Chapter 461: Protecting the Accomplice

Great King, as soon as he woke up the next day, ordered Xie Tu to be summoned; Zhao Bao smiled and teased, "Your Highness, you and Master Xie get along so well." This is what he likes to see—who wouldn't want their child to play with a nationally honored student?

Great King still had the nerve to nod, but Bai Ze couldn't stand it: "Isn't it to protect the accomplice?"

Great King: ……

Congratulations, you guessed right.

Xie Tu is doomed today—caught by Xie Yuan!

That morning at court, Great King didn't even glance in Xie Yuan's direction the whole time—his guilt was obvious. After court, he didn't stay at the manor; he hurriedly took Xie Tu to the Academy for class, and even forgot which way the Academy gate opened.

This time Great King went to the Academy and found the whole mountain much livelier; at the foot, a little market had sprung up, selling snacks and other small items students need. He observed carefully and guessed they were all bought from the stationery and calligraphy shops on Zhuque Avenue in the city, then resold here for a profit.

"Is it really that lively?" The common folk having more small businesses made Great King quite pleased.

Xie Tu said that after the transfer students from Fanyang Academy arrived, the number of students at Northern Border Academy doubled; these scholar‑class folks don't mind spending money. With more people, even his father is now too busy to return to the city.

Only then did Great King recall this: when the Lu clan moved here, he happened to be away from Youzhou.

That guy started daydreaming happily: "If next year's imperial exam sees a hundred people from here pass and go off to become officials, couldn't Northern Border Academy become famous worldwide?" Would the immovable Mission Three finally budge?

"No way; the Academy hired those tough instructors, and I, as This King, need to extend my contract with them by another two years!"

Xie Tu didn't rain on his parade either; actually, the transfer students from Fanyang are decent, while the original Northern Border Academy crowd just makes up numbers—put together, the gap in ability is still noticeable. Moreover, most of those from Fanyang Academy aren't from the Northern Border. Scholar‑class students and the myriad connections of Great Jin—if Great King dared to rely on them in the court, it would overturn heaven.

Great King left his personal guards at the mountain gate; Ling Yin didn't even need to follow. He and Xie Tu went in to attend class themselves. The two aren't on the same level, and after walking together a short while they split up.

Great King was happily imagining how great it would be if Mission Three were finished, when someone called out to him.

Two seventeen‑ or eighteen‑year‑old students slipped out on the pretext of changing clothes to get some air, and saw that the so‑called strictly disciplined Northern Border Academy still had day‑students arriving only just before noon!

"That day‑student is so arrogant—hey! Kid, come over!"

Great King looked behind him—no one was there.

Looks like they were calling him.

These two are really annoying—who's the kid? His aunt just measured his height and said he's grown a full two inches since leaving Youzhou!

Great King pretended not to hear, and the other shouted again, "Hey, that kid, it's you! When you came, was there a wonton stall at the mountain gate?"

Great King: ……

The other one was even worse: "He probably hasn't come yet, but don't ask—go buy two portions of wonton for your senior fellow student, and make sure it's shrimp filling!"

Great King stopped, expressionless, and said, "You're calling me?"

"Besides you, is there anyone else here?"

Great King said, "I'm not going; you go buy it yourselves." Great King had never run errands for others—it was always others running errands for him.

"Hey, this kid!"

……

Xie Tu came to the Academy but didn't first go to the auditorium where he usually sat in; instead he went to his father's place. Before they'd spoken long, an assistant teacher arrived to report that three students had broken the rules by fighting during class.

Xie Tu raised his eyebrows. "Fighting in the Academy?" "Could I ask how old they are?" That was hard not to doubt.

The assistant teacher lowered his head further. The original Academy members all knew Great King—after all, he'd once taken them on a tour of Dragon Head—but half of the newcomers from Fanyang were strangers to them.

"Well, Your Highness took on two at once and beat the two newly arrived adult students."

Xie Tu: ……

Xie Ze: ……

The three culprits were quickly brought before Xie Ze, who gave them a quick once‑over with a blink—this wasn't going to be easy.

A lock of Great King's disheveled hair fell off; the other two looked awful—described as bruised, swollen, with tangled hair, and one had his robe torn open a large hole. Compared to them, Great King seemed fine aside from a bit of messy hair.

"Come on, tell me—who threw the first punch? Why did they fight?"

Great King immediately raised his hand eagerly: "Me! They grabbed my head with their hands—they were trying to bully me on campus!"

Xie Tu, standing against the wall, twitched the corner of his mouth: "And someone could actually bully you?!"

Great King launched into complaint mode: "Those two senior fellows ordered me to run errands for them during class, buying wontons; I refused, so they came up and slapped my head, and I struck back! They're useless yet love to cause trouble—Professor, give them a demerit!"

Xie Ze: ……

Those two losers weren't having it either—they too were heaven‑chosen talents, followers of Lu Tong who came to the Northern Border to continue studying, scions of scholar families, and they'd never suffered such a loss in their lives.

"Then you're saying we deserved to be beaten like this? Isn't Northern Border law strict? If you beat us like this, what haven't you done? He should also get a major demerit. No—he should be expelled!" They still regretted it, saying the northern folk are fierce—who'd have thought they'd be this fierce, that a mere child could beat two grown men to this state, having capsized in a gutter.

Great King lifted his chin: "You're the ones who should get a demerit! Next time you bully someone and hit them, you'll not only strike me but also refuse to pay medical fees!"

Xie Tu: …… will not fall for a feint.

The two, now unrecognizable, grew even angrier: "Chief Instructor……"

Xie Ze waved his hand: "You two each get a major demerit. Have your supervising professors come, then go back." He dismissed them without further discussion.

When only three remained in the room, Xie Ze again asked Great King whether he'd suffered any loss, then went on to say, indirectly, that his teacher was Xie Yuan, that the Academy's instructors couldn't compare to Xie Yuan, and that he actually didn't need to come to the Academy. With such a troublemaker absent, half the Academy's affairs would disappear. Of course, Xie Ze put it quite tactfully.

Great King and Xie Tu left the door before realizing, "Wait—does your father mean I shouldn't come?"

Xie Tu: …… Congratulations.

Great King frowned; Xie Tu didn't understand: "Isn't that perfect? Besides, Your Highness doesn't want to come either, right?" Today they came just to escape Xie Yuan.

Great King spoke solemnly: "How is that the same? I can choose not to come, but I can't be expelled! Come on, let's go back to class—we'll come again tomorrow!"

Xie Tu: ……

Does Uncle know about this? Why not try to expel Great King from the master's door?