The Mute Wife Who Brings Prosperity-Chapter 535 - 502: Xu Manman

This little guy Jinbao was quite special even before he was born.

At that time, Wen Wan was still in Ningzhou, and with nothing else to do, she would give him prenatal education, silently reciting the Three Hundred Tang Poems, afraid the little guy wouldn’t understand, Wen Wan would repeat each phrase several times.

Then she discovered that the more she recited silently, the little guy would punch and kick her from inside her belly.

After Jinbao was born, before they went to the Capital, she was still idle and continued to recite the Three Hundred Tang Poems to him, over and over again, tirelessly repeating.

The little guy couldn’t speak, couldn’t express his inner emotions, and could only reach out to cover his ears.

Wen Wan always thought that Jinbao didn’t love studying and didn’t like listening to things from books, so she switched to humming little tunes to her son.

When they reached the Capital, and as Jinbao grew older and Wen Wan taught him to read and recognize words, she found the little guy’s memory was astonishing; many times, he could remember things without needing repeated teaching, but he was lazy to mention he remembered. Only when Wen Wan repeated them over and over would he frown and ask to move on to the next part.

Wen Wan really couldn’t understand why someone who was so mischievous before became lazier as he grew up.

Thinking back, before Jinbao was even a year old, he dared to crawl out and ruin his grandfather’s flowers in the courtyard, tear his mother’s copybooks, and destroy his father’s antiques, practically a little devil, making Wen Wan want to shove him back into her belly every day.

Now it’s better; not only does he not do evil, but he’s also too lazy to talk.

Wen Wan felt that Song Wei sending him to the village estate for a month didn’t cure his laziness.

Not only did it tan his face, but he also became lazier with the sun.

To this, Song Wei could only "fight poison with poison" and found a naturally slow teacher for him, who was famous for his slowness.

Speaking of this teacher, he became famous in the spring imperial exam this year, named Xu Dengke.

Xu Dengke.

Listen to that, such a resounding name, showing how much hope his parents placed in him.

Even in the exam hall, the chief examiner was attracted by his name and stood in front of his cell for a while.

This standing made him sweat all over.

Because this fellow was too exasperatingly slow.

It seemed like he was naturally several times slower in reaction than others, from sitting down to receiving the exam papers, grinding the ink, and then putting pen to paper, it took at least an incense stick worth of time.

His every move was slowed down; while he spent the time writing one character, others could drink a cup of tea. The chief examiner became frantic watching him, almost rushing over in a moment of impulse to help him finish writing the remaining characters.

His wording and sentence structure in the essay were astonishing; if only his speed matched, he would’ve undoubtedly taken the top spot as ’Huiyuan’ in the spring exam, but unfortunately, he was too slow. With so much time for answering, by the time he submitted the paper, he had only completed half.

This brother Dengke, not only did not pass ’Dengke’, but unsurprisingly, he failed.

Last autumn exam, Song Yuanbao became famous for sleeping as ’Jieyuan’ for three days.

This year’s spring exam, Xu Dengke, with unimaginably slow movements, successfully made himself the standout among that year’s candidates, completely overshadowing that year’s ’Huiyuan’.

Song Wei heard about this from his colleagues at the Hanlin Academy, and he didn’t believe it at first, "If the candidate is really that slow, how did he pass the previous exams?"

"Who knows?" The colleague laughed uncontrollably, "But I heard from his fellow townsmen that back home, the most dreadful thing was being with Xu Dengke. No matter what you do, he can drive you crazy with urgency. Let me mimic it for you: ’Song————Brother————do————you————have————time———?’ and that’s just a mimicry; he speaks much slower than this, and you better not interrupt him. If you do, it aggravates the situation; he forgets and has to start over from the beginning."

Song Wei found this person quite interesting, thinking perhaps he could cure Jinbao, so he had someone go inquire about Xu Dengke in his hometown. It turned out the rumors were true, and indeed there was such a character in Qingzhou Prefecture, known by the nickname "Xu Slow", doing everything slowly to an infuriating extent. Even a person with the best patience could be aggravated into madness after exchanging a few words with him.

Luckily, the Xu family had some wealth and a few servants to serve, so Dengke himself didn’t have to work. Otherwise, just by relying on his slow actions, his entire family would’ve likely gone crazy with anxiety over him. They had only one requirement for him: shut up!

-

Xu Dengke was a diligent scholar striving for the imperial exams, undaunted by his failure, determined to continue his efforts.

Upon hearing someone invited him to the Capital to enlighten their child, a minister who was favored by the Emperor and once a top scholar, he felt honored and came along with his servant Ah Gui.

Ah Gui had grown up with Xu Dengke, and apart from having a slightly loud voice, he had no other problems. With years of experience, he had nearly become a mind reader for his young master’s thoughts.

In daily circumstances, he could almost guess what his young master intended to say or do next, saving others the effort to listen and wait, as he handled it all on their behalf.

Presently, the master and servant stood before the gate of Song Mansion, as Xu Dengke’s right leg was just about to slowly step forward, Ah Gui’s loud voice boomed, "Stop!"

So Xu Dengke could only retract his leg, and the action was so slow it could put people to sleep.

Song Wei personally came out to receive them, just in time to witness this scene, and was momentarily stunned.

He thought he himself was peculiar enough and that Wanwan’s ability to foresee was remarkable, but unexpectedly, there existed such an unforeseen being in the world.

Ah Gui’s shout had lasted so long that Xu Dengke only then completed the action of retracting his leg, the word "Alright" trailed leisurely with a tail sound from his mouth, after which, his lips slowly curled into a perfectly shaped standard smile at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Song Wei descended the stone steps, "This must be Mr. Xu?"

Xu Dengke: "Yes..."

Ah Gui hurriedly added, "Greetings Mr. Song, this is my young master."

Xu Dengke: "Be..."

Ah Gui held his forehead, "I’ve finished introducing, young master, you just keep quiet!"

Xu Dengke: "right..."

Ah Gui felt like he wanted to bang his head against the wall and quickly apologized to Song Wei with a smile, "Mr. Song, my young master speaks a bit slowly."

Xu Dengke’s voice came through again, "is..."

Ah Gui was going crazy: "Xu Dengke, Xu Dengke, your name is Xu Dengke!"

Song Wei secretly found it amusing as he recalled a colleague’s advice, never interrupt Xu Dengke when he’s speaking, or else if he forgets, he’ll have to start all over again.

"Let him finish speaking, otherwise he might feel quite uncomfortable." Song Wei said.

Ah Gui immediately quieted down.

"Xu..."

...

...

"Deng..."

...

...

"Ke."

Getting through one sentence was quite painstaking, Ah Gui wiped a cold sweat, continuously glancing at Song Wei for his reaction. The official in front was tall and handsome, not only did he not seem angry, but he also looked particularly interested in his young master.

Ah Gui was puzzled.

What kind of mindset must one have to invite the famously slow Xu Manman from Qingzhou Prefecture to enlighten a child?

Afraid of the Song family holding them accountable later for not being informed beforehand, Ah Gui felt it necessary to be honest. At most, he and the young master would get beaten, but with the young master’s speed, it’d take him half a day to realize the pain after a few hits.

"Mr. Song." Ah Gui said, "Actually, my young master isn’t really suitable to be a teacher, you’d be better off hiring me instead."

Song Wei gazed at him kindly without any suspicion, thinking that serving a slightly slow-witted but talented master for a long time must rub off a bit, yet the Capital is full of such talents.

If Song Wei was looking for talent, he could easily get a tutor for Jinbao in the Capital.

Smiling, Song Wei said: "Our child is special and just prefers a teacher like Mr. Xu."

Ah Gui was dumbfounded.

Song Wei politely said, "You two must be tired after your journey, go in and freshen up, we’ll discuss teaching over dinner."

Seeing his young master wanting to step forward again, Ah Gui immediately squatted in front of him, and without a word, carried him on his back, following Song Wei into the mansion.

Along the way, the servants of the Song Mansion cast curious glances, but Ah Gui paid no mind, clearly used to such reactions from others.

...

The Song Mansion also had an empty courtyard, which Song Wei renamed: Ten Thousand Books Study.

It was meant to be a school for Jinbao.

Currently, Song Jiao was organizing it with several maids and older women.

Wen Wan, being heavily pregnant, couldn’t help but only supervise from the side.

Before long, a little maid responsible for sweeping hurriedly ran in, "Madam, something’s wrong!"

Song Jiao glared at her, "Speak properly."

The maid caught her breath and said, "The teacher that Master invited seems to have some problem, he was carried in by a servant."

Song Jiao trusted the judgment of her third uncle, "Perhaps it’s because of the long journey, the teacher’s legs were numb from sitting, so the servant carried him, there’s nothing surprising about that."

"Exactly!" Wen Wan also laughed and said, "Master hired a teacher to enlighten the young master, he wouldn’t spend money to find someone useless, don’t meddle with this, go back to what you were doing."

"Oh." The little maid retreated from the courtyard embarrassingly.

Wen Wan stood up, "I’ll go take a look."

Song Wei only mentioned Xu Dengke’s name to her, not saying what was special about him, and with the maid’s reminder, Wen Wan became curious.