In the days that followed, the Student Committee  carried out their duties in an orderly manner.

Li Yuanying also had the chance to meet other students.

Besides just the 1,000 students preparing to be civil servants, the Academy also has students who were studying law, arithmetic and calligraphy studies. These 3 majors had relatively less number of students but they were all professional studies with proper examination put in place.

Li Yuanying was interested in everything. After finding out the timetable of each class he finds time to attend them. Di Renjie and the rest were influenced too. As long as they had time, they would look for extra classes to attend. Law lectures were their favorite. Here, they hear about many eye-opening stories like how a small item created a group fight in a village and so on.

Both Li Yuanying and Di Renjie are extremely alert. When they attend classes, they not only listen but tries to solve the questions posted by the lecturers. Originally, a topic would have lasted the whole session but with them around making a fuss, the topic is finished in less than a quarter of an hour.

The Law teacher is now a little afraid of the boys and secretly urged their class teachers to give more homework to these energetic boys, so that they wouldn’t have time to attend other lectures.

The teacher teaching them Five Classics was also helpless: “I can’t go any faster, otherwise other students can’t keep up.”

There are many students here, a teacher can’t just simply change the syllabus just for a selected few. Instead of letting them harm their own classmates, we should let them go out and disturb the law school instead!

The Law teacher is also quick-witted. If he can’t get rid of them then he will come up with trouble for the boys. He went looking for the Math teacher and copied some interesting problems for Li Yuanying to solve.

Li Yuanying had a look.  Oh it’s an interesting topic. While doing, he couldn’t figure it out!

He is not someone who gives up easily. If he doesn’t understand something, he can always ask around. He first asked his friends and then led his group of equally clueless friends to pester the maths teacher.

How do you count the number of chickens and rabbits by just counting its legs? Why do you put something in water to calculate its volume? What kind of cutting method is the cyclotomic method? Mathematics is really a deep and broad topic!

Mathematics teacher: “…”

Oh, now he knows why the Law lecturer was suddenly so interested in math. It’s a trap waiting for him!

Treacherous and cunning!

And Shameless!

But these boys were hungry and dedicated to learn. They were all sincerely here for knowledge and a teacher cannot refuse them. They could only patiently answer Li Yuanying’s questions one by one.

In the end, it was the calligraphy teacher who gave the children a difficult handwriting practice that made them calm down.

It is really a sweet burden to have such students!

In February, the exams will be held. By the start of spring, many scholars would have gathered in Chang’an City. Students in the Academy who weren’t taking the examination were cooperative and created a good environment for those who were going for their exams.

On the day before the beginning of the Spring Festival, Li Yuanying and his group ushered in a rare occasion of rest.  After being held up at school for nearly a month, the students were allowed out into the city. Everyone was in a happy mood. Li Yuanying packed up, said his goodbyes and led Li Zhi and Chenyang back to the palace.

Li Zhi and Cheng Yang went to visit the Emperor while Li Yuanying went looking for mother. The boy had a habit of sending her a letter every few days to inform mother about all the happy things that he had encountered along the way as a form of comfort to Lady Liu so that she will not be too worried about him.  

Seeing her child in person, Lady Liu was nervous and checked if her child has lost weight. After making sure that Li Yuanying was not starving or being bullied, she pulled him to sit at the table to try out the dishes that she had personally cooked herself.

After food, Li Yuanying made his men come over and share a detail report about all his pending affairs.

Restaurant Feng Thai has been on the right track in accordance to his plans and has been recruiting good cooks. They were paid well and had a systematic division of labor, so many were willing to change jobs and come over. They have also collected many recipes from all over the country; all collected through money and without force.  All recipes were being copied and 1 copy is always sent back to the palace for Lady Liu.

Li Yuanying needed to pick the best people and bring them over with him to his land in the future. Spending much now is an investment. Even if there is no return of investment, just the thought of letting mother have a chance to do whatever she likes is worth it for Li Yuanying.

He instructed Dong Xiaoyi to look out for opportunity and to act when the time is right.

Families who can send their children to school must also have more resources than the average people. Therefore, Eating a meal outside is definitely within their means. As long as they tie Feng Thai Restaurant and the Imperial Academy together, there will be no lacking in customers! In the future when his seniors and classmates make money, would they turn around and damage the reputation of Feng Thai Restaurant that fed them throughout their schooling days? As long as you meet a few that had pure heart, we will not lose money!

Lately the young prince went for many math classes and his skills has improved tremendously. He mentioned to the Emperor previously that he will build him a road from the Palace to Mountain Tai and now h even has plans to build shops and business along the route. There’s no need to use even a drop of the government funds! If the Restaurant business does well then there will be no worries on food sources – he will open a new branches along the route and then build an inn too so that lodging is settled.

The more the young prince thought about it, the more he is convinced that his plan is a good one. He called for Dong Xiaoyi to hire people from the East region the next time he is recruiting chefs. Tell them that once they have perfected their skills they will be repatriate back to their hometown to work as head chef and to take charge of the whole Restaurant!

With the Academy taking in and graduating many students every year, the crowd is huge. The kitchen here can be used as a large training ground to train capable chefs on  fundamentals of cooking and equip them with skills to hold huge banquets and develop customized dishes.

Dong Xiaoyi took down notes diligently and updated his boss about Dai Ting’s whereabouts:  “Dai Ting will be back soon, maybe in 2 more days.”

“I wonder how are things for Weng Cheng. Did he say anything in his letter?” (Li Yuanying excitedly)

Dong XiaoYi shook his head.

Dai Ting isn’t someone who is fond of writing letters. If he is met with any challenges, he would prefer solving things himself.

Yuanying knew his man well and wasn’t disappointed. Just keep him updated so that he knows when Dai Ting is back.

After that, Prince Teng’s men came one after another to update him about things that happened in and outside the palace.

Things within the palace were peaceful, mainly because the Emperor is wise. Those who deserves praises will be praised but he will also not over-indulge anyone.

The ladies in the harem would also not bother fighting out of jealousy. If they wanted to be jealous, they should direct it towards the ministers who were instructed to stay back late to discuss work. The Emperor spends day and night with his men working!

Since the Emperor behave as such, things in the palace are naturally very calm. However, things were slightly different for Li Tai, this was mainly because the Emperor due to the hot and humid weather tend to fall ill. Although he miraculously recovered last year, he is still prone to reinfection.

Li Tai wanting to be filial went around looking for herbs and medication. The Emperor seeing his precious son looking so tired felt bad and mentioned that he should move to Wude palace. By law, a grown son should live outside the palace with the only exception being the Crown prince!