- In the academy -
This was Wei Liuying first time entering the boy’s section area. She always thought that the place was similar to the girls, but she was wrong. They have large lawns where they would be able to learn archery, horse riding, and swordsmanship too. Aside from that, the large library was also very eye catching.
“Where do they hold the assessment this time, First Brother?” Wei Liuying asked.
Wei Yijun pointed to the right side of the field. “You can head there and find Teacher Su. He’ll help you out.”
“Alright, thank you, First Brother.”
Wei Liuying acted all natural as she jumped out of the carriage and strode to the field. She had seen her brother did this countless times in the past. From the back, Wei Yijun merely shook his head, thinking that his younger brother was too energetic today.
“Young Master, this way,” Huo gave direction from behind.
“Ok.”
Without even turning around, Wei Liuying could sense the direction that Huo pointed at. She noticed a middle aged man standing there. He looked quite old, but the aura around him could easily scare young boys. Wei Liuying was not that afraid, but she showed more restraint in front of him.
“Teacher Su!” Wei Liuying cupped her hands.
Teacher Su turned his head and looked at Wei Liuying. He arched his eyebrows. “You have finally return, Hong Zheng. I thought you would have forgotten about the hunt because of your wound.”
“There’s no way I’m going to forget something as important as this,” Wei Liuying intended to scoff, but she looked like she restrained herself. “Teacher, I come for the assessment.”
“Are you sure that you won’t strain yourself?” Teacher Su’s eyes looked at Wei Liuying’s leg. The incident last time was not a secret, so he knew that Wei Hong Zheng had wounded his legs.
Wei Liuying nodded energetically. “Rest assured, Teacher Su. I have already healed!”
“Alright, we’ll test out your swords’ skill first. Come with me to the field.”
Teacher Su threw a wooden sword to Wei Liuying. She caught it easily and jogged to the field. Huo was waiting on the sidelines, watching Wei Liuying with his gaze intently. He knew that even a little mistake might send their plan into the drain.
“Ready, start!”
Tak!
Wei Liuying dashed forward and brandished the sword. Wei Hong Zheng’s style was completely different from her. He was usually very brainless and simply attacked wherever he found a spot that was open. However, Wei Hong Zheng was also very nimble, which was something that Wei Liuying also had.
Swish!
Making use of the various attack from Wei Hong Zheng that she knew from their practice, Wei Liuying continued to attack Teacher Su. Her movement was a bit more crude compared to Wei Hong Zheng, but it was already similar enough.
“Alright. That’s enough,” Teacher Su said after a while. He nodded. “Your skill is still more or less the same, but you need to learn how to use your brain more.”
“Yes, Teacher Su,” Wei Liuying replied, but her eyes were looking somewhere else. It was one of the traits that Wei Hong Zheng often did. After all, he was used to be reprimanded by the teacher.
“Let’s move on to the next test.”
“Yes!”
The horse riding and archery test was easy. Teacher Su conclusion was that Wei Liuying was poorer in horse riding and the archery was well done. After all, Wei Hong Zheng didn’t learn archery in the past because the bow was simply too big for him and he refused to use the bow for children.
“Alright, you may participate in tomorrow’s hunt,” Teacher Su said with a smile. “Don’t forget to train your horse riding skill. I wouldn’t want you to fall off when you go hunting.”
Wei Liuying merely laughed while scratching the back of her head. She made up excuse that because she was too focused on learning archery, she kind of forgotten to hone her horse riding skill any further. As the result, her skill was going a bit worse than usual.
Teacher Su took her excuse. After all, he knew that Wei Hong Zheng’s legs were wounded not long ago.
“It’s good that you can recover. The last class today is reading in the library. You can catch up with the others if you’re hurry.”
“Thank you very much, Teacher Su!”
Teacher Su waved his hand and Wei Liuying darted off. He shook his head, feeling that Wei Hong Zheng had grown naughtier. However, he felt glad that the short break didn’t affect Wei Hong Zheng’s skill that much. It meant that he could be rest assured that Wei Hong Zheng would be able to maintain his performance.
Teacher Su waved his hand and Wei Liuying darted off. He shook his head, feeling that Wei Hong Zheng had grown naughtier. However, he felt glad that the short break didn’t affect Wei Hong Zheng’s skill that much. It meant that he could be rest assured that Wei Hong Zheng would be able to maintain his performance.
As someone who was not too bright in his study, Wei Hong Zheng was the source of worry of the teacher. Luckily, his result in physical ability was above average. Even if he was unable to become a scholar, becoming high ranked soldiers would be possible.
For those who came from noble family, it was easy for them to gain high rank almost immediately in the military. They didn’t need to start from the bottom and could start from the middle according to their family ranks. This method was also conducted especially during warring era where a lot of soldiers were necessary and commanders were scarce.
Just relying on military achievement would be hard as it took years for them to advance. Though, there were also nobles who chose to start from the very bottom and paved their way with their own skill without relying on their family’s influence.
“Young Master, it’s this way.”
“En.”
Wei Liuying had seen the map, but she failed to judge the distance correctly. After all, the map only gave the general layout of the academy and didn’t really provide her with enough information about the direction. It was good that Huo was helping her to provide direction or she would get lost here.
Huo was silently following Wei Liuying as they made their way to the library. He stopped on the door.
“Servants are not allowed to come in. I’ll wait for you outside, Young Master.”
“Don’t go too far,” Wei Liuying instructed.
Huo acknowledged before he moved to the side. There were several servants who were also waiting nearby, so he took this chance to engage in a talk with them.
“Hong Zheng, did you finish your assessment?” Wei Yijun called out.
Wei Liuying nodded. “Yes. I passed.”
“That’s great! Tomorrow we’ll make sure to obtain the best place in the hunt for our family.”
Hearing her first brother’s energetic answer, Wei Liuying was a bit stunned at first. However, thinking about it, Wei Yijun was actually a nice boy who cared for his family and always thought the best for the family. It was only in the household that he was forced to show submissive attitude in order to not create trouble for himself.
After all, his mother’s position was also not the best in the family.
‘I guess all of us simply have to use masks at home instead because we want to survive.’
“Heh, I’ll make sure that I can score better than you, First Brother,” Wei Liuying said with a smile.
Wei Hong Zheng would never care about the family wellbeing. All he cared about was simply his own achievement and also being the best in the family in order to become the next family head. Compared to Wei Yijun, Wei Hong Zheng was truly unsuitable to be part of a high ranking family.
Naturally, she couldn’t bring herself to have that kind of attitude like her brother. She never liked attention. If not because of his request, she would rather stay low and planned a way out for herself so that her father wouldn’t try to set her up with someone during the hunt.
Unfortunately, she wouldn’t be able to attend in person.
Wei Yijun nodded. “Come on. Your class have just started the discussion of the recent history, right? We’re currently discussing it.”
Wei Liuying nodded and looked at the other two people on the table that Wei Yijun pointed at. Almost immediately, she nearly tripped on the imaginary rock that she imagined in front of her.
The first young man was around 16 years of age, around the same age as Wei Yijun. He had tall built but a bit slender for someone at his age. His thick eyebrows made him look a bit scary as many people usually stayed away from him. But what surprised Wei Liuying was his identity.
He’s Xie Jing, Prime Minister Xie’s second son.
The two prime ministers, Prime Minister Wei and Prime Minister Xie, didn’t have good relationship with each other. It could even be said that the two of them were eyeing each other and wary of each other. Besides, didn’t Prime Minister Xie was more supporting the crown prince, but the one on the table was instead the second prince?
The second prince, Prince Ji Shao Yang, was the most low-key among the four princes. He never made any big movement on the front unlike Ji Sheng who kept on making military achievement or Ji Shu who was known in the capital city because of his many acts. The crown prince himself was fairly active in the court as he had reached the age of adult while the others were not yet.
Right now, Prince Ji Shao Yang was sitting on the same table with Xie Jing. His handsome countenance, which was similar to the fourth prince could easily attract others. However, compared to that menacing prince, he looked the most amiable.
Wei Liuying looked at her first brother with utter confusion. Why did Wei Hong Zheng never told her that Wei Yijun had such a weird variety of people as his friends?
Ah, she wished to kick her second brother’s head for being so dumb.
At this moment, Wei Hong Zheng suddenly sneezed. He looked at the window with suspiciousness, but he couldn’t see anyone, so he was confused. Who would be thinking about him? It couldn’t be his mother was worried about him, right?
