Chapter 173: Chapter 154 Jing Zi and Teacher (Thanks to the brother “Heaven’s Little Door” for the 100,000 coin alliance reward!) Chapter 173: Chapter 154 Jing Zi and Teacher (Thanks to the brother “Heaven’s Little Door” for the 100,000 coin alliance reward!) Jingzhi wished she could pounce on the brazen scholar in front of her, bite him to death, find a hole to crawl into, and never see anyone again.
She felt a mix of sha and rage, her mind in turmoil, faced with a couplet from Zhao Rong for which her mind drew a complete blank.
In the past, Jingzhi always followed her teacher; all the n she encountered were gentlen with proper speech and conduct, at least in front of her and her teacher. After arriving at the Academy, for various reasons, the students there treated her with great respect, let alone these destitute scholars who couldn’t even step through the Academy’s gate.
But today, she unexpectedly faced a shaless rogue who dared to make such flirtatious remarks.
She had occasionally glimpsed such language in books, which made her blush and quickly shut the book with a snap, followed by an annoyed spit.
However, now, this libertine scholar had the audacity to speak such words to her in public!
Jingzhi glared at Zhao Rong, biting her red lips until a purple mark appeared; at this mont, she felt as if half of her life’s purity had been destroyed by Zhao Rong.
Jingzhi’s chest heaved violently, she sniffed hard, forcing back whatever was about to spill from her eyes.
With her mind blank, Jingzhi listened as Zhao Rong continued to pose and answer his own couplets.
She clenched her teeth, her voice no longer as crisp as before, now deeper and with a slight tremble.
“You, produce another, the previous one doesn’t count… I wasn’t listening carefully.”
Zhao Rong nodded at her words, gazing at her tearful appearance, and suddenly said, “Searching and searching, all alone and desolate, so bleak and sorrowful.”
Upon hearing this, Jingzhi’s brows slowly knitted together as she pondered deeply over this mysterious, long phrase she had never heard before, seriously asking:
“Is this sentence incomplete, is there more to it?”
Zhao Rong raised an eyebrow, smiling at her, without responding.
Seeing Zhao Rong ignore her, Jingzhi was helpless and rubbed the cloth between her fingers hard, lowering her gaze to contemplate again.
“Wandering… hesitantly…”
She started but then stopped.
“Thinking… deliberating…”
She softly muttered a few words and then shook her head vigorously.
The more she chewed over Zhao Rong’s unique long phrase, the more exquisite, intricate, and thought-provoking she found it…
If she forced a response, she could manage it, but anyone with clear sight could see through such half-hearted effort, and she was too embarrassed to do that…
Jingzhi looked down at her toes, but she could still feel everyone’s gaze, especially the “libertine scholar’s” calm eyes; although he didn’t belong to the Fu Yao Realm, she felt imnse pressure from him.
Jingzhi’s hands dangled at her sides, uncertain where to place them, and she nearly twisted her dress corner to tatters.
Zhao Rong waited quietly for half a quarter of an hour, looked up at the sun to guess the ti, and then turned to comfort her in a gentle voice, “Alright, miss, go back and think it over slowly. If you can’t figure it out, you can ask soone. Hmm, according to our agreent, what should you call now?”
The blue-clothed girl’s face was a mixture of paleness and distress. She hung her head, not looking at Zhao Rong who was speaking, or the pairs of eyes behind him.
At a certain mont, she relaxed her bite, releasing her bruised lips, and hesitatingly pushed out three words from her throat.
“Big… brother…”
Zhao Rong blinked, “Louder, I can’t hear you.”
Jingzhi’s hand, holding a corner of her garnts, suddenly clenched into a fist, remaining silent for a mont with an indiscernible expression, her voice still as faint as a mosquito’s.
“Big brother…”
Zhao Rong leaned in to listen, then feigned a sigh, “Alright, let’s say you called twice, but make the last sentence louder; otherwise, if soone didn’t know, they might think you’re acting coy here, how awkward that would be…”
No sooner had he finished speaking, Jingzhi suddenly looked up and loudly exclaid, “Big brother!”
Zhao Rong’s eyebrows lifted, unaffected by the abrupt outburst. He sincerely regarded the girl with a strong sense of pride and praised:
“Good! That’s spirited, little sister!”
Jing Zi could no longer bear it; ever since her spiritual awakening, she had never suffered such humiliation. Her eyes instantly brimd with crystal-clear tears, incredibly bright under the sunlight. She hastily raised her hand to block and blurted out, “You just wait for what’s coming, old lady!”
The blue-clothed girl spoke with viciousness, then twisted her body and ran inside the door. Before leaving, she also tore off the strange couplets on the wooden door and took them with her.
Zhao Rong glanced at her retreating figure, then turned back to look at the stunned crowd and shrugged his shoulders.
——————
In the southeast corner of Linlu Academy, there was a tranquil yard, hidden amidst lush greenery.
The area outside the yard was a consistent pink hue, yet the scent that hit the nostrils upon entering was exotic and strong; looking around, there were countless varieties of planted flowers and plants.
The most eye-catching among them were the orchids with no fewer than ten different colors—red, yellow, white, green, blue, and orange. Though these colors should have created a dazzling and seductive palette, they were instead rendered into understated elegance and quiet solitude by the garden owner’s unique trimming and placent.
A crack in the root of the courtyard wall allowed clear water to seep in, which wound its way to the front yard, circling among the orchid clusters before flowing out.
Paths connected throughout the courtyard with strategically placed rocks, and right in the center, a signboard that read “Elegance of Orchids” hung above the study’s porch.
The doors to the study were closed tightly, while the window fras were left wide open.
Looking inside through the windows, one could see a Beauty Couch in front of the window, and not far from it, there was a large huali wood and marble desk, with various letters piled upon it, alongside dozens of precious inkstones and colorful brush pots, the brushes within them standing dense like a forest.
The courtyard was serene, accompanied only by the sound of andering water and the subtle fragrance that delighted the senses.
Right then, the courtyard doors were abruptly pushed open.
A delicate Confucian scholar, dressed in a wide pale blue robe, stepped into the courtyard.
At the mont, there was no one else around.
The delicate Confucian scholar held a scroll in one hand behind his back, while the other arm raised up, his slender index finger dancing through the air as though skimming the surface of water or flitting like a butterfly.
He carried himself with a ramrod posture and light steps, his expression concentrated as if he were painting in the air, using the sky as paper and his finger as a brush.
The delicate Confucian scholar strolled confidently along a winding flower path, skillfully avoiding the fragrant orchids of various colors.
At one mont, the movents of the Confucian scholar’s hand ca to a halt, and he nodded thoughtfully; the slender hand that had been writing in the air now casually rose up to the back of his head, tilting ever so slightly.
Among the splendid flowers, she pulled on the head wrap that bundled up the man’s coiffure on her head, and black locks, like cascading ink, fell smoothly over her slender shoulders.
The lady in Confucian robes had brows and eyes like a painting.
Suddenly, she tilted her head and brushed the smooth but disorderly strands of hair behind her ear, revealing half of her beautifully curved, egg-shaped face while rubbing her delicate, fair earlobe with two fingers.
As she ca close to the study, she suddenly stopped and crouched down.
There was a fallen light pink orchid on the flower path.
The lady in Confucian robes furrowed her delicate brows lightly, gently lifting the plant with her hands; a frost-white hand like snow dug into the moist black soil, turning it over. She examined the roots of the flower intently, her brow tightly knit, and after a while, let out a dim sigh.
The lady in Confucian robes dug out the wilted orchid, went to the clean stream in the courtyard to wash it carefully, and then astonishingly re-planted the orchid in the southeast corner of the yard.
After tidying up, she pushed open the door of the study, placed the scroll from her hand on the Beauty Couch, and turned to walk toward a screen in the room that was filled with ink characters.
Her steps were asured.
As she walked, she began undoing the belt of her pale blue Confucian robe.
The already loose garnt that concealed her figure loosened even further…
Bang—
Just then, a noise ca from within the courtyard.
The hand at the woman’s chest that was about to strip her garnt suddenly froze, and she abruptly turned her head back.
A rash blue-clothed girl with puffed cheeks barged in through the door.
She held a set of couplets in her little hand.
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