My Wife Is A Sword Immortal
Chapter 277 - 221: Three Women, East Fence Small House_2

Chapter 277: Chapter 221: Three Women, East Fence Small House_2

"Mm-hmm." Li Xueyou nodded like a little deer, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Yu Huaijin with a faint voice, "Huaijin, let’s go together."

Without hesitation, Yu Huaijin shook his head, "You all go ahead, I still have some things to do on my day off."

Xiao Hongyu and Li Xueyou exchanged glances.

Unlike the slightly disappointed Li Xueyou, Xiao Hongyu wasn’t annoyed, as she had expected this. She looked at Yu Huaijin with narrowed eyes and blinked, asking, "Is it Han Wenfu from the Cultivation Hall who’s seeking your ’guidance’ again?"

Yu Huaijin shook his head.

Xiao Hongyu thought for a moment, then her eyes lit up in realization, "Oh, that’s right, I almost forgot about that kid Fan Yushu. You had been tutoring him before he followed Master Yan out."

She muttered a few words, glanced at Yu Huaijin who didn’t deny it, opened her mouth as if she wanted to persuade him but seeing Yu Huaijin’s consistently stern face, she decided not to say anything.

At Mochi Academy, the matter that was considered most important by the majority of students from the six academic halls - Free Spirit, Cultivation, Justice, Sincerity, Aspiration, and Extensive Knowledge - was the apprenticeship ceremony a year later.

After one year, whether the new students would stay or leave Linlu Academy depended on whether the teachers of the Academy would accept them during the apprenticeship ceremony, allowing them to continue their studies and become scholars of the Academy.

The teachers of the Academy had many conditions and references for selecting students, and aside from the assessment during the ceremony, the day-to-day evaluation of the students was also very important.

If the academic hall to which a student belonged ranked among the top, the students from that hall would also easily get the attention of the teachers.

Moreover, according to the Academy’s tradition, if students had the same assessment results, those from higher-ranking halls were generally evaluated more favorably compared to those from the lowest-ranking halls.

This was also a way for Mochi Academy to encourage unity among the students as well as competition between the halls.

In connection with the various competing schools of thought within the Confucian scholarly community, this also encompassed the deeper intention of enhancing the unity amongst Confucian scholars and their competitiveness against others.

—————

Zhao Rong returned to his living quarters together with Fan Yushu.

This cluster of male student residences next to the Spring Fetching Pavilion was known as Nanxuan.

The small but elegant and quiet courtyards, occupied by two men each, were all referred to as small houses by the students, differentiated only by the prefix attached to their names.

Zhao Rong halted, waving goodbye to Fan Yushu who lived in a courtyard named Flowing Clouds Small House just a dozen steps away.

This time the two were not living together, as Fan Yushu had arrived earlier and had already been assigned a roommate.

As for why Jia Tengying always lived alone...

Zhao Rong turned and prepared to knock on the door.

"Right, Ziyu, your place is called... Vegetable Garden Small House." Fan Yushu’s joking voice floated from behind.

Thud thud thud.

Zhao Rong blinked and knocked softly on the door.

"Come in, the door is unlocked." The voice of Jia Tengying came through.

Zhao Rong pushed the door open. He hadn’t looked closely during the day, but now, guided by the light in Jia Tengying’s room, he could roughly make out two fairly large buildings in the courtyard, facing each other north and south.

While the north room was still dark, the light in the south room was already on, and the voice of Jia Tengying was coming from there.

As Zhao Rong’s eyes swept over the courtyard, he saw that much of the dark ground not illuminated by the light was covered row upon row with dark objects.

Zhao Rong approached, looked down, and realized they were vegetables grown by the farmers at the foot of the mountain; there seemed to be quite a variety.

Zhao Rong looked around; the place was clearly a vegetable garden, which explained why Fan Yushu and the others called it "Vegetable Garden Small House," fitting the name indeed.

Creak————

Just then, the door of the south room opened, and Jia Tengying stepped out, catching sight of Zhao Rong bent over inspecting the vegetable plot under the moonlight.

Jia Tengying looked down, quickly walked up to Zhao Rong, and offered a small object with both hands.

His voice was somewhat muffled.

"Brother Zhao, this is the key to the main gate, and the key to your room is on the table inside," he said.

Zhao Rong looked at Jia Tengying; facing him with his back to the south room, the light from the room made it impossible for Zhao Rong to see Jia Tengying’s expression clearly.

He took the key, glanced at it, was about to speak, but Jia Tengying immediately turned around and walked quickly to the door, locking the courtyard gate before rapidly returning to the room without stopping.

He seemed to be looking down the whole time.

Zhao Rong stood between the rows of vegetables, looked left and right, and then entered the north room.

Inside the house.

Zhao Rong lit a candle on the desk.

The spacious, dimly lit room was brightened by a solitary lamp.

He looked around the spacious room, thinking that he should add some more items later, to give it a homier atmosphere.

This place was where Zhao Rong would often read, sleep, and practice cultivation for the upcoming year.

He turned his head and glanced at the vegetable garden outside the window and the room opposite, where lights were still on.

After organizing a bit, Zhao Rong came to his desk, bent over to fill the oil lamp, and then sat down. He sighed lightly, pulled out a thick book, found the folded page and began to read intently, a stark contrast to his earlier laziness and perfunctoriness during the Music Art class.

This was one of the Confucian Thirteen Classics, a book called "Er Ya".

Zhao Rong planned to first thoroughly read through the Confucian Thirteen Classics ten times over.

He decided not to practice cultivation today, as he was currently trying to break through to the Fu Yao Realm, with each attempt involving the gathering of a small red serpent of energy in his meridians. When the serpent struck at one of the blocked meridians and expanded it slightly, its energy would weaken, and he would need a few days of rest to recover some Innate Primordial Qi before he could continue.

Zhao Rong had set a schedule of attempting a breakthrough every three days, and on days he did not cultivate, he spent all his time reading...

The flame on the desk burned quietly.

The night passed silently, save for the occasional crackling sound from the oil lamp and the constant flipping of pages at intervals.

The moon outside the window slowly climbed to the top and then gradually descended.

The wick of the oil lamp was replaced several times by a slender hand busy with reading.

Finally, when the wick burned down for the fifth time, Zhao Rong didn’t bother replacing it, for the daylight seeping in through the window was bright enough to make things out.

Outside, the sound of insects filled the air.

At the desk, Zhao Rong folded the corner of the page, closed the Confucian Classics, and leaned back to stretch out luxuriously.

He yawned as he stood up.

Given Zhao Rong’s current martial artist cultivation, which allowed him to circulate the Minor Circulation, not sleeping for a day or two wouldn’t be much of an issue.

He washed his face and picked up "Er Ya", which he hadn’t finished reading, and headed out for his morning reading session.

It was still early, the sky only just beginning to brighten, and the Nanxuan Academy was silent, Zhao Rong’s door-pushing noise seeming quite loud in comparison.

As he passed the vegetable patch in the courtyard, he paused and looked around, his gaze lingering on a cluster of miscellaneous flowers growing on the east side of the yard.

Then, Zhao Rong stepped out toward a tranquil lakeside, walking and reading with his head lowered.

...

Zhao Rong returned from his morning reading.

As he pushed open the courtyard gate, he noticed Jia Tengying crouched in one of the vegetable patches, intently fiddling with something, and as he saw Zhao Rong return, Jia Tengying kept his head down and continued his work without speaking.

The path back to the room led right past him.

Zhao Rong walked toward the house.

Seeing this, Jia Tengying hurriedly moved some of the vegetables he had picked aside, anxious not to block Zhao Rong’s path.

After he awkwardly cleared the way for Zhao Rong and breathed a sigh of relief—

Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, a pair of feet came to an abrupt halt.

Zhao Rong squatted down next to Jia Tengying.

The next second,

he reached for a bright green cucumber from the pile of vegetables.

He wiped the cucumber on his sleeve, took a crisp bite, and while chewing said with a smile, "Brother Teng Ying, what is our yard actually called? It can’t really be named ’Vegetable Garden Small House,’ can it?"

Jia Tengying looked at Zhao Rong blankly, "No, no name was given, but everyone calls it ’Vegetable Garden Small House.’

Zhao Rong nodded slightly and, holding the watery cucumber, stood up and walked to a corner on the east side where miscellaneous flowers were growing.

He looked down at the bright chrysanthemums in the flower bed, the only splash of bright color in a courtyard full of vegetables and fruit.

Zhao Rong took out some bamboo sticks from his Sumeru Object, which he had picked up on his way back just now.

He began to insert the sticks along the edge of the cluster of chrysanthemums to create a protective bamboo fence.

Building a fence with bamboo.

After finishing, Zhao Rong dusted off his hands, took another bite of the cucumber, looked down at the chrysanthemums under the fence, and turned to Jia Tengying with a smile:

"How about we call it... East Fence Small House?"

Crouched in the vegetable garden surrounded by a pile of vegetables, Jia Tengying stared blankly at Zhao Rong. In his field of vision, a new sun was rising behind Zhao Rong, casting a very long shadow.

The new housemate stood with a half-eaten cucumber in hand, surrounded by dazzling chrysanthemums, radiant with smiles.