Gou Zai Xianwu Wenjing Search for Opportunities

Lin Yuan immediately told the teacher about his martial arts training, implying that he wanted to ask for a long leave to focus on learning martial arts and would come to the school less often in the future.

Master Xu waved his hand dismissively: "The Li family's martial arts academy only teaches martial arts on the fifth day of each month. On the other days, everyone practices privately. Just go to practice on the fifth day, and come back on the other days. The key to martial arts practice is the time of day, so you can come later and leave earlier from now on."

Every month ends in a multiple of five, such as the 5th, 10th, and 15th of the month.

It's not a full-time program? It turns out it's just a correspondence course.

Suddenly it's worthless!

Master Xu still wants to be a free teaching assistant? What a miserable fate.

Well, Xu's School is a good fallback plan. If I can't afford to rent a house in the future, I can come back to sleep in the woodshed and mooch free meals from the teacher.

"Thank you very much, Master. I'll go back and pack my things now, and I'll head over tomorrow morning..."

"No rush, it's only morning. You can have lunch here at my place." After saying this, Master Xu pointed to the solutions to the problems in his mathematics lecture notes and asked with a smile, "Tell me how to solve this equation..."

Lin Yuan was stunned. Sometimes, performing too well isn't necessarily a good thing.

But getting a free lunch seems pretty worthwhile!

Hey.

……

in the afternoon.

Zhao Sheng came to the side room specifically to find Lin Yuan, and emphasized that he should not wear a long gown when he went to the Li family's martial arts hall. He should wear a training uniform instead, and he should not dress too poorly, otherwise he would be looked down upon by the martial arts instructors and fellow disciples.

He had one more thing he didn't say: Don't embarrass your uncle, Li Shi.

Lin Yuan immediately agreed, but he hadn't really prepared beforehand, and it wouldn't be easy to find a suitable training uniform in a short time.

These days, even tailor shops do everything to order. Even if they have ready-made clothes, they are usually discarded items made to order by others, so the stock is very limited, and it's even harder to find clothes that fit perfectly.

He had worn tattered clothes for over a decade, and one day he suddenly realized that these tattered clothes no longer suited him, but he still had some affection for them.

It's cool to wear!

"My mother made two sets for me, I'll lend you one to wear for now," Zhao Sheng said after thinking for a moment.

Lin Yuan gestured to show the two men's figures; both were thin, but Lin Yuan was a head taller than him.

Even if you could wear these clothes, they definitely wouldn't fit.

Zhao Sheng suddenly realized: "If you think it's too small, shall I go with you to a tailor shop and a pawnshop to take a look?"

After some investigation, Lin Yuan realized that pawnshops were the world's largest sellers of ready-made goods, bar none.

The two went to the tailor shops on the street and asked several. Either they didn't have any ready-made ones, or if they did, they were all pre-ordered and not for sale.

He had no choice but to go to a pawnshop. Pawnshops often had gang backgrounds and frequent dealings with Lishui Pavilion, so Zhao Sheng led him directly to a familiar one.

"Ji Ren Dang?" Lin Yuan read the shop signboard aloud as he followed Zhao Sheng inside.

With Zhao Sheng's introduction, the shopkeeper enthusiastically found Lin Yuan some clothes that fit him.

They quickly found two items and asked the shop assistant to bring them over. Lin Yuan tried them on, but neither fit.

So the shopkeeper sent his assistant to other shops on the same street to look for more, and they brought back five items.

Lin Yuan suddenly became curious and asked the shopkeeper, "How many people sell these as training clothes?"

"Hey, these days, any family with a little money wants their child to learn martial arts so they can have a better future. But learning martial arts isn't that simple. If a family sees that their child isn't going to learn, they don't have the money to continue, so they have to give up early. These training clothes have to be durable, and the fabric used is worse than ordinary cotton or linen, so they're more expensive. It's better to pawn them for some money..." The shopkeeper knew a lot about these things and explained them one by one.

Lin Yuan tried on five garments, none of which fit perfectly. Only one was about 80% new, with a decent length but slightly loose, indicating that the person who wore it was rather muscular, not as thin as him.

"It doesn't matter. You all wear belts and tie your trouser legs when you practice martial arts anyway, so just tie more." The shopkeeper was very experienced in life.

Seeing Lin Yuan give him a meaningful look, Zhao Sheng immediately started negotiating the price with the shopkeeper.

"The people Brother Zhao brought are only one tael, two mace, and three fen of silver at cost price."

After hearing the price, Zhao Sheng felt it was about right and looked at Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan knew that Zhao Sheng's training clothes cost about one or two taels of silver just for the fabric, not including labor costs. Even if labor costs were included, the price for a second-hand, 80% new uniform would be about the same.

This is just an emergency measure; we'll make do for now and order a new one later.

"Okay." He paid immediately and took the training clothes.

……

Early the next morning.

Zhao Gou'er came to find him early in the morning, and the two went out together.

Lin Yuan, wearing clean training clothes, passed by Old Sun's tea stall.

"Oh, you two young men, are you going to practice martial arts?" Shopkeeper Sun asked with a hint of surprise.

"Let's go take a look."

Lin Yuan said goodbye and left, leaving Old Sun and his wife whispering to each other.

The two arrived at Li Shi's house, which was not far from the Li family mansion, but not as well-located as Master Xu's house.

The servants led the two to wait in the living room of the back room.

After a while, Li Shi came out and saw that the two looked particularly energetic in their training clothes. He was overjoyed and said, "Clothes make the man, and a saddle makes the horse! That's right! Let's go, it's not far, we'll walk there."

"Okay." The two said in unison.

The ancestral home of the Li family was enormous, encompassing a small hill near the town and extending all the way to the street, and even including a tributary of the Lishui River.

This house was only the ancestral home of the Li family; the main residence of the Earl's family was in Linyuan County.

The Li Family Martial Arts School is not located on this side of the street, but halfway up the mountain, in a secluded and open area.

Li Shi led the two to the outer martial arts hall of the Li residence. They entered through a side gate and found Steward Li of the outer martial arts hall. The two were very familiar with each other and spoke very casually.

Deacon Li is the fourth son in his clan, and he is usually called Li Si. He has been in charge of the affairs of the Outer Martial Arts Hall. This time, he and his fellow martial arts hall members helped Li Shi capture Zhao Jingang and others, and they secretly divided a lot of money among themselves. Therefore, he was happy to do Li Shi a favor and secured two places for him in the Outer Martial Arts Hall.

Li Si glanced at Lin Yuan a couple more times, realizing that this was the young man sent by Master Xu to give Li Shi advice. He himself had indirectly benefited from this, so he found Lin Yuan more and more pleasing to the eye.

The two teenagers were registered on the spot, and Li Shi, the guarantor, was made to sign and approve them.

Li Si took the booklet and then led the three men to see the manager of the Outer Martial Arts Hall. He explained everything to the manager, who didn't say anything, but just nodded to him and Li Shi before moving on.

Leave the main hall.

Li Si said to Li Shi, "Alright. Now that you're a pavilion assistant, you're a very busy person, so I won't take up any more of your time. Go ahead and do your work. I'll take the two of them to the training ground."

"Hey, Fourth Brother, don't be so formal. I'll treat you tonight, let's have a few drinks."

"Haha, you've struck it rich, kid. I'll have to take advantage of you again this time..." Li Si became increasingly friendly with him and spoke more casually.

Li Shi immediately asked in a low voice, "Fourth Brother, does that Instructor Wei still take on disciples?"

"Him? Forget about it. He's a guest of our household. He doesn't care about such a small amount of money. He only accepts children with good character, potential, and family background."

As Li Si spoke, he looked at Zhao Sheng, who was fourteen or fifteen years old and a bit older than him. Lin Yuan and Zhao Sheng were both very thin. Neither of the two boys came from wealthy families, so no one wanted them.

According to Coach Wei, if a family is poor, they cannot afford the expenses of learning martial arts, so why waste his time?

"What about Instructor Wang and Sixth Uncle?"

"They both have many disciples, and they've been unwilling to take any more," Deacon Li said helplessly. "Any instructor with a bit of reputation in the Outer Martial Arts Hall tries to squeeze in through connections. One of them is a guest of the manor, and the other is our Sixth Uncle. You know Sixth Uncle's temper; he's snapped at me a few times. Why don't you go and talk to him yourself..."

Upon hearing that it was his sixth uncle, Li Shi shook his head and sighed, "Ah, is there anything better?"

He wanted to find a better teacher for Zhao Sheng. Years ago, he himself was injured during martial arts training due to his instructor's negligence. Although the injury was healed, it left a lingering problem. Whenever he practiced martial arts too much, he would feel unwell.

This also caused him to be stuck in the later stage of body tempering, and he could never achieve perfection.

That's why he gave up the path of a martial arts master and devoted himself to working his way up in the government office, all in the hope of making a living.

"Someone better?" Li Si pondered for a moment. "Li Dao is good. He's not only a rank-one martial artist, but he's also an excellent teacher. His disciples have made significant progress."

"Li Dao? He's just a servant who was granted a surname. If you learn martial arts from him, people will laugh their heads off." Li Shi shook his head. The kind of person you learn from will leave a mark on you, which will affect your future promotion.

"Instructor Zhang is a guest of the household. He is quite good. Although he has not yet reached the rank of disciple, he has taught many good disciples."

"He's not even a martial arts master, what's the point of teaching him?" Li Shi looked down on him with disdain.

"Sigh, you!" Li Si chuckled in exasperation, "And there's also a top-tier retainer in your household, a mid-level martial arts master..."

"Wait a minute, a mid-level martial artist! Sixth-rank? Fifth-rank?" Li Shi exclaimed in surprise when he saw him nod. "Fifth-rank, an internal energy martial artist! It's him, it's him! Fourth brother, you're not being fair! Why didn't you say so earlier? How come a fifth-rank martial artist is an instructor in the outer martial arts hall?"

"Hey, let me finish. She just arrived at the manor and doesn't interact much with others. She's rather aloof. As a female martial arts instructor, she doesn't like to be out in the field and only took on the job of an instructor at the outer martial arts hall."

"I see." Li Shi nodded. The Inner Martial Arts Hall is full of direct descendants of the Li family. To become an instructor, one must not only have martial arts skills, but also be a trustworthy person.

It would be bad if the direct descendants were led astray.

Newly arrived retainers, no matter how capable they are, will have to wait until they pass the probationary period before they will be given important positions by the Li family.

"She has a problem: she rarely uses words to teach her disciples, but she uses her hands the most. If they make even the slightest mistake, she won't hold back. At first, many disciples joined because of her reputation, but they were all driven away. Now there aren't many left. If these two can endure the hardship, I'll send them there," Li Si explained.

"Hey, I thought it was something serious!" Li Shi said nonchalantly. "What's a little beating and scolding for learning martial arts? It's nothing. My cousin and nephew are both thick-skinned and tough. Just beat them to death..."

He spoke with righteous indignation, praising Lin Yuan and his companion as having bones harder than steel plates and skin thicker than armor. His core message was: they weren't afraid of being beaten, but they were afraid of not learning real skills.

"Alright, let them experience it first!" Li Si looked at them sympathetically.

Zhao Sheng didn't care at all, but Lin Yuan noticed Li Si's tone and couldn't quite figure it out.