Faced with Yu Huaijin who refused to respond no matter what he did, Zhao Rong chose to... temporarily compromise.

At this moment, he, like Yu Huaijin, had a stern face as he sat in front of the stone table in the yard, silently looking at the guqin in front of him named "Jiuxiao Yunpei".

After Yu Huaijin rejected Zhao Rong's "cucumber **", he heard Jia Tengying's excited voice shouting in the vegetable garden, so he went to the vegetable garden in the yard.

Yu Huaijin accepted the cucumbers that Jia Tengying picked for her and bowed respectfully to express her gratitude. Jia Tengying quickly waved his hand in return.

At this moment, she folded her hands and returned to the stone table.

Yu Huaijin glanced at Zhao Rong's expression and said nothing. Instead, he kept his eyes on the small white porcelain bowl filled with light red Daishu on the ground in the center of the courtyard.

When Zhao Rong saw her return, he curled his lips, suddenly raised his hand, and played the guqin randomly. The sound was very noisy, and the stone table was close to the east wall where the courtyard gate was, so the noise could be heard from far away.

Yu Huaijin frowned slightly, and suddenly raised his hand to stop him, saying, "Wait a moment, Brother Zhao."

Zhao Rong stopped playing the crazy piano and looked up, smiling, "Why, Brother Yu, are you attracted by my piano music and want to learn it?"

Yu Huaijin glanced at him without answering. She walked forward, came to the side of the piano, stretched out a finger again, and hooked the string.

Clang——!

This was her third string sound of the day.

The air was quiet for a moment.

Zhao Rong glanced around with a slightly curious look.

The yard was still very quiet, without any sound coming from anywhere else.

Nothing seems to have changed.

The ritual formation still exists.

Yu Huaijin said softly: "Brother Zhao, please continue."

Zhao Rong shrugged, ignored it, lowered his head, and continued with his crazy piano playing.

However, Yu Huaijin felt a little relieved and no longer paid attention to the small white porcelain bowl in the center of the yard.

The third sound of her piano just now shrunk the scope of the ritual formation, no longer covering most of Nanxuan Academy.

Because it was already past midnight and the sun was rising above the branches. Inside the dormitory, students from other small buildings were going out one after another, and there were many people coming and going. Although Yu Huaijin had been controlling the ritual formation with his mind and it did not affect other unrelated students, it was still a bit troublesome and distracting.

Therefore, she now reduced the ritual formation to the size of the Dongli Cottage, which saved trouble.

As for why they haven't withdrawn yet, apart from the fact that Zhao Rong was deliberately looking for trouble and the loud sound of his piano might affect the students in other buildings, Yu Huaijin and others had some things to do outside, so it was not time to withdraw yet.

It's not bad like it is now. There is no sound coming from outside. Zhao Rong and Fan Yushu can study and practice the piano in peace in the Dongli Cottage, and the sound of Zhao Rong's piano cannot be heard over the wall.

Unless the person outside is very close to the Dongli Cottage, such as being at the gate of the courtyard ready to knock, or standing right next to the east wall, no sound can be transmitted inside, and no sound in the courtyard can be heard.

Yu Huaijin raised her hands, stood in front of the stone table, lowered her eyes and said nothing, thinking about going to see her teacher in a while. She had been too busy to go for a while.

Moreover, in the next mid-month exam, the teacher’s art subject is more crucial and may even be the winning point for Shuexingtang.

Of the six classes in the academy, none of them was significantly better than the others in the teacher's art. In the last mid-month exam, the six classes' performance in this art was average, and they were all mediocre. In the teacher's words, the writing was so good that it gave her a headache. There were only a few papers that she could read carefully, and the teacher had already tried to give them higher scores.

Yu Huaijin remembered that the teacher had rarely made a playful remark to her at the time, saying that after grading their papers, she felt like she had aged ten years. With twelve mid-monthly exams throughout the year, she would have aged two decades.

Yu Huaijin frowned slightly. She didn't master this art very well... At this moment, the sound of Zhao Rong playing the piano echoed in her ears. She tilted her head slightly, her eyes calm.

"Brother Zhao played the Yilan Cao quite well this time. It's a bit better than before. It seems that the method of repeated practice is necessary."

The names of guqin pieces are generally called something like Chang, or something like Yin, something like Nong and something like Cao. The most popular guqin pieces include "Five Songs, Nine Yins and Twelve Caos". "Yilan Cao" is one of them. It is said to be composed by a Confucian saint and is a must-practice piece for Confucian scholars in Jiuzhou.

Hearing Yu Huaijin's earnest praise, Zhao Rong felt insulted. He had been playing the piano very attentively, and his fingertips were very strong, so he didn't care about priorities. He just wished he could break the "Jiuxiao Yunpei", which was the core of the ritual formation, so as to disrupt it.

It’s a pity that the guqin made by that bastard is too sturdy.

The key to the formation that locked him up was right in his hand, but he couldn't break it. Zhao Rong was a little depressed. At this moment, he heard Yu Huaijin's praise. These words entered his ears, just like asking him, "Didn't you eat? Why are you so weak?", "Speak louder, if I didn't hear you, I didn't hear you"...

Zhao Rong glared at Yu Huaijin.

Her expression was calm.

Zhao Rong took a deep breath, and the next second he continued to lower his head, competing with Zhang Jiuxiao Yunpei. This young master doesn't believe it...

However, after a while, Yu Huaijin listened for a while, nodded, and said seriously:

"Brother Zhao is in good spirits, just like the tutoring Brother Teng Ying gave him before. However, your fingering skills are still lacking and not flexible enough. You need to learn a lot from Brother Teng Ying in this regard."

Learn fingering from Brother Teng Ying?

Zhao Rong looked up expressionlessly and just looked at Yu Huaijin quietly without saying a word.

Yu Huaijin looked at Zhao Rong with a little curiosity as he had a strange reaction, but she didn't care. She took a few steps forward, took the paper and pen from Fan Yushu, and placed them next to Zhao Rong's hand.

Yu Huaijin said softly, "Originally, after mastering the music, you need to circle the difficult phrases in the music and practice them in detail."

She paused and glanced at Zhao Rong, "However, in your case where you can't distinguish all the notes and have difficulty mastering the rhythm of light and heavy notes, it's better to practice the whole song repeatedly. If you play it more, you will eventually find the sense of pitch."

Yu Huaijin pointed to the paper and pen beside Zhao Rong and said casually, "From now on, every time you play it, draw a stroke on it to draw the correct characters. Well, draw 100 correct characters today."

One hundred correct characters and five hundred recitations of a musical instrument.

Zhao Rong's hand trembled slightly as he touched the string.

He looked up at the sky; the autumn sun was just rising.

Zhao Rong smiled softly, "Okay."

Yu Xuanji and Yu Huaijin, remember this, don't let your body fall into my hands!

…

The gate of Linlu Academy.

The couplet "Unique and secluded with talent, it flourishes here" is hung on both sides.

Today is a holiday, and it is also a rare sunny day in autumn, and people are coming and going at the gate.

The academy was bustling with scholars, students of Mochi, and great Confucian scholars and celebrities who came from afar to visit the academy.

At this moment, a group of scholars from the academy, wearing jade pendants on their waists and with elegant temperaments, stepped out of the gate and walked out.

This group of scholars, more than ten people in total, led by three men, were walking in the front, talking and laughing.

One of the three leading men was a tall man with a jade-like face and a long face, but a handsome appearance. He was Li Jinshu, the eldest disciple of Mr. Yan.

At this moment, he was listening to the conversations of his peers around him with a gentle smile, but there was some helplessness in his eyes.

Beside Li Jinshu, there were two companions who were leading the group. Like him, they were disciples of two masters from the academy who were familiar with Mr. Yan.

Today, the three of them, along with their respective junior fellow students, are preparing to attend an autumn climbing poetry gathering held by a poetry society in the academy.

According to Li Jinshu's personality, he would rarely or almost never take the initiative to participate. In the past, he just thought these social events were troublesome. On his days off, he would rather stay at home to study the scriptures, or go to the Zunjing Pavilion to read a day, or go to serve his teacher.

However, what made Li Jinshu helpless was that ever since they came back from the lecture in Taiqing Mansion with their teacher, the teacher's attitude towards him seemed a little strange. It could be said that he was strict, but not really. Just like today, he had to come out to relax and participate in the poetry gathering under the teacher's order. The teacher did not allow him to stay indoors all day.

But it's not really that relaxed. I still have to do a lot of chores for the teacher as before, and there are many new things to do, such as the teacher's instructions to go to Mo Chi Academy frequently to check on my junior fellow student's studies.

In addition, Li Jinshu recently encountered some doubts in his studies and asked his teacher. The teacher explained to him in more detail and repeatedly tested him several times to make sure that he was not pretending to know what he did not know. He also became much stricter about many things.

Li Jinshu sighed slightly, feeling a little troubled. However, for some reason, he had a vague feeling that it was related to his new junior fellow apprentice.

Li Jinshu was quite friendly to this junior fellow apprentice from his hometown. Although he looked calm, he was also a bit erratic and sometimes too aggressive, which made Li Jinshu a little worried. However, with the master looking after him, he didn't need to worry too much.

At this moment, a thin-faced scholar standing next to Li Jinshu turned around and smiled.

"Jinshu, what are you daydreaming about? Are you thinking about that beautiful lady from Taiqing Xiaoyao Mansion again?"

Upon hearing this, another round-faced scholar standing next to him also turned around and said with a smile:

"I heard from some of my senior brothers that the Fairy Ye came to look for Jinshu a few days ago. Haha, you are great, Li Jinshu. I usually see you looking serious all day long, but I didn't expect you to be a fake. You went to Taiqing Mansion and actually brought a fairy back to our academy. Not bad, not bad."

Li Jinshu came back to his senses, was stunned when he heard this, and hurriedly explained: "Brother Cheng, Brother Xu, don't misunderstand, Fairy Ye and I are just pen pals now, and our correspondence is just to discuss poetry and articles, not the kind of man-woman affair you think. She came to see me a few days ago, it was just..."

The thin-faced scholar called Brother Cheng interrupted, "We know, we all know, Brother Nian, there's no need to waste your time explaining, ahem."

The scholar named Cheng turned around and looked at the scholar named Xu, and there was smile in the eyes of both of them.

The scholar surnamed Xu sighed, "Alas, when will my teacher be able to go to Taiqing Mansion to give lectures?"

The scholar surnamed Cheng smiled when he heard this, glanced at the fat scholar surnamed Xu, and said a few words to ruin his show.

Li Jinshu, who was standing by, was speechless when he saw this. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and was silent for a moment. He was thinking about some words and preparing to explain again, but he couldn't ruin Miss Ruoxi's innocent reputation.

At this moment, they were passing through the gate and walking down the steps, with many passers-by around them.

At this moment, the scholar named Cheng, who had turned around and was talking and laughing, paused. It was unknown since when that his eyes started to stare straight behind the scholar named Xu.

His eyes passed Li Jinshu and others and looked to the left side of the gate, where was the gatehouse of the academy that received and registered guests.

The scholar surnamed Cheng was unable to take his eyes away for a moment.

Attracted by a landscape.

The scholar named Xu was the first to notice something wrong with his companion. He turned his head to look to the other side, and his gaze also passed over Li Jinshu.

"What are you looking at, Brother Cheng, you..."

The next second, his words gradually stopped, his voice became smaller and smaller, and his eyes were hooked by the beautiful figure standing outside the gatehouse.

The unusual behavior of the two soon attracted the attention of Li Jinshu and their fellow apprentices behind them.

Li Jinshu saw that the two older brothers just ignored him and looked past him.

Li Jinshu frowned and looked back.

He saw that outside the gatehouse not far behind him, there was a woman as beautiful as a lotus standing alone, with her hands clasped in front of her, holding a brocade box, looking straight ahead, talking to the gatekeeper of the academy.

The woman had her long black hair tied up high, revealing her fair and slender neck, like a white swan. Her eyes were narrow and long, filled with a pool of autumn water. On the side of her face facing them, there was a teardrop mole embellishing her eye, which also brightened up her entire face. She was stunning at first sight, extraordinary at second, and unforgettable at third.

The woman was tall and graceful. She was standing in a corner outside the gate at the moment, but she attracted a lot of people's attention. The men passing by glanced at her unconsciously.

Li Jinshu saw the profile of the stunning woman and was slightly stunned, "Sister-in-law Lingfei..."