Black Lotus Concubine's Case-solving Notes

Chapter 107: School Troublemaker

The three of them seemed to be waiting for her on purpose, with malicious intent in their eyes.

Feng Jia ignored them and was about to step in with her skirt lifted when someone bumped her shoulder. She turned her head to look at the woman in light blue clothes with no emotion in her eyes: "Miss Zhou, is there something wrong?"

Zhou Muqi looked domineering: "You are really a country woman. Don't you even know the rules of this Gu family private school?"

The two women following behind her giggled, with deep contempt in their eyes.

Feng Jia smiled and said, "Then please Miss Zhou, teach me?"

Occasionally, groups of women passed by, and when they saw them, they couldn't help but quicken their pace.

"Have you heard of the apprenticeship ceremony?" Zhou Muqi curled her lips. "The apprenticeship ceremony is to bow three times and kowtow nine times to your mentor to show respect. We are the first batch of female students in Gu's private school. From now on, we will be your senior sisters. Naturally, you should bow three times and kowtow nine times to us as well, to perform the apprenticeship ceremony!"

Feng Jia nodded: "It seems to make some sense."

The three of them raised their lips and looked at each other with contempt.

"What if I refuse to bow?" Feng Jia asked again.

The corners of the three people's lips were frozen.

Zhou Muqi's eyes were fierce: "New disciples must pay respect to the senior sister. This is the rule of the Gu family private school! How dare you disobey?"

"Really? I heard that the founder of the Gu Family Private School, Gu Xianwei, was a man of great talent and integrity, a true Confucian scholar who believed in teaching everyone equally. The current lecturer at the Gu Family Private School is Gu Weifeng, the legitimate son of Mr. Gu. With Mr. Gu's legacy in mind, how could Mr. Gu set up such an impolite rule? I think you, Miss Zhou, are just taking advantage of the situation to deceive me."

"You!" Zhou Muqi's face flushed, and he felt that he had lost face. He narrowed his eyes fiercely, "Xie Lanzhao, you must not refuse a toast and drink a forfeit!"

Feng Jia looked troubled: "Ms. Zhou, we haven't seen each other in Cheng'en Temple for only a few days, how come you have already forgotten what I did that day? Or do you want to be like my tenth sister, accidentally fall into the water tank and get a cough?"

"What fell into the water tank?" The other two women looked at Zhou Muqi with confusion on their faces.

Zhou Muqi bit her lips and her face turned slightly pale. How could she forget?

"I am a person with a vicious heart and cruel methods..." Feng Jia stared at Zhou Muqi closely, and walked towards her step by step, smiling like a devil who just climbed out of hell: "You are so close to my sister, didn't she tell you that what I like to do most is to destroy beautiful women! Especially, beautiful and young women like you three!"

After saying this, Feng Jia swept a half-smile across the faces of the three people.

Zhou Muqi was frightened by her and broke into a cold sweat. He stepped back step by step, his back pressed against the wall: "You! How dare you!"

"Whether I dare or not, Miss Zhou can try it!" Feng Jia stopped smiling, and a thick layer of frost formed on her face, which made people shudder.

The other two ladies couldn't help being frightened. They gently pulled Zhou Muqi and whispered, "Qiqi, forget it..."

"Do you think I'm afraid of you!" The more her friends said this, the more embarrassed Zhou Muqi felt. She told herself that this was not Cheng'en Temple, but Gu's private school. She had Princess Mingyue as her backer, and almost all the high-class women in the private school were friends with her. Xie Lanzhao was a concubine's daughter who had just come to Beijing from a remote place like Shicheng. She had used some tricks to climb up to the position of a legitimate daughter, and she still had lowly blood in her bones. What was there to be afraid of?

No matter how fierce and cruel she is, she is just one person, weak and powerless! There is no need to be afraid of her!

Thinking of this, Zhou Muqi changed the frightened look on his face and said, "Xie Lanzhao, you are so arrogant on your first day in the private school. What will happen in the future? I will teach you a lesson today and let you understand the rules of this Gu family private school!"

"Someone! Take off her clothes!"

At Zhou Muqi's command, two strong maids came up from behind, both of them had sinister smiles on their faces and rolled up their sleeves with ease, they must have done this often.

However, before their hands could touch Feng Jia, their wrists were grabbed by the maids behind Feng Jia, one on each side. With two "crackling" sounds, the wrists of the two maids were broken and screams were heard.

"Ouch! It hurts so much!"

"Ouch! My old slave's wrist!"

The two men fell to the ground, rolling around in pain. Zhou Muqi's eyes widened with fear, but she still said stubbornly, "How dare you! How dare you touch my servants!"

"I'm so sorry, Miss Zhou. I've always been a hot-tempered maid since I was young, and I'm always loyal to my master."

Feng Jia smiled, "A few days ago, a man said a few bad things about me by mistake, and my maid cut off his tongue. A few days before that, another man wanted to do something bad to me, and my maid found out. I chopped off his hands and feet, leaving only his head. I put it in a dung bucket and didn't stop the bleeding. He just kept bleeding. Normally, he shouldn't have lived for more than half a day, but my maid is very vicious and I use half a piece of thousand-year-old ginseng to keep him alive every day. I watched that man's limbs slowly rot and maggots grow out. Those maggots hatched into eggs and came out of his eyes and nose. That man cried for his parents, but my maid thought it was too noisy, so she cut off his tongue. That man couldn't live or die!"

"Ahhhh!" The two girls screamed in unison, looking at Feng Jia as if they were looking at a devil, and stumbled away.

Zhou Muqi was also frightened by the scene and wanted to run, but was stopped by Feng Jia. Her voice was very calm, as if killing someone was a trivial matter: "So, Miss Zhou, if you have forgotten what happened in Cheng'en Temple, let me remind you today, don't mess with me, otherwise it will be Miss Zhou who will be in the barrel!"

"Madman! Madman!"

Zhou Muqi pushed Feng Jia's shoulder away, his face turned pale, and he ran away almost as fast as he could.

"With just this little courage, they dare to come out and scare you?" Song Huai laughed, and then said worriedly: "But today is your first day of class, and you scared the three of them. If the teacher of the Gu family knew about it..."

"It doesn't matter," Feng Jia said, "These few people are circling around us like flies. It's too annoying. It would be better to scare them out of their wits!"

After saying that, Feng Jia stepped into the door.

The furnishings inside are simple and rustic. Occasionally, there are a few women holding books in the corridor, walking by and chatting. Not far away, there are also the sounds of reading aloud, which is very pleasant to the ears.

Since the previous dynasty, Dali attached great importance to the education of aristocratic children and established the Imperial Academy for them to study at the appropriate age. However, most aristocratic children could obtain titles based on the official positions of their fathers or ancestors, so many people came to the Imperial Academy not really to study. They either came to gain a good reputation as a student of the Imperial Academy, or were uneducated and wasted their time there.

Later, the imperial examination system was reformed. Scholars who wanted to become officials had to pass the imperial examination. The Imperial College also changed its rule of only accepting children of aristocrats and opened its doors to scholars from poor families. However, the students admitted under this circumstance were of varying quality. In order to eliminate this drawback, Taixue was built in the capital, which was equivalent to the preparatory class of the Imperial College. Only those who ranked top in the Taixue had the opportunity to enter the Imperial College. No matter whether they were poor farmers, lowly merchants, or children of officials, they were all equal.

Ever since Feng Jia, the former Junior Chancellor of the Dali Temple, fought for a different path for women in the palace than that for women in the harem, the Dali period allowed women to go to school and take the imperial examinations or the civil service examinations. However, not to mention the women of the common people, even many women of the aristocracy were illiterate.

They were taught from childhood that women should be of low status and follow the rules. They learned embroidery, playing the musical instrument, and the three obediences and four virtues. Very few of them could even write, and even fewer could apply what they had learned to their own studies.

Therefore, private schools began to flourish in various places. Private schools could be said to be preparatory classes for entering the Imperial College. Regardless of women's social status, as long as they could afford the tuition, they could study in a private school. The most famous private school in the capital, and the first choice for many children of high-ranking officials, was the Gu Family Private School.

The first lesson Feng Jia learned when he entered the private school was poetry.

An old gentleman with a white beard was speaking with saliva flying and passion, while half of the students were asleep.

The old man, whose last name was Jia, knocked on the table in a disappointed tone, then looked out the window at the lotus pond in full bloom and said with feeling: "I wonder if you students who are sleeping during my lectures think that the knowledge in this book is too dry or that this ancient poem is too easy to understand!"

"The teacher will not give a lecture today. I will test you! Please improvise a poem based on the lotus outside the window!"

Hearing this, most of the students lowered their heads, a small number looked around, and only a few raised their heads, looking eager to give it a try.

Just as the white-bearded old man was about to call out the names, a female voice suddenly came.

"Sir, why don't you let Xie Lanzhao give it a try!"

The woman had a smile on her face, but her eyes were clearly filled with mockery and hatred. It was Zhou Muqi.