By the time Ye Qianning finished copying the Disciple’s Rules four times, it was well past nine o’clock. Before she even entered the courtyard, she heard the Honey-sucking Parrot’s incessant cursing. From the sound of it, the bird was clearly running out of breath.

It had clearly been at it for a long time.

Upon entering the courtyard, she saw that the light in her master’s room was still on, so she headed over.

"Master." She knocked on the door.

"Come in. The door’s unlocked."

Ye Qianning pushed the door open and entered. She saw him sitting at the desk, reading by the faint red glow of the candle. "Master, this is bad for your eyes."

The candlelight was dim, and reading by it was tiring.

"I’m used to it." Dean Chen set his book down. "The tutor only punished you with the Disciple’s Rules for appearances’ sake. You didn’t have to be so stubborn and stay up this late writing."

"I wasn’t being defiant toward the tutor. I just wanted to use the opportunity to learn more characters." Ye Qianning went and sat down beside him.

"You’re such a clever girl. It’s ironic that you can’t seem to learn the simplest things."

"Sigh... who knew characters could be so complex?" Ye Qianning said, troubled.

Dean Chen chuckled and turned to pick up a sheet of rice paper. "Did you write all this?"

"Can you understand it, Master?"

’What he’s holding is the simplified version of the Disciple’s Rules I wrote this morning.’

Dean Chen shook his head. "I don’t understand some of it, but I compared it to the Disciple’s Rules and can see a bit of a pattern. Did you come up with these yourself?"

"No. The characters I learned are written this way. It’s not that I’m illiterate; it’s just that I only know the simplified versions. It’s like how you can’t understand my writing, Master."

"Where did you learn them?"

Ye Qianning pointed to her head, half-joking and half-serious. "In my dreams."

"So that’s how it is." Dean Chen’s gaze fell upon the rice paper, his eyes shining brightly.

"You believe me, Master?"

"I do. The script is bizarre, but I can tell it wasn’t just fabricated randomly. Learning it in a dream is a heaven-sent opportunity. Perhaps this is the script used by Immortals." Dean Chen’s interest in the script grew even more.

"Why do you believe me so readily, Master?"

Hearing this, Dean Chen looked up with a smile. "You are my disciple. If I don’t believe you, who can I believe?"

’For those who trust, no words are needed. For those who don’t, nothing you say can change their mind.’ 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Ye Qianning’s eyes crinkled into a smile. ’Trust is another form of affection.’

"Some other day, you should teach me these simplified characters. If they can be adopted, it would certainly be beneficial." Having spent his entire life with books, Dean Chen was naturally intrigued by what he believed to be the script of Immortals.

"It’s not that hard to learn. There are many characters, but they all follow a system. Once you grasp the method, you’ll be able to recognize all of them within half a year, Master."

"Just half a year?" Dean Chen asked in surprise.

"With your intelligence, Master, you probably won’t even need that long." ’Half a year was an overestimation. Back in the modern day, first-graders could already read all sorts of books.’

"Really?" Dean Chen sounded unconvinced.

"Mhm. If you want to learn, Master, you’ll have to start with the phonetics. I’ll write them out for you tomorrow when I have time." Ye Qianning decided to teach her master the 26-letter phonetic system.

’Learning the phonetics would make it much easier.’

"Excellent, excellent." Dean Chen was now intrigued by the concept of phonetics.

"Weren’t you saying that Elder Gu was on Lou Mountain?" Ye Qianning had gone up the mountain yesterday but hadn’t seen a single soul.

"Ah, him. He’s going to be busy for a while."

"Busy with what?"

"The fourth son of the Gu family came looking for him yesterday morning. Apparently, the Gu family is in an uproar over the matter of a marriage alliance with Prime Minister Gao’s daughter."

’So that’s it,’ Ye Qianning realized. ’Gao Yunyue failed to win Elder Gu’s approval. It seems his grandson is in love with someone else, which complicates things.’

"By the way, Master, do you know if Prime Minister Gao has any sort of hidden background?" Ye Qianning recalled Gao Qi’s strange remarks on two separate occasions and still couldn’t make sense of them.