“Starting today, I am your teacher. All the tutors and professors here are your teachers,” Uncle Huang filled me in as we crossed a corridor.
“Yeah? In that case, Uncle Huang…”
“That’s Professor Huang. You will observe the rules of Daren Academy while you are on its grounds. Leveraging relations is unacceptable.”
“Got it.”
Look at these pretentious scholars. How much energy do they spend just on these formalities?
“Professor Uncle Huang.”
“…”
“I heard a violent incident took place before my arrival. Are you privy to the details?”
Uncle Huang bobbed his head. “I was actually planning to let you see the person in question.”
You expect me to believe that?! You were planning to avoid me to begin with! You’d still be avoiding me if I didn’t identify you!
“I was planning to introduce you two since you’re classmates, and he’ll be your study partner.”
“Classmate? Wait. Does the person in question refer to the victim or the culprit?”
“Why would I introduce the culprit to you? Does it look like I need a vandal? Everyone from Mount Daluo with the ‘Ming’ surname is trouble. Look, you can be nosy, but take it outside. If as much as a blade of grass in here is damaged, I’ll… mm… I’ll have your shifu uh… I’ll dob you in to His Majesty!”
From what I heard, Shifu stole Uncle Huang’s crushes, money and chances to shine, and I dare say the claims were true after all that stammering.
“I can’t stress enough that you must honour the rules here.” Uncle Huang stopped and gestured at a student in the corridor. “Ying Yang, come over.”
The tanned, ordinary-looking guy in his early twenties beamed. “Professor!” He needed a crutch to compensate for his injured right leg, yet the man could really run. “I have been looking for you.”
“Ying Yang, how is your leg…?”
“I am all right. Professor, take a look at this reorganised commentary of the previous dynasty’s history. It took me two nights to finish writing it. Although the six professors said there are no mistakes, I do not believe them. Can you please check it?”
Did this guy really get assaulted?
Uncle Huang proudly took the commentary, but he didn’t criticise it on the spot. “I am glad to see you in high spirits. Let me introduce a new student to you.”
Seeing Uncle Huang point to me, I cleared my throat and stepped forward to introduce myself as I was taught.
“This one is He Shi, humble name Ying Yang. May this one ask who your father is in the imperial court?”
“None of them,” I answered.
“Are you the heir of a minister or general?”
“This one is a commoner.”
“So the son of a successful merchant?”
“So broke you can hear coins clanging.”
“Then, your parents are?”
I thumped my chest. “You wouldn’t be able to find a clue even if you asked at a magistrate office.”
“No hope then. That will be all for that topic.”
I have another question: did he not get hit hard enough?!
Uncle Huang proudly nodded as though he approved of the rebellious attitude.
Excuse me, but this guy clearly deserved every blow he ate.
Uncle Huang patted He Shi on the shoulder. “Ying Yang, I have high hopes for you. Don’t let trivial things shackle you. Focus on the imperial examinations.”
“I understand.”
I pointed to myself. “What about me?”
“Just stay out of trouble.”
This is discrimination!
“If you have questions, consult Ying Yang. I’m a busy man.” Uncle Huang whipped his sleeve and left.
I looked over to He Shi. He took out a book from his shirt and started reading whilst walking off. That’s a scholar for you. I followed along thoughtlessly.
Wait a second. Isn’t he in the same class as me? Uncle Huang’s favourite student is in the same grade as me?
The teacher for our class was already waiting by the time we arrived. From memory, he was a scion of Xie Clan – Xie Jizhi.
The class was comprised of twenty-five students in total, ten of whom were girls and fifteen of whom were boys. Our dynasty, particularly in recent years, had strongly encouraged women to offer their skills to the imperial court, hence the fairly even ratio of men to women at Daren Academy. Accounting for the grade, the ratio was reasonable. In saying that, if we looked at the average age of the students in my grade, I was clearly the outlier since they were primarily fourteen to twenty years old.
Children were allowed to enrol in classes at six years of age. By that account, their ages fit in the timeline perfectly. If one was over twenty and had no hope in attending school, they were welcome to travel and study at home; there was no need to a big sum on a tutor.
“Class, this is a new student who will be joining us today. Please, introduce yourself to your classmates.”
Owing to all the thoughts swamping my head, I blurted, “Hello, my name is Ming Feizhen. I’m a disciple of Beiping’s Mount Daluo. It’s my first day here at this glorious institute. I look forward to showing you what I can do. To talk without training one’s mouth, to train without speaking of idiocy, I speak and then I train and then…”
Professor Xie: “Stop, stop. No vandalism!”
Huh?
Upon looking over to Professor Xie, I realised Uncle Huang must’ve been teaching his underlings.
My classmates all laughed without reservation. Seeing their neatly-set books and writing instruments reminded me of when I was their age. Back then, I was nowhere near as carefree. People their age shouldn’t ever waste their prime even if they have big undertakings. Sing, travel and do whatever you please.
“To sum up, I’ll be in everyone’s care from now.” Taking in all their youthful laughter, I strolled over to my seat, which was located in the back row due to my height.
All right, let’s take a three day nap and then figure out what to do next from there.
Just as I shut my eyes, I heard, “Ming Feizhen, we have a test today.”
What did the man just say?
Trivia
In Ancient China (I should include some other Asian countries, too, to be fair) – although it’s still something practiced today in a more subtle manner – students would give their tutor a gift at their first meeting as a sign of respect and sincerity. The old term for “tuition fee” was “salted pork”, which then became “tuition fee”. Blatant bribes aside, these days, you may see parents/students giving gifts (sometimes as simple as a meal) to a class tutor so that the tutor spends more time with the student, or they do the same thing at martial arts schools for the same reason or so that the instructor gives extra pointers. Not a fan of the practice, but you better feed my gacha addiction if you want chapters.
