Chapter 10 My daughter is so poor?

Yun Shu smiled shyly, and was secretly guessing how much money the emperor would give her after he found out.

Emperor Xuanwu turned his head again and started chatting with Cui Taifu with a smile on his face:

"My dear Cui, do you know how much the most common brush in the market costs?"

"This……"

Master Cui was stunned for a moment. He came from a prominent family and had never lacked money since childhood. The pens, inks, paper and inkstones he used on a daily basis were all fine products.

He really had no idea how much those inferior quality brushes cost out there.

"perhaps……"

Master Cui carefully guessed:
"One tael of silver?"

"almost."

Emperor Xuanwu nodded:

"A brush costs eight hundred coins."

One tael of silver is one thousand coins, which is not much different from eight hundred coins.

Emperor Xuanwu continued:
"Then, Lord Cui, do you know how much money ordinary people can save in a year?"

"For an ordinary family of five, the annual expenses are about ten taels of silver."

This is related to people's livelihood. After all, Cui Taifu is a minister in the court. He still understands this issue:
"If there is no disaster and nothing special happens in the family, maybe one and a half taels of silver can be saved in a year."

"Yes."

Emperor Xuanwu put his hands behind his back, walked to the window, looked out of the palace and said in a deep voice:

“Even if everything goes well for a whole year, an ordinary family of five can only save one and a half taels of silver, but a common brush can spend most of it.

This is why it is difficult for a poor family to produce a noble son. "

"So what you mean is..."

Although Master Cui is pedantic, he is not a fool.

Emperor Xuanwu had said this, so he could naturally react:

"This, this chicken feather..."

"What chicken feathers!"

Yun Shu complained quietly:

“It’s called a quill.”

"Hahaha that's right! Quill!"

Emperor Xuanwu laughed heartily. He turned around and nodded with satisfaction:
"It's not easy for ordinary people to buy a brush, but it's not difficult to buy a bunch of feather pens!"

"Can……"

Cui Taifu looked a little unhappy. Obviously, in the eyes of a pedantic person like him who came from an aristocratic family, it was not important whether the common people could afford to buy pens or read books.
What is important is the "elegance" of reading.

But in his eyes, writing with chicken feathers... oh no, writing with a feather pen was extremely vulgar and an insult to scholars!
Cui Taifu lowered his head and tried to find an excuse:

"But when I saw the princess writing just now, the way she held the quill was very strange.

Moreover, the feather shaft is hard, not as soft as ordinary brushes, which is definitely not the way of calligraphy!"

"The name Shu'er looks good to me!"

The people of the aristocratic families wished that the entire court would be filled with their own people. Emperor Xuanwu was not surprised at all that Imperial Tutor Cui did not care whether ordinary people could read or not.
He dismissed Master Cui's words lightly:
“If you really can’t do it, just learn to use a feather pen first. If you can pass the examination to become a scholar, you will naturally have enough money to buy a brush.

It won’t be too late to practice calligraphy then.”

After saying this, without waiting for Grand Tutor Cui to come up with any other excuses, Emperor Xuanwu turned his head again and praised Yun Shu approvingly:

"Shu'er has done a great job this time!"

Who wants your verbal praise? It's useless!

Seeing that Emperor Xuanwu was in a very good mood at the moment, Yun Shu rubbed over to him like a flatterer:
"Father, will there be any reward for meritorious service?"

Emperor Xuanwu raised his eyebrows:
"What reward does Shuer want?"

"Money!" Yun Shu's wish was very simple.

She took out a very dry purse from her sleeve pocket and shook it twice:

"Father, look, these are all I have. If I were not so poor that I couldn't even afford a brush, how would I know that chicken tail feathers can be used to write?"

"..."

He is the emperor and rules the world, but how could his daughter be so poor?
Emperor Xuanwu's majestic expression almost couldn't be restrained.
But he quickly came to his senses:
"I remember that you don't need to pay for these things like pens, ink, paper, and inkstone yourself, right?"

No matter whether Yunshu was favored before, she was still a princess.

Emperor Xuanwu was not an emperor who would treat his children harshly. The daily food, clothing, housing, transportation and daily necessities of the princes and princesses were taken care of by places like the Imperial Household Department.

Why does she need to buy a brush?
"The palace's writing brushes, inkstones, and paper are only available when you are six years old!"

Yun Shu tightly grasped her purse which only had three copper coins in it, and began to play the victim with her head down:
"When I was three years old, I wanted to learn how to write my own name, but I didn't have a pen..."

Emperor Xuanwu: “?”

So this kid went to fight a rooster when he was three years old? ?

Recalling the scene described by Dragon Shadow Guard yesterday, he replaced the figure of the eight-year-old Sixth Prince with the three-year-old Yun Shu.
Emperor Xuanwu fell into silence once again.

"Father..."

Yunshu looked pitiful.

"understood."

Emperor Xuanwu pulled the corner of his lip:

"I'll have someone deliver the reward to you today!"

"Thank you, Father!"

I have money! Yay!!

After seeing off Emperor Xuanwu with a smile on his face, Yun Shu was still immersed in the joy that his wallet was finally full. When he turned around, he was met with the old face of Master Cui, which was as stinky as if it had been pickled in a toilet.

Yun Shu's heart suddenly sounded an alarm, and he quickly spoke before the other party could speak:

"Master, we just agreed that I don't need to copy the remaining nine copies of The Doctrine of the Mean!"

"Ah."

No matter how dissatisfied Cui Taifu was, he could not be so stupid as to deny what Emperor Xuanwu had just said.
He just emphasized in a lukewarm tone:
"You don't have to copy, but you still have to memorize what you need to memorize."

"Don't worry, Master. We'll do random checks in two days!"

Isn’t it just reciting the whole text?

She is not really a bad student!

It’s only three thousand words, so it’s not impossible to memorize it.

Yun Shu walked briskly back to his seat. Before he could sit down, he heard Master Cui's deep voice again.

"Since this is the case, let's put the matter of The Doctrine of the Mean aside for now.
Read The Great Learning twenty times and hand it in within ten days. "

Yun Shu: “?”

???

This old guy is pretending to obey but actually disobeying, right?
It was not easy to bypass her father and let her continue copying "The Doctrine of the Mean", but she was fined double the amount of "The Great Learning"!
So after copying "The Great Learning", are there still "The Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius"?
After copying the Four Books, are there still the Five Classics?
He is outrageous!

Yun Shu took a deep breath and couldn't bear it anymore:

"Master Cui, don't you think this is a little unreasonable?"

"Your Highness the Fifth Princess, are you questioning my ability to teach students?"

Cui Taifu clasped his hands together and put them in his sleeves. He used the same trick that worked every time:

"If the princess has any opinions, you can tell His Majesty directly!"

Again! Take! The! Emperor! Pressure! Her! !

Do you really think she doesn't dare to go to her parents to complain?

She has finalized the lawsuit today!
(End of this chapter)