Volume One, Chapter 20: You’re Not Convinced? Bite Me If You Dare!

“Seems the matter has been settled. Esteemed scholars, what do you make of these punctuation marks?”

The Empress Wu Zetian spoke lightly, though the term “esteemed scholars” now carried an oddly sarcastic tone.

After all, all these great scholars combined couldn’t compare to a single Su Chen!

It was truly a moment of shame for the so-called scholars.

At that instant, everyone bowed their heads in silent embarrassment.

It wasn’t that Wu Zetian was out of her mind,

but rather that these men were all blind to what was right before them!

A group of learned men mistook a flawless jade for a mere stone!

Guo Qingshu sighed deeply. “Su Chen, this time it was a misunderstanding on behalf of my Inner Academy. I never imagined that the Su family could produce two geniuses in one generation. Previously, Prime Minister Yan praised your elder brother, Su Zhongwen, as a pearl of Haiju, a treasure of the southeast. But now it seems that your talents, as the younger brother, rival his in every way!”

Guo Qingshu’s praise was sincere. Although it was merely a matter of punctuation, Su Chen might well secure a place in history because of it—something these so-called scholars could hardly hope for.

“Indeed, the Su family produces talent after talent. Lord Su is a key minister of Great Qian, and Su Chen’s scholarship matches that of his brother. Truly a prodigy of our age!”

“Clearly, we have been blind, mistaking a mountain for a molehill. Su Chen’s drowsiness earlier must have been due to the mental exertion of devising punctuation marks, hence his momentary sleepiness.”

This was reality: the world has never lacked sycophants. Throughout history, if you possess talent or wealth, you will attract them.

And at this moment, Su Chen was clearly the focus of a great flood of admirers.

Yan Danqing and Changsun Yan exchanged stunned looks, utterly bewildered.

The turnaround was astonishingly swift—a complete curveball that not even slamming the brakes could have anticipated.

Especially Yan Danqing; he had clearly seen Su Chen enter the classroom and immediately fall asleep. Had he not awakened him, Su Chen might still be napping now.

And yet, in the blink of an eye, Su Chen was on the verge of making history.

Shangguan Wan’er was also dumbfounded. Though she had picked up the book earlier with some disdain, now seeing it pass from the hands of esteemed scholars, still stained with Su Chen’s saliva, she felt a pang of sourness.

The overwhelming bitterness made her teeth ache!

---

“Ahem, well, Su Chen, I hope you won’t hold a grudge. It was my fault as Dean of the Inner Academy for the earlier misunderstanding!”

Dean Guo looked warmly at Su Chen and then extended an invitation that made everyone’s teeth turn sour with envy.

“Su Chen, though you have entered the Inner Academy, you have not yet apprenticed under a master. I, Guo Qingshu, though humble, am known as a great scholar. Would you be willing to become my final disciple?”

Envy surged through the crowd, including Yan Danqing and Changsun Yan.

Though they studied within the Inner Academy, none had truly formed the master-disciple bond with its teachers.

Only by formally apprenticing under a great scholar and earning their recognition could one claim such a relationship.

Guo Qingshu had served as Dean for ten years and had taken only a handful of disciples. To offer the honor of being his final disciple to Su Chen was a rarity that made others want to beat their chests in despair.

Within the hall, dozens of students turned their eyes to Su Chen—filled with envy. Nearly all of the hundred or so scholars within the Inner Academy longed to apprentice under Guo Qingshu, but he could never accept them all.

Yet now, this rare honor was given to Su Chen, and willingly so.

This showed how highly Dean Guo regarded him.

---

Under the gaze of all eyes, Su Chen remained calm, neither anxious nor overly excited. His handsome features retained a somewhat vacant, innocent expression.

Only when Dean Guo addressed him did Su Chen seem to come to his senses.

“Ah, the punctuation marks you speak of weren’t my own invention. My brother taught me them!”

“Usually, I get headaches reading books—I always feel like I’m watching ants crawling. My brother said this method makes reading easier, so I just made a few marks on the page.”

“But why are you all looking at me with such surprise?”

Su Chen feigned innocence, his face full of confusion and puzzlement.

---

Guo Qingshu’s expression froze as if carved from stone, utterly motionless.

At that moment, one could almost hear his heart shatter.

He had thought he was holding a raw jade, but upon cutting it open, it turned out to be nothing but a slab of blue stone.

Damn it! You’re messing with me!

However, Su Chen’s words immediately eased the tension among the others.

They had feared that, besides Su Zhongwen, the Su family had produced yet another prodigy. Yet in the end, it was merely a case of following an elder brother’s lead.

If you’re just copying your brother, why not say so earlier?

So many people had been excited for nothing.

The envious gazes turned abruptly into naked contempt.

Ha! What a joke. Just a brother’s shadow!

Though we may not have such an outstanding elder brother as you do, we have even better elders of our own!

Su Chen’s face remained innocently vacant, but inwardly he was bursting with joy.

“Haha, look at you, flustered, aren’t you?”

“I’ve always said, I don’t owe anyone an explanation... emmm, the story’s off, let me start again. I, Su Chen, only want to laze about, eat well, and live idly. Now you want me to become famous? To be an official? Dream on. Impossible!”

“As for these so-called punctuation marks, I’m pushing all the credit to my brother. Let’s see if any of you can say a word after that. What’s his is mine, and what’s mine is still mine. What are you going to do about it, Wu Zetian? Don’t like it? Bite me! Hahaha!”

Su Chen shouted excitedly within.

“This way, you’ll all think I’m an ordinary, good-for-nothing official’s second son. Pah! Wrong—official’s second brother!”

“Yes, that’s exactly the image I want you to have. I want to craft the illusion that I’m a lazy layabout in your eyes!”

“Oh, how admirable my own wit is! I’m so clever, you wouldn’t even dream of falling for my trick!”