Top Scholar

Chapter 78 Upgraded

When Su Lu returned home, his family had been waiting for him for a long time.

"San Guo is back, dinner's ready!" Little Jinbao happily jumped onto Su Lu.

"Didn't we agree that if I came back late, you could eat first and leave me a bite?" Su Lu asked, holding Jinbao.

As her aunt brought out the food that was still warming in the steamer, she said in a harsh voice, "The whole family is waiting for you, what can I do?"

“My mom said she’d wait for Sanguo to come back so we could eat together.” Little Jinbao whispered in Su Lu’s ear, “She said that if you didn’t come home yesterday because of the rain, and there’s only leftovers when you come back today, she’ll resent her.”

Little Jinbao is four years old now, and he's become much more eloquent; he's no longer a silly little kid.

"No way, I have nothing but love and respect for Auntie," Su Lu said with a grin.

“If you come back this late again, I won’t leave you any leftovers!” Auntie snorted.

"Oh, oh." Su Lu quickly apologized with a smile, "I was really held up by something today, I'll try to come back earlier next time."

He went inside, put down his book box, took out the box of fried dough that his teacher had given him, and presented it to Xiao Jinbao like a treasure. "Look what your third brother brought back for you."

"Wow, food!" Little Jinbao's eyes widened instantly, and he hugged Su Lu's head, giving him a big kiss. "Thank you, San Guo!"

Then, she stretched out her chubby little hand, picked up a piece of the rather plain-looking "crispy slice," frowned, and tasted it. Immediately, her face lit up with a sweet smile: "Crispy, sweet, so delicious!"

As she spoke, she picked up another piece and stuffed it into Su Lu's mouth, saying in a childish voice, "One piece for the three pots, one piece for me."

"Where's your mother?" the eldest aunt asked, jealous.

"One for Mom, one for me." Jinbao picked up another piece and stuffed it into his aunt's mouth.

"And what about Grandma?" The old lady's ears were very sharp at this point; she hadn't missed a single bite of food.

"Grandma gets one piece, I get one piece."

"Grandpa gets one piece, I'll get one piece..."

In the end, everyone in the family got a piece, and she kept most of the box for herself.

The eldest aunt couldn't help but complain to Su Lu: "Why are you wasting money like this?"

"Auntie, this wasn't bought, it was a gift from my teacher," Su Lu said with no small amount of boasting. "I'll get more if I do well on the next exam."

"There's more if you do well on the exam..." His aunt mimicked his tone, pursed her lips, and rolled her eyes at him, saying, "Hurry up and eat."

You know how annoying that is?
~~
Tonight we had steamed lamb's quarters with sorghum flour. The blanched lamb's quarters had a very smooth and tender texture, which offset the roughness of the sorghum flour. It was quite delicious with some minced garlic on top.

While eating, Su Lu said to his second brother, "I reached an agreement with my godmother yesterday, and she is very supportive of that matter. I want you to come to the shop so I can have a proper talk with you."

"Okay." Su Tai nodded and asked, "Aren't you coming along, Qiu-ge'er?"

"No, I didn't do well on the exam again this time, so I need to focus on my studies. You can discuss things with your godmother from now on." Su Lu shook his head. He didn't know anything about brewing wine, nor did he have the energy to study it, so getting involved wouldn't make a difference.

"Why did you do poorly on the test again? Did you do well or not?" Auntie asked.

"Don't bring up things you shouldn't talk about!" Fortunately, the old man helped Su Lu out of the predicament.

Su Youcai, however, was still pretending, asking, "What's the matter?"

"Can you please not ask about our women's secrets, Father?" Su Lu could only play along with his act.

"Fine, I won't ask. But you need to be more sensible and not cause your godmother any trouble." Su Youcai had only himself to blame. Who told him to tell the old man that he had found a job as an accountant in town?
I haven't dared to say it outright yet, but I'm working at Sweet Water Restaurant.

"Oh, okay." Su Lu nodded perfunctorily, finished the last bite of steamed sorghum flour with amaranth, said "I'm full," and prepared to go to the study to do his homework.

But then she heard her aunt say in a muffled voice, "Your older brother will be home in the next couple of days, so don't go to his room to study."

"Oh." Su Lu nodded and said, "I'll pack my things and go back to my room."

Thankfully, summer is almost here, so I can study with the windows open again...

To everyone's surprise, my aunt gasped and said, "No need, I've already prepared a study for you."

The old man glanced helplessly at his aunt; her mouth was really a mess.

"Thank you, Auntie!" Su Lu was already used to her aunt's rough and rustic way of speaking. Now she didn't care what she said, she only cared about what she did.

He was initially flattered, then asked in confusion, "Does our family still have a house?"

The house has a total of seven rooms. Of the three main rooms, one is used as the main hall, one is where the elderly couple lives, and the other is where the eldest uncle and aunt live.

There are also four side rooms. The smaller one in the east wing is Chun Ge'er's study, which is currently occupied by Su Lu.

The three Su family members lived in the outer room.

The inner room of the west wing is the younger sister's room, and the outer room is the younger brother and sister-in-law's room.

So all seven rooms were occupied, and even the warehouse and kitchen were built later... They looked like two makeshift latrines, standing in the corners of the courtyard, looking terribly ugly.

What? Where's his real outhouse? There's a term called 'shanglan' (上栏), you can figure it out yourself...

~~
Su Lu thought they were going to build her another shack, but her aunt said, "Your uncle and aunt won't be back for a year or two anyway, so I'll take care of that room for you to use for now!"

"Is this appropriate?" Su Lu was naturally more than happy to agree, but she was also worried that the sisters-in-law would have conflicts.

“What’s wrong with it? We can’t have rooms sitting empty all the time, leaving people with nowhere to study, can we?” But Auntie waved her hand and made the decision on the spot: “Don’t worry, I’ll decide this. I’ll talk to your uncle when he comes back!”

The old man had no objection; his youngest son and third grandson were all his flesh and blood. He could only take care of whichever was in front of him first.

"Just listen to your aunt," Su Youcai said. "Otherwise, if we light a pine torch, your second brother and I will be choked and unable to sleep."

"Okay, thank you, Auntie." Su Lu happily accepted.

"I've already prepared your room, you can go there tonight." Auntie always acts faster than she thinks, and she always gets things done first.

Actually, once my aunt put the wedding quilt away in the closet, there wasn't much left in my uncle's room... He had come back a few times in the past six months, and he had taken almost everything he needed.

An empty single bed, a square table, and two chairs were all that was in Su Lu's 'study'.

But for Su Lu, having a separate study was already a blessing; he couldn't ask for anything more for the time being.

However, since this was ultimately his uncle and aunt's wedding room, he had to cherish it, so he gritted his teeth and decided to switch to oil lamps at night instead of the smoky pine torches.

Of course, now that his financial situation has improved slightly, he can treat himself a little better...

With his second brother's help, Su Lu quickly moved his study materials into his uncle's room. Then he sat down at the table and immediately began his homework...

I chatted with the headmaster after school today. I ran into Sanwan on the way back, and then I had to "move" again, which wasted too much time. I have to make the most of every second.

He first spent half an hour finishing his regular homework, then quickly asked his father to give him a lesson in phonetics so as not to disturb his rest...

Su Youcai went back to work today. However, he starts get off work later than Su Lu and leaves earlier, so they don't run into each other.

By mid-April, the prosody course had entered the antithesis training stage, but it was no longer the simple antithesis of before. Instead, Su Lu was required to use words from the same rhyme group in the "Hongwu Zhengyun" to form antithetical couplets. The parts of speech also had to match, and the rhymes had to be consistent.

For example, Su Youcai produced the poem "Chao Geng".

Su Lu had no problem with the word "暮耘" in terms of its part of speech, but Su Youcai shook his head and said:

“In the Hongwu Zhengyun, “耕 belongs to the level tone ‘庚’ rhyme, ancient Heng cut; 耘 belongs to the level tone ‘真’ rhyme, Wang Fen cut. The two cannot rhyme because their rhyme endings are opposite, that is, ‘out of rhyme’.”

Su Lu thought for a moment and then changed his answer to, "Evening reading."

"Why?" Su Youcai asked.

“Because both ‘耕’ and ‘读’ are verbs, they fit the ‘庚青’ rhyme in the Hongwu Zhengyun,” Su Lu said. “They do indeed sound more sonorous when read aloud.”

“That’s right.” Su Youcai nodded and said, “Therefore, all parallel couplets from now on must be in accordance with the rhyme book and must not deviate from the rhyme.”

"I'll do my best," Su Lu replied. He was afraid of those who were just being deliberately mysterious. He wasn't worried about those who knew exactly where to direct their efforts.

There's nothing special about it; it's simply a matter of practice makes perfect!
Su Youcai then used Lu You's poem "Warships in the snow at Guazhou Ferry, iron horses in the autumn wind at Dasanguan Pass" as an example to analyze for Su Lu the interplay between "snow at night" and "autumn wind," and between "Guazhou Ferry" and "Dasanguan Pass." He then asked Su Youcai to imitate the style and write a five-character couplet.

Su Lu thought to himself, "My father's teaching method is exactly the same as the headmaster's."

After struggling for a long time, he finally managed to cobble together two lines: "Pear blossoms fall along the post road, wine flags flutter askew in the mountain village."

"That's cliché," Su Youcai criticized.

"Then let me say a couple of lines that aren't clichéd, Father," Su Lu immediately asked humbly.

"..." Su Youcai held back for a while before saying in a muffled voice, "Poetry should come from genuine feelings; what you force out is just farts."

"..." Su Lu shrugged at his father, "Right?"

"Ahem." Su Youcai coughed twice and quickly changed the subject, saying, "Remember, 'fall' ends with an oblique tone, and the next line 'slant' must rhyme with a level tone to be in accordance with the rules."

"Yes." Su Lu had heard of this before.

~~
After his father went to sleep, Su Lu began doing the extra homework assigned by Mr. Zhang. He first memorized three essays to warm up, and then continued to imitate sentence patterns such as "夫者.也" to practice reciting and arranging sentences.

The exam went well, and Su Lu was greatly encouraged, completing ten sets of opening paragraphs before stopping. He looked at his last opening paragraph:
"Benevolence is the heart of Heaven and Earth; governance is the framework of the state; governing with benevolence is like rain and dew nourishing all things, causing them to flourish..."

Su Lu nodded in satisfaction. He did feel much better than during the exam, and his writing flowed more and more smoothly.

The entire Erlangtan area was now dark, except for the faint light emanating from his spot. Su Lu, however, felt no sleepiness and began working on the assignment the headmaster had given him…

When he finished his "three-part extracurricular exercise" and came out of the small study, he saw that the moon was already setting in the west, and it was already past midnight.

He tiptoed back to bed, slept for less than three hours, and then it was time to get up again...

Su Lu got up, washed his face with cold water to wake himself up, and sure enough, he was a hero again!
From that day on, he and Su Dan were no longer the only ones on their way to school; 30,000 brothers joined them as well.

The three decided to stop living at school and instead commute with the students... Anyway, room and board fees were paid monthly, so it wouldn't cost much.

This is good for Su Lu. Although the route to school is between the Thousand Household Office and the Hundred Household Office, which is a safe zone rarely visited by barbarians, it's always better to be safer with more people around.

The five men marched together on the road, full of vigor and high spirits, reciting powerful and resounding classical Chinese texts, and looking somewhat aggressive.

The villagers in the fields along the roadside turned their heads and whispered among themselves, "Why do these scholars look like bandits?"

"From Erlangtan."

"No wonder..."

P.S. I wrote four chapters today. I'm exhausted! I was checking the new chapters just now, but I fell asleep. More updates coming soon...

(End of this chapter)