The second prince, Xiao Yuanmin, turned five years old after the Chinese New Year, which was the age at which all the princes of the Great Qi Dynasty began to learn.
It was natural for him to come to the Southern Study to study, so as his biological mother and adoptive mother, it would be no problem for Mrs. Lu to arrange a study companion for him.
However, the status of his two study companions were much lower than that of other people in the South Study, which was quite unreasonable.
Not to mention Yu Zizhen, Chen Hushan and Fang Huaiying, who were nominal companions but were actually hostages, let's just talk about Fan Zhongming, Yang Shixian, Lu Heng and Wan Jingrong. These four all came from families with high-ranking officials and had extraordinary backgrounds.
Unlike the two companions of the Second Prince Xiao Yuanmin, their backgrounds can even be described as not up to par compared with the other companions in the Southern Study.
The one called Wu Mingyu was the son of a concubine's daughter from the Lu family's side branch who had a weak presence. His grandfather had the highest official position in the family, but he was only a fifth-rank official. In the capital, where "high-ranking officials are everywhere and fifth-rank officials are as numerous as dogs", he was not worthy of being called a leader.
Another one was called Wei Heng. His grandmother was the eldest daughter of the Empress Dowager Da Lu's uncle. Logically speaking, with this relationship, there should be someone in their family who holds an important position. However, his grandfather died early, and his father was a hopeless case. Not only did he have poor academic and business skills, he also had poor personal morals. He favored his concubine and neglected his wife to the point of personally poisoning her.
Even if the Lu family wanted to support such a person, he would not be able to stand on his own, so the Lu family simply didn't bother.
However, Wei Heng's father was not the kind of person who would reflect on whether he was capable of handling such a big responsibility. On the one hand, he blamed the Lu family for not supporting him, but on the other hand, he relied on the power of the Lu family and did whatever he wanted at home under the banner of failure in officialdom.
Except for Yu Zizhen, who was constantly giving spoilers through the system, and Lu Heng, who knew the inside story, no one else knew what selection criteria Mrs. Lu had used to choose these two people to enter the Southern Study.
It’s not that they look down on those whose family background is not as good as theirs. They just put themselves in Xiao Lu’s shoes and think that since she wants the second prince to inherit the throne, she shouldn’t choose two people like this when selecting companions for the second prince.
Regardless of their personal qualities, it was an indisputable fact that their families were not very powerful. Forget about helping the Second Prince, the Second Prince would be thankful if they could not hold him back.
Everyone was confused and puzzled, but the teacher who was in charge of teaching them did not give them the opportunity to communicate privately and find out the truth.
After asking the two new study partners to briefly introduce themselves, the teacher opened the book and began to test the academic progress of Yu Zizhen and others.
Yu Zizhen continued to play her role as a Wu Fu who was not good at studying, had strong limbs but a simple mind. When the teacher asked questions, although she answered most of the questions, her answers were halting and difficult.
The others, including Chen Hushan and Wan Jingrong, who usually seemed the most playful, answered all of the gentleman's questions very fluently.
After receiving the nod of approval from his master, Wan Jingrong, who had privately warned himself many times "Don't provoke Yu Zizhen", couldn't restrain himself in the end. As he sat down, he cast a smug look at Yu Zizhen.
Yu Zizhen rolled his eyes at him speechlessly, then silently took out the book designated by the teacher and studied the new chapter with everyone under the teacher's guidance.
As for the Second Prince and his two companions, the teacher took time out to examine them individually after he had finished teaching the old students headed by the First Prince.
The second prince had not yet begun to learn, so the teacher let him go after asking him a question.
His two study partners have been studying for several years, and because their age is closer to that of Yu Zizhen and his old students, their study progress is also closer to theirs.
As soon as this result came out, everyone except Yu Zizhen and Lu Heng couldn't help but wonder what on earth little Lu was up to.
The gentleman was actually very puzzled, but as a small Hanlin without any background, he usually paid most attention to not talking or doing too much, so naturally he did not dare to express the doubts in his heart at this time.
After a little hesitation, the teacher finally arranged these two companions of the second prince, who should have gone to school with the eldest prince and others according to their academic progress, to study with the second prince.
There was no way around it. Their purpose in coming to the Southern Study was to accompany the Second Prince in his studies. As for whether their own studies would be delayed, the old Hanlin said that this was not something he could interfere with.
The two did not raise any objection to this. Later, when the old Hanlin began to teach the second prince, they accompanied him throughout the whole process. It seemed that they had indeed fulfilled their responsibility to assist the second prince in his studies.
It was not until the morning classes came to an end and everyone entered the lunch break that the two men stood up from their seats and began to chat with their classmates.
The first people they went to were the Second Prince, the First Prince and Xiao Shaoke. These three were members of the royal family, and the Second Prince was their nominal master. So no matter what they thought in their hearts, at this time, unless they were stupid, they would basically put these three people in front of the princes and young masters like Yu Zizhen according to the rules.
As for the others, Lu Heng dragged Wan Jingrong away without waiting for them to come over and talk to him. Yu Zizhen and others all surrounded the eldest prince, waiting to have lunch with him and take a nap in the side room of his palace.
Since they didn't leave, they naturally couldn't refuse to communicate with their new classmates. So after paying their respects to the three members of the royal family, Wu Mingyu and Wei Heng came over to exchange greetings with Yu Zizhen and others.
Yu Zizhen and the others did not show any intention of being superior. They greeted each other politely with their new classmates, then gathered into a small group again, opened their lunch boxes and went to eat together.
Wu Mingyu and Wei Heng were not familiar with the crowd, so it was not convenient for them to come closer. Instead, they sat in their own seats, opened their own lunch boxes, and began to enjoy the food produced by the Imperial Study, which was the first time in their lives.
The second prince, who was also sitting there alone, did not have the same psychological quality as them. After all, the child was only five years old. The loneliness and desolation contrasted by the large group of people around him made him quickly feel depressed.
The eldest prince noticed it, and after a moment of silence, he took the initiative to wave to the second prince, "Yuan Min, come sit over here."
Although everyone ate their own portion of food after sitting down, and people did not chat casually during the table like they did at the Zhenbei Palace, but somehow, after sitting down, the second prince suddenly lost the previous feeling of misery and helplessness as if he was the only one left in the world.
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