The lady had the sword without sheath, which was presented solemnly in a gift box, checked carefully from beginning to end, and confirmed that it was not poisoned, and that there were no sinister springs such as poison needles installed, and that there were no other defects. At least on the surface, this was an extremely sharp sword that could cut hair with a single blow.
As a result, a skilled craftsman was soon summoned to the Duke of Zhao's mansion overnight with a worried heart. He was then overjoyed to accept this lucrative order and stayed in the guest room of the mansion overnight to make the scabbard.
When Zhang Shou finished his morning class at Banshan Hall the next day, and watched Zhang Chen compile the statistics of the elective course results in the afternoon, and watched a group of people noisily decide on the teachers they would invite, how to invite people, and how to determine the corresponding class venues, but was forcibly taken back to the Duke of Zhao's Mansion from the Imperial College dormitory he had asked Xu Heizi for by Ah Liu, he received the expected gift.
The sword was scabbarded in a simple manner, and at first glance, it looked as if all its sharpness had been muted.
When Zhu Ying handed him the sword, she was still a little dissatisfied: "This scabbard is too plain. I still like the style of gold and jade inlay, but my grandmother said that gold makes you look vulgar. I also think that the scabbard with only jade inlay is not very eye-catching and wastes your good looks. Using jade as a sword tassel is easy to crack, so I have to forget it!"
Zhang Shou was very satisfied with this plain sword without any gold or jade inlay. When he went to the Imperial College again on the third day, the students in Banshan Hall were all shrewd and noticed at a glance that he had an extra pendant on him.
Others could still hold back, but the Fourth Prince, who was spoiled by the Emperor and had a flamboyant and curious personality, couldn't help but ask before class started: "Teacher, why did you suddenly think of wearing a sword? I don't think I saw anyone else wearing a sword in the Imperial College."
Zhang Shou had originally intended to show off the sword. At this moment, he looked around at everyone and laughed, "In my dynasty, wearing a sword was a privilege for officials and scholars with meritorious service, and of course, students could also carry it. But nowadays, there are more and more scholars who are weak and powerless. People even use the phrase "a scholar is useless" to insult people, and fewer and fewer people are wearing swords."
He paused, then laughed and said, "In the past, scholars commanded the army on horseback and governed the people on foot, and became generals or ministers. Lou Shide passed the imperial examination and accepted the military examination, Li Qinglian traveled the world with a sword, and Xin Jiaxuan gave up his pen and joined the army, determined to conquer the Central Plains. In the early years of this dynasty, there were many such predecessors, but now, there are more and more people who read books blindly, are lazy, and don't know the difference between grains."
Hearing this, the two lazy and ignorant Imperial College doctors who came quietly to the door and were about to find fault suddenly turned pale and left immediately. Xu Heida, the Supervisor of the Shengqian Hall, who ran into them head-on, had just arrived and had no idea what Zhang Shou had just said. After hesitating for a moment, he quietly stepped forward and stood in a corner behind the door to listen.
The fourth prince did not notice the idlers outside the door, and asked with shining eyes: "Teacher, do you wear a sword to imitate the predecessors?"
Zhang Shou liked the flamboyant but impulsive Fourth Prince very much. He smiled when he heard this and said, "This sword was given to me by someone. It was wrapped in an exquisite brocade box but without a scabbard. I think the person probably wanted to tell me that a person should be like a sword, unstoppable and sharp. So I specially ordered a scabbard for me to carry with me."