Do you know: I should be fat and you should be thin!

The next day at dawn, Zhou Ning and Li Tou were already waiting outside the Sheng Mansion. They were then led inside by Changbai's maid.

Today is the first day of class.

According to the rules set by the great scholar Zhuang, students had to sit in the classroom in advance, and classes would officially begin at 5:00 AM.

Zhou Ning knew his own identity as a poor scholar from a humble family. After seeing that the men and women were separated into rows, he took the initiative to sit in the last row of the men's row.

In class, it doesn't matter where you sit, as long as you can hear clearly.

Sheng Changbai arrived quickly and, after exchanging a few pleasantries with Zhou Ning, sat down in the first row of the men's section.

This is the eldest son of the Sheng family. Even if someone from the Duke's family came to study, they could not take away the host family's throne.

Three-quarters of an hour later, the second to arrive was Qi Heng, the eldest son of the Duke of Qi. He was truly handsome, gentle and refined, and exuded an unparalleled air of nobility.

Qi Heng greeted Chang Bai and Zhou Ning, then sat down in the second row of the men's section.

When he arrived, Princess Pingning instructed him to study hard. In the Sheng family, he only needed to defer to Sheng Changbai, and no one else was worthy to sit in front of him.

Following closely behind Gu Tingye and Sheng Changfeng, Qi Heng addressed the Gu family as "Second Uncle" according to seniority, as the two families had a long-standing relationship.

Sheng Changfeng was quite sensible. Even the young master was calling him "Second Uncle," so why would he compete with the second son of the Marquis's family for precedence? He obediently sat in the fourth row of the men's column, just in front of Zhou Ning.

Soon after, the daughters of the Sheng family arrived together and took their seats in order of age.

Yu Yanran arrived late, greeted everyone, and immediately sat in the same row as Zhou Ning.

"Miss Yu..." Zhou Ning's heart skipped a beat.

What the hell? Even if Master Zhuang is famous, it's not so outrageous that the Grand Tutor has to give in, is it?

Is it because I'm too lazy to teach?

After all, there is a fundamental difference between the two. Although the Duke of Qi's family is more prominent, it is not a family of scholars, and there are no learned old scholars in the family.

But the old Grand Tutor was extremely talented. In his youth, he received instruction from a great Confucian scholar, who taught him everything he knew. His home tutoring was just as good as any outside class.

Moreover, in this era, women studied only to broaden their horizons, not for fame or fortune, so there was no need for them to study.

Seeing Zhou Ning staring at her in a daze, Yu Yanran lowered her head shyly and secretly glanced at the child prodigy out of the corner of her eye.

Girls mature early, and now that she is not favored at home, all she wants is to marry a good husband in a couple of years.

Having witnessed her grandparents' lifelong love and heard her grandmother praise Zhou Ning for having the same qualities as her grandfather, she couldn't help but feel a stirring of romantic feelings.

"Excuse me." Zhou Ning stopped his random thoughts and quickly bowed to apologize.

No matter what, staring at a girl like that is always impolite.

Yu Yanran smiled slightly and turned her head away from him.

Fortunately, Zhuang Xuejiu, with his white beard, arrived at that moment. Despite his advanced age, he was full of energy after getting up early, which was admirable.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, he was quite satisfied and quietly hid the ruler in his sleeve.

Everyone rose and bowed, asking, "How is the Master?"

"Good morning, students. Take your seats! Take out your teaching materials, turn to the first page, and begin reading aloud. When reading, you must pronounce each word clearly and loudly, without mispronouncing, omitting, adding, or reversing a single word!" Zhuang Xuejiu said solemnly.

So-called teaching aids are naturally confined to the Four Books and Five Classics and belong to the compulsory examination content.

For example, in this provincial examination, the first session consisted of three questions on the Four Books and four questions on the Five Classics. Only then did the examination cover one essay on politics, one judgment, one official document, and five essays on current affairs.

If one cannot even answer questions about the Four Books and Five Classics well, then one is destined to be left out of the list after the great wave of selection.

Learning makes time fly by, and before they knew it, more than half of the morning had passed. Scholar Zhuang stopped teaching and announced a break.

The pageboys and maids, who were sitting on small stools, picked up food boxes and gave them to their young masters and mistresses upon hearing this.

At this moment, Pear Head slowly stepped forward with an empty food box, and knelt down in front of Zhou Ning with a thud, looking aggrieved.

"Young master, I was so hungry I could see the stars, so I couldn't resist giving you some..." Pear Head cried and wiped away tears.

He has no ill intentions; he's just hungry. But the food box is only so big; how many pastries can it hold?

Zhou Ning was speechless and tossed the money pouch to him: "What are you crying for? Go buy it now! And come back after you've eaten your fill!"

Just kidding, I'm still growing, I can't skip a meal a day.

A slight impact on height is tolerable, since nobody's tall. But if it affects length... uh... I wouldn't be satisfied even if I killed you!

Sheng Changbai was enjoying the pastries and tea prepared by his family when he heard the commotion and noticed the situation. He immediately called his servant to fetch some!

"Pengqi, don't worry, I've already sent someone to fetch the pastries," Sheng Changbai said with concern.

"Thank you. I'm sorry to have made you laugh, brother." Zhou Ning bowed gratefully.

At that moment, a maid quietly approached and secretly handed over a plate of exquisite pastries.

Zhou Ning, without suspecting anything, assumed it was Sheng Changbai's arrangement and ate it directly.

Upon seeing this, Yu Yanran was overjoyed and secretly had some tea brought over.

The lesson continued after 15 minutes.

Soon the sky quietly darkened, and the day's classes came to an end!

That's all for today. Tomorrow, we'll have someone recite the text first, then we'll start the new lesson. Anyone who can't recite it will be punished by standing or having their hands slapped.

After Zhuang Xuejiu finished speaking, he got up and left, and everyone else in the room also left one after another.

Zhou Ning deliberately lingered until the very end, and only after everyone had dispersed did he step forward to express his gratitude to Yu Yanran: "Thank you so much for today, Sister Yanran. I will definitely return the favor tomorrow."

Sheng Changbai's preparations were late. Zhou Ning looked for the kind maid and immediately understood who had made the pastries and tea at the beginning.

Yu Yanran thought for a moment, then reminded her, "I'm a bit older than you... you should call me 'older sister'." Then she ran off.

next day!

Just as Zhuang Xuejiu said, the first thing we did in the morning was to recite texts!

But the promised back-scratching actually happened, with each person getting three questions!

Soon, everyone except Sheng Changbai had made mistakes. Gu Tingye, Qi Heng, and the others all chose to be punished with a slap on the hand, since standing as punishment was embarrassing!

Men have pride!

Mo, Ru, Minglan, and the others chose to stand as punishment. The girls swayed like begonias in the wind, making them look pitiful!

"Zhou Ning!" Zhuang Xuejiu called out.

"The student is here!" Zhou Ning stood up and bowed.

Confucius said: "The policies of both King Wen and King Wu are recorded in official documents." What does this mean?

Zhou Ning pondered for a moment and replied, "When the person is alive, the government operates; when the person dies, the government ceases. Human nature is sensitive to governance, just as the earth is sensitive to trees. Indeed, governance is..."

The poem says: "Even in your own room, you are not ashamed before the leaky roof." What is the meaning of this?

Zhou Ning closed his eyes for two breaths and replied, "Therefore, a wise man is respectful without moving, and trustworthy without speaking..."

.....

Despite being the youngest, he was quick-witted, and even the scholar Zhuang couldn't help but ask him two more questions.

The men who had been beaten turned around, and the swaying girls couldn't help but glance at them.

"Damn it! Why is he glowing?"

......