APSIL -Chapter 163 Curiosity Killed the Cat

For two consecutive days, he had taken Zhang Shou out, and both times they ended up running into Zhu Ying.

Was he actually competing with the young miss for Zhang Shou’s attention?

This was simply disastrous!

The moment Lu Sanlang heard A-Liu announce that Zhu Ying had arrived, he immediately began looking around nervously, seemingly searching for a way to escape.

However, the only carriage door was firmly guarded by A-Liu.

As for jumping out through the window…

Cough, cough.

With his plump figure, there was no way he could squeeze through that narrow window. He would absolutely get stuck.

Therefore, after only a short while, he accepted his fate.

So when the sound of approaching horse hooves grew closer and Zhu Ying’s voice followed, he had already prepared himself to be harshly scolded.

Sure enough, after calling out “A-Shou,” Zhu Ying immediately asked about him.

Lu Sanlang’s heart cried out:

Oh no!

But the next moment, Zhang Shou immediately moved aside.

Then Zhu Ying reached over, grabbed the curtain with one hand, bent down, and leaned toward the carriage window.

“It really is you!”

“Don’t you know A-Shou already spends every day exhausted from teaching? And you still drag him outside every night running around!”

Seeing that Zhu Ying was clearly annoyed, Zhang Shou glanced at the corner of his eye and saw Lu Sanlang hurriedly hiding behind him.

He smiled and explained: “Yingying, I was the one who asked him to take me to meet several craftsmen. We only came back after dinner.”

“Hmph!”

Zhu Ying glared at Lu Sanlang, who had poked his head out with a flattering smile.

Only then did she say unhappily: “Lu Sanlang, behave yourself these next few days.”

“When the next rest day comes, properly dress yourself up. Make yourself look presentable.”

“I’ve already arranged it for you.”

“She’s a girl with a good personality, good appearance, and good character.”

“If you miss this opportunity, there won’t be another one!”

Zhang Shou did not even need to look to know how delighted Lu Sanlang must be.

He could not help laughing.

“What a coincidence? Yingying, you really act quickly.”

“You should know that just earlier, he was desperately pestering me, asking me to hurry and persuade you.”

“He was afraid that if he waited until the next-next rest day, his father might suddenly arrange a marriage for him without his knowledge and ruin his innocence.”

Zhang Shou’s words immediately amused Zhu Ying.

She laughed uncontrollably, then withdrew from the window and sat upright.

Pointing at Lu Sanlang with her finger, she calmly said: “It’s the next rest day, not the one after!”

“I went out of my busy schedule just to help you.”

“If this time doesn’t work out, there won’t be another chance!”

“Oh, right. The location is my family’s garden in Haidian. Just follow A-Shou there.”

After saying this, Zhu Ying looked at Zhang Shou somewhat reluctantly.

But realizing that it was already getting late, she sighed.

“A-Shou, I probably won’t have time to come over these next few days.”

“Take care of yourself.”

“If you want anything to eat, or need anything, just tell A-Liu. The household will prepare everything properly.”

“As for that assassin…”

Her voice suddenly became lower, carrying a trace of coldness.

“We have some leads regarding the assassin, but A-Shou, you don’t need to worry about it…”

Before she could finish speaking, she suddenly felt her hand being grabbed.

Looking down, she saw Zhang Shou’s warm and beautiful hand holding hers.

She was stunned.

When she raised her eyes, she met his bright gaze.

Although the sky had already darkened, she could still clearly see the deep concern in his eyes.

“Don’t do anything reckless.”

After saying these four words, Zhang Shou saw that Zhu Ying did not pull away, so he continued: “Some things don’t need to be rushed.”

“In any case, your safety must come first.”

“Don’t act impulsively.”

After saying that, he slowly released her hand.

But at that moment, he suddenly felt his hand being grabbed again.

Then his little finger was hooked.

“Alright.”

“I’ll make a pinky promise with you.”

“I absolutely won’t act recklessly!”

Zhu Ying smiled brightly as she used her small little finger to hook his.

She shook it twice before letting go and grabbing her riding whip.

Then she blinked at him.

“On the rest day, we’ll go watch Lu Sanlang’s show together.”

“I’m leaving!”

Watching the girl in red ride away as swiftly as when she arrived, Zhang Shou slowly withdrew his hand from outside the carriage window.

Thinking about the childish little pinky promise they had just made, he could not help laughing.

After spending so much time with Zhu Ying, he often had the strange feeling that…perhaps he really was only sixteen years old.

“Little Teacher? Little Teacher?”

Lu Sanlang’s sudden voice finally brought Zhang Shou back to reality.

He turned his head.

The little fatty was smiling foolishly.

“Pinch me. I’m not dreaming, am I?”

“Ah!”

Before he could finish, a sharp pain interrupted him.

Zhang Shou had grabbed his fat cheek without hesitation and twisted it halfway around.

For a moment, Lu Sanlang felt as if all the flesh on his face had almost been pulled off.

“Alright.”

“Dream over?”

“Go back quickly, wash up, and sleep.”

“There’s still class tomorrow.”

“You’re the main lecturer in the morning.”

Holding his swollen cheek and breathing in pain, Lu Sanlang immediately let out an even louder groan when he heard about tomorrow’s class.

Originally, he had thought being a teacher was impressive.

Being a class supervisor at the Imperial Academy was also impressive.

But now?

A simple linear equation.

Those people had passed examinations and interviews to enter.

Yet two of them still could not understand it.

He was so angry that he wanted to use a ruler to hit them!

But Zhang Chen had been granted the authority by Zhang Shou to wield the disciplinary ruler.

He did not have that privilege.

If he continued arguing with those slow learners, he felt his anger alone could burn down the newly built Jiuzhang Hall.

Zhang Shou, however, did not think he was irresponsible for pushing the simplest lessons onto Lu Sanlang.

To maintain his image as the gentle and kind Doctor Zhang, he really did not want to teach adults such basic mathematics.

When he had first taught Deng Xiaodai and Qi Liang in the village, he had already suffered enough.

Fortunately, Lu Sanlang’s ability to understand was much stronger.

However, once they reached quadratic equations and functions in the future, he would still have to personally step in.

Thinking about it…

Perhaps he should teach Lu Sanlang those lessons beforehand and let this kid explain them later?

After returning to his dormitory at the Imperial Academy, Zhang Shou washed up and went to bed.

But he did not immediately blow out the lamp.

The things he had seen and heard that afternoon and evening were extremely interesting.

Although his body was somewhat tired, he did not feel sleepy yet.

Therefore, he took out the rotating text disk of the Fourteen-Ring Key and tried to memorize the fifty-six characters carved on it.

“Could it be that I need to first write down all the familiar poems, then see which lines can be written using the characters from the Thousand Character Classic?”

“Hmm…”

“That might actually be easier than burying myself in calculations.”

“With existing poems, I can take the first three rings of characters from the fourteen-ring text, arrange combinations, and compare them one by one.”

“This approach seems more reliable…”

He muttered to himself for a while.

Then Zhang Shou suddenly froze.

Wasn’t he trying to avoid his reputation as a legendary code-breaking expert becoming too famous?

Hadn’t he already decided to tell Zhang Kang that he could not solve it?

So why was he now seriously thinking about ways to decode it?

After thinking carefully, he came to a conclusion.

Zhang Kang had been stabbed because of so-called curiosity.

Perhaps he was the same.

Curiosity could indeed kill the cat.

The hidden secret inside the Jiuzhang Hall plaque could temporarily be ignored because even the emperor had stopped investigating.

But Zhang Kang’s mysterious box…

There was still a possibility that it could be opened without any damage.

“Let’s try when I have free time tomorrow or the day after.”

The next morning’s first class was, as usual, history at Banshan Hall.

For the second class, Zhang Shou began demonstrating a buoyancy experiment.

At the same time, he once again explained in detail how to test whether the Jiuzhang Hall plaque was hollow.

For the adult students in the room—especially those who had once stayed in Cuiyun Room—this was something they had already heard before.

Their curiosity was not especially strong anymore.

But the third and fourth princes were different.

The two kept asking questions.

Before long, they dragged the entire class until the bell rang.

Zhang Shou, who had never cared much about teaching progress anyway, did not mind.

The other students minded even less.

After all, Zhang Shou taught like he was chatting casually.

One story here.

Another story there.

Everyone listened comfortably.

After class, seeing that the third and fourth princes once again surrounded Zhang Shou and refused to leave, the others gradually departed.

Zhang Shou’s classes were interesting but not exhausting.

He himself was clearly extremely popular.

But these noble youths were all adults.

Each had their own family backgrounds.

Furthermore, nobody believed their own status could surpass Zhang Chen’s family background or Lu Sanlang’s so-called talent.

Since that was the case, there was no need to follow behind Zhang Shou desperately seeking favor.

Of course, those who had once stayed in Cuiyun Room were exceptions.

At this moment, Zhang Wu waited for an opportunity.

The moment the third and fourth princes left, he immediately approached.

First, he carefully looked around.

After confirming that everyone else had gradually departed—including Zhang Chen—he lowered his voice.

“Little Teacher, the eldest prince and second prince’s confinement ends today.”

“I heard that today they are each going to meet Duke Qin and the Count of Weinan.”

Zhang Shou was slightly surprised.

But more than anything, he was confused.

Duke Qin Zhang Chuan was Zhang Chen’s father, but he was not close with him.

And he was not familiar with Marquis Weinan Zhang Kang either.

What did those two princes meeting those two nobles have to do with him?

Seeing that Zhang Shou seemed not to understand, Zhang Wu became anxious.

After organizing his words, he said seriously: “Because I have been studying under you, my father has recently started treating me differently.”

“I heard him say that the Empress Dowager often praises you in front of others.”

“She says Grandmaster Ge had good judgment.”

“She says Miss Zhu also had good judgment.”

“Anyway… the meaning behind her words seems to be…”

What exactly does that mean?

Zhang Shou felt that Zhang Wu was making him guess a riddle.

Under Zhang Shou’s stare, Zhang Wu finally forced himself to say the whole thing.

“The Empress Dowager’s words can easily make the eldest prince and second prince feel…”

“That she regrets that they are not as good as you, Little Teacher.”

After a brief moment of surprise, Zhang Shou smiled faintly.

When he had followed Zhu Ying to meet the Empress Dowager at Qingning Palace before, he had already felt that the former regent’s mother was actually rather cold toward him.

Now rumors spread that she viewed him highly.

This only proved that his original impression had been completely correct.

He did not bother wondering whether this was an attempt to praise him into becoming a target, or whether she wanted him to become the whetstone used to sharpen the two princes.

He simply nodded.

“I understand.”

“Don’t worry. The promise I made to you in Cuiyun Room still stands.”

As for the eldest prince and second prince…

Forget that they were not currently the crown prince.

Even if one of them became crown prince, they still could not do anything to him.

Besides…

The two brothers were not united.

There were plenty of ways to make use of that.