Super Cultivation System of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 926: Stunned Scholars
"This Huangfu Qingleng, how noble and arrogant he was in the past, but now, after disappearing for several years, he is willing to be a mere library guard? Is the current emperor really that charming?"

"That's hard to say. If there are really 400,000 volumes of classics in the library, it's not surprising that he would be willing to stay there, considering his reputation as a bookworm."

As everyone was guessing, the young scholar bowed to Huangfu Han and said, "I haven't seen Brother Huangfu for many years. Today, I see that he is still as elegant as ever."

Huangfu Han glanced at him and said, "Who are you? I don't know you. There's no need to try to get close to me."

"You..." The young scholar felt embarrassed and a little annoyed.

He suppressed his displeasure and asked directly, "May I ask, Master Huangfu, since you are the keeper of the library, you must be familiar with the books and classics in it. I wonder if what Lord Lu said just now, that there are more than 400,000 books of various schools, is true?"

He openly questioned Lu Zhi's words, and even though Lu Zhi was very well-educated, his face darkened.

Huangfu Han was looking directly at this person at this time, but his eyes were full of sarcasm.

"Who do you think you are to question Lord Lu?"

"You...how dare you be so rude?" The young scholar's eyes widened and he was very angry.

"Hehe... Why bother talking about etiquette when dealing with rude people?" Huangfu Han sneered at him and didn't care.

The young scholar was so angry that his face turned red, which made Lu Zhi feel very happy: "This cold and virtuous nephew, I haven't seen him for a few years, and his demeanor has become more extraordinary."

At this time, another scholar stood up and said, "Huangfu Han, we respect you as a fellow scholar and a leader of our generation. We gave you some face just now, but please don't be ungrateful."

"That's right. There are obviously very few books in the Imperial Academy. You and Lord Lu are helping the tyrant and deceiving the scholars and people of the world. Aren't you afraid of being punished by God?"

"That's right, we will never enter the Imperial College!"

"Not only will we not be allowed in, but we will also spread your deceitful behavior to the world, so that everyone can see your ugly faces, and let you be infamous for thousands of years and be cursed by future generations."

Huangfu Han looked at them coldly without changing his expression, and then said, "Why, do you really think that this highest institution of learning in the Han Dynasty doesn't even have 400,000 books?"

Several scholars sneered: "If there are really so many books, why are you delaying so much and not letting me take a look?"

"That's right, it must be fake."

Huangfu Han put his hands behind his back and said coldly, "Do you really want to go into the library and take a look for yourself before you believe it?"

"Of course. As the saying goes: Hearing is believing, seeing is believing. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed that there were 400,000 books in the Imperial College."

"Yes, I absolutely do not believe it. Today, thousands of us scholars will not leave unless we can see the library."

All the scholars shouted in unison, the crowd was so excited that their voices almost spread across half of Luoyang City.

Huangfu Han yawned. "The library is the most important place in the Imperial College. You are not from the Imperial College, so you are not allowed to enter. But considering your eagerness to learn, I can make an exception once. But... since I want to make an exception, I have to exchange it with other conditions, so that it will be fair."

The scholars did not expect him to answer like this, and were puzzled for a moment: "Conditions? What conditions do you want?"

Huangfu Han put his hands behind his back and took two steps forward. "I predict that after you have seen the library, you will all be vying to enter the Imperial College. But His Majesty has decreed that this re-examination is the last chance to enter the Imperial College this year. Since you missed it, you should not be admitted. But the public sentiment will be overwhelming, and I am afraid that His Majesty and the dean will not be able to refuse. If I agree, it will discourage the scholars who have already entered the Imperial College three days ago."

"Tsk... You are too arrogant, aren't you? Even if there are really 400,000 books in the library, we don't necessarily have to come here to study."

"That's right. I have a collection of more than 30,000 books at home, which is enough for me to study for half a lifetime. We are here today not for admission, but to clarify the truth and give an explanation to the Han scholars."

These people spoke with such conviction and righteousness that Huangfu Han secretly said, "They are so hypocritical and pretend to be so righteous."

He then said, "Since I said so, I have my reasons. By then, if you and your thousands of people really want to enter the Imperial College, it will be difficult for the dean to stop you."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Lu Zhi, bowed and said, "Dean, what do you think?"

Lu Zhi nodded and said, "My dear nephew, what you said is right. The Imperial College is the highest institution of learning, and it is intended to spread knowledge. If so many scholars really want to enroll together, I really can't refuse them. If my dear nephew has any way to deal with it, please teach me as soon as possible."

"I dare not. The dean has given an order, and I will obey it."

Huangfu Han stood up again and looked at the scholars: "In view of this, I propose a condition. If you want to enter the Imperial College, you should take the exam now. If you pass the exam, you will naturally become a student of the Imperial College. But if you are unwilling to take the exam, you must first read the library. At that time, it is not impossible for you to enter the Imperial College, but you can no longer be a student."

Everyone was surprised and asked, "If you enter the Imperial College but don't become a student, what else can you do?"

Huangfu Han said, "Of course you will be doing odd jobs. You will have to do all the work, such as fetching water, chopping wood, sweeping the floor, washing clothes, etc. And you must do it yourself, and you cannot ask others to do it for you. Otherwise, you will be expelled from the Imperial College immediately and will never be allowed to enter this gate again."

As soon as he said this, thousands of scholars burst into laughter.

"Hahaha...listen to his crazy talk...does he think we are fools?"

"Huangfu Qingleng, aren't you too confident?"

"Let alone for 400,000 books, even if it was for 800,000 books, we would not be humiliated and bow down to do menial work for it."

"A true man can be killed but not humiliated. Huangfu Han, you have made a wrong calculation."

Huangfu Han listened to the laughter of the crowd and didn't care: "How about this condition, do you agree or not? If you agree, I will take you to the library, if not, please go back. I am not bragging, but this library, except for Your Majesty, no one else can enter without my consent, no matter how close you are to the emperor."

Seeing his confident look, many scholars began to feel hesitant.

"I see he is so calm and composed, could it be..."

"What? I don't believe that there are so many books in the library. The court has never purchased books on a large scale, nor has it ordered people to urgently copy the classics of various schools. The books donated by many ministers of the court are no more than 100,000 volumes at most. As the saying goes, a skilled cook cannot cook without rice. The emperor is not a god, how can he conjure up these books out of thin air?"

"Brother, what you said makes sense. I think Huangfu Han is just playing tricks. We will play with him to the end."

"Yes, let's play to the end. Besides, even if there are really 400,000 books, so what? We won't be admitted to the Imperial College, and we won't have to do those menial jobs. In any case, we won't lose anything."

The scholars quickly made up their minds.

"Huangfu Han, we all agree, let's do it."

"Everyone agrees? No one is an exception? No one wants to take the entrance exam right now?"

Huangfu Han asked again.

The scholars replied in unison: "No, we all want to see the elegance of the library."

Huangfu Han sneered when he heard this: "In that case, then follow me."

He turned to Lu Zhi and said, "Please come with me, Dean." Lu Zhi smiled and said, "Haha, I have only been to this library once. Since then, I have been so fascinated by it that I can't sleep or eat. This time, I am really relying on their help."

The two men led the way, and thousands of scholars filed in and entered the Imperial College.

The Imperial Academy covered a vast area with numerous winding courtyards and corridors. After walking for a long while, they still hadn't reached the library, which made the scholars believe that the other party was playing a trick on them.

Many scholars secretly colluded with each other and were discussing how to launch an attack later to give Huangfu Han and Lu Zhi a warning.

Huangfu Han and Lu Zhi, who were leading the way, suddenly stopped and said, "Everyone, we're here. This is the library."

Everyone came to their senses and looked around, only to see lush forests and bamboos on both sides, pavilions, towers, rockery and fish ponds, which were extremely beautiful.

In front of them stood four four-story buildings. Each floor of these four buildings was connected by corridors. The exterior of the buildings, with flying eaves, steep cliffs, carved beams and painted buildings, was extremely spectacular.

"Everyone, these four small buildings are the book collection pavilions, corresponding to the four academies. However, dozens of volumes of classics common to the four academies, such as The Analects, Three Character Classic, Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, and Records of the Grand Historian, are all treasured in the four book collection pavilions."

When the scholars saw that Huangfu Han really brought them to the library, they became confused again.

"Is what Mr. Lu said true?"

"It has come to this point. Why would we care whether it is true or not? Can we still back down?"

The young scholar who had been speaking before stood up again and said, "In that case, please take us inside to have a closer look, so that we young people with limited knowledge can see the elegance of the Imperial Academy of the Han Dynasty."

Huangfu Han gave him a playful look and said, "Don't worry, since we are already here, I will naturally take you in. But don't forget your promise when the time comes."

He walked to the door of one of the pavilions with the words "Book Collection·Scriptures" inscribed on it and spoke a few words to the four guards guarding the door. The four men then slowly pushed open the four doors that looked very heavy.

He stood at the door and made a "please" gesture to the thousands of scholars.

The scholars looked at each other, and saw some hesitation in each other's eyes, but as the saying goes, the arrow is on the string and must be shot, and at this moment, they could not afford to hesitate.

"Let's go in. This is a good opportunity to expose them."

The young scholar was the first to walk over, and the other scholars followed.

"After we enter the gate, we will immediately spread out and check the books in various places. I think there will be books without words, books with many errors, or multiple copies of the same book placed in different places to fill the gaps. Once we find these problems, we can start trouble."

"Yes, today we must make this mixed Imperial Academy notorious."

All the scholars had made up their minds and were waiting to enter the four gates.

The four gates were very wide, large enough to accommodate hundreds of people entering side by side at the same time. Just when the first group of scholars reached the door, for some reason, they all suddenly stopped in unison and stopped moving forward, which surprised the scholars behind them.

"What's going on? What happened? Why did you suddenly stop?"

The people behind kept urging the scholars in the front, but what responded to them was the sudden exclamations of surprise from these scholars.

“Oh…Oh my God…How…How is this possible…”

Lu Zhi and Huangfu Han stood on both sides of the door, looking at them with mocking expressions without saying a word.

Hearing these exclamations, the people behind became more and more anxious. Just as they were about to squeeze forward, they were sternly rebuked by the four guards guarding the door: "How dare you! This is a restricted area of ​​the library. You are not allowed to push or cut in line. Otherwise, you will be whipped fifteen times in public."

Looking at these ferocious-looking guards, especially seeing the long whip they were playing with in their hands, the scholars swallowed their saliva and quickly gave up the idea of ​​squeezing through.

At this time, Huangfu Han reminded: "Scholars outside the door, don't you smell anything?"

After being reminded by him, the scholars outside the door hurriedly sniffed hard.

Soon after, a group of scholars near the gate suddenly shouted, "Ah... this... this is... the scent of ink..."

"Also, there is another smell... This is... This smell is somewhat familiar, but I just can't remember where I have smelled it..."

"Ah, I remember now! Three years ago, I smelled this smell at Kong Beihai's home in Qingzhou. It was the smell of a copy of Lüshi Chunqiu copied on Zuo Bo's paper. It was the smell of paper, and lots and lots of paper!"

As soon as these words were spoken, thousands of scholars went crazy.

"Yes, that's right! It's the smell of paper!"

"Paper, ink... Could it be... Could it be that the library is..."

As soon as this thought flashed through their minds, the scholars at the door no longer cared about anything else and simply ignored the long whips in the hands of the four guards. They rushed forward and squeezed forward like crazy, like refugees who had been hungry for three days seeing food.

Fortunately, there was a large open space inside the door of the library that could barely accommodate thousands of people. They all squeezed in quickly, and when they saw the scene in front of them and smelled the faint scent in the air, everyone suddenly went crazy.

"They are really paper books! There are so many... and this paper... hmm... has a fragrant aroma, is spotlessly white, and feels delicate. It is a hundred times better than Zuo Bo's paper and Cai Hou's paper, my god..."

"Not only that, you see, the font in this book is very square, and there is not a single mistake or correction. The size of each character is exactly the same. It does not look like it was copied, but rather printed. This is a treasure... a peerless treasure..."

Thousands of scholars rushed to the bookshelves frantically, and couldn't wait to flip through the paper books on them.

"This is the Analects... and the Mencius, the Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean..."

"Ah, I found the Zhouyi, and this one, Lianshan, and Guizang. It's incredible. The three ancient Yi books, which are almost extinct, all have paper versions here. What a treasure, what a huge treasure..."

Thousands of people were scattered throughout the library, their eyes full of surprise as they kept flipping through the books in front of them. There were four staircases around the library, and many scholars climbed up these stairs step by step. On the second, third, and fourth floors, there were scholars and constant exclamations.

"Cough cough..." A cough interrupted them.

These bookshelves formed a circle, which extended from the first floor to the fourth floor. Huangfu Han walked to the center of the circle.

"Everyone, these books are all newly printed. Please be merciful and don't damage them. Otherwise, haha, it's not that I look down on your family background, but I'm afraid that this book can make some of the small families here go bankrupt."

After hearing his words, the scholars instantly woke up from their crazy state, looked at the paper books in their hands, and hurriedly and carefully put them back to their original places.

Huangfu Han smiled when he saw this and said, "Please look carefully, everyone. This library is divided into four floors. Each floor has 100 bookshelves and 100 book boxes. Each bookshelf and each box has more than 200 books. There are more than 40,000 books on one floor, and 120,000 books in one library."

Then, he looked up at the scholars who were listening to him attentively, and continued, "The four library pavilions have different collections of books, with a total of 426,357 volumes. How about you check the four library pavilions one by one, and even count the books one by one?"

Lu Zhi also came over and said, "You all can check it out. My old man and nephew Huangfu have plenty of patience."

(End of this chapter)