Provocation

  Provocation

  Having Mr. Sun's attention was an unexpected gain for Yin Ruofei, who seriously attended to his duties until noon, when everyone's servants had brought them their meals.

  There was Zi Ling's purple rhyme at home, and such things would naturally not be neglected. The meal was prepared early and sent over by a young servant.

  The dishes were simple but not crude, four dishes and one soup, two meat and two vegetarian, a bowl of white rice. Yin Ruofei hesitated for a moment, took out one meat and one vegetarian dish from the middle, and let the servant send the rest to Mr. Sun's room without moving at all.

  A dish of bamboo shoots and braised pork, a dish of high-soup cabbage, was sent to Mr. Sun's place, and Yin Ruofei himself enjoyed the remaining two dishes with relish.

  Two dishes are already enough for him. With his large appetite, eating more would be a waste. Having lived a hard life, being frugal has been etched into his bones.

  Mr. Sun saw the young servant bring over two exquisite dishes, shook his head and smiled as he accepted them. It's hard for a child of this age to have such a heart, why did he have to pretend to decline, and these two dishes really suited his taste.

  Yin Ruofei seemed to be eating slowly, but in fact he finished his meal very quickly. Just as he was about to pick up the soup to drink, a book suddenly flew from somewhere and landed on the table.

  The corner of the book got stained with soup from the bowl, and there were oil stains all over it, covered in vegetable juice.

  Looking in that direction, a child's eyes darted back and forth nearby, seeing Yin Ruofei's gaze sweep over, and couldn't help but stare again with bated breath.

  Yin Ruofei glanced to the side and couldn't help but sneer. The little brat who threw the book was standing next to his third brother, wasn't he? It's astonishing that they could do something so blatant. But a bowl of soup, if you don't drink it, then forget it.

  He ordered the young servant to clean up the remaining dishes, and as for the book stained with oil, Yin Ruofei personally picked it up and handed it over, "Your book, take good care of it."

  The child reluctantly accepted it, thanked him, and his eyes involuntarily glanced at Yin Jinhong, the third son of the Yin family.

  Yin's Academy was a family school, but it wasn't entirely made up of Yin family members, and the teachers weren't just Mr. Sun alone.

  The Yin family naturally followed Mr. Sun, and some other relatives and children from nearby families were also sent to be taught by a few other gentlemen, who received some tuition fees, while the rest was subsidized by the Yin family.

  Yin Ruofei sat back in his seat, coldly sizing up the people inside the school hall. Most of them were direct descendants of the Yin family, and occasionally there were outsiders who were children or younger relatives of colleagues and subordinates who had a good relationship with his father, Yin Haicheng.

  Few people from the previous life became famous, but many became wealthy. They all relied on the signboard of Marquis of Town Jiang, and finally got into a lot of trouble, among them his third brother was not to be blamed.

  The stupid Lao San thought he was extremely intelligent and had always been arrogant, often bullying him in school. With Lao San leading the way, those two lackeys, Lao Wu and Lao Liu, also bullied him frequently.

  He naturally wasn't good-tempered either. The several fights weren't just disliked by his father, Yin Haicheng, but also frequently shook his head by Mr. Sun.

  This life he will naturally not be foolish, but he also won't admit defeat!

  Xiao Shun tidied up the desk, Yin Ruofei took out paper and pen to quietly copy books and practice calligraphy, completely ignoring the noisy environment around him. In his previous life, he didn't work hard, his handwriting was very poor, and he was despised by his master. Of course, this master was also someone he silently called in his heart, if he had shouted it out loud, that proud and arrogant doctor would have looked at him with disdain and told him to go recite medical classics and dry medicinal herbs again.

  Mr. Sun finished his meal and slowly walked back to the school with his hands behind his back. He was about to enter the door when he suddenly had an idea, wanting to secretly observe the character of these children in private, so he hid himself on the side, stepped on a half brick, and peeked through the window paper.

  In early spring, in the third month, it was still cold outside. Occasionally, some young children wanted to go out and play, but were persuaded by their attendants or servants not to do so. If they went out and caught a chill, these attendants would be beaten with a board.

  So during lunch break, the school was in an uproar.

  Yin Jia's third son, Yin Jin Hong, was only twelve years old at the time and could be considered a half-grown kid. In school, he was one of the oldest and his status was also quite prestigious.

  The other officials' sons who came to study were not as good as Yin Haicheng in terms of official positions, and the other legitimate and illegitimate children of the Yin family were also reminded by their families to give way to the young masters of the main house.

  At this time, there was Yin Ruofei, the only legitimate son of Master Yin, and the identity of Third Young Master Yin was instantly overshadowed. When Yin Ruofei went to Mr. Sun's room earlier, those collateral relatives in the school were whispering among themselves, and when Yin Jinhong heard something about legitimate and illegitimate sons, a fire of anger burned secretly in his heart, thinking that he would give Yin Ruofei some color to see, and also let these blind people see who was more noble.

  The young man who lost the book was named Yin Jiu Yang, a collateral member of the Yin family. His family was poor and destitute, and he relied on the Hou Manor to support his studies. Under Yin Jin Hong's orders, he did not dare to disobey. He had done such things many times before, but when he saw the clear and transparent eyes of Lin Ru Fei, he suddenly felt a deep sadness.

  Yin Jiu's father died early, and his mother struggled to make ends meet by doing some needlework and relying on the meager dowry. With great difficulty, she managed to get Hou Ye to allow Yin Jiu to attend school. But instead of studying, he was doing this kind of thing every day. If his mother were to find out... Looking at Yin Ruofei, who was diligently practicing calligraphy at such a young age, made him feel even more ashamed.

  She secretly made up her mind not to do such absurd things anymore, so she pretended not to see the eye signal from Yin Jinhong.

  Yin Jinhong ignored Yinjiu Yang and instead urged another underling on impatiently.

  That little guy got the hint and suddenly became complacent. His status was not as good as Yin Jiu Yang's, but he was only a collateral relative of the Yin family, and being able to climb up to be the young master of the Marquis Hou's house made him feel superior to others.

  Unfortunately, his status was even lower than Yin Jiu Yang's. As the young master of the Marquis' manor, Yin Jin Hong looked down on him and usually didn't bother to pay attention to him. He himself naturally wanted to make Yin Jin Hong think he was useful, so when Yin Jin Hong gave him a glance, how could he not be excited?

  Perhaps thinking that he had already climbed to the Yin family and didn't need to suffer those cold eyes, this little guy actually shook his hand and picked up the inkstone, throwing it at Yin Ruofei's body.

  Mr. Sun had just stood firmly on the bluestone, looking at the noisy house, and his eyebrows were deeply furrowed. Where was this still a school? He turned his head to take another look, and saw Yin Ruofei practicing calligraphy with a pen, a smile appeared on his face.

  After all, he was his chosen disciple, and he didn't ask for peach blossoms everywhere, as long as there were a few who had made progress.

  He was stroking his beard with great satisfaction when he saw a young boy secretly pick up an inkstone and make a motion to throw it at Yin Ruofei's body, suddenly furious, shouting angrily through the window.

  How could that kid not recognize Mr. Yin's voice? In the midst of his panic, he spun the inkstone around in a circle and ended up smashing it into Yin Ruo Fei's face instead.

  This twist was unexpected by everyone, whether it was the person who made the move or Mr. Sun, even Yin Ruofei.

  Yin Ruofei indeed did not notice, he had just come to the school for the first day, and was silent, thinking of observing for a few more days, who would have thought that these people wouldn't let him have a peaceful day.

  Mr. Sun's sudden loud shout frightened many people, and when everyone reacted, they saw the inkstone flying towards Yin Ruofei's head, with different reactions in their hearts.

  Thanks to Mr. Sun's shout, Yin Ruofei only realized the crisis in front of him. Originally, he could have dodged it by turning his head, but with a slight movement in his heart, his reaction was slightly delayed, allowing the inkstone to graze his forehead.

  Fortunately, this kid's family is poor and uses the cheapest yellow mud inkstone. If it were one of those good stone inkstones, I'm afraid a bloody head wound would be unavoidable.

  Even so, Yin Ruofei's head was also bleeding, and the remaining ink in the inkstone splashed all over his body.

  Seeing Yin Ruofei get hurt, Mr. Sun's heart almost jumped out of his chest. Although he is also a great Confucian scholar, how could he have seen such a scene before? Not to mention that Yin Ruofei is now his student and was injured in front of him. If the Marquis were to blame him, it would be a small matter to take responsibility, but losing face would be a big deal. Moreover, he couldn't bear to see Yin Ruofei get hurt.

  The little boy who dropped the inkstone was completely stunned. He, of course, knew Yin Ruofei's identity, but in order to curry favor with Yin Jinhong, he couldn't help but be a scapegoat. However, dirtying Yin Ruofei's clothes and making him lose face was a small matter; at most, he would just be scolded. But smashing the crown prince of the Hou family's head was a big deal...