Chapter 15: Folding

  In the following days, Yang Yun resumed his daily life of immersing himself in the county school's library.

  The library added nearly a hundred books, although these books are not very useful for the imperial examination, but there is no harm in having more books. As long as they are books, Yang Yun will go through them one by one and store them in his mind. Who knows when this knowledge might come in handy?

  With the book in hand, Du Longfei became active and appeared every day at the county school library.

  Those students with little money in their hands found it hard to resist the temptation of buying books at low prices, and one after another secretly looked for Du Longfei's transactions - the price of buying books from him was about half of the market price.

  Yang Yun of course knew why Du Longfei's books were cheap. These books should have been placed in the county school library for free reading by scholars.

  On this day, Yang Yun took the initiative to find Du Longfei and strike up a conversation.

  "Brother Du——" Yang Yun asked with cupped hands.

  "Ah! Brother Yang, what's up?"

  "Alas..." Yang Yun sighed, "It's really hard to study, Brother Du, you've also seen it, the county school library is in such a state, it's too difficult to find a few useful books."

  "Uh-huh, yeah, this library is a bit shabby." Du Longfei said vaguely.

  "I want to find a copy of 'Wen Gui Yao Xuan', preferably from the Qinglong period. I hope Brother Du can help me out."

  "This book, uh - it's quite hard to find." Du Longfei said hesitantly.

  "Brother Du, think of a way, the autumn exam is approaching, I urgently need this book." Yang Yun said with a worried expression.

  Du Longfei hesitated for a moment, he had always been somewhat skeptical of Yang Yun, but the fact that he was selling books was almost common knowledge among the students at the county school, and Yang Yun's straightforward offer made it difficult for him to easily decline.

  "If there were no Wen Rujun and Xue Pinggui, then Yunzhongzi would be fine."

  The two books mentioned by Yang Yun were compilations of topics and famous commentaries from Wu Guo's annual imperial examinations, which have always been the preferred study materials for scholars. These books are printed in large quantities by bookstores everywhere, so if Du Longfei says he can't even find these two books, it would be like ruining his own reputation.

  "Alright, I'll try to find them for you, but these two books are always in high demand. My relatives at the bookstore can't even get their hands on them easily. The price is 60% off, which is already the lowest price. If I don't give my relatives a discount, I won't make any money from selling it to you," said Du Longfei.

  "I understand, Brother Du is also a scholar, how can he cheat us fellow students out of our money? As long as the book can be found, everything else will be easy to say."

  "It's just that... we're all classmates, and later on we'll still be taking exams together. I'm in a difficult position here. In the past, some people knew I had relatives at the bookstore, so they came to ask me for books. As classmates, you have to help each other out, right? But once this started, it couldn't be stopped... and now I'm also in a situation where I'm riding a tiger that's hard to get off of... if I don't help out now, I'll actually end up offending people."

  Du Longfei spouted all this nonsense without even blinking an eye. If Yang Yun hadn't known the truth, he might have also been like others, buying a book with his own money and still feeling grateful to this book thief.

  "Thanks for your trouble, Brother Du. I'll be waiting for your good news." Yang Yun bid farewell with a raised hand.

  "Alright, alright, take care, Brother Yang."

  The next day, Du Longfei took the book to find Yang Yun.

  Such transactions have always been in the small alleys near the academy, according to Du Longfei's words, to avoid suspicion. The county school library indeed has rules, and it is not allowed to bring one's own books in.

  Du Longfei handed a book to Yang Yun with a smile and said, "Brother Yang, fortunately not disappointing your order, take a look, this is the selected works of Wen Rujun."

  Yang Yun's eyes lit up as she took the book and began to flip through it.

  "Not bad, not bad - Qinglong's 7-year version, with Shen University's annotations, is the best edition."

  Yang Yun quickly flipped through the pages and soon found a page in his memory, stroking it with his hand and reciting: "If one does not know fate, he cannot be considered a gentleman; if one does not know etiquette——huh!?"

  "What's wrong?" Du Longfei asked.

  Yang Yun's gaze was ambiguous, and Du Longfei instinctively felt that something was off.

  "Brother Du, you are truly omnipotent, even the books in the library can be taken out by you."

  "How is it possible?!"

  Yang Yun opened the book and handed it to Du Longfei, saying "You see for yourself."

  A seal on the page of a book, "Jinghai County School" four bright red official script characters are eye-catching.

  "How could this be!"

  Du Longfei let out a shocked cry, and all the blood in his body rushed to his head, his legs feeling light and almost collapsing.

  In an instant, Du Long's mind was filled with countless thoughts, thinking of the terrible consequences such as losing his reputation, having his achievements cancelled, and being fined and imprisoned, and he broke out in a cold sweat all over.

  "This book has nothing to do with me! Yeah - the book is in your hands, who knows where you got it from?"

  "Huh? On the second day of junior high, Brother Du brought in a lot of books. In these few days, at least ten or more have been sold out. What if all these books had this seal?"

  "Yang Yun - you're framing me!"

  Du Longfei flew into a rage and struck out at Yang Yun with a powerful fist.

  Yang Yun lightly raised his hand, and Du Longfei's fist fell to the side. He stumbled and almost fell over. Du Longfei was shocked and furious - he had also practiced some martial arts since he was young, and normally several strong men were no match for him. Unexpectedly, with a furious punch, he couldn't even touch Yang Yun's sleeve.

  "Hey Brother Du, why are you in such a hurry? Have I ever said that I would report you?"

  Du Longfei's eyes lit up, as if he had grasped a lifesaving straw, and hastily pulled out his purse from his bosom and stuffed it into Yang Yun's hands.

  "Brother Yang is a man of noble integrity! This is just a small token of my appreciation. Brother Yang, please spare me for ten more days and I will present you with twenty taels of silver."

  Du Longfei stuffed the money into his pocket while thinking to himself, "Yang Yun's family is poor, he must be doing this for the money. Twenty taels of silver should be enough to shut him up. It'll buy me a few days' time, and I can retrieve all the books I've sold in the past few days. Then, I'll take action when the opportunity arises."

  Yang Yun didn't take the money pouch, but instead smiled and said: "Brother Du, Brother Du, I see that you have an extraordinary appearance, both literary and martial skills are excellent, how can your vision be so narrow? Twenty taels of silver may not be a small amount for ordinary people, but do you think Brother Du wants to spend his whole life in such a humble way? You take great risks, and in a year, you only earn dozens of taels of silver. Don't you want to be famous throughout the country?"

  "What does Brother Yang mean by this?" Du Longfei was confused by Yang Yun, if he didn't want the money, why bother with all this trouble?

  Yang Yun pulled out a folded letter from his sleeve, "Brother Du, take a look at this first."

  Du Longfei opened it and read for a while, then let out a long sigh, bowed to the ground and said: "Brother Yang is wise, this move brings fortune to all, I, Du, am a guilty man, Brother Yang not only shows mercy but also gives me this opportunity, how can I, Longfei, dare disobey? Everything will be done according to your orders."

  Yang Yun smiled and asked: "Can it be delivered tomorrow?"

  "I'd rather die than bring shame."

  "Well, I'll take my leave then." Yang Yun patted Du Longfei's shoulder, "Brother Du, broaden your horizons a bit, there's still a long way to go."

  After Yang Yun left, Du Longfei was still in a state of uncertainty and thought for half a day. "Now I can only do as Yang Yun says, but losing the horse to Sui Wen might actually turn out to be a good thing. However - Yang Yun is a profound and unpredictable person, and I don't know how he manipulated the book either. Fortunately, this time he wasn't targeting me, otherwise I would have died without knowing what hit me."

  At this time, Du Longfei only felt that his whole body was covered with cold sweat, looking in the direction where Yang Yun left, and he couldn't help but shiver several times.

  Yang Yun strolled out of the county school library, feeling carefree and light, so he started wandering around the streets.

  Saw a "Xianyun" teahouse, went in and found a second-floor window seat, ordered a pot of clear tea.

  The second floor was all "quiet seating", the waiter quietly brought up the tea and quickly retreated. Yang Yun sipped a mouthful of tea, savored it carefully, although it wasn't top-grade good tea, but it was this year's freshly picked Mingqian new tea, with a faint hint of clear fragrance, and he couldn't help but nod his head in secret.

  Yang Yun suddenly felt a sense of joy and remembered that he hadn't paid for the book "Wen Gui Yue Xuan" which he had obtained from Du Longfei.

  "Dulong Fei definitely won't come to collect the money, oh well, consider today's tea on him then. Hmm, I'll ask for another pot of high-quality green tea later, no need to save him any money." Yang Yunle chuckled and flipped open his book.

  Yang Yun then took a sip of fragrant tea and began to carefully read the parts that interested her.

  Yang Yun had never read this kind of book in his past life or present life, but he was quickly drawn into it.

  The book selects several autumn examination questions, with the model essays of the successful candidates and the comments of famous scholars. Some subtle and delicate points make Yang Yun feel as if he has suddenly seen the sun breaking through the clouds.

  "It turns out that there are so many doors in the imperial examination questions. I was not wronged when I fell in the last life." Yang Yun sighed to himself as he closed the book.

  The mist of water in the teacup rose slowly, as if a door had been opened, and memories hidden deep in dreams gradually emerged.

  After becoming a Xiucai in the previous life, I stayed at home for one or two months. Because there were no books to read and no classmates to communicate with, that kind of anxious and panicked mood suddenly came back clearly.

  Later, his parents borrowed some money from somewhere and he came to the county school with boundless excitement, diving headfirst into the library.

  After months of hard study, I participated in the autumn examination with high expectations, but the result was a crushing defeat, and the despair and frustration that followed made me feel like I had no face to show my family, everything seemed like yesterday.

  Vaguely, I recalled that at that time, I had also intended to buy books from Du Longfei, but after repeated calculations, the remaining money was barely enough to support my trip to Fucheng for the imperial examination. Adding to that my youthful pride, I didn't want to ask my family for more money again, thinking that with my own hard work, passing the imperial examination should also have some hope.

  Who would have known that the exam ended in a miserable defeat, and at the time there was still some resentment and discontent. It's really ignorant to not even know the current popular writing style or the examiner's preferences. The possibility of passing is indeed slim.

  As he thought about it, Yang Yun reached for his teacup, only to find that a whole pot of tea had been drunk.

  He beckoned to a waiter, and immediately a small second waiter came up with a copper kettle to refill their teacups.

  Yang Yun's stomach growled, and only then did he realize that it was already past noon, a time when he would normally have finished eating.

  He then ordered a few more pastries, and the waiter quickly brought them up on fine white porcelain plates.

  Several pastries are made with a soft and fluffy texture, paired with a pot of fragrant tea, almost melting in the mouth.

  He ate half full with tea and dim sum, of course he didn't dare to use the Jiyuan Huajing Jue, otherwise even ten more dishes wouldn't be enough.

  After eating and drinking, Yang Yun casually glanced out of the window.

  "Huh? Is it Meng Chao?"

  Across from the tea house was a store selling rouge, powder and embroidered accessories. Yang Yun's acquaintance Meng Chao, whom she had met at the county school, had just walked in.

  "What is he doing in this kind of place?"

  Although they didn't interact much with Meng Chao, in their previous life the two were good friends. When going to Feng Ming Fu for the exam, it was the two of them traveling together. After both failing the exam, they even went drinking together to drown their sorrows.

  Curiosity got the better of Yang Yun, and he followed Qian into a shop opposite the teahouse.