Who Said a Study Servant Can’t Win the Imperial Exam?

As the elders of the four young masters were moved to tears with relief.

Outside the Pei Family’s clan school.

Pei Jian, Gao Qi, Zhuang Jin, and Li Heyu stood in a row, dressed in long robes and holding folding fans, exuding an air of arrogance.

Cui Xian hid behind them, his mouth twitching slightly.

Almost as soon as they appeared outside the clan school, they attracted countless disdainful and mocking glances from the students.

Yet the four young masters were completely unbothered.

Half a month ago, the four had a fierce argument with Teacher Wu and boldly declared: “I, Young Master, will never set foot in the school again.”

Yesterday, Pei Jian returned to class.

Today was even more outrageous; these four idle young masters had returned together!

Facing the ‘admiring’ gazes of their classmates, Pei Jian flicked his fan: “Brothers, are you ready? Let’s go find that Wu Qinglan!”

The other three responded with enthusiasm.

“Ready!”

“Let’s start our battle!”

“This battle, we must win!”

After speaking, the four marched forward with a determined stride, heading towards the school building.

Cui Xian covered his face with his sleeve and quietly followed.

The students were shocked and turned to watch.

Inside the school building.

Wu Qinglan was explaining the method of breaking down the Eight-legged Essay to the students.

A student rushed in, panicked: “Teacher Wu, something’s wrong! Those four young masters have stormed into the clan school. They said… they said they want to challenge you!”

Wow!

The classroom erupted in chaos.

Wu Qinglan was furious, gripping the Ruler tightly, and strode outside: “Let’s see how I deal with these four pieces of Rotten Wood today!”

Sensing the drama, the students lost interest in the lesson and rushed out to watch the spectacle.

When Pei Jian and the others entered with ‘murderous intent,’ everyone gasped.

Wu Qinglan let out a cold scoff, ready to scold them.

Unexpectedly.

Pei Jian and the others stood firm and bowed to Teacher Wu: “We students have come to seek your guidance in learning!”

Wha-what?

Upon hearing this, the tense atmosphere in the clan school paused.

The onlooking students were nearly dumbfounded.

Wu Qinglan was also taken aback.

These four stormed into the clan school not to provoke, but to… seek knowledge?!

Truly astonishing!

After a moment of surprise, Wu Qinglan put away his anger, cleared his throat, though still skeptical: “What difficulties have you encountered?”

Under the watchful eyes of all.

Pei Jian tried to suppress his overly smug expression, pretending to be calm: “The four of us plan to collaborate on writing a book and would like Teacher Wu’s guidance.”

Write… what?

A book?

As his words fell, the atmosphere in the clan school grew even more silent and bizarre.

Gao Qi quickly added: “The book is titled ‘The Legend of Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit,’ and it tells a story of chivalry and heroism, saving the world.”

Li Heyu eagerly supplemented: “Exactly! Once published, this book is sure to be a hit.”

The three maintained solemn expressions.

But the more serious they appeared, the more absurd and laughable it seemed to everyone else.

“Hahaha!”

“What on earth are they up to today?”

“The Legend of Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit? What a ridiculous name!”

As the mocking voices around them grew louder, Pei Jian sneaked a glance at Cui Xian, then signaled to Zhuang Jin.

Zhuang Jin understood.

He moved closer to Cui Xian and whispered, “Xian, don’t pay attention to these people in the school. You know, we Four Great Talents are just too dazzling, which inevitably attracts envy.”

“Besides, writing storybooks is considered a minor art, and these bookworms, in their arrogance, tend to look down on it.”

“Don’t let any gossip make you doubt the overflowing talent of us Four Great Talents.”

Cui Xian suppressed a laugh and nodded, “Don’t worry, I know you all, just like my brother, are prodigies.”

Zhuang Jin breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, with a twinkle in his eye, he continued, “It’s great that you think that way. Now, we’re going to have a heated discussion with Teacher about our studies. Why don’t you go to the Inner Room and take a rest?”

Cui Xian knew Zhuang Jin was trying to get him out of the way, and he needed to go to the Inner Room anyway.

So he agreed, “Alright.”

Watching Cui Xian head to the Inner Room, and glancing at the classmates mocking them, Zhuang Jin took a deep breath.

Laugh all you want.

Once The Legend of Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit hits the shelves, we’ll see who’s laughing then!

Meanwhile.

After listening to Pei Jian and the others, Teacher Wu was silent for a moment before saying, “Alright, tell me, at which stage of writing the book did you encounter difficulties?”

Pei Jian replied lazily, “The beginning.”

Wu Qinglan: ?

Can’t even write the beginning, yet want to write a book?

Seeing Wu Qinglan’s displeased expression, Li Heyu quickly tried to smooth things over, “Pei Jian means we need to describe a very large, very large… uh, very large forest fire in the opening. But no matter how we write it, we can’t capture the grandeur of the fire.”

Teacher Wu sneered at this.

Now it was the four dandies’ turn: ?

Zhuang Jin, having sent Cui Xian away, stepped forward, suppressing his anger, “What do you mean? When others ask for guidance, you respond kindly. When we ask, you sneer with disdain.”

Discrimination! This is definitely discrimination!

Teacher Wu’s expression grew more severe, “You neglect your studies, never read seriously. So today, when describing a forest fire, you can only use ‘very large, very large’ to express it. I sneer, and you’re not convinced?”

Of course we’re not convinced.

With Cui Xian absent, Pei Jian’s patience was practically nonexistent. He snapped irritably, “Enough with the grand theories. Why don’t you tell us how to describe a forest fire?”

Teacher Wu scoffed again before replying, “When it comes to fire-related content, especially descriptions of celestial phenomena and disasters, ‘The Book of Documents’ is the most comprehensive.”

“In the ‘Hong Fan’ chapter, it says, ‘Fire rises upward.’ If you want to write about a great fire, merely using the word ‘great’ is superficial and laughable! The flames should be described as roaring upward, fiercely hot, with blazing light rolling towards the sky-capture its essence!”

“The ‘Shi Jing’ in the ‘Xiao Ya’ section mentions, ‘Flashing like lightning.’ Though it describes thunder rather than flames, you can use ‘flashing’ to depict the intense fire, with blazing light reaching the heavens.”

“The ‘Zuo Zhuan’ records, ‘Fire consumed the house, leaving nothing.’ You should learn from its style to portray the ferocity and destructiveness of a great fire-how it turns vegetation to ash, makes birds and beasts lament, obscures the sun with smoke and dust, and changes the very color of the sky.”

After Teacher Wu’s scholarly references, the four “rotten woods” were left speechless.

Who knew writing about a fire could involve such intricate details?

Writing an entire storybook must be incredibly challenging!

The young masters stared blankly.

As a mentor, Wu Qinglan relished seeing students display such ‘awed and impressed expressions’ before him.

Having subdued these four “rotten woods,” Teacher Wu felt quite pleased and sarcastically remarked, “What, are you scared now? Will I ever see that storybook, ‘The Legend of Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit,’ in my lifetime?”

Pei Jian retorted angrily, “Who’s scared? Just wait, we’ll have it written within a month!”

Wu Qinglan replied with a deadpan “Oh,” and said, “In that case, why aren’t you attending school? How can you write a book without studying diligently?”

The four young masters exchanged glances, gritted their teeth, and obediently headed to school.

This time, Wu Qinglan was genuinely puzzled.

Could it be… these young masters were serious?

The students who had initially gathered to watch the young masters challenge their teacher found it dull when Pei Jian and the others genuinely began to seek knowledge, and they dispersed.

Wu Qinglan continued his lecture at school.

No one noticed that the study servant accompanying the four young masters quietly slipped away to the Inner Room again.

It wasn’t anyone’s fault.

The four young masters were simply too conspicuous, causing Cui Xian’s presence to be entirely overlooked!

In the Inner Room.

Cui Xian chuckled as he looked at the ‘Rotten wood cannot be carved’ annotation by Wu Qinglan.

The bold, sharp strokes of the writing vividly conveyed Teacher Wu’s anger from the previous day.

After his laughter subsided, Cui Xian ground the ink again, took out a blank sheet of paper, and placed it on the desk.

This time, he still used his left hand to hold the brush.

But he didn’t rest the inkstone on his wrist.

Having been reborn into a young body, Cui Xian now had a severe lack of wrist strength, with only a fraction of his previous calligraphy skills remaining.

Yet that fraction was the essence, the momentum, the charm-the fusion of form and spirit.

With his current youthful wrist, he couldn’t achieve bold and vigorous strokes, but he could certainly infuse his writing with vitality.

Moreover, in his previous life, he had spent years copying the calligraphy of the Saint of Calligraphy, Wang Xizhi!

Once the “Prodigy Genius Plan” begins to show results and he can openly attend the clan school, Cui Xian will need to adjust his mindset and start practicing calligraphy anew!

But for now, there’s no rush.

With these thoughts in mind, Cui Xian once again used his left hand to write a piece of calligraphy. Then, he quietly left, concealing his achievements and name.

Half an hour later.

After finishing his lecture, Teacher Wu returned to the Inner Room, his gaze instinctively drawn to the desk.

Sure enough, there was another new piece of calligraphy waiting for him to review!

Could it be from that “Rotten Wood” again? The handwriting was so ugly, showing no intention of learning, yet he dared to write?

Didn’t he see my annotation of “Rotten wood cannot be carved”?

Even Pei Jian and the others showed signs of “Rotten Wood sprouting” today. I wonder if this unknown Rotten Wood has made any progress.

With these thoughts, Teacher Wu picked up the piece of calligraphy. As he squinted to make out the content, he was suddenly furious.

Unbelievable!

The reason was that the calligraphy was filled with “Rotten wood cannot be carved”!

Wu Qinglan easily recognized that this piece was still from the same “Rotten Wood” as yesterday.

Not only was this person’s handwriting ugly, but he was also arrogant and disrespectful, daring to insult the school teacher as “Rotten Wood”…

Wait.

After a moment of anger, Teacher Wu realized.

This person wasn’t insulting anyone; he was probably copying the phrase “Rotten wood cannot be carved.”

The first few lines of the calligraphy were still unbearably ugly.

But as he reached the middle lines, the handwriting began to become much more proper, learning to use wrist strength, with the ink on the paper transitioning from light to dark.

Teacher Wu let out a soft “Hmm.”

Then, when he saw the last few lines of the calligraphy, his eyes lit up slightly.

Not bad, not bad, there was actually some “penmanship” hidden within.

But why did this penmanship look increasingly familiar?

Teacher Wu furrowed his brow, pondering for a moment, then his eyes widened in realization!

Because that penmanship was his own!

The person who wrote this piece was copying his annotation of “Rotten wood cannot be carved”!

And they actually managed to capture some of the essence!

Teacher Wu was shocked, hurriedly retrieving yesterday’s piece for comparison. When he compared the two, it was simply astounding.

In just one day, this person’s handwriting had gone from unbearable to capturing the penmanship!

Though the handwriting was still extremely immature and ugly, it had only been one day!

The progress was remarkably swift!