Piapia was the crisp sound of the soles of shoes hitting the cheeks. It was a pity that the people in Chang 'an City had not seen the comedians in skirts in that world, so they probably could not accurately understand the meaning they wanted to convey. Ning Que walked out of the courtyard with Sangsang, chatted with Chu Youxian for a while, and then went out of the side door. However, they had not gone far in the horse carriage when they heard the rapid and dense sounds of hooves coming from behind.
Sangsang's thin shoulders slightly tightened. She looked up at him, her willowy eyes full of suspicion and vigilance.
Ning Que smiled and patted her shoulder, comforting her, "Even if the prince is so angry that he dares to send his subordinates to kill or beat us in Chang 'an, he would not be so idiotic as to follow us as soon as we left the house."
His judgment was not wrong. The luxurious carriages with soft ropes on them were branded with the emblem of the imperial family. The coachman saw this and hurriedly shouted for the carriages to move to the side of the road. However, he did not expect that these carriages with the emblem of the Great Tang imperial family would slowly stop.
The green curtain was lifted, revealing Li Yu's beautiful and pleasant face. Her brows were slightly furrowed, but there was a smile at the corner of her mouth. Her true emotions could not be seen.
Ning Que hurriedly got off the horse carriage with Sangsang and respectfully walked to the window to bow. He might not have any respect for the princess deep in his heart, but he did not dare to show it on this crowded street.
"I heard that you are not popular in the Academy a few days ago." Li Yu smiled and looked at him by the window. After a pause, she said, "At the banquet today, even though you were standing up for the Academy, you did not make your classmates feel like they were on the same side. From this, it can be seen that your relationship with the Academy is not bad, but extremely poor."
Ning Que replied with a smile, "Popularity is a strange thing. It's like the weeds growing on the city walls. Wherever the wind blows, the weeds will run. If you're not popular, it just means that the wind you blow isn't strong enough."
"What you said is interesting." Li Yu said with a smile.
Ning Que scratched his head and looked at the woman behind the window. He replied, "I only said it because Your Highness could understand."
Lee Yu sighed, "If other people heard you talking to me in such a tone, they would be shocked at your impudence."
Ning Que smiled and bowed with hands folded in front. "That's because Her Highness is virtuous and we are old acquaintances. Naturally, I don't need to be too particular with my words."
Li Yu sighed, stared into his eyes and said, "You are a young man. You are not impudent when you should be. You are only impudent in front of me."
Ning Que felt strange hearing this. After a moment of silence, he replied with a smile, "Your Highness, your words are unreasonable. At least I believe that Prince Long Qing will think that I am presumptuous enough today."
Thinking of Prince Long Qing's gloomy face, Li Yu felt refreshed as if she had been washed by the spring breeze. She looked at Ning Que with satisfaction and then at Sangsang beside him. She praised, "You did well today. But … you are not afraid of offending the Yan Kingdom's subjects and the West-Hill Divine Palace just because of a temporary dispute. You are much more courageous than before. To be honest, it is not like your original temperament."
This was a seemingly ordinary but sharp question. Only those who had been in contact with Ning Que knew that this soldier from the border town had always cared more about benefits, such as life and death. He had never cared about fame or humiliation.
At this time, Ning Que recalled his previous tough and sharp words at the banquet and found it somewhat interesting. He smiled and shook his head, explaining, "I don't know why, but I'm very unhappy when I see Prince Long Qing's behavior. When the little Taoist boy said those words, I really wanted to flip the table and kill him, but … Your Highness, you also know that I'm not capable of killing him, so I can only stab him a few times to get some interest."
"This is just the interest?" Li Yu said with a smile. Then she thought of the big event the day after tomorrow and the Yan Kingdom's Crown Prince Chongming, who seemed to be forgotten today. She gradually stopped smiling and looked at Ning Que seriously. After a long silence, she said in a low voice, "This year, only one person can enter the Second floor. That person … could it be you?"
Ning Que looked at the serious look of the woman in the window and did not know how to answer.
"I don't care what the West-Hill Divine Palace and the Yan Kingdom are thinking. I also don't care what agreement the imperial court has reached with them. I only know that I really don't want to see Prince Long Qing enter the Second floor."
Li Yu stared into his eyes and said.
Ning Que looked back into her eyes and spread his hands helplessly. He said, "Prince Long Qing is a cultivator standing on the threshold of Knowing Destiny State and a bigwig of the Judicial Department of the West-Hill Divine Palace. And I … am just an ordinary student of the Academy. Don't you think too highly of me if Your Highness expects me to be an obstacle on his path to glory?"
The light in Li Yu's eyes gradually faded. She looked at Ning Que's clean and fresh but still ordinary face and thought that she was really out of her mind. How could she have thought of pinning her hopes on this guy? She could not help but laugh at herself. She stretched out her hand through the window and gently pinched Sangsang's cheek. She praised, "You are much more capable than your young master."
In the past six months, Sangsang often went to the Princess's Mansion to play and was very familiar with Li Yu. She did not resist such intimate actions. She burped and said softly, "Young master is the real capable one."
…
…
Hua Shanyue, the Senior Captain of Gushan Commandery, came to the side of the royal carriage. Looking at the carriage that was about to disappear at the corner, he suddenly said, "I haven't seen you for a year. I didn't expect that young man from Border Town to enter the Academy."
"On the journey last year, Mr. Lyu Qingchen once said something to me. He said that since we can be sure that Ning Que can enter the Academy without any reason, why can't we believe that he can enter the Second floor? "
Li Yu looked through the window and looked at the lively crowd on the street in front of her. She said indifferently, "Today when I saw him talking in the courtyard, I suddenly thought of this sentence. I thought of Mr. Lyu's strange hope for him and could not help but have a thought. Could it be that I have misjudged him this time?"
"Today, his performance at the banquet was indeed wonderful. He did not embarrass the Tang Empire and the Academy. But … this is after all just some skills in words. If he were to face a peerless cultivation genius like Prince Long Qing on the battlefield, as he said before, it would be overestimating him."
Hua Shanyue commented indifferently. In his opinion, comparing an ordinary student of the Academy like Ning Que with Prince Long Qing should not be considered in this way, for it was too absurd.
"Maybe what you said is right."
Li Yu put down the cyan curtain and leaned back on the golden cushion. She raised her elbow to support her chin. There was a playful smile between her clear and sharp eyes.
"If you are really a talent, then you will eventually become my talent in the future." She smiled and murmured, "Because at least I already know what your weakness is."
…
…
When the carriage gathered and chatted in the middle of the street, a large group of people walked out of the main entrance of the Victory House. They wore Taoist robes and looked solemn. They were the people from the West-Hill Divine Palace.
Prince Long Qing walked in the middle of the crowd with a calm expression. As soon as he went out, his beautiful face attracted a lot of screams from the women on the street. Listening to these cries of joy and admiration, he was not moved by this, nor did he show a look of disgust. He was just solemn and quiet.
He slowly stepped on the golden carriage engraved with Fu characters. He closed his eyes and kept silent for a moment. Suddenly he opened his eyes and said indifferently, "That Academy student is not a cultivator."
Priest Moli, the Deputy Dean of the Yutian Academy of West-Hill, sat respectfully opposite him. Although they were teacher and student in the past, there was a gap between them when Prince Long Qing became the second person in the Judicial Department of the Divine Hall after the Tao Addict. No one dared to cross it.
Priest Moli frowned and said angrily, "I don't know if it was deliberately arranged by the Tangs."
Prince Long Qing thought of the little handmaiden hiding in the dark corner and shook his head expressionlessly.
Outside the carriage, melodious music drifted in from who knows where.
Prince Long Qing suddenly smiled gently. His handsome face was as dazzling as a peach blossom. He murmured with emotion, "I can't believe I would lose my composure for a little handmaiden. It seems that my Taoist Heart is also covered with dust after entering Chang 'an."
After confirming that Ning Que and Sangsang were not cultivators, he didn't want to care about this matter anymore. Because his pride lay in other higher levels. His purpose of coming to Chang 'an was to enter the Second floor of the Academy. However …
Prince Long Qing's smile gradually faded and he said indifferently, "Find out who that student is. I hate him very much."
…
…
Back to the Old Brush Pen Shop on Lin 47th Street, Sangsang untied the big black umbrella wrapped in coarse cloth on her back and prepared to wash rice and cook rice. Today they drank a lot of hard liquor, but the delicate fruits and small dishes that the nobles liked could hardly fill their stomachs that had been honed by the sandstorms of the frontier fortress.
Ning Que sat on the chair by the window and stared blankly at the blue sky with his hands on the window lattice. Thinking of the encounter in Victory House today, he suddenly frowned and said, "I don't know why I hate that guy very much."
He didn't say who it was, but Sangsang knew it was him. She poured the water from the well into the big pot and wiped her hands on her apron. She looked back at the window and said, "I don't know why I hate His Highness so much now. I was going to touch his face and ask him what kind of powder he used."
The next day, Ning Que went to the Academy as usual. Then he found that his classmates looked at him in a strange way. They probably knew what had happened yesterday, but for some reason, they still looked at him with faint contempt and quickly withdrew it.
After the bell rang, Situ Yilan caught him in the Yanyu Corridor and said regretfully, "Yesterday you won the reputation for the Academy. Everyone was grateful to you and even felt guilty. But why did you say those words to provoke them before you left? It's a pity that you missed the chance to repair the relationship. "
"I didn't mess it up, so why should I give them the chance to repair it?" Ning Que answered with a smile and went to the old library.
Late at night.
Ning Que looked at Chen Pipi who came out of the bookshelf panting. He handed him the expensive crab porridge with both hands and placed a futon for him. Then he bowed with both hands folded in front and bowed very seriously.
Chen Pipi held the crab porridge and was stunned speechless.
The smile on Ning Que's face was extremely sincere, which was many times more genuine than the salted duck egg yolk in the Academy's crab porridge. He looked at Chen Pipi and said sincerely, "Tomorrow only one person can enter the Second floor. I really want to enter, but I really don't want Prince Long Qing to enter. Tell me … how much hope do I have?"
"Don't look at me like that. I know Prince Long Qing is like the Son of God from Heaven, and I'm just an ordinary lump of dirt in the human world. It seems hopeless to compete with him in terms of cultivation state and strength, and to beat him in the entrance test. But I think …"
"If you secretly tell me the exam questions, maybe there will always be hope in the human world?"
…
(To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian.Com to vote for me. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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