After laughing for a while, Old Man Mi continued, "By the way, I heard you're going to Mingyue Academy tomorrow."
"Yes." Zu An looked annoyed. There must be many relatives of the Chu family's concubines in the private school. As a son-in-law, he was sure to attract a lot of trouble. That's how it was written in the novels I had read before.
Nowadays, he's not afraid of trouble, but rather feels it's a waste of time, since there's still so much to do.
"After you get to the academy, go find a boy named Wei Hongde. No matter what method you use, you must get along with him and, ideally, become his friend," Old Man Mi said slowly.
"Wei Hongde?" Zu An was taken aback. "Who is he? Is he your relative? What's your purpose in getting close to him?"
"You don't need to worry about that, and don't reveal my identity to anyone," Old Man Mi said with a smile, though his expression was somewhat sinister. "I'm passing on my divine martial arts secrets to you so you can do this for me. Is that too much to ask?"
"Of course it's not excessive, I will definitely try my best to get closer to him." Zu An's smile was as sincere as could be, but he was curious in his heart. How could there be someone with a different surname in the Chu family private school? Could he be a son-in-law who married into the family, just like me?
"Then you should get some rest." Old Man Mi patted his shoulder and left, trembling.
After seeing Old Man Mi off, Zu An lay down and began to think about how to get Yu Yanluo's bellyband. Unfortunately, even after pulling out almost a bald patch of hair, he still couldn't come up with a solution. He drifted off to sleep amidst curses directed at Doctor Ji.
The next morning, Cheng Shouping came over to wake him up and brought him breakfast.
Zu An immediately found him much more agreeable and thought that having such a young pageboy serving him so diligently seemed not so bad.
After breakfast, Zu'an was dragged to school by Cheng Shouping. He had no choice but to go and deal with it for now, and find another chance to sneak out.
"Huh, how did we get out of the Chu residence?"
"Mingyue Academy is in the east of the city."
"Oh~" Zu'an was a little puzzled. Why would Mingyue Gong arrange his family's private school in such a far place?
However, he was stunned when he saw the magnificent school buildings in front of him. The academy gate was tall and imposing, with the words "Bright Moon Academy" written on it in a flamboyant style. Each word seemed to emanate a sword aura. Looking around, various school buildings and structures stretched endlessly, and he could not see the end of them at all. For a moment, he had the illusion of returning to his university in his previous life. And what he saw was much larger than any university campus he knew.
"The Chu family's private school is this big?" Zu An looked completely bewildered.
"What private school?" Cheng Shouping asked, looking equally puzzled.
"Isn't Bright Moon Academy a private school run by Duke Bright Moon?" Zuan realized that his previous understanding might have been somewhat wrong.
“Young Master, you shouldn’t say such things carelessly, it could easily bring trouble to our master,” Cheng Shouping said, his face turning pale as he hurriedly pulled him aside to explain, “Mingyue Academy is an educational institution directly under the Taichang, the head of the Nine Ministers of the Imperial Court, specifically for training talent for the court…”
After his explanation, Zu'an roughly understood what was going on. It turned out that in this world, from the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers down to the Three Elders and Officials at the village level, all positions were held by cultivators.
To prevent official positions from being monopolized by the sons of powerful clans—after all, powerful families have a natural advantage in training their offspring for cultivation—the state vigorously promoted cultivation schools, which were open to all, allowing ordinary people to participate.
Everyone, regardless of whether they are from a noble family or a commoner background, must obtain enrollment in a county-level training school in order to be eligible to participate in the three-level examinations: the provincial examination, the metropolitan examination, and the palace examination.
The name is similar to that of the ancient Zu'an, but the test is completely different. In the previous life, the test was on the Four Books and Five Classics, while in this world, the test is on cultivation.
The first level of assessment is conducted by the county school in the city. For example, Mingyue Academy is the county school of Mingyue City. The county school selects a group of outstanding students through selection examinations.
Only after passing the county school examination are they qualified to go to the prefectural governor's office to participate in the provincial examination and compete with the most outstanding students from other counties in the prefecture. Those who pass the provincial examination are qualified to become officials, but at most they can only serve as low-ranking officials.
Therefore, most people would still choose to go to the capital to participate in the imperial examinations and compete with the top talents selected from various states for membership.
Those who successfully obtain membership will participate in the imperial examination personally presided over by the emperor. Achieving a good ranking will be a meteoric rise to power. Furthermore, the emperor is the strongest being in this world; a single word of guidance from him is more valuable than years of arduous cultivation.
Of course, these are the life trajectories of the chosen ones, but many more are eliminated at the county school level. These people either continue to strive or switch to clerical positions. Officials at all levels are cultivators, and they are more concerned with cultivation and such. They are too lazy to do many trivial matters in government affairs themselves, so they will recruit some subordinates and staff to help them.
These are often failures in county schools or people with little talent for spiritual practice, but it is still a good way out.
Chu Zhongtian arranged for Zu An to come to Mingyue Academy, clearly intending for him to follow this path. In addition to cultivation, the academy also teaches practical subjects such as divination, criminal law, and legal precedents.
"Young master, don't just stand there, go inside quickly," Cheng Shouping reminded him. "I'll wait for you at the school gate after school."
Zuan: "..."
Damn it, how old is he? He finally finished his studies and graduated from school in the previous world, and now he has to go to school again in this world. Is there no justice in this world?
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