Volume 2: Residence in the Capital Chapter 145: Don’t be a lazy person
When the bell for lunch break in Banshan Hall was about to ring, Zhang Shou came back with Lu Sanlang.
Zhang Wu, who was standing in the lecture hall to supervise the exam, felt relieved, but the students below him were in different states of mind. Some looked relaxed, some were beaming, some were frowning, some were thinking hard, some were scratching their heads, some were chewing their pens, some were mumbling to themselves... In short, there were all kinds of people. But the ones who reacted the most were the third and fourth princes.
The fourth prince was the first to run up, waving his test paper in his hand: "Teacher, teacher, I have also finished answering the second test paper!"
After interviewing so many people in the morning, they finally selected 21 students. With Lu Sanlang and Qi Liang, Zhang Shou planned to apply for 23 students as Jiuzhangtang students, which was less than the number of people Cuiyunjian accepted at the beginning. But in terms of the ratio, Zhang Shou was already very satisfied.
In particular, apart from Yan Fang, he also saw several familiar faces who had blocked the door of the Ge family before. After personally questioning them, he no longer had much doubt about these people's mathematical skills.
The only thing he was unsure about was virtue. But even the emperor could not guarantee that he would not make mistakes when employing people, so he did not intend to be too strict at the beginning, but planned to teach while observing. Therefore, he was absent-minded until the fourth prince rushed to him, and then he suddenly woke up. As a result, the fourth prince ran too fast and bumped into his arms, and his little head hit his stomach directly.
He was very glad that the Fourth Prince was quite tall. He took a deep breath, rubbed his stomach, and forced a smile to say it was okay to the Fourth Prince. When he took the paper and saw the neat calligraphy, he couldn't help but be slightly stunned, and then he looked at the chubby boy in front of him with some surprise.
Although there were blank spaces in the middle of many characters and nearly half of them were unwritten, if you counted them, you would know that the Fourth Prince could write at least one or two hundred characters, and there were no mistakes in these one or two hundred characters.
"How can you write so many words?"
The fourth prince immediately became proud: "My third brother and I learned to read very early! Not only us, but also my eldest and second brothers were like this! It's just that I can recognize many characters, but I can't write them very well..."
He seemed to , and stammered, "So I can only leave it blank. Because my father said that words that you don't know how to write should be left blank rather than replaced by other words. But I can answer all the questions you asked, teacher! Because I remember them all clearly. After returning to the palace, I asked my father and did experiments..."
Before the Fourth Prince was ready to give a verbal answer, Zhang Shou stopped him with a wave of his hand. He then said with a smile, "No need. It's good that you have such a desire to learn. Your Majesty is right. You really can't replace the words you don't know how to write with other simple words with the same pronunciation. Because if you do it again and again, you will probably form a habit of writing it wrong in the future."
Smiling, Zhang Shou sent the fourth prince back to his seat. He also took a look at the third prince's answer sheet to show that he was not partial to one over the other, and then signaled Zhang Wu to collect the papers. Seeing that some people were refreshed while others were sighing, he came to the lecture hall and slammed the gavel.
"This exam is different from the ones you've taken before. I think everyone should have some experience with today's exam. As long as you pay attention in class, you can at least answer 80% of the questions. And if you pay attention in class and go back to learn from your experience and look up books and ask your elders and teachers for advice, you can easily answer all the questions."
"If some people cannot do what even the Third and Fourth Princes can do, then isn't it time for you to reflect on yourself? Coming to class every day and just listening to stories is like a salted fish that can be fiddled with, salted and exposed to the sun, and will never move. It's up to you whether you want to be a decent person or a dead salted fish."
When Zhang Shou reached this point, he rang the bell to signal the end of get out of class.
After the students and the third and fourth princes left, Lu Sanlang saw that the only ones left were Zhu Er, who was still dawdling to pack his things, and the Zhang family trio. He asked, "Teacher, when the students from Jiuzhang Hall come over, how will you teach in Banshan Hall? You are alone, you can't split it into two, right?"
"This side is in the morning, and that side is in the afternoon."
Zhang Shou calmly blurted out eight words. Seeing that Lu Sanlang was surprised and happy, he lazily said, "Go out and tell Ah Liu to let Qi Liang wait for me at home tonight. Xiao Dai is determined to be a good official, but Xiao Qi is different. I have accepted people who may have bad morals, but it doesn't make sense for me not to accept him."
"Also, both of you should be prepared. Math is no different than other subjects. There are some things you can teach for me."
Otherwise, if I have to rely on myself and take classes all day long, wouldn’t I be exhausted to death?
Lu Sanlang was so shocked that his eyes almost popped out. He pointed at his nose in disbelief and said, "Me? Isn't that... the teaching assistant?"
"That's right." While Zhang Shou nodded, he was thinking in his heart, things like doctor and assistant professor, these common titles in later generations, all came from the Imperial College!
"Although I can't give you the title of assistant teacher, nor can I ask the emperor to give you the salary of an assistant teacher, but the fact is that you have to work as an assistant teacher for me. Otherwise, I won't be able to take care of both Jiuzhang Hall and Banshan Hall. Remember to go back and read the books of your Grandmaster Ge. They are the teaching materials of Jiuzhang Hall in the future. Although the first few books are the most basic, you will make rapid progress."
Seeing Lu Sanlang's delight, Zhu Er agreed generously and ran away. It seemed that he would take advantage of his lunch break to study Ge's Mathematics, which he regarded as a divine book. He had been an inexperienced person for more than ten years and thought that he would continue to be an inexperienced person in the future. He felt very bad. Apart from anything else, he did very badly in both exams today!
Zhang Chen and Zhang Wu were lucky enough that they each escaped an exam by taking advantage of the invigilation!
However, Zhu Er was stunned to realize his mistake next. Because Zhang Shou asked Zhang Chen a few questions about history, and Zhang Chen answered them fluently. The same was true for Zhang Wu. He could explain some principles of natural science so clearly that he felt like he was the only playboy in the world.
Zhang Shou pretended not to notice Zhu Er's wonderful expression change, and said to Zhang Chen and Zhang Wu with a smile: "You two are good. There will be more and more such exams in the future. Zhang Lu will also come up to supervise the exam next time, and Zhang Chen will be the inspector. You have a high prestige in Banshan Hall. With you patrolling, most people will not dare to cheat. Don't let the emperor down."
Speaking of the emperor's wishes, Zhang Chen immediately thought of his inexplicable reward. But he had just opened his mouth and had no time to say anything before Zhang Shou, with a smile on his face, spoke before him.
"Don't be modest. You deserve it. The Holy Emperor's eyes are as sharp as lightning. You should believe this."
Zhang Chen simply didn't know what expression to show. Last time in Cuiyun Room, he and Lu Sanlang were just acting, but afterwards they both "captured the thief and made great contributions", and received praise and rewards from the emperor. This time it was even more outrageous, he didn't even see the shadow of the traitor, but he "made great contributions" again .
When he got home yesterday and the reward arrived right after him, his mother was of course delighted, and even his father, who never cared about him, praised him for - "You have finally grown up and become sensible."
In the past, he was dissatisfied with Lu Sanlang's transformation into a genius. Now, he found that he might also become a role model for elders to educate their juniors, but he felt that it was just a dream... because he was different from Lu Sanlang, he hadn't done anything at all!
The only difference from before seemed to be that he inexplicably became Zhang Shou's "student".
Zhang Shou followed suit, and then encouraged Zhang Wu and Zhang Lu. These two people were not as ambitious as Zhang Chen and Lu Sanlang, but now that their status in the family has risen, they are proud and naturally happy to have turned their fortunes around.
After seeing off the three "favored students" with the same surname as himself, Zhang Shou couldn't help but sigh in his heart that the current emperor was really a wonderful person, and it was really nice to have someone to back him up. Just as he was thinking this, he saw Lu Sanlang winking at him and then slipping out of the door. He then caught a glimpse of Zhu Er approaching him reluctantly.
Zhu Er had to keep a low profile these days. He was forced by his grandmother and stepmother to be a student at the Banshan Hall of the Imperial Academy. He already felt unlucky enough, but what made him even more shocked was that he had to call his future brother-in-law teacher! Fortunately, his seat was at the back, even in the corner, so he always shrank his head and reduced his presence, fearing most of being laughed at.
But at this moment, the second young master, who was like a salted fish, finally couldn't stand it anymore as he saw Lu Sanlang and the Zhang trio gradually become more and more successful. Taking advantage of the absence of outsiders, he tried to tell himself that everything was for the revitalization of the Zhu family, and finally he mustered up the courage to speak.
"Teacher..." Zhu Er had to work hard to pronounce the word "teacher". But since he had called it out, he said carefully, "I also want to study hard, but I am not as talented as my elder brother. Teacher, you know the situation at home. What should I do?"
Hearing Zhu Er's sincere question, Zhang Shou couldn't help but look him up and down. Then he smiled and said, "I've seen your class selection schedule every afternoon . For ritual music, you chose drums and harps, and for fitness, you chose pitching pots. When I went to audit your classes a few days ago, I thought you were pretty good at drums and harps, and you were even better at pitching pots."
Zhu Er didn't expect that his future brother-in-law had actually observed him, and he immediately became delighted.
"That's right. I've liked playing the zither since I was a kid. The qin and zheng are nothing. If you want to talk about true elegance, it's the zither. It was at its peak during the Qin and Han dynasties, and there were many famous players during the Tang dynasty. It's said that Confucius was a master at playing the zither. Didn't the Records of the Grand Historian Biography of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru also say that the King of Qin played the zither? But there are only two people who chose to play the zither. You really don't know what's good!"
But after boasting about his best instrument, he saw Zhang Shou looking at him with a half-smile, and his arrogance just now disappeared in an instant: "Tou Hu is just a gambling game played by rich people. I also know that playing with things will lead to loss of ambition, but I really can't play Cuju or polo better than others. Only tou Hu has been playing since I was a child, so I am not easily laughed at."
He loves music and plays games, and he is truly a playboy born to enjoy life!
Zhang Shou thought so in his heart, and then he said calmly: "I was born with talents that will be useful. There is no useless talent in this world. Also, you don't have to force yourself to call me teacher when we are not giving a lecture. You feel uncomfortable calling me teacher, and I feel uncomfortable listening to it. If you can't make progress, you can just keep the status quo, but you have to think carefully about what you are going to do if you become an official in the future."
What are you going to do? Seeing Zhang Shou leave, Zhu Er couldn't help but frown.
If he knew what he could do, would he need to ask Zhang Shou?