Chapter 81: Teaching and Nurturing

Liu Wenshan used to have a quick temper and a strong sense of justice. His personality was… quite similar to Xie Qian’s.

But now, even though he wanted to speak, he held back. He kept his eyes fixed ahead, calm and composed like an old monk in meditation. He believed all things were impermanent, with life came death; by not clinging to life or death, the mind could become still and free from thoughts. Liu Wenshan had the calm and self-assurance of a Zen-like youth.

Fang Jifan secretly nodded in approval. Not bad, not bad. The boy was teachable.

Among the three, only Jiang Chen was the youngest. He frowned, feeling a sense of pity. After a long while, he hesitantly said, “Esteemed… Esteemed Mentor… This disciple thinks… you should not have… should not have dealt so harshly with Provincial First Place Scholar Tang. This… this brings shame to scholarly decorum…”

Fang Jifan glared at him fiercely. No future. He shouted, “Nonsense! Clearly, it was Provincial First Place Scholar Tang who beat up your mentor…”

Jiang Chen dared not speak further. “The mentor’s teaching is correct.”

Fang Jifan sighed inwardly. The scholars of this era were so obedient. Being a mentor was even better than being a father. He smiled and said, “Next, it’s time to properly teach you all to study. This time, your mentor will definitely make you step all over that brat Tang Yin.”

Liu Wenshan asked, “What does the mentor wish to teach us?”

“Practice questions!” Fang Jifan declared emphatically, his voice shaking the roof tiles.

“With your intelligence…” Fang Jifan was a very straightforward person. “…it’s very difficult to stand out in the Metropolitan Examination. The only way is to practice questions. It’s the most foolish method. There are just over two months until the Spring Imperial Examination. Your mentor demands that you write two Eight-Legged Essays every day. Your mentor will provide the topics.”

Of course, among these topics, he would definitely include the actual questions from this year’s Spring Imperial Examination. In fact, Fang Jifan had already prepared these questions and had them write over ten essays. But clearly, that wasn’t enough. Since they lacked intelligence and Tang Yin’s talent, they had to use the foolish method.

For this Spring Imperial Examination, the chief examiner was Li Dongyang. Although the Emperor hadn’t officially confirmed it yet, historically, Li Dongyang served as chief examiner. Li Dongyang’s character was also recorded in history, and he left behind several essays. Fang Jifan had previously studied these essays in the Ming History Archives as important materials on Li Dongyang’s personality and conduct.

Based on this, one could deduce Li Dongyang’s personal preferences. After all, in literature, there’s no single best, unlike in martial arts where there’s a clear winner. Everyone has different biases towards essays; some prefer refreshingly new ones, others prefer steady and balanced ones.

Besides this, there was the issue of avoiding examination fraud scandals.

The Metropolitan Examination was different from the Provincial Examination. The Provincial Examination was a smaller affair, involving fewer examiners. For example, the Provincial Examination in Yingtian Prefecture had Wang Ao as the chief examiner. All matters, big and small, were under his responsibility. As long as Wang Ao had no issues, no one would even think of fraud.

But the Metropolitan Examination was a major event. Besides appointing a chief examiner, the imperial court would also appoint officials from the Ministry of Rites, the Censorate, and the Imperial College as examiners. Because there were many people involved, scandals were hard to avoid.

For instance, last time when Wang Ao was chief examiner, even after the posting of results revealed three dark horses, no one suspected anything. This was mainly because Wang Ao was the sole examiner; there was no possibility of anyone else being involved. Moreover, Wang Ao was a top-tier Noble Person in the world. Not only did the Emperor trust him greatly, but none of the Hundred Officials dared to pick faults with him. If some fool dared to question Chief Examiner Wang, even before the imperial court considered it slander, he would likely be drowned by the spit of everyone in The World.

This time, chief examiner Li Dongyang certainly had no issues, but the subordinate examiners were different. People like Cheng Minzheng… Of course, based on various historical records, Fang Jifan could mostly conclude that Cheng Minzheng did not commit fraud. In fact, it was impossible for him to be so recklessly bold for just two fellow provincials.

The problem was… with hometown factions, it’s often hard to avoid personal connections. Fellow provincial scholars coming to the Capital would pay visits, right? After visiting, they would give gifts, right? After giving gifts, they would sit down and flatter each other, right? After the flattery, they’d say, ‘Ah, Lord Cheng, this calligraphy of yours is truly a rare treasure. This student is shameless, but could you bestow this treasure upon me?’ After receiving the calligraphy, they couldn’t just take it for free. After all, Lord Cheng’s calligraphy was a precious rarity. Taking it back to frame and hang in the study could bring glory to future generations. What to do? Let’s talk about a ‘writing fee’.

Back and forth it went, really like unscrupulous men and women hooking up. If Tang Yin and the others hadn’t passed, it might have been fine. But once they passed, envy was inevitable. However, ordinary people who visited Lord Cheng were just visitors. If you were unknown and kept a low profile, naturally no one would trouble you. But you, Xu Jing and Tang Yin, were both renowned talents of Jiangnan. And you even loved to drink! After drinking, you’d boast. After boasting, you’d spill everything. And then, you both passed with high marks…

This… it would be unreasonable if nothing happened.

Fang Jifan didn’t like Xu Jing, nor did he like Cheng Minzheng. In his view, they ultimately deserved their fate. Respected officials of the imperial court, and the future reserve officials of the state, not working properly to govern The World well for the Zhu family and noble families like the Fang Family, allowing the Zhu family and the Fang Family to continue living in a drunken dream and idly waiting for death? And you actually played these hometown faction games? Whether the fraud case was a frame-up or not, you were looking for trouble.

The reason he saved Tang Yin was because Fang Jifan knew deeply that when Tang Yin was in Jiangnan, he wasn’t really such a worldly person. This time, it was because his family had encountered misfortune and fallen into decline that he was compelled by Xu Jing to seek connections. Such a person could be saved. Not to mention, this guy was half his idol.

So… to prevent being accused of fraud, the first thing to do was to build a firewall.

For example, Fang Jifan strictly forbade his three disciples from going out to make friends. Make friends, my foot! With your mentor playing happily with you every day, who needs friends?

Besides avoiding contact with others, on the other hand, beating up Tang Yin, to some extent, both protected Tang Yin and also protected Fang Jifan and his three disciples.

Currently, the entire Capital was focused on this bet. Fang Jifan’s reputation among the Scholar circle was utterly rotten. Everyone kept their distance from him. As for the other Scholar-Officials… one could only describe them with a ‘heh’. To put it bluntly, even if some examiner wanted to leak questions, the line from his doorstep all the way to Chongwen Gate probably wouldn’t reach Fang Jifan. Those who could be examiners were all from the Qingliu Faction. What does Qingliu mean? It refers to Scholar-Officials of high virtue and reputation. Forget leaking questions; even just greeting Fang Jifan on the street might ruin their reputation too.

This made Fang Jifan quite smug. Actually, this Young Lord was quite intelligent.

The New Year was approaching, followed by visits between relatives.

The Fang Family had moved to the Capital with Emperor Wen, so they actually had quite a few relatives. Moreover, these close and distant relatives were mostly Imperial Relatives. For example, the Duke of Ying, Zhang Mao – actually, if you trace the relations, Fang Jifan had a great-aunt who was the wife of Zhang Jian, the brother of the Duke of Ying, Zhang Mao. Of course, these intricate relationships were really too messy. Fang Jinglong’s complexion was better this year than before. He felt quite honored. His son had made a fortune and became the Crown Prince’s study companion. Now, with three disciples honing their skills, he visited relatives with great vigor.

As for Fang Jifan, he took a few days off to instruct his three disciples, but he couldn’t neglect his duties at the House of the Crown Prince. So he obediently went back to serve at the House of the Crown Prince.

It was almost New Year, after all. The security of the House of the Crown Prince was important. How could the loyal Chief Fang, also study companion at the House of the Crown Prince, not be there?

Actually, by the year’s end, many officials at the House of the Crown Prince were on Official Holiday, meaning they were on New Year’s break. Fang Jifan felt the House of the Crown Prince had become much quieter. Many familiar faces were gone. He couldn’t help but sigh, even though Fang Jifan didn’t actually know them.

Arriving at the House of the Crown Prince, he naturally went first to see the Crown Prince. Entering the main hall, he saw the Crown Prince. As soon as Zhu Houzhao saw Fang Jifan, he deliberately covered his neck with his collar. Fang Jifan stared straight at his neck. Zhu Houzhao glared at him. “What are you looking at?”

Fang Jifan smiled. “Your Highness got beaten up again?”

Why say ‘again’?

Uh… this seemed like an awkward question.