Walking on the official road of Qingshui County, Ji Yuan had no intention of going to Qingshui Town.
The route had already been clarified in Washan Village. The gray cloth bag was bulging with several dry biscuits and a basket of pickled rabbit legs sent by Ding Xing. As far as Plan Yuan was concerned, there was no need to go to Qingshui County at all, so he simply continued along the official road.
It has to be said that although Ji Yuan did have the idea of saving trouble, in fact, Ding Xing was pursuing in the wrong direction at the beginning, so later, Ding Xing, who did not believe in evil, ran directly to Qingshui County but still did not find Ji Yuan.
. . .
In the Ning'an County School, children are reciting articles from books.
“Study the present and learn from the past, learn and apply what you have learned, and persevere…A gentleman should be able to speak and be tolerant…”
This group of children ranged in age, the youngest was less than ten years old and the oldest was fourteen or fifteen years old. They were like little adults, all of them reciting seriously with their heads shaking.
"stop!"
Yin Zhaoxian, who was holding a book and listening carefully, paced beside the children and only spoke when he returned to the teacher's desk.
The entire school fell silent in an instant, and many children became nervous because the teacher was going to test their homework today. Even Yin Qing was not very calm.
Yin Zhaoxian turned around and looked at the thirty or forty children of all ages, all with childish and nervous faces.
"Today's test is different from the previous ones. I'll change the topic..."
This examination was not a sudden idea. The earliest idea came from a casual chat with Ji Yuan in Ju'an Pavilion one day. The topic of discussion was a book called "Zheng Xun Pian" brought by Yin Zhaoxian, which is a must-read book for teaching people to respect government officials, know the law and abide by it.
The orientation of this kind of book itself is correct, but in the end, the content about knowing and abiding by the law is far less than the content about respecting the powerful and wealthy. In the end, the central idea of flattering the powerful seems a bit explicit.
At that time, Ji Yuan had already become familiar with Yin Zhaoxian and understood his character, so he asked Master Yin with confidence and in a sneering tone what he thought of this book. He asked him why such a book has always been one of the "Six Must-Learn Chapters". Even if it was not changed, why no one had adapted it? Did they not want to or did they not dare to
Not only did the question stump Yin Zhaoxian, but it also directly pointed out Master Yin's previous awkwardness towards the book, allowing Master Yin to ponder the subtleties between officialdom and people's livelihood from the perspective of a commoner for the first time. He also discussed this "treasonous" matter with Ji Yuan for a long time.
Thinking of these memories, Master Yin smiled and looked at these children, whom Ji Yuan called the "seeds of the country."
"I have heard that there is a phoenix tree in the North Sea, standing 30,000 feet in the sea. It is the habitat of the phoenix. There are many mountainous islands in the sea area, and all the phoenixes live here. In the far distance is the South Mountain, and on the South Mountain there is a stork, which is the leader of the birds in the South Mountain..."
Yin Zhaoxian's development made many children look at each other in surprise, feeling the excitement of listening to a magical story.
"The phoenix likes to fly freely, so the stork takes its place and guides the other birds, eating all kinds of fruits, fish and shrimps. After a while, it looks down on the other birds and thinks it is a little phoenix, trampling on the nest and pecking at its feathers for fun..."
As Yin Zhaoxian presented his topic in an interesting and mythical way, the children in the school listened more attentively than ever before.
After Yin Zhaoxian finished telling the entire fictitious story, he looked at the children with a smile on his face.
"Do you think that there is a stork flock? If you take your own life in place of the stork, what is the solution?"
You have to know that when it was Yin Zhaoxian's turn to ask questions before, he would just symbolically ask if anyone wanted to answer. No child would ever volunteer, even Yin Qing.
But at this time, even though not many people dared to speak directly, this was just a habitual behavior. Yin Zhaoxian had already felt the unprecedented eagerness to try from the children's courage to look him in the eye and their relaxation.
"Okay, Yin Qing, you answer first!"
"It's Master!"
Yin Qing stood up and answered according to his natural judgment, expressing sympathy for the birds and reproach for the stork.
Afterwards, Yin Zhaoxian called on several students who had sufficient expressive ability. Since the students who had answered previously had not been criticized regardless of their opinions, everyone felt confident when they stood up to answer.
This discussion actually lasted for half a day, and Yin Zhaoxian was very satisfied with the atmosphere of the school.
'Mr. Ji's teaching through entertainment is indeed effective!'
After everyone had answered almost all of their questions, Yin Zhaoxian sat back at the teacher's desk and said to the dozens of students in front of him:
"I hope everyone will write down all my answers today. If your words don't flow or there are words you don't know, you can ask others or ask me directly. I will use this as an assessment of your writing."
The children in the audience, who were originally very excited, immediately became worried reflexively when they heard the words "article assessment". Seeing this reaction, Yin Zhaoxian smiled and shook his head, but his eyes became more serious and determined.
'The great cause of educating people is like contributing to the country! '
He took the brush and wrote the opening words "A Group of Birds Discussed the Boy's Answer" on the rice paper on the desk in a very neat and orderly manner.
. . .
At this moment, the Ning'an County City God's underworld is located.
The City God and the underworld's civil and military judges who are in charge of the Merits and Demerits Department are reviewing matters in the books, including an overview of each department, matters reported by the day and night patrolling officials, who is about to die in the county, who's popularity changes need attention, what difficulties and requirements there are in the work of each department, and so on. All of these miscellaneous situations need to be sorted out in detail by the civil and military judges with the help of the City God.
After checking the thick stack of chapters, Judge Wu wiped out the text in most of the chapters with a stroke of his pen and gathered all of them into a few books.
"Carry it away, carry it away, the next stack, the next stack!"
There were always things to deal with, and Judge Wu was a rather impatient person, so when he yelled, Judge Wen, who was reviewing the documents carefully, also smiled.
"Yes, yes, yes, Master Judge, don't worry, they are bringing it here, they are bringing it here!"
The few little runners nearby were also very busy. It took people all the time to sort the books into various departments and send them to the heads of the departments for review. They spent most of their time on the road.
Besides, those chapters with the words erased are still okay, but the ones with words on them are very important. The more good or evil they are, the heavier they are. It takes a lot of effort to lift them up, and it's really a chore.
Two of the little ghost officers hurried to the Buhui Hall of the underworld, but before they even stepped inside, they bumped into several civilian little ghost officers who rushed out.
"What's going on? Why are you so anxious?"
"Something has happened to the chapter book! Something strange has happened! We can't lift it! We have to go find the judge and the masters of Fulu and Lu!"
The collision between the ghost bodies of several policemen was just a slight deviation from each other, and they immediately ran quickly towards their respective positions.
A moment later, the chief officials of several departments gathered at the Merits and Demerits Department. On the desk of Judge Wen, there was a book of merits and demerits and a book of fortune and luck, which were faintly emitting light.
Judge Wen frowned, looked at his colleagues, reached out and opened two booklets, skipped the previous pages, and turned directly to the two pages where the light was shining.
On the book, there were obscure auras flowing. Although they were very faint, they were very mysterious. One could see that some of the words on it seemed extremely vague, and the fortune, luck and virtues all increased greatly.
All the officials in the underworld turned their eyes to the names of the people who belonged to these pages.
"Yin Zhaoxian!"
. . .
Ji Yuan was walking on the official road a hundred miles south of Qingshui County when he suddenly felt something in his heart. In his visualization, a chess piece appeared at his fingertips.
Faintly, Ji Yuan seemed to be able to see through this imaginary chess piece a pair of slender hands holding paper and a pen, writing an article on the rice paper.
It was at this time that Ji Yuan felt a numbing sensation on his fingertips, and he discovered that the chess piece had become much more solid from its virtual state.
"Master Yin!"