Food Fairy Lord

Chapter 549 Half Moon
When Pei Ye arrived at Tianliyuan, the pine forest was still cold and quiet, with rustling sounds and no one in sight along the way.

Fang Jidao had already been reading silently in front of the window. Zhu Wen was sitting in front of the hall with a dignified figure, commenting on something with his head lowered. There was only silence in the classroom.

Pei Ye walked in silently, sat down, and took out the book "Yili".

Zhu asked, "Pei Ye, you need to bow to the teacher when you enter the school hall."

"Well."

Pei Ye stood up and bowed, Zhu Wen returned a half-bow, and the school became quiet again.

Pei Ye's eyes were fixed on the book but he was not very focused. Today, the other half of his brain was not thinking about the sword. What was lingering on his mind was the gray-white sea of ​​people in the morning. The bright red on the stone tablet would pop up from time to time.

In the young boy's impression, these scholar costumes always appeared together with poetry and prose. They gathered together in the bright school of the Imperial College to discuss scriptures and affairs. It was also a place that made him relax physically and mentally. The angry and distorted faces and blood were often unique to the martial arts world, and he subconsciously separated them.

He had not read any history books, so what he saw this morning gave him a somewhat shocking shock.

But this school seemed to have nothing to do with that world. Zhu Wen lowered his head and carefully marked the book in his hand. When it was getting dark, he had a detailed and long question-and-answer session just like yesterday. After that, Fang Jidao said goodbye and left. Pei Ye wanted to take another look at the small pond. He vaguely felt that those gray and white soldiers' uniforms were like faint shadows, and their lives were like grass. They might be crushed and scattered at any time, and they seemed to be vaguely connected only to this unknown pond, which made him feel a little uneasy.

"I've already read it yesterday. It's the same today. Why bother reading it again?" Zhu Wen collected the ink on the table and looked up at him.

"I wonder if there's anything I can do to help you, sir." Pei Ye paused, "Is there anything I can do to get the results faster... Anyway, I can help you with whatever you do."

"No." Zhu Wen lowered his head and put away his book. Every movement of this philosopher was so upright. "I just sweep and clean every day. If you want to read it, just stand under the eaves and read it like you did yesterday. Don't do anything unnecessary."

"……it is good."

As usual, Pei Ye followed Zhu Wen in silence towards the back of the courtyard. But this time, as soon as they left the school, Pei Ye caught a glimpse of the courtyard gate out of the corner of his eye and was stunned.

The door was open. Two soldiers in gray and white uniforms were kneeling with their crowns buried deep in the ground. Their clothes were visibly thin in the bitter winter, and their fingers touching the ground were already red.

Zhu Wen stopped walking.

The two men in military uniforms were still kneeling there motionless, and faint sobbing could be heard from one of them from time to time.

"Ji An, what are you here for?" Zhu Wen asked softly.

The scholar in white raised his head with a sad look on his face: "Master Zhu, I was asked by my friend Nian An to bring him to the academy to meet him. I am willing to follow the academy's rules and regulations, but I ask you to listen to what he has to say!"

After saying this, he bowed again.

Another gray-clothed scholar raised his head. He was the one who was sobbing. The look on his face made Pei Ye's heart tremble. His eyes were red and swollen, and traces of tears were dried on his face. His cheeks were stained with dirt and broken leaves. He looked at Zhu Wen and said in a hoarse voice: "Zhu Zhezi, today the Ministry of Justice suddenly confiscated the backlog of Shilin's cases... Wen, Brother Wen... was sentenced to death..."

He was choked with sobs and became hoarse for a moment. After a while, he said in a trembling voice: "You are a great philosopher, please save him!"

After saying this, he fell to the ground and cried.

Zhu Wen looked at the two people in front of the courtyard gate in silence. He stood there quietly for two breaths and whispered, "The Tang Dynasty has its own laws and the Ministry of Justice has its own officials. Those who violate the laws must be sentenced. I can't help them. Please go back."

“Zhezi!” Nian An cried, “Brother Wen has studied under you for so many years, and now he is behind bars. I don’t know how much suffering he has endured. We know that you are a noble man, so we have tried our best to save him privately and have never dared to bother you too much, but now…”

He choked up again and said in a hoarse voice: "The Ministry of Justice has ordered that he will be executed in half a month. How can a man as upright and outspoken as Brother Wen die at such a young age? Please also consider the relationship between teacher and student!"

"Please go back." The philosopher still stood solemnly and quietly, his wooden voice almost indifferent, "People do not choose their life, but they can choose their death. The world is like the tide, a hundred years pass in the blink of an eye. I have chosen to die with kindness here, fortunately."

Zhu Wen turned around and said solemnly, "Pei Ye, send them out of the hospital."

"..." Pei Ye walked out of the door and helped him up, turned around to close Zhu Wen's courtyard door, and together with Ji An, sent this man out of Tianliyuan.

He noticed that this person also had a sentence written on his body: "Aren't the Five Surnames included in the Tang Dynasty Law?" He thought that he was one of the people in the crowd this morning.

Since Wen Zaizhi's case has been suppressed for so long, why is it suddenly being tried again... Or maybe it's another result of the crowd this morning.

Pei Ye returned to Zhu Wen's courtyard. The figure wearing a neat hat and belt was already in the courtyard sweeping away the leaves that had drifted in today. His cold and solemn temperament was as harmonious as a winter pond.

Pei Ye stood under the eaves and watched quietly. He didn't know how this "evidence" was conducted, but he vaguely felt that there would always be people who cared about things like the Ertian Theory...even if they were not from the aristocratic families.

What they want may not be the same result as what you want.

Then won’t anyone come and do something… The so-called Tianliyuan, you can just find someone to lead you in.

He worried silently, but these things about "heaven" were always too far away from him.

Let the meat eaters decide for themselves.

……

……

Winter is gradually deepening.

Pei Ye lived a monotonous life every day in Tianliyuan.

Normally he always felt that he did not have enough time to practice sword skills, but now that he had squeezed in four hours of reading, he was able to complete the task of practicing sword skills.

Pei Ye would sit in the school waiting with Fang Jidao in the morning, and Zhu Wen would come in about two quarters of an hour later. At this time, Fang Jidao would stand up and salute, while Pei Ye would stay where he was, and Zhu Wen would solemnly ask him to salute.

He forgot something once every day, and Zhu Wen called on him once every day. However, what he had learned was indeed only virtue and propriety. Zhu Wen carefully monitored his progress in reading and explained the meaning of the classics to him with extensive citations.

Pei Ye had never had such a solid experience studying classics. It was not the superficial study in childhood, nor was it the influence of the Imperial Academy. Zhu Wen's teaching was as serious as his personality. Even though he was told at the beginning that he would only follow him for one month, he could still spend an entire afternoon with the boy looking up nearly twenty books on the meaning of a word - just to confirm in the end that there was indeed no definite interpretation of this word. Pei Ye had always been able to get to know others more deeply, but this philosopher always made him feel quite distant. It might be the meticulous etiquette between teachers and students, or the text of the classics always made the boy feel alienated, or it might be just like his attitude towards Yue Muzhou, two people of different natures were difficult to get close to.

Anyway, Pei Ye was just reading those books within his courtyard walls. He found Zhu Wen and said, "Sir, we have only read half of the Book of Rites so far. It seems that we cannot even finish the Three Rites, let alone the later part of Virtue. Should we speed up the progress?"

Zhu Wen only said, "You can gain something from reading each word and each paragraph. It is better to read it carefully but not thoroughly than to swallow it whole. There is no benefit in tricking yourself into reading it through." Pei Ye said no more.

Zhu Wen did clean the backyard carefully every day. As the winter got colder, his movements inevitably showed some effort, but he did not want Pei Ye's help. Pei Ye stood under the eaves and watched every day. Gradually, from some unknown day, some thin ice began to form on the surface of the pond.

However, when Zhu Wen cleaned the room, he would carefully break them up and melt them into water again.

He seemed to be in some pain while doing this, with his brows always deeply furrowed. So later on, before going down the stairs, he would always make a pot of boiling hot tea. After coming back, he would warm his shivering hands by the stove and slowly drink most of the pot of tea.

On the other side, Pei Ye lived a different life.

Cui Zhaoye arrived at the old house on the first day after Xu Chuo's instructions, but the girl did not seem to want to discuss kendo with Pei Ye under Xu Chuo's gaze. From the second day, she made appointments with the boy to meet in the sword training courtyard in the afternoon.

And perhaps because Xu Chuo had given a greeting, Pei Ye received much more care than he had expected - Qiu Jizi and the three old guards surrounded him, analyzing his every feeling when using the sword.

He is the only unpolished gem of swordsmanship among this year's sword students who has been rated as ninth-level both in terms of sword skills and recommendation letters. He is the genius who deserves the most legitimate investment of resources. Unfortunately, he has been running around outside for more than a month since he was admitted to the hospital. Several old guards would often look for Qiu Jizi to ask about his condition, fearing that he might be injured at any time. Some even wanted Qiu Jizi to protect him closely.

Qiu Jizi naturally had no choice but to roll his eyes, but now these old guards had finally got what they wanted. Under the most careful training at the Xiujian Academy, Pei Ye's sword skills had risen rapidly - if Pei Ye was sailing against the current among the scriptures at the Tianli Academy, reading carefully and thinking hard, then in the Xiujian Academy he was like a roc drinking from the ocean.

The speed at which the young boy absorbed knowledge and understood everything was almost shocking. Cui Zhaoye looked at him with eyes that were hard to tell whether it was admiration or respect, because whenever the girl had trouble understanding something, the young boy would immediately cooperate with her ideas very quickly and accurately.

For example, last time she murmured in distress: "If there was someone who could use the Three Swords of the Cangsong, it could be verified."

The young man took the sword out of the Cangjian Tower and spent two hours practicing the first move in a very realistic manner - the sword moves were uncut, but the true meaning was already there.

The concept of [Sword State] was advancing so rapidly, except that Pei Ye expressed his unwillingness to learn the calls of birds and cicadas, and was unwilling to cooperate with her other sword-catching experiments such as closing the five senses and binding the body.

He said seriously, "Miss Cui, I am the one who is exhausted by this, but you seem to be the one who enjoys it. I will not do it again easily."

"But if you don't do it... I won't be able to verify what I'm thinking." Cui Zhaoye said pitifully, "Then what do you want me to do?"

"You have to give me money."

With her dedicated efforts day by day, the "sword state" that existed only in her conception gradually became clear. It really came from the heart, was born from the sword, and returned to the body. However, unlike the concept that the girl had previously searched for from sword moves, what truly determined the "sword state" was only the swordsman's heart.

Everyone’s heart is different, and one heart has many facets.

In the girl's vision of the future, [Sword State] will be a magical treasure that many talented swordsmen will have the opportunity to obtain, and the [Sword State] that each person realizes will definitely be completely different, which depends on the form and strength of your heart - whether it is sharp or gentle, a mirror or a blade, how bright it is, how sharp it is.

It gives or returns the magical power of the sword to the human being to the greatest extent, and will definitely allow the user to feel the feeling of holding the magical power most intuitively.

"I think when it appears, you will naturally know what it is called." Cui Zhaoye said seriously.

But this time, after Pei Ye finished practicing all over, he sat in the sword field and looked at the starry sky quietly. He had not yet found the appearance of his first sword form, and its name did not come to his mind.

Outside the two isolated academies, the storm has become increasingly intense in the entire Shenjing City.

Thousands of scholars gathered under the imperial city that day. Many people thought it was a huge wave, but later they found out it was just a wind, and the waves it caused were only beginning to be visible at that time.

It has not yet come up, because the prelude to a real big wave is always longer.

It was after that day that the trends in the court began to become clear. The Ministry of Justice and Jingzhao Prefecture began to clear up the backlog of cases involving scholars and the five surnames in the past few months, and some memorials submitted in earlier months were also approved sporadically - many people saw that this was a clear trend from top to bottom.

Some news gradually came out over time - the saint seemed to want to see the truth of the two heavens' arguments and use them to determine the direction of this turmoil.

This is decisive and somewhat heart-wrenching news.

Countless people throughout the capital were watching, because many people in high positions or with a keen sense of smell began to discover that... the so-called reform of the imperial examination system seemed to involve something even more frightening.

If Yuanzhao could accept the New Legal Reform, his reputation would also rise.

His refusal meant that the people behind him wanted to nail the interests of the scholars to the Tang Dynasty more resolutely, and thereby make this class more closely united around him.

And who is the person behind him?

Even those who have thought of this level will inevitably feel a little confused, and only a small number of people begin to feel a chill.

The merchant generals had left the center of the court for a long time.

The scholar class has also been neglected for a long time.

Just like that name that is almost forgotten.

...There are still four months left, and it will be the test of unicorn blood.

Many people who had not yet joined the game immediately began to work on understanding the matter in depth. For the first time, the copy of "Two Heavens Theory" was placed on many people's desks... and on this day, when the fire was blazing in Shenjing, the Tianliyuan still had not handed in the final evaluation of this theory.

Many people have heard that Zhu Wenzhezi is a man who has a clear understanding of things, and many people have also heard that he has been pondering the theory of the two heavens for ten years, but has not yet produced the evidence.

Shilin's mind began to waver, the voices of the aristocratic families pressed upon him, and as the situation became clearer, the loss of his own flagpole was almost fatal.

November has passed, and the winter of December is even colder. The "Two Heavens Theory" can no longer remain vaguely in words or oral form, and everyone is anxiously awaiting the final evaluation of the Tianli Academy.

(End of this chapter)