Chapter 304 The Pedantic Scholar

It's spring planting season again.

Time flies; Lu Qingqing has been back for a year now.

When she returned last year, she was met with disdain from everyone. Now, everyone greets her warmly.

The peach trees by the pond have already sprouted pink buds.

Lu Qingqing broke off a branch, and the image of that flower and fruit feast came to mind again.

"Sigh, spring is indeed a restless season."

Quite a few people have gotten married recently.

Wan Yuting also got married; I just went to the Wan family's house for a banquet yesterday.

Looking at Wan Yuting in his wedding attire, she wondered what Ji Ruyan would look like in a bright red outfit.

That would certainly be like Tang Sanzang, attracting numerous demons to fight over him.

Ha ha ha ha……

"girl--"

Lu Qingqing turned around and saw not a person dressed in red, but a person dressed in green.

Mo Lang and Fu Leng walked side by side, one dressed in all black and the other wearing a green cloak.

Not only was he wearing a green cloak, but his pants were also yellowish-brown.

His two powerful legs made him walk with great strides.

The cloak whistled like outstretched wings.

"Keck?"

“Miss Lu, this subordinate is Fu Leng.”

Fu Leng touched his face. He had indeed gotten darker and rougher after spending several months in the mountains, but he shouldn't be unrecognizable, right?

Who is Kai?

Lu Qingqing: "..."

Mo Lang glanced at Fu Leng with a puzzled look, then said without further ado, "Miss, Qu Shan has been arrested!"

"Huh? What happened to him?"

What did the headmaster of an academy do?

Last time I gave him a book, he returned two copies of "The Book of Rites" and "Women's Virtues," which she then tossed aside.

"He is the one who wrote the argument that the former crown prince was wronged."

It was Qushan!

Lu Qingqing was genuinely surprised: "He also knows your young master's identity?"

Fu Leng replied, "I don't know. He's just a scholar with a strong sense of justice."

He had a student in the capital who worked at the Hanlin Academy. He and Qu Shan often corresponded. The student greatly admired the young master and told Qu Shan many things about the young master's past.

Since the young master was brought back to life and the northern border rose up in rebellion, Qu Shan and his student decided to do what they could.

Unexpectedly, his student was betrayed, and Qu Shan was also discovered as a result.

The people who arrested him were from the prefectural government office. Magistrate Xu wanted us to save Qushan.

"Miss Lu, what do you suggest we do?"

"Of course we should save them!"

I knew the girl would agree!

Of course, they also wanted to save those who supported the young master, but the young master had said that they should consult Miss Lu before doing anything.

"How is his student doing?"

The two shook their heads: "He's probably dead in prison. We can only wait until we get back to Beijing and see if we can find his family."

Lu Qingqing was very upset.

When power changes hands, many people always make sacrifices.

They had never even met the people they were risking their lives to protect.

"We can't let anything happen to Qushan again. There's no time to lose, you all need to go and rescue them!"

Mo Lang and Fu Leng planned to wait until the officials escorted the people through two cities, then pretend to be bandits blocking the road, engage in a real or fake killing, and then leave one alive to return to the yamen to report.

The two followed the road, but they did not expect that soon after leaving Ming'an County, the officials began to harass Qu Shan's family.

Qu Shan, filled with grief and indignation, tried to fight them to the death, but was kicked to the ground.

Qu Shan's wife came from a scholarly family and was of noble character. His daughter was also strong-willed and would rather commit suicide than suffer humiliation.

Just as Mo Lang and Fu Leng were about to make their move, more than a dozen students arrived from behind.

Fu Leng recognized Liu Sheng among them.

A dozen or so men stopped the officials, using their frail bodies to block the whips that were about to strike Qu Shan.

"Dean Qu has been a teacher for more than 20 years, and his students are all over the world. Several county magistrates have respected him greatly. Even if he is convicted of treason, he should not be humiliated like this!"

The integrity of intellectuals must not be trampled upon!

If you continue your acts of violence, we thirteen will surely wield our pens as swords! We will unite scholars across the land to condemn the corrupt officials of the government who act like bandits, committing acts of humiliation and violence before even being convicted!

Every word was filled with resentment, and every breath was brimming with courage.

They seemed ready to fight those officials to the death.

The officials ultimately dared not escalate the matter and did not take further action against the Qu family.

Thirteen students helped Qu Shan up, intending to escort their teacher and his family to the government office.

Qu Shan was afraid they would be implicated, but seeing his wife and daughter's pale faces, he swallowed his words of shooing them away.

"Send them to the city gate and leave immediately. Do not linger. Tell Vice Dean Zhao that the academy is in his hands. Do not worry about me. The students' studies are the priority."

“Dean…” Liu Sheng’s eyes reddened.

"The students all believe you are right."

"Don't talk nonsense!" Qu Shan clutched his chest and reprimanded sternly.

And so, the thirteen men protected Qu Shan's family and followed the group through another city.

During a break, when Liu Sheng went to relieve himself, he was dragged deep into the grove by Mo Lang.

Then, Liu Sheng told everyone that he had thought of a way to save his master. He had a friend who was the biggest porcelain merchant in the capital and had dealings with Marquis Changxin. They would go to the capital together to ask for help. He also warned the officials that if they continued to bully Dean Qu's family, even if they couldn't save Dean Qu, they could still deal with these nobodys.

Yagyu led everyone away.

The seven or eight officials were furious.

"Is that kid for real?"

"It might be true. He's dressed better than the others, and he has fair skin and delicate features. He must come from a well-off family. Let's not cause any trouble."

"What a nuisance! These pedantic scholars, just give them some money to bribe them and that's it. We have professional ethics too, we do things for money."

Who would have thought that after all the hints along the way, not a single person would get it!

As the group continued arguing, they realized something was wrong.

It seems there are two more people among them.

Two masked men dressed in black.

Can you imagine? It's like sitting in a circle at night telling ghost stories, and suddenly you find two strangers there – that kind of creepy feeling.

Before they could even draw their knives and jump up, all four of them had their throats slit.

One of them had the smear applied to his neck too lightly, and he woke up quickly, got up and took a look.

They're all dead!

The three brothers died, and the entire Qushan family, covered in blood, also died!

They had lost all their silver, food, and water.

We've encountered some wicked bandits!

"Oh no, oh no, how am I going to explain this when I get back?!"

The man covered his neck and ran back to report the news.

Mo Lang and Fu Leng then came out again to deal with the body and wake up Qu Shan's family.

However, Qu Shan coughed up a mouthful of blood as soon as he woke up.

"father!"

"master!"

His wife and daughter rushed at him.

"What happened? I just chopped your neck, why are you spitting blood?" Fu Leng asked.

Mo Lang blew a signal to summon the carriage.

Then they put a pill in Qu Shan's mouth.

"Stop arguing, those kicks he took earlier must have injured his internal organs!"

----------------------------------------