The intermittent cries of cicadas outside the window only deepened the stillness indoors.
The study in the Feng Residence was small and simply furnished.
Wei Nisheng sat at the desk with a thin cord looped around his neck.
The other end was tied to the beam above his head, its length just enough to let him sit upright.
Spread across the desk was a copy of the Zuo Tradition annotated by Feng Yan himself, its lines crowded with tiny, fly-head-sized regular script.
Red circles and marks, along with black-ink comments, almost drowned out the original text.
Feng Yan had said this was called "hanging one's head from a beam," a method the ancients used to spur themselves on in their studies.
Wei Nisheng had only ever read about it in books. He had never imagined that one day he would experience it himself.
"Teacher, I really think we could do without this."
"Oh?"
Feng Yan sat in the chair opposite him, holding the Petition to the Sovereign Father for Clemency that Wei Nisheng had written.
At those words, he lifted his eyelids and looked over the top of the memorial at his disciple's aggrieved face.
Then he set the memorial on the desk and spoke unhurriedly.
"What? Do you think I would deceive you?"
"Ni Sheng! Precisely because you are clever and precocious, you need all the more to understand this:
on the road to knowledge, you must not fear hardship. You must persevere with indomitable resolve!"
Watching Feng Yan's utterly solemn expression, Wei Nisheng's mouth twitched.
Settling a private grudge under the guise of public duty.
The phrase slowly surfaced in his mind, only for him to silently swallow it back down.
He gritted his teeth, forced an obedient smile, and straightened his back.
"I understand! To become Great