After leaving the library, Wei Chen noticed that it was raining lightly outside. He hurriedly covered the books in his arms under his gown and braved the rain to return to the dormitory.
Due to the "enrollment expansion" and "class division" of the free school, Wei Chen has now moved to the upper dormitory and has also changed a group of roommates.
Among these people, only Chen Jun was originally a volunteer student, and the other five were all newcomers.
They are not all poor students, but they came from all over Jiangning Prefecture to study after hearing that Lin Yan came to teach at Sheng's Free School.
Wei Chen only met these new classmates once during class during the day. They had not yet known each other by name and were not very familiar with each other.
Seeing Wei Chen return to his dormitory, Chen Jun led everyone forward. Wei Chen put down the book in his arms and stepped forward to greet everyone with a smile: "I'm Wei Chen in Jingxi. I've met you all."
These people had heard of Wei Chen's name before coming to the charity school. At this time, they did not dare to be scornful, and they all returned the courtesy: "Nice to meet you."
"I'm going to Yuanlu Qingzhou."
"I would like to congratulate you on this present day."
"Tao Dazhi in Xiajiang Ning."
"Xie Xuan in Xiajiangpu."
"I am Gaochun Dujia."
One after another, everyone passed their names, and under Chen Jun's introduction, Wei Chen also learned about the origins and backgrounds of several new classmates.
Lu Qingzhou and He Jinchao are old acquaintances. They both come from Hongle Academy in Shangyuan County, which is a famous local academy.
Before Lin Yan came to Sheng's Free School, he had been invited to give lectures at Hongle Academy for half a month.
During this period, both Lu Qingzhou and He Jinchao were impressed by Lin Yan's vast talents and knowledge, and simply followed Lin Yan to study at Sheng's Free School.
These two people are also recognized as the two people with the best academic performance in the free school. They are familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics. They started learning crafts two years ago. In terms of basics, even Chen Jun is far behind them, let alone Wei Chen.
.
Tao Dazhi was from the provincial capital and was considered a son of a merchant. His father opened a bathhouse near the city gate and the business was very prosperous.
Tao's father had some business dealings with Sheng Wei. Hearing that Sheng Wei's free school was doing well, he sent his son here through his connections.
As for Xie Xuan and Du Jia, they are both poor children from neighboring counties. They came to Sheng's Free School simply because there is no tuition fee and all meals and accommodation are included.
In fact, most of the more than 100 students in the Free School are like Xie Xuan and Du Jia, but there are only a few like Lu Qingzhou, He Jinchao, and Tao Dazhi.
After the few people greeted each other, they all retreated and returned to their seats to rest. Wei Chen also picked up the Wenfu he took back from the library and looked at it.
He Jinchao had long heard of Wei Chen's name as a child prodigy and was very curious about Wei Chen. When he saw Wei Chen reading there, he immediately walked to Wei Chen's side, shaking his head, pretending to be looking for something, and occasionally looking over his head to glance at Wei Chen.
The book in Chen’s hand.
Wei Chen was engrossed in reading and didn't notice his movements. Of course, even if he found out, he wouldn't say anything. It's not like he was reading a banned book, so there was nothing to hide.
He Jinchao poked his head around for a while, with a sneer on his face. He returned to Lu Qingzhou, with whom he had a close friendship, and whispered: "Brother Lu, what do you think the child prodigy is looking at?"
Lu Qingzhou was doing the homework assigned by Lin Yan during the day. He glanced at He Jinchao and said, "Stop being so pretentious, just tell me."
He Jinchao smiled and said: "The prodigy is reading "Four Books, Major Titles and Small Titles"!"
"What? Someone actually reads this book?"
Lu Qingzhou became interested after hearing this, put down his pen and glanced in Wei Chen's direction.
His and He Jinchao's beds were far away from Wei Chen, and it was unclear for a while what book Wei Chen was reading, but since He Jinchao said that Wei Chen was reading Wenfu, he couldn't be wrong.
Lu Qingzhou said in surprise: "This Wenfu contains dozens of volumes. The academy lecturer also asked me to read it. I read a few articles and then lost them. It was really big. This kind of book is only available to those old boys and girls.
Only then will we work hard to study, hoping that the blind cat will encounter a dead mouse."
"Who says it's not?"
He Jinchao chuckled and said: "I have been staring at Wei Chen during the evening class today. In the past hour, he didn't even write a single question. How dare he claim to be a child prodigy? Now he still looks at Wenfu. It's really
How stupid!"
Lu Qingzhou frowned and said: "No matter what, this Wei Chen is a talent valued by Master Xuezheng. He shouldn't be so stupid."
He Jinchao laughed: "Master Xuezheng's vision is certainly not wrong, but Brother Lu, you have forgotten, Master Xuezheng appreciates this person's poetic talent!
This person may have some talents, but so what, the imperial examination does not test poetry! He knows nothing about contemporary literature, and he may not even be able to pass the county examination in the future!"
Lu Qingzhou and He Jinzhao came to Youyang from Hongle Academy in Shangyuan. In addition to truly admiring Lin Yan as a master, they also wanted to be the head of a chicken rather than the tail of a phoenix.
Shangyuan County, like Jiangning County, is part of the provincial capital. In comparison, Youyang is much more remote.
When they arrived at Shengshi Yixue, they naturally had a sense of superiority like those from the city who went to the countryside, and they did not think highly of most students of Shengshi Yixue.
But among these people, there turned out to be a child prodigy who was praised by the Master of Academic Affairs. Lu Qingzhou and He Jinchao were naturally not convinced. As soon as they arrived at the school, they paid special attention to Wei Chen and wanted to test the quality of this child prodigy.
How.
At this time, Wei Chen seemed to be unworthy of his name. While Lu Qingzhou and He Jinchao breathed a sigh of relief, they also became more and more disdainful of Wei Chen's name as a "prodigy".
Lu Qingzhou is quite deep in the city. When he heard He Jinchao's words, although he agreed with him in his heart, he did not express his hostility towards Wei Chen on his face like He Jinchao.
He slowly said: "Brother He, please be careful. Since we are classmates, we should work together to study together. Why should we talk behind our backs? Does Wei Chen have real talents and practical skills? By the time of the next monthly class,
You will know for yourself."
He Jinchao smiled and shook his head, staring at Lu Qingzhou and saying: "Brother Lu, you still talk about me? Are you eager to surpass Wei Chen in the monthly class rankings?"
Lu Qingzhou did not answer, but continued to do his homework.
He Jinchao wanted to ask further, but he heard a loud shout from beside him.
"It's so noisy! Can't let anyone sleep?"
He Jinchao and Lu Qingzhou looked over after hearing this, and saw Tao Dazhi in the next bed glaring at them angrily.
He Jinchao wanted to step forward to argue, but was held down by Lu Qingzhou. Lu Qingzhou whispered: "You and I are both scholars, why bother getting angry with this fat, pig-like merchant's son?"
He Jinchao thought the same thing, shook his clothes, glared at Tao Dazhi fiercely, and then returned to his bed arrogantly.
He pulled out a wooden basin from under the bed, went out to the kitchen to get hot water, and prepared to burn his feet before going to bed.
When He Jinchao walked into the dormitory with a basin full of hot water, he heard Tao Dazhi's cold voice: "Dear classmates, it's getting late, I've turned off the lights."
As soon as he finished speaking, a blowing sound was heard, and the dormitory suddenly fell into darkness.
"Hey, wait, I still..."
In a panic, He Jinchao unconsciously took half a step forward, and happened to bump into a large pile of debris that someone didn't know who had piled it up. He immediately threw the person and the basin and turned him upside down.
With a splash, scalding hot water splashed all over He Jinchao, causing several large blisters on his exposed hands.
He Jinchao covered his hands and grimaced in pain, and the anger in his eyes almost burst out.