Xin Hexue nodded to show he understood.
In his second life, he had passed away before the coming-of-age ceremony. If he had lived to the crowning, Xin Hexue couldn’t think of anyone who could have given him a courtesy name. After all, his imperial father, the emperor, had already died, and his mother concubine had passed away from illness before he could inherit the throne.
If he had to pick someone, it would probably be his maternal uncle from his mother’s family, who had almost been executed along with the whole clan back then. He was said to be stationed at the frontier, but in reality, was exiled by the late emperor and forbidden to return to the capital without a decree.
Zhou Shanheng looked at Xin Hexue’s fine clothing and became even more convinced of his guess about his being a child of an official family.
Perhaps a young master from an official family on a study tour.
The monastery’s conditions were harsh, and ordinary children from wealthy families would not come here to study.
Zhou Shanheng thought of how Xin Hexue had just given him wild fruit to stave off hunger, so it could be that the other party was simply short on funds after arriving in Jiangzhou, thus choosing to stay at the monastery.
“The time for the vegetarian meal has already passed” Zhou Shanheng broke a piece of the steamed bun in half and handed it to Xin Hexue. “If you don’t mind, you can have this first.”
Xin Hexue took it, bit into it, and nearly chipped a tooth. “It’s too hard.”
He shook his head. The steamed bun was so hard it almost hurt him, like a snarling raccoon dog.
Zhou Shanheng glanced over and happened to catch sight of those light pink lips and the moist red tongue within, the color so vibrant it was overwhelming.
He suddenly felt as though his eyes had been singed by flames and he quickly looked away, not daring to look again.
Panicked, he sat back on the stone steps, took back the book roll in his hand, and lowered his gaze to the scroll, though his heart was lost elsewhere.
Suddenly, Xin Hexue heard the notification sound of the love value increasing .
He lifted his robe and sat down beside Zhou Shanheng. “Zhou-ge, what are you reading?”
“Wu yi, wu bi, wu gu, wu wo…(No intention, no necessity, no stubbornness, no ego)” Zhou Shanheng murmured softly, unconsciously reciting the text from the scroll. He turned his head to ask Xin Hexue, “Do these four ‘wu’ essentially mean one ‘wu’?”
Xin Hexue blinked and then looked at Zhou Shanheng. “What does this mean?”
Though he had been a person of an ancient dynasty in his previous life, most of his second life had been spent in a muddled state of mind, only regaining clarity after the age of eighteen.
Although he had diligently studied since then, he had mostly learned imperial scheming and wasn’t well-versed in the Confucian classics and philosophy of the Four Books and Five Classics.
He only vaguely knew that this was from the Analects.
As a result, Zhou Shanheng listened to his question, and as if he had taken it to heart, lowered his head and pondered for a moment before suddenly realizing. “Gongzi Xin means to say, to know its meaning is to know it naturally, and to not understand it is to force an interpretation? Great sound has no voice, great form is without shape. It turns out that Zhou’s learning is inadequate.”
[Zhou Shanheng love value +5]
Xin Hexue: “…”
He had merely asked what this classical text meant, but it was as if he had said something profound.
‘Truly a fool.’
Xin Hexue picked up a scripture next to Zhou Shanheng and also began to read.
A breeze stirred beneath the forest, feeling quite pleasant.
In the quiet afternoon, sometimes he would exchange a few words with Zhou Shanheng.
Xin Hexue now clearly understood that when the time came, if Zhou Shanheng passed the state examination, he would have to set out in November for the capital to take the next year’s Ministry of Rites examination, also known as the provincial examination.
The Ministry of Rites examination in the imperial exams was mainly divided into six categories: the xiucai category, the jinshi category, the mingjing category, the mingfa category, the mingzi category, and the mingsuan category.
Zhou Shanheng was planning to apply for the jinshi category, which mainly tested three subjects: calligraphy, miscellaneous essays, and policy questions.
Calligraphy required familiarity with the classics, which was Zhou Shanheng’s slightly weaker area.
This was different from the imperial examination system Xin Huexue knew. In the dynasty he was in, the examination system was more like the result of the improvement of the current imperial examination system by later generations.
But since Zhou Shanheng was the target character, the poor scholar in the script, Xin Hexue wasn’t worried about his exam.
Target characters were generally outstanding among the crowd, in other words, endowed with special fate.
For example, now that Xin Hexue was staying close to him and had spent time together, Zhou Shanheng’s fortune made him feel very comfortable, and the fortune of the koi merged and harmonized with the other party’s fortune.
Otherwise, Xin Hexue wouldn’t have been able to fully transform just by staying in the Zhou family courtyard’s water vat for a day.
No wonder Bodhi Lord said that the mortal world was where opportunities existed.
The sun was setting, and the sky filled with red clouds.
Xin Hexue said goodbye to Zhou Shanheng first.
Zhou Shanheng was taken aback, and couldn’t help stepping forward to ask, “Gongzi Xin, will you come again tomorrow?”
Xin Hexue smiled slightly and said, “Zhou-ge, I’ll be staying in Sanyuan Township for the next few days, I’ll come again tomorrow.”
“Good, good.”
Zhou Shanheng nodded. Originally, seeing that Xin Hexue had no servant accompanying him, he wanted to ask if he had a place to stay.
But then he thought of his own home, which was just a thatched hut, and felt it would be too shabby for such a jade-like figure.
Zhou Shanheng said goodbye to Xin Hexue.
Thinking he had found a confidant, he didn’t notice that Xin Hexue, just like in the morning, once again used his old trick. A faint light flashed and leapt into his bamboo chest.
The butterfly koi was just waiting for the poor scholar to carry it home.
………
Because he wanted to leave time to teach Zhou Erlang the Thousand Character Classic, Zhou Shanheng descended the mountain early. When he returned home, the moon was just rising above the treetops.
Zhou Erlang was already quite capable. He was adept at washing clothes and cooking, and during the day, he even went up the mountain to pick some wild vegetables.
Zhou Shanheng stir-fried two dishes and ate them with millet rice.
Mother Zhou was in better spirits today. She had spent the day weaving cloth at home and now sat with them in the main hall, eating together.
Zhou Erlang suddenly thought of something and looked up to say to Zhou Shanheng, “Gege, I went to the spring lake on the mountain today to scoop some silkweed, but when I came back, I found the white fish in the water jar was gone!”
Zhou Erlang speculated, “Could it be that someone came into our courtyard and stole the fish?!”
Zhou Shanheng immediately stood up. “I’ll go take a look.”
He went to the courtyard and saw that in the water vat under the eaves, the dark green silkweed swayed lightly, and the snow-white fish was swimming freely.
When it saw him approaching, it floated near the surface and blew three or four white bubbles.
Zhou Shanheng let out a sigh of relief.
The white koi carp sometimes dove to the bottom of the vat, perhaps his younger brother had mistaken it during the day.
But…
This koi carp was so dazzlingly white, and its scales glinted like snowflake silver under the sunlight, was it really possible to miss it?
Zhou Shanheng felt suspicious, but could only temporarily put it aside.
After the family finished tidying up, Zhou Shanheng taught Zhou Erlang writing for half an hour, then let his younger brother return to his room to sleep.
He also washed up and the room fell quiet again.
The night wind lifted the bamboo blinds, bringing a cool breeze that caressed the skin.
Zhou Shanheng sat at the table, copying from a book. The wind stirred the pine forest behind the house, creating the sound of rustling pines, accompanied by the soft sound of writing and pages turning.
It made one’s heart completely settle.
It was as if Zhou Shanheng just had a momentary lapse, and a faint, cold fragrance approached.
“Zhou Shanheng…?”
“Zhou Ziyue…?”
Ethereal as celestial music, hazy as though through gauze.
The elegant gongzi he saw today at the temple was soft as though boneless. He leaned lazily against his shoulder, leaning in from behind to look at the things on the table.
“What are you looking at?”
The book on Zhou Shanheng’s table disappeared, but the paper and ink remained.
On the paper was Zhou Shanheng’s handwriting…
“Honey official, Golden Wing Envoy.”
The young man chuckled softly, the laugh right beside Zhou Shanheng’s ear.
Zhou Shanheng could feel the young man behind him leaning in closer, and he reached out to pick up Zhou Shanheng’s brush.
The pair of hands was extremely beautiful.
Under the flickering candlelight, beneath the faint moonlight, the skin was cool and as white as frost, the fingers long and elegant, as if sculpted from fine jade.
Holding the brush, he softly recited as he wrote the next line…
“Flower thief, jade-waist slave.”
Zhou Shanheng felt that every word this person spoke and wrote, inexplicably stirred his heart.
The calligraphy also had great strength and style, moving with the momentum of a dragon or snake.
‘Flower thief, jade-waist slave…’
‘Jade-waist slave…’
This gongzi was indeed like the butterfly described in the second half of the couplet, graceful and elegant, with a subtle fragrance on his body.
…He had moved even closer.
Zhou Shanheng’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
The young man’s long hair gently slid down, softly draping over Zhou Shanheng’s shoulder.
Those long, elegant hands lightly pressed against the place where Zhou Shanheng’s heart was beating wildly.
Xin Hexue’s eyes curved slightly, and as if truly concerned, he asked softly, “Your heart is in chaos, why is that… Ziyue gege?”
