Chapter 57

Chapter 57

"Yes," Xu Wan gave a thumbs up. "Great medical skills!"

Zong Jincheng slept until it was dark outside.

He got up from the bed, stretched, and called out with his eyes still closed, "Shunzi, I'm hungry!"

"Coming, young master! The food will be served right away!"

Zong Jincheng yawned and asked, "What time is it now?"

"It's just past 9-11 pm. The lights in the madam's courtyard have already been turned off."

"Oh, she really sleeps early," Zong Jincheng remarked as Buyan helped him wash up and prepare for his meal. He grabbed a steamed bun and took two big bites.

Once he felt less hungry, he suddenly remembered another question. "Has Zong Wenxiu gone to bed yet?"

Shunzi replied, "Not yet. Young Master Wenxiu usually stays up until after 11 pm - 1 am."

"What?" Zong Jincheng frowned. "Staying up so late and waking up so early, doesn’t he feel awful? Is he still studying?"

Shunzi answered, "Yes, ever since Young Master Wenxiu returned to the Marquis Manor, this has been his daily routine."

It had been three months since Zong Jincheng started studying with Zong Wenxiu, yet he only now thought to ask about his sleep schedule. It seemed he paid little attention to others’ lives.

Unlike his young master, Shunzi loved hearing gossip. There wasn’t a single secret or important matter in the entire Marquis Manor that he didn’t know about.

Zong Jincheng then recalled the scene he had witnessed outside the Qin Mansion’s walls that morning.

Was Qin Ye also burning the midnight oil like Zong Wenxiu?

The thought made Zong Jincheng feel uneasy, though he couldn’t quite pinpoint why.

If Xu Wan knew, she would have accurately told him, "Congratulations, kid, you’ve been caught up in the competition."

The third bun in his hand suddenly didn’t taste as good. Zong Jincheng gulped down a bowl of chicken soup, grabbed a handful of peeled lychees, and ran outside.

The candle in Zong Wenxiu’s room was nearly burnt out. A servant came in to replace it, and the dim room brightened again.

The little troublemaker stood outside his window, munching on lychees but not entering.

The window was closed, so from outside, he could only see the flickering shadow of the candle and Zong Wenxiu’s movements as he flipped through books and wrote.

Zong Jincheng spat out lychee seeds as he watched, and soon the ground was littered with them. Since the courtyard was cleaned daily, Shunzi didn’t bother to stop him.

Are you okay? Are you sleepwalking or something? I...

Shunzi, still in shock, hurried after him but slipped on something smooth, landing hard on his backside.

"Lychee... lychee seeds..." Shunzi didn’t make it to the next day’s cleaning.

The world had dealt him pain, but he responded with a song.

Shunzi sang a mournful tune in the manor physician’s room.

Zong Jincheng didn’t return to his room directly. Instead, he went to the main study, which he hadn’t entered in two days. Still, after studying there for three months, he knew exactly where each book was.

He picked up a book at random and started reading. Buyan helped him grind ink while Zong Jincheng focused on writing, completely unaware that Shunzi had gone to see the manor physician about his bruised backside.

The next morning, Xu Wan stood at the study door, surveying the chaos. Books were strewn everywhere, and ink stains dotted the floor, evidence of the reader’s frustration. What had made him so agitated while studying?

Buyan explained, "Young Master studied until 11 pm - 1 am and fell asleep on the small couch in the study."

Xu Wan picked up one of the books from the floor and flipped through it. The content was dense and difficult, with none of the phonetic annotations she had prepared earlier. Given Zong Jincheng’s limited vocabulary, he must have stumbled over many unfamiliar words.

No wonder he grew more frustrated as he read.

She turned to Cui Zhi and said, "Have someone annotate all the books in this room with phonetic guides. Also, bring the translated versions and number the pages of both the original and translated books so Jincheng can easily cross-reference them."

"All of them? These belong to the young marquis..." Cui Zhi hesitantly reminded her. "He never allows anyone to touch his things."

Xu Wan waved it off. "It’s just annotations. If he minds, we’ll buy him new books later."

The main study contained a comprehensive collection of books, and replicating it elsewhere would be challenging.

Cui Zhi: "...Alright then."

After all, the madam was now in charge of the Marquis Manor. Her word was law.

Xu Wan added, "Invite two of this year’s provincial graduates to tutor Jincheng."

"Provincial graduates?" Cui Zhi was surprised. "They’re qualified to hold official positions. Even the prestigious Hanlin Academy struggles to hire a few provincial graduates as tutors, and you want two... both from this year?"

Xu Wan smiled. "Ordinary people might not be able to hire them, but we can."

"How?"

"With money."