When Zhao Sui was an imperial prince in the palace, he had two tutors who taught him individually. His literary tutor was surnamed Lu, and his martial tutor was surnamed Fan. Both were renowned masters that Noble Consort Du, who had no biological children of her own back then, had proactively requested for him. They possessed great talent and were extremely strict in their teaching.

Zhao Sui had always deeply respected these two tutors and could complete even their strictest requirements.

When the Fourth Prince was three years old and ready to begin his education, the thirteen-year-old Zhao Sui had already been praised by Emperor Yongchang as his most intelligent prince. Noble Consort Du hoped that the Fourth Prince would surpass the Second Prince in the future, so she wanted to arrange for these two renowned masters to attend to the Fourth Prince and then randomly find two ordinary tutors with minor reputations for the Second Prince. However, she had to inform Emperor Yongchang of this matter first.

Emperor Yongchang looked at the barely three-year-old Fourth Prince and revealed a smile filled with cold intent toward Noble Consort Du: “If you lack the energy to educate Sui’er, I can arrange a new foster mother for him.”

Noble Consort Du had been the Second Prince’s foster mother for over ten years. How could there be any reason to hand him over to someone else halfway through? She quickly submitted and abandoned this notion. She then secretly signaled the two tutors to relax their education of Zhao Sui, but unfortunately, the two tutors couldn’t bring themselves to mislead their student, and even less dared to be perfunctory when Emperor Yongchang had already taken an interest in the Second Prince.

Thus, the two tutors continued teaching Zhao Sui until he achieved merit and was enfeoffed as a prince at eighteen, only then switching to teach the eight-year-old Fourth Prince.

After teaching for half a year, the Fourth Prince could no longer tolerate them, and the two tutors also acknowledged they couldn’t teach a prince who was both lazy and whom they couldn’t punish. After reporting to Emperor Yongchang, Master Lu went to the Imperial Academy, while Master Fan went to the Western Martial Academy in the capital, which specialized in teaching sons of meritorious nobles and officials.

Since Zhao Sui was enfeoffed and established his own residence, he had never seen the two tutors again and rarely thought of them. However, after returning from viewing plum blossoms at Meiling, Zhao Sui unexpectedly thought of Master Fan, who held a position at the Martial Academy.

A few days later, on the sixteenth of the second month, Zhao Sui went to the Imperial Study to seek an audience with Imperial Father. After reporting official business, Zhao Sui said: “Imperial Father, the Martial Academy is related to the cultivation of the court’s future generals and commanders. Your son wishes to visit the Martial Academy in plain clothes a few times to see whether the academy officials’ teaching methods have any oversights, and also to observe whether the students’ academic atmosphere is proper.”

This request was reasonable, though not particularly urgent. Emperor Yongchang casually replied: “Go ahead. Arrange it according to your leisure time.”

The next evening, when Master Fan finished his duties at the Martial Academy and came out, he was surprised to see a familiar face outside the academy gates.

Eunuch Cao, dressed in ordinary clothes, smiled at Master Fan and invited him onto a carriage stopped nearby.

Arriving at Prince Hui’s residence, Master Fan wished to perform the kneeling bow of respect to Prince Hui. Zhao Sui stopped him, saying: “Master taught me martial arts. I should respect Master with the etiquette due a teacher.”

Master Fan shook his head repeatedly. Prince Hui possessed natural talent; being able to teach Prince Hui was his good fortune.

After brief greetings, Zhao Sui invited Master Fan to sit and brought up the matter of his incognito visit to the Martial Academy the next day. Since he would be in disguise, he needed to borrow Master Fan’s connections to enter the academy.

Master Fan was merely a tutor teaching martial arts to the sons of noble families. Whether the Martial Academy was run well or poorly was the responsibility of the Academy Supervisor, who held the fifth rank. Prince Hui’s impromptu inspection wouldn’t bring him any trouble, so after hearing Prince Hui’s words, he remained composed. After thinking for a moment, he said: “What if we say that Your Highness is the son of an old friend of this humble official, who admires the Martial Academy’s reputation and wishes to observe it?”

Zhao Sui nodded, agreeing to wait for Master Fan at the academy gates at the Chen hour the next day.

The next morning, Zhao Sui changed into a more ordinary dark silk robe and arrived at the Martial Academy a quarter-hour early.

Master Fan arrived even earlier than Prince Hui. When bringing Prince Hui through the main gate of the Martial Academy, Master Fan proactively introduced Prince Hui’s identity as “the nephew of an old friend” to the two guards stationed there.

The guard smiled: “Master Fan is too polite. You two may move about freely.”

There were no secrets in the Martial Academy anyway. They mainly guarded here to prevent students inside from running out. Common people outside wouldn’t come here without reason. When they encountered meritorious nobles or officials preparing to send their family’s young men to the Martial Academy and bringing their juniors to familiarize themselves with the academy’s situation, the academy officials would naturally come out to guide them—there was no need to even inform the guards.

The guards very cooperatively let them pass.

Zhao Sui took another look at this Martial Academy gate that existed in name only.

Master Fan secretly broke into a cold sweat for the Academy Supervisor. Then, as they walked, he introduced to Prince Hui the students’ daily curriculum. They had to rise at the Mao hour for morning runs and exercises. After morning exercises and including breakfast, they rested for half a shichen. At this time, the students were already in a half-shichen-long literary class. After the literary class, there were two more half-shichen martial arts classes.

Zhao Sui asked Master Fan to take him to see the literary classrooms.

The weather was good, and most classrooms had their windows open. Zhao Sui would stop for a moment behind each classroom, listening to the content the tutors were teaching while scanning the students inside.

The students inside also noticed Master Fan and his companion passing by the windows. What shocked them was that Master Fan, who taught martial arts, was already strict enough, but the handsome man beside Master Fan looked at those students sleeping sprawled on their desks with eyes even colder than Master Fan’s.

Walking along, Zhao Sui’s footsteps suddenly paused.

Master Fan followed Prince Hui’s line of sight and saw a quite robust young man standing outside the classroom ahead. His eyelids drooped, looking like he could fall asleep even while standing—clearly he had been disciplined to stand outside.

Master Fan felt embarrassed, extremely embarrassed!

Zhao Sui stopped in front of this young man.

Yao Lin finally jerked awake and raised his head. The unfamiliar man with handsome features only left him confused, but Master Fan, frowning and suppressing his anger, directly scared away his drowsiness. He quickly straightened his posture.

Zhao Sui glanced into the classroom and asked this young man who also had a pair of round black eyes: “Why are you standing as punishment?”

Yao Lin scratched his head, not particularly concerned: “Yesterday I forgot to memorize the text while practicing horsemanship, and just now when the tutor spot-checked, I couldn’t recite it…”

Zhao Sui: “Is your father…?”

Yao Lin: “No, I only failed to recite once. You don’t need to inform my father, do you?”

Master Fan glared at him: “When you’re told to speak, you speak!”

Yao Lin could only say very quietly: “My name is Yao Lin. My father is a Company Commander in the Eastern Barracks, named Yao Zhenhu.”

Zhao Sui: “What is your purpose in entering the Martial Academy?”

Yao Lin didn’t know why this person had so many questions, but seeing how even Master Fan feared him, Yao Lin obediently continued answering: “I want to pass the military imperial examination.”

Zhao Sui: “The military civil service examination has both martial and literary tests. Failing either examination will leave you without hope of becoming a military presented scholar. Since you have the ambition to pass the military imperial examination, you shouldn’t neglect your studies.”

Yao Lin lowered his head: “I know. This time wasn’t intentional. I’ll definitely improve next time.”

Zhao Sui: “No need to wait for next time. You can use the time you’re standing as punishment to recite the text.”

Yao Lin: “…”

Zhao Sui continued walking forward with Master Fan.

After inspecting the various classrooms, Zhao Sui successively inspected the Martial Academy’s dining hall, dormitories, training grounds, and other facilities. Finally, he came to the quite spacious horse racing grounds on the east side of the academy, where students would practice horsemanship and mounted archery.

Zhao Sui pointed toward the viewing stands on the east side of the racing grounds: “What is that?”

Master Fan: “The Martial Academy frequently holds polo matches. This is for academy officials and students to sit and watch the matches.”

Seeing that Prince Hui was interested in polo matches, Master Fan elaborated further. For example, polo matches were divided into official matches organized by the Martial Academy and private games arranged by the students themselves. Private games were mostly held on rest days. All participating students could only use the well-trained warhorses from the Martial Academy, so they had to pay a sum of silver. The Martial Academy would also arrange for martial tutors and medical supervisors to oversee the polo matches to avoid students getting injured as much as possible.

Zhao Sui: “Will there be a private game this rest day?”

Master Fan: “Yes. Does Your Highness want to come watch?”

Zhao Sui: “Mm. It sounds very prone to accidents.”

Master Fan: “…”

On the twentieth of the second month, Yao Huang arranged to meet with six sisters of similar age from Longevity Lane. They boarded one of the sisters’ family’s flatbed mule carts in high spirits, with her biological older brother Yao Lin serving as driver, heading toward the Western Martial Academy.

Yao Lin drove the cart while Li Tingwang, Luo Kun, and Luo Peng rode on horses or mules alongside the cart.

Li Tingwang had handsome features, and Luo Kun, Luo Peng, and Yao Lin were all fine-looking young men. Several young ladies looked the four over repeatedly, speculating whether Yao Lin’s team could win today’s polo match.

Yao Huang had specially brought a bag of melon seeds. She cracked seeds while chatting with her sisters. By the time the melon seeds were finished, they had arrived at the Martial Academy.

They definitely couldn’t enter through the main gate of the Martial Academy, but there was a small door on the side of the horse racing grounds. On rest days for these private games, many participating students would bring their own sisters to watch. Each sister would also bring several close friends from their chambers for company, so Yao Huang’s group had actually arrived rather late. Over a dozen carriages or mule carts were already stopped near the small door, indicating that those young ladies came from better family backgrounds than theirs.

There were also some young ladies arriving at the same time. When getting off their carriages and seeing Yao Huang and the others sitting on the flatbed mule cart, they immediately raised their handkerchiefs and laughed at each other.

Fortunately, Yao Huang and her companions were accustomed to this and simply held hands and ran toward the familiar small door.

On the other end, Master Fan led Prince Hui in from the main gate of the Martial Academy. After walking a bit further to reach the horse racing grounds, they saw that the viewing stands were already occupied by some young ladies in colorful dresses, with even more young ladies flying in like butterflies through the small door.

Master Fan, who had taught an imperial prince and become a renowned master of the Martial Academy and thus didn’t need to take turns supervising students’ private games, asked: “This… should I go drive them out?”

Zhao Sui: “No need. First observe whether there will be any hidden dangers.”

Only the viewing stand area had seating. The left side was allocated to other students who came to watch, the right side to the young ladies, with the middle left empty—clearly separated and still observing propriety.

Master Fan brought Prince Hui to the platform on the left side.

Zhao Sui chose to sit in the last row, which was also the emptiest and highest row of seats. This position didn’t provide the clearest view of the match but allowed an overview of the entire situation.

After sitting down, he used his peripheral vision to survey the female spectators’ side. Just as he was searching, a young lady wearing a pale yellow short jacket and skirt walked up the other end of the viewing stand. The still-gentle spring light of the morning illuminated her jade-white cheeks and neck, and also brightened her clear spring-like round eyes. She searched for a suitable seat while talking to the young lady behind her. When she smiled, the sunlight falling around her seemed to become brighter than elsewhere.

When Zhao Sui came back to himself, he discovered that not only were the young students sitting in front of him looking at that Miss Yao, but even the young ladies who had already taken their seats were tilting their heads to watch Miss Yao.

Yao Huang had long grown accustomed to such scenes. Because the front row positions near the entrance had all been taken by young ladies who arrived early, and she didn’t want to sit in the back, she led the sisters from Longevity Lane to continue walking forward, sitting on this side that still belonged to the female spectators’ territory but where they could be observed more closely by the students across from them.

Several of the young ladies felt somewhat shy, so Yao Huang proactively chose the outer seat.

Someone on the students’ side whistled.

Yao Huang paid no attention.

Then she heard an angry rebuke: “Whoever can’t control his mouth, stand out and let me see you!”

Yao Huang, along with the other young ladies, turned their heads.

Yao Huang saw a man of about forty standing in the back row with an imposing presence, and also saw the person sitting beside the imposing man with lowered eyes—

Yao Huang was slightly surprised. It was actually him?