on the road, but at home. Noticing that it was already bright outside, he calmed himself down and let his head gradually clear up. He supported himself and sat up, and then couldn't help yawning.
At this moment, a cautious voice came from outside the door: "Is the young master awake?"
It wasn't Ah Liu outside the door? Zhang Shou immediately recognized the difference and after a moment's pause, he asked, "Is it Xiao Huasheng? What time is it?"
"It's me." Xiao Huasheng then hurriedly pushed the door open and came in, holding a copper basin in his hand. He put the copper basin on the basin stand, and then reached out to help Zhang Shou. Seeing that Zhang Shou had already stood up from the bed, he quickly took clothes from the hanger and handed them to him . When he wanted to help him put on the clothes, he saw Zhang Shou waving his hand. He had to step back awkwardly and watched him put on the robe by himself.
"It's past nine o'clock."
He then remembered Zhang Shou's last question and answered it quickly. Seeing Zhang Shou's surprised face, he hurriedly explained, "Sixth brother said that the young master has been running around outside for so many days, so it doesn't matter if he sleeps a little longer. My wife also said so. She also asked the kitchen to cook the porridge base and keep it warm on the stove, and make the raw fish fillet porridge when the young master wakes up."
At this point, Peanut couldn't help salivating as he recalled the breakfast that had simply stunned him.
He had never thought that breakfast could be so rich and exquisite. Raw pork liver porridge with pork liver, shredded ginger and lettuce, steamed dumplings stuffed with various vegetables, sweet and soft jujube paste cakes, and juicy meat stuffed dumplings. If he hadn't thought about how new he was, he would have almost eaten too much! And all of these, Ah Liu told him, were Zhang Shou's ideas!
Hearing that the porridge base for breakfast has been prepared and he can just put the fish fillets under the porridge, Zhang Shou couldn't help but yawn again.
It would be better for him to go home. The chefs outside require a lot of effort to teach him, and he is often asked to cook by himself. As for the chefs at home... Aunt Liu and Ah Liu, who are now in a very crisis-stricken situation, were found from somewhere and are said to be good at making human meat buns - ahem, Aunt Xu, who is good at making all kinds of snacks, is competing in all aspects. He just needs to give a rough idea and the two of them can make him a bunch of trial products!
He was washing up when he heard Xiaohua hesitantly say behind him, "Master, have you asked anyone to take care of me? Today's breakfast was really too sumptuous. In fact, you can just treat me as an ordinary servant in your house."
Zhang Shou, who was brushing his teeth, almost swallowed the salt water in his mouth and laughed. After brushing his teeth, he finally cleaned them. After rinsing his mouth, he wiped his face with a soft towel, then turned to look at Xiao Huasheng and said with a smile: "My breakfast has always been colorful and full of varieties. The reason is very simple. You know, I am a foodie."
Peanut almost thought that what he said to Old Salty Fish in private was heard by Ah Liu, and he was almost scared to death. But when he thought about Zhang Shou's own admission, he couldn't help but ask cautiously: "Sir, don't you think that foodie is an insult?"
"What kind of insult is that! Food is the first necessity of the people. As a foodie, you should be proud of it." Zhang Shou couldn't help laughing. If this were in the future, the slogan of the Great Foodie Empire would be to eat all over the world. You foreigners, you can bring all the hairy crabs and crayfish to the Great Foodie Empire. I guarantee that they will be steamed, fried, stir-fried, and boiled into a plate of delicious food for you to eat!
Seeing that Peanut was completely dumbfounded, Zhang Shou said in a relaxed tone: "As for whether I specifically asked someone to take care of you, that's natural. Don't think of yourself as those who sell themselves into slavery. You are just employed by me. In this case, it is natural for me to provide you with three meals a day. But there is only one rule, how much you eat is how much work you have to do!"
"But if you slack off, the punishment will be severe!"
Peanut was not afraid of the last sentence. He held his head high and assured, "I can do a lot of things. I'm definitely not lazy! I cleaned the yard and watered the flowers early in the morning..."
Before Xiao Huasheng could finish his words, Zhang Shou interrupted him and asked, "Have you done the homework I assigned you when I left Cangzhou ?"
Seeing people dumbfounded for a moment, he couldn't help but laugh, but this time his laugh was not as relaxed as before, but rather a bit teasing: "If you have time to compete with those cleaning chores for work, you might as well finish all the books I asked you to recite, the characters you practiced, and the exercises you did! You didn't have time on the way, but you have time now. Now, turn around and go back to your room to do your homework!"
When Peanut thought about having to memorize 100 Tang poems, 20 large characters, and 500 addition and subtraction math problems, and how many days it would take, his scalp went numb. He couldn't help but look at Zhang Shou pitifully, and could only hope to use Ah Liu as a shield: "But I asked Sixth Brother, and he said it's useless to do these things..."
"Oh, did Ah Liu say that to you?" Zhang Shou narrowed his eyes. Seeing that Xiao Huasheng immediately shut up and looked at him with a sad face, he said in an unquestionable tone, "Ah Liu is Ah Liu, and you are you. Unless you can fight better than him, don't learn from him. Go back to your room. When you finish this homework , I will tell you to do other things. Do you understand?"
Seeing that Xiao Huasheng walked away dejectedly after agreeing, Zhang Shou couldn't help but touch the fuzz on his mouth that was gradually showing, thinking about going to settle the score with Ah Liu.
You are a boy with outstanding martial arts skills but a poor student. How dare you teach Peanut not to study? That boy is not good at martial arts. His figure and appearance can almost be mistaken for a girl by the eldest prince. He is not strong enough to be a craftsman or a sailor. If he doesn't study hard, what will he do in the future?
Otherwise, how could Lao Xianyu, who raised him as his grandson, bear the pain of handing the child over to him? Ah Liu, don't lead him astray! Xiao Huasheng can read and write, and is much better than Yang Haozheng and the others who are stupid. He is also smart, and it would be a pity if we don't train him well!
However, when Zhang Shou hurriedly finished his breakfast and found the martial arts arena where Ah Liu was, he saw a mess of people lying there. Not to mention Yang Hao, Zheng Dang and several other young men in the village who were lying motionless like dead people, even the three doormen of different ages whom he had seen last time and who Ah Liu had hired from nowhere were also lying on their backs, gasping for breath.
If Ah Liu hadn't been standing in the middle, Zhang Shou would have thought that a master had run into his house and swept away all of them, big and small!
When he saw Zhang Shou appear, before he could ask what he was doing, Ah Liu took the initiative to step forward and said bluntly: "I'm just checking their homework."
It was you, young master, who asked me to train them well and leave all problems to them in the future!
Zhang Shou saw the boy's self-righteousness from Ah Liu's innocent eyes, and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Although he thought it was a bit crude, the doormen were all picked by Ah Liu himself. Yang Hao and Zheng Dang, the little guys from Rongshui Village, were also very envious of Ah Liu's martial arts. Otherwise, someone would have come up to complain by now, so he didn't say anything.
Otherwise, how can Liu establish his prestige?
So, he nodded slightly, then looked at everyone and said, "Check each other's injuries. If it's a bruise, remember to apply medicine or medicinal wine. If it still hurts, go see a doctor. Don't take a minor injury lightly."
Ah Liu immediately muttered quietly, "I know when to strike."
I'm afraid that your sense of propriety is different from others'! How can someone be as gifted as you, sleeping for two hours a night, and not afraid of dying from overwork! Zhang Shou wanted to grab Ah Liu's ears and give him a good lecture, but in the end he just walked out with a stern face. It was not until he heard the deliberately heavier footsteps behind him that he said without turning his head: "Remember, don't force things."
“They are all very happy.”
Ah Liu said something that was irrelevant. Seeing that Zhang Shou didn't say anything, he thought that he was really angry, so he whispered what Hua Qi said last night. The next moment, he saw Zhang Shou suddenly stop, then turn around and walk to him, stretch out his finger and flick his forehead. Although he could easily dodge, he stood there honestly without moving.
"Such a big thing, if I hadn't come over and asked you questions just now, would you have played dumb and not told me?"
"I just want to..."
"Don't think about it. I've told you long ago that you should talk more and say whatever comes to your mind. Don't keep everything in your heart." Zhang Shou interrupted Ah Liu's words. Seeing that his face was full of sweat and there were sweat stains on his clothes, he thought that it was not because he taught those weaklings martial arts, but that he must have started martial arts training early in the morning. He said helplessly, "Go back to your room, take a shower, change your clothes, and then go eat something."
"Hurry up and grow taller and gain some weight, understand? Mom has nagged me several times, complaining that I rely on you for everything and have no sympathy. So, this is an order, not a discussion with you. Go quickly, I'm still waiting for you to go out!"
For Ah Liu, the last sentence was the most important. He turned around and ran without saying anything. Zhang Shou was dumbfounded by his eagerness. After he went to see Wu, he sat there for a while before hearing Ah Liu's voice coming from outside the door: "Master, I'm ready."
Wu had already known that Zhang Shou was going out. Since coming to Beijing, she had long been accustomed to his busy life, so she smiled and watched him go out. When Zhang Shou left the house, he saw that Ah Liu had indeed changed his clothes and his face had been wiped, but he still had a paper bag in his hand, which was still steaming suspiciously. He walked over and laughed.
Let this kid eat something and take a rest to replenish his energy. But this Ah Liu, in order not to delay him from going out, just put a few vegetable buns in his pocket and hurried over!
Knowing that the boy was such a stubborn person, the only thing that could make him change a little was probably his unprincipled compromise and concession when he met Zhu Ying. Zhang Shou didn't say much to Ah Liu, but just shook his head and led the people out. When they got on the horse after leaving Zhang Garden, he shook the reins lightly and said, "Let's go to the Imperial College."
Ah Liu did not ask Zhang Shou why he still wanted to go to the Imperial College today when he had three days off. He just rode his horse and followed closely behind him. When the two of them arrived in front of the Imperial College's university archway, he dismounted and took the reins of Zhang Shou's horse, and then led the horse to a nearby carriage and horse shop for custody as usual. When he came back again, he quietly sneaked into the Imperial College.
This was a road he had walked many times. It was not yet noon, and classes were not over yet. He could even hear the sound of reading. He walked leisurely in the highest institution of learning in the Ming Dynasty, but his destination was very clear: Jiuzhang Hall. Sure enough, when he walked around the back of the hall, he heard Zhang Shou's voice.
"Surprised or pleasantly surprised?" Zhang Shou, who appeared in Jiuzhang Hall, saw Lu Sanlang slipping to his own position as the head of the hall and sitting down. His face was so smiling that his eyes disappeared. He said with a smile, "I heard from Lu Sanlang that your studies are progressing very fast. So even though the emperor gave me a few days off, I still plan to come and check your homework first."
Seeing that everyone was straightening their backs and looking energetic and not afraid of being checked, he saw a wooden frame and whiteboard next to him, which should be used for today's lecture. He picked up the goose feather pen on the desk and dipped it in ink, and started to make questions on the spot. After writing the questions, he started to draw horizontally and vertically. After drawing a rough solid geometry picture, he moved the wooden frame to the front.
When he returned to the podium, he tapped the desk gently and said with a smile, "Okay, do this question. Solid geometry and trigonometric functions are tested together. Let me see the results of your hard work these days."
Zhang Shou suddenly arrived at the Imperial College. He did not go to the Doctoral Hall to meet his superiors Zhou Jijiu, Luo Siye and other colleagues, but went straight to the Jiuzhang Hall. Naturally, this alarmed many people. However, most of the other doctors came to spy on the matter out of shame, but Xu Heida, the Supervisor of the Shengqian Hall, did not care about this. Moreover, he often sat in on classes in the Jiuzhang Hall, and rushed over when he heard the news.
Then, just as he stood still, he discovered that Zhang Shou came here to check his homework as soon as he came back!
If it were someone else, they might have complained that Zhang Shou was unkind or was deliberately being mysterious. However, Xu Heida, the chief supervisor of the Shengqian Hall, hated students who did not do their jobs properly and doctors who were not interested in teaching. Zhang Shou's behavior was undoubtedly to his liking. Therefore, when he saw Zhang Shou coming out of the Jiuzhang Hall with his hands behind his back, he immediately went up to him and bowed, "Doctor Zhang, long time no see."
"It's been a long time since we last met." Zhang Shou smiled and asked, "I've already visited Jiuzhang Hall. It's in good condition. I'd like to ask Brother Xu how is Banshan Hall?"
Faced with such a question, Xu Heida's face darkened, but he chose his words carefully: "Some people are good, some people are not."
