Time rewound to not long before—near the Su family's library pavilion, braziers blazed and the atmosphere was serious, with all the relatively learned people the Su family could find now gathered here. The highest-ranking among them was naturally Song Mao, courtesy name Yufan, current Provincial Governor of Shenzhou. This man had a jinshi degree¹—among common folk, he already counted as someone of exceptional talent. Since they knew he'd come each year, the Su family students had already prepared for a long time under their teachers' supervision.

Money perhaps couldn't buy learning, but money could buy books, so the Su family's library pavilion was actually very large and imposing. If Old Master Su had any wish, he might hope that one day the Su family would become a true scholarly household. After learned people emerged in abundance, future generations could see this library pavilion and remember the efforts made by his generation when they were merely merchants—thinking about it was also quite a dignified matter, and after people grew old, they often became most interested in such things.

Now in the library pavilion, the first half's more mechanical examinations had been completed—nothing more than giving older students an essay topic on policy and giving younger children sayings from ancient sages to interpret and explain. Things like standard answers absolutely didn't exist in this era. No one could definitively tell you what any particular sentence in the Analects should mean—everyone had their own understanding, and judgment also belonged to a process of free evaluation. Of course, as long as someone had insight, they could naturally see many things from it—whether teachers' mechanical indoctrination, or whether students had innovative ability and their own thoughts.

This year's examination was somewhat different from previous years.

Currently, after the preliminary examinations, the one called to the library pavilion's center to answer Song Mao's questions was a child of only nine or ten years old—one could see he was now very nervous, stammering his words, and his answers to questions seemed to lack confidence, but he still managed to continue speaking.

"The Analects... in the Yong Ye chapter says... 'The wise love water, the benevolent love mountains. The wise move, the benevolent are still. The wise are joyful, the benevolent live long'... The meaning is... The wise seek the changes in all things, the benevolent... But the reason the wise seek various changes is fundamentally to find the unchanging principle within all changes, while the benevolent don't seek change but can actually respond to all changes with unchangingness. The benevolent and wise are fundamentally one... Teacher said... Teacher said those who don't understand wisdom aren't truly benevolent, those who don't understand benevolence only know unorthodox paths. Er... One day they'll suffer for it..."

This child was only about nine years old, looking honest and simple, and organizing his words was quite difficult at this time—after speaking for a while, he still used phrases like "Teacher said," mixing in some colloquial vernacular. If truly taken to examinations, this naturally wouldn't be presentable. But of course this was different. Song Mao was nearly forty this year, looking upright with a touch of simplicity in his appearance. At this time he listened while nodding.

"Xunzi once said, 'A thousand actions and ten thousand changes, their way is one'; Zhuangzi also said, 'Not departing from the fundamental principle, this is called the unity of heaven and man.' All changes never depart from the fundamental principle²... Indeed so. Little Blackie, this phrase—your teacher taught it to you, right?"

Hearing him ask this, the nervous Little Blackie became slightly happier, probably because the answer was simple, and nodded: "Mm, answering... answering the Provincial Governor's words, Teacher once said, 'Vertical and horizontal don't exceed the square and circle, all changes never depart from the fundamental principle.'"

"'Vertical and horizontal don't exceed the square and circle, all changes never depart from the fundamental principle'... Having this phrase is enough..." Song Mao nodded, then smiled: "Was this interpretation of 'the wise love water' entirely spoken by your teacher?"

Little Blackie nodded: "Teacher once casually mentioned some things. This student... this student doesn't remember it all very well..."

"Do you understand?"

The child thought, shook his head, then carefully nodded: "Understand... understand a little..."

"Hehe, as expected." Song Mao smiled. "Then, this interpretation from the earlier examination—was it all spoken by your teacher?"

The child nodded, then shook his head again: "Teacher... Teacher once talked about this, but... but didn't specifically say these things. This is... some of it the student thought of..."

Song Mao watched him shake his head then nod, nod then shake his head, then he himself nodded with a smile, exchanging some opinions with Su Chonghua and others around him. Old Master Su was already watching from the side, and at this time he could naturally discover the unusual situation: "Provincial Governor, this is..."

"Congratulations, Uncle Su. This child and the one examined earlier might achieve something in the future."

"Ah..."

To receive such an evaluation from Song Mao wasn't easy, and Old Master Su was delighted in his heart, though on the surface he hadn't shown too much yet, just watching things develop. Song Mao looked around at the teachers and several instructors from the academy, cupping his hands toward Su Chonghua: "Brother Su, the teacher instructing Little Blackie—I wonder which one it is..."

He'd actually had some contact with Yushan Academy's several teachers before—no one worth noting—and at this time he just cast his gaze toward one or two unfamiliar faces. Su Chonghua's expression was somewhat hesitant, but looking at Old Master Su, he still spoke: "He seems not to be here. This Little Blackie and that child Chongming from earlier are both Liheng's disciples."

Old Master Su was slightly stunned, then showed a delighted expression, while Song Mao's expression also shifted slightly. He then flipped through some previous answer papers, had a teacher beside him select some, stacked five sheets and read them again before passing them to Old Master Su and Su Chonghua: "Brother Su, look—were these students' answers all taught by that one person?"

Su Chonghua looked at the names and nodded, and only then did Song Mao explain to Old Master Su: "Same topic, same teacher, same curriculum in class, but these five are each different, and each has their own insights and understanding..."

Not much more needed to be said—though Old Master Su himself didn't have much learning, hearing this, he already understood the other's implication. Then Song Mao looked at the people standing around at this time before asking Su Chonghua: "Brother Su mentioned Liheng—is this that Ning Yi, Ning Liheng of Water Melody Prelude?"

"...Indeed it is."

"This person has great talent. I don't know who he is, but he should be invited up to sit with us. How can we let him observe from below?"

At this time on the platform were all middle-aged and elderly men, and Ning Yi should be present—since he wasn't on the platform, he was naturally standing among the crowd of observing family members and relatives. Old Master Su raised his eyes to look below, but his eyesight wasn't very good, so he also asked Su Boyong: "Where's Liheng?"

Su Boyong was actually already looking and immediately shook his head: "Seems... not here."

Previously in this latter half's individual questioning, those called out were often relatively older students, but this time two children were called out—though standing in the venue very nervous, to those watching around, this was a symbol of having learning and truly prestigious. While those above whispered among themselves, those watching below were actually also discussing quietly, and Juan'er, who'd run over to watch the excitement, was grabbing one of Ning Yi's disciples to encourage him: "Look how capable Blackie and Chongming are. If they call you out later to ask questions, you must answer well too. You can't lose face for your teacher."

These children often pestered Ning Yi for stories and were familiar with Chan'er and Juan'er. At this time he made a crying face: "But Sister Juan'er, I'm scared. That's the Provincial Governor up there."

"He's not governor of our province, he won't chop off your head. Look how amiable he is—Blackie and the others are scared too... Anyway, if you lose face, Sister won't forgive you..."

Before she finished speaking, Su Boyong above had already discovered Juan'er in the crowd and smilingly called her out: "Where's your Young Master?" By the time she was sent out to find Ning Yi, in the hall behind, Song Mao had already become interested in asking about Ning Yi teaching by telling stories, having Little Blackie tell one on the spot...

After adjusting her breathing and vividly telling this story in front of Su Tan'er and the others, Su Tan'er and her group were already somewhat stunned, and only then did Juan'er ask Chan'er: "Where exactly is the Young Master? The Old Master and others are still waiting over there. I looked in the courtyard earlier but he wasn't there either."

Chan'er was also somewhat troubled: "But... the Young Master seems to have gone out this morning... I'm not very clear either..."

Having taught at Yushan Academy for several months, Ning Yi had heard from Xiao Chan about the year-end examination, but with his personality, he naturally wouldn't take such things to heart. When telling stories to a bunch of children in class, everyone was suspicious, amused, critical, and Su Tan'er was also puzzled and displeased. He could see everyone's emotions in his heart—actually crystal clear—and he was too lazy to explain, but if Xiao Chan really asked about his views on these examinations, he'd probably casually say: "If they can't even pass this kind of thing, then there's really no point continuing..."

Things he wanted to do weren't many now, but as long as he did them, all that needed waiting for were results—having experienced so much, vanity naturally still existed, but vanity had long ceased to be a factor that could influence his main behavior. For those who could somewhat understand or try to understand, and who themselves had decent life philosophies—like Old Qin and Old Kang—he could also chat about random things during idle conversation, secretly pleased watching their expressions. But if the other party's understanding wasn't sufficient, if you said something and they righteously called you unorthodox, wasn't that asking for abuse?

If Ning Yi had been home today, whether he'd have gone to watch the examination process was hard to say. But regardless, he'd already left this morning and didn't know how the whole thing developed—the Su family had been quite busy recently, and he also had some things he wanted to do. After all, leisure time had already been too long, so it was time to find some things to play with. Whether there'd be results in the future was hard to say, but at least it could prove: he, a modern boss, had struggled for a while for a happy and beautiful life prospect in this terrible era that didn't even have MSG.

Thinking about it, it very much resembled a pig's struggling scene...

As heavy wind and snow fell, he thought boredly in his heart while walking along the snowy street toward the intersection ahead—in blue robes with a paper umbrella, if placed in a painting, this figure with the surrounding long street and falling snow would indeed have some scholarly classical charm. On both sides of the road, quite a few shops remained open for business, pedestrians hurried past on the road, and a carriage passed by. At the intersection were several small stalls, and behind one small cart, a woman wrapped in an ugly headscarf blinked, looking somewhat puzzledly this way—Ning Yi waved, and over there she showed an embarrassed smile.

Nie Yunzhu's completely unsuitable pancake stall had already opened—Ning Yi had long known the location, but this was the first time casually strolling over.

(End of Chapter)