Chapter Ten: The Students of the Imperial Academy

  "Help!" A shrill cry rang out, and the proctors immediately stood up and ran towards the source of the sound.

  Shen Chongming was taken aback, three steps ahead and made two steps, the first one ran in. The scene before him was a bit unbearable, wood chips all over the floor, the table in front of Baozi had also been overturned, due to the tabletop blocking his line of sight, he could only see two thick legs kicking wildly. Shen Chongming did not expect that one sentence would cause such a big disaster, and he was stunned.

  "Ah, Lord Zhu!" A monitor rushed in and exclaimed, pushing aside the stunned Shen Chongming to rush forward, followed by other monitors who came to assist. Shen Chongming looked on and also went over to help. After a flurry of activity, they finally managed to rescue Lord Zhu, whose face had turned purple.

  "Cough cough, where are the great ones of Jin Yi Wei?" asked Zhu, who had just been rescued and hadn't even opened his eyes yet.

  Everyone looked at each other in dismay. The lead proctor shook his head and said, "Magistrate Zhu, the high-ranking officials from the Embroidered Uniform Guard haven't arrived. Probably someone was playing a prank earlier."

  "What's going on? Who is it that dares to play a prank? Come out and show yourself before me!" Lord Zhu's face changed several times, and he suddenly sat up and shouted.

  Everyone quickly shook their heads. Although this Zhu gentleman was an unremarkable chief editor of the Imperial Academy, his position may be small but he held great power. He was in charge of distributing food, clothing, and books to nearly a thousand students at the Imperial Academy. Offending him would allow him to use some minor tactics that the students could hardly bear.

  At this time, Shen Chongming had already hidden in the last place, but he, who had dabbled in some psychology, did not dodge or evade, and simply looked at Lord Zhu with a nonchalant expression.

  Seeing no one acknowledging him, Zhu's eyes coldly swept across the crowd. These people would soon enter officialdom in the not-too-distant future, but for now they were still some naive scholars. With his many years of experience, he could see right through their thoughts and knew that they couldn't deceive him.

  After a round of searching, because the culprit Shen Chongming was hiding too deeply, Zhu Gong had nothing to gain. However, what happened earlier was too humiliating, seriously affecting his dignified image in the eyes of the other students, how could Zhu Gong let it go easily? With a flicker of his eye, he decided to take drastic measures to find that scoundrel who made him lose face.

  "What's all the commotion about in this sacred place of learning?" A stern voice came from the entrance, and the students turned around to see who it was. They quickly stood up straight and bowed to say: "Students pay their respects to Master Jiu!"

  Shen Chongming also knew the phrase "Ji Jiu", and as the principal of Guozi Jian, he watched as everyone else paid their respects, and followed suit by bowing his waist.

  "Ah, Lord Gao!" Lord Zhu exclaimed, scrambling to his feet with a jolt, his fatty flesh quivering all over, which made Lord Gao feel a wave of disgust.

  Taking a glance at the situation inside the house, Gao Da Ren furrowed his brow and said: "Zhu Zhang, what's going on?"

  He who does no evil deeds has no fear of the devil's knock, but Zhu, who often embezzled, was very afraid. If Jiu Yin knew that he was scared by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he would likely arouse his suspicion and thoroughly investigate all accounts of Guozi Jian.

  "It's nothing, sir. This chair is old and can't withstand the weight. It broke with just a slight move, haha."

  Zhu's face cracked a smile as he said, in front of these genuine officials, this insignificant little servant dare not call himself "sir".

  Looking at his stout appearance, Gaodan hummed angrily and didn't say anything, turning to look at the trembling examinees.

  "You are excused from the formalities." Looking at the crowd of students still bowing, Mr. Gao's face showed a hint of kindness and warmth as he said this.

  "Thank you, Master Zhai." The crowd said in unison. Shen Chongming wore a linen robe, and the gray-brown clothes stood out among the white-robed students. "You are..." High official's eyebrows furrowed, although he had just taken office as the Master of Ceremonies, he had long heard that this Imperial Academy was full of darkness and evil, not only corrupt officials but also street rascals sneaking in to steal and cheat, could it be that this person was one of them?

  "In response to your words, I am Shen Chongming, a new student who has just arrived at the Imperial Academy."

  Gao Daren suddenly enlightened, only then did he notice the package on Shen Chongming's back, carefully examining him, Gao Daren slightly nodded his head, with clear eyebrows and bright eyes, surprisingly a clever student.

  He nodded at the crowd again, and then turned to leave. The other candidates couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He was indeed the tutor of Prince Yu, although he always wore a smile on his face, it still made them feel suffocated. They exchanged bitter smiles with each other, bowed, and left. Only Shen Chongming and Zhu Pangzi were left in the room.

  Zhu Pangzi wiped the cold sweat, turned his head to look at the messy room, and instinctively felt a tingling sensation in his teeth. This couldn't be the end of it; he had to find out who that bastard was!

  After completing the formalities, Shen Chongming went to his dormitory, No. 12 in Zone C, wearing a white robe for the first time in his life. He had taken a sneak peek earlier and saw that there were four people living in the dormitory, including his fellow villager Song Qingyang who came with him.

  Pushing the door open, there was not a single person inside. What was there was only disorderly messy, four single beds were placed there, making the originally not too big room even more cramped. Shen Chongming frowned, such a place is worse than the eight-person dormitory in later generations, no wonder others have gone out to study, the conditions are quite harsh.

  Shaking his head, he walked straight towards a bed piled high with miscellaneous items. His roommate's character wasn't great, and yet he was still a student at a prestigious university.

  After a good cleaning, his little nest finally looked like it should. However, Shen Chongming, who hadn't done any physical labor for a long time, suddenly felt weak all over and collapsed onto the soft bed, closing his eyes contentedly.

  After who knows how long, Shen Chongming, who was originally sleeping soundly, suddenly woke up with a start, hastily put on his shoes and rushed outside, and actually forgot about the mixed-breed donkey, what a sin.

  As the day approached dusk, the originally quiet National Academy also became lively. Shen Chongming walked out of his dormitory and saw groups of students strolling around the campus in threes and fives. Only then did he realize that today was the fifth day of the month, one of the three days off each month for the National Academy. No wonder he hadn't seen anyone return to the dormitory even after sleeping through the afternoon.

  But now I couldn't care less about staying in the dorm to get to know my new classmates, for a whole afternoon, who knows if that stray donkey outside has been taken away by someone.

  Hurriedly walking out of the Guozi Jian gate, he didn't see the piebald donkey at first, but when he arrived, he found a group of people surrounding it and bursting into laughter.

  "A donkey's cry for knowledge." A monitor said with a smirk, his incomplete sentence and disdainful expression made his meaning clear to the surrounding classmates.

  "Haha, brother, you don't know this, the man riding a donkey is actually my fellow townsman from Shaoxing, and he's also famous for being a foolish talent. He rode a donkey to ask for knowledge out of desperation, in order to come to Guozijian to read books, but spent quite a bit of silver."

  "How dare you insult the literati!" As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately triggered a chorus of curses. Everyone was a scholar, whether they liked it or not, and on the surface, what they hated most was the smell of copper.

  Just as he was about to stir up the crowd's psychology, Song Qingyang smiled slightly and was ready to add fuel to the fire and slander Shen Chongming. However, he accidentally discovered that Shen Chongming was standing not far away staring at him, his face involuntarily flushed red, and the words on his lips were swallowed back.

  The crowd also found it unusual and turned their heads to see a disheveled street urchin standing not far away, staring at them with a gaze.

  Among these people, there are old students from the Imperial Academy who are afraid of being scolded. They don't understand what it means to be a gentleman who uses words not fists. Usually, they start fighting at the slightest disagreement and show no mercy to these weak scholars. Now looking at his unpleasant face, he clearly has an opinion about everyone.

  "Ah, the moon is out! Gentlemen, with such a view, shall we return and compose poetry?" The man who had just spoken sarcastically suggested.

  "What Brother Zhengping said is quite right, we shouldn't delay, let's go now." Song Qingyang, who had been caught exposing someone's shortcoming, was eager to extricate himself from the awkward situation and immediately expressed his agreement. The others also nodded in succession and hastily walked into the Imperial Academy, bypassing Shen Chongming.

  " Bird man." Looking at the back of the crowd, Shen Chongming muttered a sentence and walked towards his own donkey. "You, you're not making any effort, no wonder people say you're useless!" Looking at the locust tree bark full of teeth marks, Shen Chongming couldn't help but feel annoyed, such a beautiful scene was also ruined by it.