Sun Mu was distracted by what he heard, and also remembered that when Mingyuan was a child, he would sometimes get frightened and cry incessantly at night. No matter how the wet nurse tried to comfort him, it was of no use. Mingyuan’s crying was so loud that he couldn’t sleep, so he put on his clothes and went to check on him. When he got up to him, Mingyuan stopped crying.

　　Mingyuan loves him as his father and imitates him in everything.

　　But it was all his fault. It was he who killed Mingyuan.

　　”…You posted a message and invited him to come to my place, saying that you can enjoy plum blossoms, drink wine and write poetry.”

　　”Teacher?” Liang Zizhi still pretended not to understand.

　　Sun Mu glanced at the boy and said, “Although the food is good, you keep talking about Gu Zhao and picking up things that I like to hear. Isn’t that your purpose? You are just like Shi Mingwen. He persuaded me to accept a disciple, and you also wanted me to accept a disciple to comfort me.”

　　”Master Shi also asked you to accept a disciple? Who? Xiao Gu?” Liang Zizhi did not deny it. His master was old, and because Mingyuan passed away, his master’s wife had become estranged from him. Now his master’s wife stayed at home in Chuzhou and refused to see guests. She was a vegetarian and worshipped Buddha all year round. His master had been wandering outside without a place to live. Liang Zizhi felt heartbroken when he saw this.

　　”Yan Jinxin.”

　　Liang Zizhi heard this and muttered, “This top scholar is well-educated, even better than me, but his temperament is exactly the same as Master Shi’s, upright and solemn. Master, if you accept him as your heir, you will definitely not be able to stand his strict rules.”

　　Sun Mu wanted to give this disciple some stern words, so he said, “Then let’s invite Yan Jinxin as well. I’ll send a visiting card and invite Lord Shi to come to our house to be a judge, and we’ll have fun.”

　　”…” Liang Zizhi. How can I be happy about this?

　　But I still followed the rules and posted the message.

　　Two days later, a servant knocked on the door of the Li family and delivered a gift. It was a box of cakes from Lord Shi’s family, and a calligraphy written by Lord Shi himself, which showed that he was very satisfied with the New Year gift. Lord Zhao also had a carved dwarf pine ink stick, which was of the best quality.

　　It’s a pity that there is no Taobao now, otherwise Gu Zhao would be able to know the price by just scanning the QR code – it’s not that he is materialistic, but he has to write it down. If the gift he returns is more expensive than the one he gave, he will make up for it next time he goes out with others.

　　Gu Zhao wrote it down and planned to go to the shop to ask at the beginning of the year. He couldn’t just ask other colleagues in the office, right? If this word got out, people would think that he had some relationship with Lord Zhao, or that he looked down on the return gift from Lord Zhao.

　　Later I asked around, and found out that this ink stick was of good quality, and with the engraving, although it was not made by a famous artist, it still cost six or seven taels of silver.

　　The return gift from Tian Daren^[1]“Daren” is a polite and respectful way to address someone, particularly those of higher social standing or age was also food, which was osmanthus glutinous rice lotus root and a can of lotus root powder. In this weather, and the lotus root is produced in the south, or it should be sold in Beijing, but the production is scarce. This gift is still very rare and not particularly outstanding, and it is tied with the braised duck sent by Gu Zhao.

　　Gu Zhao didn’t have to rack his brains to make up the difference.

　　Li Zhouzhou was writing down the ink sticks. During the Chinese New Year of the 57th year of Kangjing, he received an ink stick as a return gift from Mr. Zhao, a Hanlin scholar. He left the price column blank, and wrote at the end that he was sending Mr. Zhao a box of braised duck.

　　The couple was discussing the gifts when Mother Lan came in with a note in her hand and said, “Master and Madam, this was sent by someone in the front, saying that it is from Mr. Sun’s family.”

　　Mr. Sun?

　　Gu Zhao was stunned at first. His family had never given gifts to Mr. Sun before, and he didn’t know Mr. Sun since he had just arrived in Beijing. Thinking this in his mind, he took the note and opened it. He said, “It’s not a big deal. This Mr. Sun is Mr. Liang’s teacher.”

　　The post was simply written. After reading it, Gu Zhao handed it to Zhou Zhou and asked him to read it.

　　”Is it Lord Liang who gave an extra piece of jelly?” Li Zhouzhou remembered it, because his husband and father both loved to eat this. They watched as two large pots were cooked and a lot was given to the Yan family first, and some was kept for their own family. Except for Lord Liang, other masters’ families did not have this.

　　Because it’s not enough.

　　”yes.”

　　After reading the post, Li Zhouzhou explained that Mr. Sun invited his husband to come over to his house two days later, which would be the 15th.

　　”We still have some braised duck at home, so we’ll pack two more boxes. Luckily, we bought too many boxes at the time, but won’t this be too light? Or should I get something else?”

　　Gu Zhao patted Zhou Zhou’s hands and said, “Look, we received so many return gifts today, including a precious ink stick. This shows that Lord Shi and several colleagues love to eat it and think that our braised duck tastes good, so they gave us such a fine return gift. So just take the duck and don’t take anything else.”

　　”I’ll go early that day and come back before it gets dark, so that our family can go to the street to see the lanterns.”

　　Li Zhouzhou smiled and said, “Business matters are more important. It doesn’t matter if we don’t watch the lanterns later. The weather is cold and Dad is afraid that Fubao might catch a cold if he carries him outside.”

　　”Then it’s just right that we don’t have to bring Fubao.” Gu Zhao said confidently, and then said pitifully, “Zhou Zhou, you told me that this is our first time in Beijing for the New Year, and we haven’t seen the lanterns yet. You said you would accompany me to see the lanterns.”

　　Li Zhouzhou had never been able to deal with such a husband, so he could only soften his heart and agree.

　　In the afternoon, Yan Jinxin came over and handed two posts to Gu Zhao.

　　Gu Zhao took a look at the letter and found it was an invitation. He skipped over the polite words and grasped the main information, which said that the second brother was invited to come over on the 15th for a chat. When he saw the signature, his brows jumped and frowned.

　　Chu Ningyuan.

　　In fact, I guessed it when I saw Chu Mansion before I opened it.

　　Gu Zhao glanced at his second brother, who looked normal, not particularly ecstatic, so he suppressed his words and looked at the second letter. When he saw the name, he raised his eyebrows and handed over his own.

　　Yan Jin took the letter and saw the words “Sun Mansion” on it, then looked at Gu Zhao. Gu Zhao nodded, “I received it this morning. I guess it was around the corner. They invited me to their house for a feast on the 15th.”

　　“…It’s about appreciating flowers and writing poems.”

　　Gu Zhao: “Second brother, check your conscience and ask me if appreciating flowers and writing poems is suitable for me? I used to appreciate flowers and eat banquets.”

　　Forget about his poems which are not very inspiring. Eating a banquet is suitable for him.

　　Yan Jinxin really couldn’t go against his conscience and boast that Zhaodi’s poetry was good enough, so he could only change the subject and said, “This Mr. Sun invited me to his house, but the name on the message was Liang Ze from your courtyard.”

　　Liang Ze is Liang Zizhi’s name, and Zizhi is the character given to him by his teacher.

　　”I have only met him a few times, and we are not even close friends.” Yan Jinxin frowned, “Why did he invite me to his house? Also, is this Mr. Sun the Crane Immortal from earlier?”

　　When the “Collection of Poems by Crane Immortal” was first published in the official schools of prefectures and counties, almost everyone had a copy, and it was widely circulated and highly praised. Gu Zhao and Yan Jinxin also had a copy each, but they were both hand-copied copies of Zheng Hui’s original copy.

　　Why do I say it was early? It was because Crane Immortal hadn’t written any poems for more than ten years.

　　”If it’s not a coincidence, it’s probably true.” Gu Zhao thought so. Nowadays, there are few scholars, and even fewer who can become masters. To publish poetry collections is rare among the rare.

　　Zheng Hui bought an authentic collection of poems, so it is impossible that there was a printing error in the column introducing the author.

　　”I heard before that our Lord Shi and Master Liang Zizhi are close friends. A scholar who can befriend Lord Shi and teach a young scholar like Lord Liang who became famous as a third place in the imperial examination must be well-educated.”

　　After Gu Zhao finished speaking, he became serious, “Now the time to go to Sun Mansion and Lord Chu overlaps. If I^[2]you go to Sun Mansion, I^[3]you can’t go to Lord Chu. What do you think, second brother?”

　　”Lord Chu’s invitation arrived first.” Yan Jinxin said hesitantly, “To be honest, I never thought that Lord Chu would invite me to his house.”

　　Gu Zhao could understand why. His second brother was the first in last year’s class and had won the top three places in a row. He had no family support behind him, which meant that he had no constraints on his abilities. Unlike Du Ruoqi, if someone wanted to recruit him, he would definitely not agree because there were powerful forces behind the Du family.

　　In their class, there are only him and his second brother from a poor family. If he has to choose one, he will naturally choose the one with stronger ability.

　　”Brother, I’m telling you the truth.” Gu Zhao thought, maybe it was only one or two years? He couldn’t remember clearly, his original body’s memory was also vague, and he was in a foreign place, so he heard it from hearsay, so he didn’t remember the exact time point, but if he calculated it, it was about one or two years.

　　Mr. Chu, who was once the idol of all poor scholars in the world, was confiscated and beheaded.

　　Now, a high-ranking official of the second rank in the court is trying to win over the second brother. No matter how you look at it, it seems like a huge pie in the sky, which cannot be eaten because it is poisonous.

　　Gu Zhao said, “Second brother, it’s not easy to get into Lord Chu’s door. Even if you get in, I’m afraid he has other intentions. We are now in the Hanlin Academy. With your knowledge, within a few years, after passing the exam, you will be a close minister to the emperor. It’s better to be a loyal minister.”

　　No danger.

　　Now they feel that their position is out of favor, and they want to curry favor with the powerful, but it is not so easy to curry favor with the powerful. Once the powerful have bad intentions and want to get a position, if something goes wrong, it will be these cannon fodders with no background who will fill the hole.

　　”If it was just this one letter, I would have gone over. Lord Chu has invited me, a subordinate of the seventh rank, and I don’t want to offend him, so I would have gone over to take a look. But now that Crane Immortal has sent me an invitation, I naturally have to go to Crane Immortal.” Yan Jinxin had already made up his mind.

　　If Mr. Sun is the Crane Immortal, then he would naturally go to the Sun Mansion.