Top Scholar

Chapter 179 A Basketful of Jokes
When Su Lu returned home, it was already completely dark, and Steward Tian was still waiting for him at the gatehouse.

"Young master, you've had a very tiring day," Steward Tian said with a pained expression. "How about we prepare a carriage starting tomorrow? After all, the carriage and the man are just sitting idle anyway."

"Please don't, Uncle Tian! I just want to walk around a bit on my way to and from school to get some exercise." Su Lu was somewhat puzzled by Steward Tian's unusual concern. I'm not the son of Magistrate Lu, what's the point of him being so attentive to me?

"Alas, young master is truly ambitious," said Steward Tian.

"Heh..." Su Lu thought to himself, what does this have to do with ambition? It's more like athlete's foot...

The two chatted casually as they returned to the small courtyard where the brothers lived.

Su Tai had already returned, still wearing his martial arts robes, reluctant to take them off.

The servant brought warm water, and after Su Lu washed his hands and face, dinner was laid out on the table.

This is also the moment the two brothers look forward to most every day—the food at the prefectural office is just too good! Since the day they moved in, they've never had the same three dishes and soup twice. Whether it's meat, vegetables, or soup, everything is commendable and delicious!

Although Su Lu ate lunch at the Zhu family's house every day, wealthy families paid attention to health and nutrition. The Zhu couple were getting on in years, and the dishes were light, low in oil and salt, which did not quite suit the tastes of a young person.

I still prefer this big, meaty, and rich meal every night...

The second brother, still lacking any sense of responsibility, worried that their food rations might be reduced after the New Year.

Today marks the official end of the Lunar New Year celebrations. Dinner did change – from three dishes and a soup to four dishes and a soup, but it wasn't reduced in quantity at all; in fact, it was more lavish!

Su Lu wiped his hands with a cotton towel and took his seat. Looking at the dishes on the table, he exclaimed in surprise, "Uncle Tian, ​​you're exaggerating. Apart from this lamb leg, I don't recognize any of the other dishes."

While serving them soup, Steward Tian smiled and announced the dishes: "Lotus leaf-wrapped roasted lamb leg, braised perch with fermented rice wine, sesame tofu with spinach, ham stewed with wild mushrooms. And this astragalus and goji berry black chicken soup, to nourish you both well... Please drink it while it's hot."

"No need to spend so much money. Just a couple of simple dishes and enough rice will do," Su Lu said sincerely.

"Alas, the two young masters never eat lunch at home, and their breakfasts are always rushed. The only time they can sit down and have a proper meal is in the evening." Steward Tian insisted, "If I don't serve them well, the master will execute me!"

As he spoke, he used serving chopsticks to place a piece of fragrant, honey-golden lamb leg meat on each of their plates. "Eat it while it's hot! This is our head chef's specialty, served with grated radish. Even the prefect raved about it!"

After tasting it, Su Lu couldn't help but exclaim, "The lotus fragrance is refreshing, the honey aroma is sweet, and the texture is tender and juicy. It truly lives up to its reputation!"

"Mmm, delicious!" Su Tai nodded repeatedly, and while Su Lu was talking, he had already devoured three pieces.

Manager Tian presented the two men with a menu, explaining each dish in detail. It was indeed a chef's creation, each dish with its own merits! The two men praised it endlessly.

He then smiled and said goodbye, "Then I won't disturb your meal any longer."

"Uncle Tian, ​​go eat quickly." Su Lu had also invited him to dine together, but Steward Tian always insisted that master and servant should share the same food, and he resolutely refused to sit at the table.

This left Su Lu completely confused. Who was I?

~~
Once everyone was out of sight, the second brother swallowed his food and eagerly asked, "Guess who I saw today?"

"You want me to guess again? Then I'll guess She Yunluo again," Su Lu said with a smile.

"Wow, you guessed right again." Su Tai said speechlessly, "Why is she so persistent?"

"Don't overthink it. He's going to learn martial arts, not because of you," Su Lu could only comfort him.

"I have a feeling things aren't that simple," Su Tai frowned.

"Did she lure you here?" Su Lu asked.

“No, not at all. She has two Roro warriors with her, accompanying her to class,” Su Tai said. “No one can get close to her, and she can’t get close to anyone else.”

"That's good." Su Lu nodded. It seemed that the female chieftain had taken some precautions.

But then Su Tai said helplessly, "But she keeps staring at me and laughing all the time. It makes me feel uneasy, and her laughter makes me feel anxious."

“Are you men afraid to watch? Just come back!” Su Lu reassured his second brother, “We analyzed it for you later, and she was probably just bored and looking for some fun.”

As he spoke, he said in a low voice, "Do you know? Women of the She family can only marry women of the Shui Xi'an clan, and men of the She family can only marry women of the Shui Xi'an clan. There have been no exceptions for two hundred years, let alone a chieftain like her... The Ming Dynasty has only been established for a hundred years, just think about it."

"Oh, that's good." Su Tai nodded and breathed a sigh of relief, though he didn't know why he was still a little down.

Su Lu understood him perfectly. What young man or woman doesn't dream of love? He even fantasized that Huang E might like him, but was that even possible? Absolutely not!
So it's best to face reality and be down-to-earth. Reality isn't a fictional novel; dreaming of free love in the Ming Dynasty is just wishful thinking!
Just focus on improving yourself, and in a few years, you can arrange a marriage with a girl of equal social standing through proper channels. Then, you can open the mystery box on your wedding night...

~~
Although Su Tai was the older brother, he wasn't as shrewd and worldly as Su Lu. It was rare for a pretty girl to be so proactive with him; last night he'd even planned out the style of their wedding bed… Who knew that before Xia Ge'er's first love could even blossom, it would be nipped in the bud…

This made him lose his appetite, and he only ate three large bowls of rice before refusing any more. To cheer up his second brother, Su Lu asked him how his first day of school was.
"You weren't just flirting with She Yunlu, were you?" Su Lu teased deliberately.

"How could that be? What would I be doing there?!" Su Tai shook his head vigorously, completely forgetting his youthful feelings, and excitedly exclaimed:

"What an exciting day! We studied the Analects for an hour this morning! I was worried at first that I wouldn't be able to keep up, but it turns out they're not as good as me!"

"What level are they at?" Su Lu asked curiously.

“Before class, I asked them where they were at, and they said they were at the Analects.” Su Tai then said, “I asked them which chapter they were at, and they said Gongye Chang.”

"I broke out in a cold sweat right then and there, thinking, 'There's this chapter in the Analects? Su Tai, Su Tai, what have you actually learned?' Su Tai said with a forced smile, 'It turned out in class that it was about 'Gongye Chang'..."

"Pfft..." Su Lu almost choked on his food: "No, you only got to the fifth chapter of the Analects after a year? You could have learned half of it in three years, which would have been enough to govern the world."

“The real challenge is yet to come,” Su Tai continued. “The teacher called up a student and asked him what ‘Zai Yu Zhou Nian’ meant. The boy confidently replied, ‘Zai means to kill, Yu means me, Zhou means daytime, and Nian means to sleep—it means ‘Even if you kill me, I will still take a nap during the day!’”

"Hahahaha!" The two brothers slapped the table and burst into laughter, rice grains flying out of their nostrils. After laughing, Su Lu sighed:
"I finally understand why Master Ma had to suffer so much at the academy."

"Actually, the gentleman does have some skill; it's just that those guys are hopeless," Su Tai hurriedly said.

Upon hearing this, Su Lu glanced at his second brother and thought to himself that the changes since he started school were quite significant. First, he no longer used "俺" instead of "我"; second, his speech had become more refined.

He then encouraged Su Tai, saying, "No matter what others do, just study hard, and come back to ask me if you don't understand something."

"Yes, yes, I'm very confident now!" Su Tai nodded vigorously and continued, "The second half of the morning was spent learning 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu. Those guys were quite interested, saying that this is what real men should learn, unlike Confucius, who was a woman."

"How did Confucius become a woman?" Su Lu asked.

“Because they saw it in the Analects, where Confucius said, ‘I am a woman waiting to be married.’” Su Tai said.

“That’s ‘I’m waiting for a merchant’…” Su Lu laughed until his stomach hurt.

"After class in the morning, we had lunch. The food at the martial arts academy was amazing! Big slices of meat stewed with taro, served with rice, all you can eat!" Su Tai said, reminiscing about lunch as he ate his dinner, "It's like a dream..."

“That’s definitely better than the food at our academy.” Su Lu realized after saying that his feelings were still stuck at Taiping Academy.

"After a good meal and a short nap, we'll change into our shorts and head to the training ground to practice horseback riding and archery!" Su Tai said excitedly. "I'm pretty good at archery, but I can't ride a horse. The horse wouldn't let me ride, so I gave it a good beating and it behaved."

"Horse neck?" Su Lu asked uncertainly.

“Oh, it could be a person’s neck? Wouldn’t it snap in one pinch?” Su Tai said matter-of-factly.

Su Lu originally wanted to ask those spoiled brats if they had bullied him, but now he felt it was completely unnecessary... In a place where he would be dragged to the training ground every day, no one dared to provoke the Mighty Monster.

"Finally, we practiced the white-pole spear a thousand times! There were three styles: medium thrust, low thrust, and high thrust, but we didn't practice today..." Xia Ge'er licked his lips with lingering satisfaction and said, "After that, school was over, and I practiced with my classmates on the training ground for a while before coming back when it got dark."

"It was a pretty fulfilling day." Su Lu glanced at Xia Ge'er's hand holding the rice bowl, which was still steady without the slightest tremor. Clearly, his strength training hadn't been up to par yet... He couldn't help but sigh inwardly, realizing that one person's physique really couldn't be generalized.

“Indeed,” Xia Ge’er said happily, “It’s much more fun than mixing sand at the winery!”

"That's wonderful." Seeing Xia Ge'er so happy, Su Lu was genuinely happy too. He had always felt deeply uneasy about his second brother's sacrifice. Now that his second brother had his own school to attend, it was truly wonderful!
"Do you have exams?" Su Lu asked again.

"We'll have to take exams too, and there will be two exams, one on the first day and one on the fifteenth. On the first day, we'll be tested on horseback riding and archery, and on the fifteenth day, we'll be tested on the Four Books and military strategy." Su Tai nodded emphatically, "I'll study hard and try to get first place!"

"Second brother is so smart and eager to learn, he'll definitely be fine!" Su Lu encouraged him.

After the meal, the two brothers began to study on their own. Su Lu had a heavy workload, as he had to supplement his very concise class notes with various reference books.

Su Lu then habitually spread out a table full of books and began to concentrate intently on studying...

Su Tai also had a copy of "Collected Annotations on the Analects" in his hand, and he consciously only occupied a corner of the desk. But he was already very content to be able to study under the lamp like his younger brother.

This was actually a dream he had longed for but could never have for many years...

"Snoring..." After reading only a few pages, Su Tai fell asleep on the table.

Su Lu draped a coat over his second brother and continued his studies amidst his brother's snoring...

P.S. I'm so sleepy! I was only able to finish checking everything because of the deadline. Please vote for me! Please subscribe!
(End of this chapter)