Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 664: There is always someone better out there
With the coordination of Lu Sanlang and Qi Liang, the rankings of thousands of people in the six halls of the Imperial College were freshly released in the afternoon. However, this was just the order of the papers, and the table to be submitted had not yet been copied. Zhang Shou specially instructed everyone to make the table, with subjects and total scores arranged horizontally and names arranged vertically, so that it was clear at a glance.
Of course, when Deng Xiaodai was in the household department of Shuntian Prefecture Yamen, he followed Zhang Shou's advice and introduced visual icons such as line graphs and bar graphs that were more intuitive than tabular numbers. The square table was far from advanced.
However, because copying thousands of names and scores was a big deal, Lu Sanlang followed Zhang Shou's instructions and went to Banshan Hall to shout. Zhang Shou personally rolled up his sleeves and brought ten people. As for the other people in Banshan Hall, it's not that they didn't want to join in, but their handwriting was too bad, and it would be embarrassing to post it!
At this time, he found that there were not enough people, so Lu Sanlang could only select ten people who wrote characters well from Jiuzhangtang. A total of twenty people copied the characters separately. After a burst of hard work, they managed to finish the long ranking list before the official deadline.
Seeing long yellow paper scrolls spread out to dry with ink everywhere in the hall, everyone looked at each other and couldn't help laughing. Even though everyone in Banshan Hall knew that they probably wouldn't be able to become a servant of the Eastern Palace this time, they were still in a good mood. Zhang Dakuo didn't know if he had any hope, but he laughed at the student in Suixing Hall who was always arrogant but failed this time.
However, when Zhang Shou, Lu Wan and Liu Zhiyuan saw the final ranking list, Zhang Shou remained calm, but Liu Zhiyuan was already furious: "So many? Are you sure there are enough walls to put them on?"
It turned out to be a whole cart of paper rolls. Oh my God, even if it was sent to the palace, the emperor wouldn’t be able to see it, right?
Zhang Shou glanced at Lu Wan, who had donated the paper as a friendly sponsor. He looked calm and composed, as if he didn't care about the expense of the paper at all. He smiled and said, "I calculated it based on the length of the eight-character wall in front of the Imperial College. It should be enough to cover the whole wall. I deliberately asked them to write the characters a little smaller when they copied them, after all, I wanted to save money for Lu Jijiu."
If you were thinking about saving costs, you wouldn’t come up with such a bad idea of comprehensive ranking!
Lu Wan glanced at Zhang Shou with a half-smile, but immediately said to Liu Zhiyuan with a sincere face: "Mr. Liu, as the Minister of State, could you please come to the palace to report this matter to the emperor? It is not appropriate for me and Master Zhang to go. As for inviting the King of Jiangdu to come, that is his job, but if we invite the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan to come just to send a cart of ranking lists into the palace, it is really a bit..."
"Come on, stop talking, I'm going!" Liu Zhiyuan stared at the cart of things for several times, and finally sighed and said, "Your Highness's three questions, not to mention farming and contemporary literature, the math problem is really the simplest and easiest to understand in the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. There are actually so many people who can't solve it. I don't !"
After seeing Liu Zhiyuan shook his head, he went straight out and asked someone to prepare the car. After Zhang Shou followed him out, he gestured to Lu Wanqiliang and Zhang Dakuaitou, asking them to escort him for a while. The three of them immediately agreed happily.
He personally escorted Mr. Liu to the door and saw him get into the car directly. Lu Sanlang brought all the Lu family's entourage with him and wrapped a car full of paper rolls tightly with oilcloth, as if he was escorting important official documents today. He immediately touched his chin with a smile.
The student with the highest score in Banshan Hall is only ninth in the overall ranking of the six halls of the Imperial College . It sounds really shabby, but you have to know that the original purpose of Banshan Hall was to be a class for poor students outside the six halls of the Imperial College. Now, when the scores of the poor students class are compared with those of the six halls of the Imperial College, they are not much different. What will others think?
To be honest, he very much welcomes someone to come and question him!
Lu Wan had already anticipated the result of Liu Zhiyuan's entry into the palace, but she was too lazy to accompany Zhang Shou to blow the wind, and had already gone back on her own. While Zhang Shou was in the wind, he imagined the reactions of some people, and suddenly heard a loud whip. When he looked again, a carriage had stopped steadily in front of him. There was no sign on it, and the driver was also an honest and simple driver.
Although he had been surrounded and blocked for several days before, and had changed from riding a car to riding a horse, and with Ah Liu around, he could go anywhere, and there were young men to help him climb over the wall, so it was effortless and he could easily avoid the crowds. However, going back in the cold wind all the way in the cold weather was a torment for him, so Zhang Shou resumed his habit of riding a car.
However, after his repeated admonitions, Ah Liu, who was becoming more and more prominent, finally gave up his habit of being a rickshaw driver himself.
It was time to go home, so when he saw the curtain of the carriage lifted and Ah Liu leaned out to help him, he got on the carriage. But when he entered the carriage, he found that in addition to the foot warmer under his feet, there were actually two brocade boxes stacked in the carriage.
As if he didn't notice his young master's doubts, Ah Liu stood up and helped him to sit in the middle seat, then stuffed a plum blossom hand warmer into his hand. Even though the young man was so attentive, Zhang Shou still didn't forget the annoying thing in the car.
"What are these two boxes?"
"Master, you asked me to buy them. One is for the eldest lady's eldest brother, and the other is for the eldest lady's future sister-in-law."
Hey, has Ah Liu finally finished his work? Zhang Shou couldn't help but feel a little surprised. He didn't even look at the things. Instead, he stared at Ah Liu and asked with great interest: "Who helped you pick the things? Did they think you were boring when you went to those shops these days? How many people did you go shopping with?"
Facing Zhang Shou's barrage of questions, Ah Liu once again confirmed the deep meaning behind Zhang Shou's arrangement. He lowered his eyelids slightly, and silently handed a snack box to Zhang Shou, indicating that he should eat something on the way home. However, he found that Zhang Shou had no interest in eating at all, and instead stared at him. He couldn't help but sighed in annoyance.
"Master, don't worry." Seeing Zhang Shou's expression suddenly frozen, he said seriously, "The madman is also single. I think it's good to be free from worries like this."
"What do you mean by free from worries? Have you forgotten who picked you up? Who you've been with for so many years? If you dare to say the words 'free from worries', I'll chase you away right now! Look, the lady is helping you to set up a relationship behind your back. If you think these girls are not good, there are plenty of good girls in the world!"
Zhang Shou just felt a little bit of a tightness in his chest. There are plenty of beautiful women out there, why does this guy want to be single?
Seeing Zhang Shou's stern face, forgetting that someone else was driving the carriage outside, and that he was really angry, Ah Liu said softly: "I really feel troubled by shopping with those girls from Duke Zhao's mansion these past two days. I am stupid and don't like to think about what others are thinking. I just want to live a simple life. As long as you are safe and happy, that's enough, I will just go with the flow."
Zhang Shou's face suddenly darkened: "Others can go with the flow, but if you go with the flow, it must be because it's too much trouble and you'd rather be alone and old!"
Although he was not powerful, he was in charge of dozens of students from the two classes of Jiuzhang Hall... If you add those from Banshan Hall, there were at least a hundred people. Although he was smiling and easy-going most of the time, he could scare a lot of people with a glare. However, at this moment, facing Ah Liu, his glare seemed to be stabbing into cowhide, and had no effect at all.
So, after staring at each other, he finally gave in. He could only rub his temples and said helplessly, "I am just meddling in other people's business. In the future, when you see other people dating and you are alone on your cold bed, you will regret it!"
Seeing that Zhang Shou was talking but didn't really look at the two brocade boxes, and clearly didn't care what was bought, but instead seemed to be picking on the food in the boxes and was gnawing on a piece of dried meat fiercely, Ah Liu's heart finally calmed down.
The young master always keeps his word. Since he has said so, he will definitely not care about his private affairs in the future. He is already very busy, so he just needs to focus on the world outside. Why should he care about him? Therefore, Ah Liu raised his lips and told him about the things he encountered today in a nonchalant tone, and deliberately concealed the part about him for the time being.
Although he was very resentful of Ah Liu's ingratitude, however, after hearing this, Zhang Shou's attention was unconsciously shifted to the first meeting between Zhang Chen and Ye. When he heard that "I have no intention of coming but you are heartless..." to be more precise, when Ye showed an attitude of keeping people at a distance, Zhang Chen stopped immediately and could not help but click his tongue.
Zhang Chen is different from Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu, and different from Lu Sanlang, and Ye is also different from Princess Deyang and Liu Qing. It is completely understandable that the two of them are obviously not in love this time. Since there is no spark between them, then of course forget it?
Could it be that Zhang Chen, a good man, would still worry about not having a wife to marry? Could it be that Ye, cold and strong-willed, still insists on marriage? However, after such a failed matchmaking, Zhu Ying still wanted to bring all the people to the girls' school to teach martial arts. This is simply... Oh, otherwise how can we say that Zhu Ying's train of thought is so unique?
Zhang Shou was thinking this when he heard Ah Liu say lightly, "By the way, the girl next to Miss Ye is from Cao Wu's Shunhe Escort Agency. The eldest lady said she is good at slingshot, so I lent her a few strings of cash and bought her a slingshot. We had agreed that nine out of ten would go out and thirteen would return, but she seemed to have no money, so I told the eldest lady..."
Hearing this pause, Zhang Shou couldn't help but stare at Ah Liu. Just when he was thinking that this guy might have come to his senses, Ah Liu continued with a nonchalant expression, "I told the eldest lady that Miss Ye can't handle it alone, so it's a buy one get one free deal. It would be a good idea to take the girl to the girls' school to teach martial arts together. When the girls' school pays her, she can just pay me back 90% of the money to pay off my debt."
At this moment, Zhang Shou was finally completely certain that no matter what Zhang Chen did, Liu was destined to be alone!
He shook his head helplessly, then bit the dried meat again fiercely. Zhu Ying once told him frankly that she fell in love with him at first sight, so she enthusiastically asked to stay at his house and even took the initiative to approach him. He also thought that if Ah Liu, who was a sullen person, met someone who was proactive, it might work, but now it seemed that there was really no hope.
It was a great opportunity that cost nothing at most a few strings of cash, and yet people wanted to get nine out of thirteen. What else could he say? If a girl took the initiative, it would be like an egg hitting a stone. As for Ah Liu taking the initiative... Anyway, he couldn't imagine that scene!
Three big bosses of the Imperial Household Department fell at once like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, and one attendant was replaced by an old Qian Ren. At first, countless people were ready to make a move.
However, as the imperial attendants were suddenly pulled out of the Imperial Household Department and directly came under the direct jurisdiction of the emperor, no one expected that one day, the imperial attendants would have a new leader who suddenly appeared and took office. He turned out to be Hua Qi, a retainer from the Duke of Zhao's mansion!
If this was an appointment from the outer court, some ministers would definitely jump out to criticize it. However, it was an appointment from the inner court, and all the attendants before the emperor were castrated eunuchs. A certain censor was instigated by someone and got hot-headed and wrote a letter of opposition. As a result, he was quietly sent away to be a county magistrate in Guangxi the next day, and the court immediately fell silent.
However, the newly appointed Hua Qi was not unfamiliar to the imperial attendants, because he had often served as an instructor in battle formations and martial arts training. But how could an instructor be compared to a commander? Just when some people were secretly conspiring to teach this immediate superior from the Duke of Zhao a lesson, Hua Qi took his seat in the public hall the next day and killed five people while chatting and laughing.
Even though they had committed murders in the past, the people in the hall turned pale in the face of the blood splattering in the hall. But before anyone tried to fight to the death, Hua Qi said with a smile: "Three of these five people are used to killing people to silence them. Since their master has gone to see the imperial tomb, I will not keep this executioner."
"As for the other two, they used to work in Kunning Palace, but they forgot their duty as servants to the emperor and became the sword in the hands of the deposed empress. One of them even forged a warrant to trick his colleagues into going to Cuiyun Palace to assassinate Zhang Xueshi. After the incident, he watched his colleagues being executed but said nothing. Don't they deserve to die?"
"Don't ask me for any evidence. You know, the royal attendant never talks about any evidence!"
Faced with such simple and overbearing words, some of the people below were still in a state of blankness, some were angry but not able to speak, and some were exchanging glances with each other, still trying to find out if there was any opportunity they could take advantage of. However, the reactions triggered by Hua Qi's words made them feel as if a bucket of ice water was poured over their heads.
"This hall is covered in blood. It's outrageous. Come on, some people, clean this place up and bring some water in to water the ground. This will prevent those gentlemen among you who have only seen blood in secret and never in public from being unable to bear it!"
Almost as soon as he finished speaking, more than a dozen people rushed forward, silently but well-trainedly dragging the bodies out, and soon brought in water. Just by looking at the steam rising from the bucket, everyone suddenly realized that it was actually hot water that had been boiled long ago, and they were even more silent for a moment. Hua Qi had obviously planned to kill people long ago, otherwise how could he have prepared hot water for watering the ground? But the most terrifying thing is that someone had already become Hua Qiye's man?
