Chapter 656 (1): At the Private School

The old locust tree, which had appeared like a large umbrella providing shade in summer, was now gone. The Iron Lock Well, which provided sweet well water favored by the elderly citizens, was now restricted and privately owned. There were far fewer crickets at the immortal tomb now, and it was no longer possible to climb up the mountain of porcelain and hear the crisp crunching sounds underfoot. Thankfully, the rows of peach trees along Peach Leaf Alley still bloomed with peach blossoms in spring, adorable whether they were deep red or faint red.

All reunions were bound to end with separation, but fortunately, some separations would be followed by reunions.

Many people who had left the small town were gathered at the old private school today.

Li Huai, Lin Shouyi, Dong Shuijing, and Shi Chunjia had agreed to meet at the private school today before some of them returned to the Confucian academy. There wasn't a specific purpose, and they were simply going to take a look and sit in their old classroom.

Dong Shuijing had asked someone to help him find a petty official from the county office's household registration department, allowing him to borrow the keys to the private school. Ordinary people might not be aware of Dong Shuijing's ability and influence, unsure of how he had earned the nickname Half City Dong.

However, sales of Dong Shuijing's rice wine had already reached as far as the capital of the Great Li Empire, and it was said that even immortal ships that sailed through the seas of clouds like soaring birds would hold stock of this rice wine. This was clearly a huge source of revenue.

The four of them had once been classmates and good friends studying together, and right now, Li Huai and Dong Shuijing both arrived with shoulder poles and buckets of water. The shoulder poles, buckets, and towels were all from Li Huai's ancestral residence, and Shi Chunjia was carrying a small basket holding the towels.

Lin Shouyi had been a young master from a wealthy family back then, not needing to worry about food and shelter and having very few opportunities to do manual labor like this. He had also wanted to collect and carry water, but Dong Shuijing had smiled and said that he was more familiar with the well near Li Huai's ancestral residence.

Thus, the empty-handed Lin Shouyi chatted casually with Shi Chunjia the entire time.

Both of their clans had moved to the capital of the Great Li Empire, with Lin Shouyi's father being promoted to an official position in the capital. Meanwhile, the Shi Clan was simply wealthy enough to move, so the clans in the capital regarded them as rich bumpkins from the outside, people who still reeked of dirt.

The Shi Clan had tried to operate a business early on, but things hadn't gone smoothly, and they had been tricked very badly, not even having a place to complain. There were some things that Shi Chunjia hadn't said during their earlier reunion in Dragon Riding Alley's pastry shop, seeing that there had been so many people present. It wouldn't have been appropriate to talk about some topics.

Now that it was just her and Lin Shouyi, however, Shi Chunjia opened up and started to complain, grumbling about Lin Shouyi's lack of help. Her clan had stumbled and stuttered in the capital, yet they had failed to find any assistance despite running around with money in their hands.

They had eventually looked for Lin Shouyi's father, and he hadn't been so cold-hearted as to slam the door in their faces. However, they had simply drunk tea and reminisced about old times in the courtyard, and that was the end of that. Lin Shouyi's father clearly hadn't been willing to help.

After getting married, Shi Chunjia was no longer the young girl with twin pigtails and not a worry in the world. However, the reason she was willing to open up and frankly talk about these matters was that she was still willing to view Lin Shouyi as a friend. The relationships between their parents and seniors were a separate matter. Moreover, after leaving the private school and eventually starting a family, Shi Chunjia cherished her childhood experience even more.

Being able to grumble at Lin Shouyi meant that she didn't resent him from the bottom of her heart.

Lin Shouyi didn't try to hide anything about his father or clan either, and he said, "You're quite aware of my father's temperament and my clan's situation, aren't you? Even when we were classmates back then, who dared to visit my house to play? Just how courageous was Baoping back then? But how many times did she visit my house?"

The Lin Clan's culture had always been very strange, even when it was still located in the small town. It didn't like to foster close relationships with outsiders, and Lin Shouyi's father had been even stranger. He would show one face at the kiln supervision office, where he was straightforward and efficient; he would show another face at home, where he was solemn and spoke few words; and he would show yet another face in front of Lin Shouyi, toward whom he had extremely harsh requirements.

That man was seemingly too purposeful in how he interacted with people and matters, but he enjoyed a very good reputation at the kiln supervision office thanks to his strong results. He also had good relationships with the kiln supervision officials and was praised by his other colleagues in the office. Compared to this, however, he appeared quite harsh and cold-hearted as a father and a clan leader.

When Lin Shouyi had been traveling afar to Mountain Cliff Academy in the Great Sui Nation before, the letters sent to him by his father had always been short and concise, almost as if they were lines in an account book.

No matter how famous Lin Shouyi currently was in the imperial court of the Great Sui Nation, and even in the imperial court of the Great Li Empire, his father still acted as if he didn't have a son called Lin Shouyi. In his letters, he had never asked Lin Shouyi to visit home when he was free.

Shi Chunjia recalled something, and she said in amusement, "Lin Shouyi, even some of my friends have heard about you. How impressive do you have to be for news of your feats to travel to the capital of the Great Li Empire? You can definitely become a virtuous scholar of a Confucian academy in the future, and you can even dare to dream about becoming a noble scholar. Or perhaps you can become a lofty immortal in the mountains, what with your handsome appearance..."

Upon saying this, Shi Chunjia turned sideways and looked the azure-robed Lin Shouyi up and down, remarking, "Oh my, how truly handsome. I couldn't tell at all in the past, especially with how you always had a stern expression as if you were a little teacher. That expression wasn't likable at all."

"Say this in front of Bian Wenmao if you dare," Lin Shouyi retorted.

Shi Chunjia chuckled and replied, "I didn't claim you were more handsome than my husband."

Lin Shouyi shook his head and didn't say anything.

There was a look of reminiscence on Shi Chunjia's face as she sighed with emotion and said, "Back then, you and Li Huai always had the newest-looking books in the private school. Your books looked brand new even after one year. Li Huai didn't like to read, and he would grow sleepy whenever he tried to study. On the other hand, you were the most careful with your books."

"You still remember these minor matters?" Lin Shouyi asked with a smile.

"What should I remember if I don't remember these things?" Shi Chunjia asked in response.

"This is a good habit," Lin Shouyi replied with a nod.

He hesitated for a moment before continuing, "I'll ask Bian Wenmao for help if I encounter any problems in the capital in the future."

Shi Chunjia faltered for a moment before laughing loudly and pointing at Lin Shouyi, commenting, "Ever since we were young, you've always spoken the least and had the most roundabout thoughts."

Did Lin Shouyi really need to seek help from Bian Wenmao? Of course not.

This was Lin Shouyi's uniquely gentle and well-intentioned manner of helping other people, going as far as to provide a small step ladder for those he helped.

Over at the private school, Li Huai loudly recited the opening remarks of a family teaching as he swept the floor, exclaiming, "Waking up at dawn, to wash the floor and sweep it clean."

Thinking back, Mr. Qi would wake up early each morning to clean the private school. He had always taken responsibility for this and never asked Scholarly Attendant Zhao Yao to take charge of cleaning.

"Both the inside and the outside need to be clean and tidy," Dong Shuijing continued with a smile.

Shi Chunjia was wiping down a table, and upon hearing this, she waved the towel in her hand and recited, "Resting when evening arrives, closing all windows and doors."

"It's necessary to personally check," Lin Shouyi continued with a faint smile as he cleaned nearby.

He was carefully cleaning a windowsill. Regardless of whether it was studying outside the mountains or cultivating in the mountains, it was always important to cultivate both the body and the mind.

Elsewhere, Shi Chunjia's husband, Bian Wenmao, also returned to the county city of the Locust Yellow County. The county office and the prefectural office shared the same location in the small town, and Bian Wenmao put in a request to seek an audience with Prefectural Overseer Fu Yu of the Treasure Stream Prefecture.

Fu Yu was also an outstanding individual from a wealthy clan in the capital, and there were some ties between the Bian Clan and the Fu Clan, both upright and noble clans in the Great Li Empire.

Even so, the Bian Clan was far inferior when compared to the Fu Clan, which was in turn inferior to the lofty Cao Clan and Yuan Clan. The Fu Clan ultimately wasn't a pillar clan, after all. Fu Yu was very good at hiding his abilities, and he had once worked as the scholarly secretary of Wu Yuan, the first county magistrate of the Dragon Spring Prefecture.

Following the Dragon Spring Prefecture's promotion to Dragon Province, its jurisdiction had expanded to include the Azure Porcelain Prefecture, the Treasure Stream Prefecture, the Three River Prefecture, and the Incense Fire Prefecture.

As a result, Prefectural Overseer Yuan had been promoted to the prefectural overseer of the Azure Porcelain Prefecture, while the three remaining prefectural overseers had all come from the capital, some from wealthy clans and some from humble backgrounds. Among them, Fu Yu had become the prefectural overseer of the Treasure Stream Prefecture.

Bian Wenmao was willing to put in a request with the prefectural office of the Treasure Stream Prefecture, but he didn't dare to pay a visit to the prefectural office of the Azure Porcelain Prefecture. This was due to the lofty might accumulated by a powerful pillar clan.

In reality, even though Fu Yu was now at the same official rank as the grandson of the Pillar Yuan Clan, with both of them being prefectural overseers, he would feel tense whenever he faced Prefectural Overseer Yuan at the meetings in the office of the provincial governor. To say nothing of Fu Yu, even Governor Wei Li would feel slightly tense.

This was due to more than just Prefectural Overseer Yuan's background, with his personal integrity and political tactics being the key factors.

Yu Lu and Xie Xie first visited the ancestral residence of the Yuan Clan, after which they went to the private school and picked two empty seats.

They had once been foreign students in the old Mountain Cliff Academy located in the Great Li Empire, but they hadn't been as close with Mr. Qi as Li Huai and the others. As refugees of the Lu Clan, they had only come across Cui Dongshan and hadn't managed to come across Mr. Qi, the founder of Mountain Cliff Academy and this private school in the small town.

Song Jixin and Maidservant Zhi Gui were coincidentally visiting places from their past as well, but they didn't enter the classroom to sit down. Apart from Zhao Yao, Song Jixin had seldom interacted with Lin Shouyi and the others in the private school. He led Zhi Gui to the backyard, and he sat down beside the stone table where Mr. Qi had taught him and Zhao Yao how to play Go. Meanwhile, Zhi Gui stood near the firewood shed as usual.

There was a downcast expression on Song Jixin's face as he wiped the table with his hand.

Zhao Yao had eventually lost to him when playing Go, but how was he doing now that he was traveling across foreign lands? Were things going smoothly?

Song Jixin turned around and looked at Zhi Gui, who was bending a willow branch in boredom.

She stood on her tiptoes and lightly swayed the willow branch back and forth.

Song Jixin gazed at the side of her face, which he never grew tired of and was only becoming more attracted to. He could never resent her. He wasn't willing to, and he couldn't bring himself to.

Zhi Gui turned around, having seemingly forgotten her frank remarks the other day, and once again became a maidservant reliant on Song Jixin as she let go of the willow branch and asked with a beautiful smile, "Young Master, do you want to play a game of Go?"

Song Jixin smiled faintly and shook his head.

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