After the judgment, the young man withdrew from the watching crowd. After thinking for a moment, he turned and walked in another direction.

Among the crowd, someone who knew him saw this and quickly called out, “Xu Maoxue, the tavern is that way. Where are you going?”

Xu Maoxue looked back, then said, “I’m not going to the tavern. I’m going to the Imperial Academy.”

The man burst out laughing and asked, “How old are you? Are you still thinking of going to the Imperial Academy to study?”

“Even young children have great ambitions. I’m in my prime—why can’t I have them?” The young man had previously thought to just go with the flow, lie flat and watch worldly changes.

He was arrogant, feeling this world was beyond saving, so he casually earned small money and watched people in this world struggle and sink.

In his eyes, people like Zhao Hanzhang and Gou Xi were all fools.

Gou Xi had a good reputation, military power, and the Emperor’s favor. As long as he continued to be cautious with words and deeds, return power to the Emperor, or co-govern with him, the world’s submission was only a matter of time.

Looking across the world, in terms of military ability, only Beigong Chun could compare with him. In terms of power, he was number one in the world.

As long as he didn’t make mistakes and stayed by the Emperor’s side for two years, he could become the next Cao Mengde. Perhaps the world would be unified under him.

But he got carried away, became arrogant all at once, and shattered the excellent situation.

Zhao Hanzhang was also foolish.

She was a woman with natural advantages. If only she would give up Fu Tinghan and marry either the Emperor or Gou Xi, combining two forces into one, half the world could be in her hands. Then striking directly north—who knew if she couldn’t recover the lost territories?

So he had always looked down on these two from his heart. But now, the young man felt his face burning.

The words Zhao Hanzhang said to Chen Pei had slapped hard against his face.

She didn’t take the path he considered correct, not necessarily because she didn’t know this path, but because she had the courage to choose a more difficult one.

Even Chen Pei, that young child, had the courage to risk his life following her. Having lived ten more years, what did he have to fear?

Xu Maoxue walked faster and faster, soon arriving at the entrance to the Imperial Academy.

He raised his head to look at the Imperial Academy’s plaque, lifted his robe, and walked forward.

The Imperial Academy’s gates were wide open with no one guarding them, allowing people to enter and exit freely.

Walking into the courtyard, he could hear clear reading voices coming from all directions.

Xu Maoxue paused, then walked toward where he remembered the doctoral scholars’ offices to be.

The office was also empty, but there were desks and mats. On the desks lay many papers, and on both sides were bookshelves filled with many books.

This was different from the office in his memory. He was somewhat surprised.

Walking forward to look at the books, he discovered classics, histories, philosophical works and literary collections—everything was there, and there were even quite a few miscellaneous books.

Looking at the papers on the desk, he couldn’t help but pick up a sheet to examine.

He was all too familiar with this type of paper. All the paper in Luoyang city now was this kind—called Zhao paper, also called Yuzhou paper.

Most currently in use was transported from Yuzhou. The paper workshop belonged to Zhao Hanzhang. It was said this new paper was created by her and Fu Tinghan together.

After she conquered Luoyang, a paper workshop also began construction in the workshops outside the city. But papermaking required a process, and currently Luoyang’s paper workshop could only provide the paper needs of the yamen, Imperial Academy, and various schools.

The paper circulating in the markets mostly still had to be transported from Yuzhou, so although paper prices were somewhat cheaper than before, they were still expensive.

Xu Maoxue was short on money. He saved every sheet of paper carefully. He hadn’t expected the Imperial Academy teachers to be so extravagant, with so many papers on every desk.

He enviously put down the paper, stood at the door looking around, then chose a direction to walk.

Sure enough, after walking a short distance he saw people teaching and students.

They were a group of older students, each fourteen or fifteen years old. They weren’t sitting in a classroom but in an open pavilion, with a young teacher in Confucian robes sitting face-to-face with them.

Xu Maoxue knew him—Zhao Cheng, Zhao Hanzhang’s uncle.

This was also one of the things scholars criticized Zhao Hanzhang for. She had placed Zhao family members in several important positions, leading people to think her current achievements relied mostly on the Zhao clan rather than her own abilities.

Especially an important place like the Imperial Academy—she had directly handed it over to Zhao Cheng’s management without going through the court.

It was simply… both enviable and jealous, while also unable to help questioning.

Zhao Cheng’s voice was gentle. His teaching was like telling stories, flowing smoothly. After finishing a lesson, he turned his head to look over.

Seeing Xu Maoxue, Zhao Cheng said to his students, “Read on your own. Ask me again if you don’t understand anything.”

The students bowed in acknowledgment and picked up their textbooks to read by themselves.

Zhao Cheng came down, “Maoxue, are you looking for me?”

Xu Maoxue said, “Revisiting old haunts. I came to see Director Zhao while passing by.”

Zhao Cheng’s expression was calm, “I’m not the director. Either call me by my courtesy name, or address me as teacher.”

Xu Maoxue looked disdainful, “To be my teacher—you’re quite shameless.”

Zhao Cheng glanced at him calmly and turned to leave.

Seeing this, Xu Maoxue quickly followed, chasing after him and saying, “Of course, you are several years older than me. I can’t call you teacher, but I can call you elder brother. Elder Brother Zitu, I wonder if your Imperial Academy still lacks teachers…”

When dinner time came in the evening, Zhao Cheng came to visit. Zhao Hanzhang quickly had someone add bowls and chopsticks, “Is there something at the Imperial Academy?”

Zhao Cheng nodded, “I’ve come to seek an appointment for someone.”

“Who?”

“Xu Maoxue of Yongzhou,” Zhao Cheng said. “He’s been staying in Luoyang. When the war came to Luoyang previously, he fled with the refugees, but later you drove them all back and wouldn’t let them leave. He now has ambitions for the Imperial Academy. I want to hire him as an Imperial Academy doctoral scholar to teach disciples.”

Zhao Hanzhang agreed immediately, “Good. I’ll have Fan Ying issue the appointment letter tomorrow.”

Zhao Cheng nodded and took the opportunity to raise accumulated problems at the Imperial Academy. “Many new disciples enrolled this year. The textbooks we requested haven’t been distributed yet. This delays teaching too much. Please urge the printing office, Your Excellency, to prioritize printing for us.”

Zhao Hanzhang agreed immediately.

The speed was so fast that Zhao Cheng couldn’t help but raise his head to look at her, “When can you provide them? Can we have them by month’s end?”

Zhao Hanzhang thought for a moment and said, “Before the fifteenth of next month. Not only must they be printed, they also need to be bound—all this takes effort.”

Luoyang’s printing office was newly opened. Prince Donghai had taken away many printing blocks when he left, and the Yuzhou printing office could only spare blocks for a few books to Luoyang. For the rest, Luoyang’s printing office was currently carving them, plus there were some blocks found in the imperial palace.

But the blocks not taken by the court were mostly for books not in common use. Their current printing value was very low. In the end, they still had to carve commonly used books themselves.

Zhao Hanzhang was urging the Ministry of Works to make movable type for this reason. Carving a book’s blocks took too long, and among the craftsmen they’d gathered, there weren’t many skilled ones. They often ruined blocks. Sometimes when a block wasn’t ruined too badly, they’d still use it for printing.

As a result, in the books students used at schools and the Imperial Academy now, there were occasionally ink blobs—those were characters that had been carved wrong, scratched out, and corrected.

What a headache.