Chapter 75

“Why is it like this?” One of the doctors couldn’t help but mutter.

Others echoed, “Indeed, it’s unbelievable!”

The faces of Wei’s parents turned even paler.

After a brief discussion, they looked at Wei’s parents’ expressions and quickly reassured them, “Master Wei, Madam Wei, don’t be nervous, it’s a good thing! Second Young Master’s health has greatly improved!”

Another doctor added, “Second Young Master naturally had weak lungs from birth, and warm nourishing medicines were ineffective. But now, his old illnesses have disappeared completely! We were just surprised for a moment.”

Upon hearing this, Wei’s parents’ faces finally brightened.

Indeed, it had been almost half an hour since they received Wei Xi at the door. In this half hour, he hadn’t coughed once!

“What extraordinary experience did Second Young Master have outside? Could you tell us a little?” Several middle-aged doctors stared at him with eyes shining like young men, enthusiastic and excited.

Before Wei Xi could speak, they had already imagined a story. Perhaps a wealthy young man had studied in a remote town and happened to meet a legendary healer hiding in the mountains.

Of course, such a similar encounter did not exist. Wei Xi had to break their fantasy under their eager gaze, “Uncles, the kind of encounter you’re thinking of didn’t happen. I have indeed felt much better recently, but I haven’t seen a doctor or taken any medicine. I don’t know why.”

The doctors looked at Wei’s parents, who subconsciously thought Wei Xi was hiding something as he had in the past.

The situation here needs to be explained carefully. They didn’t force Wei Xi to speak. Mrs. Wei said, “Xiao Xi, you’ve been on the road for so long and must be tired. Come, have a meal with Mom. Let your father, brother, and the doctors discuss slowly.”

Wei Xi obediently followed Mrs. Wei away.

After they left, the doctors looked at Wei Shu with the same intense gaze.

Wei Shu immediately said, “He didn’t lie or hide anything. His experiences this year have indeed been somewhat strange, but he didn’t meet any famous doctors.”

The doctors had a strong friendship with the Wei family, and Wei Xi’s entry into Cuiwei Academy was not particularly glorious, so Wei Shu slowly explained the matter to them.

After telling the whole story, they couldn’t find any trace of a famous doctor.

Finally, one doctor tentatively asked, “Could it be that the climate there is just right for healing the body?”

Since ancient times, there has been a saying that the local environment nurtures people, and many people with poor health would settle in the south. However, Water Cloud Village, theoretically also in the north, actually has such a pleasant environment, which is quite unbelievable.

Wei Shu followed their train of thought and nodded in agreement, “You’re right. Every time I enter Cuiwei Academy, I feel my senses sharpened, my mind clearer. And that academy used to be the old residence of a good friend of mine. My friend even achieved great success in his studies. And his younger brother, who is Second Young Master’s senior brother, used to be a bit lacking in the past. I heard that he suddenly became enlightened for some reason, learned two years’ worth of courses in just one year, and is also very talented in archery and other skills. He is also quite plump and healthy, never having any headaches or fevers…”

Wei Shu was not a member of Cuiwei Academy, so there was no need for him to lie for them. Moreover, he was not someone who exaggerate. So, it became even more convincing that Cuiwei Academy was definitely a gathering place for spiritual energy!

Wei’s father was also excited and asked eagerly, “According to your opinions, if my son stays in that place, this Feng Shui treasure land, for three or five years, what about his other chronic illnesses…”

After some discussion, the doctors sent a representative to say, “Second Young Master’s most difficult lung disease has been eradicated, and other minor illnesses should be even less of a concern.”

Their words stirred some interest in them, wanting to see the place that could nourish the body and even cultivate talents like their descriptions at Cuiwei Academy.

But that place was an academy, not a tourist attraction, so it wouldn’t be appropriate to bring it up.

With the rare family reunion, the doctors soon took their leave after speaking.

Wei Shu personally saw them off. When he returned, he saw Wei’s father still waiting in the hall, apparently wanting to talk.

Wei’s father hesitated for a moment before finally speaking, “Ah Shu, if Cuiwei Academy is really that good, why don’t you…”

“Father, don’t say that. I’ve been a student at Qingzhu Academy for some time now. In the coming year or maybe another year after that, I’ll have to prepare for my next step. Changing academies now, aside from whether I can adapt or not, might also bring me a bad reputation…” Wei Shu hesitated, “The main reason is that they might not accept me.”

Whether his energy was enough or not was not the point for now. The fact that he had offended Shen Cui due to prejudice earlier… and yet she could still treat him with kindness, was already quite rare.

Wei Shu was too embarrassed to bring up this topic.

So Wei’s father didn’t mention it anymore and said, “Then I won’t bring it up. Remember to visit that place more often in the future. Absorb some of its Feng Shui!”

Wei Shu replied helplessly, “Okay.”

While Cuiwei Academy did not limit Wei Xi’s return time, Qingzhu Academy resumed classes after the Lantern Festival.

After staying at home for a few days, Mrs. Wei arranged their luggage for them.

After the pulse diagnosis, there was no need for Wei Xi to mention it again. Wei’s parents urged him to return to Cuiwei to ‘nourish’ his body.

Moreover, they didn’t know before and only gave him a monthly allowance of ten taels of silver. Now Wei’s parents felt even more embarrassed.

Ten taels of silver was not even worth the few doses of medicine Wei Xi had taken earlier!

Before sending them off, Wei’s parents were unsure whether to give a thank-you gift directly or increase the monthly allowance for the future.

The Wei family were business people after all, and they didn’t deal with scholars much. In the end, they couldn’t decide and asked Wei Shu and Wei Xi for their opinions, as they understood the character of the head of Cuiwei Academy better.

Wei Shu said, “Just give cash directly. The head of Cuiwei Academy is straightforward.” He had gradually changed his view of Shen Cui because of her straightforwardness.

However, Wei Xi said, “Our head often says ‘money and material possessions are just external things.’ Although she is just a woman and cannot be considered a literati, she has a noble character that looks down on material possessions. If you give her money directly, she will definitely spend it on the academy.”

Wei Shu agreed with this.

A monthly allowance of ten taels of silver, plus the occasional silver he gave, was definitely a large sum of money for a farming family.

But Shen Cui really didn’t use this silver to improve her living conditions. If she had spent it all on food and drink, Mu Er Pang, the head’s own son, wouldn’t have to treat a bag of peach pastries as a treasure.

Yes, peach pastries. Wei Shu then instructed the servant to quickly buy some snacks from the snack shop outside that were easy to store and carry.

Although Wei’s parents didn’t know Shen Cui, from what their sons said, they could see a woman headmaster with noble character who regarded money as dirt.

“I see, now we understand.”

………

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away from the capital in Water Cloud Village, Cuiwei Academy.

Sitting at her desk, Shen Cui suddenly started sneezing continuously, sneezing more than a dozen times in a row while biting the pen holder.

Mu Er Pang, Lao Buyu, and even Zhou Shi, who was drawing nearby, all looked at her with concern.

Shen Cui also checked her body’s statistics on the light screen.

There were no changes in her physical condition, and her sneezing finally stopped. She said to everyone, “It’s okay, just go about your own business. Maybe someone is thinking about me.”

Seeing that she was fine, everyone didn’t say anything more, and Shen Cui continued to bite the pen holder.

“Are you having trouble?” Zhou Shi, who had completed the preliminary design, turned her head to look and saw that the paper in front of Shen Cui was completely blank. “If so, tell me, maybe I can help?”

Shen Cui scratched her head in embarrassment. “This trouble, maybe you can’t help me with it. Let me think about it myself.”

The thing that was troubling Shen Cui could be summed up in two words—raising money!

In the end, it was because as time passed, the academy’s expenses multiplied. Not only were there large expenditures on pens, ink, and paper, but even the food and drink that she used to think were not very costly had become a big problem.

Before the New Year, Shen Cui had already made plans. She bought two reference books and brought them back. At that time, the system made fun of her, saying her level was worrying, and it didn’t know when she would reach the level of being able to help copy books for others.

But copying books also earns hard-earned money. Shen Cui didn’t have that intention; she wanted to write herself. After writing it out, even if the handwriting was ugly, as long as it was recognizable, the study room would naturally hire someone with beautiful handwriting to transcribe it.

Moreover, she had been studying hard in the academy for a while now, so writing a book wouldn’t seem strange.

But as beautiful as the idea was, reality was still quite harsh.

Shen Cui didn’t read many novels in her previous life, and the few she did read were such as the imperial examination essays, similar to the one she had transmigrated into.

Now, to write an imperial examination essay, she would have to fabricate an extremely impressive male protagonist, right? The male protagonists in imperial examination essays were all standard, having achieved outstanding results.

And this world was destined to have an even more impressive figure, someone who she didn’t get along with. If he thought she was using him as a prototype and intended to defame him in the book, it would be an unclear ‘literary trial.’

There was also a more realistic point: Shen Cui had to admit that the current imperial examination essays were really culturally rich. For her now, not only writing but also reading them required quite a bit of brainpower.

Like the two books she casually bought in the study room earlier, one was about the love story between a fallen famous courtesan and a scholar, not only vividly illustrated with various extravagant entertainment activities but also beautifully written.

Any description of the famous courtesan’s appearance would be something like “her two arched eyebrows painted the distant mountains green, her pair of eyes bright as autumn water.” Even the so-called not very literary scholar, when he casually recited, it was a very neat seven-character regulated poem.

The other book was a travelogue, with even better illustrations, paired with the author’s detailed and vivid descriptions and corresponding majestic or elegant poems, making people feel like they were really traveling in famous mountains and rivers.

So, not only did she need to come up with new ideas for topics, but she also needed to carefully craft her sentences.

Of course, with Shen Cui’s level, she could also write in plain language, easy to understand!

But those who liked “easy to understand” probably didn’t have a very high level of education and wouldn’t have spare money to buy books for entertainment.

Most importantly, the bookstores wouldn’t accept it—there were already so many successful examples in the market, why would they spend money on her different and possibly failed attempt?

Shen Cui was not wealthy, she couldn’t just wave her hand and say, “You just copy and print it for me, if it doesn’t sell, I’ll take the risk myself!”

She didn’t have the opportunity to trial and error.

[Host is after all a modern person from the future, you’ve read “Dream of the Red Chamber,” can’t you imitate it? Do you still care about copyright law? That’s not something you used to deceive me before, there is no such concept in this world.]

Shen Cui put down her pen, [Of course, I’ve read it. There is indeed no copyright law here, but the law has always been just the bottom line. I don’t want to profit from others’ labor.]

The system hesitated for a moment before continuing, [I didn’t expect that you would be quite… in some aspects.]

[And I only know the plot of “Dream of the Red Chamber,” I can’t recite it! I don’t have the exquisite literary style like theirs, those offhand classical poems, if I use plain language to write about my stories, and all, can that make money?]

[Then… what’s your decision?]

[What else can I do, wait for Master to teach Er Pang poetry, and I’ll learn along with him!]

Seeing that her focus value was about to drop, she stopped chatting with the system and continued to bite her pen in distress.