CH 3

The voice had barely reached his ears, when a head peeked out of the window and looked over at him.

The middle aged man who had shouted out strolled out from the door with his hands behind his back, he was dressed very orderly, the way he walked was very orderly, even his facial expressions were strict, just one look and one could tell that he was the kind of person that would not tolerate anyone breaking the rules.

Just as expected, when he saw Zhao Su who wasn’t swift enough to make an escape, he sneered: “I’ve been wondering who has been hanging around outside day in and out secretly listening. So it’s you, you petty thief!”

Zhao Shenyu is a member of the Zhao family. He was hired as a teacher to teach the Zhao children to study. He was a scholar and had failed the Provincial Exam several times, but he hadn’t given up, and he still went to the exams every time despite his continual failure to pass. In ancient times, there were also scholars, like Zhao Shenyu, in their seventies who could not pass the Provincial Examination, so this wasn’t uncommon at all at this time.

Naturally he had heard about Zhao Su, and he couldn’t help but look down upon this son of a concubine.

Having heard all this outside, the students inside all rushed to the door to see what all the fuss was about.

Zhao Su even saw his half-brother Zhao Jin among them, tilting his head and whispering to the person next to him, turning his head to look at him from time to time, without hiding his contempt.

“Why am I a thief?” Zhao Su couldn’t get away from the stares anyway so he simply just stood there and let them stare.

Zhao Shenyu sneered: “Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety1; that’s why you’re a thief. Even a son of a concubine like you wants to learn how to read and write?

Zhao Su didn’t flinch, he simply asked: “Zhao Su is arrogant, may I ask the teacher a question?”

Zhao Shenyu originally didn’t want to pay attention to Zhao Su but now his students were there watching, he thought to himself if I leave I’ll lose face so he said “Go ahead and ask!”

Confucious says education for everyone, irrespective of background. How do you explain this?”

Zhao Shenyu scoffed “It’s in vain that you have been hiding here for so long eavesdropping secretly that you can’t even understand the famous saying of Confucius. It means that no matter if you’re rich or poor, noble or lowly, wise or stupid, all people can be taught…”

Only after the words had been spoken did he realise that he had been set up.

Sure enough, Zhao Su asked back: “Since Confucius also says that education is for everyone, irrespective of background, why does the teacher go against him? Although Zhao Su is born of a lowly background, my desire to learn is not lacking. Since ancient times, we have never questioned the origins of heroes. The founder of our Great Ming2 was also from humble beginnings, what do you think Teacher?”

Zhao Shenyu never thought that Zhao Su would dare to refute him, and was shocked for a while. All the Zhao children in the school stared at him with wide eyes.

Zhao Su stood there with the bamboo basket on his back, not too far away from the crowd, his figure was thin and weak, but he was still neither haughty nor humble, with a smile on the corner of his mouth.

At this moment, some people were laughing.

Zhao Shenyu was furious and was about to attack, but suddenly noticed a few people standing not far behind Zhao Su.

“Clan Leader!”

Zhan Lai nodded his head and turned sideways slightly and asked the other person next to him: “Zhongfu-xiong, what do you think of this kid?”

The other person didn’t reply, instead looking at Zhao Su he said “What’s your name? How old are you?”

“In response to da-ren, Zhao Su, thirteen years old this year.”

That person was taken aback. He originally thought that Zhao Su was only eight or nine years old.

He thought, just from the way that he was talking earlier, this young boy didn’t seem to be someone who had never studied before. He couldn’t help but feel pity for the boy.

“Are you also from the Zhao family?”

“Yes.”

“Then why can’t you enter the Zhao clan school?”

Zhao Shenhai stammered, but he did not dare to interrupt him, because although this person currently has no official position, he couldn’t afford to offend him.

Zhao Su said faintly: “I’m the son of a concubine.”

Zhan Lai replied: “Even if you are the son of a concubine, you also have the right to study, it must be because your family situation is poor and you can’t afford the tuition.” He then turned to Zhao Shenhai: “I can see that this is a quick-witted young man, with a strong literary aptitude, if he can’t afford the tuition, this Official is willing to provide financial aid.”

Without waiting for Zhao Shenhai’s answer, Zhao Su had already greeted Zhan Lai: “da-ren has misunderstood. Since the death of my father, my mother and I have been living in a separate residence. Although Zongbo is the clan leader, it is not easy to interfere.”

Zhao Shenhai’s expression looked better now. He took a look at Zhao Su and found that this son of a concubine who had never really paid attention to before, was in fact smart and quick-witted.

“I was negligent. You can start attending school tomorrow.”

Zhao Su bowed and said, “Thank you, Zongbo.”

Zhan Lai was no stranger to the ups and downs of fortunes, so how could he not see the contempt of the young man? At first, he just heard him responding interestingly, so he casually enquired, but after a few words, he really became interested.

Zhan Lai laughed loudly: “Little one, you have found a treasure! His surname is Dai, his name is Gongwang, and his courtesy name is Zhong Fu. He was the outstanding amongst his jinshi peers, during the twenty-sixth year of Jiajing. With him as a teacher, what you’ll learn will be a hundred times better than standing outside the clan school!”

The faces of Zhao Shenhai and Zhao Shenyu turned green.

They knew that with this teacher, Zhao Su’s identity would no longer be ordinary.

Changle County is not big, and Zhao Su’s behaviour outside Zhao family’s school would soon spread.

If one was to say that before today, nobody knew who Zhao Su was, then from this day forward, more than half the county would know that this young man was personally appraised by their County Magistrate.

Even if they didn’t know Dai Gongwang, it didn’t stop everyone from adding little pieces of extra information around the dinner table.

And the impact of this incident on the Zhao family was far greater than on the others.

“What did you say?” Lady Wu shouted out loud, on the verge of screeching, only then realising that she had completely forgotten her manners. She took a deep breath to calm herself: “Where did you hear this from?”

She finally relaxed: “Mother was over-thinking, but you mustn’t take this lightly, your father studied for all those years and couldn’t even pass the provincial exam. If you were able to pass the exam successfully, you’d not only bring honour to the Zhao family, after that everyone you come across will have to bow their head down to you.”

“Your son will try his best.”

“Clan Leader, who exactly is this Dai Gongwang, why would he take that concubine’s son as a disciple based on one encounter. He clearly has no respect for our clan!”

It wasn’t just Lady Wu who was wondering this, Zhao Shenyu was also pondering this. At this very moment, he was sitting in Zhao Shenhai’s study with his anger boiling over.