bayedsolid Chapter 215 Tsinghua Academy
Chapter 215 Tsinghua Academy
That night, Prince Jing and his entourage did not stay in the same spot. Instead, Wei Yu ordered his men to set up camp on the other side of the lake, and the entire group moved there. Due to the presence of seriously wounded personnel, they had to rest there for a few days.
As Qi Ji said, Zhou Liufeng was seriously injured, but his life was not in danger. After Sang Moyun's bones were set, he obediently lay down and rested for several days. Li Xiaonuan bumped her head and had mild concussion symptoms.
Wei Yu himself was also injured, in his shoulder armor. Fortunately, no bones or tendons were broken, which was also a stroke of luck. As for Qi Ji, he was completely uninjured, which Li Xiaonuan found very strange.
"Dr. Qi, you know kung fu, don't you?" Finally, on this day, in Sang Moyun's small tent, Li Xiaonuan couldn't help but ask.
"It's just a smattering of skill, nothing to brag about. However, I know how to use poison, which is quite useful for self-defense," Qi Ji replied while examining the wounds on Sang Moyun's arm.
Speaking of poison, Li Xiaonuan thought of the bundle of medicine Xiaogang had given her. Actually, those medicines probably all came from Qi Ji. Li Xiaonuan felt very sorry for them. Because when the carriage jolted violently, many of the medicine bottles in that bundle broke. The powder inside mixed together and was completely ruined.
Seeing Qi Ji and Sang Moyun resume their gentle conversation about healing, Li Xiaonuan left her tent, feeling dejected. That night, like a nightmare, became a taboo subject in the hearts of the girls.
Although they never saw a single dead person, that night was truly terrifying. Moreover, they remained hidden in the darkness throughout.
Even now, the young princess still can't stand in the dark. She no longer wants to sit in the cramped carriage. Li Xiaonuan thinks the young princess must have developed claustrophobia.
After leaving the tent, Li Xiaonuan headed towards Zhou Liufeng's recovery area. For the past few days, Li Xiaonuan had stayed by Zhou Liufeng's side, taking meticulous care of him. After all, his injury this time was because of her.
Wei Yu watched Li Xiaonuan crawl into Zhou Liufeng's tent and felt trapped in a dead end. He had originally brought Li Xiaonuan on this journey to strengthen their relationship. Instead, Zhou Liufeng had gone through life and death with her.
Wei Yu smiled bitterly, wondering if this was a case of shooting himself in the foot. He felt he had completely lost the right to compete for favor.
Regardless of how well the wounded soldiers were recovering, Prince Jing and his entourage continued their northward journey a few days later. This time, they did not spend the night outdoors. Perhaps, their previous overnight stay was merely a ploy to lure out the enemy.
Half a month later, Prince Jing and his entourage finally reached the border of the capital. Li Xiaonuan was still dizzy and suffering from motion sickness in the carriage. Since the day she was attacked, the young princess had refused to ride in a carriage. She chose to ride a horse with Prince Jing.
Since entering the borders of the capital, Prince Jing's entourage had clearly become more vigilant, their previous relaxed demeanor gone. Li Xiaonuan sensed this tense atmosphere and once again worried about her fate.
She wasn't actually afraid of death, but she didn't want to die like this. Since her transmigration, her only wish was to build a large, comprehensive farm, handling both planting and animal husbandry. Furthermore, she wanted to promote high-yield crops to benefit the future people of Qisong.
In that way, even if there were any natural disasters, there would be plenty of high-yield, hunger-resistant grains to fill our stomachs. And the tragic scene of widespread starvation would not occur.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. She didn't understand anything about this time and space, so she trapped herself in a dead end.
Li Xiaonuan was unwilling to give up. She needed to find a way to return to Zhoucun alive; she wanted to fulfill her dream. Otherwise, her time-travel experience would be a complete failure. Aren't time-travelers supposed to be incredibly powerful?
Thinking about this, Li Xiaonuan suddenly realized something: she had been limiting her thinking due to the current situation. Considering the many years of experience she had accumulated compared to these ancient people, she shouldn't be trapped in this predicament.
With that in mind, Li Xiaonuan went to see Prince Jing that very night. She talked with Prince Jing and Wei Yu all night long, and when she came out the next day, she no longer looked lost and helpless.
On this day, they finally stepped through the gates of the capital. Li Xiaonuan gazed at the magnificent city gate, feeling the solemnity and grandeur of the imperial capital unlike any other place. The capital truly was a place everyone yearned for; even at the outer city gates, people were already coming and going in a constant stream. One could only imagine the bustling scene within the inner city.
Passing through the city gate, the group headed towards the legendary center of the capital. Li Xiaonuan, already curious about the capital's architecture and cultural landscape, endured her discomfort and lifted the carriage curtain to observe the scenery along the way. This distraction made her forget about her motion sickness.
The streets and alleys of the outer city were still filled with ordinary people living in clusters. Therefore, those houses were not necessarily much better than those in the countryside. The houses were surrounded by fields.
As we approached the inner city, the streets improved considerably, almost entirely paved with large bluestone slabs. Moreover, the houses were built with great care, typical of northern courtyard houses.
Not only are the houses more aesthetically pleasing, but the people walking among them also appear to have improved in their attire, manners, and overall demeanor.
Li Xiaonuan gazed at the large cluster of courtyard houses to the north. It was a rather large compound, divided into many smaller courtyards and several rather impressive larger ones, perched on the mountainside. Even from this distance, Li Xiaonuan could feel the dazzling sunlight reflected off the turquoise glazed tiles.
"Do you like it there? That's Tsinghua Academy in Beijing, established by order of the founding emperor. It's a royal academy, what we commonly call an academy. That academy is comparable to the Imperial College, but it's even harder to get in," Wei Yu explained to Li Xiaonuan.
Tsinghua Academy? That emperor who traveled from another time is really adorable; he even brought Tsinghua University here.
"How difficult is it to get in? Shouldn't it be open to all members of the royal family?" Since it's a royal academy, only members of the royal family should be able to attend. That's what Li Xiaonuan thought.
“Of course not. Although Tsinghua Academy is a royal academy, it also recruits students from all over Qi Song. However, all students must pass an examination before they can enter for further study.” Wei Yu continued to explain.
Li Xiaonuan became even more curious about this claim. What kind of exam could be that difficult?
"What kind of exams are there? Over the years, has anyone been able to get in? And what kind of people are those who have?" Li Xiaonuan asked.
“A great many people can get in. And those students from poor families get their tuition and fees waived. However, they all have to serve the academy until they can repay the waived fees before they can leave the academy to do their own thing,” Wei Yu replied.
"What kind of content is tested? After so many years of testing, haven't any test questions been leaked among the public?" This was still the question that Li Xiaonuan was most concerned about.
“No exam content has ever been leaked. All the exam questions that were ever leaked were eventually verified to be fake.” Wei Yu himself was also unaware of this.
"Now that you mention it, I'm even more curious about that academy. I wonder if it accepts female students?" Li Xiaonuan turned to look at the academy that had already been left behind.
"We're recruiting female students. There are currently over a hundred female students enrolled in that academy. However, most of them are impoverished girls from down-on-their-luck families or descendants of scholarly families who have fallen on hard times," Wei Yu replied.