Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 485: The Emperor Asks a Question
Being able to say that skipping classes is so natural... Principal Yue felt that the Zhang Shou he met today and the Zhang Shou he met two days ago during the Imperial College Open Day coincided with the recruitment of new students for Jiuzhang Hall, seemed to be two completely different people. But thinking about it carefully, the same free-spiritedness and recklessness confirmed his impression of Zhang Shou based on those rumors.
When the emperor brought the fourth prince out before, he asked him about something that Zhang Shou asked Zhu Ying to tell the fourth prince. Although he guessed that Zhang Shou would skip class today, he immediately became interested when he heard such a reason.
Even though he has been on the throne for so many years, the naughty kid has long since turned into a tall and handsome young man, but the emperor's temperament has not changed. He is still the maverick and unconventional emperor, but in the past, when it was not necessary, he would hide these characteristics and pretend to be a wise king in front of his ministers. But once his old ways relapse...
Haha, for example, today he suddenly visited this Xinglong Teahouse, last year he suddenly went to the Imperial College for inspection, last night he suddenly went to the abandoned temple to mourn his lost youth, and by the way, he burned a stick of incense for some innocent monks who were killed or injured that year... All these are things that an emperor would do.
Even if the Queen Mother in the palace heard it, she would just make a bet with Chu Kuan and laugh it off, because if she got angry at every turn after giving birth to such a son, she would definitely be pissed to death!
At this moment, the emperor questioned Zhang Shou with great interest about how the election method for the head of Jiuzhang Hall was carried out. When he heard that Zhang Shou had left it all to a group of students to decide on their own and excluded the third prince, his eyebrows couldn't help but raise slightly.
The fourth prince beside him couldn't help it. He suddenly asked loudly: "Teacher, how can you exclude the third brother from the candidate for the head of the temple!"
The nobles and ministers around him all fell silent when they noticed that the Fourth Prince was calling him "teacher" but his words were rather annoyed. The Fourth Prince then realized from the reactions of others that his attitude was wrong, and hurriedly bowed and said, "Teacher, I am anxious, but this is not fair to my third brother, and we should all compete fairly..."
Two days ago, the Fourth Prince left in anger because he failed to get into Jiuzhang Hall. He was soon found by an attendant of Zhang Shou. Not only did he apologize honestly, he even made a bold statement that he would enter Jiuzhang Hall next year. The news had already spread like wildfire. Now, when everyone saw that the Fourth Prince still called the Third Prince "Third Brother" and "Teacher" all the time and even spoke up for the Third Prince, most people couldn't help but sigh in their hearts.
What brothers are at odds, what anger leads to hatred... The brothers, the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince, are still as harmonious as before! As for the Fourth Prince, even though he has doubts about Zhang Shou at this time, it can be seen that he still respects him very much!
When Zhang Shou saw that the Fourth Prince's voice was getting lower and lower, he couldn't help but reach out and touch the round little head. He didn't pay attention to other people's expressions towards his action, and said with a smile: "If the Third Prince participates in the election, Fourth Prince, do you think that others have the possibility of becoming the head of the temple?"
Sure enough, as soon as he said this, he saw that the Fourth Prince's eyes were a little erratic, and he was evasive and didn't dare to look him in the eye. Then he smiled and said, "If the Third Prince was four or five years older, I would definitely not exclude him from the list of candidates, but he is too young now. If he becomes the head of the temple just because of his family background, it would just be a case of forcing things to happen."
"Besides, Jiuzhangtang is not a one-year institution. If he is not the headmaster this year, who knows what will happen next year, the year after, or the year after that."
Although the emperor gradually agreed with Zhang Shou's judgment in his heart, he refused to show it on his face. Not only that, he even showed a bit of impatience: "Okay, okay, anyway, it's you, the teacher, who left a group of students behind and ran here to join in the fun, and you still have a convincing argument, and you think you are more reasonable than anyone else."
Without waiting for Zhang Shou, who was obviously not in a hurry, to apologize, he said with a half-smile: "However, Sanlang insisted on taking the Jiuzhang Hall exam and passed it with his own ability. I couldn't stop him, but I have to make it clear in advance that Sanlang has other classes and can only be in Jiuzhang Hall for half a day. He has to go to school with Silang for the remaining half of the day."
Seeing the Fourth Prince, he immediately revealed an expression of great joy - just like a child who thought he would lose his little friend, but suddenly heard that his little friend would only be away for half a day every day and could still be with him for the remaining half day, so he was overjoyed - Zhang Shou just felt that this pair of brothers was really rare.
So he stretched out his hand again and pressed the Fourth Prince's shoulder, then nodded happily: "Your Majesty is right, it should be so. Among all the subjects, the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince should not be neglected."
Lord Wu had long seen that although the emperor was sometimes annoyed, sometimes impatient, and sometimes criticizing, in essence, unless you were close to him, the emperor would not bother to say more to you.
Therefore, he immediately laughed and said , "Everyone knows that Dr. Zhang is good at teaching and educating people. Not to mention Lu Zhu who is behind him, even Zhang Chen and Zhu Tingyi who just arrived, aren't they all accomplished now?"
"Your Majesty, others may find fault with how Dr. Zhang is as an official, but everyone has already seen how he is as a teacher."
The emperor's expression changed. He pointed at Zhang Chen and Zhu Er who were trying to squeeze over, coughed and said, "I will ask you about the good things you two did in Cangzhou later. Well, I came out to relax today, not to listen to these big things. Tell the chefs to show off their skills. I will set the questions myself today, and there is only one question."
He paused, without even looking at the other people's expressions, and said directly: "I only have one request, home-cooked food!"
Shanzhang Yue immediately looked up at the expressions of Zhang Shou and Lu Sanlang, and saw that Zhang Shou was smiling very naturally, while Lu Sanlang looked so happy that he wanted to laugh out loud. He couldn't help but feel a little confused.
According to his thinking, since Zhang Shou and Lu Sanlang had conspired to propose this method to select the imperial chef, there must be someone who wanted to be recommended to the imperial kitchen, so the test questions must have been carefully considered beforehand. Now that the emperor suddenly announced an unexpected topic, Zhang Shou and his student were actually very happy. This was totally unreasonable!
Only Zhang Shou and Lu Sanlang knew what the test questions were... they had never prepared for them. Compared to the flow of people, consumption, and business that such a competition could attract, the selection of imperial chefs was not that important. Besides, since the cooking skills of the people finally selected had to satisfy the emperor, it would be best to just ask someone to come up with questions on the spot.
And who else could set questions with greater authority than the emperor himself?
The emperor's request, which was not special at all, was quickly notified by the eunuch who accompanied him. After hearing the words "home-cooked dishes", the 30 chefs selected from the three preliminary rounds were overjoyed, some were at a loss, some muttered to themselves, and some celebrated.
The last group of people who were celebrating included Song Juren. He was sure that if the topic announced today was a very niche one, he would have only one choice, which was to abstain! But the emperor actually announced such a broad topic that was very suitable for an abnormal chef like him, so he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
It doesn’t matter if you’re eliminated... but if you’re eliminated by giving up, that would be really embarrassing!
On the third floor of Xinglong Tea House, the emperor listened to the young eunuch beside him whispering about the reactions of the chefs after the test questions were announced. He especially described the relieved reaction of Mr. Song, a peculiar individual. His eyes flickered and he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
When Chu Kuan first told me that Princess Yongping was furious because a man surnamed Song, who was a juren, hid his identity and took the imperial chef examination, and that man surnamed Song confronted her, the emperor was very interested in such a strange scholar. First, he was interested in the man's craftsmanship, and second, he was interested in his daughter's lifelong event.
After all, the marriages between Princess Deyang and the two princesses had already been decided, but Princess Yongping just left it there. Even though it was her own strong request, how could he, as her father, feel?
However, when he was planning to go to Zhang Shou to look for someone, Zhu Ying, who came into the palace, brought him Zhang Shou's judgment.
After listening to it, although he appreciated the two desserts made by Mr. Song that Zhu Ying brought into the palace, he had completely given up the idea of leaving the palace to meet his future son-in-law.
The person in charge is confused, but the bystander is clear. Zhang Shou has already made it clear, so how could he not understand why Princess Yongping was angry? But he had not gone to Zhang Garden to see anyone before. Since he was here today, the emperor decided to take a look at this interesting scholar Song.
At this moment, because he and the fourth prince occupied a separate table, the emperor, who loved the hustle and bustle the most, couldn't help but feel that it was boring. Looking around, he coughed and said, "Yingying, Zhang Shou, the two of you come and sit down!"
After calling these two, the emperor saw that others, such as Zhang Chen, Lu Sanlang, and Zhu Er, were also looking at him eagerly, so he said unhappily, "Lu Sanlang, aren't you in charge of the entire imperial chef selection process? What are you doing here? Why don't you go downstairs and do your job properly? Zhang Chen and Zhu Er, don't stay here and be lazy, go down and take a look, I see there are many people on the second floor too!"
The emperor immediately chased the three juniors away. He then examined the civil and military officials. Seeing that Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying had already arrived, he asked with a stern face, "I heard that the teacher and Mr. Qi and Mr. Chu were invited to the first preliminary round. Why is it that only Mr. Wu is among the civil officials this time? Did you not invite him, or did you invite others but they didn't come?"
Zhang Shou gently pulled Zhu Ying, who was about to explain, and said calmly, "Your Majesty, it's not that I don't want to invite the teachers, but because such a food review may be a rare experience for ordinary people and worth telling about in their lifetime, but for the teachers, tasting so many dishes one by one is really a burden of deliciousness."
Therefore, he paused, then turned around and bowed to Elder Wu, smiling and saying, "So, when I discussed it with Yingying, I asked her to try to invite Elder Wu, because I heard that Elder Wu is strong and healthy, and most importantly, he loves food and enjoys life, which is different from some people in the court who always claim to pursue a peaceful and pastoral life."
Wu Ge Lao was most proud of his life attitude of taking things as they come and doing things as he pleased. Now that Zhang Shou had pointed out that he agreed with his life philosophy, he felt that this young man was a little more pleasing to the eye than before. Moreover, Zhang Shou had clearly praised him for his good health, good stomach, and delicious food. Of course, he felt very comfortable hearing this kind of flattery.
When one reaches such a high position in the government, most people would rather face challenges head-on than retire at the peak of their career. Who likes to be told that they are old?
Known as Mr. Nice Guy and the emperor's yes-man, he has always been in the top of the cabinet. He smiled and stroked his beard: "Life should be enjoyed to the fullest, don't let the golden cup face the moon in vain. Life should be enjoyed while it lasts. Unfortunately, this is not the Tang Dynasty. Civil servants have set more and more rules for themselves. Even if they want to enjoy themselves while they last, they have to tell others that they are abstinent and calm."
"Tsk tsk, I can't do that. I'm old, so I should spend my own money to enjoy myself. What's wrong with that?" When Elder Wu said this, he pointed at Lu Wan, who was sitting next to him and said with a smile, "So I admire Old Lu very much. Not only did he retire at the peak of his career, but he also knew how to enjoy life despite his busy schedule. He goes to Tingyu Cottage every day and walks among the flowers without getting a single leaf on him!"
puff--
Even though Lu Wan had always known that Lord Wu would get drunk after drinking two cups and would talk nonsense when he was in high spirits - of course, this nonsense was only directed at other people and would never involve matters of family or country - but at this moment, when his romantic ways were exposed in front of the emperor, Lu Wan couldn't help but spit out wine.
Seeing that Wu Ge Lao swiftly dodged, Lu Wan immediately shouted angrily: "Wu Mianhua, what nonsense are you talking about!"
"I didn't say anything." Wu Ge Lao's eyes widened innocently. "I didn't say anything. You just went there to listen to music to relieve your boredom, not to sleep with prostitutes. You are a hundred times better than those fake moralists. I was praising you."
Seeing that the dignified cabinet minister and former Minister of War, the current chief academician of the public school, was sarcastic and mocking, and the emperor was not annoyed at all, but drank with great interest. Most of the other nobles were watching the fun with smiles on their faces. Shanzhang Yue could not help but rub his temples lightly, feeling that the court officialdom was far more complicated than what he had heard before.
And just at this moment, he heard Zhang Shou's voice again.
"I heard that Zhaoming Academy has always had a cheerful academic atmosphere, teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and following their nature. It is not like some academies that insist on a strict academic atmosphere, nor is it like some academies that have a strict hierarchy, as awe-inspiring as in the court. That's why I asked Lu Sanlang to invite Principal Yue. But in the end, I was prepared for Principal Yue not to come."
"Now that Shanzhang Yue is here, the difference in the number of civil officials and military officials has finally been evened out." At this point, Zhang Shou pointed at Wu Gelao and Lu Wan, Tang Jieyuan at another table, Shanzhang Yue, and finally himself. "So the emperor just said that only Shanzhang Wu came, which is not accurate. Five to five, in fact, it's exactly half and half."
