Chapter 61: An Old Friend Arrives

In the evening, Wang Mingyuan finally couldn't help himself and quietly opened the parcel given by Instructor Liu. Inside, several notebooks were neatly arranged.

After flipping through them briefly, he realized that a successful imperial scholar's train of thought was separated from his own current status as a mere qualifying student—still struggling at the threshold of the prefecture examinations—by what felt like a vast celestial river.

Finding the concepts truly obscure and difficult to comprehend, he carefully closed the booklet he had opened.

Trying to digest too much at once leads to poor assimilation, and if he forced himself to blindly chew through it, he feared he might suffer a mental deviation.

It would be better to wait until after the prefecture examinations, find a proper academy for advanced study, and then examine the notes thoroughly.

He got out of bed, dug out some waterproof oiled paper stored at home, and wrapped the notebooks tightly, layer after layer, folding every corner with meticulous care.

Then, rummaging through his chest and cabinets, he took out all the camphor he had previously purchased and stuffed it in a dense circle around the wrapped package.

Only after finishing all this did he solemnly push this "treasure" into the deepest corner of the wardrobe, covering it thoroughly with a few old clothes before letting out a long breath.

He blew out the lamp and lay down, but his mind was still filled with those obscure essays. Wang Mingyuan tossed and turned in bed like a pancake for half the night, dozing off only when the sky outside the window began to grow pale.

The next morning, he groggily dressed and washed up. Only after polishing off a bowl of thick noodle gruel made by his eldest brother did he finally feel revived.

"Be careful on the way!" Wang的大牛 saw him to the door, patiently nagging him once more. "Don't wander around after school lets out; I'll come to pick you up on time!"

Ever since the incident last time, Wang Daniu had practically wanted to tie his younger brother to his belt with a rope.

At the prefectural school, Chen Si was like a waiting stone statue, his neck stretched out impossibly long. The moment Wang Mingyuan stepped across the threshold of the study hall, Chen Si pounced on him.

"Brother Mingyuan! You've finally come!"

Chen Si tugged at his sleeve, looking as wronged as if he had suffered some immense grievance. "In the days you weren't here, even drinking water tasted bland! Talking to anyone else felt completely dull! ... You have no idea, yesterday when the instructor gave his lecture, I was completely lost in the clouds and mist, and there wasn't a single person I could discuss it with! I was nearly driven mad!"

He poured out his grievances like bamboo seeds spilling from a tube, and at the end, lowering his voice with lingering fear, he added, "The day before yesterday, I went to your house to see you, and as soon as I entered the alley, I ran into Instructor Liu! Goodness gracious, he pulled me aside and quizzed me for ages. My back was drenched in sweat! It scared me so much that I didn't dare go visit you these past two days!"

Wang Mingyuan was amused to the point of laughter. Just as he was about to speak, the light at the doorway dimmed.

Instructor Liu's lean figure was already standing there, his calm gaze sweeping across the study hall. Chen Si instantly fell silent, shrinking his neck as he scurried back to his seat.

Wang Mingyuan also restrained his smile and sat up straight.

Having not attended classes in the study hall for several days, he actually felt a hint of nostalgia at this moment.

Following a lecture on the Confucian classics, Wang Mingyuan listened with rapt fascination, feeling that he had gained a tremendous amount.

When school was dismissed, Instructor Liu called out Wang Mingyuan's name: "Mingyuan, stay behind."

Chen Si cast a sympathetic, winking glance at Wang Mingyuan and hurried away clutching his book box.

Once they reached the instructor's study, Instructor Liu began providing Wang Mingyuan with one-on-one tutoring. This had been agreed upon during their conversation yesterday and could also be considered Instructor Liu's personal favoritism.

Instructor Liu instructed him to write an essay every day starting from today, which the instructor would then annotate. Based on those annotations, Wang Mingyuan was to write a new essay, repeatedly adjusting and refining his work.

Taking advantage of his years of experience, Instructor Liu also began predicting potential exam topics for Wang Mingyuan.

While this might have felt like a form of torture to Chen Si, Wang Mingyuan naturally refused to turn it down, accepting it instead with sweet willingness.

After all, if this were his past life, such personalized tutoring from a master teacher, coupled with tailored exam predictions, would be priceless and impossible to buy—let alone in an ancient era lacking in educational resources.

When he finally walked out of the prefectural school's gates carrying a thick stack of newly assigned homework, the sun had already sunk in the west. At a glance, he spotted his eldest brother standing at the street corner and hurried over.

"Eldest brother, have you been waiting long?"

"No. You told me about this yesterday, so I deliberately came a little later today, right around when your school lets out. I haven't been waiting long."

As they spoke, his eldest brother effortlessly took the heavy book box from him, slung it lightly over his own back, and the two brothers walked home against the glow of the setting sun.

When they reached the alley near their home, Wang Daniu suddenly let out an "eh" and pointed toward their courtyard gate: "Third Lad, it looks like there's someone at our door?"

As twilight gathered, the faded wooden door of the Wang family home was tightly shut, yet a roly-poly shadow was curled up on the threshold.

As the two of them walked briskly closer, they saw it was a chubby boy wearing a silk tunic. His back rested against the door panel, his head nodding downward in sleep, and a shiny line of drool hung from the corner of his mouth, meandering all the way down to the front of his collar.

Moreover, his snoring was quite rhythmic—rising and falling—as he slept soundly.

Wang Mingyuan recognized who it was at a glance. He took a few quick steps forward, stopped right in front of the boy, and suppressing a smile, gently nudged that chubby shoulder: "Wentao? Zhang Wentao?"

"Mmm... is dinner ready?"

The little fatty mumbled vaguely in his sleep, his eyes still closed as he smacked his lips. "What kind of... meat is being stewed today? It smells so good..."

He even subconsciously sniffed the air, as if he could genuinely smell meat in his dream.

Wang Mingyuan could no longer hold it in and let out a chuckle, laughing so hard his stomach ached.

This laugh completely startled the little fatty awake.

He opened his eyes in a daze, his unfocused gaze lingering for a good while before finally focusing on Wang Mingyuan's face. Stunned for a few seconds, he suddenly bounced up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on: "Wang Mingyuan! You big villain! You still dare to laugh at me!"

He wiped wildly at the drool on the corner of his mouth, pointed at Wang Mingyuan, and tried his best to put on a fierce expression with his round face. "You're still laughing! Do you know how long I've waited? My legs have gone numb! My bottom feels like it's split into eight pieces! And—"

Suddenly remembering his main purpose, he aggressively placed his hands on his hips.

"Such a huge matter, and you didn't even tell me! It wasn't until Master Sun scolded me for lacking diligence the other day and casually mentioned it that I found out!

"Well, aren't you something? Passed the prefectural examination, haven't you? Top scholar of the prefecture, aren't you? Grown too big for your britches? Don't have me as your brother in your eyes anymore, do you?

"I'm not here today to share a delicious meal with you! I'm here to demand an explanation!"

In the middle of this speech, this chubby childhood friend of his completely exposed his own motives.

Wang Mingyuan looked at his old friend—whose cheeks were puffed out with anger, making him look like an exploding little pufferfish—and the warm current swelling in his chest could simply not be suppressed.

He quickly cupped his hands in a gesture of apology: "My fault, my fault! Brother Wentao, calm your anger! It was my oversight. I asked my family to inform the master, assuming the master would surely tell you, so I didn't send anyone to look for you individually...

"Besides, the reason school let out late today was because the master kept me behind specifically to explain some coursework, which is why I got home so late and made you wait this long."

"Ah? The master kept you behind specifically to explain coursework?"

Zhang Wentao's anger vanished like a pricked balloon, instantly deflating. His round face was left with nothing but sheer astonishment and heartache, throwing his earlier quest to "demand an explanation" to the winds.

"Good heavens! That must be so exhausting!

"When Master Zhao tutors me alone for half an hour, my brain feels like it's been stuffed with paste, and I have to shovel down an extra two bowls of rice at dinner just to calm my nerves!

"You having extra lessons alone... you must be exhausted, right?"

A true friend always places concern above everything else. Zhang Wentao quickly stepped forward by two paces, looked Wang Mingyuan up and down, and his eyes were filled with solicitude. "Let me take a look—your face is a whole circle thinner! Forget it, forget it."

With a grand wave of his hand, he said magnostimously, "Dinner's on me tonight! Good food, all you can eat! Let's build your strength back up!"

Watching him change his expression faster than turning the page of a book, Wang Mingyuan was both touched and amused.

Zhang Wentao himself suddenly grew a bit bashful, scratching his head with a sheepish grin as he pulled an oiled-paper parcel from behind his back like a magician:

"Ah! Almost forgot this!

"Mingyuan, look! ! !

"Mung bean pastries from Wu's Pastry Shop in town! These were always your favorite! I had to wait in line for ages just to snag this package! Of course..."

He swallowed a mouthful of saliva and chuckled sheepishly, "I did taste a couple on the side, they're delicious!"

The oiled-paper parcel still carried a trace of bodily warmth, suggesting it had been clutched tightly against his chest for a long time.

As he brought it out now, the familiar sweet fragrance seeped strand by strand through the cracks in the oiled paper.

Deeply moved, Wang Mingyuan took the package solemnly with both hands. Touching the warm oiled paper with his fingertips, he felt as though he had been transported back to those austere yet simple days of studying at the village school in Qingshui.

With this chubby fellow joking around by his side during those years, those dry and tedious Confucian classics hadn't seemed quite so difficult to endure.

"Many thanks, Brother Wentao," he said, his voice carrying a mix of warmth and emotion. "By the way, how did you find your way here?"

"Hah! Could that possibly stump me?" Zhang Wentao proudly lifted his plump chin, his small eyes shining brightly.

"You and Li Ming澜 are classmates, and so am I! I figured you'd definitely need to ask him for help in finding a place to stay!

"As soon as I thought of that, boom, didn't I find the way? I went and asked Li Ming澜; he was actually quite enthusiastic and insisted on bringing me over here. But how could that do?

"I wanted to give you a surprise!"

Rubbing his lower back, he grimaced and complained, "Who would've thought your family's doorstep is so hard to squat on? It's so stiff and unyielding, it made my bottom feel like it was cracking into eight pieces..."

Wang Mingyuan was once again amused by his chattering complaints and quickly asked, "By the way, what brings you to the prefectural city this time...?"