After earning a six-month leave from the old man, the first thing Wei Yu did after leaving the palace was return home to find Liu Huaiyuan.

Wei Yu needed to ask his language teacher to write something for him—about the structure of telescopes, the appearance of concave and convex lenses, their principles… In short, there was a lot to be written, and he needed someone to help.

As for Xiao Anzi and the guards, they were either too slow or had handwriting that was too sloppy—none of them were suitable.

Only Liu Huaiyuan would do. He was a scholar, smart, had beautiful handwriting, and wouldn’t ask too many questions. The atmosphere with him was comfortable and relaxed.

It was just too perfect to have him do it.

—

In the courtyard, Wei Yu lounged against the back of his chair, munching on sunflower seeds while dictating information about concave and convex lenses to Liu Huaiyuan.

The young man at the desk was writing furiously, not pausing for even a moment. Sheet after sheet filled with dense writing was stacked neatly on the desk beside him.

One was just moving his mouth, leisurely to the extreme; the other was swinging his brush nonstop, busy to the extreme.

The contrast made the little girl who had been watching at the door for a long time feel very conflicted.

His Highness and Master are both so busy. Should she go in or not?

Little Liu Jiuyuan was very troubled.

Suddenly, someone dangled upside down from the corridor beam.

Yi Shisan hung from the beam, arms crossed, expressionless, looking at her. “It’s been a quarter of an hour. How much longer do you plan to just stare at the door?”

Liu Jiuyuan looked up and saw a person hanging from the beam. She wasn’t even surprised, just frowned and fretted, muttering, “Chanyi said His Highness promised to teach him how to read, but Chanyi came over two days ago, and His Highness still hasn’t taught him.”

Yi Shisan said, “Oh, so you’re here to ask on his behalf.”

Liu Jiuyuan hesitated, then nodded. “Yes, Chanyi is smart. He understands what I say.”

Another person suddenly hung down from the beam.

It was Ding Facai, formerly known as Ding Si.

The two people dangled, one to her left and one to her right.

Ding Facai said, “You can go in and find His Highness.”

Liu Jiuyuan looked to the left.

Yi Shisan said, “I agree. His Highness has a bad memory.”

She looked to the right.

Ding Facai said, “If you don’t go, once His Highness leaves the capital in a few days, you’ll have no chance.”

Look left again.

Yi Shisan said, “True, His Highness doesn’t bring useless people with him.”

Look right again…

“You all get in here!” Wei Yu’s voice suddenly called out from inside the room.

Uh-oh.

Yi Shisan and Ding Facai both flipped down from the beam, landing neatly on their feet, standing in front of Liu Jiuyuan like two wooden stakes.

The three of them walked in boldly.

Spitting out the sunflower seed shells from his mouth, Wei Yu gave the two guards a disgusted glance.

“You two so idle, huh? No shifts to stand? Got time to chat outside?”

The two guards stayed expressionless, not even their eyelashes twitched.

Wei Yu clicked his tongue and shook his head.

As expected of men who came out of the Gray Guards—shamelessness ran in their bloodline.

Turning to Liu Jiuyuan, the disdain on Wei Yu’s face instantly disappeared. He put on a kind, friendly smile.

“Jiuyuan, what’s wrong? What brings you here?”

The two different reactions—one to the guards, one to the child—got no response from the guards, but Liu Huaiyuan, who was still writing, did pause.

The young man raised his head, looking at the scene with a hint of helplessness in his eyes.

His Highness certainly was quite protective of young children.

Just then, Liu Huaiyuan had finished writing what Wei Yu had dictated, so he smiled, shook his head, and set his brush down to take a break.

Meanwhile, Liu Jiuyuan, hearing His Highness ask, quickly explained everything about Liu Chanyi.

“Oh——”

Wei Yu popped another sunflower seed into his mouth, looking slightly awkward.

Honestly, there had been so much going on lately, he really had forgotten about Liu Chanyi.

But when exactly did that kid arrive?

He was the head of this Prince’s Residence, wasn’t he? Why didn’t anyone tell him?

Wei Yu asked, “When did Liu Chanyi come over? The Liu family just let him come? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Yi Shisan could answer that.

“Your Highness, that child was sent over by the Eighth Prince the afternoon before yesterday. Xiao Anzi mentioned it to you that day, but you didn’t seem to hear.”

Wei Yu: …

Afternoon before yesterday?

The sunflower seed fell out of his hand.

Because now he remembered: during dinner that evening, Xiao Anzi had indeed mentioned something to him—but he had been busy eating and watching anime at the same time, so he didn’t pay attention…

Alright, this one was on him.

The little girl was still standing in front of him, looking up, so Wei Yu thought for a moment and asked her, “Have you been with Chanyi these past few days?”

Liu Jiuyuan nodded, “Yes. Not just me—Master has been with him too. Master even taught him reading and writing.”

Huh?

Wei Yu chuckled, turning to look at Liu Huaiyuan.

“So it turns out, Sir, that you’ve already started teaching Chanyi. After two days, how do you find the child?”

There was no way Wei Yu was going to personally teach Liu Chanyi—that would totally ruin his dream of being a lazy salted fish.

Just like when he had tried to get Liu Jiuyuan to self-study math, his attitude toward Liu Chanyi was the same.

However, since the kid was still young, while math, physics, and chemistry were important, cultural studies—especially law—couldn’t be neglected.

In this era, diving deep into math, physics, and chemistry was like opening Pandora’s box. The smarter a person was, the more tightly they needed to be restrained.

Otherwise, if someone got too obsessed with studying something, and without sufficient legal knowledge ended up on a wrong path…

That would truly be a tragedy.

Hearing Wei Yu’s question, Liu Huaiyuan smiled softly, his eyes full of pleased contentment. “Your Highness has a discerning eye. Those you bring back are all extraordinarily gifted, far above the average. Yuanhua is honored to have the fortune of being their teacher.”

Clearly, the language teacher was very satisfied with the two students brought back.

Seeing that, Wei Yu felt relieved.

He had been worried the language teacher would find it too troublesome to teach kids and quit, and then he would have had to find another teacher. This worked out nicely.

Wei Yu said, “Good, good. Jiuyuan and Chanyi are both prodigies. With Sir’s teaching, I can leave for Jiaozhou later without any worries.”

Even as he said this, Wei Yu was crying inside.

Because he hadn’t finished writing the teaching materials yet!

He had only done part of the math book. As for physics, chemistry, and biology, he hadn’t even started…

So maybe he should just let the two kids both study math first?

Save physics, chemistry, and biology for after he came back from Jiaozhou?

Wei Yu thought it sounded reasonable.

Math was the foundation of all sciences—there was nothing you could do without math. So Liu Chanyi should definitely study it!

Definitely not because he was too lazy to write more textbooks.

Feeling the pressure of the approaching vacation, Wei Yu returned from courtyard and immediately started copying out the math materials.

He needed to finish writing everything before he left, and maybe even find someone good at arithmetic from the Ministry of Works to join the two kids in their math studies…