Although Yongning County wasn’t large, Qingsong Academy covered quite a sizable area. It not only accepted students like Yan Jin who hadn’t passed the “tongsheng” exam yet, but also “xiucai” scholars preparing for higher level exams.

Qingsong Academy was further divided into Pine Court, Bamboo Court and Plum Court. Plum Court accepted students who hadn’t passed the “tongsheng” exam, Bamboo Court accepted “tongsheng”, and Pine Court accepted “xiucai”. Under each court, the classes were further divided based on academic performance.

Yan Jin hadn’t taken the “tongsheng” exam, but the teachers, considering her perfect entrance exam score, placed her in Plum Court Class B.

Plum Court sounded inauspicious (homophonous with “moldy court”), so the students in this court fell into three categories: those who found the name unlucky and studied hard hoping to quickly get promoted to the other two courts; those who made do and gave up, deciding to slack off; and the rest who had bursts of motivation interspersed with being laid-back.

But the students in Class A had decent aptitude, with high hopes of passing the “tongsheng” exam. Although the students in Class B had passable aptitude, if they could rank first in the monthly exams, they could be promoted to Class A.

Zhou Nongyun, determined to become a nun, had no ambitions for the imperial exams, so she was also in Class B.

However, the roommate assigned to Yan Jin wasn’t Zhou Nongyun, but a chubby, round-faced girl in Class B.

The round-faced girl’s original roommate had been promoted to Class A and moved out of the Class B dorm, conveniently freeing up a bed.

When Yan Jin and the others entered, the round-faced girl was sitting cross-legged on the bed eating pastries. Catching sight of Yan Jin and Yu Shu out of the corner of her eye, the round-faced girl didn’t react in time and choked on the pastry in her mouth, frantically patting her chest.

Seeing this, Yan Jin quickly strode over to the table in three steps, hastily poured a glass of water, and swiftly brought it to the round-faced girl’s lips.

The round-faced girl chugged the water, finally managing to swallow the pastry stuck in her throat.

“Sister, no need for thanks for this great kindness!” The round-faced girl grabbed Yan Jin’s hands after catching her breath, eyes full of gratitude. “Sister, from now on, you’re my real sister!”

“Tu Zixuan, let’s see if you dare to lie on the bed eating again.” Zhou Nongyun disdainfully smacked the round-faced girl Tu Zixuan. “A little more and you would’ve gone to meet King Yama.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Tu Zixuan held up her hands. “But when you lie on the bed, your mouth gets a bit lonely. When you’re too lonely you start hearing things, and I heard the osmanthus cakes inviting me. I couldn’t refuse their passionate invitation, so I just had a small piece to be polite.”

[A glutton’s latest excuse: I’m not hungry, they just invited me and I didn’t have the heart to refuse.] [Damn, I feel like I’m looking at myself. I’m so scared I immediately sat up in bed.]

“A small piece?” Zhou Nongyun pointed at the bag of osmanthus cakes that Tu Zixuan had eaten until only one piece was left. “Looks like our understanding is a bit different.”

“Don’t take it so literally Ah Yun.” Tu Zixuan slowly rubbed her chubby belly. “Compared to the osmanthus cakes sold in stores, what I ate was indeed a small piece.”

“If I weren’t concerned about you, I couldn’t be bothered to take it literally.” Zhou Nongyun smacked Tu Zixuan again, with a force so great that Yan Jin, who had been smacked by Zhou Nongyun before, felt grateful for her restraint.

It seemed Ah Yun did hold back when smacking her.

“So this is the Ah Jin you’ve been talking about?” Tu Zixuan turned her gaze to Yan Jin, completely ignoring Yu Shu beside her. “She really is stunningly beautiful, as expected.”

She had heard from Ah Yun that there was a young gentleman who was close to Miss Yan. As a fine woman with ideals and goals, Tu Zixuan felt she absolutely couldn’t stare at someone else’s sweetheart.

Tu Zixuan wiped her hands with a handkerchief and greeted Yan Jin with a smile, “Hello Miss Yan, I’m Tu Zixuan. ‘Tu’ as in butcher, ‘Zi’ as in pork elbow, ‘Xuan’ as in day lily.”

“Hello, I’m Yan Jin.” Although Zhou Nongyun’s tone wasn’t very friendly when talking to Tu Zixuan just now, it was clear to any discerning person that they were close. Thinking that Ah Yun was on good terms with her, Yan Jin added, “You can call me Ah Jin like Ah Yun does.”

Tu Zixuan laughed, “Then Ah Jin, you call me the same as Ah Yun does too.”

Yan Jin asked, “So should I call you Ah Xuan?”

“No.” Tu Zixuan shook her head with a mysterious smile. “My name is Tu Zixuan, Ah Jin you can just call me Pork Elbow.”

[I quietly delete the bullet screen I had already typed out saying “Hello, classmate Zixuan”.] [This classmate Pork Elbow, her name sounds really appetizing, gulp.]

Yan Jin: …?

Yu Shu: ?!!

Yan Jin and Yu Shu exchanged a glance, both seeing deep confusion in each other’s eyes.

Although it was understandable for nicknames between friends to be a bit intimate, wasn’t Tu Zixuan’s nickname a tad too unconventional?

“What’s the matter? The name Pork Elbow has a lot of meaning.” Tu Zixuan held her head high. “To be able to afford eating pork elbow every day, your family circumstances definitely can’t be too shabby. Pork elbow is troublesome to eat, yet being able to eat it daily means the person is wealthy and has free time.”

“The most important thing in life is to be happy. Being able to eat pork elbow every day is one of life’s great joys.” Tu Zixuan gave a shy smile. “Eating pork elbow every day, that’s my ultimate goal.”

Someone who could play together with Zhou Nongyun couldn’t have too serious a personality. Very quickly, Yan Jin and Tu Zixuan were chatting away.

Tu Zixuan’s family ran a restaurant. The first hot pot meal Yan Jin and the others had after arriving in Yongning County was eaten at her family’s place.

Compared to the imperial exams, Tu Zixuan was more fond of eating. But since Mother Tu felt that she herself lacked education and couldn’t let her daughter also follow the old path of wielding a spatula, she pulled some strings and stuffed Tu Zixuan into Qingsong Academy.

“It would’ve been great if they stuffed me into the academy kitchen instead.” Tu Zixuan slowly gnawed on the big chicken leg she had secretly stashed. “If I learned a thing or two in the kitchen, I could still use it at the restaurant. Unlike now, the books know me but I don’t know them.”

Two flowers blossom, each displaying its own branch.

Although Yu Shu was happy to see Yan Jin getting along well with her roommate, the thought of not being able to see Yan Jin for the next ten days to half a month left him feeling constantly glum.

Before Yu Shu even got home, he was stopped by Xu Junde who was out grocery shopping. “Ah Yu, why are you back home?”

“After seeing Xiaoxiao off, I came back.” Yu Shu asked in puzzlement, “Is there something wrong with that?”

“The students at Qingsong Academy are all women, it wouldn’t be very convenient for me to stay there.”

Xu Junde widened his eyes, his tone even more perplexed than Yu Shu’s. “You didn’t know? Qingsong Academy has a men’s section.”

[What?! It’s actually a co-ed school, how exciting!] [In a female-dominant, male-inferior setting, the academy is actually co-ed, that’s way too progressive and open-minded.]

Yu Shu’s eyes suddenly lit up. “What? There’s a men’s section!”

After saying that, Yu Shu immediately asked, “Then can I go?”

There will be an extra chapter tonight at 21:00