Since they had returned to Moon Province early, Teacher Li and the students, including Yi A Bao, naturally went back to Moon Province Academy.
In the end, they hired an old craftsman familiar with the academy to mount the calligraphy. He brought his tools to Moon Province Academy and completed the work there.
The paper looked old and fragile, but after examining it, the craftsman discovered that it was actually remarkably tough. Mounting it by the usual process posed little difficulty.
The finished scroll looked excellent. The old craftsman, who had been sweating with anxiety throughout, finally breathed a sigh of relief. Having earned ten jobs' worth of pay in a single visit, he left beaming.
That night, in a sleeping chamber in the academy's rear courtyard, A Bao tossed and turned in bed.
His roommate was one of the friends who had gone home with him for the New Year last time, and he was already sound asleep.
After spending the first stretch of time on tenterhooks, Yi A Bao and the others had gradually relaxed, though that relaxation was only relative.
Keeping the calligraphy with him all the time still felt somewhat improper. After staying at the academy for quite a few days, A Bao considered asking the teacher for leave on their next rest day so he could take it home.
Yi A Bao was only a fifteen-year-old boy, at an age prone to flights of fancy, and Xu Zichang's words drifted back into his mind.
Mountains of gold and silver, high office and generous pay, a hundred years of life, a beautiful wife as lovely as a flower.
As his thoughts wandered, Yi A Bao reached toward the wooden cylinder in the corner of his bedding. The calligraphy was inside.
But at that moment, Teacher Li's