Hua Zhixuan was managing his expectations regarding His Little Highness' arithmetic capabilities when the messenger eunuch summoning him to attend to the emperor in Tianlu Pavilion arrived.
Ordinarily, he had an infinite patience for his young charge but he'd recently discovered that he'd met his match when it came to guiding this particular member of the imperial family through the activity book Brother Yan had created for the boy, titled 'Elementary Problem Sums'.
Ignoring the eunuch's barely disguised surprise at his enthusiasm, Hua Zhixuan leapt to his feet and shot Captain of the Yulin Army Cui An a quick look.
Captain Cui rose from the low table he'd been hunched over memorising new vocabulary at and gave Hua Zhixuan a long bow.
(1) To rely on being favoured and becoming arrogant: an idiom that describes someone's behaviour as becoming prideful after receiving favours.
(2) Hou: the equivalent of marquis, second of the five orders of ancient Chinese nobility. The rest, in order of rank, are 'gong' (duke), 'bo' (count), 'zi' (viscount), and 'nan' (baron) respectively.
(3) Houye: the term of address used with the marquis rank. A dated usage of the 'ye' character is a form of addressing an official or rich man and can be translated into sir, master, or lord. This is the same 'ye' used in 'shaoye' or young master, for example.
(4) Clear is clear, muddy is muddy: An adage that first sufaced in a Ming Dynasty novel 'Jin Ping Mei'. The full adage is 'clear is clear and muddy is muddy. After a long while, their true natures will be revealed.' It means that one's inner colours cannot be hidden forever as their behaviour will develop in a way that reveals the truth.
(5) To know the books and be of good judgment: an idiom to describe an intelligent and reasonable person.
A/N: Thank you very much for reading and for the gifts, power stones, comments, and golden tickets! <3