Chapter 242: Keeping Silent (V)

In front of the Imperial College, a short time ago, a dozen of new monuments were erected, engraved with Confucian scriptures copied by the new Huangmen Langs from the Hanlin Academy, for the world’s scholars and readers to observe and proofread, and the capital has become a sensation, not to mention the civil officials, and even those who do not know how to read and write the old clans and nobles, but also one after another, to show that they “respect the arts”.

Two middle-aged Confucian successively took the carriage to arrive at the State Prison near the square, probably because of the blazing sun in the sky, come here to copy the scriptures of the students is not too much, but wait until the two crowded to a stone monument in front of the two men, still waiting for a small half an hour, the two men looked at each other and smiled. Monument squatting in front of a body placed in a small table of young people, shabby clothes, I do not know from the place on the name of the foreign students, or in the imperial examinations after the failure to stay in the capital to wait for the next Ministry of Rites of the Chunxin exams of the downtrodden scholar, I think that the case of that set of four treasures of the four treasures of the literary house consumed him a lot of coins. One of the middle-aged Confucian quite interested in bending down to look at, appreciate the young scholar’s writing, the young man each dip ink is very little, the pen is very fast, it is estimated that this is to save money, but the outline is still meticulous, a very beautiful hand of block letters.

The stooping Confucian scholar nodded slightly, the companion Confucian scholar did not look at the monument and did not look at the person, stretching his hand over his forehead, looking into the distant sky.

The young scholar’s mind was not distracted, occasionally resting his pen and rubbing his wrist, never raising his head, so he did not notice the two former readers on his side, but even if the young man took a serious look, he could not recognize the identity of the two men.

Gazing down for a long time, that waist hanging a piece of suet jade pendant Confucian scholar finally straightened up his waist, gently moved, walked behind the young man, intentionally or unintentionally for the clothing cleaning whitish poor scholar blocked that the hot sun exposure, and then softly asked: “Mr. Xie, are here?”

The man known as Mr. Xie spoke without shock, nodded his head and said, “Come are all here, but those who are truly on Xu Fengyin’s side, not many, outside of Xu Yanbing, just the white-clothed Luoyang and that vermilion-robed woman. Deng Ta’a, just want to take advantage of Cao Changqing before he takes his own death, meaning, both sides must be on point. As for Cao Changqing this trip to the capital, probably want to say a few last words to Xu Fengnian, otherwise to Cao Changqing’s past temperament, where will quietly enter the capital, so this time respectfully invited Diffractive Sage Gong to come here, it is his majesty superfluous. There are Wu see and Chai Qingshan to block, plus Yao Jin Han three Zhao hook, even if Xu Fengyen is determined to do rebellious acts, it is also very difficult. Furthermore, Xu Fengyen’s unauthorized entry into the capital this time is aimed at the opening of the ban on shipping, in fact, there is no need for Tai’an City to be alarmed, a table and two stools can talk about things.”

The Confucian standing behind the young scholar calmly said, “It seems that Mr. Xie has omitted His Highness the King of Shu.”

Mr. Xie smiled, “With Duke Diffractor, Mister Xie is too lazy to beat a dead horse.”

Contemporary Duke Diffractive Sage’s brows were covered in haze, seemingly a bit angry, stabilized his mind and said in a deep voice, “Is Mr. Xie so hopeful that Bei Liang and the imperial court will destroy each other so that the King of Shu, whom Mr. Xie is assisting, can take the chestnuts out of the fire?”

Xie Guanying, who was at the top of the list on the land map of the Immortals, laughed it off, put away his palms, and turned his head to look at the Diffractive Sage Duke who was worried about the country and the people, “With the loyal Gu Jiantang holding hundreds of thousands of Liao Liao elites, and Zhao Bing’s Southern Border army watching, where does it belong for the King of Shu to take advantage of the fire?”

As if knowing that completely pissing off a Diffractive Sage Duke is not a good thing, Xie Guan Ying no longer speaks provocatively, sighed and said, “Truth be told, the King of Shu went north from the Guangling Road to enter the capital, and I did not agree to it. Into the capital this is a place of wrongdoing, assuming Xu Fengyen is crazy to kill, then you Chen Zhi Bao is to protect the driver or not to protect the driver? Stand by and watch, after the fact, the world out of the cold, out to block, there is no benefit, even the Secretary of the Ministry of War have long been, and now is the King of Shu, even if you get a will not increase the number of soldiers and pawns of the title of the Great Pillar of the country, and no benefit. At this time, Lu Shengxiang Tang Tieshuang’s stream can come out strong, Chen Zhi Bao Gu Jiantang Yan Zhi Wang these three, is the cicada is a mantis or a yellow bird, only a hair’s breadth away, it’s obvious, who has better patience, who profits more.”

Duke Diffractor frowned.

Xie Guan Ying laughed softly, “Since the fall of Qin, the world has followed whomever’s surname, there are only two kinds of people who don’t care, the first is the common people who can only listen to the fate of heaven anyway, and the second, is the one surnamed Zhang within the House of Diffractive Sage Duke, the heavens have been turned upside down, and Diffractive Sage Duke is still Diffractive Sage Duke. What happened to Longhu Mountain, Diffractive Sage Gong did not see? That Heavenly Man-given Exiled Lotus, there aren’t many purple and gold lotuses left today.”

Diffractive Sage Duke said with heartfelt emotion, “The alternation between rise and fall is the general trend, but between rise and fall, I hope that fewer people will die, especially fewer reading seeds.”

Xie Guanying said with a slight sneer, “Is that why you went to meet Cao Changqing on the Guangling River? And what happened? Did Cao Changzi listen to Diffractive Sage? Diffractive Sheng Gong ah diffractive Sheng Gong, readers are reading, but do not forget that there is that human word, is a person has seven emotions and six desires, Taoist texts on the immortal can not yet achieve real longevity, readers can not always do reading a thing. Xunping Zhang Julu put down the books and walked into the temple, a young death, a late unprotected, Huishan Daxueping have a called Xuanyuan Jingcheng readers, for the love of the trapped, to the death did not come out of a Huishan, Cao Changqing or not go anywhere, his life has not really come out of the palace of Western Chu, what Confucian saint what Cao official son, but it is just a chess to wait for the imperial edict!

Diffractive shengong shook his head and said: “Mr. Cao is by no means what you Xie Guanying said so bad.”

Xie Guanying, who was called by his name for the first time, was indifferent and laughed coldly, “A woman who has been dead for so many years can’t let go of her, how can you talk about being invincible as a collector? Playing chess to play chess, only to end up playing yourself as a pathetic pawn on the chessboard, a travesty!”

The contemporary sage of the Zhang family looked at this “bowl-carrying man” who looked down on the world’s scholars and shook his head.

Xie Guanying laughed and left.

Duke Diffractive Sage stood still and muttered, “Mr. Sir, if you can’t predict the situation of the world and save the people, you might as well take a step forward to die when the country is in trouble. You, Xie Guan Ying, are just a scholar who is bent on writing history with his own hand, a scholar only.”

This illustrious Zhang Family sage turned around, saw the stone monument, and remained speechless for a long time. That scribe scholar let out a burst of muffled breathing, supposedly because his wrist finally couldn’t carry the soreness, then he realized that shadow and turned his head to look at the unfamiliar Confucian scholar standing behind him.

Diffractor Sheng Gong smiled faintly at him and asked, “If you don’t mind, let me copy a passage for you?”

That cold scholar hesitated for a moment, as if he had made an extremely difficult choice, and finally nodded his head.

Duke Diffractor rolled up his sleeves, took the pen from the young man who shook himself up, sat cross-legged, and began to put down his pen.

The cold man re-squatted down, tilted his head to see, as if relieved, this predecessor’s word at first glance does not look elegant, regular, although not so much as to make people feel artisanal, but there is nothing to make a person’s eyes light up the clear and immortal, but over time, let the young man floats up a kind of neutral and calm feeling.

But looking at this seated senior unhurriedly wrote more than a hundred words, the young man was a little anxious, whispered to remind: “Mr. can write a little faster.”

Diffractive Sage Gong nodded and smiled, “Okay.”

Watching that he really speed up the pen, very worried about the ink spindle is not enough to support the copying of the inscription of the young man quietly sighed in relief, but when that person wrote another two hundred words, the young man only had to cheekily said: “Mr. ……”

Diffractor apologized, “I see, faster.”

As time passed, the young man became anxious again. But the matter is not three, he really does not have the face to read this kindly former reader again, just he is not easy to take up the position of copying inscriptions close by today, tomorrow may not be so lucky, the capital has a night ban, only close to the water of the state academy of the students, can let the official government turn a blind eye, by picking the lamp night copying books. And even if the shyness of his fortunate to study in the State Prison, but also the heartache of purchasing lamp oil silver money, so only in the hot sun to have the opportunity to seize a seat.

Although he did not look up, but already seemed to detect the young man’s anxiety, the Confucian scholar said while putting down his pen, “It really can’t be faster.”

The young man, probably broken, gritted his teeth and smiled, “Sir, there’s no hurry.”

And that middle-aged Confucian seems to follow the pole to climb up, a serious: “Writing and writing, reading and learning, are all lifelong things, slow some, solid some, can slowly see the work.”

Two legs numb young man simply sat on the ground, after hearing the words of the rather acidic scholar, couldn’t help but say: “Mr. said yes.”

Diffractive Sage Gong, while writing with his pen without looking away, asked with a smile, “Listening to your accent, are you from Northern Liang?”

The young man gave a hmmm and said softly, “The late student is from Rouge County in Youzhou, and I failed the examination for the Society.”

Duke Diffractive Sage continued to ask: “What, didn’t you go to find Lord Chen, the Left Scattered Cavalry Standing Counselor, or Lord Yan, the University Priest of the Dong Yuan Pavilion? Otherwise, it would be good to look for the left priest of the State Children’s Eunuch, Lord Yao. These are all great people from Northern Liang, and it is said that they take care of Northern Liang students.”

The young man frankly said, “It’s not that I haven’t thought about it, it’s just that I can’t enter the gate of the Imperial College. And the university scholar’s residence and Chen Shaobao’s family door, I guess it’s even more difficult, people in the capital city say that the prime minister’s concierge has seven officials, and I’m a thin-skinned person, I’m afraid that I’ve traveled more than ten miles with difficulty, and I don’t even dare to knock on the door at the end of the day. Besides, with this effort of traveling more than twenty miles round trip, I might as well copy more scriptures.”

Duke Diffractor smiled, “Listening to what you’ve said, you don’t seem to be of an impatient nature, why?”

The young man said awkwardly, “It’s not always about writing faster so that I can use less ink spindles. We are not compared to your capital readers, but also pay attention to what thick ink ink withered pen thirsty pen, like some like me in the north of Liang study hard fellow countrymen, streamside with fingers dipped in water on the green stone board writing, is writing. With reed poles on the ground is to write, to the winter in the snow, take a broom can also be written. Hey, to the capital, even to the snowy days, I live in that place, it is not easy to some snow in front of the door, early in the morning to the family cleaned up.”

Diffractive Sheng Gong will heartily smile, half true half false joked: “you say the capital city people pay more attention to, then I really want to tell you a pay attention to, regardless of whether it is the examination or after the temple examination, write what the word is a very deep learning, such as the Song family father and son presided over the early years of the imperial examinations, the same talent article, write no write Song characters, rankings have a high and low. The next spring exam, not surprisingly, is the Ministry of Rites Secretary Sima Park Hua and the Ministry of Rites Left Minister Jin Lanting is responsible for, which Sima Shangshu’s words, no one asked before, after becoming the Ministry of Rites, ‘naturally’ on the circulation of a wider range of people, you want to copy, although not easy, but also not too difficult to remember that one point is to abandon the regular with the line, ultimately, is not a big mistake. It’s not easy to copy, but it’s not too difficult either. As for that JinSanLang, high-minded and proud, in the word of the matter to throw in the favor, no half meaning.”

The vendors selling sugar gourds in the capital dared to say that they had seen seven or eight yellow and purple public ministers, a Confucian kindly eloquent, the young man was unsurprised, and he gratefully said, “The student has remembered.”

Duke Diffractor nodded, “Not pedantic, very good. Sour Confucianism cannot be done.”

The young man couldn’t help but laugh again.

Duke Diffractive Sage suddenly asked, “It seems that there were no Northern Liang scholars in the last temple examination?”

The young man gave a hmmm and didn’t say much. How the inner workings were, Tai’an City knew it well. Liyang court to limit the quota of the Northern Liang examination is one side, the other side is the last spring exam is just in time for the new Liang King successfully hereditary replacement, especially the refusal to accept the imperial decree and the court has a very stalemate, the Northern Liang scholars want to excel, the time, place, people, and the same are not.

The young man thought about it, smiled bitterly: “At that time together with the five people in Beijing, four people in the spring of this year went back, under the Mawei post house side, will give us the Northern Liang fell first scholar return journey, so the four people are the rest of the silver money are shelled out to me, in fact, their moral articles, do not do worse than I do.”

Duke Diffractive Sage wondered, “Why did you go back? The next meeting examination will go much smoother for you guys. Even if you don’t know this …… the five of you came all the way to the capital, why don’t you stop fighting? Moreover, wasn’t Northern Liang about to go to war at that time?”

The young man grinned, “That’s why I went back.”

Duke Diffractor stopped his pen, pondering, turned his head and asked, “At the risk of asking, that Northern Liang King of yours, how is he like?”

The young man laughed at himself and said, “I am a poor scholar, I have never seen any high officials in Beiliang except for two terms as a county magistrate in my hometown, so how dare I put a comment on the king’s goodness or badness.”

Duke Diffractive Sage returned the brush against the Northern Liang cold scholar.

The two switched places.

The young man didn’t rush to put down his brush this time, glanced at the monument that was close at hand, and then turned his head to the Confucian scholar who couldn’t guess his identity and said, “Sir, do you know how many monuments we’ve erected in Beiliang? Perhaps one day, there will be more than the words on all the stone monuments in the Guozijian. I stay here, not greedy for life and fear of death, because I am afraid that there are only Beiliang people like Jin Lanting in the temple of the capital, and I am afraid that the whole Liyang mistakenly thinks that we Beiliang readers are all as bad as Jin Lanting! I have been weak and sickly since I was a child, and I am afraid that if I go to the battlefield to kill the enemy, I can only become a war hero for the barbarians of North Mang, but staying here, perhaps I can only say this with you alone today, sir, but equally perhaps one day, even if Beiliang is lost in the fight, I will still be able to say this to a hundred and a thousand more sirs.”

Without saying anything else, Duke Diffractor stood up, and after taking a few steps out, turned his head to look at the waning back of that young Northern Liang scholar.

This young man who had twice urged that Confucian scholar to write faster must have broken his head and never imagined that there could be several or even dozens of emperors under the sky at the same time, but for eight hundred years, and even a thousand years from now, the Zhang Family’s saint, Diffractive Sage Duke, has been passed down from one generation to the next, and there is only one person in the world.

And at this time concentrated on copying the young man, did not find the State Prison gate gathered thousands of students, densely packed, all staring at him and the “unknown” Confucian gossip.

Under the constraints of a large group of officials of the State Scholarship, no one dared to cross the thunderbolt and step out of the gate to disturb the Diffractive Sage Duke.

On this day, the contemporary Diffractive Sage left the capital.