Xu Bai frowned deeply as he watched Xu Di's retreating figure. Zhang Yuyuan, unusually, leaned close to Xu Bai and whispered, "Cousin, why are you in such a hurry? Has something happened?"
Xu Bai frowned deeply and said, "I don't know either. Let's go take a look."
Zhang Yuyuan said, "Let's eat first, otherwise the master will scold us if he finds out we left food uneaten."
Xu Bai picked up the bowl, finished the remaining millet porridge, and followed Zhang Yuyuan behind Xu Di towards the front courtyard of the academy.
The front courtyard of the academy was also where guests were received. When Xu Bai brought Zhang Yuyuan over, he only saw two servants standing at the entrance of the side hall in the front courtyard. Their clothes were not from the academy, so he knew that guests had come to visit.
Xu Bai wanted to see who it was, but was afraid that he would be impolite to go in so rashly. So, his eyes darted around, and taking advantage of his young age, he ran up to the two servants and asked curiously, "Brothers, whose family are you?"
To everyone's surprise, the two servants glanced at Xu Bai, but remained standing at the door with expressionless faces.
Xu Bai's usually successful attempt at being cute suffered its first major setback. Even with his thick skin, he was a little embarrassed, but he was reluctant to give up.
Xu Bai moved closer and pointed to the clothes on one of the people, saying, "Brother, the fabric of your clothes is quite good. It's obviously from Jiangnan. You two brothers are from the south, aren't you?"
The two remained expressionless. Xu Bai glanced at Zhang Yuyuan, who was smiling, sighed, and said, "Yuyuan, I have no other choice. Why don't you do it?"
Zhang Yuyuan waved his hand and said, "Cousin, we came to the front yard without being summoned, which is impolite. Since the two elder brothers are not speaking, they must have their reasons. Cousin, let's hurry to the back yard."
Xu Baiyuan was still somewhat unwilling to give up. He thought that if his older brother Xu Di caught him, he would probably be in big trouble. So he went along with it and said to Zhang Yuyuan as they walked, "Yuyuan, you are always so conservative. People should live more freely. Why are you so old-fashioned at such a young age?"
Zhang Yuyuan said, "I didn't, cousin. We can't do this again, following our older brother to the front yard. It's impolite, and people will laugh at us for not knowing manners. In the end, we'll be the ones who lose face."
Xu Bai nodded and said, "That's true. Let's hurry up and go. Someone like my older brother will find fault with me even if I'm not wrong. If he catches me, he'll scold me to death. He might even make me squat in a horse stance and copy books. Let's go, let's go."
The two walked away, unaware that the three people in the study had heard everything they had done.
Apart from Xu Di and his uncle Yue Qingchuan, Wu Muyue, who should have been far away in Jiangnan, was also present.
Xu Di cupped his hands in greeting to Wu Muyue and said, "I hope my uncle can forgive my poor upbringing."
Wu Muyue stroked his beard and said with a smile, "Brother Bai is clever and mischievous, while Yuyuan is calm and composed. These two children are very good."
Yue Qingchuan asked with a smile, "Uncle, I'll give the order to prepare a courtyard for you right away."
Wu Muyue waved his hand and said, "I'm not here. I'm taking these two children somewhere else."
Yue Qingchuan asked in surprise, "Uncle, didn't you say you would be the teacher of these two children? Why are you taking them elsewhere?"
Wu Muyue said, “This child, Bai Ge’er, is lively and quick to learn. I have thought about it carefully and he is not suitable for the teaching methods of ordinary children. It is said that reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. Since we want to cultivate him, we can’t teach him like other children, letting him study and practice martial arts in the academy. I want to take him to see the world.”
Yue Qingchuan nodded, and Wu Muyue said, "These two children have complementary personalities. What's rare is that they can remind each other when things happen. That's great. Qingchuan, Dige'er, I think I'll take these two children with me first thing tomorrow morning."
Upon hearing this, Xu Di asked in surprise, "Uncle, why are you in such a hurry?"
Wu Muyue said, “Your father wrote to me saying that he will be transferred to Liaodong soon, and I want to go with him from Ganzhou to Liaoning. The journey from Ganzhou to Liaodong will pass through border towns within Daliang territory, and such an opportunity is truly rare.”
Xu Di naturally knew that Wu Muyue was going to be Zhang Yuyuan's tutor, but he was just using the pretense of tutoring Xu Bai. After all, it didn't sound normal for Wu Muyue, a dignified academy dean who had been a third-ranked scholar, to abandon the academy he had worked so hard to establish and become a tutor to the great-grandson of a former head of the Imperial Medical Academy.
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