Chapter 110: New Students of Imperial College
Chapter 110: New Students of Imperial College
Liu Ying did not know Xiao Xia's identity. When he saw that he was carrying a certificate of Jiangdu County Tribute Scholar, he thought that he was a member of Jiangdu Xiao family and a child of the Princess of Jin's family.
There is no possibility of backdoor access with this relationship, it is all official business.
The Imperial Academy has always been open to the public for auditing. Ordinary scholars could also attend, but they had to pay a fee and could not live in the Imperial Academy, but had to rent a house outside.
But Yang Zhao was a prince after all, so Liu Ying still had to give him some face. First, he provided him with free accommodation, and secondly, he allowed Xiao Xia to live in the Imperial College.
Liu Ying immediately gave him a temporary enrollment form. When filling in the name of the school, Liu Ying hesitated and said to Xiao Xia, "There are two types of auditing. One is to attend designated courses, such as studying the Six Classics. The other is to attend classes without any restrictions. This is more free. You can choose courses from any of the six schools, but each has its own advantages and disadvantages."
"What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?" Xiao Xia asked.
"It's actually very simple. For designated courses, you can listen to lectures given by great scholars, but for unrestricted courses, there are actually restrictions. Some courses cannot be attended. You can only attend classes given by ordinary lecturers. There are no assessments either. Everything is up to you to arrange."
The other party said it very implicitly, but Xiao Xia understood immediately. One came here specifically to study, and the other came here to just kill time. Wasn't he just here to kill time?
"Then there's no limit on courses!"
"You must think it over carefully, sir. Once you decide, you cannot change it."
"No need to change, just choose unlimited courses!"
Liu Ying immediately picked up his pen and wrote down the unlimited courses, and wrote clearly in the remarks column that he lived in the Imperial College. He then signed his name and stamped the seal of the Imperial College.
He was also given a bronze class attendance card, with which he could attend classes in six schools, but his identity was that of a Taixue student.
..........
Xiao Xia came to the Imperial College for the second time, and Cheng Xiuwen handled the admission procedures for him. Xiao Xia then officially became a student of the Imperial College of the Sui Dynasty. Except for not having a student record, he was no different from a regular student.
The next step was to arrange accommodation. He was received by the director of logistics at the Imperial College, whose surname was Qiao and everyone called him Director Qiao.
Manager Qiao is small and thin, very lively and not at all rigid.
He introduced to Xiao Xia: "There are also two types of accommodation in the Imperial College. One is public housing, which is free. Three people can live in one dormitory and nine people can live in one courtyard.
The second type is the Jingshe, where each person has a separate room and three people live in one courtyard, but they have to pay for it themselves, 100 coins a day, 3 strings of money a month. Currently there are only these two types. In the past, there was also a type with a separate door and courtyard, but the emperor said that this encouraged luxury, so he issued an order to cancel it. "
Xiao Xia nodded. A single room only cost one hundred wen a day, which was much cheaper than an inn. An upper room in an inn only had one person per room and cost three hundred wen a night.
"I want a temple!"
Manager Qiao smiled and said, "Young Master, you are lucky. The Jingshe was long gone, but yesterday a student dropped out and left, leaving an extra Jingshe, and you got it."
Manager Qiao brought them to a small courtyard, which was very similar to the warrior courtyard he had seen in Jiangdu. It was clean and tidy, with a well, but no toilet, so they had to use a latrine, which was not very convenient.
Xiao Xia entered the room on the far left. The room had been cleaned and was not small, at least thirty square meters. There was a screen in the middle, dividing the room into two. It should be the screen left by the previous student.
Manager Qiao whispered, "There are three rules that you must remember. First, you are not allowed to fight. Second, you are not allowed to bring your family members to live here. Third, you are not allowed to bring prostitutes here to fool around. The student mentioned above brought prostitutes here to fool around and was expelled from the Imperial College."
"I won't break the rules, but do I need to buy my own daily necessities? Or is it too much to learn how to prepare?"
"The Imperial Academy is responsible for preparing the Pushe, and you have to buy the Jingshe yourself. However, the Imperial Academy has the best daily necessities, and they cost six strings of cash per set. The quilts and pillows are filled with cotton, not the garbage in the Pushe."
"Where's dinner?"
"The Imperial College provides three free meals a day. If you don't like the food, you can go out. No pressure."
Xiao Xia took out fifteen taels of silver and gave it to Manager Qiao, which included three months' accommodation and a set of daily necessities.
As soon as Manager Qiao left, two roommates from the next door came over. Both of them were seventeen or eighteen years old. One was called Wei Chengfeng and the other was called Cui Lian. Both were from famous families.
Unlike Xiao Xia, both of them are formal Tai students with student status.
When Xiao Xia told them that he was an auditor with no course limit, they both looked at each other in bewilderment. It was obvious that he was just here to get by. However, they were both smart people. An auditor with no course limit could actually live in a private dormitory. This was not something that ordinary people could do. Moreover, the other party spoke Jianghuai Mandarin, so he must be a descendant of the Xiao family of the Southern Dynasty.
Xiao Xia did not tell the whole truth. He falsely added one year to his age. He is now fifteen years old, and sixteen in lunar age. The Sui Dynasty used lunar age as the standard, so he is now sixteen years old. If he falsely added another year, he would become seventeen.
When he filled out the application form at the Imperial College, he was also seventeen years old. Anyway, apart from his father and brothers, no one knew how old he was. Moreover, if his age in his previous life was counted, he was now exactly twenty-four years old.
When the three of them were ranked, Xiao Xia was only one month younger than Cui Lian, and Wei Chengfeng was a little older, at eighteen years old.
"Brother, how about going out for a drink tonight?" The two men warmly invited Xiao Xia.
Xiao Xia smiled happily and said, "Okay, I'll treat you, but where is the Baocheng Cabinet Shop nearby?"
When Xiao Xia went out, he took fifty taels of silver with him, which was enough for his travel expenses. Plus the fifteen taels of silver he had just given to Manager Qiao, he only had two taels of silver left with him now, so he had to go get some money.
Wei Chengfeng was a native of Chang'an. He thought for a moment and said, "Baocheng Shop should be a shop in Jiangdu! You can go to Metropolis or Liren City to have a look. Most of the shops are concentrated in these two places."
Metropolitan City and Liren City were later called East Market and West Market. Xiao Xia was too lazy to ride a horse, so he spent ten cents to call an ox cart and headed to Metropolitan City.
Sure enough, he soon found the Baocheng Counter in the metropolitan city. His 20,000 strings of cash had arrived. After verification, the Chang'an Counter issued him a new receipt.
The ticket was not a piece of paper, but a silk scroll. When it was unfolded, it contained his detailed deposit and withdrawal records as well as the current balance, a total of 20,800 strings of cash.
Xiao Xia took out one hundred strings of cash and exchanged them for one hundred taels of silver.
The shopkeeper Ma said with a smile: "Young Master, you have so much money in your account, why don't you buy a house? It's relatively cheap now, and in a few decades, who knows how many times it will increase in value?"
Xiao Xia's heart was moved. He had been longing for a house of his own last night. Just as the shopkeeper Ma mentioned it, he quickly asked, "How much is the house in Pingkangfang now?"
Pingkangfang was the most prosperous commercial neighborhood in the Tang Dynasty in history, and it is also the most prosperous place in the Sui Dynasty.
"An acre of house for an average person costs about 2,000 guan. The houses on both sides of East-West Street and Suzaku Street are all priced this way. If you move to a block not along the street, it will be half the price. If it is close to the city wall, it will be even cheaper. The cheapest is the blocks on the south side close to the city wall, which cost 300 to 500 guan per acre."
“Can ordinary people only buy one acre?”
The shopkeeper nodded and said, "The size of the house you can live in depends on your rank. Princes and princesses both have a hundred acres or more, and then it decreases from there."
"How big a house can a county lord live in?" Xiao Xia asked again.
"About ten acres!"
Xiao Xia was really tempted. Not only would he not earn any interest if he kept his money in a shop, but he would also have to pay a storage fee every year, which was not cheap. It would be better to turn it into a house and buy a restaurant. He could sell some famous dishes from later generations there, and then he would become rich.
Anyway, there are still more than ten years before the world falls into chaos, so it is the right time for him to accumulate wealth.
Xiao Xia was not a miser. He always believed that it was meaningless to keep money in the shop. If the shop was destroyed by war in the future, his money would be gone too.
“Who can I contact if I want to buy a house?”
Shopkeeper Ma smiled and said, "Our shop also sells houses. We can help you choose a house and transfer the ownership, thus avoiding many risks."
No wonder they recommended that I buy a house, it turns out they are the agent.
Xiao Xia said happily: "I'd like to hear what Shopkeeper Ma has to say!"
(End of this chapter)