Princess Danyang was unrestrained, but after years of maneuvering among the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, and the court officials, she still managed to maintain her position. She had a sharp eye when it came to seeing things.
Guided by her, Xiao Jingnan had understood why Empress Dowager Kang, Grand Tutor Lü, and Prime Minister Fang had all remained strangely silent on the issue of Zhaoyu Academy.
Or rather, why, despite their silence, there were still people who brought this matter to the court?
Princess Danyang was right. One couldn't just look at the surface of this matter.
The surging undercurrent was hidden beneath the iceberg.
Behind the strange silence of the three parties was a fierce confrontation without gunpowder.
Empress Dowager Kang didn't want to break the surface harmony. She just wanted to give the two old foxes a warning.
Zhaoyu Academy was the perfect target.
However, of course, she wouldn't handle such an underhanded matter herself. So, whom would she choose to be her knife this time?
Xiao Jingnan walked back slowly, deep in thought all the way.
Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks.
The Imperial College...
Chen Jinde, the Director of the Imperial College, was rigid and inflexible. It was precisely because of his opposition that the long - advocated matters in the court, such as opening the imperial examinations to women and allowing them to serve in the court, had never been put on the agenda.
Now, Li Wanming had established Zhaoyu Academy, encouraging women to read and write, and teaching girls skills such as brewing, weaving, accounting, and practicing medicine, enabling them to enter fields traditionally dominated by men. This had long touched his sore spot.
Not to mention that he was also the father - in - law of Li Wanming's eldest sister...
Li Wanming had clashed with the Chen family many times because of her eldest sister, Li Wanxin. And this time, Zhaoyu Academy had angered him again. With new and old grudges combined, of course, he wouldn't let Zhaoyu Academy off easily.
With just a slight hint from Empress Dowager Kang, Chen Jinde would be willing to be a pawn, risking offending Grand Tutor Lü and Prime Minister Fang to destroy Zhaoyu.
Thinking of this, Xiao Jingnan quickened his pace and rushed back to the academy. After finding Li Wanming, he immediately said, "Cancel Brother Pei's lecture at Hongbin Building the day after tomorrow."
Li Wanming was busy arranging the curriculum. Hearing this, she said, "I was just about to talk to you about this."
"Now there are too many people signing up for our academy. We can't accommodate them all. No matter how we divide the classes, the teachers can't handle so many students."
"So I was thinking that we should stop the external publicity first and focus on teaching the current students well."
Pei Yanqi's lecture at Hongbin Building last month had been extremely effective. So Li Wanming had planned to let him give a lecture there once a month to promote Zhaoyu Academy.
However, the effect had been too good. More and more people came to sign up, and the academy simply couldn't handle the influx.
Moreover, the large number of people had seriously affected the current teaching progress.
Li Wanming looked up and said seriously, "And after they've studied for a year or two, we have to consider their employment. If we teach them skills but they still can't find jobs, then it doesn't really matter whether they come to this academy or not. It's not good for our future recruitment, and it's far from my original intention."
"So I was thinking of stopping both the lectures and the recruitment for now. We'll talk about it after we sort things out."
Xiao Jingnan quickly said, "That's exactly what I mean."
"Now our Zhaoyu Academy is at its peak, like beautiful flowers in full bloom and a raging fire. We've reached our limit and can't accommodate any more people."
He didn't really want to tell Li Wanming about the power struggle in the court.
Firstly, his current identity was just a poor candidate for the imperial examination. There was no reason for him to know so much information. Secondly, he was afraid that Li Wanming would worry.
Since Li Wanming also thought that the academy didn't need further publicity, he might as well go with the flow and agree.
He just hoped that Chen Jinde wouldn't act too quickly and would give them more time to prepare.
If they could sort out the teaching matters and let the people in the capital see that establishing such a women's academy would only bring help rather than chaos to daily life, then they would have some strength to resist when facing Chen Jinde.
After all, even the Imperial College couldn't go against the will of the people.
Unfortunately, Chen Jinde acted much faster than he had expected.
Moreover, the way he attacked was much more despicable than he had imagined.
A few days later, the people from the Metropolitan Magistrate's Office came.
They said that Su Dingyao, the Chief Clerk of Yongzhou, had accused Zhaoyu Academy of kidnapping people, luring away his daughter, Su Xiaozhu.
"Who's Su Xiaozhu?"
Hearing this news, Li Wanming was stunned at first.
"I don't remember this name."
Qinglan thought for a while but couldn't remember. She ran to get the enrollment register and flipped through it for a long time. Then she said, "There's no such person among our students."
"This is strange," Li Wanming said. "The Metropolitan Magistrate's Office won't come to arrest someone without evidence. But why don't we have this person here? And all our students sign up voluntarily. They're free to come and go. No one is forcing them. How can they say that we've kidnapped and lured them away?"
Xiao Jingnan already had an idea. He just sneered and said, "If one wants to frame someone, one can always find an excuse."
He turned to Qinglan and said, "Most of our students are from the capital. There aren't many students from other places. Yongzhou is thousands of miles away from the capital. If Su Xiaozhu is really in our academy, she must be living on campus. Go and call all the boarding students here."
There weren't many boarding students in Zhaoyu Academy. Excluding Lady Liu and Liu Shuang, there were six others.
Soon, Qinglan brought them over.
Xiao Jingnan asked right away, "Who's Su Xiaozhu?"
Since there was no such name in the student register, it meant that the person had used a fake name.
A girl using a fake name and hiding in an academy thousands of miles away must have some hidden reasons.
If he explained the whole situation first, she definitely wouldn't dare to admit it. Instead, such a sudden question might make her reveal her true self.
Sure enough, as soon as Xiao Jingnan finished speaking, he saw a girl's hand tremble slightly.
Li Wanming also reacted quickly. She walked up to the girl, sized her up briefly, and said, "I remember you."
There were nearly four hundred students in Zhaoyu Academy now. In fact, she couldn't recognize every single one of them.
But this girl was special.
On the first day of the brewing class, she had told the round - faced girl, Ruier, not to talk too much.
However, the reason why Li Wanming thought she was special wasn't just this.
Except for Lü Songyuan, Fang Zhi, and Xiao Yingchu, most of the students in Zhaoyu Academy were poor girls. So they didn't pay much attention to reading and etiquette, and their words and deeds were rather rough.
But this Su Xiaozhu was different.
Although she was also wearing a simple hemp robe and had no expensive hairpins or rings on her, her expression was extremely cold and aloof. She didn't talk much and rarely communicated with her classmates. There was always a sense of a talented and arrogant female scholar between her eyebrows.
Even when facing high - ranking officials' daughters like Lü Songyuan and Fang Zhi, she was neither overawed nor humble. She showed no signs of timidity or inferiority.
Moreover, Qinglan had shown Li Wanming her calligraphy. It was a delicate and beautiful Zanhu Xiaokai script, which clearly showed that she had practiced hard.
Li Wanming remembered asking at that time, "This looks like the work of an educated and well - bred young lady from a noble family. Why did she come to our academy?"
You know, Zhaoyu Academy taught practical skills for making a living. There were no courses on music, chess, calligraphy, and painting to cultivate one's sentiment. So it wasn't popular among the daughters of officials and nobles.
Except for Lü Songyuan and Fang Zhi, who came for the novelty and joined in the fun for a few days, there were hardly any well - off and educated girls signing up.
A talent like Su Xiaozhu should have gone to Cangshan Academy!
Qinglan replied, "I asked her. She said that her parents had both passed away, and she had come to the capital with her maid to find relatives. Who would have thought that the relatives had already moved away? She was really desperate, so she came to our academy... Well, that round - faced girl is her maid, Ruier."