Chapter 12: Don’t Always Indifferent When a Boy Cries
Luo Wan became Shen Zhiyan's first student, but this was too smooth. How could a man like him let her succeed so easily?
When Shen Zhiyan was reading, Luo Wan stared at him, observing whether he was planning anything to her detriment.
While playing the piano, Luo Wan covered her ears. She remembered that ancient books had recorded a kind of enchanting magic sound.
While he was writing, Luo Wan leaned over to see if he had listed the ways in which she had died.
Shen Zhiyan was circling something in a book when he heard footsteps. He looked up and saw Luo Wan. "Are you bored here?"
Luo Wan was afraid that he would think that he was not calm and repented of his previous decision, so he replied, "No, I just want to learn a thing or two from Master Shen."
Shen Zhiyan put down his pen and handed the book to Luo Wan: "I annotated it myself, it looks simpler and easier to understand."
Luo Wan thanked him and took it.
After a moment's silence, Shen Zhiyan said, "In three days, the palace will hold a banquet to celebrate the victory of the three armies. You will come with me."
Celebration banquet.
Could it be the one that Chi Mingshi was clamoring to go?
Seeing Luo Wan's hesitation, Shen Zhiyan lowered his eyes and smiled faintly: "Don't want to?"
Luo Wan said: "Of course I am willing."
Luo Wan would not miss any opportunity to get close to Shen Zhiyan and gain his trust.
But she still didn't understand why Shen Zhiyan was so nice to her.
Although in her previous life, Luo Wan also attracted many men because of this face.
Shen Zhiyan is not the kind of person who is attracted by beauty. The way he looks at Luo Wan is different from those men. There is no worldly desire in his eyes. It is simple and pure, just like an old friend.
It was not until much later, when she got the medical book, that she understood the reason.
Two days of studying passed uneventfully, everything was as usual, nothing happened.
During this period, Luo Wan planned to go out of the house to look for Doctor Xu, but Feng Yuyun was still suspicious of her because of the study incident. Several servants were patrolling near the west courtyard from time to time, and Nanny Liu inquired about her whereabouts in detail, saying that the thief had not been apprehended, but in fact it was a disguised imprisonment of Luo Wan.
Shen Zhiyan has finished selecting his students in the past two days, and today is his first day of teaching.
So the room was no longer just filled with Luo Wan and Shen Zhiyan, there were also some new faces, including Pei Shaochuan.
Luo Wan sat by the east corner window, in the second to last row, and Pei Shaochuan sat behind her.
"Wanwan! Wanwan!" Pei Shaochuan called her softly from behind.
Teacher Shen in the lecture hall might not be able to hear clearly, but Pei Shaochuan's whispers were still very clear to the students around him.
Luo Wan turned slightly to the side.
"There's a lantern festival on the streets of the capital tonight. I'd like to take you there. Do you want to go?"
Pei Shaochuan didn't listen to the class either. He crossed his arms on the table, rested his head on his arms, and looked at Luo Wan with bright eyes, waiting for her reply.
The Lantern Festival is inevitably an excuse to go out of the house.
Luo Wan did not intend to ask for Feng's consent. She just needed to throw out this excuse to create an alibi for herself when Madam Liu came to make trouble.
Luo Wan raised his eyebrows slightly and said, "Okay."
Pei Shaochuan said excitedly: "Then let's go after school. It gets dark early in winter, and the lantern festival starts early too. I'll take you to Furongju for dinner. I heard there's a new way of eating there. They add charcoal to the copper stove and cook while eating. It's especially suitable for winter."
Luo Wan still said: "Okay."
Pei Shaochuan felt that she had been running around seeking medical treatment in the past few years and must have never experienced the Lantern Festival properly. This was indeed the case. Luo Wan had never seen a Lantern Festival.
Pei Shaochuan asked, "What kind of small animals do you like? There are lanterns in the shape of various animals at the Lantern Festival. I'll buy one for you."
"Pei Shaochuan, are you done yet? Can you please just be quiet for a moment?" A young man was unable to bear it any longer. "You don't want to study, but you still want everyone to listen to you discussing the Lantern Festival?"
Luo Wan remembered him. His name was Gu Sihan. The first thing he did when he entered the room was to politely bow to Shen Zhiyan and introduce himself. Because he mentioned his last name was Gu, Luo Wan paid more attention to him and remembered him.
He was acting like a handsome young man from a wealthy family just now, but now he is too disdainful to pretend.
Pei Shaochuan was not one to swallow his anger, so he immediately said, "It's none of your business."
Gu Sihan snorted and laughed: "I just can't stand some people who took other people's places to enter Master Shen's dormitory and are still uneducated. I am standing up for the other students."
Pei Shaochuan said simply: "If you don't like it, get out."
Luo Wan felt that Pei Shaochuan didn't even listen to Gu Sihan finish his words.
Seeing that he couldn't convince Pei Shaochuan, Gu Sihan simply turned his attention to Luo Wan and sneered, "You're an unmarried girl, and a man invited you to the Lantern Festival, and you went. You really have no sense of shame."
Pei Shaochuan's expression suddenly changed. He flipped the table over and said through gritted teeth, "Gu Sihan, say it again!"
Gu Sihan was not afraid either, and said word by word: "I said she, I don't know..."
Before he could finish his words, Pei Shaochuan's fist had already hit Gu Sihan's face, and the two of them immediately started fighting.
Gu Sihan said, “If you weren’t relying on your aunt, you wouldn’t be qualified to sit here just because you were born a merchant!”
Pei Shaochuan said: "Why are you pretending to be noble? How much nobler are you than me? Don't you also rely on your father?"
Gu Sihan said, "How dare you compare yourself to me? My father is a Duke, and your father is nothing!"
Pei Shaochuan said: "Say it again!"
Luo Wan watched the show with great interest. Compared to the real swordplay, Gu Sihan's words could not cause her any harm. She also didn't understand why Pei Shaochuan started fighting with him.
And the fight was so indecent.
It was obvious that neither of them knew martial arts. After a few moves, Luo Wan felt that neither of them was a promising talent. Pei Shaochuan's attacks were fierce but not smooth, while Gu Sihan was fast but lacked strength.
With such qualifications, if they were placed in Tingyu Tower, within seven days, the two of them would be thrown into the back mountain by Commander Liufeng to feed the snakes.
"Have you had enough?" Shen Zhiyan walked over from the podium at some point and stood beside the two of them, his voice as calm as water.
"Master Shen."
"Master Shen."
The two people who were fighting separated instantly and bowed to Shen Zhiyan.
Shen Zhiyan didn't let them get up, so the two of them kept staying in this position.
After a while, Shen Zhiyan said sternly, "I'll say this today only once. There are no commoners in this room, only children of aristocratic families. It's not shameful to be supported by your family; this is what your elders expect of you. What's important is whether you are worthy of this support, whether you are worthy of the Northern Dynasty's training of you, and whether this hard work is valuable to you. Arguing with a colleague over a trivial matter is the real fool."
"Pei Shaochuan and Gu Sihan assaulted a colleague and were each ordered to copy the rules thirty times. Additionally, Pei Shaochuan disrupted class order and interfered with other students' studies, resulting in ten copies of the rules. Gu Sihan verbally insulted a colleague and was ordered to copy the rules thirty times and apologize to Chi Wanwan."
When these words were spoken, all the students were a little surprised. It was too unreasonable to ask the legitimate son of a first-rank official to apologize to the daughter of a fourth-rank official.
However, the Northern Dynasties had strict laws and regulations, and placed special emphasis on respecting teachers. Even if people had objections in their hearts, no one dared to refute them in public.
Gu Sihan recovered from his surprise and slowly turned around to face Luo Wan. He bowed and said, "I was disrespectful just now. I hope Miss Chi will forgive me."
In front of Shen Zhiyan, Luo Wan smiled slightly: "It's okay."
After school, the servant came to pick up Pei Shaochuan. When he saw the wound on his face, he jumped up in fright.
"Oh my!" Dunzi jumped up and down anxiously. "Master, how did you do this? The injury is so serious, the lady will be heartbroken if she sees it."
Luo Wan looked at the little fat man who was anxiously circling around Pei Shaochuan, and thought to himself: This little fat man is exaggerating.
He was clearly only punched in the face, with a little bruise on the corner of his mouth, and kicked twice in the legs, but there shouldn't be any broken skin. How could this be considered serious?
Pei Shaochuan pushed away the guy who was groping him, a little impatient: "Alright, alright, let's go."
Dunzi calmed down and then saw Luo Wan, and laughed twice with ambiguous smiles.
Incense was lit in the carriage, and as the carriage was bumpy, only the bells on the eaves tinkled.
Pei Shaochuan finally broke the silence, his tone dejected: "Today's incident is my fault. Gu and I have had a grudge for a long time, and I have implicated you. Don't take what he said to heart."
Luo Wan didn't care at all: "It's okay."
"Don't always look so indifferent." Pei Shaochuan lowered his head like an ostrich. "Madame Liu bullied you, but you didn't resist. Your sister bullied you, but you didn't care. Gu Sihan bullied you, but you said it was okay. You always don't care about anything, and even when you suffer a loss, you still say it's okay."
Luo Wan actually wanted to say that she was not so cowardly. When Aunt Liu bullied her, she fought back. Chi Mingshi was late on purpose.
There were too many rumors about her in the martial arts world in her previous life, and as for what Gu Sihan said, it no longer mattered to her.
But she would definitely teach him a lesson in the future. She was never one to swallow her anger.
But Luo Wan noticed that Pei Shaochuan's voice was a little different from usual, but because he lowered his head, he couldn't see his expression clearly.
Then, Luo Wan's eyes fell on his feet, and he found traces of a few drops of water falling on the ground.
The night sky of the capital was full of twinkling stars. It was not because the carriage was leaking, but because Pei Shaochuan was crying.
Luo Wan asked curiously, "Are you crying?"
She had never seen a man cry over such a small thing.
"No!" Pei Shaochuan turned his head, facing Luo Wan with the back of his head, raised his hand to open the curtain a little, letting the cold wind blow on his face.
Luo Wan persisted: "I saw you shed tears."
Pei Shaochuan didn't even think about it: "It's saliva."
Luo Wan nodded thoughtfully, poked his shoulder, and said, "Don't cry."
Pei Shaochuan waited until the cold wind dried up his moist eyes, then leaned back against the carriage and reminded him, "Gu is a man with a grudge. When I'm not around, stay away from him."
Seeing his good intentions, Luo Wan agreed and then asked, "You just said you had a grudge against him, what's that?"
Although he didn't know much about the court and the country in his previous life, Luo Wan still knew a little about some major events that were worthy of being recorded in history.
I still remember that a few years later, when the new emperor of the Northern Kingdom ascended the throne, the Gu family became the most powerful family in the court. Now it seems that Chi Jingan made a very correct choice - to join the Gu family.
Since the Gu family holds a grudge and Pei Shaochuan has a grudge against him, it is unknown whether Gu Sihan will take revenge on the Pei family in a few years.
"As Gu Sihan said, I was able to enter the Hongwen Academy thanks to my aunt. She is the current emperor's favorite concubine. Otherwise, a merchant's son like me would never have been able to enter the Hongwen Academy." Pei Shaochuan pondered for a moment and continued, "The Gu family is a member of the crown prince's faction. They once tried to win her over and use the opportunity to obtain the emperor's intimate thoughts, but my aunt refused. So this grudge was formed, and the hatred extended to Gu Sihan and me."
This makes sense. The Gu family assisted the prince in ascending the throne, and after that, the new emperor joined forces with the Gu family to suppress the other three families.
The death of Shen Zhiyan, Jiang Cichen's treason, and the downfall of the Liu family, were these also the work of the Gu family?
The author has something to say:
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I love writing about men’s humble courtship!!! I want to write about men crying!!! [Sunglasses][Sunglasses][Sunglasses]
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