The two chatted for a while and looked at the weather. It was almost late. It was time to go to the Chongqing Temple to perform the ceremony of apprenticeship. Xia Silin took a large package from his carriage and followed Su Jin to the academy.
Seeing Su Jin waving his hands, Xia Silin couldn't help but ask: "Brother Su, why are your hands empty? Didn't you prepare anything for repair?"
Su Jin said: "I'm ready, but I'm not rich and can't come up with anything good. Just a few baubles. I don't know if Master will blame me."
Xia Silin made a sound and said: "I don't think I understand that the ritual of studying is purely ancient. Nowadays, the ritual cannot be abolished and it has been passed down. Yingtian Academy has advocated it since Fan Xifan took charge of the affairs.
Thirty percent of the students from poor families who work hard and are frugal will definitely not want anything to do here."
Su Jin nodded and said: "That's good. That's good. I'm still worried that I won't be able to get my hands on these little gadgets."
Xia Silin said a little depressed: "But Brother Su doesn't come from a poor family. Why didn't you fight for that house with me yesterday? Why do you claim that your family is poor now? It's probably against your will."
Su Jin looked at her somewhat resentful expression and almost blurted out: I did that just because I wanted to have a hard time with you.
But he said in a serious tone: "Poverty is relative. I can live with enough food and clothing, but compared with Xiaodi Xia, I am a beggar. For example, your chariot is pulled by a five-flowered horse, and mine can only be a big green mule."
Therefore, in the ceremony of repairing, it is impossible to compare with little brother Xia’s generosity, so it is better to hide his clumsiness; besides, as you said, the ceremony of repairing is a voluntary ceremony, so there is no need to compare."
Xia Silin thought of the stubborn mule Su Jin pulled the cart and couldn't help but chuckle and said: "It seems to make sense. I didn't give anything good as a gift. I just brought a Duan Inkstone and a piece of sapphire pressed stone."
Su Jin smacked his tongue and said, "Isn't this good? Duan Inkstone is a famous inkstone in the world, and you give it as a gift of sapphire. How can poor people like us compare? These two things are probably worth hundreds of dollars."
Xia Silin smiled and said: "I don't know how much it cost. I brought it from dad's study. It mainly shows my respect for teachers and Taoism. This is priceless."
Su Jin rolled his eyes and thought: He has healed his scars and forgot about the pain. He suffered from heatstroke at noon and now he is talking about respecting teachers and being loyal. I saved you. Why did you just throw away a basin of iced soup? It's really unreasonable.
Xia Silin saw that Su Jin was silent and wondered what he was thinking. Could it be that he had hurt his heart by saying the gift of repair? It seemed that Brother Su was very impressive and spoke insincerely, perhaps with some novelty.
"Brother Su, can I show you the gift you brought?" Xia Silin suddenly wanted to know what gift Su Jin brought. Seeing that his hands were empty and there was no package or anything like that, I guess the object was not big, but the smaller the object, the more
Time is more precious.
Su Jin thought: You want to make me look good. It's unethical for you to treat a little girl like me with a gift worth hundreds of dollars.
"Really want to see it?" Su Jin looked at Xia Silin and said.
"Is it convenient?" Xia Silin was a little confused by Su Jin's solemn tone.
"It's very convenient." Su Jin chuckled and took out a small blue cloth bag from his arms. Holding it in his hand, he carefully opened the furoshiki and revealed three stiff white flour pancakes like a treasure.
Xia Silin felt dizzy for a while and hurriedly held on to a small tree on the side of the road to take a breath. Then he looked carefully and saw that there were three pancakes.
"Is this the gift of repairing?" Xia Silin asked tremblingly.
"Yeah, aren't you qualified?" Su Jin asked, blinking.
Xia Silin took a deep breath to calm down the depression in his heart and said in as calm a tone as possible: "It's not impossible, it's just too shabby. These pancakes are a penny each. These three pancakes of yours are easily available at the Sanqian market. If you take this as a gift,
Giving it away is not an expression of respect but a slight."
In Xia Silin's opinion, even poor students should be given a ruler and a small fan with a handle, which is much better than giving pancakes.
Su Jin didn't argue with him and wrapped the pancakes carefully and hid them in his arms. Xia Silin was so anxious that he had no time to estimate the gap between men and women, so he stretched out his hand to pull Su Jin and ran back. Su Jin was pulled and staggered.
He said: "What are you doing? What are you doing? Chongsheng Temple is over there. How can you run back?"
Xia Silin said: "My car also comes with an ivory pen holder. Let's give it to you as a gift. Hurry up and leave. It's almost too late."
Su Jin said seriously: "You don't dare to treat something as valuable as an ivory pen holder. Keep it for your own use. Besides, this pancake represents my reverence. No other object can compare with it. Don't worry about it. You'll be late for a while. Go ahead. Little brother Xia, do it yourself."
."
Xia Silin gritted his teeth and stamped his feet, but there was nothing he could do about it. This bastard was as stubborn as their big green mule. He and he were just casual acquaintances and it was not easy to force him to do anything. He had to follow Su Jin and figure out countermeasures as he walked towards the Chongshen Temple.
The huge Chongsheng Temple was crowded with new students and old students. Together, there were five or six hundred people holding a futon and sitting on the ground in an orderly manner according to the school divisions and numbers. With Wu Cao Min's power, the entire Chongshen Temple
Although there were many people, it was quiet and orderly.
Su Jin wandered around the crowd and saw Wang Anshi sitting on the right hand side of Hall B and looking at him. The two of them clasped their fists and silently saluted each other while sitting cross-legged on the ground.
Cao Min, the professor of the academy, walked up to the crowd and said loudly: "Dear gentlemen, today's gathering of all the sages in the Chongshen Temple is really a grand event for the academy. There are a few things that need to be dealt with this afternoon because the formal ceremony will begin tomorrow."
Your basic necessities, food, clothing, housing and transportation need to be properly addressed."
The crowd was silent and waited for Cao Min to continue.
"Everyone stand up and salute the portraits of the saint and his disciples!" Cao Min shouted.
Everyone got up, clasped their fists and bowed, followed by the mountain leader, lecturer, assistant teacher and other people in the front row to salute the portraits of Confucius and his seventy-two disciples enshrined in the Chongshen Temple.
"Students of the College Maintenance Association sit down to pay homage to Master Qi. Everyone is giving the lecture. The assistant teacher will perform the ceremony of worshiping as a disciple." Cao Min was excited and his tone was obviously higher. Every year, the academy receives a large amount of property from the ceremony of worship.
It is a gift to honor the teacher. In fact, these gifts are collected and sold, and part of the money is used for the academy, and the rest is divided.
The twice-yearly Shuxiuli Academy receives as much as five or six thousand guan and as low as three or four thousand guan. The daily expenses of the academy are allocated by the Ministry of Rites. This money naturally becomes everyone's pocket. Qi Shunbin, the head of the academy,
In fact, most of the money went to the lecturer Cao Min and several minor officials sent by the imperial court, so Cao Min was always in high spirits at this time.
The veterans of the maintenance committee moved twenty or so big chairs. Mountain Chief Qi Shunbin sat in the middle front row, and then lined up in a row were the school lecturers and Cao Min and other officials; in the back row were more than a dozen people
Teaching assistant.
Under the leadership of the old students, everyone came forward to give gifts to their respective speakers, and those who gave gifts nodded and smiled, and the gifts were placed on the long table in front of them.
Su Jin's eyes were opened now. He saw that the table in front of the teachers was full of valuables, including gold, silver, pearls, agate, enamel paintings, all the four treasures of the house. There were also folding fans, crowns, shoes, clothes, etc. Some people gave them coppers.
Basins, bronze mirrors, kettles, teacups and other items; what’s even weirder is that a guy actually gave me a silk bellyband, saying that it was the best piece of cloud brocade from a clothing store in Jeju Prefecture.
This was immediately met with laughter by the wife. Cao Min rolled his eyes angrily and looked at the man a few more times. This man's face was deeply etched into his mind, and he was ready to deal with him slowly in the future.
When it was Su Jinchang's turn, Su Jin respectfully presented three pieces of pancakes to the Master, wishing him good teeth and a good appetite. He immediately shocked everyone in the palace.
All the students whispered and speculated whether this young man with a height of five and six had lost his mind. The three pancakes were speckled on the edges and they didn’t know what they were. Judging from the hard appearance, they didn’t know how many days ago they were old goods.
Compared to a folding fan, it's not even worth throwing it to a dog, and the dog won't even bother to sniff it.
For a moment, everyone eagerly watched the teachers' reactions to see if they would accept it or not.
Su Jin was calm and held up the three pancakes as if they were treasures.
Surprised and silent, Cao Min finally couldn't help but shouted: "The student's three pieces of pancakes are considered a gift to end his cultivation. Are you making fun of the teacher?"
Su Jinqi said: "The more Professor Cao talks about it, the more students can't understand it. How can the students disrespect the teacher? The students just imitate the wise elders and send pancakes thousands of miles to show their respect."
Cao Min became even more angry and shouted: "Don't let your nonsense and rude words turn into another kind of respect in your mouth. How can it be justified? You will drag him out of the Chongshen Temple. How can this person be allowed to mess around?"
Everyone in the maintenance committee stood up and rushed towards Su Jin to forcibly throw Su Jin out.
Su Jin hurriedly said: "Wait a minute, Professor Cao doesn't even give students a chance to defend themselves?"
Cao Min said: "Who wants to listen to such a disrespectful person like you?"
A group of people from the Maintenance Association were about to take action when they heard an old voice say: "Listen to him, he said that Yingtian Academy is a place for economic debate. How can he not give people a chance to speak?"
The speaker was none other than the mountain chief Qi Shunbin. Qi Shunbin is the mountain chief, to put it bluntly, he is the principal, while Cao Min is just a dean of students at best. Since Qi Shunbin spoke with approval, Cao Min did not dare to make too many mistakes, so he gave Su Jin a hard look and said:
"Qi Wengrenhou asked you to tell me the reason. If you can't explain it as a matter of course, then you can pack up the package and go where it came from."
Su Jin didn't look at him, but just raised his hands to Qi Shunbin and said: "Thank you, Mr. Shan. Students are not fooling around. I have heard that Fan Xigong went to Tianfu Academy day and night, and the winter moon was so tired that he used water to fertilize his face. If he had nothing to eat, he would
The rice porridge followed; he suffered day and night for five years without taking off his clothes before sleeping. He often couldn't even drink the porridge. In difficult times, he often divided the porridge into four portions and ate one portion when he was very hungry. Fan Gong later became a high school student and is now the pillar of the country.
Isn’t it a great contribution to make the leftover cold porridge?”
Everyone stared blankly at Su Jin when he told this old story. Some of them knew that what Su Jin said was indeed the truth. Fan Zhongyan, the pillar of the current imperial court, had indeed experienced poverty but was not lazy, endured hunger, but did not fall into the clouds.
Zhi eventually became a person admired by the world.
The white-haired Qi Shunbin sighed and said: "It makes sense. I have heard my ancestors and colleagues talk about this matter. This is the first time in many years that I have heard someone talk about Fan Gong's demeanor in the past. Now we have become extravagant and lost it."
Yingtian Academy has always adhered to the motto of 'Being like the poor and lowly, unyielding, hardworking and eager to learn'. I feel ashamed."
Cao Min tilted his nose angrily and said: "Weng Qi, don't believe his strong words." He turned to Su Jin and shouted: "How can you be so sharp-tongued and talkative when everyone here is a three-year-old child for you to tease? You are disrespectful to the teacher and the academy will not let you stay."
Su Jin said sternly: "A porridge and a meal are not easy to come by. The material resources are difficult. These three pancakes cost the peasants several liters of blood and sweat. In a day, they can serve as one meal. In a famine year, several people can survive."
Is it really the most precious thing in the world? Besides, this pancake belongs to my family... My old mother baked it herself and brought it all the way from her hometown to Yingtian Academy. A poem written by a teacher at Yingtian Academy goes like this: "Sending goose feathers as a gift over a thousand miles is less important than affection." This means respecting the teacher's way.
But it’s priceless.”
Qi Shunbin nodded repeatedly and said: "Professor Cao, I think what he said about Shu Xiu's etiquette comes from his heart. He doesn't care about the value of the gift. Don't make things difficult for him."
Cao Min's face turned green and red, his teeth itched with hatred, and he silently checked the list. He remembered Su Jin's name in his heart, and there was one more person on the list of people who needed to be beaten and tortured in the future.
Su Jin was about to retreat triumphantly when he heard someone in the first hall say: "Brother Su, why haven't you taken your gift yet? Didn't you say that you would put it at your younger brother's place for repairs and then give it to you?"
Su Jin looked back in shock and saw Xia Silin holding up a purple inkstone and waving at him. The person who identified the goods recognized it at a glance. It was Duan Inkstone, the most expensive inkstone produced in Duanzhou. Unexpectedly, this guy offered three pancakes first.
After being in the limelight for a while, he actually had to present a Duan Inkstone. Now it was another scene.
Su Jin was helpless. It seemed that Xia Silin divided half of his gift and gave it to himself. He presented the sapphire paper stone but kept the most valuable Duan Inkstone to show his dignity. Although the inkstone was hers, Su Jin still felt a pain in his heart. If he had known she had
Having come up with this idea, I intercepted the inkstone myself and sent it away now, which is like a meat bun beating a dog with no return.
Presenting the inkstone, Su Jin returned to his original position and sat down, sulking. It seemed to Su Jin that he didn't like this incident. He presented three pancakes, but in fact, he didn't agree with this disruptive practice of openly accepting gifts. He finally racked his brains to get through it.
After passing the test, Xia Silin made it look like it was going to end but he finally compromised.
The few students who were unaware of what Su Jin was thinking all raised their thumbs at him and praised him for his sharp words and generous actions.
Su Jin cursed secretly in his heart: "You are the one who spends a lot of money. Your whole family spends a lot of money." dd