Chapter 1196: Attack

Recently, the officials in the Hanlin department who were qualified to lecture in the Royal School were in a good mood. Therefore, when they were told that their wives were preparing to apply for the position of editor of The Lily Times, they only felt momentarily depressed.

As the various rules of The Lily Times were published in the newspaper, The Great Qi Times also consolidated the four newspapers under its umbrella. After naming the various newspapers, they set the rules and began to recruit staff from the entire nation.

The group of men were too embarrassed to focus intently on The Lily Times’s announcement, so they stared at The Great Qi Times’s announcement instead.

Lin Weide was indeed capable. He had only been in office for eight days, but he had already successfully taken over the newspaper office. He named the four newspapers one by one. The most eye-catching one was naturally The Great Qi Times, now with more polished content. While mainly focused on all kinds of government affairs in Great Qi, it also dabbled in foreign relations with neighboring countries. Any current affairs could be published in The Great Qi Times.

As proposed by Mu Yangling, the three new newspapers were ‘The Great Qi Sinology Journal’, ‘The Great Qi Geographical Journal’, and ‘The Great Qi Children’s Journal’.

The Great Qi Times stipulated that officials were not allowed to take on any position in the newspaper office. Therefore, although the idle editors of the Hanlin Academy really wanted to become a part-time editor for kicks, they were dismayed to learn that they were ineligible.

But it didn’t matter. Although they couldn’t hold a position, their articles could appear in the newspapers.

To be able to become a jinshi and enter the Hanlin Academy, those people most definitely had superior writing skills.

From The Great Qi Times to The Great Qi Sinology Journal to The Great Qi Geographical Journal, everyone was knowledgeable about the content. All, except The Great Qi Children’s Journal. That said, they had sons and grandchildren who could contribute. Even if their sons and grandsons could not do it, they still had students!

Especially the teachers in the Royal School, whose students had a natural advantage.

Who owned The Great Qi Times?

His student’s mother owned it!

Hence, the homework assigned by the teachers during the break was to write an article for The Great Qi Children’s Journal. It had to be published by the newspaper to count.

Of course, since the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince were still learning how to write, they could not be included.

But none of the remaining four could escape.

If they were not allowed to enter the newspaper office, they would flood the newspaper office with manuscripts. Not only their own, but also their students’.

Hence, the four children were distressed.

Qi Wensu cupped his face and asked, “How do we write an article for the children’s newspaper?”

Little An and the twins shook their heads together. How would they know when they had never written such an article before?

However, they weren’t worried at all. Tiger Head said confidently, “We can ask my mother when we get home.”

Qi Wensu’s eyes lit up, and he immediately said, “Then I want to leave the palace too. I want to stay at your house tonight.”

The Third and Fourth Princes, who were silently writing at the side, immediately threw down their brushes and ran over. “We want to go too.”

Qi Wensu pulled a long face and said, “No, it’s not as if you have to write an article like us.”

“Hmph, don’t think that we don’t know that you just want to leave the palace to play. We don’t care. If you don’t bring us along, we’ll tell Royal Father that you refuse to bring us out to play. We’ll definitely cry until the house collapses.”

Tiger Head immediately said, “If you can make the Great Wall collapse from crying, Royal Uncle will even let you go out to play every day.”

Stunned, the Third Prince asked, “The Great Wall? But that’s so far away. I’ll have to run all the way to the foot of the Great Wall just to cry?”

Tiger Head paused in surprise, then turned around and asked his three friends, “Why can’t they detect the sarcasm? It’s not fun at all.”

Little An couldn’t stop him in time. As soon as Tiger Head said this, the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince immediately knew that they had been tricked. At this realization, they simply closed their eyes and cried.

Tiger Head was so startled that he almost fell off his chair.

The two children were crying too miserably. Even though there were not many servants in the study and the eunuchs rushed in as quickly as possible, the two princes only cared about crying with their eyes closed and wouldn’t heed anyone’s comforting words.

Hence, the group of children was sent to the Palace of Earthly Tranquility to be judged. However, since the Royal School was outside the harem, they had to walk a long way to reach the Palace of Earthly Tranquility. It was even further away than the Emperor’s Imperial Study.

Hence, after walking for a while, the Emperor, who heard the commotion, sent Eunuch Wan to pick them up.

When the six children stood in line, the Third Prince and the Fourth Prince were still sobbing. The two of them stared at their Royal Father with wet eyes, while the other four lowered their heads in frustration.

Qi Xiuyuan was busy with state affairs and immediately became impatient when he saw the six children below.

Fortunately, he only had six sons. If he had more, wouldn’t the palace turn upside down?

Indeed, Ah Ling was right. Having more children was a burden!

Ignoring his two sobbing sons, Qi Xiuyuan pointed at Tiger Head and asked, “Tiger Head, tell me what’s going on.”

Tiger Head lowered his head and took a step forward. He said apologetically, “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have asked them to cry at the Great Wall.”

“Wait a minute.” Qi Xiuyuan held his forehead and asked Little An, “Have you been learning the ‘Zuo Tradition’ recently? I remember that you’re not scheduled to learn that yet?”

Little An looked at the confused Tiger Head and replied, “The teacher hasn’t taught us from ‘Zuo Tradition’ yet. After Brother Crown Prince and Brother Little Bear went to Shanxi and toured the Great Wall, they drew a painting and sent it to us. This led to Fourth Aunt telling us many stories about the Great Wall, the first being the story of Meng Jiangnv who, by her tears, caused the Great Wall to crumble.”

Qi Xiuyuan thought of the painting in his study and realized that it was actually mass-produced. After taking a deep breath, he looked at Tiger Head and asked, “Why do you want them to cry at the Great Wall? Did I do something infuriating?”

The reason why Meng Jiangnv cried at the Great Wall was because of Qin Shihuang1’s tyranny, causing her husband to die without a corpse. The most important idea in the story was that the Emperor caused the deaths of many due to his tyrannical rule.

All the scholars in the world understood this logic, but Tiger Head clearly did not. He scratched his head and said, “They threatened to collapse the house with their crying. I felt that if they can make the house collapse with their tears, they can definitely collapse the Great Wall, too…”

Qi Xiuyuan let out a long sigh and turned to ask Little An again, “Didn’t your Fourth Aunt tell him the meaning of this story when she told it?”

Little An was embarrassed and said, “Fourth Aunt asked us to think about it ourselves. Why did Meng Jiangnv cause the Great Wall to collapse with her crying and why was this matter recorded in ‘Zuo Tradition’ and widely circulated? Tiger Head doesn’t seem to have figured it out yet.”

Tiger Head pouted angrily and shouted at Qi Xiuyuan, “Royal Uncle, you can just direct the questions at me. Don’t just ask Brother Little An. I’m not a fool and can answer these questions.”

Qi Xiuyuan stroked his head sympathetically and said, “Of course I know that you can answer too, but Royal Uncle’s time is limited. I’m afraid that by the time I figure out your answer and smooth things over, a day would’ve passed. So even if you may feel a little aggrieved, do let me ask Little An and the others, okay?”

“Then just ask Little An. Why do you have to alternate between asking me and him?”

Qi Xiuyuan praised him. “Because you’re the most honest among the children. They always like to describe things in a way that makes it sound less serious than it actually is. Although it’s not enough to constitute a lie, they tend to make me overlook the most important thing.”

Having learned his lesson long ago, Tiger Head felt that the word “honest” was not a compliment coming from Royal Uncle’s mouth. Wasn’t this indirectly calling him stupid?

Hence, he puffed up his cheeks and looked at his Royal Uncle.

Little Lion couldn’t stand Royal Uncle bullying Tiger Head like this either. After all, Tiger Head was his younger brother and he had sworn to protect him.

Hence, Little Lion turned to ask the Third Prince and Fourth Prince, who had stopped crying, “Why did you say that you wanted to collapse the house with your tears? Are you so powerful?”

The Third Prince and Fourth Prince sniffled and said aggrievedly, “Royal Father said that if we cry again, the house will collapse. Every time we cry, Royal Father will agree to our request, so you’d better bring us out of the palace. Otherwise, we’ll cry until the house collapses.”

The four children ignored the last sentence of the two children and looked at Qi Xiuyuan in unison, their eyes filled with condemnation. Little An even stroked the Third Prince and Fourth Prince’s heads and sighed. “You’re really innocent.”

Qi Xiuyuan miraculously felt like his heart had been shot by two arrows.

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