Even though he only heard the voice but didn't see the person, Zhang Shou could still picture a rebellious and domineering young man in his mind. The voice was a bit hoarse, and it was hard to tell the age at first, but based on the time and tone of the person, he roughly inferred that it was the hoarseness of a teenager during the voice change period.
If he remembered correctly, the man's voice should change between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. Of course, some people change earlier than others, but the latest should not be later than sixteen to seventeen. In other words, the person who came might be the same age as Lu Sanlang and him, or slightly younger.
He soon found out that he was right. Among the four people who walked in with their heads held high, the one who walked in front with a proud look did look very young, and his figure was very different from the fat boy's round figure, but was well-proportioned and upright. If it was just that, it would be fine, but the person had an excellent figure and a very pleasing round face.
This was different from Lu Sanlang. Lu Sanlang used to be arrogant and domineering, but now the round-faced boy was obviously smiling all the time, and even had two dimples on his face. His cheerful image was not consistent with the way he was walking in the front in a swagger, and even more inconsistent with his provocative behavior.
The round-faced young man seemed to have noticed the expressions of the people looking at him. His eyes were a little vague. He cleared his throat and then said, "I am Ye Mengqiu from Guangping Prefecture! I know that I came here in a presumptuous way today, but I heard that Dr. Zhang of the Imperial Academy who is in charge of Jiuzhang Hall was here today to crown the head of Jiuzhang Hall, Lu Zhu, so I came in rashly!"
"The emperor has issued an edict to summon talents who are proficient in astronomy and mathematics. He wants to revise the calendar. I heard that he wants to cancel the leap month. May I ask, Dr. Zhang, is this true?"
Zhang Shou was speechless. He glanced at the emperor and saw that the emperor was drinking the sweet rice wine with his head down as if nothing had happened. After all, according to etiquette, the banquet after the coming-of-age ceremony was to drink this and avoid his gaze. How could he not know that this ridiculous rumor was spread by the emperor!
I think he joked that the calendar should be changed to 365 days a year, with 31 days for each of the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 8th months, 28 days for February, and 30 days for the rest of the months. Every four years, one day would be added to February, and every hundred years, the number of days in February would be determined by calculating 400 times the initial year... In short, it was the Gregorian calendar. But he only mentioned it once and then forgot about it.
Because in the later era when weather forecasting was well developed, the traditional lunar calendar had few uses except for the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, and the waxing and waning of the moon on the new and full moon days. People did not really need to check the solar terms to add clothes or sow seeds. But in today's era, the lunar calendar with an extra leap month is troublesome, but it still has practical significance.
The emperor is simply misleading!
He didn't even know how the emperor had spread the news, or what he had said. If he wanted to deny it, these guys were coming here aggressively, and if he tried to evade it, it would seem like he was showing weakness. So, after a moment's thought, he smiled and said, "Gao Yuan, you should tell me."