The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 943 - 922: Each of the Young Princes

Chapter 943: Chapter 922: Each of the Young Princes

In the courtyard, everyone busied themselves with tasks at hand; Mr. Zhuang was occupied with leading the students in review sessions, Zhou Lichong with guiding his younger brothers and sisters in copying booklets, and Zhou Liulang took charge of cutting the sheets of paper and then binding them together.

Zhou Wulang sought out Liu Gui to learn more about the other prospective students, like where they lived, their approximate family circumstances, and their ages.

He also took a small notebook and recorded the details meticulously.

After glancing at his handwriting, Liu Gui said, "Wulang, your writing is much better than Silang’s."

Zhou Wulang proudly claimed, "That’s only natural. Among all of us brothers, Liulang and I have the best handwriting."

After all, when he and Liulang were the youngest ones learning to read and write with Manbao, they had been the most diligent.

Glancing at his scrawling handwriting, Liu Gui thought to himself: At least he could make out what the words were, unlike Zhou Silang who, when he wrote quickly, couldn’t even recognize his own writing.

Zhou Wulang carefully noted everything down and then, looking at his notes, started to get a feel for the situation, "Those with houses in the capital must be from wealthy families, right? And then, those staying in these two hotels are also from wealthy families, while those residing in these other inns are from families that aren’t so well-off?"

Liu Gui gave him a thumbs-up, "You’re right, and one of them is even more special."

He explained, "I found out that there’s a young master who brought his clan brother to the capital. His family is even poorer; the cost of coming to the capital was paid by the clan brother. I’ve heard he sold another calling from grace slot to his clan brother."

Zhou Wulang’s mouth fell open in surprise, then he gave a thumbs-up, "That young master is really impressive. What’s his name? We must sell him a booklet tomorrow."

Liu Gui: "...But if he’s so poor, can he afford it?"

"If he can even cover the cost of traveling to the capital, would he fuss over a few silver coins? He’d buy it even if it meant cutting back on food and clothing." Zhou Wulang, putting himself in the shoes of his youngest sister at home, felt that if it were her, she would definitely be willing to spend the money. The thoughts of a scholar could only be guessed by another scholar.

Zhou Wulang rubbed his hands together, "Tomorrow, we’ll look for this young master first. If even he buys one, would the other young masters hesitate to spend the money? By the way, what’s his name?"

"Feng Chenxiang," replied Liu Gui, who had already gathered most of the information on the remaining forty-six young masters. It only took a day to find out, not because he was particularly skilled, but because it was the hottest topic in the capital that month. The emperor had empathized with the meritorious officials, allowing those without high enough ranks also to study at the Imperial Academy. Since then, the praise from the people had been non-stop, making it easy to inquire about the background of the forty-eight nominated young masters.

Of course, Bai Shan’s background was no secret either. Soon after Feng Zongping returned home, he also found out.

"Among the descendants of meritorious officials summoned to the capital, there is only one young master from the Bai family. I checked; his father was the former magistrate of Shu County, who died in the suppression of bandits. He has an only son, and in this journey to the capital, he’s accompanied by a cousin brother."

Feng Zongping asked, "What is his cousin’s name?"

"The one who registered at the Imperial Academy is called Bai Cheng, and he himself is Bai Shan."

Feng Zongping then turned to his two friends and said, "Looks like it’s him, hiding it from me, huh. Knowing that my grandfather is the Minister of Justice from the Ministry of Justice, did he really think it would be hard for me to investigate?"

Yun Xinjue ignored him and, smiling, asked the servant, "How old are they, and where do they live?"

Liu Gui was also gossiping about other young masters with Zhou Wulang, "This young master Feng’s father, named Feng Jing, used to be a marshal in the army. In the first year of the Da Zhen era, when there was a rebellion in the north, he was the first to discover it; despite being pierced by several arrows, he insisted on delivering the message to Liangzhou. Sadly, although the message arrived, he did not. The emperor praised his lofty righteousness. Young Master Feng is his posthumous son, seventeen this year. I heard from someone that if the imperial edict had been delayed by a few more days, he would have been betrothed and taken a wife."

"But from what I’ve learned, the most impressive should be young master Peng Zhiru, Lu Xiaofu, and the young master Ren Ke," Liu Gui paused, then asked, "Do you know how old young master Ren Ke is this year?"

Zhou Wulang: "How old?"

"Thirteen years old!" Liu Gui exclaimed. "He’s even two months younger than my young master."

Zhou Wulang had a hard time grasping this significance, "...Is two months really that young?"

"But my young master is quite remarkable," Liu Gui went on. "Even though this boy is younger, he seems pretty formidable, you know? He’s quite famous around Jinzhou. They say he’s of the Lu family, albeit a side branch, but the Lu family—"

Zhou Wulang struggled to appreciate the point; scratching his head, he said, "My youngest sister is even younger than they are."

Liu Gui retorted, "...That’s different, isn’t it? Miss Man is a lady, while their young master is preparing to enter the Imperial Academy."

However, it was clear Zhou Wulang didn’t quite understand his pride. On the contrary, he was prouder because he thought Manbao, being younger than all of them, was still their Senior Sister. She was even tutoring Bai Erlang in his studies now.

Zhou Wulang didn’t bother writing down any of this gossip in his notebook; he just listened half-heartedly for a while. When he couldn’t think of anything else to ask, he stood up and moved to leave, "Aren’t you going to tell Bai Shan about what you’ve learned?"

Liu Gui hesitated, "Of course, I should. But I just went to check, and the young master is still reading. It wouldn’t be right to disturb him."

Zhou Wulang glanced at the time and said, "It’s quite late today. Never mind, I’ll tell Manbao later, and she can tell Bai Shan."

Liu Gui breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "Then I must thank Wulang in advance."

Zhou Wulang nodded, walked into the second courtyard, and saw Manbao and the others studying hard under the lamplight in the study. He decided to first check in on Datou and his group.

Zhou Lichong was also leading his younger brothers and sister, all of them writing vigorously by lamplight in their room.

Their writing was less skilled, their copying speed far slower than Manbao’s, but they still managed to produce several volumes.

Liulang watched for a moment before saying, "Tomorrow morning, I’ll take a few volumes to the inn to see if they sell. You all continue copying at home. If they sell, I’ll come back for more. If not, we’ll stop copying."

Zhou Lichong asked, "What if they don’t sell? What do we do with the ones we’ve already copied?"

"We keep them, of course. Just consider it writing practice. What else can we do?"

Zhou Lichong choked for a moment; Zhou Lijun looked up and said, "They’ll definitely sell. Worst case, there’s always next year’s big exam. Little Aunt said that for scholars, one can only have too few manuscripts, never too many, no matter how plain or repetitive they may be."

Zhou Wulang remarked, "Scholars are truly complex creatures. Alright, copy two more volumes and then get some sleep. I’m going to talk to Manbao."

Manbao had just finished explaining a section to Bai Erlang and was waiting for him to comprehend and memorize it. When she saw Fifth Brother pacing outside the window, she put down her book and came out.

Zhou Wulang said, "I just spoke with Liu Gui. He didn’t want to come in and disturb you. He asked me to tell you—three of the young masters summoned to the capital stand out. One is Peng Zhiru, another is Lu Xiaofu, and the third is Ren Ke. This Ren Ke is quite young, just two months older than Bai Shan."

"Right, there’s also a particularly unfortunate gentleman named Feng Chenxiang..." Zhou Wulang briefly recounted Feng Chenxiang’s plight.

Manbao stared for a while and, seeing he had finished, she looked up and asked, "Is that it?"

"That’s it."

Manbao thought to herself: He went out for a whole day and learned about just four people?

Liu Gui: No, that wasn’t the case, he had actually gathered information on everyone.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.