Ding!
“Congratulations, you’ve started prestige connections with 10 students and completed the achievement of ‘Beginner Teacher’. The reward is 1 black-iron treasure chest. Please continue to work hard!”
A black-iron treasure chest fell in front of Sun Mo’s eyes.
Sun Mo held back the urge to open the treasure chest immediately. Being an extremely unlucky person, without touching the papaya girl first to increase his luck, he would never open the treasure chest.
Otherwise, even if it was a diamond treasure chest, Sun Mo would possibly receive a rubbish item.
...
Sun Mo didn’t let Lu Zhiruo wait outside the dorm anymore, but the papaya girl still woke up early and did her morning cultivation every day. After that, she ate her breakfast and went to wait in front of the teaching building.
“Eh? Zhiruo? You’re really early!”
Li Ziqi had also come early today as she had planned to select a 30 pax classroom with good sunlight and field of view. That would be the fixed venue for everyone’s lessons in the future.
“Eldest martial sister!”
Lu Zhiruo, who was sitting on the steps, quickly stood up and bowed her head in greeting.
“Junior martial sister!”
Li Ziqi’s face immediately blossomed into a smile. It felt amazing to be addressed as the eldest martial sister. “Let’s go, come and pick a classroom with me!”
Lu Zhiruo followed behind obediently.
Li Ziqi’s foresight was extremely high. She didn’t pick those from 1st to 3rd stories as they didn’t have a good field of view. Hence, she immediately wandered around every level from the 4th story onward.
After half an hour, she finally found 3 classrooms that were to her liking.
“Which classroom do you think is good?”
Li Ziqi stood next to the window and looked toward the Sorrowless Lake in the distance. Today, there was a drizzle and it enveloped the entire campus with a layer of water vapor.
The scene was just like a young lady who had just taken a bath and was laying on the bedside, reading from a scroll in her hand. How poetic!
“This one!”
Lu Zhiruo was also fond of this classroom.
“Then let’s choose this!”
Li Ziqi made the decision and walked toward the blackboard. She took a chalk and wrote the words “there’s a lesson at 8 o’clock, we hope for your understanding!”.
Various major academies would have this kind of customary common usage agreements. If you needed to use the classroom, you should notify people in advance so that the students who wanted to use it would know.
Otherwise, when people had been self-studying in the classroom for a long time and it was close to class commencement, if someone suddenly came to inform them that the classroom was reserved, it would not only be disturbing their situation but was too disrespectful as well.
In the classroom, there were originally 6 students. After seeing the words that Li Ziqi had written, they started to pack their books and went in search of another location.
“Thank you, everyone!”
Li Ziqi was very thoughtful. She stood at the door and handed over the pastries that she had bought in the morning as a form of her gratitude.
“Wow, it’s the osmanthus cake from Daoji, how generous!”
One of the female students saw that there was a big ‘Dao’ word on the pastries’ wrapping paper, so she was startled.
The pastries from Daoji were the most well-known in Jinling City and they had the highest popularity among pastry circles.
Regardless of whether it was a girl from a wealthy family or a daughter from a humble family, they all loved it.
Of course, the price was very expensive as well.
An ordinary daughter of a humble family had to save up a month’s worth of pocket money to be able to afford it.
“Thank you!”
Li Ziqi’s smile was reserved but not lacking in manners, leaving a great impression in the hearts of everyone.
Very soon, the classroom became empty.
“Alright, this is our territory now.” Li Ziqi was very pleased. “There are still a few cakes left, have it for yourself.”
“En!”
Lu Zhiruo nodded.
Some students came in one after another. But after seeing the message on the blackboard, they left. However, there was an exception when 3 male students came in.
They had seen the message on the blackboard, but they still walked into the classroom and sat down at the last row. They started to talk in a low voice.
Li Ziqi frowned and was prepared to go explain to them.
“Don’t.”
Lu Zhiruo extended her hand and pulled Li Ziqi back. “Maybe they will leave in a moment.”
“I hope so!”
Li Ziqi wrinkled her dyed eyebrows slightly, taking out her pocket watch to have a look from time to time.
Seeing this scene, Fu Chao’s eyes brightened. “It’s unexpected that this girl is quite rich. The pocket watch in her hand is a product of the western countries, and even the cheapest one will cost at least tens of thousands of taels of silver.”
“Are you for real?”
Zhang Wentao turned his head and looked toward Li Ziqi as well.
To the west of Middle Earth Nine Provinces, reputed as the western regions, was a continent. It was named as Western Country by the people of Nine Provinces.
If one were to go there on foot, it would take several years. However, if one were to go by boat, it was said that it would take more than a year sailing to arrive on this continent.
On this continent lived a type of human with blonde hair and blue eyes. And this kind of western pocket watch that was named as a machinery clock was produced by them.
This kind of pocket watch could indicate the time accurately and was much more convenient than a sundial.
Li Ziqi took another glance at her pocket watch and saw that it was less than 5 minutes until the 8 o’clock class. She couldn’t wait anymore, so she took the pastries and walked toward the 3 male students.
“I’m sorry, we’ve borrowed this classroom for use!”
Li Ziqi was wearing a smile as she handed over the pastries.
“Please don’t disturb me, I’m about to solve this problem.”
Zhang Wentao indicated for Li Ziqi to stop talking.
Fu Chao took a glance.
It was pastries from Daoji. It was said that these kinds of pastries were very expensive, and the cost of one was equivalent to the living expenses of an ordinary family for 2 to 3 days.
Fu Chao’s mouth started secreting saliva, but he started feeling uncomfortable very quickly.
He recalled how his mother used to wake up early and return home late to wash clothes for people. She worked hard for a few years to be able to earn enough money for his school fees.
His mother was extremely tired from working. Many times, she couldn’t even have lunch because if she couldn’t finish the tasks on time, her boss wouldn’t pay her any salary.
Also, during winter, the well’s water was ice-cold and his mother’s hands would be frozen with cuts. However, she couldn’t even rest, because resting meant that she couldn’t earn the school fees for her son.
“How unfair!”
Fu Chao looked toward Li Ziqi’s hands. They were soft and tender with slender fingers that seemed like scallions. Any man who saw this pair of hands would definitely want to hold and fondle it.
However, at that moment, Fu Chao could only feel disgusted in his heart.
This pair of hands must have never done any kind of heavy manual job since young. No, he was afraid that she had never even done light tasks like sweeping and sewing.
Li Ziqi didn’t speak anymore. She was waiting while casting a glance at the problem that Zhang Wentao was trying to solve.
Any academy would have mathematical lessons because that was the foundation.
For example, the study of engineering would require it when drawing diagrams and the study of alchemy would require it for calculating and allocation of ingredients.
(You can’t even solve such a simple problem?)
Li Ziqi frowned slightly. When the time was less than 2 minutes, she opened her mouth to speak again.
“Sorry, this classroom...”
Without waiting for Li Ziqi to finish speaking, he interrupted her again.
“I’ve already said to not disturb me.”
Zhang Wentao was very unhappy. “My train of thoughts is now interrupted again.”
“Looking at the steps you’re taking to solve this problem, you’re planning to use the division method, right? From the 3rd step onward, you’ve already calculated wrongly. Hence, the steps after that will all go to waste.”
Li Ziqi couldn’t help but say it. Looking at Zhang Wentao’s appearance, this problem had clearly exceeded the extent of his capability. She would thank the heavens if he were able to solve it by the end of the morning, but Li Ziqi couldn’t wait for so long.
Zhang Wentao looked toward the 3rd step and calculated it all over again, then his expression turned gloomy because it was indeed where he had calculated wrongly.
“This division method that you’re using is not wrong, but it’s too time-consuming. Why don’t you replace it with the repeated subtraction method instead? The final answer is 16.”
Li Ziqi suggested.
“Wow!”
Lu Zhiruo looked at Li Ziqi with admiration, and both of her eyes were filled with stars. The eldest martial sister’s brain was so awesome!
Hearing this sentence, Zhang Wentao’s face became even gloomier. He threw the book on the table with a loud bang and glared at Li Ziqi.
“What do you mean by this? Trying to flaunt your superiority? My math is not as good as yours, but do I need you to solve it for me? Who do you think you are?”
Zhang Wentao opened his mouth and couldn’t stop scolding.
Actually, apart from being unhappy with Li Ziqi, Zhang Wentao was angry because he was furious about his own incompetence. Li Ziqi’s appearance seemed to be of similar age as him, but she was able to solve the problem that he had been calculating for 3 days without much effort. This feeling of defeat was extremely hard to bear.
Zhang Wentao’s math was pretty good and he had always been proud of it. He would always take the initiative to find tricky problems to solve and then take these problems to challenge the students from the Mathematic Club.
Seeing how they were stumped with such problems and eventually seeking his advice, Zhang Wentao would develop a sense of indescribable thrill.
But now, he had been defeated.
“I’m not. I’m just trying to ask you guys to leave this classroom to us.”
Li Ziqi held back her anger.
“Why should I leave it to you? Does this classroom belong to your family?”
Zhang Wentao’s voice was very loud.
“I’ve already written the message.”
Li Ziqi pointed at the blackboard.
“I’m most fond of studying under the afternoon sunlight of this classroom. Just because you want to use this classroom, I have to leave? Why is that so?”
Zhang Wentao chastised.
This was just an excuse. His objective was to trigger a conflict.
“Eldest martial sister, forget it, let’s find another classroom, shall we?”
Lu Zhiruo was most afraid of people yelling. She stood behind Li Ziqi and tugged at her clothes.
“I can give you some compensation for it!”
Li Ziqi frowned. She was especially not fond of giving up halfway when handling things.
“This girl’s temper is pretty good!”
Zhang Wulue, who hadn’t been speaking, secretly looked at Li Ziqi from head to toe. Even though the shorter girl at the side had bigger breasts, he had more admiration for this girl with an oval face.
Hearing this, Zhang Wentao was still pondering over how to refute, but Fu Chao had already exploded.
“Compensate? What’s there to flaunt about being wealthy? Give us 1,000 taels of silver and we’ll leave!”
Fu Chao disliked these wealthy people the most. Hence, he quoted a price that he thought was extremely expensive.
Li Ziqi opened up her little purse. She took out a banknote from Great Tang Bank and placed it on the desk with a smack.
Pow!
“This is a banknote worth 1,000 taels of silver, you may leave now!”
Li Ziqi opened her mouth to speak. It was because these 2 male students didn’t have a good attitude; hence, she was a little angry and smacked the table. Otherwise, she would have handed over the banknote to them nicely.
Anything that could be solved with money wasn’t a problem at all.
If she couldn’t even settle a classroom with a pretty good environment, it would make her little martial siblings doubt her capability as an eldest martial sister, and her prestige would be damaged.
Zhang Wentao and the rest were stunned. None of them had thought that Li Ziqi would really take out 1,000 taels of silver. The words ‘local tycoon’ immediately burst into their minds.
Zhang Wentao and Zhang Wulue hadn’t reacted, but Fu Chao was just like an ill cat whose leg had been stabbed. He jumped up. Then, he grabbed the banknote with one hand and threw it out.