Zhao Rong turned around and glanced at Li Jinshu behind him. He was standing at the door and waved to Zhao Rong with a warm smile.

Zhao Rong gave Li Jinshu a helpless smile in return, then turned around, adjusted his hat and student collar, and walked towards Mr. Yan who was standing under a tree in the courtyard in the distance.

"Disciple Zhao Ziyu, greetings to the master."

Zhao Rong bowed and saluted.

Yan Jidao was standing with his hands behind his back, examining the maple tree with lush branches and leaves but no red leaves. Upon hearing this, he immediately turned around. With a serious expression, he carefully looked at Zhao Rong from top to bottom several times, nodded and said, "Ziyu, no need to be so polite."

Zhao Rong raised his head and looked at Yan Jidao.

The two of them remained silent.

There was silence for a few moments.

Yan Jidao nodded slightly again for some reason. He suddenly turned around, walked towards the stone table under the tree with his hands behind his back, and spoke.

"Tzuyu, don't be so reserved. I have heard a little about what happened yesterday, but please tell me more about Tao Yuanran's debate on Confucianism and Taoism."

After saying this, Yan Jidao came to the stone table, hesitated slightly, picked up something on the table, and walked towards the maple tree.

Zhao Rong looked closely and saw that Mr. Yan had an iron clipper in his hand that was used to cut grass leaves.

Zhao Rong raised his eyebrows slightly, and then began to recount the debate between Confucianism and Taoism in Zhongnan Kingdom in relatively detail. He omitted and changed some parts involving his or Lanxi Lin's privacy and secrets, such as the core of the Tingni Purple Gold Furnace and the events at Mount Taibai on the night of victory.

Under the tree, Yan Jidao, dressed in a grey suit, lowered his head and rolled up his sleeves carefully to prevent them from falling. He looked up at the maple tree whose branches and leaves were becoming more and more luxuriant.

Yan Jidao had lived in this elegant maple forest courtyard many times. Every autumn when he came to Taiqing Mansion to give lectures, Taiqing Mansion arranged for him to live here with this red maple tree.

Yan Jidao had been thinking about taking action for a long time. He watched this gorgeous red maple leaf grow from young to mature, and the bright red color of the maple leaf gradually faded.

It's like forgetting it's autumn.

Yan Jidao held the pruning knife and looked at the maple tree. The dark magic marks on his face gradually disappeared. He let out a light breath and his face relaxed. Then, while listening to Zhao Rong's words, he began to carefully trim the red maple.

Zhao Rong continued to narrate the debate between Confucianism and Taoism.

Yan Jidao was cutting the pieces methodically while occasionally asking about some details in Zhao Rong's narration, without wasting time on either.

When Zhao Rong proposed the "Theory of the Unity of Substance and Function" for the first time in this world, Yan Jidao stopped what he was doing, listened attentively, and asked many questions. But when Zhao Rong answered all his questions clearly and orderly, he breathed a sigh of relief and nodded.

The two communicated like this for about a quarter of an hour.

"This is basically the debate between Confucianism and Taoism. Tao Yuanran left with that strange old man. Before he left, that strange old man gave me the Purple Air from the East...Mr. Yan, do you have anything else to ask?"

Zhao Rong said as he looked at the old man busy beside the maple tree. He was obviously a Confucian Jindan monk who could bring peace to the world with a wave of his sleeves, but at this moment he was pruning and growing trees himself like an old farmer.

Upon hearing this, Yan Jidao shook his head and sighed, "Great, what a great way to do nothing and yet achieve everything..."

He suddenly turned around, clapped his hands, and walked to Zhao Rong, with a smile on his old face.

Yan Jidao raised his hand and patted Zhao Rong's shoulder heavily, "Zi Yu, this 'body and function are one source' theory is very good, you, even better."

Zhao Rong shook his head, "Mr. Yan is too kind, but I can't afford it."

In the distance, outside the courtyard gate, Li Jinshu turned around and saw this scene inside the gate. He had a dazed expression. Li Jinshu tilted his head slightly and looked at his junior brother Zhao Rong with envy.

It had been a long time since he had seen his meticulous teacher smile. The last time, Li Jinshi remembered, was when his former talented senior brother disobeyed the teacher's arrangement, gave up inheriting the teacher's mantle, left the sect and went to Tunan Continent alone.

I remember that day, the teacher and the eldest senior brother were arguing loudly, and he and his younger brothers were silent. The teacher was furious and left in a huff. The eldest senior brother knelt on the ground and kowtowed nine times, bowed deeply to see him off, then smiled at them, his younger brothers, and left, never to return.

But later, when Li Jinshu went to bring wine to the teacher, he looked back quietly and saw that the teacher was actually drinking with a silent laugh.

In the end, Li Jinshu became the eldest senior disciple of Mr. Yan, but he actually didn't like the new disciples calling him by that title...

Under the maple tree, Yan Jidao restrained his smile and patted Zhao Rong on the shoulder again, "There are two more things to do today."

He took out a piece of paper from his sleeve and handed it to Zhao Rong.

Zhao Rong took it curiously, and immediately his nose caught a whiff of faint fragrance, like orchid and elk, with a long-lasting charm.

It seems familiar, as if I have smelled it somewhere before.

Zhao Rong's expression changed.

Yan Jidao said softly, "Mr. Zhu from the academy sent it yesterday. She said she would wait for us to return to the academy to apologize to you for some things that happened before. Well, she also said that she liked your calligraphy very much, Ziyu, and wanted to have a deeper exchange with you..."

Yan Jidao seemed to want to say something but stopped himself. He looked at Zhao Rong meaningfully.

Mr. Zhu?

Zhao Rong suddenly remembered the woman in Confucian clothes who passed by when his senior brother came to pick him up that day. She had the scent of orchid on her body, the same scent as the one on the paper.

When Zhao Rong heard the words "in-depth communication", his eyelids jumped. He picked up the folded paper with a slightly conflicted expression. After glancing at Yan Jidao's expression, Zhao Rong thought about it and opened it directly.

Yan Jidao slightly turned sideways and looked away.

Seeing this, Zhao Rong coughed lightly, spread out the paper, glanced at it unconsciously, found it was a couplet, and read it out directly.

"Searching and searching, it's cold and desolate... so sad and miserable."

"The orioles and swallows have been together through thick and thin... year after year... morning after morning."

The more Zhao Rong read, the more wrong his expression seemed. After he finished reading, he took a few closer looks at the paper, then hurriedly folded the paper and stuffed it into his sleeve as if he was avoiding the god of plague.

Zhao Rong looked at Yan Jidao with a helpless expression.

What made him avoid it was not the content of the letter, but the couplet. Mr. Zhu's couplet was quite neat. After all, Zhao Rong himself didn't know what wonderful and appropriate second couplet there was for the first couplet of a certain poem. The reason why he gave this first couplet to the narrow-minded girl was to make things difficult for her. He thought that if she could come up with the second couplet, he would have the initiative and could say whether to say it or not.

But now, Zhu Weirui's second line did not surprise Zhao Rong much, but these words...

These words on the paper are 90% similar in appearance and 30% in spirit to the ones Zhao Rong left on the couplet outside the side door of the academy!

The corner of Zhao Rong's mouth twitched.

He was not afraid that his handwriting would be learned by this female teacher. What Zhao Rong was afraid of was her fiery passion.

Zhao Rong knew a lot about Zhu Weirui's affairs because he often asked Fan Yushu, who came to the academy very early.

These new students originally had six art courses that they were required to learn.

However, now there is one more calligraphy master, Mr. Zhu, so there is one more art form.

As for the controversy and debate that this caused in some academies, Zhao Rong was not afraid to get involved.

only.

Zhao Rong is very, very afraid of flirting with other women.

Although Zhu Weirui is his teacher, it is almost impossible for the two of them to meet, but what if?

Before, he used his skills in regular script from his previous life to write couplets at the gate of the academy. He did this out of necessity in order to get admission.

But not now.

Zhao Rong knew that thinking like this was a bit narcissistic, but he had to be on guard.

Because Xiaoxiao is a lesson learned through blood.

A good man is afraid of being clingy with women, especially crazy women.

Zhao Rong has a deep understanding of this.

On the way to find his wife, he couldn't help but fall in love with Xiaoxiao.

It’s a hassle no matter how I tell Qingjun now.

Last night Qingjun said that she would only give him one wife, and that was Qian'er.

What should Xiaoxiao do? Zhao Rong is now having a headache.

What would happen if I accidentally offend a female teacher in the academy?

Qingjun probably had to skin him alive, and then, while she was crushing Jianxin, she asked her brother Ronger with a smile, whether it was better steamed or fried, or if she should eat it raw, which was pure natural and nutritious...

Thinking of this, Zhao Rong trembled.