CH 26

This kick was really hard.

Zhao Yuan turned his head and threw a few words at the assistant teacher who was shrinking in the corner.

“Drag him out and expel him.”

That was the son of Ning Wang, after all, his own nephew. The assistant teacher looked at the demonic expression on Zhao Yuan’s face and nodded in agreement without even finishing his internal complaints.

The group of troublemakers were scared and instinctively retreated. They deeply resented their inability to find a way out at the moment.

“Kneel down!”

With a thump, all the boys who were standing fell to the ground.

Zhao Yuan coldly swept his gaze over the assistant teacher. The assistant teacher trembled and suddenly understood Zhao Yuan’s intention. He cleared his throat and said, “Rule five: confinement for several months, no going out; rule six…”

“Just say the fifth rule directly.”

The assistant teacher swallowed and said firmly, “Punishment with a cane until bleeding for disturbance.”

As soon as the words fell, several boys couldn’t even kneel steadily. The punishment with the teaching cane in this school was comparable to a major punishment. At this moment, they only wanted to beg for mercy, but they didn’t dare to open their mouths when facing Zhao Yuan.

“Finish the class first, and then go receive your punishment.”

After speaking, Zhao Yuan sat down with a relaxed attitude, indicating that he wanted to lead by example and listen to Li Yi’s lecture.

Li Yi’s gaze followed Zhao Yuan, but he didn’t come back to his senses for a while.

He had long seen Zhao Yuan walking towards the classroom from the window. Knowing that Li Yi was lecturing, Su Wang had only stood still under the sycamore tree and listened quietly.

When the incident occurred, Li Yi’s full attention was focused on dealing with the students, and he had no idea when Zhao Yuan entered the classroom.

Now that the storm has passed, when he looked back on it, the inkstone was just a short distance away from his forehead. He didn’t even try to dodge, why did he have such confidence and long-lost recklessness in his heart?

No matter what, it was like when he was young, daring to write a letter to someone he liked.

At some point, he realized that even though Zhao Yuan warned him to be careful, he was already dependent on him deep down.

Zhao Yuan sat down below and saw Li Yi’s clear eyes, which were not as bright as before, but seemed to be covered with a layer of mist as he looked at him. Zhao Yuan’s heart surged uncontrollably, knowing that Li Yi’s guard against him was not as strong as before.

He had not tasted this sweet feeling yet, but his mind was already tense. Zhao Heng was still sitting behind him, and he had already seen it from outside the window. The Emperor had heard Li Yi’s words “no monarch to serve” loud and clear.

Zhao Yuan coughed lightly, and Li Yi woke up, using his well-practiced skills to continue speaking.

“Scholars are not subjects, nor officials. This refers to the situation of ‘no ruler’. What is meant by no ruler, firstly, when there is great chaos in the world, there is no ruler. Before the establishment of the great state, there was chaos in the world, and you have just experienced it. This is the era of no ruler. At such times, scholars should not be subjects or officials.”

Zhao Heng listened attentively while propping his cheek. Today, his uncle was showing his might, and Zhao Bi was indeed not a good person. If he were to hand over Li Yi, it should be to him, Zhao Heng. The relationship between a monarch and his subjects was clear.

Zhao Bi, as a commoner without a title, dared to oppose his teacher today. He would dare to rebel in the future!

But let’s listen to what Li Yi has to say. If he doesn’t speak well, later on, when his uncle criticizes him for not doing his job properly as a ruler, he could use Li Yi’s matter to divert attention.

National affairs come before family affairs, right? His truancy was a family affair, but Li Yi’s offense to the emperor was a national affair, which should be dealt with first.

Zhao Heng was thinking nicely, but Li Yi had already said, “Secondly, the saint also said, ‘Serve the ruler with loyalty,’ so a scholar should not serve two masters. If a scholar has previously served as a subject and entered the court as an official, unfortunately encountering the death of his ruler, the scholar will no longer have a ruler to serve. Therefore, the ‘etiquette’ says that there are scholars who do not serve emperors or lords.”

If the previous ruler he served had already died, out of loyalty, the scholar would have no ruler to serve. This is the second situation where there is no ruler to serve.

“Have you all understood?”

The Regent’s cold voice spoke, and the kneeling young men quickly replied, “We understand.”

Zhao Heng almost wanted to applaud from below. It was no wonder he was the former dynasty’s grandson and Guo Shen’s personal disciple. Li Yi explained it very cleverly. Many great scholars in the past avoided this section, and the scholar invited by the palace only explained the first part and did not explain the second part.

It seemed that the Pan palace could have another reason to invite him. From a certain perspective, the emperor thought that, Li Yi would be his best guide. At his age, he had received a full set of monarch education. He could see what he saw and think what he thought.

Even if the scholar who came to teach the emperor was excellent, he could not make up for the age and background between him and Zhao Heng. Looking at the peak of the empire, the rivers and mountains were magnificent, but the winds were fierce on all sides.

The Regent was the emperor’s reliance, and the emperor could also learned a lot from the Regent Prince, but if it was about a teacher, perhaps Li Yi, who had experienced ups and downs, was the most suitable.

When the emperor returned from his wandering thoughts, he saw the Regent looking at him with a stern face.

Knowing Zhao Yuan well, Zhao Heng was also a little nervous and, after leaving the hall, he hurried back to the palace, making excuses for feeling unwell.

Sure enough, the Regent Prince was waiting outside the Imperial Study. Zhao Heng repeated the reasons he gave to Liu Shunzhong, his attitude sincere. When he mentioned that listening to all opinions would bring clarity, he had a feeling sprout.

“Today Royal Uncle saw it. The scholars at Pan Palace all possess specialized knowledge and offer new interpretations with confidence. They are not like those timid ones in the palace. Li Yi’s lectures on etiquette were exceptionally good, and I truly regret not being able to listen to him more.”

“Your Majesty, do you really enjoy listening to Li Yi’s lectures?” Zhao Yuan was somewhat surprised.

“Royal Uncle, please don’t bring Li Yi into the palace. It is said that he does not serve the emperor or the feudal lords. Now that I have you to assist me in governing the country, I can simply visit the Pan Palace to attend classes from time to time.”

But he must be careful not to be too obvious. If Zhao Yuan were to impulsively bring Li Yi to his side, it would defeat the purpose. He still had many stresses of a young emperor to deal with and wanted to slowly coax Li Yi into talking about the ancients to relieve stress, but he doesn’t want Zhao Yuan to know his intentions.

If everyone knows his identity, how could they still treat him like a disciple and speak to him honestly?

Zhao Yuan had no intention of bringing Li Yi into the palace. If he did, how would he be able to see the person? All he thought about was when to bring Li Yi back home and not let him stay in the house near Pan Palace.

The Emperor’s impression of Li Yi was still good, which was a good thing, but it was somewhat beyond Zhao Yuan’s control. Perhaps he should be more cautious?

If Zhao Heng really treated Li Yi as a half-master, and then he kept him like that, the Emperor would not be pleased.

After the Regent Prince visited the Pan Palace, the restless young men who used to sit and stand every day were suddenly quiet as if they had been beaten. In the midst of the respectful silence, Li Yi noticed that Bai Xian loved to listen to his lessons.

Bai Xian’s health was not good, and he took leave every three or five days, but he would attend most of Li Yi’s classes, which was far higher than the attendance of other classes. After asking Li Yi a question or two, he seemed to be getting better at asking questions.

Only after leaving the “Exhorting Virtue Building,” Bai Xian caught up with him and said, “Teacher, I have a question.”

Looking at that almost identical face in his memory, Li Yi silently concealed his emotions.

Zhao Heng was now adept at pretending to be sick, coughing a few times as he walked, prompting Li Yi to say, “Why didn’t I see your servant today?”

Bai Xian’s condition was such that he couldn’t be alone.

Zhao Heng was startled, and only then did he realize that Wei Che had not been seen after class.

During class, the servants waited outside, and Li Yi remembered Bai Xian’s servant because he felt that he looked familiar, but upon closer inspection, foreign people all looked similar, and he had seen many Western Yue envoys when he was Crown Prince, sometimes not even able to tell them apart.

Indeed, after Wei Che shaved his beard, changed his clothes and hairstyle, he looked so different that Li Yi who had only met him once or twice, could not remember him.

“I’ll go with you to look for him.”

“Teacher, there’s no need to trouble you.” Zhao Heng knew he didn’t need to, but he didn’t want to push too hard.

Li Yi accompanied Zhao Heng and turned to the garden behind the “Exhorting Virtue Building” only to see Wei Che coming out in disheveled clothes with a wound on his face.

Although Li Yi was surprised, his reaction was far inferior to Zhao Heng’s.

Zhao Heng’s eyes were about to pop out. In this small Pan Palace, who dared to bully his Royal Guard? What kind of skills did Wei Che have?!