Miao Chu

Chapter 34 Delay
Master Duan was skeptical. He put down his writing brush, took the article, and said, "It's so early in the morning. Are you still asleep? —Are you playing a trick on me?"

It should be noted that students of the Imperial Academy were divided into outer, inner, and upper dormitories, and their academic performance was the sole criterion for evaluation. However, the teachers responsible for instructing students did not make such a clear distinction.

While teaching the outer dormitory, they also teach the inner dormitory; and those who teach the inner dormitory may also teach the upper dormitory.

There were also those who were both lucky and unlucky, and were assigned to teach at the Imperial Academy—the students at the Imperial Academy were the most difficult to teach, not because they were not talented, but because many of them relied on their future official positions through patronage and were simply too lazy to care about the teacher's instruction.

Come to think of it, any elder in the family of a student at the Imperial Academy might be a high-ranking official, dressed in red and purple robes, wielding great power and influence. Compared to these teachers who spend their days instructing and lecturing, the contrast is stark.

Even if the sons of officials say they should respect their teachers, how could they not have their own calculations in their hearts?
The Imperial Academy was much easier to teach, and its students were the most obedient.

However, since the students were selected from various prefectures and counties, their quality naturally varied.

There is an exam once a year and an evaluation once a month. Those who are truly capable have already been promoted to the upper dormitory. Even if they are slightly inferior, they can still get into the inner dormitory. Those who have been stuck in the outer dormitory are far inferior in terms of ability.

Although Master Duan and the student in front of him were from the same inner and outer dormitory, their study progress was the same, but the quality of the homework they collected each time was worlds apart.

The students who were reviewed the previous two days were from the inner dormitory. Their articles always had one or two merits, so they didn't find it hard work to review them.

But since last night, it was finally the turn of the students from the outer quarters to write their essays. Although they weren't completely nonsensical—those who could get into the Imperial Academy were certainly more outstanding than ordinary scholars—they were really quite ugly in the eyes of these seasoned scholars who were used to seeing good stuff.

The two sat next to each other, and while grading papers, they would sigh and lament.

Master Duan even felt that every time he finished grading homework from the outside students, he would have a few more wrinkles—nothing more than that, because his eyebrows had been furrowed for so long that the skin and flesh around them had become fixed in shape, and he just thought that he was born to be wrinkled.

Because of this repeated occurrence over time, he developed a prejudice against the students in the outer dormitory, and at this point he even felt that they were going to feed him a highly toxic article.

"You look first, look first, what are you babbling about!"

The visitor urged.

Master Duan hesitated for a moment, then glanced at the student's name on the far right.

"It's Cheng Zijian..."

He felt a little strange.

He had a deep impression of this student.

He came from a poor family, worked very hard, and had a good memory, but unfortunately lacked literary talent.

Literary talent is a mysterious and elusive gift, especially in the area of ​​policy questions.

The same content and the same viewpoints can be written in a bland and unremarkable way by some people, making them seem like a waste of ink, only fit to be burned. But when others write, it is excellent, convincing, and makes people feel that what they say makes perfect sense, and that it would be an injustice not to listen.

Cheng Zijian's understanding of the classics was not bad; his weakness lay in his policy questions.

His writing is characterized by its plainness.

It was written with great effort and contained a lot of material, but after reading it, it felt like I hadn't read anything at all, making me want to yawn.

Master Duan had a headache dealing with this kind of student.

If a work has both strengths and weaknesses, it can help people maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. However, Cheng Zijian's writing is neither good nor bad, and there is no way to improve it.

But he was also very ambitious and diligent.

Seeing that this person had failed the assessment for two consecutive years, and this was the third year, if he failed again he would be sent back to his hometown, but his writing still showed no improvement, the teachers were also very distressed.

A few days ago, he couldn't stand it anymore, so he took the man to Master Chen and asked him to give him some guidance.

Master Chen had served as a lecturer to two emperors, and was already quite old and in poor health. He had long since retired, but Deng Cong, the current Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, was a fellow student of his and had repeatedly extended a sincere invitation to him.

Master Chen could not refuse, so he agreed and only occasionally taught classes to the students in the inner dormitory. During his classes, many teachers would even sit in on them.

He was highly learned, had a good temper, and was a rare kind-hearted person.

Master Duan had his own classes to teach, so he took the person there and left without lingering. Naturally, he didn't know what happened next. He only knew that Cheng Zijian secretly sent some dried white lotus seeds from his hometown the next day as a token of gratitude, without even leaving his name. After that, he studied even harder day and night.

But all in all, it's only been a few days. Could there really be such a big improvement?

He looked at the article in his hand with suspicion.

The title was unremarkable, but after reading just the beginning, Master Duan couldn't help but exclaim, "Strange!"

The teacher opposite couldn't help but laugh, stroking his beard repeatedly while watching the expression on Teacher Duan's face, as if waiting to watch a show.

Master Duan exclaimed "Strange!" twice, then suddenly shut his mouth and continued reading.

The article is excellent, written smoothly, and remarkably, it is also very persuasive.

He read it all in one go, and after finishing, he couldn't help but nod in agreement with its points.

But after nodding, he felt something was off. He turned back and read the article carefully again. Then, without saying a word, he went to the cabinet and took out the student articles that he had collected earlier but hadn't had time to send back. He found Cheng Zijian's article and compared the two together.

The writing style and wording remain unchanged, and the article is indeed written by the same person, but the quality of the two versions is worlds apart.

"How could this be! The progress is too great!"

But when he looked at it carefully for the third time, he noticed the change.

It's not that nothing has changed; in fact, a lot has changed. The order of the text has been changed, and the way of arguing has been changed. The writing is now very sincere and down-to-earth, making people feel that even if the arguments are somewhat flawed, there is no need to be overly critical.

“How did they do that?!”

Master Duan couldn't help but sigh.

His eyebrows furrowed deeply again, this time enough to trap a fly.

The teacher opposite him burst into laughter and said, "Look at your silly face. You always say you're better at teaching than me—you've finally met someone even you can't figure out!"

Master Duan, however, had no time for idle chatter. He got up, went outside, waited by the roadside for a while, then grabbed a passing student and ordered, "Go to the outer dormitory and fetch Cheng Zijian here quickly!"
Cheng Zijian arrived very quickly.

He was carrying an empty food box and hadn't even entered the school before he was caught by students who came to greet him from afar.

"Master Duan is calling you urgently!" The other person kindly reminded him, with the kind of mutual understanding between classmates, "He doesn't look too good, you should go quickly and not delay!"

Cheng Zijian was filled with unease and hurriedly ran to the classroom without even leaving his food box behind.

Upon entering, I saw two teachers sitting in their seats, each holding an article—the articles looked somewhat familiar, and I wondered why they all seemed to be their own.
He felt even more uneasy, so he quickly stepped forward and bowed to greet them.

"Zijian is here." Master Duan was very amiable, showing no sign of his "unpleasant expression," and said, "I've read your new article; it's well-written and shows considerable improvement—how did Master Chen teach you?"

He spoke calmly for the first few sentences, but as soon as he finished praising someone, before he could even finish speaking, he couldn't help but move his chair closer and hurriedly asked more questions.

Before Cheng Zijian could even feel happy, he was taken aback by the question and asked, "What Master Chen?"

"This child, why do you keep making silly mistakes—your writing has improved, isn't that because of Master Chen's teaching?"

Cheng Zijian then realized what was happening and exclaimed, "Ah!" He said, "Thank you for your concern, Master Chen. You showed me my article and said that it's like ice three feet deep; it can't be fixed overnight. You told me to read and write more. You even introduced me to a student in the inner study and asked me to borrow his articles for reference."

"You just read the article?"

"Which dormitory student?"

Master Duan and the other master beside him were both incredulous and raised different questions almost simultaneously.

"No, no!" Cheng Zijian waved his hands repeatedly. "It still needs to be revised, it still needs to be written—Master Chen kindly recommended Cai Xiu, but Young Master Cai said his article had already been lent out and wouldn't be back for a while. In the end, I borrowed Han Li's manuscript. He helped me with the topic and revised the article. He's revised it many times these past few days and assigned me some homework..."

As he spoke, he became somewhat embarrassed and said, "Teacher praised my article for its improvement this time, but actually I took a shortcut—Brother Rihan just gave me this topic to write, and I revised it twice before it was finished, so it's not my true level."

Both Cai Xiu and Han Li were well-known figures in the Imperial Academy.

Master Duan and his companion exchanged bewildered glances, never expecting their student to have such an encounter.

Although he didn't understand the reason, Master Duan made a quick decision and said, "He gave you the question and even revised your essay? You still have his manuscript? Let me see it all!"

After receiving several versions of Cheng Zijian's manuscript, which included Han Li's annotations and Cheng Zijian's own writing, Master Duan gave him a topic. Instead of asking Cheng Zijian to go back to class, he made him sit in a cubicle and write an article on the topic he had just given him.

Separated from Cheng Zijian, the two scholars huddled together, studying the numerous articles and annotations for a long time, and were somewhat speechless.

After a long pause, it was Master Duan who first let out a long sigh and said, "It's one thing to be unable to write as well as a student, but how come I can't even be as good as him as a teacher!"

The other person was more open-minded and said, "What's the point of comparing? All the censors on the Magpie Terrace can't out-argue him. If a student is teaching another student, he'll know better how to teach. Since there's such a good thing, why not invite him over so that the others can also see him? It's not fair to favor one over the other."

Master Duan also agreed.

So when Cheng Zijian finished writing the article, the two of them read it. Although it was much worse than the previous one, it was still a significant improvement over the past. This progress actually put their minds at ease.

Without further ado, the two took Cheng Zijian with them to find Master Chen.

Master Chen was sipping tea and slowly correcting articles when he saw the three people knocking and entering, which surprised him somewhat.

Master Duan stepped forward first, not daring to make any demands immediately. He first praised Cheng Zijian's progress, and then praised Master Chen: "Zijian's progress today is all thanks to your recommendation, Master! The mutual help among students is indeed much more useful than us old folks."

Master Chen stroked his beard and laughed, "What does this have to do with me? I just greeted Cai Xiu. You can thank him directly."

Master Duan paused for a moment, then realized he hadn't been clear, and quickly said, "It wasn't Cai Xiu, it was Han Li. Zijian borrowed Han Li's article, and Han Li helped him revise and teach him..."

Master Chen raised his head, his eyes momentarily blank, and asked, "Who?"

Hearing that Duan Fuzi and the others had repeatedly confirmed that it was Han Li, he laughed and said, "You must have made a mistake. Zheng Yan hates trouble the most. I usually ask him to help organize manuscripts, and he always makes excuses. Deng Cong asked him to write model essays, but he never listens. How could he be so easy to talk to..."

However, when the article full of annotations was finally brought to him, he looked at it again and again. Seeing that the handwriting and tone were so familiar, it was clearly written by Han Li and Han Zhengyan. He could no longer deceive himself and couldn't help but ask, "What tricks did you use to coax him into being so obedient?"

For a moment, both Master Duan and Master Cheng looked at Cheng Zijian.

Seeing the two's movements, Master Chen also looked over.

Cheng Zijian, who was being stared at by the three old scholars, couldn't help but shrink back. Luckily, he didn't back down. He could only whisper, "It's nothing. It's just that Brother Han probably felt sorry for me and was too eager to help me. Yes! Yes! I bought glutinous rice and shumai from stall owner Song for Brother Han's breakfast every day... I suppose that breakfast must be really delicious..."

He made three consecutive "truths," each one more outrageous than the last, so none of the three people in the hall believed him.

Especially Master Chen, whose eyes were filled with suspicion that seemed to turn into a sharp sword, piercing Cheng Zijian's mouth and sealing his lying mouth.

Cheng Zijian was extremely anxious, but then he suddenly remembered something and hurriedly said, "Today we also have glutinous rice and shumai. I will bring over a portion so that you gentlemen can taste it and know what it is like."

After he finished speaking, he bowed, turned around and left the classroom. He almost lost his shoes while running. Before long, he returned to the study. He asked around and found that the more than 30 breakfasts had been eaten clean by more than 20 people. Not a single grain of rice was left. Even the soup pot looked like it had been washed. There was no glutinous rice or shumai left.

Fortunately, there was still some food left—so he hurriedly delivered the breakfast that was originally meant for He Qi.

The three teachers initially found it absurd, but when they opened the food box and smelled the aroma inside, they were initially unconvinced, but at this moment they all had the idea of ​​finding out what was going on.

After all that time spent waiting and going back and forth, the glutinous rice and shumai had cooled down a bit, so they didn't taste as good as when they were fresh out of the pot. But as soon as you put them in your mouth, you can't help but nod in approval.

Master Duan and his companion had initially intended to respect the elders, but as they ate, they realized that one breakfast was hardly enough for three people.

"Sir, eating glutinous rice can cause bloating. You're getting on in years, and your stomach can't handle it. Perhaps you should eat less..."

Duan Fuzi's intentions were half good and half selfish; he wanted to move the glutinous rice that Chen Fuzi had been protecting in front of him as he tasted it.

"Don't move, don't move!" Master Chen was so anxious that his beard bristled. "My teeth aren't good, so this is perfect for me!"

"And... and save some shumai for me too!" Master Chen protected this one, not forgetting to take the other one as well. After taking everything, his tone became somewhat fierce. "Let me taste what that brat Zhengyan usually eats—he always says he doesn't have a good appetite, but it turns out it's all a lie. He eats so well, and he doesn't even think about me!"

Cheng Zijian was left standing alone to the side, trembling slightly.

He was worried that he might cause trouble for Brother Han, and he was also a little anxious—what if he stayed here too long and didn't have time to pick up the lunch that Miss Song had sent?
(End of this chapter)