It was already dark when Li Changan returned to the Changqing Hall. Concubine Wu Hui was sitting under a candle reading a book. The bright moon retreated and left space for the two of them.
Concubine Wu Hui smiled and called Li Changan to her side, and reached out to touch Li Changan's cold cheek.
"It's quite busy for you to open a shop. You run out every two days, and your little face is as cold as that ice cream."
Li Changan obediently placed his chin on Concubine Wu Hui's knees and smiled brightly: "I think doing business is fun... Do you think the ice cream I sent yesterday is delicious?"
"It's delicious. You are very clever. The red bean cake becomes softer after being frozen in ice." Concubine Wu Hui rubbed Li Changan's face.
"I plan to sell ice cream in the shop next month and release a new product every month." Li Changan's eyes were bright, "I made a lot of money, and I can buy New Year's gifts for my grandma and mother-in-law."
Concubine Wu Hui laughed dumbly.
She knew that Li Changan's small shop was doing a good business, but it was just a small shop selling pastries. Its profit per month was at most a dozen dollars, and every month just the officials who asked for her and paid her more than a thousand dollars. , more than ten thousand dollars can't even buy the lone copy in her hand.
But Concubine Wu Hui enjoys Li Changan's thoughts. Isn't it just for this thoughtfulness to raise a daughter?
"Auntie, it's going to be cold in the future. I have to trouble Mingyue to follow me when I leave the palace. I don't want to run out of the palace all the time. Can I ask my Hu Ji to wait for me at the Jiaofang Division next to my yard?" Li Changan Holding Concubine Wu Hui's arm and acting coquettishly.
This workshop was located on the outermost floor of the Daming Palace, and there were many musicians coming and going on weekdays. Li Changan felt that Concubine Wu Hui would not reject her.
What's more, the Tang Dynasty's court was not very defensive, and there were many officials coming and going to see Concubine Wu Hui on weekdays. If she hadn't been too young, she would actually be able to take people in and out by herself.
Concubine Wu Hui did not reject Li Changan, "I'll ask someone to tell the Jiaofang Division."
The stone in Li Changan's heart fell again.
It was already very late when she returned to the courtyard where she lived, but Cao Yenaji still didn't sleep.
"Look at this dagger." Cao Yenaji was polishing the dagger under the lamp in her robe. When she heard the door being pushed open, she knew who it was. She raised her hand to wave Li Changan over.
She seemed to be in a good mood.
Cao Yenaji has good skills in polishing weapons. Previously, she followed the caravan, and she repaired all the damaged weapons in the caravan. However, this good skill has no use in the Daming Palace.
It wasn't until Li Changan was a little older that Cao Yenaji picked up this craft again. She had a lot of free time. During these idle times, she sharpened daggers, used the stones she got from the rockery to polish kitchen knives and pick bones. Sharpen the knife bit by bit until it slowly takes on the shape of a dagger, and then gradually reveals its sharp edge.
"It wasn't done well." Cao Yenaji looked at the dagger she had polished under the candlelight and sighed softly.
Lacking tools, it's already good to be able to polish it like this.
"It's already very good." Li Changan put his arm around Cao Yenaji's waist from behind, but he only felt a handful of bones and his ribs hurt his hands.
"It's not easy to bring a dagger into the palace. If it weren't for my mother, I wouldn't have a dagger to use in the palace."
Cao Yena Ji had a smile on her face after hearing this.
"I'll polish a few more daggers and keep them in the palace so you can keep them for self-defense in the future."
In Cao Yenaji's heart, a person cannot do without a dagger. She has been carrying a dagger since she was three years old. There were wolves and bandits along the way. The dagger can kill people and cut the throats of wolves. It can also cut meat when hungry. It can chop firewood when it's cold, and a dagger is the most useful thing.
Li Changan, however, only looked at the newly scarred wound on Cao Ye Naji's finger.
Cao Yenaji has always had calluses on her hands, but after being raised in the palace for the past few years, the calluses on her hands became thinner without her needing to wield swords and guns. Recently, she discovered that this thin layer of calluses Weared.
Li Changan looked at Cao Yenaji's face carefully polishing the dagger in the dim candlelight, and for some reason suddenly thought of Meng Jiao.
Mother hands line, wandering clothing. Departure thick seam, meaning fear of delay in return.
Li Changan pursed her lips, she wanted to go faster.
Two days later, Li Changan took Mingyue out of the palace and came to her mansion.
Yuan Niang, a housekeeper in the house, invited Mingyue to go to the rouge shop to see the latest rouge.
Yuan Niang was Li Changan's newly bought housekeeper. She was originally the housekeeper of the criminal family. She was sold because the master was convicted. Li Changan happened to meet her and bought her.
Mingyue has nothing to say to the two Hu Ji, but she and Yuanniang have a lot in common.
"Mingyue, you and Yuanniang go together, I'm not interested in those things." Li Changan waved his hand, rolled on the soft couch again, and stretched, "I'll take a nap, and you don't have to call me when you come back." .”
Mingyue hesitated for a moment. Her responsibility as a slave to protect Li Changan and her love for rouge and gouache made her a little undecided.
"I'll sleep in the house and won't go out, and I won't blame you for not watching me sleep." Li Changan's words made Mingyue put away her worries.
After Mingyue happily took Yuan Niang's arm and walked out the door, Li Changan quickly climbed up from the soft couch. She looked at Hong Ling standing beside the couch and asked, "Where is Shen Chu?"
Hong Ling pointed in the direction of the backyard: "Waiting in the backyard."
Li Changan walked straight through the main house and came to the backyard. There was a man in the courtyard, wearing a white robe, sitting at the stone table under the locust tree.
It was a common practice in the Tang Dynasty that scholars who failed to pass the imperial examination often wore white robes. This is also where the so-called white-robed prime ministers came from, referring to scholars who failed to pass the imperial examination.
Shen Chu also saw Li Changan, and he stood up immediately. He couldn't help but take two quick steps and walked to Li Changan. He looked at the little girl in front of him, his chest rising and falling slightly.
There were two dark circles on his handsome face, but it looked like he hadn't slept well in the past few days.
Meeting an old friend in a foreign land, Shen Chu had been uneasy since he separated from Li Changan that day. In the afternoon of that day, he found the house with the written words. Unfortunately, his old friend was not there, and there were only a few maids in the house.
But not all was lost. Shen Chu learned the master's name from the maid named Hong Ling.
Li Changan, a name that made Shen Chu sleepless for three days.
The moment Shen Chu first heard the name, he didn't know whether he should be happy or sad.
He no longer has to worry about his reputation being tarnished in the modern educational world.
…Now it’s time to worry about his future in Datang.
"Teacher, I miss you so much!"
Li Changan had no worries. With tears streaming down her face, she hugged Shen Chu's waist and cried so hard that the earth was shaking.
"You don't know how I have lived these years. Let me tell you, I was extremely unlucky. I was born with a father but no father to support me. My life was miserable living with my mother..."
Shen Chu sighed, his heart suddenly softened, and he even took the initiative to rub the back of Li Changan's head.
"In this new life, could it be that the xinxing has become that of a child? A person in his twenties still cries like a child with a yellow mouth."
Having said that, Shen Chu did not push Li Changan away.
Li Changan was his only student. He had no intention of taking any students, but an old friend recommended Li Changan to him, boasting that he would definitely like this student...
At first, Shen Chu only thought that the old guy was causing a big trouble for him. Li Changan, a traitor, was able to pass the exam just because she was good at exam-oriented education. But she didn't know anything about anything that was not covered in the exam syllabus. She was studying for graduate school. It's totally a mixed degree. Every time he graded papers for this unlearned guy, Shen Chu felt ten years older.
But apart from the mess in writing the paper, Li Changan couldn't fault anything else. He was served tea and water when he was not feeling well. When he went to other places for meetings, he was given everything from accommodation to transportation arrangements. He was shameless during the New Year. I went to his house and made dumplings for him, and even shamelessly said I cared about the lonely elderly people.
Later, even he had to admit that his old friend's guarantee was somewhat credible.
Unexpectedly, before I could publish a few papers, teachers and students would meet again in Chang'an, Tang Dynasty.
"How did the teacher get here all these years?" Li Changan asked Shen Chu.
Shen Chu frowned as he looked at his tear-stained clothes and glared at the bold traitor opposite him, but he didn't say anything. He just sat on the stone bench with melancholy in his eyes.
"I came to Datang five years ago."
"Me too, but I was in my mother's belly as soon as I woke up." Li Changan listened to Shen Chu's words with his ears raised.
Shen Chu thought for a while: "I took over the body of the original owner after his death. Five years ago, the original owner's mother died of illness and he committed suicide by diving into the water. When I was conscious, I was under the water. Fortunately, I Now that I have some water skills, I can swim up."
"Then I buried my original mother, observed mourning for three years, studied for another two years, took part in this year's imperial examination, and failed." Shen Chu said very simply.
Li Changan muttered: "I heard that you also spent all your wealth to help the poor."
"The two sons of the family named Sun on the east side of the street both died on the Tubo battlefield; the son of the Chen family who sells vegetables has come back, but he is missing an arm and cannot do heavy work; the man of the Wang family who farms the land died in On the battlefield, an orphan and a widowed woman lived with three children..." Shen Chu counted carefully.
"I'm not helping the poor, but good people who can't survive." Shen Chu corrected Li Chang'an, "I never care about those poor, scoundrels, and scoundrels."
Li Changan pointed to Shen Chu's yellowed clothes that couldn't be washed clean, "That's why the teacher is so poor that he can't even afford new clothes."
"Money is all external things. Didn't I bring the millions of savings I had before? Since I can't take them with me in life or death, wouldn't it be better to use them to save people." Shen Chu waved his hands and didn't care.
Li Changan reminded: "Teacher, the remaining one million in your card was used to set up scholarships. It is gone long ago."
Shen Chu smiled happily and said with relief: "Okay, now all the money has been put to practical use!"
I'm not good!
Li Changan frowned with resentment, thinking that you are a pauper, but I still have tens of millions of assets and seven houses in first-tier cities that I have not been able to bring back after a thousand years.
Shen Chu knew very well what kind of guy his student was. When he saw Li Changan's face, he knew what this fame-seeking student was thinking.
"Striving for fame and fortune." Shen Chu flicked Li Changan's forehead with his finger.
Li Changan curled his lips: "What's wrong with pursuing fame and fortune? Even if a teacher spends all his wealth, he may not be able to help a few poor people. For people like you, the reason for poverty is mostly due to insufficient post-war pensions. You want to completely solve this problem. , it is useless to just rely on you to provide financial support. The fundamental reason is that the court needs to formulate a more complete post-war pension policy. And if you want to implement this policy, you must at least be a third-rank official to be qualified to propose this policy. "
Shen Chu sighed: "Yes, so I took the imperial examination."
"Then the teacher must have failed the exam." Li Changan raised his eyebrows and smiled.
As for why she confirmed that Shen Chu would definitely fail the exam? Half a month before this year's imperial examination, the list of most of the candidates who could pass the examination was already on Concubine Wu Hui's desk. She had seen it with her own eyes.
The imperial examinations in the Tang Dynasty were not very fair. In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examinations were anonymous, and the names of the candidates could be seen by every examiner. How nepotistic could an exam be? Which one would you choose between a child of your acquaintance and a candidate you don't know?
Secondly, the selection of scholars at this time was not only based on test scores, but also had to be recommended by famous people. Those submitted to the Ministry of Rites were called public papers, and those submitted to high-ranking officials were called executive papers. Bai Juyi's "Fu Deyuan Shangcao" is the one he submitted to the Ministry of Rites. Banknotes submitted by famous people.
In short, it's just a "public test". If no one recommends you, you won't be able to pass the exam.
And her mentor... Looking at the yellowed clothes on his body, you can tell that he has definitely not clung to the powerful, and it is inevitable that he will fail.
But now she can reluctantly let the teacher take advantage of her nepotism. Li Changan imagined a future where he would turn into a serf and sing. His waist became straighter and straighter, and the corners of his mouth could not help but grow wider and wider.
