Volume 5: Fellow Traveler Chapter 862: Sudden
It happened that Zhang Shou was on duty as a lecturer in Ciqing Palace today. After the formal lessons were over, the tutors were very tactful and slipped away with various excuses such as taking a break or drinking tea. From the moment he saw Zhang Shou, the little prince, who had been hesitant to speak, could be seen by almost everyone, finally didn't have to hold back anymore.
So, about the incident that day when the Fourth Prince escaped from the palace and went to Zhang Garden, and after coming back was taken by the Emperor to Fengxian Hall to kneel for a whole night, he asked Zhang Shou in detail and learned that his father and his fourth brother did not have a big fight in Zhang Garden. He then breathed a sigh of relief, pressed his chest and smiled at Zhang Shou.
"My fourth brother refused to say anything, and I was really worried sick about him. Father was very angry that day, and my fourth brother was not careful with his words, and it almost caused a big accident." The third prince tactfully brought up the matter, and then whispered, "When I was left in the palace, I was shocked and scared. I just thought that he should have gone to Zhang Garden. With the help of a teacher, maybe he could be persuaded to stay."
"But later, when I went to Fengxian Hall to visit my fourth brother, I was stopped. After returning from Fengxian Hall, my fourth brother refused to say anything. He has not been staying in Zhaoren Hall these days, and I really..."
After hearing this, Zhang Shou finally understood. It turned out that he was a good brother who always loved his younger brother. Now he couldn't find an opportunity, so he was in a complicated and tangled mood. He was worried that his younger brother would not understand and would be depressed, and he was also afraid that he would be impulsive and cause trouble. Such a mood of worrying about gains and losses was really rare in the increasingly calm and generous Third Prince.
He immediately laughed and said, "So, Zheng Yan didn't attend the class at Ciqing Palace today, but disappeared. Do you also feel a little uneasy?"
I'm more than a little uneasy, I'm extremely worried!
The Third Prince was yelling in his heart, but he had to maintain the little bit of the East Palace's demeanor in front of his teacher, so he just nodded slightly, but his wandering eyes explained his thoughts very well. So Zhang Shou smiled and shook his head, then took a plate of dried fruits from the high table beside him and handed it to the Third Prince.
"You, to put it bluntly, are overly worried. To put it bluntly... you, as a brother, are too nosy! Although Zheng Yan is still young, he is sensible as a member of the royal family. It is time for him to go out Didn't he learn a good lesson about social reality in Baijia Village before? He is not here today. He must be going to complete the task assigned to him by the emperor..."
Before Zhang Shou finished speaking, he heard a voice from outside: "Is the Fourth Prince back?"
Following this voice, there was no response, and he saw a familiar little figure outside running in excitedly. It was the Fourth Prince. The naughty child shouted "Third Brother, Teacher" as if nothing had happened, and then ran to him, and then shouted with annoyance on his face; "Those Koreans are really useless, crying all the time, not like men!"
Zhang Shou felt his eyebrows twitch slightly, and suddenly remembered the time when he occasionally glanced at a Korean drama. He shouted "Empress" and said he was moved to tears... Let's not talk about whether it was a translation problem of the Chinese dubbing, anyway, his first reaction at that time was to change the channel quickly!
Listening to the Fourth Prince talking about the crybaby Zheshan Jun, the Minister of Rites who would kneel on the ground at every turn, and then the two of them desperately explaining those so-called poor ladies of Goryeo, and those even more pitiful maids and fire masters... The Third Prince felt that his worries were unnecessary, especially when the Fourth Prince suddenly asked, "Third brother, what do you think?"
His fourth brother...has always been that carefree and unpretentious fourth brother.
As soon as Zhang Shou saw the Third Prince's expression, he knew that the little worry of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had disappeared without a trace. So, he listened to the Fourth Prince's words with a smile, grabbed a handful of nuts and gave them to the Fourth Prince, and then asked leisurely: "Then let me ask you, have you reported these things you asked from them to your father?"
"Of course, I went to the Qianqing Palace first and came here just now!" The fourth prince explained with his head held high, and then smiled at the third prince, "Third brother, it's not that I didn't tell you before, but it's because my father said that I always made you worry about me, so he punished me to reflect on myself... I will move back to Zhaoren Hall tonight, I miss you too!"
The Third Prince once again felt that all his worries and concerns were superfluous. He stole a glance at Zhang Shou and saw that his teacher was kindly praising his Fourth Prince for being sensible and so on, without even mentioning his previous struggle. He finally walked up to him, smiled, and patted the Fourth Prince on the head, acting like an elder brother.
When Zhang Shou saw the Fourth Prince smiling brightly, he coughed and said, "Well, now that this matter has come to an end, don't take it to heart. Just do what you need to do..."
He was just about to give the fourth prince a bunch of homework so that the naughty boy would behave himself, but he didn't expect that he suddenly slapped his head hard, then coughed and said, "By the way, the King of Gaoli, Zheshan, seems to have been frightened. His illness, which was not cured to begin with, has become even worse. I think it's not reliable for him to go to the Imperial College to study after the New Year given his small body."
"Don't come all this way and die..."
This time, after being glared at by Zhang Shou and the Third Prince at the same time, the Fourth Prince finally didn't say anything after the word "death". After shrinking his head, he still said unconvincedly: "I'm not exaggerating. His health is really not good. I told my father when I came back, and he even sent the imperial physician from the Imperial Hospital over."
Seeing that the Fourth Prince did not just talk behind his back this time but at least arranged a countermeasure, the Third Prince was relieved. But the next moment, he wanted to suppress his newly-born relief because of the Fourth Prince's muttering.
"If anything happens to him in the capital, it will be our fault. Can't we send this sickly person back? Let them send some healthy ones over!"
"Do you think this is cabbage? You keep saying childish things!" Even though he was also a child, not even much older than the Fourth Prince, the Third Prince couldn't help but hit the Fourth Prince's head hard until the man held his head and cried out in pain. Only then did he remember that his fourth brother's careless words and deeds, from another perspective, were also meant to set off himself.
When Zhang Shou saw the Third Prince's rebuke, he suddenly became stunned. He said to the Fourth Prince lightly, "There are many members of the Goryeo royal family who came to study at the Imperial Academy, and some died of illness in the capital. I have never seen Goryeo harbor resentment because of this. Instead, they are all grateful to us for sending imperial doctors to treat them with care."
"It's the current King of Goryeo who was severely scolded by Zhang Chen before. After he ascended the throne, would he dare to bring up old scores? It's good enough that the court didn't bring up old scores against him! When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Since he is a minister of a vassal state, he should at least show the courtesy of a minister. If he gets sick, he should take good care of himself. No one forced him to study at the Imperial College while he was sick!"
The Fourth Prince had originally used this topic to apologize to his Third Brother in disguise. He smiled awkwardly at this point, and of course would not continue talking. After all, what did he have to do with how a member of the Goryeo royal family lived in the capital of the Ming Dynasty?
However, when the short break ended, the other tutors came in, and Zhang Shou started the second half of the day's class, the Fourth Prince's face turned bitter. He had missed countless classes in the past few days, and he was already lagging behind the Third Prince because he failed to pass the Jiuzhang Hall exam, so it was more than just a struggle.
That's confusion!
Fortunately, he looked around and found that there were many people like him, so the fourth prince felt relieved. He at least had a better foundation than those who came from Banshan Hall and the Imperial College, so he could at least flip through the textbooks and review the previous courses. He finally waited until the end of Zhang Shou's class, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
But it turned out that his relief came a little too early, because the next moment Zhang Shou said, "Lu Gaoyuan's Sansan Bookstore has already printed the first batch of physics textbooks. The emperor said he wanted to read them in person, so the first two volumes have been sent over. If there are no problems, there will probably be an additional physics course in the Ciqing Palace in the future."
"Very good!"
“Oh my God!”
These two completely different voices naturally divided into two camps. Those who were wailing were naturally the Imperial College students who were already overwhelmed by the math class, the attendant tutor from Banshan Hall, and a member of the royal family; and those who said the three words "great" were undoubtedly the people from Jiuzhang Hall and a certain gifted and studious Crown Prince.
As for the Fourth Prince, he just stood there grinning. Now that he no longer considered himself a genius, he did not dare to make any bold statements. He was just waiting to see the textbooks before deciding whether to follow the Third Prince and study hard, or just slack off. Although he once felt frustrated that he could not keep up with the Third Prince, he gradually became more open-minded.
The talents might not be that different, but he really can’t be as hard-working and dedicated as the Third Prince!
After dropping a bombshell, Zhang Shou smiled and began to pack his things. If you learn math, physics and chemistry well, you will not be afraid to travel around the world. In his era, this trend has passed. The era when science students gathered together and the college entrance examination scores were higher than those of liberal arts students has become history. Instead, the liberal arts scores are much higher than science scores every year.
However, in his opinion, science may be the eternal pain in the hearts of many people, but science is always the touchstone for selecting a small group of geniuses - that is, the achievements made by that small group of people can promote the entire civilization, especially the Ming Dynasty, which is now on the dividing line between advanced and backward. After all, the dividends brought by Emperor Taizu's epoch-making weapons will sooner or later be exhausted.
At lunch, he was asked to stay and eat with the Third Prince as usual. He was not nervous about such special treatment. Instead, he commented with great interest on the cooking skills of the imperial chefs specially assigned to the Ciqing Palace by the Emperor - he could even tell from those he ate often that this was the result of a change of chefs.
The Third Prince didn't care much about eating, but the Fourth Prince was different. He immediately joined the discussion. As for the standard of not talking while eating or sleeping, he had already thrown it out of his mind. Although the sound was loud enough to be heard by the tutors next door, he didn't care until someone suddenly rushed in.
"Your Highness, the Crown Prince, the Fourth Prince, oh, Master Zhang, you are here too, that's just right."
Chen Yongshou, who came to act as the messenger again, breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that all three people were present. He took another look and found that all the bowls and plates on the table had been swept away. He knew that the meal was over, so he said solemnly, "The emperor has summoned the ministers to discuss matters. Please invite His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince to attend the meeting."
After saying this, he saw the Third Prince immediately pull up the Fourth Prince, so he smiled and asked the two brothers to go first. The younger one, who kept looking back, was finally forcibly dragged away by the older one. He even went to the door to take a look to make sure that the Fourth Prince would not come back again, and then hurriedly came to Zhang Shou again.
"Mr. Zhang, Goryeo just sent someone to report the news, but he only had time to say two sentences before fainting. One of the sentences said... the King of Goryeo has passed away!" Seeing Zhang Shou's sudden shock, Chen Yongshou wanted to say that he also found it incredible when he heard the news. The emperor was so angry that he said coldly, "Maybe you are trying to kill him to silence him." He quickly wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"The Fourth Prince and his entourage have already been to the Huitong South Pavilion. The Korean envoys must have been scared to death. Now the Emperor wants to discuss a solution with several ministers in the cabinet. It's not just because people say that the King of Korea is dead, but because..."
"It was because of what that guy said. The Queen Mother was the regent and asked Zeshanjun to go back and inherit the throne of the late king... In other words, he wanted to bring the kid who was supposed to be in the Imperial Academy back to the country to succeed the throne. But the most outrageous thing is that the messenger didn't bring an official letter."
Is this the turn of events?
Although Zhang Shou had never met the Lord of the Mountain, from the information revealed by Zhu Er and the Fourth Prince, he was undoubtedly an unlucky character. His father was originally a legitimate prince, but he died early, leaving behind his mother and their two little brothers. His uncle was originally the second son, but he was lucky enough to sit on the throne and directly sent his nephew to the Imperial Academy of the Ming Dynasty for further study.
How could such a tragic hero in a sad drama suddenly inherit the throne? That was the Minister of Rites who kept saying that the king was young, and he had a big fight with Zhang Chen in the street, which showed that he was a young and energetic guy. How could he die at this moment?
Zhang Shou thought so in his heart, but he also knew that Chen Yongshou definitely did not reveal so much information to him because of his personal relationship with him, so he asked directly: "Why, do you want me to go to Huitong South Pavilion to meet that Zheshan Jun?"
Chen Yongshou took a deep breath and then said word by word: "The emperor said that no matter how the pirates on Jeju Island in Goryeo are dealt with, Zheshan Jun cannot be sent back so quickly. Please ask Master Zhang to take the trouble to be his teacher for a month."
