Chapter 38 Crybaby
The little devil is impatient when he sees acquaintances. He is not polite at all, and his eyes are full of an expression of "stay away from me, I'm annoyed".
Deputy Inspector Wang dared not let him go alone, so a group of people came forward to protect him and took him to the gate tower of the imperial city.
Zhao Lan subconsciously glanced behind him. There was a huge crowd of people, and there was no trace of the annoying crybaby. He didn't know how the man could stand it. If he was like that, he would have thrown the man away long ago!
It's so annoying.
Su Ruojin's lantern was squeezed and broken, so before going to Lord Fan's lantern tent, she made two rabbit lanterns for her daughter. One could be held in the hand, and the other could be placed on the ground and dragged around. It was really fun.
When they arrived at the lantern shed at Lord Fan's house, Lord Fan was not there. He and his boss had gone to the city gate tower to pay a visit to the emperor. Mrs. Fan was entertaining the ladies who came to visit each other, and they were chatting happily.
Su Yanli was standing outside the lamp shed, considering whether to leave or not. Qi Ran, the servant who saw him off that day, saw him and hurriedly came up to him with a smile, "Dr. Su, you are here. The master went to the imperial city, and he told me that when he saw you, he should quickly welcome you in for a cup of tea."
"Thank you for your consideration, teacher."
In ancient times, many officials referred to each other as teachers and students. This did not mean that officials taught official students, but rather that students took part in the imperial examinations and were supervised by the chief and deputy examiners. After the spring or autumn examinations, the students would visit the chief and deputy examiners, and a teacher-student relationship would be formed between them.
This is the relationship between Fan Zengxian and Su Yanli.
Su Yanli was the son of a local gentry in Pingjiang Prefecture. Compared to ordinary people, he was a child of a wealthy family, but compared to the children of officials, his birth was simply not worth mentioning. He was able to stand out from the two lists of Jinshi and be favored by Master Fan. On the one hand, he was indeed talented in reading. Whether it was writing articles or calligraphy and painting, he was quite outstanding even among the Jinshi.
The two Su Yanli had outstanding looks. Standing in front of people, they were graceful, elegant and gentle, with the temperament of a noble young man. If you didn't know his background, when you first saw him, you would think he was a young master from a wealthy family.
He was welcomed into the lantern tent by the servant of Lord Fan. If he had not been holding the hand of a young lady of six or seven years old, those noble ladies who were chatting with Madam Fan would have almost tried to matchmake him for their relatives and friends.
Su Ruojin also saw the eyes of the noble ladies sparkling, wishing they could take her father as their son-in-law. But it was too late. Don't look at his young age and handsome appearance. He already has four children!
She found the fun and laughed secretly.
Mr. Fan's youngest son, Fan Yanjia, was playing with lanterns in the lantern shed with his nephew Fan Chengcan. When they saw another person coming in, they took a look and recognized the middle-aged man. He was the doctor of the Imperial College who often came to borrow money from their father in the past. This was the first time that his two children saw him.
The boy is just like his father, both are handsome and elegant, and he looks very comfortable. As for the little girl, she holds her father's hand with one hand and holds the little rabbit lantern with the other hand, pursing her lips, looking serious, but in fact her eyes are darting around and finally landing on her mother. He curled his lips, thinking that the little girl must be envious of those ladies who wear luxurious clothes and have beautiful hairpins!
Fan Yanjia withdrew his gaze and continued to compete with his nephew in lantern fighting. The four-year-old Fan Chengcan was certainly no match for the eleven-year-old Fan Yanjia, and the lantern in his hand was soon taken away by his uncle.
He had nothing in his hands and his eyes rolled around in anxiety. Suddenly he reached out and snatched the lantern from Su Dalang's hand. By the time he reacted, the little guy had already started fighting with his uncle again.
There were only three words in Su Ruojin's mind: naughty child.
She asked her father to help her get a rabbit lantern and handed it to her brother. Su Dalang was embarrassed to ask for his sister's things, so he shook his head and said, "No." He didn't care about these little things.
Big brother didn't want to, and Su Ruojin didn't force it. Su Yanli sat down and drank tea while half-protecting his daughter, trying to be careful not to bump into her by the children playing in the shed.
Su Ruojin's mind was not on the children's lantern fight. She had been paying attention to Mrs. Fan's movements, thinking, how could she quietly bring up the crystal osmanthus cake? Mrs. Fan would not take the initiative to talk to a little kid about these things. Even if her mother Cheng Yingzhen was here, today was not the time to talk about osmanthus cake.
Forget it. If Mrs. Fan doesn't bring it up, Su Ruojin is going to put it aside. After all, she will only be seven years old after the New Year. She should set up the breakfast shop first, one step at a time, which will make her feel more down-to-earth.
Putting his worries aside, Su Ruojin relaxed and leaned his little body on his father's legs. If Lord Fan didn't come back, they should go back.
The group of noble ladies finally finished their politeness and left the lantern shed of Minister Fan's house together. Mrs. Fan took a few sips of tea leisurely and then looked towards Su Yanli.
Su Yanli also noticed it, and quickly stood up and led his children over to greet her, "Junior greets Madam!"
Mrs. Fan smiled faintly. She couldn't stand this teacher from the Imperial College who came to the master to borrow money during the holidays. You said you want to borrow money, so just lend more. Why do you only lend five or ten taels each time? How can the master ask him to pay it back? It's obvious that he is here to extort money.
If Su Yanli knew that Mrs. Fan thought of him like this, he would really die unjustly. He should borrow money according to his ability. If he borrows too much and cannot pay it back, wouldn't he lose the trust of his teacher?
This is the difference between reading too much and dealing with people too much. Honest people will really be killed unjustly by worldly people.
I didn't expect that he had returned more than fifty taels of silver before the New Year. Mrs. Fan was quite surprised and thought, did I see it wrong?
You must have seen it wrong!
Although Mrs. Fan still had a faint smile on her face, there was warmth in her eyes. She asked the maids and servants to bring some snacks to treat Dr. Su's two children.
Su Dalang and Su Ruojin didn't reach out their hands, but looked at their father at the same time.
Su Yanli nodded, and the two children reached out to take it. They were not in a hurry to eat it, but stood obediently beside their father.
"I heard from the master that your eldest son has already read the Four Books and Five Classics?"
Su Yanli bowed and replied respectfully, "Yes, ma'am."
During the Dayin Dynasty, male education generally started from the age of six to eight, with students reading Three Character Classic, Youxue Qionglin, Thousand Character Classic, etc. At the age of eight, they were taught courtesy and shame, and read The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius, The Book of Filial Piety, etc. They also began to practice small regular script and running script. Small regular script was the font that every student had to learn when taking the imperial examination.
At the age of nine, they were taught the new moon and full moon and the sixty-year cycle, and read "The Eclectic Meaning of Poetry" and "The Book of Documents Illustrated". At the age of ten, they left home to attend the academy for systematic study, including historical works such as The Book of Songs and The Spring and Autumn Annals, as well as music and shooting. Unlike some dynasties who only read the eight-legged essay and took exams for the sake of exams, the Jinshi degree in the Dayin Dynasty was of high quality and produced many celebrities and capable officials.
Madam Fan smiled at her youngest son who was sitting crookedly, "Yan'er, you heard it, right? Young Master Su is only eight years old and has already learned all this. After the first month of the year is over, you must study hard."
(End of this chapter)
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