Fu Yuchen hesitated, mumbling for a moment before seeming to make up his mind. He looked up and said, "I can't go out during this time, and I can't count on my friends to visit me either. Look how bored I am… You have to help me!"Fu Xuechen was puzzled. "Help you? With what?""Storybooks! I want to read storybooks!" Fu Yuchen carefully instructed, "Go find Guan Enming, or Zhang Chuyang will do. Just tell them you want to read the latest storybooks—any kind will do, the more exciting the better. Ask them to help you find some, and once they do, have them secretly pass them to you. Then bring them directly back to me. Don't let Father and Mother know! I'll pay you back for the cost of the storybooks! How about it?"Storybooks? Isn't that just fiction? Fu Xuechen couldn't help but look Fu Yuchen up and down. Who would have thought this kid was a novel enthusiast! At an age when he should be diligently studying the Four Books and Five Classics, he was neglecting his schoolwork to read extracurricular books. No wonder he had to keep it secret from their parents.Thinking this, Fu Xuecen couldn't help but say it out loud: "Wow! You really dare to ask! Instead of studying properly, you want to read storybooks! If Father and Mother find out, you'll get beaten, and I'll be implicated too. I say you should just forget it and focus on recovering from your injury!""Hey!" Fu Yuchen was displeased, his face full of grievance. "Fu Xuechen, we're siblings! I'm in pain all day long, and you don't feel the slightest bit sorry for me? Now you can go out, but I can't. I ask you for a small favor, and you start lecturing me. I'm your older brother!""Besides! I am recovering from my injury! When the pain flares up, I can't concentrate. How can I focus on my studies? On the other hand, reading some storybooks can help me briefly forget the pain in my leg… You're my twin sister, we share the same blood. Please, have a little sympathy for me, okay?"Alright! That argument did make some sense. Moreover, as the legitimate eldest son of the Marquis's household, Fu Yuchen was destined to inherit the title in the future and didn't need to compete in the imperial examinations. Wanting to read a few storybooks while recovering from his injury wasn't an unreasonable request.Fu Xuechen agreed: "Fine! Then I'll contact your friends this afternoon and ask them to help you find some storybooks."Only then did Fu Yuchen smile. "You really are my good sister! Go on! Hurry back!"Watching Fu Xuechen close the door and leave, Fu Yuchen thought about the achievements his sister had made today, which would eventually be credited to him. He grinned with delight, but the movement tugged at his wound, making him yelp in pain. It was a mix of agony and joy, an indescribable feeling.At the Imperial College, mandatory classes were only held in the mornings. In the afternoons, elective courses were offered, which students could attend or skip based on their preferences. As a result, batches of students skipped afternoon classes, yet no teachers scolded or disciplined them.Thus, the youths like Fu Xuechen who had gone to the palace in the morning to participate in the selection of imperial study companions didn't need to specifically request leave for the afternoon. They were all free to do as they pleased. Without prior arrangements, finding someone in an era without mobile phones was quite troublesome.Fu Xuechen first looked for Guan Enming but couldn't find him at his home or the Imperial College. In contrast, Zhang Chuyang was more reliable. In the end, Fu Xuechen found Zhang Chuyang playing cuju with others in a corner of the Imperial College's designated area for students to practice archery and charioteering."Yuchen, what brings you here?"Having won the cuju match, Zhang Chuyang stepped off the field in high spirits, smiling as he put on his outer robe and asked Fu Xuechen.Fu Xuechen didn’t rush to reply. Instead, he first glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention to them before speaking. “I’ve been feeling a bit bored lately and wanted to find some newly released storybooks to pass the time. Do you have any good recommendations?”Zhang Chuyang was somewhat surprised. “Storybooks? Don’t you usually go looking for them with Guan Enming?”That was exactly why Fu Xuechen had gone to find Guan Enming first! Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to locate him.“I couldn’t find him. I don’t know where he went,” Fu Xuechen said helplessly.Zhang Chuyang didn’t understand. “Is this urgent? If you can’t find him now, you can look for him later! After classes end, he’ll definitely return to his residence.”Fu Xuechen nodded. “I’ve finished reading all my old storybooks, and there’s no homework today. I’m afraid I’ll be bored to death tonight, so yes, it’s a bit urgent! It would be best if I could bring new storybooks home before classes end.”Zhang Chuyang understood. “Alright then! I’ll go ask around for you. Wait for me here.”Beside the bamboo grove, there were stone tables and stools for resting. Fu Xuechen agreed and immediately sat down at one of the stone tables, watching Zhang Chuyang leave.This was one of the advantages of the Imperial College. It gathered scholars, many of whom had a hobby of collecting and privately copying storybooks. Many privately printed storybooks unavailable in the market could be found here. As for how these non-circulating storybooks came about, no one delved too deeply into it. Fu Xuechen guessed that among them might be works created by Imperial College students under pen names or pseudonyms.These privately copied and circulated storybooks were unavailable in the external book markets, so it was impossible for servants like Fu An to purchase them there. Even Imperial College students needed extensive social connections and networks to know how and from whom to acquire such storybooks. This was the key detail Fu Xuechen had learned after carefully questioning Fu An.As for why some of the good storybooks circulating within the Imperial College couldn’t be bought in the book markets, Fu Xuechen understood after a little thought. After all, the Imperial College was a prestigious Confucian institution focused on teaching classics, history, philosophy, and literature. In the eyes of most Confucian scholars, storybooks were considered trivial and unrefined, not proper scholarship. If any student was discovered privately circulating storybooks, they would be reprimanded and punished.Thus, students who enjoyed reading storybooks were easily labeled as frivolous and pleasure-seeking, while those who wrote them were seen as lacking integrity, neglecting moral cultivation, and engaging in unproductive pursuits. If discovered, they would face even harsher punishment.This forced students who enjoyed reading storybooks to do so secretly, while those who wrote them had to be even more discreet. Even those from impoverished backgrounds who relied on selling storybooks to make a living dared not openly seek publishers in the book markets. They could only circulate copies privately and sell them covertly.In fact, during the era of Jin Yong, Gu Long, Wen Rui’an, and Liang Yusheng’s martial arts novels on Earth, a similar phenomenon existed. At that time, martial arts novels were treated like banned books in schools. Many students loved reading them, even sneaking them into class, while teachers and parents despised them, confiscating and punishing students whenever they were discovered.This contradictory phenomenon persisted well into the 21st century, with martial arts novels gradually being replaced by web novels. Little did people know that many brilliant web novels were actually written by students, who even earned substantial tuition and living expenses through them.The most outstanding among them chose to pursue web writing as a full-time career after graduation, to the extent that web novel authors evolved into a new profession with a vast number of practitioners.At this time, the Great Rong Empire had only been established for a few years, and everything in the current era closely resembled the late Yuan and early Ming periods in China on Earth.Fu Xuechen, immersed in this environment, observed the contradictory attitudes of teachers and students in the Imperial Academy toward storytelling scripts. Sometimes, she couldn’t help but think: weren’t the Four Great Classical Novels revered in China on Earth, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West, originally folk storytelling scripts too?It was only after someone collected, organized, and recreated them based on earlier works that they became literary classics for later generations, thanks to their brilliant writing, consistent style, complete storylines, and widespread popularity among the people.
Chapter 8
The Prince Does Not Compete for the Throne