Clutching his arm, Da Wu said angrily, "You're clearly calling us dogs!"
Yang Guo kept his head down, flipping through the book.
"No."
"I really didn't."
Da Wu roared, "You literally called us Dagou and Two Dog!"
Yang Guo looked up, replying with a deadpan serious face: "I wasn't talking about you. It was a slip of the tongue."
Da Wu's chest heaved violently with anger.
"Yang Guo, don't get cocky, kid!"
"We just weren't in top form today!"
Xiao Wu hurriedly chimed in:
"Right!"
"We caught a chill!"
Da Wu nodded repeatedly:
"Yeah, the sea breeze has been strong these past two days."
"The two of us caught a chill and our hands and feet felt weak. We didn't even use a single tenth of our true skills!"
"Once the two of us get better, we'll make sure you see our real strength."
Xiao Wu rubbed his sore nape, adding: "Exactly! Just now I was careless and didn't dodge. Just you wait until next time."
Yang Guo appraised the brothers' flushed cheeks, nodding thoughtfully: "Mm, I understand."
Da Wu paused, startled: "What do you understand?"
Yang Guo said earnestly:
"This chill specifically damages martial arts."
"It doesn't hinder eating."
"It doesn't hinder playing."
"The moment you lose a fight, it flares up immediately."
Guo Fu burst into a snort of laughter, bending double.
Xiao Wu said anxiously:
"Sister Fu!"
"We really caught a chill!"
Just then, a rich, sweet fragrance of osmanthus drifted in along the veranda.
Carrying a blue-and-white porcelain plate, Huang Rong walked over with light steps, saying with a smile: "I could hear you shouting from all the way down the hall. What are you arguing about again?"
Da Wu and Xiao Wu were already in the wrong. Seeing Huang Rong arrive, they shrank their necks in fright, hastily cupped their fists to call out "Mistress," and fled like lightning.
Guo Fu immediately rushed forward and took Huang Rong's arm, acting spoiled:
"Mother, you finally came!"
"Brother Da Wu and Brother Xiao Wu are so annoying! All they did here was disturb Brother Yang's reading!"
Huang Rong gave a soft chuckle, extending a slender finger to lightly tap the tip of Guo Fu's nose:
"Don't play the victim here."
"From what I see across the whole island, you're the noisiest little sparrow of all."
"When it comes to making a racket, the two of them combined..."
"...might not even match you."
"If anyone's disturbing Guo'er's studies, you're number one on the list!"
Having her thoughts exposed, Guo Fu giggled. Her little hand slyly reached toward the porcelain plate.
Snap!
Flipping the back of her hand, Huang Rong gave a gentle slap to the back of Guo Fu's hand:
"Where are your manners?"
"The kitchen saved some for you kids. Run along now."
Guo Fu stuck out her tongue, made a face at Yang Guo, and skipped away.
Huang Rong carried the plate into the room and set it down on the rosewood desk.
Looking at 《The Analects》 open on the table, her gaze softened considerably:
"Guo'er, rest your eyes."
"You've been reading for two whole shichen. These sweet osmanthus cakes just came out of the steamer—they're soft and sweet, come give them a try."
Yang Guo stood up and bowed politely.
Straightening his back, his dark, bright eyes stared straight at Huang Rong, with not the slightest intention of grabbing any pastry:
"Thank you, Aunt Guo."
"However, there is no rush to fill my belly. It is more important that you inspect my schoolwork first."
Amused in her heart, Huang Rong assumed the boy was just proud and insisted on reciting 《Xue Er》 cleanly to save face.
She picked up the teapot, poured half a cup of clear tea, and used the lid to brush away the floating tea leaves:
"Alright then, recite it. I'm listening."
Yang Guo stood with his hands behind his back and cleared his throat.
With clear, crisp enunciation and rapid speed, he recited:
"The Master said: 'Is it not a pleasure to learn and at times practice what is learned? Is it not a delight to have friends coming from afar? Is one not a noble person if one remains unresentful when unrecognized?'..."
Huang Rong took a sip of hot tea, a faint appreciative smile at the corner of her lips as she nodded slightly.
After completing 《Xue Er》...
Yet Yang Guo still didn't stop. Shifting his tone, he connected straight into the second chapter:
"The Master said: 'Governing with virtue is like the North Star, which remains in its place while all the other stars revolve around it'..."
The smile at the corner of Huang Rong's lips receded slightly.
By the third chapter, 《Ba Yi》, Yang Guo's crisp voice echoed through the room, reciting faster and faster like beans pouring from a bamboo cylinder!
Huang Rong's motion of putting down her teacup froze, and her body involuntarily straightened.
By the tenth chapter, 《Xiang Dang》, steam had long ceased rising from the hot tea on the desk. Huang Rong's hands were frozen on her knees, and she even held her breath.
Yang Guo's voice erupted like a volley of cannon fire through the rafters, and the time it took an incense stick to burn passed in a flash.
"The Master said: 'If a person hears the Dao in the morning, they may die without regret in the evening!'"
"The Master said: 'A noble person is open and composed, while a petty person is constantly anxious and distressed!'"
Huang Rong listened attentively with full concentration.
She wasn't listening to see if Yang Guo could recite it, but specifically listening for mistakes.
A missed word, a wrong tone, a misread sentence break...
Any of them would count.
Yet after listening for a long time, there were none—not a single one.
Until the final passage fell, firm and decisive:
"'Without knowing fate, one cannot become a noble person; without knowing propriety, one cannot take a stand; without knowing words, one cannot understand people!'"
Yang Guo exhaled a long breath of turbid air and grinned at the dumbfounded Huang Rong, revealing a neat row of flashing white teeth:
"Aunt Guo, the full text of 《The Analects》 consists of twenty chapters, totaling four hundred and ninety-two sections."
"Guo'er has finished reciting it. Was there even half a word wrong or missed?"
A deathly silence filled the room; even the rustling of leaves outside the window could be heard with absolute clarity.
The teacup still suspended in Huang Rong's hand hadn't moved for a full half-ke.
Her almond eyes, which usually predicted all matters like a deity, were wide and round.
She stared blankly at the youth in green robes before her, as though she had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
Huang Rong considered her own memory far from poor, yet back when she memorized the complete 《The Analects》, it took her over two full months!
"Guo'er has been wandering the streets for many years. In just two shichen... he rattled out the entirety of 《The Analects》 as if spilling fried beans?"
Huang Rong's wrist trembled, and the tea nearly spilled onto her dress.
A sudden thought surged violently from the depths of her heart without warning.
"Could Guo'er... also possess a photographic memory like my mother did?"
The room remained quiet for several breaths.
Huang Rong was like someone under a freezing spell, completely motionless.
Yang Guo waited for a moment, calling out tentatively:
"Aunt Guo?"
Huang Rong gave no response whatsoever.
Yang Guo raised two fingers and waved them right under her eyelids:
"Aunt Guo?"
Only then did Huang Rong snap out of it. She looked down at 《The Analects》 in her hand.
Then she looked up at Yang Guo again.
Slowly setting the teacup and book down onto the desk, her gaze fixed intently on Yang Guo:
"Guo'er, did you truly never attend a private school or study books before?"
Yang Guo blinked his big eyes, looking utterly pure and innocent:
"If squatting under teahouse windows..."
"...and eavesdropping on storytellers doesn't count..."
"...then no, I haven't."
This wasn't actually a lie.
In this life, he truly had never entered a schoolhouse or taken a master.
As for his past life...
That was a thing of his previous existence. He couldn't exactly confess to her now:
Aunt Guo, actually I was a high school student who had to get up at five every morning to recite texts.
Seeing Huang Rong's frozen expression and silence, Yang Guo raised an eyebrow slightly, drawing out his tone:
"Aunt Guo, your hand is trembling like this... You wouldn't be trying to renege on your promise, would you?"
"Today, in front of the holy books of the sages, you laid out the words yourself: as long as I recite the complete 《The Analects》 flawlessly, you'd teach me one of Peach Blossom Island's supreme skills."
Yang Guo stepped half a pace closer, saying with a grin:
"It says right in 《The Analects》: 'In life, one must be trustworthy in word and resolute in action, you know.'"
Goaded by Yang Guo, Huang Rong's innate sharp competitiveness flared right back up.
She mused to herself:
"Fine kid, having wandered the streets for years, your skill at climbing up any ladder handed to you is top-notch."
"However, Peach Blossom Island's supreme skills have novel and graceful moves that rely entirely on extraordinary comprehension and inner energy to unleash."
"Guo'er only has a sliver of inner energy. Even if I teach him a move or half a stance, unless he spends a good deal of time pondering it meticulously, he can forget about figuring out the trick to it!"
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