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Chapter 215 Results Report!

The Su brothers were used to getting up at the crack of dawn in Luzhou. When they heard the rooster crow, they both got up and found that the older brother's bed was still the same.

"Why didn't you come back all night?!" The two of them were stunned.

"..." Su Lu couldn't help but think of Second Master Zhu's unusual concern for him, as well as his unusual interest in his elder brother today, and immediately had some bad thoughts.

"I'll go take a look." He quickly jumped out of bed, picked up his shoes, and was about to rush out when he bumped into Chun Ge'er, who was staggering back.

Seeing Chun Ge'er's unsteady steps and pale face, Su Lu quickly supported him with both hands and asked, "Brother, are you alright?"

"It's nothing, what could possibly be wrong with me?" Chun-ge asked curiously.

"Why didn't you come back all night?"

“Something’s wrong with you not coming back for one night!” Chun Ge’er finally understood what he meant, slapped his hand away, and said irritably, “What kind of nonsense are you thinking? Uncle Zhu is so kind and helpful, he gave me pointers on the eight-legged essay all night!”

"It's good that you're alright..." Su Tai also breathed a sigh of relief. Although he didn't understand what had happened, he was anxious when he saw his younger brother was worried.

"He taught you literature all night?" Su Lu asked, dumbfounded. "Why?"

"Because he is kind." Chun-ge'er was deeply moved: "Uncle Zhu truly treats us like family. What he says is full of insightful wisdom. It's like listening to his words is better than reading books for ten years!"

"What...what's he after?" Su Lu was completely bewildered. Not only was he good to him, but he was even better to his older brother, staying up all night to explain problems to him. Could Master Zhu really be a gentleman of ancient times?
"What do we have to gain?" Chun Ge'er lay down on the bed, yawned widely, and said, "I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up when we leave..."

“Okay.” Su Lu and Su Tai nodded together.

~~
Zhu Jie yawned repeatedly during breakfast.

The Su family initially thought that Master Zhu hadn't slept well because he was in a new place, but when they learned that he had actually stayed up all night tutoring Chun Ge'er, they were so moved that they almost burst into tears.

"My dear nephew, you are such a wonderful person!" The old man, who rarely praised anyone, was deeply moved and gave a thumbs up: "You are the one!"

"Uncle, you flatter me. I truly like these children. I originally wanted to send Chun-ge to Luzhou to teach them at his own pace, but he couldn't bear to leave his own students, so I had to make the most of my time to teach them." Zhu Jie yawned widely again.

"I never expected that I would end up talking all night long..."

He said with a wry smile, "We're going to visit the county school today, so I hope I don't embarrass myself."

"I'll give you a magic weapon. Have one when you're sleepy." The old man then offered a betel leaf roll as if presenting a treasure.

"This is..." Zhu Jie had never seen this before. He took it and looked at it. It was wrapped tightly in green leaves, and he couldn't see what was rolled up inside.

"Try it and you'll see." The old man said, picking up a stick and slowly chewing it. His face showed a mixture of pain and pleasure, and he even shivered slightly.

"You might not be used to it at first, but the more you eat, the more addictive it becomes." Su Daji and Su Youjin each had one, with the same expression, and they both shivered at the same time.

Under the Su family's enthusiastic invitation, Zhu Jie had no choice but to imitate them, putting a bite in his mouth to try and chew. After only a few bites, it felt like his tongue had been struck by lightning, the pain jolting him awake! Before he could even spit it out, a sour taste, even stronger than aged vinegar, surged up, making his cheeks almost burn! His mouth instantly filled with saliva…

Now he couldn't spit out his mouthful of saliva. Zhu Jie cursed himself for being an idiot; why had he even tasted this stuff?
Just as he was feeling unwell, his saliva suddenly turned into sweet spring water, washing away the previous spiciness and sourness, making him feel so good that he couldn't help but shiver.

Zhu Jie opened his eyes after savoring the experience for a while, and let out a long sigh, saying, "It was like fighting a battle in my mouth!"

"How are you feeling? Are you feeling more energetic?" the old man asked with a smile.

"Wow, I'm not sleepy at all anymore!" Zhu Jie's eyes widened as he realized that his drowsiness had completely vanished and his mind was clear again. "This thing is amazing! How is it made?"

"Rolled in betel leaf, with Sichuan pepper, dogwood, and amla inside." The old man didn't hold back. He smiled and said, "If my dear nephew likes this, I've prepared plenty of ingredients for you. Go back and roll it up and enjoy it slowly."

"Yes, yes, thank you very much, Uncle." Zhu Jie quickly expressed his gratitude.

"But this stuff won't last too long." The old man pushed the whole box of betel leaf rolls in front of him. "Take them all with you. If you can't keep going during the day, just have one."

"Alright." Zhu Jie then put the silver box into his sleeve.

~~
After breakfast, You Muyou and Hai Xundao came to pick up the VIPs and take them to the county school.

Master Zhu got into You Muyou's carriage, and Su Lu wanted to follow, but You Muyou laughed and said, "Each of you should have a carriage; that would be more impressive."

Su Lu could tell at a glance that You Muyou probably had something to discuss with Master Zhu in private, so he readily agreed and got into Haihan's carriage.

The carriage slowly made its way to the county school.

Inside the carriage, Hai Han looked at Su Lu with excitement and cupped his hands, saying, "This student greets you, sir."

"Instructor Hai actually took those jokes seriously," Su Lu said with a smile, waving his hand. "Just call me Hongzhi."

“No way.” Hai Han shook his head decisively. “For the past six months, the students have been supervising education in the countryside and have witnessed firsthand the children’s progress. Thanks to the teacher’s phonetic symbols, they were able to read and recognize characters in just two or three months!”

"Do you know what this means?" he asked Su Lu with a fanatical expression.

"I don't know." Su Lu shook his head, not daring to say anything.

"It means that everyone in our Great Ming Dynasty can read! If everyone can read, everyone will know etiquette, and if everyone knows etiquette, education will flourish! Wouldn't that realize the Great Harmony that Confucius dreamed of?" Hai Han waved his hands, his face flushed with excitement.

Well, another one is sick...

With a heart set on healing and saving lives, Su Lu advised, "Even if everyone is literate and knows etiquette, we still cannot achieve a world of great harmony. A world of great harmony is not something that can be created through education, but rather through development..."

"Develop it?" Hai Han was taken aback, and hurriedly asked, "How do you develop it?"

"Then you have to know how to boil water first, and keep developing until you can boil water endlessly, then you'll have enough resources..." Seeing that he was getting more and more confused, Su Lu quickly stopped him and said, "In short, it's good that everyone can read, then it will be harder to fool the common people, and it will be harder to bully them."

Hai Han understood what he was saying and nodded emphatically, saying, "That's right. Fools are easily deceived, the unworthy are easily frightened, and the greedy are easily tempted. If we make it difficult for ordinary people to be deceived, those local tyrants and evil gentry will not dare to go too far."

Su Lu glanced at Hai Han in surprise. He had thought Hai Han was a pure scholar, but it turned out he was a polymath... Hai Han then excitedly took out his phonetic textbook and asked Su Lu to take a look.

"Since it has not been published yet, I would like to ask you to correct it before it can be printed and distributed as teaching material."

"Why don't you go to Taiping Academy and ask Mr. Zhang Yanqiu to take a look?" Su Lu, however, acted as a hands-off manager, saying, "He is not only a teacher but also one of the inventors of phonetic symbols, so he is more suitable than me."

"Yes." Haihan nodded regretfully.

As the car moved along, suddenly the sounds of children's voices came from outside, like the clear cries of fledgling phoenixes piercing through the curtains:

"Welcome, welcome, we are honored to welcome this grand occasion!"

"Welcome, welcome! We are honored to have such distinguished guests!"

Su Lu pulled back the carriage curtain and saw that outside the Lingxing Gate, there were ancient locust trees lining the road, and hundreds of children dressed in white shirts with their hair tied in black, holding colorful flags, standing in pairs along the passageway from the outer gate to the Pan Pool.

This really wasn't taught by him...

Su Lu and Zhu Jie, who was ahead of them, got off the carriage and entered the academy amidst the welcoming crowd of children lining the road.

Inside the academy, the clear waters of the Pan Pond reflected the blue sky and white clouds, and on the north square, two thousand children were already lined up in neat rows.

Su Lu and his companion followed You Muyou and Hai Xundao through the formation of schoolchildren to the front of Minglun Hall.

A platform had already been set up in front of Minglun Hall. Su Lu and Zhu Jie rested briefly in Minglun Hall before they heard the sound of a cannon outside Lingxing Gate.

The two quickly came out and joined the other children in welcoming the arriving adults.

Huang Bingxian and Prefect Jia first followed Magistrate Lu into the Confucian Temple, where they offered incense to Confucius before going up on the stage. Zhu Jie and Su Lu also followed them up.

Even the water instructor wasn't slacking off today; he loudly ordered, "Perform the proper etiquette!"

The two thousand children then bowed and greeted the adults on the platform.

This is Confucius's territory; students do not need to perform the kneeling ceremony like ordinary people.

"No need for formalities," Magistrate Lu said loudly. "Enough with the pleasantries, let's begin!"

"Yes!" Magistrate Cao loudly ordered, "First item: memorize the phonetic symbols!"

With a wave of his command flag, the water instructor ordered the two thousand children to recite in unison:

“Popomofo, detne le! Gocohe, chicken roost…”

“Weaving Corpse-Eating Day Zi Ci Si…”

The clear and bright pronunciation, like pearls falling onto a jade plate, merged into a surging sound that soared straight to the sky!
Although Huang Bingxian, Prefect Jia, and Zhu Jie couldn't understand it, they were still greatly shocked by these chanting incantations, and their curiosity about phonetic symbols reached its peak.

After the children finished reciting, Magistrate Cao, who had "repented and started anew," reported:

"Your Excellencies, the fifty sounds that the children were just reciting are the phonetic symbols of the 'Hongwu Zhengyun' created by the prodigy Su. Even children who have just started learning can memorize them all in a few days."

"So how do we use it?" Huang Bingxian asked Su Lu with great interest.

“Returning to the military governor, this method is the key to learning to read and write. Through these fifty initials, medials, finals, and tones, one can synthesize all the pronunciations in the Hongwu Zheng Yun.” Su Lu then explained the use of the phonetic symbols to the two officials and Zhu Jie.

“Once children learn this method of phonics, they can learn to recognize characters on their own without a teacher.”

"Is it really that amazing?" Magistrate Jia asked with great interest.

"Seeing is believing, so let's give it a try," Magistrate Lu said with a smile.
"My lords and Mr. Zhu, let's play a game—please each of you randomly select three students from the two thousand students. Of course, four or five students are also fine, it's up to you."

The three men complied and each selected three children. Huang Bingxian had originally intended to choose some young children who had just begun their education, but upon looking around, he found that all those present were around ten years old. Clearly, Magistrate Lu was cunning and had anticipated this, not wanting the children to ruin the performance.

Huang Bingxian had no choice but to randomly pick three...

"Then please write three characters at random," Magistrate Lu said with a smile.

Then servants carried a long table on it, on which were placed three sets of writing implements.

The three of them then happily picked up their pens and each wrote three characters.

Magistrate Lu then said to the nine children, "Add phonetic symbols to all nine characters!"

Each of the nine children received a sheet of paper, and in the blink of an eye, they had written the phonetic symbols for nine characters.

The three looked closely and saw that the symbols on the nine sheets of paper were exactly the same; they were definitely not just random scribbles...

"Next, we will verify for the adults whether their phonetic symbols are correct." Magistrate Lu then instructed Instructor Shui to copy the nine sets of phonetic symbols one by one onto a large sheet of paper, and then hold it up for the two thousand children below to read together.

Although the children didn't know which word it was, they all said in unison—

"ㄕㄢˉ——山! This character is pronounced 'shan'!"

"ㄍㄢˇ——赶！This character is pronounced 'gan'!"

"Hmm—Ma! This character is pronounced 'ma'!"

"..."

The pronunciation of all nine characters was correct, and the two adults and Zhu Jie were completely convinced.

P.S. This chapter is dedicated to the guild leader 'Chen Jinyan's Ramblings'. Please continue to vote with monthly tickets! Please subscribe!!
(End of this chapter)