The accountant’s fury made He Dachang blush with embarrassment and left Huang Yu at a loss. No matter how he looked, this old farmer couldn’t possibly be the owner of a shop with annual income exceeding a hundred strings. Moreover, with Yun Ye right there, he thought nothing of trying to take advantage, not treating the Marquis seriously at all.
Yun Ye patted his shoulder and said, “You see, this is how it is. If the Yun family estate only relied on scraping food from the soil, collecting such high rent would indeed be utterly unconscionable.”
“But look—there are no idle people on the estate. Some use idle land to grow vegetables, fruit trees, raise fish, keep bees to produce honey, raise pigs, raise sheep, and greedy ones specifically raise beef cattle. This doesn’t violate the law—it’s registered with the government. So a household has many income channels, and production is also high. Great Tang’s laws are strictly regulated—the master’s family must occupy at least twenty percent of these enterprises. With all sorts of miscellaneous things, the Yun family gets this much.”
After speaking, he placed the cake plate in his hands and said, “Eat without worry. The Yun family’s food is all clean, unstained by blood. Even when His Majesty comes to the Yun family, he eats without the slightest scruple. Yesterday your Censor-in-Chief came to the house, mixed up a basket of preserved eggs and ran off, deeply afraid I’d ask for money. The censor position is noble and important but impoverished. I’m filled with respect for you all.”
“You dare impeach princess households, you haven’t let prince households off, when Qing Que and I collapsed the palace halls inside the palace you didn’t let us off either—very good. Look more, listen more. Right now you’re observing governance, opening your eyes to see the world. You’ll discover miracles are everywhere—actually all created by these mud-legs.”
Huang Yu’s mouth ate honey-smeared cake, yet his heart held unprecedented bitterness. Yun Ye’s words made his eyes somewhat moist. Censor, censor—it sounded good, but actually it was work that offended people, the outlier among all officials. Other officials privately did some business to supplement household expenses and everyone laughed it off. Only censors couldn’t. His monthly salary of eight hundred wen needed to support a large family. Rice was expensive in Chang’an. Farm children thought jujube cake stank, but his own four-year-old daughter looked forward to eating jujube cake every day. Previously he still felt integrity was more important than other external things. Now it seemed he was so weak, like a castle on the beach—one big wave rolling over and it collapsed. What had become of the world?
Chang’an grew increasingly prosperous. The city eighteen li in diameter was packed full. Sail shadows on the river surface were endless. Inside the city, people jostled shoulder to shoulder. The night curfew persisted for decades was gradually crumbling. When pear blossoms bloomed in Xinhua Ward, it was like paradise. Song and dance at Qujiang never ceased day or night. Only censors never changed. Each memorial presented at court was like a great bell or drum, making all officials vigilant.
Forcefully suppressing his emotions, toward the Yun family, he naturally wanted to look more carefully, wouldn’t miss any clue. Thinking of the Yun family’s inferior horse and evil servant, just as he was about to tell Yun Ye not to ruin his own reputation over these small matters, he discovered that bored horse walked into the shed. Seeing Yun Ye eating cake, it came over and bit cake from Yun Ye’s hand to eat. Yun Ye actually wasn’t annoyed, but spread the cake in his palm for it to consume.
Several old men gathered around, stroking Wang Cai’s head. He Dachang said with a smile, “Every time I see Wang Cai I feel happy. Poor thing, just lost a lot of weight. There were few things in Lingnan that people could eat. Look how Wang Cai’s been thinned to skin and bones. Take this money yourself to buy some food. We’ll just stay in Chang’an enjoying our blessings, not going anywhere.” Huang Yu watched as a large handful of copper coins was loaded into the money pouch under its neck, heavy—his heart soured. Wang Cai’s money pouch held more money than his own.
“Wang Cai is just a good child. Every time at this old man’s shop eating snacks, won’t leave without paying. Makes this old man have to pretend to take out money every time, then put it back in for him before leaving. More sensible than Old Hu. That old fellow comes to my shop to eat, never has any talk of settling accounts. This old man remembers it all. When your roast chicken shop opens, this old man also won’t pay—I’ll just take and leave…” Seeing no advantage to gain, several old men strolled out of the shed with hands behind their backs, joking with each other as they went to the marketplace.
The scenes witnessed at the Yun family completely overturned Huang Yu’s understanding of the world. Following Yun Ye outside the shed, they didn’t go to the marketplace but circled around to the back residential area for tenant farmers.
The first feeling this place gave Huang Yu was cleanliness. There was none of the chicken droppings and horse urine commonly seen in the countryside. From time to time, tree branches bearing fruit extended from low walls—sometimes one needed to duck.
Various dried vegetables were drying in the courtyard, along with various kinds of beans—purple and red, very conspicuous.
“This household makes dried vegetables. Don’t look down on these dried vegetables and salted beans—come winter they sell for quite a bit of money. I heard now his family doesn’t only sell dried vegetables. The wife at home is clever—discovered that steaming dried vegetables together with preserved meat, that flavor is indescribably good. Sprinkle on some chili peppers—it can be called a human delicacy of the highest order.”
“Last year their family sent some to the residence. Several younger sisters snatched it all away. The adults barely got a few bites. This year I heard his family isn’t selling dried vegetables anymore, starting to sell this steamed meat. The cheap dried vegetables suddenly became precious. This year it’ll be hard not to get rich. According to custom, he found a middleman to send two tenths of dry shares to the household. I said don’t want it—this is business the tenant farmer figured out himself, why should the family mix in? Who would have thought several younger sisters wouldn’t agree, saying they don’t want money, just want a few jars of steamed meat every year.”
“Marquis Yun, this official already firmly believes in the Yun family estate’s prosperity, but is doing this really without problems?” The young official looked at the busy woman in the courtyard and asked with concern.
“Your thinking is very reasonable. Lord Wei also discussed this with me. The saying goes ‘when granaries are full, people know propriety and righteousness.’ I never liked impoverished good people. All the same people, they can’t be oxen and horses for a lifetime, and by their death still haven’t eaten a full meal—this is failure at being human, can even be said to be human tragedy. As for this thing called propriety and righteousness, it’s cultivated later. If every child receives proper and systematic education, your worry should be the teacher’s worry. In one’s position, plan for one’s duty. They are teachers and should consider children’s virtue. You are a censor and should tell His Majesty what happens in the world—this is a duty.”
Waving to stop the woman who was about to come forward and bow, Huang Yu’s mood also seemed to improve. The feeling Yun Ye gave him was more like a close friend of many years than like a marquis. Involuntarily with hands behind his back, the two pointed and commented around the estate, talking and laughing with great pleasure.
The Yun family estate’s scenery was indeed beautiful. This beauty wasn’t in mountains and waters but in people. Whether it was elders napping in bamboo chairs or old women sitting in tree shade making shoe soles, they all made people feel comfortable from the heart. Young married women while working didn’t forget to rock the cradle beside them. Chubby children stretched out wrinkled fat arms wanting to touch the cloth tiger before them. Slightly older children wore red belly bands, bare-bottomed chasing chickens all over the courtyard. Seeing this, Huang Yu always smiled knowingly. Living life to this extent, what more did one want? If such a prosperous estate had those dark matters, that would be heaven’s injustice.
“Marquis Yun, when I came, I heard a raggedly-dressed old man say he needed to pay the Yun family six strings of cash in rent per year. Do you know how angry I was? Especially hearing his son was campaigning away and only then did you exempt his rent, making me feel you were the most hard-hearted landlord under heaven. I also heard you even levy taxes on children in their first month—this made me think of perishing together with you. Please tell me this isn’t true. Such a beautiful estate shouldn’t have these matters.”
Yun Ye smiled. He knew somewhat about matters on the estate. The steward often told him these as jokes during his leisure time. Hearing Huang Yu say this, he brought him to several rows of houses in back. Before arriving, Huang Yu already saw the old man he’d encountered wearing short clothes and pants, lying in tree shade enjoying the cool. On a small table sat a small pot of wine. Most of the boiled soybean pods in the basin had been eaten, with pods piled all over the table. A young woman in a red dress was cleaning up. Seeing the Marquis had come, she lowered her head embarrassed, turned and called “Father,” wanting to wake the old man.
The old man opened his eyes and immediately stood up, inviting Yun Ye and Huang Yu to sit. He instructed the young woman to quickly boil more soybean pods and bring them over. Yun Ye wasn’t polite. Sitting in the recliner, he picked up the wine to smell it, frowning and saying, “You can be considered a wealthy household on the estate. How can you still drink this inferior wine? Going to Chang’an to sell grain, at least dress somewhat presentably. Ragged and tattered clothes lose face for the Yun family estate.”
While scalding teacups with hot water, the old man said to Yun Ye, “Marquis, if I wear good clothes, people know I’m from our estate. A dou of wheat sold to others is four wen and three, sold to our family must be four wen and five—black-hearted, no help for it. This old man worked in the fields for two days and didn’t even bathe before going to Chang’an. Sure enough, this trick worked. Our wheat looks good, sold for four wen and five. Buying their wheat cost four wen and three. This old man’s ragged clothes earned the family over four hundred wen more.”
Huang Yu just couldn’t understand. How could there be no price difference between buying and selling? How could those black-hearted merchants allow you to sell and buy at one price? This way, what profit did they make? Holding this doubt, he consulted the old man.
“Merchants of course can’t. Which merchant isn’t transformed from a skinned monkey? In their hands, how could our family have good fruit to eat? Collecting grain at three wen and six, selling grain at five wen—one dou of grain, one wen and four price difference. Doing this, wouldn’t this old man lose to death? Our wheat has high yield but doesn’t taste good. Noodles go in the pot and get sticky—can’t drink porridge all year, right?”
“Fortunately His Majesty is righteous. To stabilize grain prices, for bulk grain trading there’s protection—flat in, flat out. Our wheat looks good, evaluated as Grade A. Other families’ wheat doesn’t look good but tastes good, can only be Grade B. This way, one dan of wheat we have three wen profit—that’s more than half a dou of wheat! This old man’s twenty dan of wheat plainly gains one extra dan. Where can you find such a deal? Tomorrow I’m preparing to help fellow villagers exchange more. What’s extra is mine, considered labor money. I heard city people say His Majesty wants to be some Heavenly Khagan—this really needs good Khan-ing, can’t not Khan.”