Jia Tengying picked up a bucket of well water and dipped the bamboo basket containing freshly picked vegetables into the cool water.

He reached his other hand into the water and churned it repeatedly. The clear well water gradually became turbid. He then took out the bamboo basket, used the water for washing vegetables to water the fields, and then continued to fetch water to wash vegetables and fruits.

On an autumn morning, the fresh air is like the well water. A breath of it brings a tranquil and cool feeling that penetrates your heart. Therefore, the movements of Zhao Rong and others in the yard can be clearly heard by the well in the northeast corner.

It fell into the ears of Jia Tengying who was busy working.

"Yu Huaijin, what are you going to do?" Brother Ziyu's voice sounded righteous and stern.

Senior Yu didn't say anything.

Brother Ziyu's tone was a little surprised, "Brother Yushu! Good job! Ouch..."

But his tone changed again in an instant, faster than his expression, "Damn it, I didn't fall for it."

"Oh, no, no, no! Yu Huaijin, a gentleman uses words, not fists, let go now."

Senior Yu said seriously, "You were the first one to do it."

She paused, "He attacked me by surprise, and I didn't even move my hands."

Zhao Rong: “…”

While Jia Tengying was listening to these words that were far away in the quiet morning, he kept working with his hands.

He was not surprised at all about what happened behind him, because when Mochi Academy just opened, Fan Yushu had also experienced it. At that time, the sound was farther away, and he had heard it more. At this moment, he just wanted to persuade Brother Ziyu after today...

After washing the vegetables and fruits several times, the well water was no longer turbid, and Jia Tengying took out the bamboo basket. He lowered his head and reached out, and took out a juicy green cucumber from the basket.

Jia Tengying hesitated for a moment, put the cucumber back, then picked up the basket, turned around and ran back to the south room.

On the way, he saw that Zhao Rong had followed Yu Huaijin back to the stone table, but Zhao Rong did not follow Yu Huaijin step by step. Instead, he walked in front of the woman who had just subdued him with his hands behind his back and his head held high. He did not look like he had been beaten at all.

Yu Huaijin, who looked short and frail, followed behind the tall and slender Zhao Rong.

If an outsider who didn't know the truth saw them at first glance, he would think that the two were the son of a country landlord and his maidservants, and he might even secretly admire the son's omnivorous taste.

However, Zhao Rong's hands were placed behind his back, with one hand holding the other's wrist, and he was twisting them tremblingly...

Jia Tengying returned to the house and took out a neat white cloth. His dark face, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, was filled with a serious expression as he carefully wiped the curved cucumber, which must be delicious.

In fact, Jia Tengying had always wanted to say thank you to her, but he always forgot to open his mouth. To be exact, he forgot the words as soon as he spoke to her.

Yu Huaijin is undoubtedly the best among the nearly 300 new students in the Mochi Academy of Linlu Academy.

Whether it is the entrance examination, the two mid-month examinations since the start of the sixth semester, or the number of times the teachers in the academy talked about it when chatting about this class of students.

Her performance in the seven arts was the best among the students in the six halls, and she served as an assistant to many art teachers.

In addition, what makes people admire him more, or makes opponents more desperate, is Yu Huaijin's cultivation.

Jia Tengying didn't know much about spiritual practice, and in his impression, Senior Yu was usually a low-key person. Apart from reading, answering other people's questions, and helping some people with their studies, he had never seen her practicing.

However, Jia Tengying once heard his classmates say in private with a proud tone that Senior Yu's cultivation talent would rank among the top few people even in the neighboring Taiqing Mansion, and it might not be difficult for him to be on par with the long-famous female genius from the Xiaoyao Mansion.

Apart from the fact that her appearance and personality did not match the fairies and talented beauties that the men in the academy tacitly believed in, Yu Huaijin seemed to have no shortcomings and was terrifyingly powerful.

Some people even joked that it didn't matter whether Yu Huaijin was a man or a woman.

She was also very famous among the scholars in the academy outside Mo Chi Academy. After the apprenticeship ceremony a year later, she would be promoted to a scholar in the academy. People could predict without any guessing that she would become the next scholar chosen by the headmaster.

This is a rare existence among the scholars in the academy, a mirror for the Confucian scholars in Linlu Academy to correct their clothes, and a benchmark for thousands of scholars living under Wangque Mountain.

The only thing that the students talked about with great interest was what number she was ranked.

Jia Tengying stared at the cucumber, a little absent-minded for a moment.

Two months ago, he just came from a remote mountain village to Wangque City, which was the best city in the world. He was squeezed among thousands of scholars who came from all over the world and passed the assessment of Linlu Academy in accordance with the rules.

Before Jia Tengying had time to get excited, he was assigned to Ruxing Hall. However, what he waited for was not what he had imagined, the kind of atmosphere of the highest school in the continent where everyone is a gentleman and has deep friendships. Or perhaps, there was indeed such an atmosphere, but this kind of atmosphere also excluded him.

Jia Tengying felt a vague sense of separation.

In the entire Ruexing Hall, not to mention the other students with prominent backgrounds, just the tall Xiao Hongyu was enough for him to not dare to look her in the eye or speak to her.

The two of them were from the same dynasty in the southern mountains.

But she was a princess of a country, and he was a country boy from a mountain village.

The roommates who had already been assigned also made excuses to change their accommodation with a polite smile.

However, all this began to improve after Yu Huaijin was undisputedly selected as the senior of Ruxing Hall.

She treated all the students equally. The old-fashioned rules she set were inconsistent with the slightly lax academic style of the six halls in the academy, which was strict but slightly lax on the inside. This made Ruxing Hall a special one among the six halls, and was secretly ridiculed by some students in the other five halls. Outsiders also looked at the students of Ruxing Hall with strange eyes, but it also increased the cohesion and collective sense of honor of Ruxing Hall.

In the first mid-month exam, due to Fan Yushu's shortcoming, Ruxing Hall missed the first place in the overall score and was taken away by Xiudao Hall.

But in the second mid-month exam not long ago, they won the Xiudao Hall by a small margin and got the first place among the six halls as they wished. Although it may also be due to Fan Yushu's absence from the exam, the management of Senior Yu was definitely indispensable.

This first place can truly benefit all students in Ruxing Hall and affect the assessment results of the apprenticeship ceremony one year later.

This also made the students in the hall very excited. They were all gearing up for the next mid-month exam, which was also the last exam in autumn.

The academic atmosphere of the entire Ruxing Hall has become more intense, cohesion and collective sense of honor are increasing day by day, and everything is developing in a good direction.

These are Jia Tengying's true feelings. He feels that the barriers between him and other classmates in the school seem to have melted away a lot. Although there are still some, Jia Tengying has gradually integrated into the group with Senior Yu.

Some of his classmates would take the initiative to invite him to some gatherings and autumn outings, and he also had some friends with whom he had a decent relationship. Even Xiao Hongyu would take the initiative to talk to him from time to time, but he was still a little hesitant to respond because of her speaking style and tone.

Jia Tengying feels that everything is very good now.

However, just when the morale of the entire Ruexingtang was rising.

Fan Yushu is back again.

Also returning with him was his new roommate, Brother Tzuyu, who made him feel close to him.

I just heard that Brother Ziyu, like Fan Yushu, was a talented student casually added by a respected academy teacher.

And, looking at Tzuyu's performance in the arts classes these days, especially the music class...

You know, in the last mid-month exam, their Ruxing Hall only narrowly beat Xiudao Hall. The two halls were already similar in strength, and the overall results were fluctuating. Previously, Fan Yushu was the unstable factor, and now there seems to be another one...

Inside the south room, Jia Tengying stood beside the bed, staring at the cucumber in his hand, frowning slightly.

He keenly felt the change in the atmosphere in the school in the past few days after Fan Yushu and Zhao Rong returned to the school.

Although the collective cohesion of the students in Ruxingtang is not low, this is only for students who do not lag behind and are determined to make progress, such as him before.

As for a seemingly unambitious burden like Fan Yushu, the relationship between the two sides was not very harmonious.

Jia Tengying sighed and shook his head slightly, then put down the white cloth in his hand. Then, he picked up the bamboo basket and walked out of the house with the cucumbers that he had wiped countless times.

Jia Tengying stepped over the threshold and saw the old-fashioned woman standing by the stone table in the corner of the yard, supervising with a ruler in her hand.

His frown gradually relaxed.

Jia Tengying didn't care much about Fan Yushu, but he didn't want his new roommate Zhao Rong to be excluded by other students, because he had experienced that feeling and it was really uncomfortable.

But fortunately, Senior Yu is here.

Jia Tengying raised the corner of his mouth slightly. When he first started school, he was just like Zhao Rong in art class. He knew nothing about the art of playing the guqin. The only guqin he had touched since he was a child was a tattered old guqin treasured by the old teacher who gave him a name in the private school in his hometown.

Jia Tengying just touched it reluctantly, and felt that the feeling of pinching a girl's hand, which his playmates in the fields had described so vividly, was probably no more than this.

When he attended his first art class after the start of the school year, he didn't even have a guqin. He was surrounded by new classmates who had just met. Each of them had a different kind of guqin, which Jia Tengying was overwhelmed with. He was the only one who had nothing in his hands.

Jia Tengying still remembers the embarrassment of the new classmates looking at him at that time. He just felt that it was much more embarrassing than Brother Ziyu's situation not long ago, because Brother Ziyu looked up and looked around without dodging, greeting everyone's gaze with a smile, which made him envious.

But later, just like Brother Zi Yu, it was Yu Huaijin who came out to help him.

Jia Tengying glanced at the stone table in the distance again.

At that time, Yu Huaijin not only gave him a guqin, but also gave him extra lessons, just like Brother Ziyu at this moment.

He took a deep breath and studied very seriously. As a result, he became proficient in playing the guqin in less than three days. He no longer needed her to take the trouble to give him extra lessons and could start to improve himself through self-study.

However, what made Jia Tengying a little disappointed was that in just three days, the two of them had almost no conversation other than "you give me some advice and I listen carefully and study hard", and they were just doing the tutoring in a rigid manner.

Jia Tengying sighed slightly, but then raised his chin slightly, his thick eyebrows gathered in the middle, and a rare hint of pride flashed in his eyes.

Senior Yu should be very pleased with me.

Jia Tengying came back to his senses, looked down at the clean cucumber in his hand, was silent for a moment, blinked, and put it in a convenient place in the bamboo basket. Then, he looked up at the situation in the yard and found that the three people in front of the stone table were not paying attention to him.

Jia Tengying observed carefully and found that the stone table was close to the east wall, which was the wall where the gate was located, and Yu Huaijin was standing between the stone table and the east wall, facing the stone table, holding a ruler in his left hand and his right hand empty.

He was now on the right side of the stone table. If he walked over directly, it would be inconvenient to pass things across the stone table. If he walked past her along the east wall, it would be inconvenient for her to take the ruler with her left hand, and she would have to turn her hand, which was awkward.

He could only adjust his position, starting from the left side of the stone table, choosing a route that passed behind her, and handing the cucumber directly to her empty right hand, making it easy for her to take it and for him to hand it over.

To the left of the stone table is the east corner of the courtyard, which is rarely visited. However, there happens to be the east fence built by Brother Ziyu at this time. I can pretend to go to the east fence to water the plants, and then return and pass by the stone table.

Jia Tengying nodded secretly, but did not act immediately. Instead, he turned around and picked up two ordinary cucumbers. He washed them casually and threw them into the bamboo basket, separating them from the juicy cucumber.

After making preparations, Jia Tengying took a step forward, and quietly turned a big circle along the path.

He came to the east fence, watered the flowers, and walked directly to the stone table, trying to keep his steps steady...

At this moment, in front of the stone table.

Zhao Rong looked down at the guqin on the stand in front of him, then looked up at Yu Huaijin who was holding the ruler in both hands.

She was staring at him without blinking.

"Let's practice fingering first today." Yu Huaijin said with a straight face.

There was no way Zhao Rong was willing to just surrender like that; he hated being forced to do things the most.

In short, Zhao Rong doesn't like to eat hard things, but he can consider soft things.

Thinking back to when they were only three steps apart, yet he couldn't even touch the corner of her clothes, he said directly:

"Yu Huaijin, what is your cultivation level?"

"Haoran realm is complete."

This question made many students in Mo Chi Academy curious and guessing, Yu Huaijin did not hide anything and answered it directly. It was not because Zhao Rong was special, but because no classmate had ever asked her this question before.

Whenever someone asks her about this question, which practitioners usually treat with caution, she will say that it is because Yu Huaijin does not care about practice. For example, the reason why she is in the perfect Haoran realm is not because she cannot break the mirror.

It was because her teacher told her that Haoran Realm was of great significance to Confucian scholars, and as a Confucian practitioner, one could try to stay in this realm for a while longer, which would bring many benefits and no harm.

So Yu Huaijin obeyed without caring and stayed in this place for half a year. However, she didn't see any interesting scenery in this place. But it didn't matter. She did what her teacher said, and she has been doing so ever since.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Rong nodded slightly, his expression unchanged, but he was slightly surprised in his heart, and looked up and down at Yu Huaijin.

Almost catching up with my Qingjun...

But it's not a big problem.

Zhao Rong cleared his throat and followed the old rules, implementing the double standard principle...if you can't beat them, call for help.

He raised his chin slightly, and said proudly, "Yu Huaijin, I advise you to let me go quickly. You can't beat my wife with your level of cultivation. She is a cultivator at the bottleneck of Haoran Realm, and she is also a sword cultivator. Add to that, I am a warrior who looks weak but is actually an extraordinary warrior. It will be easy for the two of us to defeat you. Quickly remove the formation, otherwise, hmph, you'll be on your own!"

Zhao Rong said this while looking at her sideways.

"oh."

Yu Huaijin thought for a while, nodded, and then said nothing more.

Zhao Rong observed her expression and waited for a while. Seeing that Yu Huaijin still did not move, it seemed that it was useless to bring up his wife. He thought to himself that it was difficult, but not to panic, as he had a backup plan... occupying the moral high ground.

Confucian scholars are good at this.

Zhao Rong coughed lightly again, and then his expression became serious and righteous.

"Yu Huaijin, you climbed over the wall and broke into the men's dormitory in the middle of the night without permission. Do you have any Confucian etiquette? Do you care about the rules of the academy?"

Yu Huaijin said expressionlessly, "I have the key."

Zhao Rong's momentum suddenly dropped, his expression stiffened slightly, and he slowly turned his head to look at someone.

Jia Tengying, who was walking towards him, quickly looked away.