Chapter 46

Xu Wan smiled and said, "I'm laughing at how easily your confidence comes back. I hope your strength can catch up with your confidence soon."

After saying that, she patted his shoulder and added, "Kid, keep it up."

Zong Jincheng clenched his fists and stood still.

To him, this encouragement sounded no different from an insult.

He thought of Qin Ye's arrogance just before he left, and it felt like a fire had been lit in his chest, burning him up!

"So what if he's the first place? This young master will take it back and show him!"

Zong Jincheng's competitive spirit was ignited. Ignoring Zong Wenxiu's calls from behind, he ran out of the academy.

Zong Wenxiu chased after him and asked, "Brother, where are you going?"

Zong Jincheng kept running faster and faster, his head down.

It was as if a sudden surge of strength had entered his body, making him more agile and powerful than before.

In the vast academy, only the sound of his running and the words carried by the wind could be heard:

"Home, to study!"

Zong Jincheng's effort came more fiercely than Xu Wan had expected.

She thought the boy would continue to cram by rote, forcing all the knowledge into his head using his extraordinary eidetic memory.

But instead, as soon as he got home, he had Shunzi gather all the books Qin Ye had mentioned in his answers.

"Historical Chronicles, Geography Records," Shunzi reported the book titles as Zong Jincheng recited the sentences, growing more and more astonished, "Young Master, did Qin Ye really answer with these books? Even Master Zong hasn't studied these at this age."

Zong Jincheng gritted his teeth and said fiercely, "Yes, that's what he answered with!"

Shunzi's knowledge was excellent; otherwise, he wouldn't have been specially assigned to Zong Jincheng by his grandmother. But even Shunzi found Qin Ye impressive, which only made Zong Jincheng even more furious.

"This annoying little brat, I'll beat him down soon!"

Zong Jincheng grabbed the books from Shunzi's hands and no longer had the patience to listen to him read them out loud for him to memorize.

Reading and memorizing on his own was faster!

However, Zong Jincheng had started learning late and had limited literacy skills. He often encountered unfamiliar characters while reading and had to ask Shunzi about their pronunciations.

When Xu Wan came to visit him three days later, she heard the young master's frustrated howl before even entering the room: "What does this word even mean?!"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Xu Wan couldn't help but laugh.

This boy was finally tasting the bitterness of swallowing things whole.

With a shaky foundation and always looking for shortcuts, his later studies would only get more difficult.

She stepped into the room and addressed the frantic Shunzi, "What books is Jincheng going to study next? You should annotate them with phonetic marks so he can recognize the pronunciations when he reads them himself."

"Phonetic marks?" Shunzi asked.

Xu Wan nodded and said, "Many characters have the same pronunciation. Jincheng knows some simple ones, but for the complex ones, you can annotate them with homophones."

She had learned to read using pinyin, but since pinyin didn't exist here, Xu Wan didn't want to appear unusual, so she decided to try using the direct phonetic method as a substitute.

Shunzi was clever and caught on immediately.

He exclaimed excitedly, "Madam is truly amazing! I'll get right on it!"

Zong Jincheng listened in a daze, and it took him a few seconds to grasp the concept of phonetic annotations. His gaze at Xu Wan became even more curious.

How did this woman come up with this?

Could she really be that smart?

Xu Wan saw the suspicious look in his eyes and didn't need to ask to know what was going through his head. But unlike Zong Jincheng, she wasn't easily inflated with pride and simply moved past the topic.

With the help of phonetic annotations, Zong Jincheng's studies became much more convenient.

When Baili Xi came to teach at Marquis Manor, he was astonished by the dramatic change in the young master and couldn't help but give Xu Wan a thumbs up.

"A complete transformation, a complete transformation!" he praised her repeatedly.

Xu Wan watched Zong Jincheng diligently writing in the study and asked Baili Xi, "Master, how long do you think it will take for Jincheng to catch up with Qin Ye's progress?"

Her question was quite clever.

Instead of asking if he could catch up, she asked when he could, showing her confidence in Zong Jincheng's learning ability.

Baili Xi glanced at her and smiled, "That depends on how long this drive of his can last."

Xu Wan also smiled, "Master has foresight. He's holding on to this breath of determination, and he won't stop until he surpasses Qin Ye."

But Baili Xi shook his head and warned, "Not necessarily, not necessarily."

"Hmm?" Xu Wan looked puzzled.

Baili Xi pointed at Zong Jincheng and said, "A child who has been lazy all along can't sustain this drive for too long. His laziness will gradually take over, and then Madam will have to worry again."

Xu Wan: "..."

It made perfect sense, but the truth was really hard to hear...

No wonder people don't like to listen to honest advice!

In the following days, Zong Jincheng continued to study at Marquis Manor, this time willingly, and no one could get him to go out.

Even the monthly reward of fifty taels of silver that Xu Wan had promised him was completely forgotten.

This period of hard work lasted a full month.

The monthly exam at Qingbo Academy had arrived.

With Baili Xi as their teacher, Zong Jincheng and Zong Wenxiu didn't need to attend Qingbo Academy, but Xu Wan had continued to pay their tuition to keep their spots and allow them to participate in the academy's various exams to constantly assess their progress.

Zong Jincheng had studied diligently for a month. Not only had he memorized and understood hundreds of books, but he also frequently consulted Baili Xi on how to cite classical works and integrate the ideas of multiple books.

Baili Xi's sense of accomplishment soared. Every day when he came to teach at Marquis Manor, he no longer had the previous gloomy expression and even looked forward to arriving early.

Zong ​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​​​​‍Wenxiu, inspired by his brother's dedication, also started getting up an hour earlier to study, making rapid progress in his learning.

Today, the students of Qingbo Academy were more numerous than usual.

When Zong Jincheng and Zong Wenxiu arrived, they immediately felt the crowd, and they were quite puzzled about what was happening.

After asking other students, they learned, "Didn't you receive the notice? This month's exam is a joint exam with the top three academies in the capital!"

Zong Jincheng never feared such challenges: "So what? We just have to beat them!"

The student, seeing his confidence, couldn't help but twitch his mouth, "But our academy always ranks last in the joint exams, never even surpassing the second to last."

Zong Jincheng: "..."

Was the academy Xu Wan chose for him so bad?

Did she look down on him?!

Just as Zong Jincheng was about to get angry, Zong Wenxiu quickly asked, "Is the joint exam a tradition? Since we always lose, why do we still compete with them instead of choosing a slightly weaker academy?"

"Because our principal loves a challenge," the student explained.

Zong Wenxiu: "Ah?"

"Students at Qingbo Academy have been suffering setbacks since enrollment and have long given up struggling!"

"But this year might be different. I heard there's a student named Qin Ye who's exceptionally talented. The principal has already made a big promise to rely on Qin Ye to turn the tide for us!"