Huiyuan Academy is located in the southeast corner of Chunhui Mansion. It is a relatively quiet place and covers a large area. The buildings are high and low and arranged in an orderly manner. Plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum are planted everywhere in the academy.
Among the teachers there were many old scholars who had achieved good results in the provincial examinations, and even two officials who had retired and were still resting.
To use Ji Yuan’s words from his previous life, the learning environment is beautiful and the faculty is strong, making it worthy of being the top-notch academy in the entire Jizhou.
Although there are many children from prominent families studying in Huiyuan Academy, Yin Wenqu's son is naturally very special. The academy has been looking forward to Yin Qing's arrival. The last time they received Yin Wenqu's letter, they learned that Yin Qing would arrive in the next few days, so the academy's gatekeeper has been paying special attention to this matter recently.
Huiyuan Academy implements student accommodation management. Even students who live in Chunhui Prefecture are not allowed to live at home. They need a teacher's approval to enter and exit the academy except on holidays, which feels a bit like attending boarding school in the previous life.
But the differences are also obvious. In fact, learning in the academy is mainly based on self-study. Students attend lectures together and then study on their own. Although there are exams on academic articles every once in a while, there are actually not so many things like homework. Moreover, the teachers in the academy mostly eat and live with the students. They not only teach knowledge, but also teach how to behave in society. The teacher-student relationship between them is much closer than in Ji Yuan's previous life.
Being the doorman at Huiyuan Academy, he naturally had to have a keen eye. Recently, on non-holiday days, someone who looked like a scholar came by, and it was very likely Yin Qing.
So when he saw Ji Yuan and Yin Qing approaching, he vaguely felt that it might be the son of the top scholar. Especially when he looked from a distance, Yin Qing had a handsome, upright and elegant face, while Ji Yuan did not look like an orthodox scholar but had an extraordinary bearing.
Sure enough, when Yin Qing and Ji Yuan arrived nearby, Yin Qing walked to the gatehouse alone with his bookcase on his back, bowed, and then spoke.
"My name is Yin Qing. I come from Ning'an County, Desheng Prefecture. I come to Huiyuan Academy to study!"
"Any letters?"
After the doorman asked, Yin Qing put down the bookcase and took out two letters from it, one was written by his father Yin Zhaoxian, and the other was written by the current old teacher of Ning'an County School.
"This is a letter from my father and Master Zhou. Please take a look."
Yin Qing handed the letter over, and one of the doormen quickly took it with both hands, said "Please wait a moment", and hurried to the inner courtyard.
Ji Yuan was sitting in the corner, carefully observing Huiyuan Academy with his Dharma eyes. It was said that in the past 40 years since its establishment, three third place winners and one second place winner had been selected in the imperial examinations. It was indeed a place with a strong literary atmosphere.
After a while, several people who looked like teachers and of different ages came hurriedly with the doorman. As soon as they reached the door, Yin Qing respectfully bowed to the teachers as a disciple.
"Hello, teachers!"
"Well, well, well, Lord Yin's son is indeed a man of great talent and bearing!"
"That's right, Master Yin can come to study at my Huiyuan Academy. It seems that the academy will have one more top scholar in the future. Hahaha..."
Yin Qing kept saying "I dare not".
While they were greeting each other, the old man bowed to Ji Yuan on the outside.
"I wonder who this gentleman is to Master Yin?"
This old scholar also has rich life experience. The bun with the black jade hairpin in it does not tie up all the hair. The long hair on the back and temples are a little loose, but the overall look is very natural. It is not an orthodox scholar's dress, but rather a free and unrestrained wanderer.
Ji Yuan also bowed in return.
"My surname is Ji and my given name is Yuan. I am a neighbor of the Yin family and a friend of Master Yin. This is Yin Qing's first trip away from home, so I am accompanying him here."
"Oh, it's Mr. Ji. My apologies!"
Yin Zhaoxian used to be a teacher in the county school. This was no secret throughout the country. However, nowadays in Jizhou and even among some scholars in the whole country of Dazhen, they are accustomed to calling Yin Zhaoxian "Yin Wenqu" or "Yin Gong". Some of them still call him "Master Yin". It can only be said that the habit is hard to change over time.
"Mr. Ji, and Mr. Yin, please come in!"
At the invitation of the master, Ji Yuan and Yin Qing also entered the academy together.
Bringing family members to visit the academy is also a tradition of Huiyuan Academy. Several teachers were busy, so in the end an old teacher named Chen took them on a tour.
During this period, some well-informed academy students came to see Yin Qing, wanting to see what the legendary son of Yin Wenqu looked like. Fortunately, Yin Qing's appearance did not embarrass his father. Although not everyone judges people by their appearance, a good appearance will definitely add a lot of value.
Finally, they arrived at Yin Qing's school and arranged for Yin Qing to move in. Ji Yuan then said goodbye to Yin Qing, but promised Yin Qing that he would return to Ning'an County after the holiday at Huiyuan Academy in two days.
As for Hu Yun, he naturally stayed in the inn with Ji Yuan.
That night, in an inn in the city, Ji Yuan lay on his back on the bed with his eyes closed and breathing evenly, looking like he was fast asleep.
Hu Yun, who was lying on the ground, twitched his ears and quietly opened his eyes. He stood up, lay down beside Ji Yuan's bed, stood on tiptoe to look at Ji Yuan. Seeing that Mr. Ji was sleeping soundly, he tiptoed towards the window.
He stretched out a fox paw to grab the wooden bar beside the bed, then carefully opened the window.
"Squeak..."
The old wooden hinge made a slight sound as it turned, and the red fox felt sweat on his paws. He slowly turned his head to look and then breathed a sigh of relief. He was afraid that when he turned around, he would see Mr. Ji standing behind him.
Seeing that Mr. Ji was still sleeping soundly, he quickly propped up the window with a wooden pole, then jumped up and landed lightly from the second floor to the ground in the backyard of the inn. The whole process was silent, and his fluffy tail was exactly the same as a squirrel's tail.
'hey-hey!'
With secret joy in his heart, he quickly ran towards the outside of the city.
Beside Ji Yuan's bed, the Qingteng Sword leaning against the bed slowly floated up, but Ji Yuan, who was lying on the bed, did not open his eyes, but just spoke softly.
"I have already made arrangements, just let him go!"
Hearing the master's words, the Qingteng Sword fell again, still quietly leaning against the bed.
Probably only two breaths passed when Ji Yuan suddenly sat up from the bed.
"It's such an interesting thing, there's no reason for me not to go and see it, I have to go!"
So Ji Yuan quickly put on his coat and shoes, took the Qingteng sword, and jumped out of the window.
. . .
Two nights after taking the boat to Chunhui Mansion, Ji Yuan and Yin Qing had already agreed with Da Qingyu on a meeting place by the river, so that Yin Qing could find Da Qing easily on his days off.
Hu Yun had already privately made an appointment with Da Qingyu to meet there in the evening. He felt that when he returned, Mr. Ji would most likely take him back to Ning'an County, so he had to take advantage of the opportunity to spend more time and chat with his new friend.
The excitement of seeing the big black carp diluted the tension brought by the unfamiliar environment. Hu Yun ran all the way to the city wall, ran up to the top of the wall like a gecko, ran down the wall, and then ran along the south section of the river while searching.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Hu Yun finally found the agreed location, where several particularly sturdy willow trees were stretched across the river. This was also the place where the Wei family had seen the old turtle.
When Hu Yun saw the big willows across the river, he was delighted. He jumped forward quickly and landed directly on one of the willows across the river.
Looking at the dark surface of the river, Hu Yun shouted a few times into the water in a low voice.
"Daqing... Daqing... are you there?"
"Hua La La..."
The water beneath the willows stirred up a splash, and a large black carp floated to the surface.
"Pop... Pop... Pop..."
"Hahaha, you are here. Today, Mr. Ji took me to a big dim sum restaurant, which is more magnificent than the Miaowailou in Ning'an County. The food inside is delicious. Come on, don't say that Brother Hu didn't think about you. Mr. Ji didn't allow me to look for Yin Qing, so I gave it all to you."
Hu Yun swept his big tail forward, and with a pair of claws he groped in the long fur of the tail, and untied two small lotus leaf bags from it.
Seeing this scene, Ji Yuan, who had unknowingly reached the edge and was hiding on a willow tree, was also stunned. He knew that Hu Yun had hidden some things and had turned a blind eye to it, but he didn't expect that he had hidden so many things. This was very rare considering Hu Yun's greedy personality.
The red fox slowly unwrapped the lotus leaf package and threw the cakes inside into the water, and the big black carp caught them below.
"Hehehe... Could you please let me have a taste of this snack?"
The water surface not far away was shaking with large ripples. A slightly old voice came from there. The big black carp instinctively swam away a long distance and escaped to the shore, but it did not dare to go too far because Hu Yun was still on the poplar tree.
"Hua La La..."
The old black-backed turtle floated out of the water. Because the willow tree was lying across the water, the huge turtle's eyes were only less than one meter away from the fox's eyes.
"What a big old turtle. Even bigger than Lu Shanjun..."
Hu Yun regretted not running away immediately out of curiosity, but now he was a little scared.
"You want some snacks too?"
The red fox looked at the lotus leaf bags spread out on the willow branches and doubted whether these were the snacks the old turtle was talking about. Perhaps he was his snack, but he still instinctively grabbed a few cakes and threw them down.
The old turtle stretched his neck and opened his mouth to catch the snack, which was not even enough to fill his teeth, and chewed it for a while.
"Hmm... it tastes OK."
The old turtle looked at the red fox and the big black carp about two or three feet away, which was obviously scared but already ready.
"Master Red Yaksha had something to do today, so he asked me to patrol this section of the river. I didn't expect to meet you two. It's fate. It's not surprising that the water creatures would swim here in the river. But you, a fox, actually appeared at the edge of Chunhui Prefecture. Aren't you afraid of being captured by the underworld officials?"
"I, I have this... I'm not afraid!"
Hu Yun used his claws to smooth away the hair on his chest, revealing a gloomy wooden sign.
"Oh... I just felt that your aura was special and hard to guess. So that's how it is. However, you can stay in Chunhui Mansion, but this big black fish cannot stay in this section of the river."
The old turtle waved his hands and feet, and the big black carp felt the surrounding water suddenly spinning like a whirlpool, making it unable to swim out, and then was brought close to the old turtle.
"Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing? Let Daqing go. Be careful or I'll ask Mr. Ji to deal with you!"
The old turtle smiled. It was rare to see such a good relationship between aquatic creatures and land monsters.
"Well, it's rare to meet a land monster. You have refined your horizontal bone and can speak clearly, so you must have some experience. Chat with me. If there is anything interesting that can make me laugh, I promise to help ask Lord Yaksha and the God of the River to let this big black fish stay in this section of the river."
The old turtle said this to raise his status, making it seem that he was very familiar with Jiang Shen. In fact, he only dared to ask Yaksha for help, but asking Yaksha for help was enough for this kind of thing.
"Uh, what are you talking about?"
"Of course it's a story about land!"
Hu Yun felt that this kind of request should not be a difficult task. The big black fish was also nearby, so he tried to tell the red fox some trivial things in the mountains and Ning'an County. With the old turtle chiming in from time to time, the red fox became very interested and he couldn't stop talking once he started.
This feeling of chatting with other monsters and gaining recognition is very different from chatting with Yin Qing. Moreover, the old turtle is different from Lu Shanjun and seems much gentler. The red fox is getting more and more excited, and keeps telling stories about his personal experiences.
So, they finally talked about the injury they got when they came down the mountain. However, as they were talking, Hu Yun felt something was wrong. The old turtle had not spoken for quite a long time, and the atmosphere seemed a little off.
I lowered my head and looked at the water surface, and saw a huge turtle mouth facing me.
“Crack~”
The old turtle bit off a large section of the poplar tree trunk in one bite, and was only a foot away from the fox's head that was frightened stiff.
Hu Yun turned around like a puppet, and looked at the tree trunk beside him. A big hole was bitten by the turtle's mouth. If the turtle had bitten him instead of the tree trunk...
"Huh...Huh..."
The old turtle made a creepy sound as it chewed the wood chips and actually swallowed them directly.
"So... So that damn fox is you...!"