Early in the morning, the Yun household began joyfully sweeping and tidying the courtyard. Grand Aunt alone busied herself inside and out, not even sparing the usually neglected corners. Her voice commanding the maids was very loud, like a demonic sound piercing the brain. The maids detested it—if they were wiping windows, why did she need to keep talking? Having busied themselves with Xinyue all night, their backs ached, their legs cramped—yet she wouldn’t let them get a good sleep.
Xinyue rose early and went off somewhere busy. In a while, she rushed into the room three times. One time she even pushed Yun Ye further into the bed. Thinking her interest had returned, in great delight Yun Ye prepared to take her down in one vigorous effort this time, leaving her no room to catch her breath.
Who could have imagined she had no such intention at all? She pushed Yun Ye inside, retrieved something from under the bedding, and ran off again. Looking at his brothers standing ready for battle, Yun Ye sighed. This sleep wasn’t going to happen.
No one attended him for washing his face, no one attended him for combing his hair. In anger, he found a ribbon, roughly gathered his hair together, fashioning it into a ponytail that swung back and forth behind him quite fetchingly. No one’s taking care of me, right? Fine—this is how I’ll be today. I’ll be embarrassing for one whole day.
Wasn’t it just the new brother-in-law coming to call? He’d deal with that Pei family boy properly today. A letter had arrived some days ago—a personal letter from his in-law. The in-law was now Assistant Administrator of Yizhou. In two years’ time, from a county magistrate of a superior county, he’d leapt to become the second-ranking official of Yizhou, one of the four great famous cities under Heaven. One couldn’t help but say his official career was sailing smoothly and formidably.
Having become a high official, naturally he had to consider his sons. He had three sons. Aside from the youngest son who was only eight this year and couldn’t leave his parents, the remaining two sons naturally needed to advance themselves. For other families, entering Yushan Academy required fighting tooth and nail, but for his own sons to enter—wasn’t that just a matter of one sentence? The in-law was quite arrogant. Besides his own two sons, he also sent along the prefect’s son, saying he wished to study under Marquis Yun’s tutelage for constant guidance.
He also mentioned in the letter that the Yun family was purchasing golden nanmu wood on a large scale. Prefect Sir had contributed considerable effort. Now that batch of lumber had already floated downstream and would presumably arrive in Chang’an before long.
Yun Ye’s reply letter had only left a month ago. Yesterday he received notice from the Pei household’s advance scout that their young master would arrive at Yushan today. It seemed they’d been waiting for the reply all along. Once the letter was received, they immediately set out—otherwise the speed wouldn’t be so fast.
His brother-in-law’s name was Pei Yu, courtesy name Yanshou. His younger brother was called Pei Yang, courtesy name Yanxi. One was seventeen, the other fifteen—both were fine young men from scholarly families. Yun Ye didn’t mind finding two more good students for the Academy. It was just that the Yizhou Prefect’s son was named Linghu Decao, which troubled Yun Ye. Nowadays whenever he encountered compound surnames, his head ached. For no other reason than that people with compound surnames had given him too great a shock. Not one was easy to provoke. From the Empress to her brother, each person was no fuel-efficient lamp. When ethnicities merged and bloodlines mixed, strange prodigies emerged—far from being as easily deceived as pure barbarians or Han people. All were as clever as monkeys.
Sitting in the great hall drinking tea, the pitiful Marquis had no one even managing his breakfast. He’d drunk three cups of tea—the more he drank, the hungrier he got. Grandmother came in once, called out “dear grandson,” then went out again. She probably didn’t even see her grandson’s face clearly—otherwise, seeing Yun Ye with his hair loose, she’d have already exploded.
With no choice, he had to find food himself. From the kitchen he found a large piece of prepared braised meat still steaming with heat. He broke open a flatbread, cut the meat into palm-sized slices—cutting them a full finger thick. Originally planning to add one slice, feeling aggrieved in his heart, he added two slices instead. Upon going out, he discovered even the cook who’d been there earlier had vanished without a trace. His anger blazed even more vigorously. Returning to the kitchen, he added another piece before his heart felt a bit more comfortable.
He’d overestimated his appetite. One pot of hot tea, three large pieces of braised meat, half a flatbread—Yun Ye ate until his eyes rolled back, burping endlessly. He needed to walk off the food. It was early morning and the doors weren’t open. Wang Cai had already looked through the door crack outward several times. Even the thick wine seller was waiting anxiously. What kind of situation was this? The new brother-in-law arrives and they throw the household master outside?
Opening the side door, accompanied by Wang Cai, he went out. The sunlight outside was indeed comfortable, burning the skin with its heat. After walking two steps, he wanted water. Wang Cai also lost interest in wandering the streets. The two brothers listlessly strolled along when suddenly they discovered Dan Ying’s small shop. Having a sudden inspiration, he came to the rear courtyard and felt along the door frame with his hand. Sure enough, the key was right there.
Opening the courtyard gate, he first drew a bucket of ice-cold well water for Wang Cai to let him drink his fill. He himself took a wet cloth to wipe his face, then lay down on that thick horizontal bar. The shady place was indeed comfortable.
Having depleted himself considerably last night, now lying down he just wanted to sleep. He told Wang Cai to remember to wake him after half a shichen. Wang Cai stood beside him, squinting his eyes and snorting through his nose—that counted as agreement.
Finally he could sleep peacefully. Dan Ying’s small courtyard was truly good—not only was it far from crowds, it also had a large tree for shade. It really was a fine place for sleeping.
Waking from sleep with great vigor, his nose smelled a rank odor. There was movement behind his head. Climbing up to look, a naked fat pig hung behind him. Dan Ying alone squatted on the ground currently sorting through intestines. His movements made not the slightest sound. This was impossible. Yun Ye was puzzled—no matter how deeply he slept, he couldn’t possibly not hear even a pig’s dying squeals.
“How is there no sound when you slaughter a pig?”
“You’re a guest sleeping sweetly at my home. I truly couldn’t bear to wake you, so before slaughtering the pig I tied up its mouth. Although this isn’t good for bloodletting, I could only make do.” Dan Ying didn’t even turn his head, speaking casually.
“What time is it now? Why didn’t you go to class? This isn’t good. Your foundation is already poor. Like this you’ll fall behind in progress. The gap will grow wider and wider, you’ll lose interest in learning, and finally accomplish nothing, becoming a fool.”
Dan Ying jumped up with a start, glanced at Yun Ye, then squatted back down to continue sorting pig intestines. He’d decided not to pay attention to him anymore. As a teacher putting students out to pasture while hiding away to sleep—lazy beyond reason—yet he still had the face to question him. He already felt Yun Ye was more suited to being a bandit than himself.
“It’s long past noon—this is my lunch rest time. I previously promised Uncle Liu at the end of the street to help him slaughter a pig for his son’s wedding. A man without trustworthiness cannot stand. Having promised, naturally I must do it.”
“Damn, it’s already past noon? Boy, why didn’t you wake me? My household has guests today—this really delays matters.”
“I asked Wang Cai. He shook his head and wouldn’t let me go over. I figured you didn’t want anyone disturbing your good dream, so that’s how it was.” Dan Ying looked completely innocent. Of course he wouldn’t tell Yun Ye that the Yun household had been searching for him nearly to the point of madness.
Yun Ye smiled bitterly and patted Wang Cai. Hoping he’d understand human speech—that would probably take a few more hundred years. Rubbing his face, he jumped down from the wooden bar, pulled open the courtyard gate, and was about to walk out when he heard Dan Ying say: “You bind your hair like that—it looks very good. Tomorrow at the Academy I’ll do the same. Is that acceptable?”
“Not acceptable. The Academy has its rules which you must follow. I’m a teacher—I’m not subject to this restriction.”
“Aren’t you afraid of teaching all the students badly?”
“I don’t normally do this. Today no one attended me, so I’m deliberately going out to embarrass myself.” Having said this, he strode away.
Dan Ying closed the gate and continued sorting his pig intestines. The movements of his hands suddenly slowed as he muttered to himself: “Knowing I’m an assassin and bandit, yet daring to sleep so sweetly at my home—Yun Ye, just for this breadth of mind, I’m determined to be your brother-in-law.”
Before reaching home, several Yun household servants rushed out from the street, wailing that they’d finally found the Marquis. If they hadn’t found him, Old Madam would have burned down the house. The young madam was also going crazy with anxiety and couldn’t even attend to the household guests.
The moment Yun Ye stepped through the gate, the Yun household in chaos like a pot of porridge immediately restored calm. The servants who’d been lifting well covers immediately assumed the appearance of drawing water. The maids who’d been looking into the lotus jar also nonchalantly pretended to feed the koi. Aunts and ladies pushed open windows to glance at Yun Ye, wiped away tears, and in less than a minute, the sound of calculating with counting rods came from inside the rooms.
Upon seeing Yun Ye, Xinyue bit her teeth and viciously pinched the soft flesh under his ribs, nearly twisting it two full circles.
“Stop it! Twist any more and I won’t come back tonight.”
“The new brother-in-law has been at the door for over a shichen, and you as the household master disappeared! You didn’t see—unable to find you, the household was in complete chaos. Grandmother accompanied the new brother-in-law making conversation without even a smile on her face. Yiniang hid in her room crying. Aunts and ladies stopped even playing mahjong. The entire household was turned upside down and still couldn’t find any trace of you. The cook said you ate a piece of flatbread and disappeared. Wang Cai also vanished, so we knew you’d gone out. What were you doing?”
Xinyue’s long string of muttered complaints annoyed Yun Ye. Pulling her inside as he walked, he said: “If you want to hear lies, listen in the reception hall—saves me from having to say it again. Next time anyone treats me like a shadow again, I’ll run to the mountains and become a wild man.”
Only then did Xinyue notice Yun Ye had changed his hairstyle. Turning a corner, she pulled him into a room and in a few movements bound up his hair properly and placed the purple-gold crown on his head. Only then did she permit him to go meet the guests.
In the reception hall, Grandmother’s voice had clearly returned to normal. She began conversing with Pei Yu with talk and laughter, asking those pointless questions she’d already asked several times.
“Yanshou, my apologies for the neglect. Your elder brother went out to exercise his horse this morning. Who knew I’d see a butterfly crawling out of its chrysalis? My interest was piqued—I wanted to see how a butterfly transforms from a caterpillar into a butterfly. I never imagined this watching would take several shichen. Please don’t mind.”
Yun Ye spoke jovially as he crossed the threshold, first paying respects to Grandmother, then spoke to Pei Yu, who sat in a chair in extreme discomfort.
Before Pei Yu could speak, Grandmother said: “Enough. This young man has already accompanied this old woman all morning—quite difficult for him. You brother and brother-in-law have a good chat. I’m tired and need to rest a while. When one’s old, one’s no longer useful.” Grandmother spoke in a rambling manner as maids supported her to the rear hall to rest.
“This young master must be Young Master Linghu. Indeed a talented and handsome man. Your father is a capable local official. Last time when he came to the capital for performance evaluation, we met once. I wonder if he’s well now?”
Hearing Yun Ye inquire after his father, Linghu Decao quickly rose, thanked Yun Ye, then said: “My father has always prided himself on being healthy as an ox, saying that being an official close to the people requires a good constitution. So now he still eats well, sleeps soundly, without illness or disaster. However, he often mentions Marquis Yun, praising you lavishly every time, saying Marquis Yun is the foremost outstanding talent among Great Tang’s youth. He ordered me this time to definitely seek instruction from Marquis Yun morning and evening.”
“What instruction or not—however, once you enter the Academy, you must prepare yourselves to endure hardship. I imagine you already know the Academy’s rules—everything must be done by your own hands, not relying on external help. Otherwise, you’ll certainly face severe punishment. Do you understand?”