Chapter 1: The Miserable Transmigration

  I still remember that Jiang Xia's Penguin signature used to be: "From tomorrow on, I will get up early. Getting up early can do a lot of things, such as... sleeping again."

  For someone who loves to sleep in or take a nap, 6 or 7 in the morning is absolutely the sweetest time to sleep. Especially when you've had a good dream all night and at this time you're likely to be in a state of being half asleep and half awake, then you'll find that you can consciously adjust your own dreams, forcing yourself to think hard, and then the dream scene will slowly emerge. The only drawback is that you can very clearly know that it's just a dream.

  This is a very strange feeling, I don't know if anyone has had the same experience. Anyway, Jiang Xia is in such a state at this time. In his dream, Cui Ruxue and Cui Nianslave were taking a bath, and then Jiang Xia pretended to be a statue standing beside the bathtub. Everything in front of him was clear, waves surging, ah... waves surging.

  "Slap!" Jiang Xia felt a stinging pain on the back of his hand and immediately woke up.

  He subconsciously turned his body, and in an instant, he flipped from the bed to under the bed, leaning against the wall with a vigilant posture looking forward. Jiang Xia felt a chill in her heart, it seemed that true energy disorder was indeed a very serious problem, someone had entered her room and she didn't even know... "Master?"

  Jiang Xia took a glance and only then realized that the person standing beside his bed was actually Li Dong, the old man who had fooled him into becoming his apprentice in a daze last night.

  Li Dongyang was holding a book in his left hand and a ruler in his right hand, it was obvious that his hand had just been hit by the ruler.

  "Master, what's this?" Jiang Xia asked in puzzlement.

  Li Dongyang said, "The sage has a saying: 'At dawn, rise early and read classics.' One must know that the plan for one day lies in the morning. If time is wasted on leisure, pleasure, and sleep, isn't it a waste of precious time? You once said by the river, 'Time goes like this, never stopping...'."

  "Master, I was wrong! Please take back your divine power and stop reciting that Tightening Spell!"

  After finishing, Jiang Xia got up and dressed. After washing up, Jiang Xia followed Li Dongyang to the pavilion in the garden, where Li Dongyang handed over the book in his hand to Jiang Xia. Jiang Xia took it and looked at it: "The Great Learning"?

  "Have you had contact before?" Li Dongyang asked.

  Jiang Xia nodded and said: "Remember one thing, 'The way of university is in making virtues clear.'"

  "Uh-huh." Li Dongyang nodded and said: "The writings of the classics, commonly known as the eight-legged essay, originated in the Chenghua period of the Ming dynasty. The scope of the questions is limited to the four books 'Daxue', 'Zhongyong', 'Lunyu' and 'Mengzi'. Therefore, you must memorize these four books well. The book 'Daxue' is divided into one chapter of 'Jing' and ten chapters of 'Zhuang'. 'Jing' refers to......"

  "Wait a minute, Master, I think you're wrong?" Jiang Xia suddenly interrupted Li Dongyang's words.

  Li Dongyang turned his head and looked at Jiang Xia, asking: "Where did I go wrong?"

  "Master, I didn't plan on taking the imperial exam anyway, so why teach me the eight-legged essay? This thing has too rigid a format, stifling creativity, and its content is empty, only focusing on form. It's nothing but a word game, and I'm not interested."

  Li Dongyang looked at Jiang Xia deeply and nodded: "The prosperity of the eight-part essay makes readers 'deaf to external affairs, only reading the books of sages', exhausting their entire life's energy studying the writing methods of the eight-part essay, lacking understanding of the actual situation of the country and society. Also lacking in understanding of human emotions and worldly affairs, officials lack sufficient knowledge to deal with major and minor matters among the people after taking office, can only entrust decision-making to advisors and lower-level officials, causing governance to deteriorate day by day, politics difficult to get on track. This is indeed the harm of the eight-part essay."

  "Clap, clap, clap..." Jiang Xia applauded and said: "Teacher, you're absolutely right."

  Li Dongyang shook his head and sighed, "However, the prosperity of the eight-legged essay is not entirely without its advantages. If it were not for this, how would scholars have the opportunity to enter the imperial court and fulfill their ambitions? If it were not for this, how would the Confucian classics be able to flourish and spread, and how would the people's hearts retain the ancient traditions?"

  "What's most important is that mastering the eight-legged essay is the only path to entering the imperial court. All other methods, such as protection and donation, are external paths that won't last long. Therefore, you must master the eight-legged essay."

  Jiang Xia shook his head and said: "I didn't think of becoming an official, Master."

  Li Dongyang glared at Jiang Xia, his eyes filled with a sense of disappointment and frustration. He no longer viewed Jiang Xia as he used to, perhaps Jiang Xia didn't place much importance on their master-disciple relationship, but Li Dongyang did. Raised on the classics and educated in the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, he believed in the saying "one day as a teacher, a lifetime as a father". To him, this master-disciple bond was extremely important.

  Li Dongyang's glare made Jiang Xia slightly moved, he didn't expect Li Dongyang to truly care about this master-disciple relationship. The meaning in his eyes earlier was completely understood by Jiang Xia. Jiang Xia sat up straight, his attitude becoming serious.

  Li Dongyang said: "Jiang Xia, do you know why people all say 'all things are inferior, only reading is superior'?"

  "Is it because reading books well can lead to becoming an official?" Jiang Xia asked tentatively.

  Li Dongyang thought for a moment and nodded: "Life is short, fleeting decades, from childhood to adulthood takes more than ten years, after passing the age of sixty, it's like half a foot has already entered the yellow earth. Calculating, life's useful period is only thirty or forty years."

  "These thirty or forty years, how do you plan to spend them? Every day is spent in idleness, waiting for death. If a strong enemy invades and the dynasty collapses, you have no strength to resist, no merit to turn things around. Are you willing to accept this? If so, then our relationship as master and disciple ends here. If not, then pick up your books and study hard."

  Li Dongyang's words greatly stirred Jiang Xia's heart. If he really only became a wealthy and noble idle person, then if he encountered a strong enemy invasion, he would probably have no power to resist at all. If he was targeted by some greedy officials or corrupt officials, it wouldn't take much, just an eighth-rank official could bring his family to ruin.

  Jiang Xia thought for a moment, he had been in the Great Ming Dynasty for quite some time now. It seemed that there was no possibility of returning, and if he didn't set a path for himself soon, this trip to the Great Ming would be in vain.

  "Alright, I'll listen to Master's words and learn the Eight-legged Essay to become a Scholar."

  Li Dongyang smiled and shook his head: "It's already good enough to have a jinshi, the zhuangyuan is not that easy to get."

  After finishing speaking, Li Dongyang nodded with his chin, indicating that Jiang Xia should pick up that book "The Great Learning".

  Jiang Xia had just picked up the book when he saw Yang Jing jumping around, Jiang Xia immediately shouted: "Hey, crazy girl, over here..."

  Li Dongyang was taken aback, Yang Jingjing turned her head to look at Jiang Xia, first with a smile, then hearing Jiang Xia call herself "crazy girl", Yang Jingjing stomped her foot in anger and immediately ran over. After she came over, Jiang Xia immediately stood up and walked forward holding Yang Jingjing's hand: "Crazy girl, this is my teacher, he is teaching me 'The Great Learning'. You come with me to learn together, we'll have a competition, whoever learns better can ask the one who learns worse to do something, how about it?"

  "Just compare and see." Yang Jingjing couldn't stand this kind of provocation, so she immediately agreed.

  Jiang Xia saw Li Dongyang's puzzled expression and explained, "Master, this young lady is named Yang Jingjing, a friend of my junior. Her father is quite something, a high-ranking official of the second grade, named Yang Yiying, which is a really strange name, I don't know what kind of eagle he raised that needs to be shown off everywhere."

  "My father's name is Yang Yiqing, not Yang Yu'ying!" Yang Jingjing said seriously.

  Li Dongyang smiled and nodded slightly, saying: "Alright, since you're here, let's study together. However, I must warn you beforehand that if you don't take it seriously, you'll have to face the consequences of being hit with a board."

  Saying so, Li Dongyang waved his hand with a ruler.

  Yang Yiqing's proposal was approved by Zhu Houzhao, so it didn't take long to get the imperial edict. The imperial edict clearly stated that except for some special identities and serious criminals, all prisoners with a sentence of five years or more nationwide would be assigned to Yang Yiqing for use in building border defenses. In addition, the Ministry of Revenue allocated 300,000 taels of silver as construction funds.

  Having obtained this sacred decree, the basic things have already succeeded halfway. Yang Yiqing was overjoyed. Originally he wanted to go to Xiangyang Mountain Villa to thank Jiang Xia in person, but thinking of Jiang Xia's relationship with the emperor, and also because he had promised Jiang Xia not to visit Yang Jingjing at Xiangyang Mountain Villa within seven days, so in the end Yang Yiqing endured it.

  On the side of the leopard house, Zhu Houzhao did not go to Xiangyang Mountain Villa for these two days. However, he didn't idle around and instead sent someone from Liu Jin's side to Henan. The purpose of going there was only one thing: to observe whether there was a locust disaster in Henan.

  If Henan were free from locust disasters, everything would be easy to say, but if Henan had a locust disaster, Zhu Houzhao would like to see what face Li Dongyang still has to continue serving as an official in the court.

  It is said that pulling one hair can move the whole body. Zhu Houzhao asked Liu Jin if there was a locust disaster in Henan, and Liu Jin also sensed something from it. He repeatedly sent people to investigate and finally learned that Zhu Houzhao had mentioned that the previous emperor appeared in his dream and said that there would be a locust disaster in Henan.

  After learning about the ins and outs of this matter, Liu Jin suddenly understood Zhu Houzhao's meaning. On the one hand, he sent people to continuously investigate whether there was a locust plague in Henan, and on the other hand, he sent people to start collecting all the evidence that could overthrow Li Dongyang.

  Li Dongyang, who was teaching Jiangxia with all his might, did not know whether there would be a locust plague in Henan, which would be a matter of life and death for him.

  In the blink of an eye, seven days passed. During these seven days, Jiang Xia gradually entered a state of reading. Under his influence, Yang Jingjing resisted reading for the first time. Li Dongyang's teaching was very careful, and he explained the classics in detail, making every class feel like a different kind of gain for Jiang Xia.

  Jiang Xia increasingly felt that Li Dongyang was not an ordinary person, and at the very least should be a transcendent recluse, otherwise he would not understand worldly principles so thoroughly. The great truths he spoke of in his books were not empty lectures, but used small matters to bring out various great truths, and then used these great truths to prove various great wisdoms, making Jiang Xia feel that he had gained a lot from them.

  Gradually, Jiang Xia had already regarded Li Dongyang as his true master in his heart.