Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 524: Cracks
Zhang Shou actually thought that there would be no good results if the colored cotton seeds were planted?
When leaving Qin Garden, Zhang Wu, who had just finished listening to Zhang Chen's long explanation, felt completely confused and even nearly took the wrong road several times. Not only him, Zhang Lu was not much better, he was distracted along the way, and if the guards hadn't reminded him, he would have almost run into a ditch several times. Seeing that the capital was approaching, the two brothers unexpectedly stopped their horses one after another.
"Xiao Wu, do you believe what Zhang Chen said?"
Zhang Wu was stunned when he heard Zhang Lu's straightforward question. Then he thought about it carefully and nodded, "Believe it. There is no reason for the young master to lie to us, and there is even less reason for Brother Chen to lie to us. You know, without them, we wouldn't be where we are today."
Zhang Lu was slightly stunned, then he laughed and said, "I knew you would give such an answer. You have been a grateful person since you were a child. Even your stepmother is so high and mighty that you would be grateful immediately if she treated you a little well. What's more, Zhang Chen and... Mr. Xiao? But it's true. One of them will definitely inherit the title of Duke of Qin in the future, and the other is the son-in-law of the Duke of Zhao. Naturally, they won't be blinded by money."
He intentionally emphasized the tone of the words "grateful for money", but he only saw Zhang Wu nodding in agreement, as if he didn't hear his hidden meaning at all. He suddenly felt discouraged, and it took him a long time to gather himself.
"Xiao Wu, although Mr. Xiao was born in the countryside and knows a little about agricultural science, he doesn't know much about growing cotton, otherwise he wouldn't have asked people to try growing that overseas variety, don't you think?"
Seeing Zhang Wu hesitate for a moment and then nod gently, Zhang Lu said seriously, "We personally went to the fields to see the brown cotton, and then watched people harvest it. We also gave the farmer a sum of money and personally led people to collect the seeds, and then brought them all to the capital. How could there be any problem with the seeds?"
Zhang Wu opened his mouth, wanting to refute Zhang Lu's statement, but he was the illegitimate son of a wealthy family, not the poor son of a farmer. Even though he had personally worked in the fields in Xingtai this time, he still didn't know much about farming.
Therefore, he hesitated for a long time, and finally said uncertainly: "Maybe it's just like what Zhang Chen told us before, about purification, degeneration and rejuvenation. There are many details in planting cotton, so it's not okay to simply collect the seeds and then plant them?"
"Haha." Zhang Lu laughed twice again, but he was unwilling to say anything more. If he said anything more, even if he and Zhang Wu had been close since childhood, it might arouse the other party's suspicion. He shook the reins lightly, and then shrugged: "Anyway, it's useless to say these things now. Whether the seeds were stolen or burned, not a single seed was left."
"Yes, Brother Chen also said that he had planned to find a way to sell it at a higher price, or to make some money in other ways, but someone took advantage of the situation and used this trick to wipe out the family." Zhang Wu shook his head helplessly, but soon cheered up again, "But Brother Chen gave us the blueprint of the new loom and instructed us to talk to Mr. Hua Si of Suzhou, so it's considered a good deal."
Zhang Lu was too lazy to mock Zhang Wu for being content with his small fortune. The new loom already had many users in Cangzhou and Xingtai, so how could it be hidden? Moreover, the loom drawings were presented to the emperor by Zhang Shou. How could we know that Zhang Shou would not extort money from Fourth Master Hua and then present it to the court, just like he had extorted the eldest prince?
In the end, not only might they work in vain, but they might also have to take the blame for having betrayed Fourth Master Hua.
However, he said nothing, but just nodded slightly and said, "Well, you are right."
In the afternoon, Zhang Shou, who was in Jiuzhang Hall, got the news from Lu Sanlang who rushed over to report that Qin Garden was on fire again. Facing Lu Sanlang, who was as angry as Zhang Chen in front of others, he actually comforted the little fat man and urged people to prepare for the upcoming finals and not to meddle in other people's business.
But after lunch, when he started the afternoon class as if nothing had happened, at the beginning of the second class, he found the impetuous Zhu Ying at the gate, looking in anxiously. Although according to the strict classroom discipline, he should pretend that he didn't see it, but even if he had the ability to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear, it was not practiced for Zhu Ying.
Therefore, he simply wrote a question on the blackboard and asked everyone to practice it in class, then clapped his hands and walked to the door. Seeing Zhu Ying opening her mouth to speak, he pointed at the people in the hall who were concentrating on solving the questions, then put his index finger on his mouth to make a gesture of silence, and then waved to Zhu Ying to come to the open space in front to talk with him.
When they arrived at the open space in front of Jiuzhang Hall, Zhu Ying immediately called out anxiously, "A Shou..."
Before Zhu Ying could finish her next sentence, Zhang Shou smiled and said, "If you want to talk about Qin Garden, I know everything! Fatty Lu has short legs but fast legs, and he has been here. Don't worry, the seeds are nothing. Whether they were burned or stolen, it's just the same. Compared to the seeds that Lao Xianyu brought back from overseas, this so-called auspicious colored cotton is simply nonsense."
Zhu Ying's words to comfort Zhang Shou were suddenly blocked. She stared at Zhang Shou in amazement, and after a long while she asked in disbelief, "Are you serious? You're not trying to comfort me?"
"Why should I comfort you? If it's really precious and important, shouldn't I be the one who wants to cry but has no tears, and then you try every possible means to comfort me?" Zhang Shou laughed as he spoke, and then blinked his eyes, "Compared to this matter of misfortune, I want to know more about your father's matter?"
It would have been fine if he hadn't mentioned this. As soon as he mentioned this, Zhu Ying was immediately filled with anger and said angrily: "What else can I say? It was all done by the emperor. He is such a liar!"
Just as she uttered the word "deceiving", Zhu Ying suddenly caught a glimpse of a familiar black face not far away. Recognizing Xu Heida, she thought that she came here today to inform Zhang Shou. Now that Zhang Shou knew about it, she didn't want to deal with this famous black-faced guy, so she said unhappily, "I'll tell Ah Liu about what you want to know and have him tell you. I'm leaving now!"
Seeing Zhu Ying turn around and leave immediately without any hesitation, Zhang Shou smiled when he remembered that Lu Sanlang was the same as her, taking a detour when he saw Xu Heizi. However, he and Xu Heizi were just a gentleman's friendship, and Zhu Ying had already left, so he had no intention of chatting with anyone during class. After turning around and returning to Jiuzhang Hall, he planned to check on everyone's problem-solving status.
However, he just passed by the fourth prince who was sitting at the back. When he saw the smears on the paper, he stopped immediately and glanced at the pen that the person was biting hard. He did not disturb the little guy at all and continued to walk forward quietly. After watching several people solve the problem, he stood behind the third prince.
He saw the little guy concentrating on calculating, his handwriting was neat, but most importantly, his ideas were extremely clear, and the format was exactly the same as what he taught. He still remembered that even when he first came into contact with the unfamiliar field of geometry, although his ideas for solving problems were still clear, he was not used to the rigorous format of proof questions.
What he hated most was that when he was just starting to learn geometry, the teacher repeatedly asked him to write the name of the theorem in brackets at the end.
Now, looking at the third prince who was only half his age but was meticulous in proving problems, Zhang Shou couldn't help but sigh in his heart. People who strictly abide by the rules may not necessarily achieve great things, but if they strictly abide by the rules and are very organized, then the chances of this person achieving great things will be much higher than that of ordinary people.
If you add to this extremely strong concentration, outstanding talent, rare diligence... it would be totally unfair if such a child doesn't achieve great things!
He stopped to watch for a long time, and finally left quietly. Then he stood behind others for a while, especially watching the solution of the problem by Saichang Jijiu, and finally returned to the podium. When he announced the pause at the right time, he asked with a smile: "Please raise your hands if you have solved it. Let me see how many people have solved it?"
As he said this, hands were raised unevenly, accounting for only about one-third of the total number of students in the class. However, Zhang Shou noticed that in addition to the Third Prince and Ji Jiu, and several people who had shown strong learning ability and talent in the past few days, the Fourth Prince was also among those who raised their hands.
However, he seemed not to notice the little guy, and said with a smile: "Very good, next, I will show you the solution. By the way, there are four ways to prove this problem."
When the Fourth Prince saw Zhang Shou's glance, he was so nervous that he almost held his breath. However, when Zhang Shou really looked away, as if he had no intention of paying attention to him, he felt an indescribable grievance. So Zhang Shou wrote down one solution after another. He read them with his eyes, but his mind was not on them at all, until...
Until Zhang Shou called him up to clean the blackboard! If there was no big and strong student to accompany him, the fourth prince had no idea what kind of mistakes he would make at this moment. He didn't solve the problem, but he raised his hand deliberately, just to see if Zhang Shou would expose him and scold him harshly, but in the end nothing happened.
He just wiped a small area of the blackboard, then returned to his seat absent-mindedly, and then he waited until the end of the second class in a trance. Although there were a lot of messy symbols written on the paper, they were definitely not notes.
When he felt someone patting his shoulder and looked up to see that it was the Third Prince, he looked again and saw that Zhang Shou was still talking to Ji Jiu. He didn't know where he got the courage from, and suddenly stood up and was about to step forward, but the next moment, he felt that he was being held back. Turning his head and seeing that it was the Third Prince with a determined face, he felt his mouth dry and didn't know what to say.
Although he sat in the front and the Fourth Prince sat in the back, and it was impossible for them to look back when they were concentrating on the class, the Third Prince still learned about the Fourth Prince's situation in class from some classmates who occasionally looked around and reminded him. Seeing that the Fourth Prince didn't say yes or no, but just stood there and refused to leave, he simply grabbed his wrist and pulled him out: "Fourth brother, come back to the palace with me!"
After pulling the Fourth Prince out of the Jiuzhang Hall, he saw that he looked extremely reluctant, so he shook his hand away and scolded him, "Fourth brother, you wanted to come here on your own, but now you are like this. If the rumor gets out, what will others say about you?"
"My teacher doesn't want to say anything about me, so why should I be afraid of others saying anything about me!" The fourth prince snorted coldly, his face filled with shame and anger, "In his eyes, I am not his student anyway. Only you, my third brother, are his student!"
The Third Prince was immediately shocked and angry. When he saw the Fourth Prince's stubborn and aggrieved look, he swallowed back the scolding that was about to come out of his mouth, and simply went up to grab the man's collar and dragged him out. He was introverted and shy most of the time, and suddenly he behaved like this. Not only was the Fourth Prince frightened, but even the others who saw him were frightened.
Soon, someone rushed into the Jiuzhang Hall to look for Zhang Shou. Upon learning what was going on, Zhang Shou immediately laughed, "The Third Prince is usually too serious. It's rare for him to show his brotherly spirit to discipline his younger brother. Brothers are united and their strength is invincible. Don't worry, they are both fine!"
Zhang Shou said so, even though Ji Jiu and the others were worried, they could only put the noble brothers aside for the time being. As for the news that Qin Garden had been robbed and set on fire, although Lu Sanlang came to inform Zhang Shou, they still had no time to learn about it. Now that Zhang Shou had announced the dismissal, everyone packed up their things and went home in twos and threes.
Ji Jiu, who had a wide circle of friends, had already learned about this matter from his former friends in Banshan Hall before he even left the Imperial College. He was about to turn back, but then he remembered that Lu Sanlang had come at noon and during the second class in the afternoon, he noticed that Zhang Shou went out to talk to Zhu Ying. Logically, he already knew about it and didn't need to interfere, so he stopped again.
But when he hesitated for a moment and walked out of the gate of the Imperial College, he saw a young servant coming forward and said, "Master Ji Jiu, my master said that he hasn't seen his friends since returning to Beijing for so long, so he would like to invite you to come over for a drink."
After class, Zhang Shou stopped for a while in the Doctor's Hall of the Imperial Academy. He noticed that the doctors and other academic officials looked at him in a rather subtle way, but no one came up to ask him questions. He couldn't help but sneer in his heart. Although they were all colleagues, he was promoted repeatedly in more than a year, and his rank was catching up with Zhou Jijiu and Luo Siye, so he was increasingly isolated.
But he didn't care about the complicated interpersonal relationships in the Imperial College anyway. He sorted out the homework of several students who were called in today - after all, he didn't have time to check it himself no matter how many there were, so he could only check it in turn - and then stood up and left. As soon as he left the doctoral hall and the door curtain fell, he heard a burst of discussion inside.
He was too lazy to listen to what others said behind his back, so he quickly went out to meet Ah Liu and then ordered to go back to Zhang Garden. On the way, Ah Liu recounted what Zhu Ying had told him about entering the palace today, and Zhang Shou was speechless when he heard the emperor's intention. But then, Ah Liu said another thing.
"The madman just came and told me that the traitor in Qin Garden was unusual because the kerosene was poured unevenly in the warehouse. The place where the seeds were stored was burned to charcoal, while the place where the grain and local products were stored was only poured with a small amount of kerosene symbolically, and there was still a lot of residue left."
