Chapter 054
Author: Feast of Masks
Raws: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=3185016
Translated by Gumihou
Proofread by Pill Bug
Zhao’er stared at her little man’s moist eyes. It was the look she had the least resistance to.
A kiss?
“I knew it. You think I am bad.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You do. If you really do not, prove it with a kiss. If you kiss me, I will believe you.”
Zhao’er’s mind was thrown into chaos. Somehow, she had a feeling something was not right, however, she could not help but remember what he had said-
I know you really want this piece of land. That was why I used certain methods to obtain it. It helped that the methods also happened to eliminate certain future worries. However, if you don’t like it, I won’t do something like this again.
Once I become a Xiu Cai, there’s no need for us to use these underhanded methods anymore.
Zhao’er hesitated a little more before saying, “Just one kiss?”
Xue Tingxiang nodded generously.
“Th-then, close your eyes.”
He gave her a look before obediently closing his eyes.
Zhao’er looked at his jade-like cheeks and suddenly realised just how thick and long her little man’s eyelashes were. The lashes grew densely and curled slightly at the end. No wonder she had always felt like looking into a dark, bottomless well whenever she locked eyes with him.
As her thoughts wandered, she took a deep breath, closed her own eyes and leaned forward with her lips pursed up like a piglet’s snout.
Little did she know, the moment she closed her eyes, Xue Tingxiang’s own eyes opened. He took in her adorable face with her eyes squeezed shut and lips pursed into a spout.
Smiling to himself, he angled his face so that their lips touched.
As soon as she felt the thin skin of someone else’s lips, Zhao’er’s eyes flashed open by instinct. Her eyes immediately collided with a guiless, smiling gaze.
She tried to pull away, but hands wrapped around her waist and the pair of lips pressed closer to say, “To think you would kiss me here. I never thought Zhao’er would be so naughty to try and kiss me on the lips. Well, it is fine if you want to kiss me here. I should say now that I do not wear lip oil.”
Saying that, he pressed his lips even closer and started sucking on the tip of her tongue.
Zhao’er’s mind seemed to have dissolved after that. She only snapped back into reality when his hands started to wander off to places they had no place to be.
“What are you doing?”
In the end, being physically strong had its advantages. Despite all the precautions that Xue Tingxiang had taken, his thin arms and legs were no match for Zhao’er, who had worked hard her whole life. She only had to exert a little force and he was immediately pushed away. Even so, one of his hands remained over a place it had no reason to be.
Zhao’er glared at the thin white hand resting over the curve of her breast, her face so red that it looked like she might burst into flames any moment.
“Gou’er, you’ve clearly turned bad! Did you learn this from Zhao Jinrui? How could you…”
Flustered, she pushed against him, sending him further away than expected.
Xue Tingxiang fell onto the kang bed and lay there motionless, a hand over his nose. It was the same hand that had pressed against that forbidden mound. As he inhaled that intoxicating scent, Zhao’er had already jumped off the bed in a rush to put her clothes back in place. It took her a while to realise that he had not moved.
Recalling the loud thud she had heard, she ran back to the bed to check on him. As she leaned over to check on his condition, hands jerked out and pulled her down. Her awkward posture caused her to fall over the other person.
Zhao’er was about to lose her temper when a faint voice murmured, “Zhao’er, my head hurts…”
Xue Tingxiang’s face was all scrunched up, with his brows knitted together. Zhao’er immediately forgot about everything else and began to fuss over him.
“Here, let me look. Is it very painful? I’ll get someone to take you to see a doctor. You wait here…”
She was about to get up when he held her back, “No need, it is not that painful. I will be better once I lie down for a bit.”
“It’s not like we don’t have money now. We can afford to see a doctor. There’s no need to save this bit of money.”
“I really am fine, I just need to lie down for a while. Why don’t you rub my head for a bit?”
Zhao’er was anxious to the point of fainting. While it was not normal for villagers to rush to the doctor over a little bump on the head or anything less than life-threatening, it was not normal for Xue Tingxiang to make a fuss. One should know that if little children bumped their heads on anything, adults would usually just rub the little bump and that was it.
[1] In short, this was an unusual incident. [1] Even so, since Xue Tingxiang was so insistent, Zhao’er had no choice but to allow her little man to lie quietly on her thigh as she rubbed his head gently.As for Xue Tingxiang, he lay quietly in place, savouring beauty’s favour.
He eyed Zhao’er’s serious expression even as she diligently rubbed his head. He thought: How stupid of her to blindly believe everything he said.
Well, he had been stupid too. He had seen how his dream-self had lashed out whenever Zhao’er treated him like a little child. That foolish person always became upset and lashed out whenever Zhao’er treated him like a child.
In the end, it was all about how one viewed the world.
“Zhao’er, I want to eat your Minced Meat Noodles [2] again. I want it with daylilies, sliced wood ear, mushrooms, and lean meat.
“Yes, yes, I’ll make some for you later. We have all the ingredients, so I can make it easily.”
“I also want your Braised Pork. You don’t know just how bad the food at the Academy is. As for the pickles you sent me, more than half of it was eaten by that fatty. I hardly get to eat any of it.”
“I told you to bring more, didn’t I? Who refused to bring more?!” Zhao’er sounded confused and bemused by this strange complaint.
“Only I get to eat Zhao’er’s pickles. I want to eat them until autumn. I don’t want to share them at all. They should be grateful for my great generosity.”
Later, Zhao’er entered the kitchen to make the requested Minced Meat Noodles. After kneading the dough, she stood in place for a long time, dazed.
She had a feeling that her little man was being especially fussy and childlike that day. She was reminded of the past. Back then, because Mother was unwell and Father was always busy with his carpentry work, she was the one who took care of the second branch family, doing all the cooking and cleaning.
Back then, she was just a little taller than the stove. As for her little man, he was shorter than the stove by two heads. This tiny little thing had always liked to follow her around, calling ‘Zhao’er’ with every other sentence.
“Zhao’er, I want to eat mulberries.”
“Zhao’er, I want eggs.”
“Zhao’er, Brother Juncai gets to eat meat, why don’t I get any?”
Even back then, she could not bear to deny him anything. Therefore, she took him with her, raiding bird nests for eggs to eat. Once, they even found a wild pheasant that had knocked itself out. Although she was good at cleaning and plucking the pheasant clean, it was her first time trying to roast a whole bird. The end result was a half-cooked, half-charred thing, but the little thing still happily ate her poor effort.
“This is really tasty, Zhao’er.”
Somehow, as years passed, this happy little scene gradually disappeared…
To think that it would suddenly return now, how fortunate, ah.
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“Why do you always look like a deflated chicken every time you come back from a break? Look at you, you look like a deflated chicken now. What’s the matter? Is that Jiang Wu fellow still bothering you?”
Xue Tingxiang cast a glance at Mao Badou before ignoring the boy in favour of setting his table up with paper, ink and other supplies from his book bag. Then, he set the bag under his desk.
Mao Badou frowned, annoyed. “Oi, you little Ting’zi. Back when you need me, it’s all ‘brother’ this, ‘brother’ that. Now that you don’t need me, your good brother is an eyesore, ah? Ungrateful thing!”
As Mao Badou spoke, his tone shifted easily from serious to joking around.
Li Datian, who was seated behind them, laughed and poked Mao Badou’s chubby waist. He said, “Badou, just what kind of books have you been reading lately?”
Li Datian understood his friend well. During their days off, Mao Badou had gone to his usual bookstall whenever he had money. Whenever the stall owner had new books, they would usually be snapped up by Mao Badou. [1] During their last rest day, the stall owner just so happened to have new books in, so Mao Badou had treated himself to two new books.
It was still early, early enough that the teacher had not arrived and there were only a few students scattered around the classroom. Although Mao Badou was a great joker, he was still cautious enough to lower his voice and grin, “Buddha’s name cannot simply be spoken.”
“Are you Buddha? If you are, you must be the fattest Maitreya Buddha,” Li Datian snickered.
“You dare call me fat, Li Datian?” Mao Baduo jumped up, his face pulled into an expression of extreme hurt.
As they tussled playfully, Xue Tingxiang glanced over at Chen Jian, who shook his head helplessly at him.
He was about to tell them to stop playing around when a few students passed by and sneered, “So, these are the kind of people hoping to get into Class A?”
By ‘these kind’, they were clearly referring to Mao Badou.
That fellow had changed his ways drastically and had been studying diligently, much to a lot of people’s shock. In fact, Mao Badou’s extroverted personality made him quite popular at the academy and he had many friends. However, many of these friends had distanced themselves after an incident. After He Ming’s false accusation drama, some took the initiative to approach him again.
Mao Badou was sharp enough to know that these people were opportunists. He was also savvy enough to realise that there was no need to pick a quarrel with them. He chattered with them naturally enough and claimed that his change of heart was due to his desire to get into Class A. Somehow, word got out, and some students who disliked his behaviour used it as a joke.
Even so, those who would openly mock him were those who had never gotten along with him. Therefore, there was no need to be civil!
Mao Badou was about to flare up when Chen Jian stopped him, “Let it be, why bother yourself with them?”
Xue Tingxiang drawled from the side, “You can just get into Class A and that will be a great slap to their faces.”
The two of them did not bother to lower their voice when speaking. Students who were seated on the opposite side of the class heard them and sneered disdainfully, “You? Getting into Class A? Hah! When the Yellow River flows backwards.”
“What if he gets in?” Xue Tingxiang suddenly asked.
“Get in?” the student looked stunned, as though such a concept was too out of this world. Then, with absolute certainty, replied, “If someone like him, who doesn’t work hard and tries to cram at the last minute, manages to get in, the heavens must be blind to allow him in.”
“But what if he did get in?” Xue Tingxiang pressed.
“Go on, go on, take the bet!” Students nearby started to egg them on.
The student immediately said, “If that fellow can get into Class A, I shall pay you 1 silver tael, no, 5 silver taels!”
Although the academic atmosphere within the school was quite rigorous, gambling among scholars had always been tolerated. Naturally, only elegant bets were done, such as bets over poetry writing, essays, art or other scholarly pursuits. Naturally, betting over scholarly prowess could be regarded as a form of encouragement to refine and elevate one’s ability. Still, the stakes were fairly high this time.
The student, Li Chao, was from a local family in town and was fairly generous with his classmates. Even so, 5 silver taels was still quite a significant amount. It was clear what he thought of Mao Badou’s chances. The class clown lurking at the bottom of Class B, getting into Class A within 3 months? Just what kind of joke was this?
Some students with upright characters were already speaking aloud, trying to dissuade the bet. After all, although Mao Badou was a little erratic and often unreliable, he was not a bad person. So, why such a heavy bet? Wasn’t this basically a way to steal money from a simple soul?
“He was the one who said that he could get into Class A. So, why can’t he put his money where his mouth is?” Li Chao retorted, face flushed with indignation.
At that, Mao Badou clenched his fist and said, “Let’s bet. Why not, eh? If I can’t get into Class A, I’ll just hand 5 silver taels over to you. However, once I enter Class A, remember to bring your silver. All our classmates here can be our witnesses.”
“So let them witness. Who’s afraid of you? The only fear I have is you being poor on top of incompetent and not giving me my silver.”
Before the issue could escalate further, a bell rang and the students immediately returned to their seats. Not long after that, Teacher Meng arrived, and after a few general words of address, started his lecture on the classics.
During break, when Mao Badou had gone to the restroom, Chen Jian scooted over to ask Xue Tingxiang, “Did you do that on purpose?”
At this, Xue Tingxiang smiled serenely and said, “Don’t you think we should keep him on his toes so that he doesn’t take his studies lightly?”
Of the four students in the dorm room, there was no need to mention Xue Tingxiang’s ability; Chen Jian was the most hardworking of the four, while Li Datian, who was often overlooked, had a solid foundation in the Classics.
Xue Tingxiang had tested the abilities of all three of his dorm mates and was perplexed as to why someone with Li Datian’s solid foundation failed to make it into Class A.
The only possible explanation was that Mao Badou had led Li Datian astray. That, or perhaps Li Datian himself was never really interested in studying. His plan was to take over his grandfather’s position after two years of study. Therefore, how could someone who did not care about their results achieve anything of note?
As for Mao Badou, Xue Tingxiang actually found him the most this fellow to be the most complicated one.
As far as he could tell, Mao Badou was very sharp, quick-witted, with an excellent memory. If he could only apply himself to his studies, he had every possibility of passing the Xiu Cai examinations.
Thanks to the encouragement of his three dorm mates, Mao Badou had been absorbing information like a sponge, but only so long as his interest lasted. Because of his lack of patience, Mao Badou was too easily distracted and could not focus his attention on his studies. With just over 10 days until the quarterly examination, it was only natural that Xue Tingxiang would want him to apply himself more.
“You’re right, if it doesn’t affect him personally, I fear that he would not even apply himself seriously even on the day of the examination.”
Without mentioning what happened next, let us skip right to the day of the quarterly examination .
On that fateful day, the students rose early.
Breakfast was exceptionally hearty, most likely because even the dining hall staff knew that today was no ordinary day.
After breakfast, most of the students returned to their rooms to sneak in some last-minute studying; others strolled through the gardens, reciting texts to themselves, their heads bobbing rhythmically.
Everyone checked to make sure they had enough ink and writing materials, as well as a sufficient amount of clean water in their bamboo containers. Some students, unable to contain their nerves, had already visited the restroom several times early that morning. After sitting down, their stomach gurgled again and they had to rush to the toilets again. Some of them happened to bump into Teacher Meng. After a quick greeting, they ran off to the toilet at full speed.
On that day, Teacher Meng did not have any books with him. Instead, he had two thick stacks of exam papers with him.
After standing still in front of the class for a moment, he handed the papers to the students seated in the front row, instructing them to take one and hand the rest to the students behind them. By the time all the papers had been distributed, the students who had gone to the toilet had returned.
Teacher Meng cast his gaze around the class one more time and said, “Begin now. The time limit is one hour. Late submissions will not be accepted.”
As soon as he received the exam papers, Xue Tingxiang had already glanced over the contents.
The papers were all printed by the school. The quality of the paper and the printing were quite poor. The ink had not yet fully dried, which left smears on one’s hands. The quality of the printing at Qingyuan Academy reflected the poverty of the school.
However, what was important was not the quality of the printing or the paper, but the questions themselves.
For this quarterly examination, there were 40 ‘complete the text’ questions and 10 ‘interpret the text’ questions. A total of 50 questions.
The so-called ‘complete the text’ question started during the Tang Dynasty period, involved filling in blanks from passages lifted from the classics. As for ‘Interpret the text’, students were not expected to ‘interpret’ the text in their own words; rather, they should be able to write down the interpretations made by learned scholars who had already studied the text. Ideally, students should have been able to write down the exact words of these learned scholars without missing a beat.
Since Class B students had not yet learned how to write the Eight-Legged Essay, it was not part of their exams. Text completion and text interpretation were as straightforward as it gets. Anyone who properly studied and memorised the <<Four Books and Five Classics>> as well as the <<Collection of Zhi Xi’s Commentaries>> would be able to answer them. The challenge lay in the sheer number of questions.
With only one hour to answer 50 questions, it would be too easy to run out of time before they could answer all of the questions.
Xue Tingxiang cast a quick look around the room and noticed that most of the students appeared familiar with the question format and had started answering the moment they received their paper. He also took up his brush, dipped it into the already prepared ink and started writing.
The first text was from <<Mencius>>, specifically the chapter on King Hui of Lian, where—
King Xuan of Qi asked: Would you tell me of the deeds of Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin?
Mencius’ reply was left blank, which meant that the students were required to fill in the gap.
Xue Tingxiang quickly wrote: None of Confucius’s followers spoke of the deeds of Huan or Wen, hence there is no record, nor has this servant heard of them. If this servant should speak, perhaps we may speak of King Wu?
In truth, these ‘complete the text’ questions were not difficult. The challenge was getting every single character right. A single mistake or omission meant that the entire question would be considered incorrect.
After days of diligent studying and transcribing texts, Xue Tingxiang had become so familiar with the <<Four Books and Five Classics>> and <<Collection of Zhi Xi’s Commentaries>> that he could recite them backwards in his sleep.
It helped that his dream-self had studied these texts many times, making it so that his current self only needed half the effort to achieve twice the result. This was why Chen Jian and the others were so curious about his seemingly supernatural abilities. After all, the only thing they saw Xue Tingxiang do was transcribe text with very little time devoted to actual studies. Yet, no matter what kind of question they set, he could easily answer them. How could they not be surprised?
Thus, Xue Tingxiang easily answered all 40 ‘fill in the text’ questions in one fell swoop. After which, he set down his brush and rested for a while. He took the time to take a drink out of a different bamboo tube and studied the people around him. They were all still furiously writing. He stopped up the bamboo tube and started on the remaining questions.
Although ‘interpret the text’ was considered a ‘simple’ question, there were quite a lot of them. Even so, there was no great hardship to complete them.
After Xue Tingxiang was done answering the questions, he checked his answers one last time for omissions and errors before pouring fresh water from the first bamboo tube into a bowl to clean his brush.
His action appeared quite abrupt, especially since the over 30 students in the room were still busy working on their papers. His relaxed appearance made it clear that he was done with his exam.
Teacher Meng focused his gaze on Xue Tingxiang from his position at the front of the classroom.
A glance at the hourglass showed that only half the allocated time had passed.
As the invigilator for the quarterly examination, of course, Teacher Meng knew where the difficulty lay. Students were given too many questions with too little time to answer everything, and during each quarterly, there were students who could not answer all the questions. Not being able to answer a question in time meant not being able to answer it at all, regardless of their true knowledge. This loss of points meant they lacked the ability to set foot in Class A.
Yet, this Xue Tingxiang fellow managed to finish before the allotted time was up. Was he that confident with his answers, or had he given up quickly because he could not solve the questions?
Teacher Meng already knew quite a bit about this Xue Tingxiang student. At the start of the semester, the Headmaster had asked him to pay a little extra attention to this student. He had, in turn, maintained a general observation of this student and found the youth to be… somewhat ordinary, unremarkable even. This person had only studied at a rural school for a few years and could not even properly interpret classical texts.
He pondered over several matters in silence for a moment before saying out loud, “If you have finished, you may submit your paper early.”
His voice broke through the silent classroom, causing most of the students to blink up owlishly from their papers, as though just waking up from a dream. Like a person in a dream, they glanced about in confusion, as though unable to understand the meaning of Teacher Meng’s words.
It was only when someone stood up from his seat that they finally realised that someone really had completed the assigned examination.
How can this be?!
They cast their eyes down on the remaining questions on their papers as shock stifled in their throats. If this was not the quarterly examination where excessive noise was prohibited, many would have exclaimed their disbelief out loud.
As for Xue Tingxiang, after packing up his book bag, he respectfully made his way to Teaching Meng with his completed exam papers.
Teacher Meng glanced over the papers, looked at him once and nodded.
Xue Tingxiang nodded back respectfully and went out.
[Gumihou: Long chapter, but nothing much happened, lol]
[1] A weird turn of phrase, hmm, let’s add a bit more detail to make it less weird [2] Minced Meat Noodles – There are actually several kinds, but it all starts with fried mince meat with all kinds of vegetables and spices added later. Usually served over noodles which could be ‘dry’ or in clear soup
Daylily – some kind of edible flower
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