The Great Wei Music Bureau

Chapter 120 Lin Fan’s Test (Part )

Last time we talked about how Lin Fan solved the troubles of the two troublemakers, Tang Ji and Hu Dong, by getting along well with the children. Then he took the five children to plot against our great talent Li Yi with the goal of teasing him. So, will his plot succeed? Let's see.

Ten days passed quickly, and it was time for Li Yi to inspect the teaching results. In ten days, how much could five children who had never been enlightened learn? With such questions, Minister Kong brought the main members of the Imperial Academy to the elementary school.

It snowed heavily last night, and Lin Fan was playing snowball fight with the kids. Of course, it was still six to one, six of them against Qin Chao alone. As for winning or losing, it was not bad. After Qin Chao was released into the sea, the six-man team could still occasionally hit him.

However, the price they paid was still very painful. Tang Ji was thrown upside down into the snow pile by Qin Chao, and only the head of Hu Dong was exposed. Yao Yang was hit by Qin Chao's snowball and ran all over the yard, shouting tactically as he ran: "Hey, I can't hit you! I can't hit you!" Peng Fang and Zhang Jian formed a sniper team to attack from both wings, while Lin Fan was rescuing Tang Ji and Hu Dong from the snow pile.

This scene made everyone feel very happy. Kong Xiu stroked his beard and smiled, "It's really a happy scene. Only by playing like this with these kids can you become one of them."

Li Yi laughed and said, "I thought Minister Kong would say it was insulting!"

Kong Xiu said unhappily, "Xiu Yuan, are you saying that I am paranoid?"

Li Yi smiled and said, "If you really think so, I won't say it out loud. I will definitely say it behind your back."

Kong Xiu pointed at Li Yi and scolded him with a smile: "With your character, if you want to scold someone, you will definitely do it to their face. You dare to scold Master Tao to his face, how can you take a corrupt scholar like me seriously?"

Li Yi saluted and said, "Old Silver Coin doesn't care about me, but you are my immediate superior, how can it be the same? If I want to scold you, I will definitely scold you behind your back, or at most find a few colleagues to scold you together!"

Kong Xiu smiled and said, "It seems like you've done this a lot!"

Shi Yu interrupted, "Your Excellency the Minister guessed it right. What he likes to do most when he eats with his colleagues is to say bad things about you, especially every time you ask them to re-typeset and revise the textbook. Let's put it this way, you asked them to revise the layout six times, changed the articles thirty-seven times, and scolded them more than a hundred times. They remember it clearly."

Kong Xiu's eyes widened when he heard this and asked, "Ah? I scolded them before, why don't I remember it?"

Fang Zhuo smiled and said, "Master Shangshu, you forgot that one time you scolded a clerk so much that he cried. He couldn't stand the humiliation and wanted to resign on the spot. It was Xiuyuan and I who persuaded you to stop. Later, we invited him to dinner together and comforted him. Only then did he change his mind."

Shi Yu smiled and asked, "Is it to comfort you? I remember that was the time when you three scolded the Shangshu the most fiercely and harshly?"

Li Yi shouted, "Whose group are you from?"

Shi Yu said seriously: "Now he is in office, so he is naturally from the Ministry of Rites."

Li Yi said unhappily, "You are from the Ministry of Rites? Aren't you appointed as the Director of the Imperial College? You should be in charge of me!"

Shi Yu said, "Isn't the Imperial College also under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites? Aren't we all under the jurisdiction of the Shangshu Lord?"

Kong Xiu nodded and said, "Yes! What Wan Siye said is absolutely right. Come on, Wan Siye, come and tell me how these bastards cursed me in private! I will go buy some small shoes and give them each a pair!" After that, everyone laughed.

It was then that Lin Fan realized that so many people had come, and he quickly shouted, "Stop, stop, stop quickly!" Qin Chao immediately stopped and returned to his serious look. As a result, Peng Fang threw a big snowball at him in the face, and everyone laughed again.

Li Yi came to Qin Chao, brushed the snow off his body and said with a smile: "Mr. Qin, do you still think teaching children is boring?"

Qin Chao looked up at Li Yi, bowed and said with a chuckle: "Master Yuefu, I'm sorry!" After that, he reached out and hugged Li Yi tightly and shouted: "Charge!"

Everyone was shocked, and saw all the children took out the snowballs they had hidden in advance, and rushed towards Li Yi while shouting. Lin Fan was also among them. Snowballs flew towards Li Yi and Qin Chao one after another, and snowflakes flew everywhere. After a while, the children had thrown all the snowballs in their hands, and everyone present was waiting to see the result. However, something disappointing happened. None of the dozens of snowballs hit the target.

Li Yi looked back at Qin Chao, who had a flattering smile on his face. He then let go of his hand and said, "Sir Li, I'm so sorry. This was all Lin Fan's idea. He asked me to do this. Don't blame me if you want to blame me!"

Li Yi said, "Lin Fan's idea? Humph, this thing can't be done without a traitor, Shiyu!"

Shiyu came over with a smile, and Li Yi asked, "You said..."

Shiyu threw a snowball and hit Li Yi in the face. Then the whole audience burst into cheers, "We won, we won!"

Kong Xiu, Fang Zhuo and other members of the Imperial College were all grinning from ear to ear as they watched this scene. The children were dancing, Lin Fan and Qin Chao's faces were filled with excitement, and even the other teachers in the elementary school were standing in the corridor clapping and laughing.

Shiyu took out a handkerchief and wiped the snow off Li Yi's face and said with a smile: "Well, after all, you are still one step behind."

Li Yi pointed at Lin Fan and said, "Lin Fan, you are amazing! You even persuaded Shi Yu to rebel! And you even let her carry out the final blow! You are amazing!"

Lin Fan bowed and said, "I'm sorry, Lord Li, this is the only weakness we found in you."

Tang Ji and Hu Dong laughed the most happily, and then they went back into the snowdrift. Shi Yu pinched Li Yi's arm and scolded him, "What are you doing here, a grown man, yelling at a child? You are such a loser!"

Li Yi saluted the gentlemen standing in the corridor one by one and said, "Thank you for your hard work in the past ten days."

The gentlemen smiled and returned the greeting. Lin Fan and Qin Chao dug the two children out. Shi Yu smiled and brushed the snow off the two children while saying, "You guys are so mean. You couldn't wait until he's gone before you celebrate. You're done now, aren't you?"

Winter melon smiled and said, "That's fun too!"

Tang Ji chimed in, "That's right, I can go back and tell my dad that we defeated Lord Li together. I'm better than him. Let's see how he can beat me in the future!"

Shiyu patted Tang Ji on the head and said, "Don't say that. If you say that, your father will probably beat you even harder!"

Everyone entered the house with laughter, and Minister Kong said, "Let's see how far we've come in the past ten days. Let's recite the Three Character Classic together first."

Five children stood in a row, reciting the "Three Character Classic" with their heads shaking. They not only recited the twenty sentences that Li Yi required, but all the sixty-eight sentences of the "Three Character Classic" that Li Yi had selected.

Everyone praised the article highly and Li Yi also showed a satisfied smile, but he did not let the children go. He tested them one by one and asked many questions, including allusions, questions about the next sentence, and questions about writing words for the children to recognize. It can be said that the difficulty level was not low.

Li Yi really stumped the children, except Yao Yang.

All the answers were correct. Shiyu was a little unhappy and said, "You are making things difficult for the child. He has only been studying for ten days. It is not easy for him to memorize such a long scripture!"

Li Yi waved his hand and said, "I didn't mean to embarrass them. I just wanted to let them know their shortcomings. I didn't say I would punish them. Don't make a fuss."

After the "Three Character Classic" test, Li Yi started to test arithmetic. This time, he was not so lucky. Each student was asked four questions. Except for Yao Yang and Peng Fang, the other three did not answer all the questions correctly. Sun Li was a little angry and looked at the three disappointing children with resentment.

Li Yi expressed his understanding of Sun Li's poor math skills and consoled him, "Mr. Sun, don't be angry. The children have just started to learn arithmetic. Don't worry, just take your time."

Looking at Yao Yang and Peng Fang, Li Yi gave them another question, and it was more difficult. First, he asked Yao Yang a question about planting trees, saying: "If you plant trees along a path, one tree every five steps, and the path is twenty steps long, how many trees should you plant?"

Yao Yang thought for a moment and answered, "Five."

Li Yi nodded with satisfaction and looked at Sun Li, the latter finally regained some face.

Li Yi asked Peng Fang again: "There are ten birds on a tree. You use a slingshot to kill one. How many are left?"

Peng Fang replied directly: "Nine!"

Li Yi smiled and said, "Think about it again?"

Peng Fang said: "That's nine."

At this time, Zhang Jian who was standing by said, "You killed one and the others flew away, so there was not a single one left."

Li Yi smiled and gave Zhang Jian a thumbs up and said, "Not bad, Zhang Jian, you are quite smart."

Zhang Jian laughed and said, "Hehe, I really used a slingshot to shoot birds, but I didn't hit them. However, the birds still flew away!" Everyone laughed again.

Afterwards, Chen Liang took out the paintings of these five children and displayed them. Although the paintings were generally not very good, it could be seen that the children had put a lot of effort into their paintings. Chen Liang spoke highly of Zhang Jian's paintings, saying that this child was good at observing life.

After all this, everyone was satisfied and wanted to go back, but Qin Chao refused and said, "Hey, everyone, don't leave. Why don't you check the physical education I teach?"

Kong Xiu smiled and said, "Oh, right, right, I forgot about Mr. Qin's class. But what did you teach the children in this physical education class? How do you check it?"

Qin Chao said confidently: "I taught the children to skip rope! This is a course arranged by Lord Li!"

Li Yi smiled and said, "Okay, let the children jump up!"

Qin Chao shouted, "Kids, practice!" The children took out their skipping ropes and rushed out, jumping in the yard. At this time, Tang Ji's advantage could be seen, as he jumped fast and well. Zhang Jian, on the other hand, was a little clumsy and didn't make many jumps in total.

Kong Xiu looked at the children and praised them, "Not bad, not bad. It's great to be able to dance like this. Keep up the good work, kids. You've worked hard these past ten days. I'll let your parents come pick you up soon. You must be homesick after not being home for ten days."

The children said in unison: "Yes!"

Li Yi nodded and said, "The Spring Festival is coming soon. You should all go home and prepare for the New Year. When school starts again, someone will notify your family."

The children once again said in unison: "Ah!?"

Li Yi asked: "Why, you don't want to go to school?"

Tang Ji asked, "Master Li, when we go back to school, are we still taught by Mr. Lin and Mr. Qin?"

Li Yi asked: "What's wrong? Why do you ask? Do you dislike Mr. Sun and Mr. Chen, or do you only like Mr. Lin and Mr. Qin's classes?"

Tang Ji looked at Mr. Sun and Mr. Chen without saying anything. Instead, Sun Li said, "Tang Ji, Hu Dong, and Zhang Jian, the three of you come here! Solve a few more problems for me before your parents come to pick you up!"

The three of them complained in unison: "Ah???"

Sun Li scolded, "What are you talking about? Come in quickly! If you make a mistake again, you will be beaten! Come on!" The three children lowered their heads and walked back to the house silently...

Kong Xiu, Li Yi and the others finished their investigation and headed back. Shi Yu gave Lin Fan a look and Lin Fan quickly followed. Li Yi saluted Kong Xiu and the others and said, "My lords, please go back first. I have a few words to say to Lin Fan. Please go ahead."

After seeing everyone off, only Li Yi, Shiyu and Lin Fan were left in the courtyard. Shiyu said, "It's cold outside, let's go inside and talk."

Lin Fan made a gesture of invitation, and the few of them came to a small room, which was the teacher's office. The three of them sat down, and Li Yi said, "You have passed the test, but I cannot accept you as my disciple, because I have nothing to teach you, let alone take you to re-examine the classics. I will give you two choices, you choose." Lin Fan looked at Li Yi and waited for him to finish speaking.

Li Yi smiled and said, "First, join the Imperial Academy. It won't be long after the Spring Festival before the Imperial Academy will open for classes. There will be a lot of children by then, and you can continue to be a teacher. This is the first option. The second option is to go back and prepare for the exam. Next summer, the Great Wei will hold the first imperial examination. First, there will be the provincial exam, then the prefectural exam, and finally the palace exam. If you pass the exam, you can enter the court as an official. There are two paths in front of you, so choose for yourself."