Mrs. Lu took all her anger out at Fang Xuanling, but she held back when scolding Lu Zhaolin. After all, she is part of the Fanyang’s Lu family, so she could only remind him repeatedly in a subtle way.

Lu Zhaolin is not  stupid and understood Mrs. Lu’s warning. Although he knows that auntie is doing this for his own benefit, he also trusts his own judgment. Li Yuanying is worth befriending. He is talented and his other friends, like Di Renjie were the same, friends that makes you better!

So Lu Zhaolin listened, but didn’t take it to heart. He went to bed early and dreamed that he was buried in reading, trying to get his parents to praise him. He became more and more depressed while reading, and suddenly heard someone laughing outside the window. He looked up and saw a group of people playing polo, having a lot of fun.

He ran to the window, trying to see who was playing outside, but he couldn’t see clearly. Just as he became anxious, a cute polo ball suddenly fell in front of him. He was stunned but he bent down to pick it up. When he looked up, he saw a girl sitting on the horse, bright and pretty and staring at him.

After a while, she said fiercely: “My ball, give it back to me.”

She is so cute.

That’s what Lu Zhaolin thought.

Then he woke up. He touched his heart and felt that it was beating a little strangely. He silently repeated a few words “It is not in accordance with etiquette”, “It is not in accordance with etiquette”, “It is not in accordance with etiquette”, but his heart was still inexplicably hot.

Anyway, no one will find out so he decided to allow himself to indulge in the wild thoughts again.

Just once.

“She is really cute when she gets angry.” Lu Zhaolin thought seriously.

…

Yuanying didn’t know that Lu Zhaolin was so bold to dream about his niece. He thinks that Lu Zhaolin is a good friend and is determine to bring him along to his fiefdom. Yuanying  got up early intending to study for his spring exam but Gao Yang sneaked over to look for him.

“Why are you here so early?”

Gao Yang is a little embarrassed but she still stated her purpose: “Young uncle, I want to read a book, what should I pick?”

Gao Yang knows that it’s a little too late to start studying hard now but she cannot just do nothing. She visited the Imperial Library yesterday but was overwhelmed by the sheer number of books. How can these scholars read and write so many books?!

Gao Yang thought hard and thinks the best solution is meeting young uncle. He doesn’t laugh at her shortcomings and has always supported her.

Yuanying didn’t probe into why she suddenly wanted to read books. She has actually learned most of the characters so it shouldn’t be hard apart from the fact that she cannot sit still and wants to play.  There’s a saying that a woman changes drastically at 18 years old. She is now 13, seems logical that she has some changes.

Yuanying patiently probed: “What are you interested in?”

Gao Yang was stumped by the question. She would never tell him what she’s really thinking but she was confused about what scholars like to read.  T

“I heard you talk about study of Cang Ya the other day, what is that?”

Yuanying explained that it’s a special study of characters. It is very difficult and dry subject in which one figures out how a word came about, how to write, read and then explain the theory. He admired Lu Zhaolin very much: “Brother Lu is calm enough to this, it’s really rare.”

Gao Yang nodded.

“In the past few years, Brother Lu studied with a man named Cao Xian in Yangzhou who is a great teacher. I heard that whenever the Emperor encountered difficulty in his reading, he would send him a question and he never failed to answer them. The Imperial Library has a copy of <<Er Ya>> and other such books in the collection. If you are interested, go have a look. Since you intend to read more books, it’s not wrong to recognize a few more characters first.”

Gao Yang happily left for the Library. She made up her mind to look for <<Er Ya>> and to read more. She came like a gust of wind and left like a gust of wind., leaving Li Yuanying a little confuse. But seeing his niece who is most like himself in playing tricks is also making progress, he was of course happy. He visited Wei Shu  for a study session and shared about this. Happy that Gao Yang  is also putting effort into studies and he now thinks learning is great.

Wei Shu thought so too.

Since Gao Yang just called off her engagement, it is good that she is now occupying her time. It is the best when you are allowed to be your true self.

Yuanying shared his study plan with Wei Shu. It was not reading focused but more experiencing. We will go out more, understand the lives of others and read their literature. This way we will have more insights about the outside world. Yuanying decided to collect all the documents and archives that could be found, have them all analyzed and studied and everyone will take turn writing about these topics everyday until everyone felt like vomiting.

Tang Xuan and Di Renjie was preparing for the Mingjing exam, which mainly tested on memorization and interpretation of classics. This exam’s requirement  for writing was not that high and the admission rate is relatively high. Unlike Li Yuanying, who is taking the exam for fun, they all seriously wanted to pass the imperial examination and become officials. They cannot impulsive take the Jinshi exam just like that.

The Jinshi exam was too difficult. It’s rumored that only 20 people will be selected this year. If no one was suitable, they they won’t even fill the 20 pax quorum.

Thinking objectively, Tang Xuan, Di Renjie and others were not confident that they could stand out against the talent-pool and become one of the 20 Jinshi.

On the contrary, the Mingjing exam was much easier. At least, questions on the classics were guaranteed and they are confident in their memorization technique.More importantly, Mingjing exam admits 100 people!

Yuanying didn’t interfere with their choices. Once he confirms that they have no problem with classic literature, he dragged them to review writing articles until they vomited.

Lu Zhaolin is not planning to take any exam but since teacher Wang Yifang is busy with official duties during the day, he invited Lu Zhaolin to join their brainstorming session.

The boy couldn’t keep up with the rest in the beginning but he gradually caught up after many sessions. He started analyzing things clearly and occasionally came up with unique insights.

Li Yuanying is great at exploiting people. When Lu Zhaolin occasionally mention that he is not good at something but has a certain friend who was good at it, he would immediately encourage him to write a letter asking about the difficult problem. Sometimes he makes Lu Zhaolin bring home queries to Fang Xuanling, intending to make full use of all available resources.

But Lu Zhaolin wasn’t annoyed or disgusted by this. He felt it’s natural for those who seeks knowledge to behave like this.

Fang Xuanling is not disgusted either. He now realize why the Emperor favors his younger brother. The Crown Prince is also close to him, so there is no harm in Lu Zhaolin being on good terms with him.

Of course, both of them tacitly did not tell Mrs. Lu  about this, to avoid causing unrest in the family.

Unfortunately, both men did not say anything but others were not blind. Many noticed that the son from the Lu family was close to Li Yuanying, and Fang Jun’s group also found out. Once when they met outside, Lu Zhaolin was busy talking to Li Yuanying and didn’t see his cousin, which made Fang Jun embarrassed.

Fang Jun and Li Yuanying had lots of grudges. First, Li Yuanying brought Gao Yang to Pingkang Square and caused him to be beaten. There were also absurd rumors that he and Gao Yang were fighting over a singing girl!

After that, His Majesty sent Li Tai away and threw him into the Imperial Army for training. After that, things didn’t go smoothly and he suffered in the army. Then he was arranged to escort the royal envoy to the Tibetan Empire. While the others were happy eating, drinking and having fun, he couldn’t adapt to the climate and almost died! How can Fang Jun like Li Yuanying?

Fang Jun was furious when he found out that his cousin had become a traitor and defected to the enemy camp. He went back and tome and told mother about it saying that Lu Zhaolin was an ungrateful person. Their family treated him well but he chose to hang out with Li Yuanying all day long and didn’t even say hello to his cousin when he saw him on the streets!

Fang Jun was the middle child but he was loved by mother.

Hearing her son complain about Lu Zhaolin, she became dissatisfied with him too. But he’s not her biological child so it’s hard to teach him a lesson. All she could do was to write back to her family telling them about the situation. She doesn’t want to be blame if Lu Zhaolin turned into a bad person for mixing with the wrong crowd.

After sending the letter, Mrs Lu also gave Lu Zhaolin the cold shoulder and was not as welcoming of him like the beginning.

Lu Zhaolin can feel Mrs. Lu unhappiness with him. After some hesitation, he wrote a letter to his family explaining his situation in Chang’an. He sort out what he had learned in the last few days, to show his dad that he has not neglected his studies and is living a fulfilling life.

Youths like making new friends and Lu Zhaolin likes Li Yuanying very much. He hopes that his family will agree with his judgment and choice. He felt that he shouldn’t be forced to throw away his friendship with Li Yuanying just because he is born in the royal family. They should not conclude that Li Yuanying was unlearned and absurd just because of rumors.

Yuanying heard that his friend wants to write a letter home and realized that it will take along time for an ordinary messenger to send the letter back to Fanyang, so he suggested using his connection for fast speed delivery. He also suggested to buy some small gifts to send back for his mother and sisters. You’ve moved far away to study and your family can’t meet you, you need to prepare surprises and keep them in your thoughts.

He also told Lu Zhaolin not to feel embarrassed. This year, Jin Shengman is going home to Silla and he is going to send Dai Ting with her so that he can explore the way.Dai Ting had already been to Tibetan Empire twice so he should rest for the rest of the year and not travel the same route again.  

Visit Silla and see how it’s like, if Jin Shengman gets into trouble in the future, we can offer help!

When Lu Zhaolin heard that it’s a convenient help to deliver his letter, he didn’t refuse. It also made sense to buy gifts so he went out with Yuanying out to look for gifts that were small and easy to carry.

As the host, Yuanying took Lu Zhaolin out to pick gifts and also brought some for Sizi and the others. Boys are simple and straightforward when they go shopping; they buy whatever they like and leave immediately.

Yuanying also mention that Gao Yang was reading <<Er Ya>>.

“Didn’t you study with that old scholar Cao for a few years? Do you have any reading notes? I’ll show them to her later. It’s rare that she likes something.”

Lu Zhaolin’s ears turned red, and he stammered, “Is this right?” In his upbringing, the exchange of manuscripts between men and women outside the family was against etiquette.

Yuanying didn’t notice Lu Zhaolin’s slightly red ears. He just thought that Lu Zhaolin was good in everything, but is a little too polite.

“What’s wrong with it? It’s not something shameful. Gao Yang wants to learn, and you just happen to know the topic. We’re just asking you for some manuscripts, it shouldn’t even a problem to speak face to face. Even if the historian record this, people from later generations will only say that one was good at learning and the other studious. It’s a good story no matter how you look at it! You are so young but all you think about is whether something is against etiquette. Aren’t you tired of living like that?”

Lu Zhaolin was persuaded and he agree to share some manuscripts.

Yuanying took Lu Zhaolin’s family letters and gifts and gave it to the delivery man. They both left for home after that.

The next day, Lu Zhaolin handed <<Er Ya>> notes to Yuanying to pass to Gao Yang with a little trepidation.

Notes from the Author:

Little Prince:?

Little Prince: I treat you as my friend, but you want to take my niece? (Pointing)

Note: The parts of these two chapters about Lu Zhaolin, Cao Xian, Wang Yifang, and “Cang Ya” are all made up with reference to Baidu Encyclopedia (and possibly other encyclopedias)!