Chapter 142: The Senior Sister Keeps a Gigolo

At the edge of the sky, the morning sun was just rising.

In the schoolroom, the usual seriousness and solemnity were replaced by a sudden, noisy chatter, becoming exceptionally boisterous.

It turned out everyone was scrambling to get on stage to hand in their homework.

First, they had to write the three idioms taught in the previous lesson on the blackboard, then write ten characters.

In the past at this time, the little ones would all be listless with their heads hanging low.

Today, however, they were laughing and joking, vying to get on stage.

When Bai Qingtong accompanied a young girl wearing a white dress and a veil as she walked into the schoolroom from the back door, Luo Zijun had already finished checking everyone's homework and was praising them one by one.

The little students were all beaming with joy, their faces full of pride.

"Alright, everyone completed their homework quite well; it is all correct. To be honest, while I am happy for you, I also feel a little bit of disappointment..."

Luo Zijun stood on the podium, first saying this with a smile, then sighing.

Yu Ning hurriedly asked, "Why would you feel disappointed, Teacher?"

The others also looked on with faces full of confusion.

Luo Zijun said, "Originally, I secretly hoped that you would get a few characters wrong, so that I could enjoy your manly, enchanting dances and your feminine, vigorous fist techniques. Unfortunately, you did not give me that chance."

"Pfft..."

Everyone was amused and burst into loud laughter.

"Teacher is so bad, actually wanting us to dance and box for you on purpose."

"Teacher, don't be disappointed. Let Yu Ning perform a set of fist techniques in a moment; she practices martial arts too, you know."

Everyone said this while laughing and joking.

Luo Zijun said, "That won't do. The performance I want to see is for those who can't dance to come up and dance, and those who can't box to come up and box. If Yu Ning boxes, what fun is there in that? What I want to see is you making a fool of yourselves, not you showing off."

Once these words were spoken, everyone burst into laughter again.

Yu Ning also covered her mouth and laughed.

"Teacher, you are too bad. Why do you want to see us make fools of ourselves?"

"Yeah, Teacher, why do you want to see us make fools of ourselves?"

Luo Zijun smiled slightly, turned around, and wrote a few large characters on the blackboard behind him: "The Gains of Making a Fool of Oneself."

Then he asked, "Does everyone recognize these characters?"

Many people nodded.

Luo Zijun read them out character by character, then asked again, "Does everyone know what these four characters mean?"

Everyone shook their heads.

Even Bai Qingtong, who was sitting in the back row, wore a thoughtful expression.

Luo Zijun pointed at the four characters and said, "Everyone, follow me and read them a few times first, and memorize these characters."

Saying this, he began to read.

The students immediately followed along and read very enthusiastically.

After reading a few times, Luo Zijun began to explain.

"The Gains of Making a Fool of Oneself, as the name implies, is what one gains after making a fool of oneself. I presume that when you were very young, your parents and elders all taught you to be a polite, sensible, obedient child that people like, trying to make you perfect in every aspect."

"But today, what I want to teach you is that in how you conduct yourself, you must not pursue perfection too much. Only by occasionally making a fool of yourself will people truly like you."

Once these words were spoken, everyone looked confused.

Luo Zijun continued, "A mediocre person might not be admired, but they will never be hated by many people either. Moreover, many people will be willing to be friends with them because they pose no threat and can even be used to set off the cleverness of others..."

"But a person who has no flaws at all and is close to perfect—there are absolutely few people who will truly like them. What does perfection mean? It means 'strangers keep away,' it means a face full of 'I am excellent, you are not as good as me, you are not worthy of being my friend,' and so on. People might admire them in their hearts, but they will absolutely not truly get close to them; many will even be jealous of them, hate them, and consider them a threat..."

"Therefore, perfect people, especially excellent people, are mostly very lonely."

"Of course, I actually admire such people. Such people are also not afraid of loneliness or isolation; they are stronger and braver."

"But such people are only the minority."

"So today, what I want to teach you is that you must try your best to become excellent, but you must absolutely not be afraid of making a fool of yourself, not be afraid of failure, and even less be afraid of others laughing at you..."

"People often feel a sense of unease and inferiority toward perfect things, so appropriately making a fool of yourself can make it easier for others to let down their guard and easier for them to get close to you... because everyone thinks, 'Look, he has flaws too, he is a person after all...'"

"Let us extend this further: making a fool of oneself is equivalent to failure."

"When you make a fool of yourself, others will laugh at you; when you fail, others will also laugh at you. But that moment is also when others are least on guard against you."

"Friends think you are silly, stupid, and pitiful, so they are more willing to be close to you and more willing to help you rather than helping others who are smarter. Enemies, meanwhile, will think you are foolish, lack intelligence, and are not worth worrying about, so they might drop all their guard and stop their pursuit and obstruction. Please remember, this moment will also be when you are most likely to succeed..."

"Therefore, I want to tell you that making a fool of yourself and failing are not scary. Do not be discouraged, do not be depressed, and even less, do not give up. When people are laughing at you and pitying you, as long as you can stand up, as long as you can continue to walk forward strongly, then success is right before your eyes!"

After Luo Zijun finished speaking, he turned and wrote a sentence on the blackboard.

"The weak dare to become strong, the strong dare to show weakness! Failure is the mother of success!"

After he finished writing, the classroom was silent.

Suddenly, a burst of loud applause rang out from the back row.

Bai Qingtong stood up directly, looking at the young scholar on the podium with shining eyes, clapping her hands hard, and sincerely praised, "What a 'The weak dare to become strong, the strong dare to show weakness! Failure is the mother of success!' Teacher, this lesson was simply brilliant; it is deafeningly insightful to Qingtong!"

"Teacher, that was so well said!"

At this moment, Yu Ning also reacted, hurriedly standing up to applaud, her little face flushed with excitement.

The others were also deeply shocked and their blood was boiling, so they hurriedly stood up in unison to applaud.

Luo Zijun's words were explained in a simple and easy-to-understand way, without any archaic language, without any complex allusions or vocabulary; they were all the most basic and common words, and everyone heard them with almost no obstacles.

Moreover, this lesson was naturally drawn out from everyone's laughing and joking questions; everyone had not even realized this was today's lesson before they suddenly remembered and understood it.

However, in the classroom, there seemed to be a few people who did not understand.

In the last row.

Behind Bai Daxiaojie, three people were crouching sneakily.

Fenfen looked bewildered: "Bai Bai, did you understand? Why don't I know what he is talking about?"

Beside her, Bai Bai was swallowing something with effort; hearing this, she shook her head, looking equally bewildered.

"Qingqing, what about you?"

Fenfen had no choice but to ask the young girl on the other side.

Qingqing was just like them, also squatting on the ground with a precious sword held in her arms, the sword pressed into the deep cleavage on her chest; she had a cold expression, and upon hearing this, she paused and shook her head.

None of the three had understood.

"I wonder if the Young Miss understood?"

Fenfen muttered to herself.

At this moment, Bai Daxiaojie was sitting there quietly, watching the figure on the podium; that peerlessly beautiful and flawless face was hidden behind a snow-white veil, making it impossible to see the expression on her face.

"Now, pick up your pens and write this sentence down. When I check it next class, it won't just be about writing it out; you will also need to explain its meaning and provide examples..."

"Next, let us explain an idiom: 'Covering one's ears to steal a bell'..."

Luo Zijun waited a moment, then continued to explain the idiom.

He still used the form of a story to pique everyone's interest, letting them remember the idiom without even realizing it.

When he reached the part where "Bai Yuning covers her own ears and begins to steal the bell," everyone burst into laughter.

After the whole story was finished, everyone laughed and remembered the idiom.

"The so-called 'covering one's ears to steal a bell' means to deceive oneself; thinking one has deceived others, when in fact, one is only deceiving oneself..."

"This is a derogatory term. You might all think doing this is very funny and silly, but in fact, sometimes, we need to do this..."

Luo Zijun changed his tone and said: "Returning to the previous lesson, the strong show weakness, deliberately acting out 'covering one's ears to steal a bell' to paralyze the enemy, making the enemy think they are very silly; in fact, it is 'playing the pig to eat the tiger,' great wisdom appearing as stupidity..."

"What is meant by 'playing the pig to eat the tiger' and 'great wisdom appearing as stupidity'?"

Having explained up to this point, Luo Zijun wrote these two idioms on the blackboard again and began to use a new story to explain them.

He spoke eloquently on the podium, while the little nobles below all had bright, spirited eyes, listening with great relish, laughing out loud from time to time, and taking the opportunity to discuss it.

In normal classes, when they discussed things, other teachers would interrupt them very sternly, or even take out a ruler to punish them, but Luo Zijun would stop, listen with a smile, and then join the discussion, mobilizing their enthusiasm for asking questions and debating.

The time of a whole morning passed by without them noticing.

When the sun outside rose to the zenith and Luo Zijun announced that today's class was over, everyone felt unfulfilled and reluctant to leave, feeling as if it had only just begun—how could it have ended so quickly?

If it were other teachers' classes, at this time, they would have long been drowsy, wishing for it to end immediately so they could leave quickly.

But now, they seemed as if they hadn't heard enough, one after another muttering things like "How is it already noon so quickly?" and "I haven't heard enough yet."

Bai Qingtong, sitting in the back row, saw this scene and felt secretly glad that she had been there when they were recruiting the teacher; otherwise, this youth probably wouldn't have had the chance to start teaching at all before being politely declined by that old Mr. Dong.

At the same time, her heart became even more determined that, no matter what, she must keep this youth in the Bai Family for good.

She even began to feel anxious. Especially after she learned that those few books were written by this youth, coupled with the youth's brilliant lecture today, she felt that if she didn't act now, and he was snatched away by another mansion, it would be too late for regrets.

She even felt some regret for playing matchmaker between this youth and Yingchun.

Those young ladies of the Jia Mansion were full of praise and admiration for this youth's talent and the books he wrote.

If he married a young lady from the Jia Mansion...

With the talent this youth was currently displaying, his future would absolutely be boundless.

The status of the Jia Family had already risen with the tide because of that Imperial Concubine, and they were in the limelight; if they were to recruit this youth as well, then their Bai Family would likely lose the title of head of the Four Great Families once and for all.

The title didn't matter, but the future and continuation of the family required a constant stream of outstanding talent. If one generation declined, it might be very difficult to climb back up.

While she was thinking with a turbulent heart, the youth had already greeted her and taken his leave.

Those little ones were also excitedly discussing the class while leaving in twos and threes.

The classroom soon became quiet.

Junzi Residence.

!

After Luo Zijun returned, he ate a hearty lunch and secretly ate a large piece of snake meat.

Then he went to the backyard to continue his cultivation.

In the evening, after he finished his Medicine Bath early, he went out.

When he left, he secretly brought along his senior sister's white dress and white socks.

The dress was already dry, so he would send them over together in a moment.

He turned into a deserted alley, changed into black tight-fitting clothes inside, put on his Bamboo Hat and Mask, and then went straight to the Gathering of Sages Hall.

The shopkeeper recognized him at a glance and smiled: "Young Master Dong, how was the harvest from hunting outside the city yesterday?"

He actually already knew the result; it was just a polite greeting.

Luo Zijun sighed and said: "I harvested a fright and almost lost my life. Shopkeeper, you have to compensate me for my money."

The shopkeeper burst into laughter, laughed for a while, and said: "It was the Young Master's first time going, so you lacked experience. Just be careful next time you go."

As for the compensation, he naturally knew it was a joke.

It was free to begin with last time, so how could he possibly pay money back.

Seeing that there were no customers in the shop at the moment, Luo Zijun brought up the real business: "Shopkeeper, do you sell cultivation techniques here? The kind for Flesh Tempering, from the Martial Artist First Realm all the way to the Ninth Realm."

Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper immediately gave a bitter smile: "Young Master is joking. Our shop wouldn't dare sell techniques. If the Young Master wants techniques, you can only go to a Martial Arts Hall. If we were to steal business from the Martial Arts Hall, this shop probably wouldn't survive until tomorrow."

Luo Zijun asked: "Then does the shopkeeper know where there are Martial Arts Halls in the Inner City? How many are there? Which Martial Arts Hall is better?"

The shopkeeper smiled and said: "There are some in the north, south, and west of the city. To tell you the truth, this old man doesn't know exactly how many there are. As for which Martial Arts Hall is better, this old man wouldn't dare to recommend one casually; the Young Master must go and see for yourself."

Luo Zijun said: "Then does the shopkeeper know how much silver is needed to enter these Martial Arts Halls to cultivate?"

The shopkeeper thought for a moment and said: "I estimate it would need at least one thousand taels of silver. If the Young Master wants to cultivate a complete set of techniques from the Martial Artist First Realm to the Ninth Realm, that would be expensive. As far as this old man knows, such a complete set of techniques requires at least tens of thousands of taels of silver. Unless the Young Master is favored by those masters and taken in as a personal disciple, in that case, it probably wouldn't cost any money."

"Tens of thousands of taels of silver..."

Luo Zijun clicked his tongue secretly, hesitated for a moment, and asked: "By the way, shopkeeper, do you accept demon cores here?"

The shopkeeper's eyes lit up and he said, "We buy, of course we buy! Does Young Master have any?"

Luo Zijun did not answer, but asked instead, "What are the prices like?"

The shopkeeper laughed and said, "Young Master, rest assured, this shop will absolutely not offer lower prices than other shops. The price of a demon core is calculated based on its quality and degree of damage; the approximate price ranges from one thousand taels to tens of thousands of taels. Of course, there are higher prices, but our shop doesn't have the capacity to buy those kinds of demon cores. If a demon core already has many cracks or is already shattered, then it is only worth a few hundred taels of silver."

Luo Zijun listened attentively and asked a few more questions regarding demon cores.

The shopkeeper was very patient, answering them one by one, and then told him the specific locations of those few Martial Arts Halls.

Finally, he sighed, which made Luo Zijun's heart stir.

"If you ask me, no matter how powerful the cultivation techniques in those Martial Arts Halls are, they cannot compare to the private halls of those great families. Families like the Bai Family, the Jia Family, and the Shi Family—those noble families all have their own Martial Arts Halls. Their cultivation techniques are the real good techniques; ordinary people can't learn them..."

Luo Zijun silently noted this in his heart.

As he was leaving, the shopkeeper added, "If Young Master Dongfang needs to leave the city again next time, remember to come and make a reservation in advance, otherwise there won't be enough time. Since Young Master is a regular customer of our shop, I will only charge you a bit for the carriage fee then."

Luo Zijun asked, "How much is the carriage fee?"

The shopkeeper chuckled and held up five fingers.

"Five taels?"

"Fifty taels."

"..."

The shopkeeper laughed and said, "Young Master, don't think it's expensive. With your attire, if you want to leave the city on your own, I'm afraid it won't be that simple. But as long as you sit in our carriage, the journey will be smooth and unobstructed; no one will stop you, and they won't check your identity either."

"The boss really knows how to do business. Next time I have a need, I will come over in advance."

After Luo Zijun left the shop, he walked around the neighborhood and went to Bao'an Hall.

He was still wearing his black tight-fitting suit, wearing his Bamboo Hat and Mask.

Entering the shop, he found that his senior sister was not there; only his master was lying on a rocking chair, snoring away in his sleep.

It looked like he was truly asleep.

Luo Zijun was speechless; he quietly passed by him, walked into the counter, and opened the drawer where the money was kept.

There were only a few coins in the drawer.

He deliberately closed the drawer hard, making a "clatter" sound.

As it turned out, his master was still snoring.

He pulled open the drawer containing medicinal herbs, continuing to open and close it with a "clatter-clatter" sound, making a lot of noise.

However, his master still did not wake up, still lying there with his mouth open, snoring away.

Luo Zijun was suddenly both annoyed and amused.

At this rate, how could they earn a damn cent? Don't let the shop be carried away by someone while he's still snoring away.

He decided to teach his master a profound lesson!

"Smack!"

He slammed his hand heavily onto the counter and shouted in a rough, coarse voice: "Still sleeping! Get up and give me the silver, old man!"

Su Dafang was startled and trembled, immediately getting up from the chair. He looked at him with sleepy eyes, stunned for a moment, then hurriedly said "Oh, oh" twice, quickly took two coins out of his pocket, placed them on the counter, and bowed with cupped hands: "Spare me, good sir! Business has been bad lately; I can barely afford to eat, and this is all the money I have in my pocket."

Luo Zijun glanced at the two coins on the counter, slammed the counter again, and roared in a rough voice: "Still trying to lie! Where is that pretty little granddaughter of yours? Doesn't she have a lot of silver on her? Tell her to bring it out quickly! If you dare to lie again, be careful, or I'll burn your shop down with a fire!"

Su Dafang's expression changed, and he immediately said sternly: "That won't do. My silver can be given to you, but my dear granddaughter's silver can never be given to you, no matter what. Even if you kill me, even if you burn this shop down, it's impossible!"

Luo Zijun was taken aback and said: "Oh? Why? Is your granddaughter's money more important than your own life?"

Su Dafang's eyes immediately turned red, and he said: "Needless to say, that girl's money is indeed more important than this old life of mine; it is absolutely impossible to give it to you."

Luo Zijun asked curiously: "She's just a girl, why is she saving up so much money?"

Su Dafang seemed to have been reminded of a painful matter; he immediately covered his face, sobbed a few times, and said: "That girl not only saves her own money, she even snatched away my coffin money. She... she is preparing to support a gigolo, boo-hoo..."

Luo Zijun: "..."

"Um... that gigolo she's preparing to support, is he very handsome?"

Luo Zijun couldn't help but ask.

Su Dafang covered his face and cried: "Handsome my foot! He's an ugly monster, even uglier than me!"

The corner of Luo Zijun's mouth twitched, and he said: "That's not right. Since that gigolo is an ugly monster, why does your granddaughter still save money to support him?"

Su Dafang cried: "How would I know? Go ask her yourself!"

Then he suddenly revealed his face and asked suspiciously: "You're a robber, why are you asking this? What, don't tell me you think my dear granddaughter is a fool, and you want to be a gigolo supported by her too?"

"..."

Luo Zijun didn't dare to show his face again and immediately roared: "I am a dignified man, how could I stoop so low as to be a gigolo living off a woman? I would rather die!"

Then he roared again: "Such a large shop, and there isn't even a single tael of silver! It's enough to make me die of anger! I'm going to rob somewhere else!"

Having said that, he immediately stepped out from behind the counter and left in a fit of rage.

After leaving the shop, he turned into a small alley.

Then he took off the Bamboo Hat and Mask, changed into a Confucian robe, and after walking around the neighborhood a few times, he finally re-entered Bao'an Hall.

"Snore... snore..."

As soon as he entered the door, he saw his master lying back on the chair, snoring away in a deep sleep, with tear stains still on his face.

Luo Zijun: "..."

(End of chapter)