Chapter 166: Chapter 165: Driven to the Brink by the Frenzy

The two returned a full month later than the main troop.

It was already the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month.

With the year-end approaching, the city was bustling with vendors inside and outside.

Hearing the familiar dialect in his ears and feeling the familiar smoky atmosphere, Liu Qi wiped the excited tears from his face, and his suspended heart finally settled down.

He thought, his third uncle should feel the same as him. He turned to look, but found a complex worry in his uncle’s eyes that he couldn’t understand.

“You go back first.” Liu Ji pushed Liu Qi aside and entered the city alone.

Liu Qi hurriedly called out, “Uncle, aren’t you going home?”

Without stopping, Liu Ji turned his head with a desolate expression and said, “I still have some unfinished business. You go ahead.”

“Then, let me pass the message to Aunt, telling her you’re back. She’ll definitely be very happy.” Liu Qi wanted to do something to help, as an expression of gratitude.

Without his uncle leading him, he feared he might not have made it home.

Liu Ji’s mouth twitched slightly, thinking that if that woman knew he was back, she’d definitely charge with a big knife!

Thinking of this, Liu Ji felt his heart was even colder than the freezing moat in the twelfth lunar month.

No, he had to do something—not give in easily after such a hard road back.

Didn’t they just want him to study? He would study to death if he had to!

Thinking of reading, Liu Ji expected to feel repulsed as he had before, but strangely, he was somewhat eager to turn the pages.

Studying was good. Achieving success in exams meant no more forced labor.

Anyone who wanted to go to the border could go, but he wouldn’t go again even if beaten to death!

The confidence to avoid forced labor was in passing the exams, even as a Scholar.

He handed two cents to the officials at the gate and strode towards the academy in the city.

In his haste, he had left many things in the dormitory of the academy—there were blankets, a heater, ink, paper, and inkstone. While not as good as home, having slept on grass at the border, even a broken mat now felt great.

Liu Ji felt enlightened, a clear energy rising from the soles of his feet to the top of his head; he wanted to live seriously this time!

“Brother Liu?”

Suddenly someone behind him called out cautiously.

Liu Ji was immediately awakened from that mystical feeling of enlightenment, shivering in the cold.

Looking down, he noticed a big hole in his shoe, letting in gusts of cold air straight up to his head.

“It’s really you, Liu Ji, you’ve actually made it back alive!”

A few scholars dressed in academy attire gathered around in surprise, unable to believe their eyes.

“Poor monk… No, indeed it’s me.” No longer needing to pretend as a monk, Liu Ji hurriedly reverted to his original identity, nodding and smiling at his fellow scholars.

The scholars examined him curiously, feeling there was something different about him, though they couldn’t pinpoint exactly what.

Yet his return was undoubtedly a joyous occasion. They all exclaimed, “Congratulations, congratulations, you coming back is great; we all thought you were gone…”

Realizing the words were poorly chosen, they lowered their voices and smiled awkwardly at Liu Ji.

Liu Ji waved dismissively, “It’s no problem. Are you all heading back to the academy?”

Nodding, the group accepted his invitation to walk together.

Someone asked what had happened along the way, and Liu Ji casually replied, “It was fate, indescribably wonderful.”

Realizing he had slipped back into the monk’s persona, he coughed twice and corrected himself, “A bit unexpected, but fortunately, heaven protected me from harm.”

“Brother Liu, why don’t you go home?” his classmates asked suspiciously.

Liu Ji answered, “I neglected much of my studies on this trip, and intend to make up for it quickly. Going home during the break isn’t late; studying is urgent.”

His classmates, hearing this, felt chills run down their spines, stepping back to look Liu Ji up and down.

Finally, they understood what was different. His worn coat and broken shoes couldn’t hide his high aspirations.

Studying so diligently, choosing academy over home first after returning from labor—was this the same Liu Ji who had indulged with Fan Xiucai and others before?

Someone rubbed their eyes, wondering if they were seeing wrong, feeling Liu Ji seemed more handsome now than before.

In the end, the man before them still shimmered brightly, too dazzling to gaze upon.

Having arrived at the academy, Liu Ji cupped his hands in a farewell gesture and went ahead.

In the dormitory, he had another round of greetings and explanations, and by the time he was done with his roommates, it was already dark.

He heated water, wiped himself down, washed his hair, changed into clean, thin clothes, washed his dirty clothes, sat by the fire with loose hair, drying clothes and hair while holding the Analects from the Four Books, pushing himself to study intensively.

It’d be best to memorize the whole Analects before the year ends.

Only then, when the wicked woman came calling, would there be a shred of hope.

Liu Ji felt he had never been so clear-headed, having embodied a strategist, able to read people’s minds.

Qin Yao was someone who prioritized benefits—she only tolerated assistance when it brought her gains.

When there was no advantage for her, she ignored.

If it harmed her, she would preemptively eliminate the threat in its infancy.

Having suffered at the border, Liu Ji surely knew Qin Yao had murderous intent against him.

His journey made him understand why Qin Yao was so urgent to push him into studying.

It seemed she foresaw the suffering of various social classes and wanted to elevate herself.

And wasn’t this what he’d strived for half his life too?

Yet he had foolishly sought shortcuts, forgetting one essential problem—he, as a farmer, was of no use to those in power above.

His currying techniques were replaceable by others, which was why he repeatedly failed.

But if he were talented in writing, painting, smart, good-looking, and skilled at currying favor, he would become irreplaceable!

His cotton clothes dried, Liu Ji took his book in one hand while dressing, eyes never leaving the pages.

After reading the “Xue Er” and “Wei Zheng” Chapters, he put down the book momentarily and smoothed a hairband over his knee, then dipped his brush in ink to write “Wenquxing Protect Me” in bold characters on the hairband, tying it around his head.

As if this could truly grant him Wenquxing protection, enabling perfect memory.

From the day he returned, Liu Ji read day and night without rest, barely needing sleep.

His roommates were startled into pulling out their books, fearing they’d fall behind.

Liu Ji had been back less than three days, yet the whole Kaiyang County academy was compelled to pick up books, joining the intensive study group.

Not that they wanted such efforts, but because Liu Ji’s oddity prompted the academy’s head to instruct everyone to learn from him, moving up the year-end test.

The students, desperate to pass the exam, had to join in.

Fan Xiucai, caught up in the frenzy, stormed over in rage, asking Liu Ji, “Is it necessary to study this madly?”

Without lifting his head, Liu Ji said forlornly, “If you had a knife hanging over your head, ready to drop at any pause, would Mr. Fan study or not?”

Fan Xiucai rubbed his arm vigorously—how frightful!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep