Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 515 Demonic Sound, Brother
During the lunch at the Xiao family, most of the students of Jiuzhang Hall, except those from official families and well-off families, ate with their mouths full of grease. If Lu Sanlang and Ji Jiu had not set an example as seniors and the head of the dormitory, eating in moderation and reserve, those students who had not tasted meat for a long time might have burped.
Of course, the presence of the Third Prince was also the reason why everyone was afraid to eat as much as they wanted.
After all, since Lu Sanlang had already undertaken the exclusive printing of the Ge Yong-Zhang Shou series of books, talented poor students could read books in the bookshop or even copy books and then go back to study, so that they could be admitted to Jiuzhang Hall. Therefore, their number was far greater than that of the well-off and wealthy children who were secretly studying mathematics but were more interested in achieving something in the imperial examinations and did not want to take the Jiuzhang Hall exam.
As for the top wealthy families, the third prince, Lu Sanlang and Ji Jiulang are the only three remaining representatives.
One is the third prince, who has status, money, free time and does not care about his future. He has always been very well protected by the emperor. He has never thought about his future status since he was young. Whether in Banshan Hall or Jiuzhang Hall, Zhang Shou has been taking strict care of him, and Ji Jiu has been ordered to watch out for him and prevent him from being "polluted". But rather than saying that he really likes mathematics, it is better to say that he admires Zhang Shou, this special teacher.
Another one is Lu Sanlang, who was not favored by his father since childhood, but really likes arithmetic and has great business talent. Now even the emperor praises him as a prodigal who has turned over a new leaf. The last one is Ji Jiu, who is not valued at home. Although he has talent, it is not the best. He came here completely for the attention of Jiuzhang Hall, the popularity of his teacher Zhang Shou, and his future prospects.
This is the case for the three of them. Therefore, among the new first-year students in Jiuzhang Hall, the few students from well-off families are often not the eldest sons or grandsons who need to inherit the family business. They have no worries about food and clothing, and they do not like the imperial examinations. Their elders are also open-minded. Most of them do not put on airs when getting along with a group of poor classmates.
After having a satisfying lunch and thanking a Shandong cuisine chef for his superb cooking skills, they returned to Jiuzhang Hall in the afternoon. They saw Zhu Tingfang stayed at Xiao's house, and Zhang Chen, Zhu Er, Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu actually followed them back and occupied the last row, as if they were there to attend the class for free. They couldn't help but gather in groups of three or five with other classmates and whisper.
Although the first graders at Jiuzhang Hall had only been attending classes for a few days, because the course was based on the textbook and quickly skipped over the parts they had already mastered, they had now reached the increasingly difficult stage of plane geometry. In their opinion, could Zhang Chen and the others understand?
Sitting in the empty seat in the last row, Zhang Chen heard the discussions coming from the front and suddenly felt angry.
Seeing Zhu Er's thick-skinned look, he couldn't help but snort, then hooked his fingers at Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu, "Remember to listen carefully later. Don't forget that you are the ones running a business outside, don't be outdone by a bunch of students."
Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu felt confident after their trip outside, and nodded immediately. However, when Zhang Shou actually started teaching, they listened attentively at first, relying on their previous experience in Banshan Hall, and finally managed to understand what he was saying, but at least they knew what he was talking about.
But when Zhang Shou began to teach very quickly as if he was keeping up with the schedule, and only taught once, and continued as long as there was no objection, they started to be in trouble.
When Zhang Shou started talking about geometry, their eyes gradually widened. In the end, they only felt a buzzing sound in their ears, all kinds of shapes appeared in front of their eyes, and their brains were a mess. They wished they could die!
They came to attend the class to stop Zhang Shou from trying to evade them and to find out what the so-called plan was. But now, there were four people in total. Zhu Er lay directly on the table, Zhang Chen was daydreaming, Zhang Wu was writing and drawing, but the paper was just covered with ink, and Zhang Lu... the slick and sophisticated Zhang Lu was now deeply reflecting on his life over the years.
Because Zhang Lu had been so pierced by the evil sound that he began to doubt his life.
Zhang Chen had once presided over a text code lock decryption on behalf of Lu Sanlang, so he was relatively familiar with the lessons of Jiuzhang Hall, but now all this still gave him a big shock. He wanted to sleep but couldn't, wanted to be in a daze, but in fact his mind couldn't be empty. He finally managed to get through the afternoon class. When Zhang Shou came, he was the only one who stood up to greet him as if nothing had happened.
Zhang Shou glanced at the Zhang brothers and his future second uncle, who were obviously inferior to Zhang Chen. Seeing them lying there motionless, he couldn't help but smile and motioned Zhang Chen to follow him out. After a long while, he didn't come back, while Zhang Chen turned back in high spirits and slapped Zhu Er, Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu on the back of their heads.
"You have no future, and you are not afraid of being laughed at by the younger generations!" Zhang Chen looked at the younger generations who had just entered the Jiuzhang Hall of the Imperial College, including Ji Jiu, based on the number of years he had studied at the Imperial College. Seeing that Zhu Er finally came to his senses and glared at him indignantly, he gave him a look and then walked up to drag Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu away.
"We have brought such magical colored cotton seeds all the way back to see the emperor, so why waste time? Let's go back and discuss it. As for this guy who was just shouting that Mr. Zhu is a good farmer but is now listless, just ignore him!"
Zhu Er suddenly came to his senses and jumped up, shouting, "If you dare to leave me, I will never let you go! Good things should be shared among us. Besides, Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu, don't be heartless. Zhang Chen and I split the donation for the public school in the outer city into 50% and each of us will take a share. You have to pay me back, otherwise I will eat at your house every day in the future!"
Seeing these four people leaving noisily, Ji Jiu couldn't help but feel a little envious. Although he was now also the head of the temple, he was still not as good as these four people. Some of them were natural uncles and uncles to Zhang Shou, while some knew Zhang Shou since Rongshui Village and had experienced a life-and-death battle with him.
But the next moment, he felt someone pulling his sleeve, and when he saw it was the Third Prince, he quickly suppressed the emotions in his heart.
"Master Ji, do you know what the magical colored cotton seeds that Zhang Chen and the others just mentioned are?"
After the Third Prince asked, he saw Ji Jiu was stunned, so he said embarrassedly: "After all, the teacher told Father before that cotton, a crop, has undergone a lot of changes since it was introduced into our country. If the cotton brought back from overseas can be successfully planted, the yield will increase greatly. But isn't cotton white?"
Having said this, he saw that the other students were all staring at him. According to his previous personality, he would have shut up out of fear by now. But at this moment, he didn't know where the impulse came from, and he actually continued to explain seriously.
"There was no cotton in the Han Dynasty. Although cotton was introduced from foreign countries in the Tang and Song Dynasties, the production was never increased. It was not until the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty that Huang Dao Po brought back the best textile technology from Qiongzhou. Only then did the south of the Yangtze River develop from silk weaving to cotton spinning..."
The third prince tried hard to repeat the history that the emperor had told him. Seeing that most people were listening carefully, he didn't even think about whether they were in awe of his status, or in awe of what the so-called father said, or whether they were really interested in cotton, one of the best cash crops... Anyway, he was trying his best to tell everyone that cotton seeds were important.
After Zhang Shou finished explaining things to Zhang Chen and went back to the Doctor's Hall, he returned to the Jiuzhang Hall and saw the Third Prince talking about cotton. He could clearly feel that the child who used to be shy and timid now seemed active and cheerful.
Not only that, the Third Prince's cotton talk really hit the spot for him at this moment.
Therefore, when the Third Prince finally finished, he suddenly clapped his hands and praised: "The Third Prince is right. Only when one has enough food and clothing can one know honor and disgrace. If we want the common people to have enough clothes, then we must follow the teachings of Emperor Taizu and grow more cotton. However, the land in the world is limited. If we hope to have enough cotton cloth to make clothes for the people of the world, then it is important to improve the variety and increase the yield."
He just paused for a moment, then said nonchalantly, "Speaking of which, this time, Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu brought back some very special colored cotton seeds from Xingtai. It is said that the cotton they collected was brown."
"I also heard from them that in the past, there were even farmers who grew green cotton. It was a very natural green color that did not fade easily... But the farmers were ignorant and thought it was a strange omen from heaven, so they later abandoned the cotton field..."
Anyway, this is just nonsense and there is no evidence to prove it. Zhang Shou spoke seriously, but at the end he sighed: "It's just hearsay, so it's hard to say. However, Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu collected the seeds to present to the emperor. This time, I saw it with my own eyes, and I even brought back all the brown cotton harvested from the cotton field."
After the two conversations between the Third Prince and Zhang Shou, when they saw the Third Prince excitedly going up to Zhang Shou and holding his hand and asking questions non-stop, those others who were not interested but pretended to be interested were naturally pushed to the back by people like Ji Jiu who were keen on fame and fortune. But they did not retreat and left, as most people were happy to pretend.
However, even though there were poor students among the crowd, there was no one who actually farmed and studied, or planted cotton... unfortunately! Therefore, no one found anything wrong with what Zhang Shou said.
So, when Zhang Shou talked about his experiences in the fields in Rongshui Village, most of the people showed incredible expressions, except Ji Jiu, who had been dragged by Zhang Shou to participate in the autumn harvest, and the Third Prince, who had ridden a cow with the Fourth Prince.
Although Zhang Shou came from the countryside and had a humble background, this story had long been circulated outside, but there were also people among the crowd who truly came from the countryside, and they all knew how valuable real scholars were in the countryside. Not only would their families do their utmost to support them, but even their clansmen would often take on a lot of farm work and housework out of a simple desire to help, or to repay a favor. So why would Zhang Shou go to the fields himself?
Zhang Shou knew what kind of misunderstanding others would have, but he was happy to see others have such misunderstandings. Therefore, instead of stopping people from imagining things, he continued to talk about growing rice and raising fish with a smile... Until he saw the Third Prince looking at him with great interest, he seemed to suddenly remember something and reached out to touch the Third Prince's head as usual.
"I was so excited that I forgot the time... It's almost evening now, you should go back to the palace! I probably won't be so busy next time, so you should go back to the palace every afternoon and take your other classes well, don't neglect any of them!"
Seeing the Third Prince's face full of resistance, he smiled and said, "Just think about how lonely your Fourth Brother must be since you spend every day in Jiuzhang Hall?"
Faced with Zhang Shou's powerful reason, the Third Prince's desire to resist suddenly vanished. He bowed his head in embarrassment, bowed his hands, and said earnestly, "Teacher, I'm going back," and then hurried out. Looking at his back, Ji Jiu couldn't help but sigh from the bottom of his heart: "The Third Prince and the Fourth Prince have a really good relationship."
In front of others, he was called Zheng Rong, but behind others, he was called the Third Prince. This strange situation was only seen in Jiuzhang Hall. However, Ji Jiu's sigh at this time attracted many people to agree, especially those who had many brothers. Even if there were brothers who were not on good terms with them, there were always one or two good brothers and sisters. They also smiled knowingly.
Zhang Shou, who had no brothers or sisters before and still has no brothers or sisters now, couldn't help but smile. He didn't have a younger brother, but didn't he still have the mysterious Ah Liu?
In a flash of thought, he thought of Ah Liu, who was often elusive, so since he had finished speaking, he smiled and greeted the students, then turned and walked out. When he came out of the Imperial College and arrived under the university archway, he saw Ah Liu waiting there with Zhu Ying's famously docile Feibai horse, so he immediately went up to him and teased him.
"Yingying said that she will give you another imperial horse, Xiaohong, which has a rather bad temper, but she has to go back to help you train the horse first."
Ah Liu was visibly stunned. After a long while, when Zhang Shou had taken over the reins, he said thoughtfully, "What should I give Miss as a return gift?"
Zhang Shou was immediately amused by Ah Liu's matter-of-fact tone. The emperor rewarded two horses, and Zhu Ying gave them to Ah Liu as a favor. As a result... Ah Liu completely forgot about the emperor who was truly generous. But this was okay, after all, even if Ah Liu took back the horses, they would have been obtained from Zhu Ying. So, he smiled and raised his eyebrows, and directly patted the boy on the shoulder.
"You have to think carefully about what gift to give in return. I won't give you any advice."
Seeing that Zhang Shou was now able to jump on the horse in a relatively elegant posture, Ah Liu scratched his head in distress. After getting on his own horse, he was a little worried all the way. Zhang Shou knew Zhu Ying's preferences, and he also knew that she liked gorgeous clothes and those beautiful but not necessarily valuable gadgets.
Hua Qi passed it to him. It seemed that there were many such things among his childhood spoils, but most of them were stained with blood. So, on the birthday of Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying, he knew that Zhang Shou had no taboos, so he gave him a seal, but he did not choose anything from it to give to Zhu Ying. Instead, he asked Wu for money and went to a famous silver shop in the capital to make a golden longevity lock.
Later , under Hua Qi's ridicule, he realized that the seal he gave to Zhang Shou was poorly engraved, and the gold locket he gave to Zhu Ying was too rustic... So, now that Zhu Ying has left a thousand-mile horse for him, what should he, who is incompetent at giving gifts, give in return?
