Chapter 66

By the time Zhou Shi recognized over a hundred common characters, it was late September.

After nearly a month of effort, Shen Cui finally accumulated enough shopping points, reaching over a thousand.

During this month, the system was quite fair and didn’t include tasks like making the academy head cook, so Shen Cui didn’t lose out.

But once her shopping points exceeded a thousand and she upgraded the academy to level 2, an extra slot for a cultivation target became available.

On this particular day, just before noon, the cooking task came again.

Shen Cui was already skilled at making dishes, but now she couldn’t casually leave the academy, so she just cooked in the academy’s kitchen.

After the experiences with stinky tofu and dumpling soup, now that they knew she was cooking, not only the two children, but even Lao Buyu, had grown indifferent and wouldn’t let such things affect their mood or delay their own affairs.

The only slightly tricky part was that it was not easy to exclude Zhou Shi now. Shen Cui had to invite her to eat.

Fortunately, Zhou Shi was not particular about food and drink, especially since Shen Cui now took her along every day to learn characters and writing, effectively becoming her half-teacher. When Shen Cui made the hot pancakes and gave some to Zhou Shi, she ate them without any disdain.

After dealing with the routine of the academy that required some effort, Shen Cui waited for the system to settle the reward. As the system had said, after upgrading the academy, not only would there be more active slots, but the daily rewards would also become more generous.

The system never lied, and the rewards did increase—[Reward: 60 shopping points].

This made Shen Cui laugh. It was like cooking a meal and instead of losing 30 points, she only lost 20.

She couldn’t say the system was cheating her; she could only console herself.

A few days later, before the mid-month break at Qingzhu Academy, Wei Shu came early.

Fortunately, the academy doors were closed at that time. When he knocked on the door, Shen Cui added him to the system before letting him in, so it didn’t make that day’s time gain ineffective.

This time, he wasn’t here to visit Wei Xi, but to deliver a family letter.

After Mu Yunchuan passed the academy exam and became a top-tier student, he entered the prefectural school and never came back in between.

A few days ago, the Wei family’s servants went to the prefectural city to buy things. Wei Shu figured that he should have settled down by now, so he sent someone to the prefectural school to find him, to see if he was doing well and if he needed anything.

Mu Yunchuan handed over two letters to be delivered to the Wei family’s servants.

One was for the academy head, and the other was a letter personally written to Shen Cui.

When the family letter was delivered, Shen Cui knew the original plot of the book—Mu Yunchuan had the protagonist’s halo and would only get better and better, without anyone needing to worry. But since he still adhered to filial piety, he specifically wrote in the letter to be opened by her. Naturally, she had to open it in front of others.

The family letter was only two pages long. The first page described his adaptation in the prefectural city, where the teachers and classmates were kind, and everyone took good care of him.

The shorter second page first asked about Shen Cui’s well-being, then urged Mu Er Pang to study hard, respect his teachers, be friendly with his classmates, and, most importantly, be filial to his mother on his behalf. Finally, he asked a few questions about Zhou Shi, telling her to take care of herself and not to worry about him anymore.

There was also three taels of silver in the envelope. It was the silver money distributed by the court to top-tier students, totaling four taels. Mu Yunchuan said the court also provided six dou of grain per month, enough for his needs. Since he didn’t have much to spend money on at the prefectural school, he only kept one tael with him and sent the rest back.

Mu Er Pang read the family letter aloud, and as Zhou Shi listened, her eyes welled up with tears. “It’s not easy to be away from home. How can there be nowhere to spend money in a place like the prefectural city?”

As soon as she spoke, Zhou Shi immediately closed her mouth. Because the family letter was personally written to Shen Cui, the decision regarding the returned silver should also be made by her. As a daughter-in-law, Zhou Shi had no right to interfere.

However, although Shen Cui’s finances were tight right now, she didn’t want Mu Yunchuan’s money either. Upon hearing Zhou Shi’s words, she put the silver ingot into her hand and said, “You’re right. It’s definitely more expensive to be away from home. But it’s okay. Next month, when the Wei family’s people go to the prefectural city again, you can write a letter in reply and send the silver back.”

“I… I write it?” Zhou Shi couldn’t care less about her wounded feelings now; her cheeks flushed.

It was fine to learn to write in private, but to write a letter to Mu Yunchuan, who was so accomplished, made her feel embarrassed, as if she were dancing with a big knife in front of an Arena.

“Practice slowly. There’s still a month left.” Shen Cui continued to encourage her. “Besides, you write better than me. I’m not afraid of looking bad; I practice here every day. What are you afraid of?”

Shen Cui used herself as a negative example, and Zhou Shi no longer hesitated. She nodded and immediately found a corner to start practicing writing ahead of time.

After this incident, the break between classes passed, and Shen Cui observed everyone’s focus, urging them to study on their own.

Wei Shu was manually added by Shen Cui as the 3rd student in the academy system, so he could see all his data as well.

I won’t go into details about his aptitude; he excels in all aspects.

But on this day, his mood value and focus value were surprisingly low?

Although he was not a cultivation target sent by the system task, just a temporary substitute, the system wouldn’t make a mistake.

Wei Shu was indeed not feeling great.

He was worried about Mu Yunchuan’s situation, which prompted him to send someone to the prefectural school to find him.

However, Mu Yunchuan only sent a message through the servant and did not prepare a letter for him in advance.

It’s not that Mu Yunchuan was wrong, because both of his letters were for the elders, and even his younger brother Mu Er Pang and his wife Zhou Shi only received a few words.

The Wei family’s servant also explained to him, “The rules at the prefectural school are strict, and I went at an inopportune time, not during rest hours. After going through several procedures and waiting for a long time, Mr. Mu hurriedly came and gave me two letters, asking me to convey a few words to you, and then he was summoned away.”

Rationally, Wei Shu knew Mu Yunchuan wasn’t wrong. The journey from the prefectural city to the county town and village was long, and communication was difficult. If he asked a traveling merchant to deliver a letter, it would cost one or two taels of silver per letter. He only had a total of four taels of silver, so he couldn’t predict that the Wei family would go looking for him. He initially planned to spend two taels of silver to ask someone to deliver the letter, send one tael back home in the envelope, and keep one tael with him.

However, emotionally, he still felt a bit uncomfortable.

If this had happened before, he would have definitely not cared. As a man, why bother with such trivial matters?

But human nature is such that once there’s a seed of doubt, it’s easy to be overly suspicious and entangled in a small matter.

Wei Shu was conflicted between reason and emotion, feeling uneasy on one hand and scornful of himself for being petty on the other.

Although Shen Cui’s relationship with him had greatly improved, it was not yet at the point where they could confide in each other.

But his focus value kept dropping, and the academy’s gains were about to expire!

“During the hot weather, you came here less often and missed two monthly exams. I still kept the papers for you. Since you came early today, why not take advantage of the good weather and do a Exam paper?” Shen Cui took out the exam papers from the system and placed them in Mu Er Pang’s desk drawer, then opened the drawer and took out the papers.

Wei Shu didn’t have the slightest intention of studying at the moment, but since it was Shen Cui’s kindness, he didn’t refuse.

“There are many people in the main hall. Don’t write here; go to the simulated exam room to take the test.”

The reward from the system, the “Simulated Exam Room,” had been available for some time, but recently everyone in the academy had been studying double time, and it was not yet time for the next monthly exam, so Shen Cui had not used it.

Of course, what the system provided was not a real room. Otherwise, it would be frightening to suddenly have an extra room in the academy.

Instead, Shen Cui designated a space here as the exam room. So, this was it!

The old Mu family house still had a storage room, a small room.

Before, the Shen family helped clean and repair, so this room was also tidied up.

The dining table used for meals was placed here, and it was brought out every mealtime.

So, although the room was relatively clean, with an old octagonal table in the middle and brooms, stools, and buckets in the corners, it was very simple.

Wei Shu could now joke with Shen Cui. He raised an eyebrow and said, “The headmaster is right. This ‘simulated exam room’ is very ‘simulated’ indeed.”

Shen Cui placed the exam papers and writing materials on the table. “You have to use your imagination. If you imagine it’s real, then it is.”

Seeing that Wei Shu’s focus value was really about to drop below the passing line, Shen Cui didn’t say anything else and immediately left.

When only Wei Shu was left in the room, he smiled and shook his head, then started to grind the ink. “Well, imagination, I’ll try.”

However, somehow, in the next moment, Wei Shu felt that the atmosphere in the room had changed—

There seemed to be a heavy, rotten, damp smell in the air.

This was because the exam room was only used periodically, and the well in the exam room was opened only once every year or three years, so the combined smell was very unpleasant.

And around him, the occasional barking of dogs that could be heard but suddenly all of this changed to a quietness where you could hear a pin drop, the unpleasant smell disappear and he could faintly hear the sound of a brush writing next to him.

Wei Shu was lost for a moment. What was he doing?

Right, he was taking the exam!

Wei Shu no longer cared about anything else and began to concentrate, reading the exam paper word by word.

Shen Cui looked satisfactorily at the academy interface, where the Q version of Wei Shu’s focus value soared from the passing line to the fullest.