Chapter 127

Everyone knew that Cui Fei had been struggling on the brink of passing. Even when Mu Yunchuan was around, he would report to the mansion school every day, but the best grade he ever achieved was third class.

As for Li Rufeng, although he wasn’t a top scholar, he consistently scored in the second class.

This bet was nothing but trouble for Cui Fei, with no benefits at all.

At this point, Li Rufeng was still trying to dig a hole for Cui Fei.

The disdain in everyone’s eyes towards Li Rufeng grew stronger.

Zhang Shuo and others felt embarrassed for him, wishing they had never associated with him to avoid tarnishing their reputations.

“Don’t mind him,” Mei Ruochu turned to Cui Fei and said, “This matter should be reported to the professors and instructors. Some people may not even be qualified to participate in the assessment.”

With this statement, Mei Ruochu implied that Li Rufeng might lose his qualification for the assessment due to this incident.

Li Rufeng’s expression changed several times, becoming even more dramatic.

Realizing that there was no turning back, he stopped pretending and continued, “Cui Fei, this is our personal grudge. Hiding behind others and letting them make decisions for you, what kind of manhood is that? If you’re afraid, just admit it. Don’t always rely on others to stand up for you.”

After hearing this, Mei Ruochu and the others found it difficult to continue supporting Cui Fei.

After all, this was indeed a personal conflict between Cui Fei and Li Rufeng.

Cui Fei spoke up, “I am indeed a man, but dropping out of school is a serious matter that affects my future. How can I treat it lightly with some silly bet?”

Li Rufeng sneered, “If you don’t dare, then you don’t. Why come up with all these twisted arguments? It’s no surprise, considering your family is run by women, that you behave like this…”

Bringing his own sister into the argument angered Cui Fei. He said with a hint of anger, “Let’s settle our grudge… How about this? If I perform poorly, I’ll publicly apologize to you. If you perform poorly, you can drop out as you suggested… But it doesn’t seem fair to you.”

Mei Ruochu nodded in agreement, “Yes, this condition is unequal. Others might think you’re bullying him.”

“Yes,” Wei Shu also chimed in, “Although Li Rufeng is despicable and has provoked us several times, we shouldn’t stoop to his level and bully him like this.”

Their support made others look at Cui Fei with even more respect.

Even after being bullied like this, he still insisted on a fair bet. It was not fair to bully others.

At the same time, Li Rufeng’s mean tactics became more apparent.

As people who had been studying the classics for half of their lives, they all knew what Li Rufeng’s proposal meant.

Under the gaze of dozens of disdainful eyes, Li Rufeng felt furious. He immediately said, “Fine, let’s do it your way!”

In his view, regardless of whether the conditions were fair or not, he couldn’t possibly lose to Cui Fei, whom he deemed a stupid pig!

He took a step forward and shook hands with Cui Fei in front of everyone, publicly making the agreement.

Soon, lunch break was almost over, and everyone returned to their seats. Wei Shu and Wei Xi helped Cui Fei clean up the mess.

As they were leaving the mansion school in the evening, Cui Fei cautiously said, “Actually… I did hit him. It wasn’t about having a bad attitude; I deliberately slapped the date paste cake on his face and mashed it up. I know it was wrong to use violence, but I was really angry at that time.”

He wasn’t good at hiding things. Since leaving school, he had been looking like he had something to say, and everyone had guessed he had something to say.

Unexpectedly, he had been holding onto this all along.

Wei Xi couldn’t help but curl his lips, “He deserved it for being so foul-mouthed.”

Wei Shu agreed, didn’t he?

“Hitting someone is wrong, but it depends on what the other person has done. He insulted you with such vulgar language for no reason. It’s understandable that you hit him.”

Cui Fei finally felt relieved, but then Mei Ruochu said, “However, I think there was something not quite right about what Afu did.”

Cui Fei’s heart tensed again, but Mei Ruochu continued calmly, “He made a mistake first, so it’s not wrong to teach him a lesson. But it’s a pity about those pastries. Weren’t they brought by your sister for us? It’s a shame they got ruined.”

Cui Fei could tell Mei Ruochu was trying to lighten the mood. He smiled and said, “I was inexperienced in getting angry for the first time. I’ll know better next time! I’ll bring you guys some pastries when I go home.”

Seeing him open up, Wei Shu continued to ask, “What do you think about the bet? I didn’t want to oppose you in public earlier, so I went along with what Mei said. How confident are you?”

Cui Fei pondered for a moment before saying, “Li Rufeng may be full of nonsense, but he didn’t say anything wrong. This is between him and me, and I shouldn’t rely on others to stand up for me. Since the feud has been initiated, it won’t end well. Instead of dealing with him for years to come, always on guard against him, it’s better to agree now. If I lose, I’ll just apologize and lose some face. If he loses, he’ll drop out directly. His character is poor, but he values his reputation. If he really loses, he won’t stay at the Perfectural school.”

That’s the logic of it, and it seems like Cui Fei has the upper hand in the situation.

But since Li Rufeng agreed so readily, he must be confident that he won’t lose. A scholar’s reputation is also important.

Cui Fei continued, “Actually, Li Rufeng and I took the same college entrance exam. My ranking was slightly higher than his. At that time, my grandfather often mocked Li’s grandfather because of this. Li Rufeng has been targeting me for so long, and there’s probably a reason behind it. However, later on… I attended the school less frequently, while he was very diligent, and the gap gradually widened. He has always been in the lower ranks of the second class, while my best grade was only third class. But this time, I studied exceptionally hard. I actually have a chance to compete for the second class. In terms of certainty, I probably have about fifty percent chance.”

Upon hearing that Cui Fei had a fifty percent chance, everyone’s expression became more serious.

Although Cui Fei said losing face didn’t matter, they didn’t want to see the victim apologize to the perpetrator.

After a while, Mei Ruochu suggested, “Let’s ask Aunt Shen, she might have a solution.”

Shen Cui usually didn’t intervene in teaching affairs and was responsible only for taking care of everyone’s daily needs.

Hearing Mei Ruochu’s suggestion, Cui Fei was still a bit slow to react.

However, Wei Shu and Wei Xi nodded along, saying, “Mei Brother is quick-witted.”

Before Cui Fei could fully comprehend what was happening, they had already pushed him in front of Shen Cui.

Mei Ruochu had already prepared the words and quickly explained the situation to Shen Cui.

“A Fei did nothing wrong. Even a clay figure would become angry when provoked. It’s normal to fight back when provoked.” Shen Cui first expressed her attitude.

However, regarding the bet… But Li Rufeng clearly sees Cui Fei as a thorn in his side. He’s already refused once; who knows where he’ll set traps for Cui Fei next time.

There’s only so much one can do to guard against a thief over time.

For Cui Fei to risk losing face for a chance to make Li Rufeng drop out is somewhat reminiscent of the decisive and daring actions of Cui Wuniang.

Moreover, Shen Cui vaguely felt that this incident might not only be a dispute between the two young men, but also a accumulation of grievances between two families.

Since Cui Fei had already agreed, she didn’t dwell on these thoughts and asked, “So now we need to help A Fei pass the exam against Li Rufeng, right?”

Everyone nodded, and Cui Fei, feeling a bit dazed, also nodded along.

Then he added, “Actually, I agreed to it myself, so I should be the one to make an effort. I’m glad everyone can support me.”

Shen Cui then asked about the content of the exam.

Since she didn’t intervene in teaching, she had been focusing on helping Cui Fei improve his health.

Moreover, this alternate historical period was different from real history, where exams like the Qing Dynasty’s exams were held every three years.

Here, it was held annually, and the exam content was likely to be different.

The exam, called the “Sui Exam,” was actually different from the imperial examination system.

Although it also tested the content of the Four Books and Five Classics, the specific focus was determined by the head of the academy.

Before each year’s Sui Exam, the head of the academy would outline the scope of the exam, which would be posted in the academy for students to copy and study from.

Shen Cui realized that this was similar to highlighting key points before a college exam in modern times.

She asked Cui Fei and the others to bring the exam outline for her to review.

The exam outline was copied by the students in the academy and was quite lengthy, spanning over a dozen pages.

However, this was actually good news, because the more specific the exam outline was, the more direction the revision would have.

Otherwise, if they were simply told to study “The Book of Changes,” while the outline would be shorter, trying to highlight all the key points in the entire book would be practically the same as having no key points at all.

After briefly flipping through the exam outline, Shen Cui asked everyone, “How is your revision going?”

Mei Ruochu nodded first, saying that he had already completed the revision of all the subjects according to the outline.

Because of his exceptional memory, Mei Ruochu could automatically recall the relevant content and all related knowledge from the books when he saw the outline, so he revised exceptionally fast.

Wei Shu, Wei Xi, and Cui Fei were a bit slower but had also completed about eighty to ninety percent of their revision.

After pondering for a moment, Shen Cui turned to Mei Ruochu and said, “Since you’ve finished revising, you can use this outline to create a teaching plan.”

Mei Ruochu had previously made a teaching plan for “The Book of Changes.” With such a profound book, having his teaching plan as a guide had significantly accelerated Mu Er Pang’s learning. Moreover, making teaching plans didn’t affect his luck points.

Since he was familiar with the process, Mei Ruochu confidently rolled up his sleeves and said, “I should be able to finish it in about three days. Aunt Shen, could you please bring dinner to the classroom later? I’ll eat while I work.”

Shen Cui nodded, then turned to Cui Fei and said, “During these three days, you should continue revising according to the original schedule and complete the first round of revision. Once Mei Ruochu’s teaching plan is ready, we’ll start the second round from the beginning. I’ll go cook.”

Cui Fei hadn’t quite grasped how the conversation shifted from revision to cooking, but Shen Cui had already gone to the kitchen.

There was nothing better than “Stir-Fried Cabbage with Eggs,” which could improve short-term memory, for last-minute cramming before the exam.

Moreover, since Shen Cui had planned to make more systematic food for him after treating his heart condition, it was the perfect choice to combat the effects of the “rules.” So she quickly prepared a plate.

For the next three days, Cui Fei, Wei Shu, and Wei Xi had “Stir-Fried Cabbage with Eggs” for every meal.

By the end of it, even their burps tasted like cabbage.

Finally, Mei Ruochu’s teaching plan was ready.

Like before, this teaching plan included key and difficult points, along with questions from previous exams in certain years based on specific passages.

The section for student questioning was adapted to predict potential exam questions based on the content.

What started as a dozen exam outlines turned into hundreds of pages of teaching plans.

Although it seemed like an increase in the amount of material to revise, it actually simplified the revision process.

If they could memorize these hundreds of pages, achieving a second-class grade would be a breeze, let alone a first-class!

To others, this idea seemed far-fetched. Memorizing hundreds of pages of content in such a short time frame would require exceptional memory skills, akin to Mei Ruochu’s, who wouldn’t need to cram at all.

Of course, this teaching plan wasn’t just useful for Cui Fei, Wei Shu and Wei Xi could also benefit from it.

Besides dinner, Shen Cui also provided late-night snacks, but it was always the same dish.

Until the day of the exam, they would immerse themselves in the classroom after school, rarely coming out even for meals and barely drinking water to reduce restroom breaks.

During these days, Shen Cui intentionally kept the time extension feature active on the device.

While previously it was only used during the day, now it was kept active from morning until night, giving the boys a bit more time to revise than others.

In the middle of the twelfth month, the exam finally began!