Zhu Ping'an and Zhang Siwei went all the way to the Dali Temple, and met Wang Shizhen who was coming there halfway. Wang Shizhen had the same idea as Zhang Siwei. The Dali Temple was going to hold a welcoming banquet in the evening, so the three brothers got together at noon.
The three of them randomly found a restaurant that looked small but clean, and went in. They ordered four dishes, a soup, and six steamed cakes to eat. When Wang Shizhen learned about Zhu Ping'an's assignment in the Hanlin Academy, he was surprised for a moment, and then he stood up for Zhu Ping'an, thinking that Lord Li Mo was too careless and treated Zhu Ping'an differently without careful investigation. Like Zhang Siwei, after comforting Zhu Ping'an, Wang Shizhen also asked his father, the censor, to help him talk to Lord Li Mo. Zhu Ping'an also declined.
"As the saying goes, when God wants to give a man a great responsibility, he must first make his heart and mind suffer, his muscles and bones hungry, his body tired, and increase his ability to do what he could not do before. Haha, this may be God's way of giving me a great responsibility." Zhu Ping'an smiled and comforted the two.
"Look at Zihou, haha, Wensheng, I think the two of us are just like the emperor who is not anxious but the eunuch is..." Zhang Siwei pointed at Zhu Ping'an and laughed.
"Forget it, you can be a eunuch, I don't want to be one."
Wang Shizhen shook his head, and then the three of them looked at each other and laughed. Wang Shizhen and Zhang Siwei were very impressed by Zhu Ping'an's optimism. They thought that if it were them, they would definitely not be as generous as Zhu Ping'an.
After dinner, Wang Shizhen went to the Dali Temple, while Zhu Ping'an and Zhang Siwei returned to the Hanlin Academy together and went back to their respective offices. After Zhu Ping'an returned to the library, he made a pot of tea, then carried the teapot and teacup to the third floor and went straight to the Yongle Encyclopedia.
The servant in charge of cleaning the library went upstairs to clean and saw Zhu Ping'an holding a book in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. He discovered that Zhu Ping'an was so engrossed in reading that he didn't even notice that he had come upstairs. While cleaning, the servant occasionally looked up to observe Zhu Ping'an, but found that Zhu Ping'an didn't notice anything at all.
In the eyes of the officer, Zhu Ping'an is a very unique superior. This officer has been in charge of cleaning the library for more than ten years. He has seen six or seven Hanlin masters in charge of the library, but this is the first time he has seen a Hanlin like Zhu Ping'an who holds books tightly.
When the officer was about to sweep the floor near Zhu Ping'an, Zhu Ping'an noticed the officer sweeping the floor.
"Oh, Lao Li is here to clean again, would you like a cup of tea?" Zhu Pingan put down the cup in his hand and greeted him. He had seen the cleaning officer in the morning and knew this officer named Li.
When Zhu Pingan went upstairs, he brought a few extra tea cups with him, just in case someone came up to see him, so he could pour tea for them at any time. Old Li was in charge of cleaning the library, and he had to clean it every day, so it was hard work, and drinking a cup of tea to moisten his throat was just right.
"Master Zhu, please don't say that. I can't bear the responsibility." It was the first time that Officer Li saw a superior who took the initiative to greet him, and he was so gentle, as if he was chatting with him, without any sense of distance. For a moment, he was a little flattered.
"What's there to be ashamed of? There are only a few of us in the library, and we will need your help in the future." Zhu Pingan smiled peacefully, picked up the teapot and poured a cup of hot tea and placed it on the windowsill, "This is the tea distributed by the courtyard, so just drink it."
"What can I do? Thank you, Master Zhu. I won't be able to use you in the future."
This cup of tea made Lao Li feel that his waist and back were no longer sore after sweeping the floor for most of the day. He no longer panted while sweeping the floor. In all his years in the Hanlin Academy, he had never met a Hanlin master as humble as Zhu Ping'an. In the past, Hanlin masters either looked up to the sky or looked down at people. Even when they were polite to each other, they were always arrogant. This was the first time he was so humble as Zhu Ping'an.
"You are busy, don't worry about me." After pouring the tea, Zhu Ping'an moved the chair to the place that Lao Li had cleaned, said something to Lao Li, and then devoted himself to the book again.
Zhu Pingan was fascinated by the book in his hand. This book was about solving crimes in ancient times. Zhu Pingan saw many crime-solving skills and methods applicable to ancient times in this book. In addition, the book also collected a large number of classic cases. In ancient times, solving cases did not all rely on torture. Of course, more than 30% of the cases in this book involved torture, which was either light or heavy, but there were still many techniques for solving cases. Zhu Pingan was greatly inspired by this book and had a preliminary understanding of the ancient methods of solving cases.
There is a very interesting anecdote in this book. It tells the story of a county magistrate who mastered lip reading and solved many complicated cases with the help of lip reading.
Out of curiosity, Zhu Ping'an put the book in his hand back to its original place and tried to look up the volumes on lip reading according to Hongwu Zhengyun. Then he actually found a book, which was classified into the field of skills.
"Lip readers use their eyes instead of their ears, and see instead of hear. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Er Ai, a man from Wei, was good at it..."
This book introduced lip reading and collected almost all the information related to lip reading in the book. Among them, Zhu Pingan found a very mature material on lip reading teaching. The Yongle Encyclopedia is like this. It did not compile anything, but copied down the records of various classics, even the whole book, and pointed out which book, volume and person it came from. It can be described as "narrating but not creating".
This lip reading teaching material comes from an classic book called "Biographies of Actors". Lip reading is a performance used by storytellers to attract audiences. This lip reading technique comes from a man named Er Ai from the Wei State during the Spring and Autumn Period. It is a lip reading teaching material that was summarized after hundreds of years of evolution.
This lip reading tutorial is very detailed, and it mainly involves deciphering the language through the movements of the other person's face and lips.
This book explains in great detail that the occasion, the noise level around, the language habits of the parties involved, dialects, light, distance, etc. are all factors that affect lip reading, and the book also provides different responses to these. This book also lists the type of people who are best at learning lip reading: those who are calm, good at reading, and taciturn are the best.
It seems that he is very suitable for it. Zhu Ping'an curled the corners of his lips and thought, "Then why not learn it? It's always good to have many skills. Besides, lip reading seems to be really useful. It feels very high-end just by listening to it."
Thanks to his almost photographic memory, Zhu Ping'an quickly finished reading the volume of lip reading, put the book back to its place, and summarized and digested the lip reading teaching in his mind.
Lip reading is not difficult. Once you understand the principle, you just need to practice more. Practice makes perfect. This set of lip reading teaching materials is not difficult. Zhu Pingan basically mastered the lip reading skills described in the book in a short time.
Although Zhu Pingan has mastered this very mature set of lip reading skills, it cannot be said that Zhu Pingan has mastered lip reading. Lip reading is a skill that requires continuous accumulation of practice. Zhu Pingan has only mastered the method at the beginning. If he wants to truly understand lip reading, Zhu Pingan needs to practice more. (To be continued.)