Chapter 598: Chapter 598: Fearing Not Much Time Remains

When dinner time arrived, Liu Ji entered the house looking dejected.

Qin Yao asked him, "Where have you been?"

It would have been fine if she hadn’t asked, but as soon as she did, Liu Ji was filled with frustration, "I just went to the Lotus Courtyard to look around, hoping to find some manuscripts written by the teacher. Only to discover that any scrap of paper his father owned had been completely ransacked by those Black Cavalry!"

Liu Ji was utterly baffled, "My dear wife, who exactly are those Black Cavalry to the Crown Prince? They operate so mysteriously that I have no idea when they took away all those things."

Sometimes Qin Yao truly questioned Liu Ji’s intelligence, pointing toward the direction of the school, "The Black Cavalry have left, but one person hasn’t."

Liu Ji followed her gaze and caught on immediately, slapping his thigh in astonishment, "Oh, you sly Zhen Yubai!"

Immediately, he wanted to grab Ah Wang and rush to the school to reclaim the teacher’s manuscripts.

Ah Wang arrived promptly but spoke coldly, "Sir, even if you go, you won’t get them back. Stay and eat dinner first."

Liu Ji glared, "My teacher’s manuscripts, as a rightful disciple, why can’t I retrieve them?"

Ah Wang analyzed calmly, "Zhen Yubai went to the Lotus Courtyard the night before last. It’s been a day and a night plus another day; the manuscripts have long been moved. Even if you go now, it would be useless."

Wait a minute!

Liu Ji looked in shock at Ah Wang standing before him, and at Qin Yao lazily eating fruit in the main hall, "You both knew?"

Ah Wang said nothing, just looked at Qin Yao; he merely followed orders, and the lady hadn’t said to stop Zhen Yubai.

Though he knew those manuscripts might be of some importance to the elder sir, but! The lady didn’t say anything!

Qin Yao calmly drank her tea to wash down the fruit’s richness, nodding her head, "I knew, and I also know there’s nothing important in those manuscripts."

Liu Ji understood the logic, "But it was still something to remember..." He glanced at her resentfully, as if it was her fault for not reminding him.

Qin Yao gave a cold laugh, pointing at Liu Ji as she instructed, "You should blame yourself. Zhen Yubai had been staying for so long, and since you found those manuscripts important, you should have taken them back yourself."

Liu Ji: "..."

Forget it, let’s eat!

The matter about the manuscripts was just a small interlude, and it passed during a harmonious dinner.

After dinner, Si Niang eagerly brought over the Seven-stringed Zither given to her by her uncle, pulling Liu Ji to teach her how to play.

What did Liu Ji know about this? Previously, Gongliang Liao had forced him to study the Six Arts of the Gentleman, only managing to stick with Mathematics.

It was only because Gongliang Liao pressured him to inherit the tradition, unable to resist, that he learnt it.

Of course, the rest of the items weren’t possible in the village, like charioteering, there were horses, but it refers to war chariots—things under military control, something Qin Yao couldn’t procure even with money.

As for this zither, it was buried in the details of ’Music’, and his eyes go completely dark with it.

But seeing his daughter’s expectant big eyes, the father; embarrassed to say he doesn’t know, could only bite the bullet, sit down, and pretend to read the piano score.

Feeling relieved inside, fortunately, he was pressured by his junior brother to read many books, although having zero practical experience, but having plenty of theoretical knowledge to fool an eight-year-old child is more than enough.

It’s just that the messy music from the zither left everyone in the family with the same confused look as the old man on the subway staring at a phone.

Second Lang timidly asked, "Father, are you sure a zither is played with one finger?"

Sanlang was much more straightforward, covering his ears and glaring at his father, "Dad, can you stop playing? Listening to it is more annoying than mosquitoes buzzing."

Liu Ji let out a "huh", grabbed the piano score, and gave this little rascal a smack on the backside, "If you don’t understand, just shut up. This is called tuning, you silly child, know nothing, if the sound isn’t tuned right, how can it sound pleasant?"

Sanlang, holding his backside, retreated in grievance behind his mother. Though Father’s playing was unpleasant, it still made him curious.

Da Lang offered no opinion, giving full respect to his father.

He only glanced at his mother who calmly drank tea, ate melon seeds, and even had the leisure to hum a tune while crossing Second Lang’s legs, and couldn’t help but admire.

Such horrendous zither music, and mother can still listen unfazed, truly strong.

Unbeknownst to him, underneath the stray hairs at her temples, cotton had already been stuffed into her ears.

Liu Ji and Si Niang, with a zither in hand, fussed about all night, and the whole mountain resonated with the ’duangduang’ of discordant noises.

No one knew how the villagers reacted, but Zhen Yubai, separated only by a low hill from Qin Yao’s family, had a splitting headache!

His senses were already sharper than average, making sleep difficult at night; with the added disturbance of the zither, he became even more awake.

Had he not heard it himself, he wouldn’t believe people could be so foolish with the zither, playing for so long without learning a thing, just aimlessly plucking, with terribly unpleasant sounds.

Yet the person remained oblivious, disturbing neighbors without realizing it.

It was odd, though, why would there be a zither in any household in this mountain village?

Following the direction of the zither sounds, he realized it came from the village chief’s house.

Zhen Yubai stood on the school’s grounds, watching the candlelit courtyard across, instinctively ignoring the tuneless racket, and remembered something, frowning slightly.

When he delivered all of Gongliang Liao’s manuscripts from the Lotus Courtyard, he had ’accidentally’ seen the spy retrieving a letter from a pigeon’s leg.

It was unknown to whom the letter was intended, but it happened to be in transit, allowing him a glimpse.

[Upon entering the Capital, old ailments recurred, accompanied by depressive symptoms, fearing not much time is left]

In conclusion, after reading it, the spy instructed him to draft a blueprint of the Lotus Courtyard to send back, attempting to recreate an identical Lotus Courtyard in the Capital to remedy the illness.

This was also the last task assigned to him; once completed, he would have no further ties to the Eastern Palace.

The blueprint was easily completed, Zhen Yubai already having sent it out.

Ironically, today marked the day he regained freedom from restraint, yet he felt somewhat out of place.

Fortunately, he had a teaching position to fall back on, allowing him time to adjust, hopefully discovering interests at his pace.

Finally, the zither music ceased, and Zhen Yubai sighed in relief, turning back inside, changing out of clothes soaked by the fine rain, and laid down to rest.

Before falling asleep, his mind was in turmoil, remembering how he was rescued after falling into a rocky gully last winter.

The coachman and horse had died, and he thought he too would meet a grim fate, unexpectedly, the heavy carriage was easily lifted, saving him from the confined gully.

Thinking it over, he realized he owed these people half his life.

He decided to visit the village chief’s house after class tomorrow. With this thought, his chaotic mind finally calmed, allowing him to sleep peacefully.

The spring rain lasted intermittently for at least a month, alternating between sunny and cloudy.

After finishing a day of lessons and seeing off his students, a drizzle as fine as cow hair began to fall from the sky again.

He locked the door to his room, opened an oiled-paper umbrella, and leisurely walked toward the courtyard on the North Slope.