Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 472: Teach the Naughty Kid a Lesson
The dancing and waving naughty boy, the Fourth Prince, was almost mad with rage. When he was caught up by Ah Liu on the road, he wanted to shout for help, but Ah Liu slapped him hard on the buttocks and then said, "Do you want people to see the prince shouting in the street?" He immediately shut up and could only struggle desperately to resist.
But with his short arms and legs, how can he compare to Ah Liu, who was the same age as him and had killed people before and is now even more powerful?
Hearing Ge Yong's words at this moment, the Fourth Prince finally woke up from his dream and shouted loudly: "Grandfather, save me, he is crazy! He spanked me on the way! This is abduction, this is kidnapping... Ugh!"
Before he could finish his words, the Fourth Prince was slapped on the buttocks again. Although the force was not light or heavy, it was still quite painful for him, and compared to the pain, it was more humiliating! He never expected that Ah Liu would dare to hit him in front of Ge Yong, Chu Ying, and Qi Jingshan. His face immediately turned red: "You...you hit me!"
"Should he be beaten for disrespecting his teacher?" After saying this lightly, when the fourth prince immediately shut up, Ah Liu slapped him on the butt again, "Should he be beaten for disrespecting his brother?"
This time, the fourth prince exploded directly: "I am not disrespectful to my brother! I have always been the best to my third brother! He was the one who lied to me all the time, he was the one who secretly let me win, he was the one who pretended to be inferior to me..."
Before the Fourth Prince could finish his words, Ah Liu slapped the son of the dragon and the grandson of the phoenix on the buttocks again, this time with a little more force. The Fourth Prince, who was not prepared, cried out in pain, and then realized that he had lost his composure. He took a breath and bit his lips hard. The next moment, he heard Ah Liu's cold voice.
"Is he letting you on, lying to you, or are you confused?"
The three old men who had just seen Ah Liu and the Fourth Prince come in, and were shocked, finally understood the meaning of the incident. Their initial suspicion turned into a leisurely look. Not to mention Ge Yong, even Qi Jingshan and Chu Ying, who had stood up, sat down. Chu Ying even had the interest to whisper and joke, "Old man Ge, listen to what the Fourth Prince called you just now. Ancestor... Hey, people who don't know would think you are the elder of the royal family!"
Seeing the tears welling up in the Fourth Prince's eyes and a bewildered look on his face, Ge Yong felt that he had seen the naughty emperor whom he had taught a lesson when they were young. He ignored Chu Ying's teasing and said with a laugh, "The little guy was crying out for help... Besides, in terms of knowledge, I am not unqualified to be his ancestor, am I?"
After all, they were all old friends. Since Ge Yong was so shameless, Chu Ying had nothing to say and could only hum, "You old boy are still relying on the emperor's respect for teachers... Look at how you have spoiled Zhang Shou, and how Zhang Shou has spoiled this boy! You even dared to hit the Fourth Prince. If this gets out, who knows how much trouble it will cause!"
"Who dares to say it?" Ge Yong saw that Ah Liu did not make any more moves, but still held the Fourth Prince. The latter was in a daze, and no one knew what he was thinking. He made a few gestures to the mute servant who had just come in to report in a panic. After the servant bowed and left, he coughed and said, "Don't worry, Ah Liu is a very sensible boy."
However, just as he finished speaking, Ah Liu raised his hand and slapped the fourth prince on the butt again. This time, the fourth prince cried out, and finally came to his senses, and then immediately shouted loudly: "Sixth brother, why did you hit me again!"
As soon as he heard this address, Ge Yong knew that the Fourth Prince had admitted his mistake in disguise. He immediately asked with a smile: "Ah Liu, just teach him a lesson, but don't really hurt the child! Tell me, what's going on?"
Ah Liu, however, never liked to explain the cause and effect. He put the Fourth Prince down on the ground, and when he saw someone rubbing his butt, he immediately ran to Ge Yong's side, and then stared at him angrily and resentfully. He pointed at the Fourth Prince and said directly: "The old master, ask him himself."
Seeing Ge Yong pulling him in front of him, the three old men's six eyes were all focused on him, and the Fourth Prince immediately felt guilty. However, he looked around to avoid these scrutinizing eyes, but he couldn't avoid it unless he lowered his head, and he didn't like to lower his head the most. So, after hesitating for a moment, he whispered what happened during the interview today.
When he talked about how the Third Prince not only gave others problems but also fought bravely, he said with indignation, "I have always been honest in front of my Third Brother and never hid anything from him, but he chose to hide things from me! He is obviously very capable, but he always acts worse than me. He is either lying to me or making me do something wrong. What is that?"
At this point, he straightened his neck with a righteous attitude, but soon found that Ge Yong, Chu Ying and Qi Jingshan all looked at him with a very subtle expression, as if there was something strange on his face. For a long while, he saw Ge Yong suddenly put his hands on his shoulders and pressed hard.
"Little Silang, if you mistake humility for deception, then you are such an unreasonable brother!" Ge Yong started with a gentle tone, but suddenly his tone turned harsh. Seeing that the Fourth Prince was stunned, he said earnestly, "Besides, how do you know that it was your third brother who let you go, not that you are good at showing off, and he has always been slow to react, so he fell behind you?"
The fourth prince suddenly became anxious: "But this time..."
"What happened to him this time? Didn't he just suddenly show his prowess and defeat a group of opponents, including you, his brother? Even a cornered dog will jump over the wall, and a cornered rabbit will bite. What's more, your third brother is usually quiet, shy and timid, but he actually has good talent and is willing to work hard. For the teacher he likes and for the course he likes, isn't it right for him to fight for it?"
Ge Yong was better at dealing with this kind of situation than the Fourth Prince. He said a few words and the Fourth Prince was speechless. Then he let go of his hand and leaned back on the armchair. Then he said with a half-smile, "Besides, performance on the spot is all about momentum. Your Third Brother was focused and only wanted to pass the exam, so of course he was successful."
"As for you... you actually came up with such an outrageous question in the last group of interviews. Ask yourself, didn't you think you would never learn from your third brother and would definitely break through with your own abilities? Haha, what was the result? Your third brother, who was single-minded, succeeded, but you had other thoughts in your mind. As a result, you failed the test and took your anger out on others?"
"I..." The Fourth Prince had just said one word in his defense when he was hit on the head again.
"Xiao Shilang, in life, there are always successes and failures, and more importantly, opponents. You and your third brother grew up together. You are both brothers and opponents, but you just didn't think about this before. Have you ever thought about what your third brother would think if you ran out of the Imperial College with those words? What would your teacher think? What would your father think?"
Seeing that the Fourth Prince was completely stunned by Ge Yong's combination of punches, with tears still in his eyes, his mental state was no longer as angry as when he first appeared and would blame others, or be dazed when scolded. Instead, he seemed to be regretting. Ah Liu knew that his mission had been accomplished.
He bowed to Ge Yong, Chu Ying, and Qi Jingshan, then turned around and left without saying a word, not thinking about the consequences of spanking the Fourth Prince and the latter getting angry and retaliating against him. But just because he didn't think about it didn't mean others wouldn't think about it, so he had just walked out of the study room when he heard footsteps behind him, followed by the Fourth Prince's shout.
“Sixth brother, Sixth brother!”
Ah Liu suddenly stopped and turned around, and saw the Fourth Prince rushing out. However, after facing his cold face, he immediately stopped only three or four steps away from him. He said calmly: "If you feel wronged, Fourth Prince, you can hit me back now for those few blows I just gave you!"
"No, no, no!" The fourth prince immediately shook his head like a rattle. Although his buttocks still hurt a little, he still remembered the pain and humiliation when he was beaten just now, but he still understood that a tiger's buttocks should not be touched. Even if Ah Liu said so, he must be serious. He could indeed go forward and fight back, but he didn't dare.
Just as his father had always trusted Zhang Shou, his father had never treated Liu as an outsider - he even made a serious bet with them in front of others, saying that whoever could make Liu smile would be rewarded... Although he didn't know if it was because Ren and Hua Qi, whom his father had always trusted, were actually master and disciple, he had been beaten by Hua Qi!
When they were young, their father was worried that he and his third brother were too spoiled, so he threw them to Hua Qi to train for a few days, hoping that they would be able to protect themselves in critical moments. As a result, they did not develop much self-protection ability, but they were kicked in the buttocks many times!
The fourth prince didn't know why he had so many messy thoughts. At this moment, he shook his head to try to dispel these irrelevant things, but under the deep gaze of Ah Liu, he finally forgot all the words he had just thought of.
He lowered his head and said in a very low voice: "Sixth Brother, I...I will go back with you. "
Ah Liu glanced at the Fourth Prince in surprise. Seeing that the awkward kid was looking around while talking but refused to look directly at him, he took two steps forward and suddenly grabbed the man's wrist. This time, the Fourth Prince immediately thought of the experience of being held in someone's arms and going to the Ge family. He was so scared that he shouted in panic, "Let's go back normally. I don't want to be held by you again!"
But his resistance was totally ineffective, and he was thrown out by Ah Liu. Just when he thought his resistance was ineffective and he was about to be baptized by a storm, he fell from the sky, and he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. But the next moment he realized that he seemed to be lying on someone, and when he looked closely, it was Ah Liu who was carrying him on his back.
When he heard the words "hold on tight" in his ears, he did not dare to hesitate and subconsciously hugged Liu's neck tightly.
As Ah Liu ran quickly, the Fourth Prince, who had just been in doubt, gradually calmed down and was actually a little excited. Especially when Ah Liu carried him out of the Ge Mansion, he found that he was not taking the right road, and then suddenly turned into a dark alley and jumped onto a wall very neatly. He became even more excited, but he couldn't help but hug Ah Liu's neck tighter.
"Sixth Brother, is this... is this the feeling of being a knight in the books?"
Ah Liu was slightly stunned, then he said without turning his head, "What kind of sage book did you read that contains a knight-errant?"
"Of course there are. There are biographies of assassins in the Records of the Grand Historian, and Li Bai also has a poem called The Knight-errant!" The fourth prince realized that he had made a mistake and tried to make an argument, but what he got was Ah Liu's laughter. The next moment, he found that Ah Liu's route suddenly became irregular, sometimes up and down, and sometimes even fell sideways, which frightened him so much that he hugged him tightly and screamed.
"I'll tell you, I'll tell you! It's not from a book of sages, it's a legend I found on the bookshelf in the East Warm Pavilion of the Emperor's Palace of Heavenly Purity! My father even caught me that time. When he saw me peeking at the book, he flicked my forehead. Later, he sighed and said that when he was my age, he was caught peeking at the book by Grand Tutor Ge... and the Grand Tutor just flicked his finger."
Ah Liu's mouth curled up slightly, and then he said seriously: "Next time you can tell the emperor that the young master actually has a lot of stories like this. When he was in Rongshui Village, he often told me when he couldn't sleep."
"Ah?" The Fourth Prince did not expect that Zhang Shou could tell stories about knights in addition to stories from history books. He was already excited, and since Ah Liu's route was no longer as strange as it was at the beginning, he could not help but pester Ah Liu to tell him a story. So, on the short distance from the Ge Mansion to the Imperial College, Ah Liu actually told the Fourth Prince a story about a knight-errant in the Tang Dynasty.
Although Ah Liu was not a person who could remember everything he heard, nor was he like the storyteller, who could tell stories with ups and downs, one gag after another, and finally add a section saying "wait for the next chapter to find out more", and as time had passed, he did not remember them very clearly, and his stories were rather bland and unusually ordinary. But for a child of the Fourth Prince's age, as long as the story was novel, it was completely enough.
Along the way, he kept asking about the follow-up plot. He had turned his head from time to time to observe the buildings and scenery along the way, but now he completely ignored it and didn't even notice that Ah Liu had already jumped over a wall with him. When Ah Liu suddenly stopped, he couldn't help but urge people to continue, and suddenly he realized that the surrounding environment was not right.
He was still holding on to Ah Liu's neck tightly, and he raised his head in a hurry, only to see that the person not far away, who was staring at him with an inexplicable expression, was it not his father? And next to his father, there were Zhou Jijiu, Luo Siye, and a completely unfamiliar middle-aged man. As for the onlookers who had not yet dispersed, he simply ignored them completely.
Sliding down from Ah Liu's back and landing steadily on the ground, the troubled Fourth Prince hesitated for a moment, then straightened his clothes, raised his head and strode forward. When he arrived in front of the Emperor, he bowed deeply and said, "Father, I was wrong before! I chose the wrong strategy during the interview, and then I overestimated my own abilities during the written test, which ruined my mentality."
"If I can't pass the exam this year, I won't pass it. I'll try again next year!" The fourth prince lowered his head and said in a muffled voice, "It's no big deal to lose to my third brother once. I'll win back with my own ability next time!"
The emperor, who was in a good mood after listening to Zhang Shou's new rules, burst into laughter, pulled his youngest son up, and touched his forehead: "You said such a thing in front of so many people. If you can't complete it, it will be a disgrace to yourself! Wait for Zhang Shou and Sanlang to come out, and you go and apologize!"
