The Grand Tutor's questioning began, and the first to be called upon was the Eldest Prince. The other princes were then questioned in turn, interspersed throughout, and not just once each.
This was to avoid any complacent notion that one could relax after being questioned.
Qu Dubian listened for a while. Grand Tutor Fang primarily directed his questions at the three older princes.
The questions covered a wide range of topics, mostly from the Four Books: The Analects, Mencius, The Great Learning, and The Doctrine of the Mean. The difficulty was tailored to each prince's level of knowledge, with an emphasis on Confucian and Mencian doctrines.
The youngest, the Sixth Prince, was four years old. He had entered the school at three and a half and had only been studying for half a year.
For now, he was mainly learning through immersion with his older brothers, focusing on literacy and basics. So, Grand Tutor Fang only asked him some content from the Three Character Classic, like reciting the next line after being given the first.
It seemed that although there was no 'Great Zhou' dynasty in history, its cultural background was quite similar to that of successive Chinese dynasties.
In the end, the ones who got their palms struck were the Eldest Prince and the Fourth Prince.
The Eldest Prince was punished because his study companion was caught secretly prompting him. The Fourth Prince, however, was punished for yawning repeatedly during the Grand Tutor's questioning, looking as if he was about to fall asleep.
After the punishment, the Eldest Prince glared fiercely at his companion, whose face paled, fingers unconsciously twisting his sleeves.
The Fourth Prince, acting as if nothing had happened, rubbed his eyes and sat down.
Only then did Grand Tutor Fang begin the formal lesson.
Even teaching two groups of princes at completely different levels, he appeared effortlessly competent.
He first distributed single-question test papers to the older princes, then led the younger ones in reciting the Three Character Classic and the Thousand Character Classic. After about one-third, he stopped and went back to explain the meanings of some characters and phrases.
While lecturing, this Grand Tutor Fang liked to pace around the schoolroom, only occasionally sitting down in the chair behind his desk. Qu Dubian noticed the old man's shoes had a patch sewn on the edge, the same color as the shoes.
Qu Dubian listened with great concentration, his lips moving silently, using his memories from his past life to accurately track where the Grand Tutor was in the text.
His left hand, holding a charcoal pencil, occasionally circled or dotted characters—ones with more complex strokes that he hadn't memorized at first glance.
There were also characters whose pronunciation or meaning differed somewhat from his previous era. He noted them all down using pinyin or simplified characters. After all, no one else could understand it anyway.
Understanding the meanings of characters and phrases was the most difficult part for the other princes, but for him, it was the simplest. What he needed to do now was to first integrate these characters with the memories from his past life, and then he could master them quickly.
Qu Dubian, housed in a two-year-old's body—if Grand Tutor Fang had observed him closely, he would have surely noticed that this learning pace was not inferior to that of child prodigies who could compose poetry at two or three.
-
Outside the Sixth Hall of the Eastern Lodge.
Wen Xiaochun and Ye Xiaoyuan had been waiting nearby for some time. Like parents who had just dropped their child off at kindergarten, they crouched uneasily by the corner of a wall, peeking into the lodge now and then.
Fortunately, there were no patrol guards nearby. Otherwise, the two of them would certainly have been questioned, if not detained.
They hadn't eaten before leaving in the morning and were now ravenous.
Ye Xiaoyuan swore he heard Wen Xiaochun's stomach growl at least five times.
He checked the position of the sun. "Unlike the older princes, who continue their lessons after the midday meal, the younger princes only study at the Eastern Lodge in the morning and leave in the afternoon. You need to time it right. Go in when the sun is almost directly overhead, during the break between sessions, to fetch the young master."
Wen Xiaochun nodded.
Ye Xiaoyuan: "I'll go prepare more food. The young master studies diligently and must eat well."
"Take this," he said, handing Wen Xiaochun the pastries he had hidden in his robe. "You'll need to carry the young master back, so don't drop him from hunger."
"Alright."
Ye Xiaoyuan gave a few more instructions before leaving the vicinity of the Sixth Hall.
-
The sun approached its zenith.
Grand Tutor Fang closed his book and assigned homework to the three princes—the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth—who would not attend class in the afternoon. "And don't neglect the content explained in today's lesson. Go back and memorize it properly, or next time it won't just be a strike on the palm."
The three young princes repeatedly assented.
After they packed their things, the three older princes also bowed to Grand Tutor Fang and took their leave, heading to the side hall for their meal and rest before continuing lessons in the afternoon.
Naturally, it was a scene of strict teacher and respectful students, of brotherly affection and deference.
Once the six princes left the immediate vicinity of the schoolroom, they immediately split into small groups.
The Eldest and Third Princes exchanged a few barbed words, with the Second Prince mediating on both sides, as they walked together towards the side hall.
The youngest, the Sixth Prince, upon exiting the Eastern Lodge garden, immediately threw his scroll of books at the Fifth Prince. "Hey, you carry this for me."
The Fifth Prince lowered his head, picked up the scroll, and silently followed behind the Sixth Prince.
The Fourth Prince seemed not to notice this scene. He turned, stretched his hand out to the little eunuch behind him, and said lazily, "Sleepy. Carry me."
Under the desk.
Qu Dubian was already asleep.
He was, after all, in a child's body, and intense mental exertion easily led to drowsiness. When the Grand Tutor had explained about one-third of the Three Character Classic, he had the three young princes practice copying characters. He then turned to teach the other three, switching to content from the Four Books.
Qu Dubian struggled to listen for a while longer. Without a book to follow along, he couldn't study in tandem. As he listened, he could no longer suppress his body's instinct. Clutching the half-eaten sweet cake to his chest, he began to feel sleepy.
While there were sounds of reading and teaching in the schoolroom, a trace of subconscious vigilance kept his sleep quiet. But now that all the princes had left, the child under the desk began to let out soft snores.
"Hoo..."
Grand Tutor Fang, who was tidying up the desks, scrolls, and volumes, paused.
"Hoo..."
Grand Tutor Fang rubbed his ears, walked to a window, and leaned out to look, but found no stray cats wandering the palace in this cold weather.
Was he hearing things? Stroking his still jet-black and glossy goatee, he thought to himself that he wasn't that old yet.
"Hoo... hoo... hic."
Grand Tutor Fang swiveled his head sharply towards the desks!
Aha! So that's where it's coming from.
It didn't sound like a stray cat, more like someone hiding.
Grand Tutor Fang snorted inwardly. This was a place for princes to study! He would see just who dared to hide here!
His mind leaping to unknown associations, Grand Tutor Fang raised his ruler, his beard practically bristling. He strode over with large steps. If it was someone with ill intentions towards the princes, he would show them what it meant for Great Zhou to be... martially virtuous!
Whoosh—!
The curtain was lifted.
A sleeping child smacked his lips. A worn-out copy of the Three Character Classic beside him clattered to the floor.
Grand Tutor Fang: "..."
Grand Tutor Fang: "!!!"
The old man closed his eyes, opened them, closed them again, opened them once more, and then widened them abruptly.
Huh???
Amitabha Buddha, Infinite Heavenly Respect, Confucius above, who could tell him why there was a toddler here?!!
With the curtain lifted, a slight cool breeze drifted in. Qu Dubian slowly woke up, rubbed his eyes, sat up, checked the time on his simulator, and stretched.
Then he turned his head and came face to face with an old man's visage, all its wrinkles scrunched together in a serious stare.
Qu Dubian: "..."
Good heavens!!
His first instinct was to turn and scramble away, but the old man's beard twitched. With quick reflexes, he grabbed the boy with one hand and hauled him out. "Still hiding? Out you come!"
The voice was familiar—it was the tutor who taught the imperial princes.
Qu Dubian, dangling in the air, paddled his limbs uselessly before realizing struggle was futile. He then forced a grin at Grand Tutor Fang, attempting to look endearing.
"Grand Tutor, please put me down first. We can discuss this properly."
Grand Tutor Fang was momentarily taken aback by a faint, familiar quality in the child's delicate features. His eyes flickered, and he set the boy down, but kept a firm grip on one of his small hands. "Explain."
He noticed a bruise on the back of the child's hand, frowned, and unconsciously loosened his grip slightly.
"This is where the imperial princes attend lessons. Where did a little child like you come from, and why are you here?"
Grand Tutor Fang looked him up and down.
The child was only about two or three years old, thin and small. His clothes... the material was hard to discern, but they looked somewhat worn. With his other hand, the tutor pulled out the other items from under the table.
The bundle contained an assortment of odds and ends.
Half a piece of pastry, gnawed and full of bite marks, one and a half charcoal pencils, three sheets of paper. The only items of slight value were two old books: one "Three Character Classic" and one "Thousand Character Classic."
A page was folded in the "Three Character Classic." Grand Tutor Fang opened it to find it was precisely the section he had just been lecturing on. The preceding pages were also marked with circles and dots in charcoal, along with some strange, tadpole-like scribbles that resembled either a child's random doodles or some kind of annotation.
It seemed this was a case of sneaking in to learn.
The more Grand Tutor Fang looked, the stranger his expression became.
Qu Dubian inwardly groaned.
A disastrous start!
Caught on the very first day!
It was all this useless body's fault, otherwise how could he have fallen asleep? Afraid of being turned over for a spanking, Qu Dubian considered whether to reveal his identity.
Though, it probably wouldn't be hard to guess? How many children could there possibly be in the palace—
"Are you the child born from that maid's illicit affair with a guard?"
Qu Dubian's eyes widened slightly. "Maid...?"
Grand Tutor Fang, with a stern face, told him a story.
The late Emperor had poor personal virtue, and the chaos in the inner palace had reached a certain level, a subject of criticism in court to this day.
When the current Emperor had just ascended the throne and was dealing with the mess, there was a palace maid in her twenties who had passed the age for release but couldn't leave the palace. She had a secret liaison with a guard and soon became pregnant, giving birth to the child in an abandoned palace building.
Later, when the affair was exposed, His Majesty ordered a thorough investigation of the palace, and shockingly, two more such cases were uncovered. However, those children had been secretly smuggled out of the palace shortly after birth.
His Majesty was furious. The maids and guards were all executed. The children were taken away by the Shadow Guards, their whereabouts unknown.
What truly angered the Emperor was not the moral corruption within the palace, but the fact that living infants had been smuggled out right under his nose, and the servants in charge of inspecting palace entrances and exits had noticed nothing.
If a child could be smuggled out today, traitors could be smuggled in tomorrow!
Since then, all unreliable guards and maids in the palace were replaced, and the inspections for entering and leaving the inner palace became extremely strict.
Grand Tutor Fang only mentioned this briefly, without going into detail. "Are you a child born from such a secret union?"
Qu Dubian blinked and decided to follow his lead. "If I were such a child, would you hand me over, Grand Tutor?"
Grand Tutor Fang raised an eyebrow slightly, the sternness on his face already fading. He picked up the "Three Character Classic" from the floor and flipped through it casually.
"How long have you been sneaking into the schoolroom? Do you recognize characters? How much have you learned?"
"Today is my first time. I... learned a bit before, but only up to where you were lecturing." Qu Dubian cautiously gave a progress report.
Grand Tutor Fang remembered he had only explained the meanings for the first third of the Three Character Classic, mainly for the benefit of the slowest learner, the Sixth Prince.
"Do you understand all that was taught?"
Qu Dubian played dumb. "Some parts, yes. Some parts, no."
Grand Tutor Fang gave a half-smile. "Then I'll test you. If you answer correctly, I'll let you go and pretend I never saw you. Palace affairs have little to do with an outer court official like me; this old man doesn't wish to meddle. Of course, if you answer incorrectly, I'll have no choice but to hand you over to the palace attendants on duty here."
Being discovered by Grand Tutor Fang was an accident, but not entirely a bad one. Qu Dubian thought it over and agreed. This might even be a chance to gain a bit more recognition from his cheap father.
He said, "Keep your word. Swear by your ancestors. Whoever breaks their word, may their ancestors in the afterlife become poor ghosts with no spouses."
Grand Tutor Fang's hand jerked, pulling out two strands of his beard. He coughed violently several times.
"..."
After much deliberation, Yi Shier decided to record this statement as well.
