Feng Jin had always believed that he was from an aristocratic family and that he had received the best education, which meant he wouldn’t do anything rude under normal circumstances.
That was, until he met Jiang Pengji.
He coughed so hard that his face turned red. He quickly pulled himself together and reorganized his “crime scene.” His face looked awkward.
“Lanting, Master Yuanjing is a master who has earned the respect of the whole world. How could you say something like this about him…?” Feng Jin couldn’t say more about it because he couldn’t find the right word to describe what she had suggested.
Jiang Pengji twitched her lips and said, “It’s just a joke, but I rephrased it another way. I didn’t mean to ruin his reputation. Why do you have to act like that? If I said this in front of his face, he might have actually agreed with me.”
Feng Jin sighed. He knew there was no comparison in talking sophistry between him and her.
“Master Yuanjing is a man with great generosity and an open mind. He wouldn’t mind being bothered by you.”
Because of the injury to his right hand, he would have a hard time using a pen for a while. It was very unfortunate that he had missed the chance to attend the evaluation, but it had left him quite a bit of spare time. Jiang Pengji had to spend time with him by playing chess or chatting with him to keep him company.
No matter if one was a student from a poor family or a gentry clan member, who wouldn’t want to strive for their career after years and years of study?
Feng Jin didn’t say it, but he clearly didn’t let it go so easily. He was very well aware of Jiang Pengji’s good will.
“What are you doing?”
After a game of chess, Jiang Pengji told Taxue to prepare a table in the yard and laid some bamboo papers on the table.
“Do some reviewing. We are doing nothing anyway. Your attention is never on the game and I’m getting bored.” Jiang Pengji kneeled on the bamboo coach. Taxue rolled up her sleeve and milled the ink stone for her.
Feng Jin couldn’t hide his embarrassment when he heard that Jiang Pengji saw through him. He schooled his expression and change the subject. “Reviewing? Is it the assignment that Uncle Liu gave to you?”
As the General Evaluation Officer, Liu She went to the examination room to prepare. In order to avoid doing anything that might arouse suspicion, he did not plan on coming back before the end of the evaluation.
Feng Jin could tell how much Liu She valued Jiang Pengji; he must have been dedicated to focusing on her studies. It would be normal for him to give her some homework to do.
But Jiang Pengji replied, “No. I’m just reviewing Mr. Cheng’s book collections.”
Mr. Cheng was actually Cheng Cheng.
She had “made a deal” with Cheng Cheng earlier, which was such that she would provide the best quality bamboo papers and Cheng Cheng would make a copy of his book collection. There were, however, a large number of books in his collection for Cheng Cheng to copy, which was more than ten thousand rolls. It would take at least a year or two for him to finish.
Jiang Pengji couldn’t wait that long. She had nothing else to do at the moment, so she decided to complete it herself.
The more she got involved in the society––the more she saw––they more she understood.
It was absolutely true that there were so many things that pissed her off, such as the undeveloped technology, illiterate people everywhere, savage customs, and gender discrimination. But she wasn’t going to deny that there was some brightness in the current era, as well, such as the collective wisdom from their ascendants.
She went through a large quantity of Warcraft books and found that many parts of the books matched the knowledge she had already learned. It seemed rather coarse but the principles were mostly identical, only the current era was 10,000 or 20,000 years behind.
Jiang Pengji started to put away her contempt as she settled down to study the knowledge. If it wasn’t for that, she didn’t have to put such effort into tricking Cheng Cheng for his book collection.
“Man’s nature at birth is good; nature is similar, but habits make men different. If there is no teaching, the nature will deteriorate…” Feng Jin sat next to her and watched her write that down. When he went through his memory, he didn’t have any recollection of the words. They were short sentences, but there was a deeper meaning to them, which caught his eye. He asked, “Who wrote this? It is demotic and easy to remember, which is quite interesting.”
After Feng Jin brought it up, there was a series of bullet screens flashing in the streaming room.
Laosiji Lianmeng: “Mr. Feng, this is Three Character Classic, the enlightened education of ancient Hua Country.”
Yin Yuejia Zhuge Qinmo: “The author of Three Character Classic is Wang Yinglin in Song Dynasty. You wouldn’t have any idea of who Wang Yinglin is.”
Maorongrong Depidai: “I did some research. The author of Three Character Classic is Wang Yinlin.”
Nongfu Shanquan Youdianxuan: “Wang Yinlin in Song Dynasty. But there should be no Song Dynasty in Feng Jin’s dimension, right?”
The truth was, according to some viewers’ analysis, the era she was in was more like the period of Wei Jin Two Dynasty.
Except for the answers, there were some bullet screens which stated, “It’s the father’s fault for not being able to raise their kids. A teacher’s laziness makes students slack.”
It was a tangle of different bullet screens. Even Jiang Pengji, who had a good memory, nearly felt dizzy after them.
Jiang Pengji lowered her head, took a glance of the bullet screens, and kept writing.
“I don’t know. The author is already untraceable. I just wrote it down out of interest.”
The streaming was a bit off. It felt like they were having a festival.
When Jiang Pengji asked for their advice about if they could suggest some elementary education books, the whole room of viewers boiled. They might have no clue about the ancient books, but Google definitely did. They could finally pretend to be literate in front of their host.
Jiang Pengji wrote Three Character Classic on the first page of the book and titled the author as John Doe.
The reason why she didn’t put the original author’s name on it was because she didn’t want anyone to track down who Wang Yinglin was… So how could she know who this Wang Yinglin was?
Feng Jin didn’t feel odd about Jiang Pengji’s answer. Cheng Cheng’s boxes of books were many. He took a look at it once by chance and the books were very well organized, which indicated how much the owner cared about them. But there were a number of ancient books that were mutilated. Naturally it was going to be hard to find out who the author was.
“Mrs. Meng chose their neighbors. Is this talking about how Mrs. Meng moved three times looking for good neighbors?” Feng Jin stared at the short sentences. A big portion of them came from some familiar, historical stories.
Everyone who could read knew of the story about how Mrs. Meng moved three times for neighbors, but he had never seen anyone described it with only a few words. Feng Jin had a weird feeling, but it went away and he couldn’t use words to talk about it.
Jiang Pengji twisted her eyebrows and complained to him, “You are being noisy.”
Feng Jin’s brows went down and he sat quietly next to her.
That’s better.
Jiang Pengji kept working on her writing. The viewers in the streaming room thoughtfully looked for different versions with explanations for her, but it seemed like they didn’t copy and paste from the same website, which lead to the content being messy and irrelevant. She had to edit and omit some of them, which wasted quite a few pieces of paper.
Some viewers were eager to help Jiang Pengji, but some of them were just having fun watching the show.
Nongfu Shanquan Youdianxuan: “I almost believed that the host was going to be someone different rather than just copying things down. Apparently you still can’t avoid doing it.”
