Chapter 52 | Powering Up by Meddling in Other People's Business

Time flew by.

Only a few days remained before the triennial Caiqin Trial of Qingya Academy.

It was as if a switch had been flipped for the entire academy, and its appearance changed from the inside out.

Before dawn, handymen could be seen traversing the academy with long ladders, wiping clean the dust-covered plaques and couplets.

In front of the Library, the wood-carved couplet that read, “Ten thousand volumes of past and present pass the endless days; a single window from dusk to dawn sends away the flowing years,” was polished with tung oil by Old Zhou, the handyman. The gold lacquer within the engravings of the characters shone anew in the morning light.

The brilliance was enough to make passing young page boys rub their eyes.

The bluestone mountain path outside the academy’s main gate was also thoroughly renovated.

Over a dozen stonecutters spent four or five days squatting by the roadside, prying up the stone slabs that had been loosened or tilted by rainwater, releveling them one by one, and filling the gaps with freshly pounded glutinous rice mortar.

Mountain Lord Lu Chenzhou personally supervised the work, leaning on his cane and watching by the roadside for an entire morning.

When students urged him to return and rest, he simply waved them off.

“The Caiqin Trial is the face of the academy. This is the path the examinees must walk; we cannot have them tripping before they even step through the door.”

When these words reached Chen Zui’s ears, he was squatting in the vegetable patch on the academy’s back mountain, helping Old Man Wang from the kitchen pull radishes.

Xu Yanping ran over to find him, his breath puffing out in white clouds as he repeated the Mountain Lord’s words verbatim.

Chen Zui didn’t speak after hearing them. He simply knocked the mud off a pulled radish against the side of his shoe and tossed it into a bamboo basket.

[Ding! Old-fashioned Warmth Trait activated. 2 experience points gained.]

The system notification was as faint as a mosquito’s hum, and Chen Zui didn’t even blink.

During these days in the academy, he had been fetching water for the handymen, chopping wood for the kitchen, and carrying books for the Library, accumulating nearly two hundred experience points from these miscellaneous tasks.

Though it was a pittance compared to the hundreds he used to earn at a time in Luoyan City, even mosquito legs were meat.

Furthermore, these tasks weren’t tiring, and he could score a few good meals out of them. No matter how he looked at it, it wasn't a bad deal.

The academy’s kitchen was a scene of even greater bustle.

The Caiqin Trial lasted for five days in total. Counting the examinees and their accompanying page boys and servants, there were at least three or four hundred people.

With so many people crowded onto the mountain, just the matter of feeding them was a monumental task.

Fatty Wu, the kitchen manager, was so worried that a string of heat blisters had broken out on his lip. He spent his days carrying an abacus, scurrying between the stoves and the vegetable cellar.

He constantly muttered to himself as he calculated the stock of rice, flour, vegetables, and meat.

In the end, Lu Chenzhou gave the order.

Six cooks and over a dozen helpers were temporarily hired from the town at the foot of the mountain.

They also ordered thirty jin of rapeseed oil and twenty jin of sesame paste from the oil mill in the neighboring county.

Only then did they barely manage to gather enough supplies for the duration of the Caiqin Trial.

Chen Zui was also pressed into service by Fatty Wu.

It had started when he was scrounging a meal in the kitchen and happened to help Old Man Wang chop a pile of wood.

He had chopped it both quickly and neatly.

Fatty Wu had taken note of this.

The next day, the manager arrived at Chen Zui's door with a jar of Huadiao wine and a face full of smiles, inviting him to help in the kitchen.

Chen Zui had intended to refuse.

But as soon as Fatty Wu lifted the lid of the jar and the aroma of wine drifted into his nose, he could only agree.

Thus, for the past few days, Chen Zui reported to the kitchen every day before dawn.

Chopping wood, fetching water, moving rice, mincing meat… he did every bit of heavy labor.

Fatty Wu was a bit uneasy at first, fearing that this spear-wielding martial artist would be clumsy in his work.

However, after watching for half a day, he was proved wrong.

He discovered that every axe strike Chen Zui made when chopping wood was as precise as if it had been measured with a ruler.

When fetching water, he carried two buckets so steadily that not a single drop was spilled.

When mincing meat, his cleaver rose and fell with a distinct rhythm, and the fineness of the mince was as uniform as if it had been passed through a sieve.

Fatty Wu watched in amazement.

[Ding! Old-fashioned Warmth Trait activated. 2 experience points gained.]

[Ding! Old-fashioned Warmth Trait activated. 3 experience points gained.]

[Ding! Old-fashioned Warmth Trait activated. 1 experience point gained.]

The system notifications chimed every so often, and Chen Zui gradually figured out the pattern.

Tasks like helping in the kitchen yielded little experience but were high in frequency; he could accumulate over a dozen points in a single morning.

Though it couldn’t compare to meddling in major affairs, the beauty of it was that it was a steady stream.

Moreover, he didn’t have to fight or offend anyone; he could earn experience points in peace and stability.

However, the kitchen was not the busiest place.

The Library had begun moving books out ten days ago.

The Caiqin Trial did not only test classics and policy essays; it also examined the students’ poetic skills and calligraphy.

Several of the academy’s Erudites of Classics had brought out the manuscripts of famous scholars from the previous dynasty, which they usually kept hidden away.

These were displayed in the main hall on the first floor of the Library for students to emulate and reference.

These manuscripts were usually locked in camphor wood chests and rarely shown to anyone.

It was only during the triennial Caiqin Trial that they had the chance to see the light of day again.

Xu Yanping practically lived in the Library every day.

Every time he came out, his eyes were glowing, as if he had just finished a tour of a treasure vault.

He told Chen Zui that the most precious item the academy had brought out this year was a fragmented volume of 《The Book of Songs》 personally annotated by the Great Scholar of the previous dynasty, Zhou Minxing.

It was covered in dense Tiny Regular Script, and every stroke radiated a powerful strength of character.

“Just a single look makes me feel as though my years of practicing calligraphy were in vain.”

When Xu Yanping said this, the expression on his face was a complex mix of admiration and dejection.

Old Master Cheng was even busier, his feet barely touching the ground.

He was the chief examiner for this Caiqin Trial, responsible for everything from drafting the questions to grading the papers.

During these few days, the lamp in his study never went out. His desk was piled high with reference books and drafts of past exam papers.

He would find any excuse to share a drink with Chen Zui, bringing a newly opened jar of wine every time and staying until midnight before he was willing to leave.

However, the content of their conversations never touched upon the exam questions.

Old Master Cheng simply rambled on about the past.

He spoke of how exceptionally well Fang Luming had written his essays when he participated in the Caiqin Trial.

He also mentioned that this lad Xu Yanping possessed a talent no less than his senior brother’s, but his personality was too blunt, making him prone to suffering setbacks.

Chen Zui listened, occasionally interjecting a word or two, but mostly just drinking in silence.

Lu Qinghe, on the other hand, rarely came to find him.

It wasn’t that they had grown distant, but rather that he truly could not spare the time.

The Caiqin Trial was not only a major event for the academy but also for the Lu family.

As Lu Chenzhou was advanced in years, many of the social engagements and hospitality duties of the academy were handed over to Lu Qinghe.

Those scions of great families who had arrived early had not yet officially begun their exams.

However, they had already gathered in groups of three to five in the villas surrounding the academy.

Every day, they held banquets, invited guests, and formed factions; it was incredibly lively.

As the grandson of the Mountain Lord and a student of the academy, Lu Qinghe could not avoid these occasions.

Every time he returned from a banquet, his face was filled with exhaustion, as if he were more tired than if he had been in a fight.

When he did visit Chen Zui, it was always in the dead of night. He would bring a pot of hot wine or a plate of snacks, sit for a few moments of idle chatter, and then leave.

Finally, the day arrived.

All the preparations in the academy were complete.

The mountain path was perfectly leveled, the bookshelves in the Library had been re-indexed, and two hundred desks in the Examination Booths were arranged neatly by number, each prepared with brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones.