Jiangshan Fengwuzhi

Chapter 67 Association
Early in the morning, on Frost Maple Mountain, under Luming Terrace, a man and a woman walked by.

Gu Jingnian and Pei Nian both changed into straight-hem long robes, looking no different from other academy disciples. When they arrived at the mountain gate, they were stopped again.

"It's you again. I told you last time that since you are not a student of the academy, you can no longer come and go as you please. Why did you bring your friends here?"

The concierge was serious in his work and his attitude was not polite. As Gu Jingnian had just graduated from an academy, he would not embarrass him.

Pei Nian ignored all this and directly shoved the Kaiping Division's token into the doorman's face. He said in a cold and arrogant tone, "The Kaiping Division is handling the case. Anyone who dares to obstruct will be taken back and punished."

Due to different ranks and different attitudes, Pei Nian was treated differently and was immediately respectfully invited into the Chongjing Academy.

She did not need anyone to lead the way, so as not to interfere with her investigation. She only asked Gu Jingnian, "Who is responsible for managing the disciple list?"

"The student records in the bookkeeping office are over here."

At this time, the bell rang and the students of the academy went to the school one after another.

The two entered the second door and turned west.

Just as I stepped onto the curved bridge beside Jiquan Pavilion, I heard a shout from not far away.

"You two!"

Pei Nian was still walking, but Gu Jingnian stopped when he heard the familiar voice. He turned around and saw the dean, Master Xun, walking towards them with a ruler in his hand.

Old Master Xun was very old, over seventy years old, but he was in very good health. He walked like a dragon or a tiger and quickly arrived in front of the two of them, pointing at Pei Nian and shouting at him.

"Stand still?!"

Pei Nian was a sixth-rank official after all, and faced with the rebuke, he remained calm and slightly displeased. However, out of respect for the elders, he did not rebuke the other party.

Master Xun was very experienced in dealing with such matters and immediately started scolding again.

"The academy has a clear rule that prohibits male and female students from teaching each other privately. If you two are not going to the academy now, where do you want to go together?"

Gu Jingnian and Pei Nian were about to respond when they heard a loud noise behind them. It was a group of disciples who heard the noise and came over to watch the fun.

Among them, there was a clear female voice that they were quite familiar with.

"Hey, girl, it's Miss Pei and Mr. Gu."

It was A Yuan who was giving Shen Lingshu instructions here. What a coincidence, they came to listen to the lecture again today.

There were so many people watching that Pei Nian was not in a position to take out the Kaiping Division's token. Instead, he lowered his head and stood behind Gu Jingnian.

Gu Jingnian was a student of the academy after all, so he had some experience. He immediately said politely, "Master Xun, we misunderstood. We have a question that we would like to ask you."

"Oh, I remember you now. You are a good boy."

Master Xun looked at Gu Jingnian again and remembered that this handsome young man had been harassed by female disciples several times, but he had always rejected them coldly, so he was not a frivolous person.

He then waved away the other disciples.

"Why are you standing here standing there instead of going to the lecture? And you two, can't you wait until after the lecture to ask your questions?"

Gu Jingnian then asked in a low voice: "I have entered Kaiping Division and would like to ask you, Master, do you know anything about the 'master's sect'?"

Master Xun's face suddenly became serious. He did not answer but asked, "Why are you asking this?"

Pei Nian then showed the investigation token and said, "This is a serious case, please tell me everything you know."

"Okay, you two come with me."

The three of them talked as they walked, and Master Xun talked about some things that happened in the past. However, fifty or sixty years ago, he was just a student in the academy, and he only knew those things, but he could call out a few more names.

"Master Xuandao, Zu Jinglong, Yue Luoshan... these were all geniuses back then. Compared to them, I was an insignificant mediocre person at that time. However, the name 'Master' was not used when we were in Chongjing Academy. Instead, they later called themselves 'those who were expelled from the Master', and it was simply called the Master."

"They care about being expelled?"

"Of course. When it comes to understanding the aliens, who can surpass the ancient sages of Chongjing Academy? A hundred years ago, the various countries drove the aliens to invade Darui, and it was the resistance of the ancient sages that brought us today's stability. After being expelled from the school, Shi Xuandao and others have always wanted to return to the academy."

It is true that only in Chongjing Academy there is a gentleman like Song Zhang who can talk about strange things at will. This is after the imperial court confiscated a large number of books on alchemy in the library.

Events from fifty or sixty years ago were too long ago after all, so Pei Nian asked, "Master Xun, do you remember Liu Heng? He studied at the academy about twenty years ago."

"Liu Heng? I have seen so many disciples in my lifetime that I can't remember them all... just follow me."

The three of them arrived at the bookkeeping office.

Rows of bookshelves stood like a forest. Old Master Xun walked slowly into them, but he did not look at the books on the shelves at all. Instead, he walked into the innermost storage room, rummaged through the dusty boxes inside, and finally found a few files.

I opened them one by one and found the word "Liu Heng" among the columns of names.

"I entered school in the Gengchen year, and gave up literature in the Guiwei year to pursue medicine."

Gu Jingnian then went to look through the list of disciples from the past three years, and there were approximately four hundred and sixty people.

He read very attentively, his fingertips slowly moving across the page, and finally stopped at a certain moment. Three small regular script characters were outlined in ink on the yellowed paper.

"Chu Danqing."

Pei Nian had been paying attention to Gu Jingnian's movements. Seeing his frozen expression, he leaned over to take a look, and read out in surprise.

"Chu Danqing?" Master Xun stroked his beard and said, "I have seen countless disciples in my life, and he is one of them that I can remember as soon as I mention his name."

"Please ask Master Xun to talk to us about this person."

"He was a bit old when he entered the school, he must have been almost 30, but he was really a genius. He always ranked first in the annual and ten-day exams. He also had a very good temperament, was calm and magnanimous, not arrogant or impatient, and was kind to others. He was admired by his disciples. Now I remember that Liu Heng was the follower back then. He only followed Chu Danqing's lead in everything. We all thought that Chu Danqing was a prime minister, but later he became a doctor for some reason, and Liu Heng also dropped out of school because of this. They also formed a society in the academy to discuss academic matters, called... the Gentlemen's Society."

It is a custom for students in the academy to form associations, and there are all kinds of them. Those who like poetry form poetry associations, those who like martial arts form martial arts associations, and those who like food form food associations. However, Gu Jingnian was a loner when he was studying there and did not know about this.

"Gentlemen's Society? Do you have its files?"

"Forming a society is a private matter for the disciples, and the academy has no say in it." Old Master Xun shook his head and said, "But as far as I know, the Gentlemen's Society is the same as other societies and still exists today."————————

Lecture hall.

The lecturer today was a female teacher in her fifties, her surname was Long. She talked about scriptures and classics, and also chatted about some old events that happened a hundred years ago.

It is said that the Northern Yu army attacked Rui with 20 Zhuo beasts as the vanguard. The Zhuo beasts were huge, with the head of an ox and the body of a tiger, with wings on their backs, colorful, and a tail as long as a whip. They could eat more than 50 people in one meal. Finally, the sage of Chongjing Academy took action, tamed the Zhuo beasts and used them as mounts, and defeated the Yu army.

"Mr. Long, may I ask how the ancient sage tamed the Zhuo beast, and where did it go afterwards?!"

The one who raised his hand to ask the question was the fat academy student.

Because he often asked questions, even A Yuan, who dozed off every day, knew that his name was Zhuang Ziyuan. He was the son of a wealthy businessman. His ancestors had never achieved any fame, so he had no knowledge at all.

Mr. Long simply ignored Zhuang Ziyuan's question and instead scolded his disciples for only liking to listen to new things but not studying the scriptures well. He was so excited about scolding that he didn't care that the bell for the end of class had rung a long time ago.

Seeing that he couldn't leave yet, A Yuan yawned and whispered to Shen Lingshu, "Zhuang Ziyuan is so noisy every day. I can't sleep well."

Even as a maidservant, she knew that there were Zuoshou in the army. One of the mounts used by Marquis Wuding when he conquered the Kingdom of Yue was Zuoshou.

Shen Lingshu ignored her and was lost in thought.

Ah Yuan then asked, "Miss, you are not thinking about Miss Pei and Master Gu again, are you?"

"Yes." Shen Lingshu admitted it directly and whispered, "What do you think they are investigating every day when they get together?"

"Is the girl concerned about 'getting together' or 'checking something'?"

"Of course I'm checking something. I'm curious..."

Halfway through his words, a fat figure walked over. Shen Lingshu immediately stopped talking and looked at the other person warily.

It was Zhuang Ziyuan, the question-asking man, who bowed awkwardly to her.

"My classmate, you seem... um, very knowledgeable?"

"It's okay, how do you know?"

"Every time the gentleman says something strange, you are not surprised at all."

"so what?"

"Can I ask you for a favor?" Zhuang Ziyuan quickly took out a piece of paper from his sleeve, "Can you help me answer this?"

"what is this?"

A Yuan took the paper, and Shen Lingshu looked at it and found that it was a questionnaire.

The first question reads, "From Shouyang Mountain to Bing Mountain, there are 267 miles. The gods all have dragon bodies and human faces. Why do we worship them?"

"It's so difficult." Shen Lingshu said, "How should I know this?"

Zhuang Ziyuan said "Oh" in disappointment, scratched his head, and stretched out his hand to take the questionnaire back.

Shen Lingshu did not let go, but looked at it carefully for a while and asked, "This is quite interesting. What will happen if you answer all of them correctly?"

Zhuang Ziyuan sighed and said, "I really want to join the Gentlemen's Society."

"what is that?"

"The most outstanding students of Chongjing Academy formed a gentleman's society to discuss knowledge and increase their knowledge."

"What's so good about that?"

"Of course it's good. If I hang out with outstanding people, I can become a better person too."

"That makes sense." Shen Lingshu said, "There are some questions in here that I seem to have heard the staff discuss. Give me this paper and I'll go back and ask the staff to answer it and return it to you tomorrow."

"Really?"

Zhuang Ziyuan was overjoyed. He had no connections, so he couldn't find anyone to ask. So he nodded repeatedly and said, "You must answer every question correctly to enter the Gentlemen's Society."

"Try it."

Shen Lingshu looked towards the west of the academy from time to time, and finally saw Pei Nian and Gu Jingnian coming from there, and hurried over.

When greeting Pei Nian, she tried her best to put on a natural smile, but she also deliberately said, "What a coincidence."

"It just so happens that there are some cases that need to be investigated at the college, and he was once a student of the college."

Shen Lingshu wanted Pei Nian to explain, and then asked logically: "What case?"

"That's not what you should know."

Gu Jingnian's eyes fell on the paper in Shen Lingshu's hand and asked, "What is this?"

"That fat boy from your class gave it to me. He said it's an exam to join the Gentlemen's Society."

Hearing this, Pei Nian and Gu Jingnian couldn't help but look at each other.

The two of them were just about to inquire about the Gentlemen's Society, but they didn't expect to find themselves on the pillow as soon as they dozed off, and they reached out to grab the paper almost at the same time.

"show me."

Shen Lingshu hid the test paper behind her back, smiled slyly, and said leisurely: "Is it your turn to be curious this time? Then do it together."

In the past, she saw Pei Nian and Gu Jingnian always together. Although she was not jealous, she still felt bad. This time, since she found the opportunity, she planned to participate no matter what.

(End of this chapter)