To be favored by the gods is happiness. As for possessing an emperor who could directly converse with the gods, that was the greatest happiness for the common people. The Emperor had casually said that the heavy snow would stop in two days. As a result, by afternoon, the sun came out. This was the heavenly deity giving face to His Majesty. Of course, there was another version—namely that Marquis Yun and Prince Wei had secretly bribed the Dragon King of the North Sea who was in charge of snowfall.
As for the self-reproaching edict the Emperor had burned earlier, it was merely the result of His Majesty and the heavenly deity mutually compromising. Imperial prestige remained unharmed. As for the current Chang’an City, it was simply that there was somewhat more snow. The grain in the Ever-Normal Granary was sufficient for everyone to eat for three years. The government would distribute grain free of charge to poor families. As for wealthy households, they still had to purchase it.
Between rich and poor, there was no concrete standard. Yun Ye was very curious how the government distinguished between rich and poor. When he went to look at the grain distribution location, he felt ashamed of his own pettiness.
The government fundamentally wasn’t trying to distinguish between rich and poor at all. Rather, as long as someone came to receive grain, they gave it to them. Although they kept stern faces, they didn’t say a single unpleasant word. Those who came to receive grain were all elderly, weak, women, and children, each and every one with expressions of shame on their faces, as if taking the government’s grain was completely a kind of disgrace. The situation was bizarrely intense.
“The wife from Fatty Zhu’s household went to receive grain. His family should have gone to receive it long ago. Yesterday when I passed by his house, the entire family, old and young, were all drinking thin porridge—that porridge was so thin you could see your reflection in it. That son of a dog stubbornly cared about saving face and refused to let his wife come receive grain. How about it? In the end, his rigid pride couldn’t withstand his belly, right?” Many people were watching as spectators, gossiping with their mouths, their faces full of pride. Not having to go receive relief was a man’s face. Only those whose lives couldn’t continue went to receive relief.
Yun Ye bared his teeth and said to Li Tai: “If I ran to receive relief, would my wife be laughed to death by all the people of Chang’an tomorrow?” The reason for saying this was that Yun Ye had seen that green-clothed woman carrying a sack of grain, covering her face as she ran past him like the wind. What was so embarrassing about receiving relief? In later generations, those fellows who received relief were all sharpening their heads to drill into the impoverished population. When Yun Ye was in later generations, he had distributed hardship subsidies. There was actually human trash who gave him a pack of two-hundred-yuan good cigarettes in order to exchange it for three hundred yuan in relief.
Li Tai looked at Yun Ye strangely and said: “How did you get such a strange idea? We were born to distribute relief, not to go receive relief. If you dare to do this, believe it or not, this would lose you more face than if your wife cheated on you.”
Yun Ye nodded his head. A noble’s wife cheating wasn’t anything novel. When there were many beautiful wives and lovely concubines at home, inevitably there would be inadequate care. This kind of thing like cheating had always emerged in endless succession. Once discovered by the masters, they would be dragged to the mass grave mound, chopped with a blade, and casually buried. Afterward, they would laugh loudly while saying to friends: “A great man inevitably has an unvirtuous wife and unfilial sons.” Then they would bring two more women through the door and that was that.
The nobles went to steal, to rob, to cheat, killing and arson, rape and plunder—bringing money and wealth back home was all for the sake of being able to show off before people that they were great men. So Chang’an City would have people who spent a thousand gold pieces performing good deeds. Building a bridge, repairing a road, relieving poverty—when these kinds of things occurred, everyone would scramble to do them, especially the nobles. If the bridge that everyone used to cross the river in front of their family gate broke, before the government repaired the bridge, they would go ask the leading wealthy households whether they wanted to gain some fame—spending their own money to repair the bridge properly and save the government some silver.
Don’t think this was the government extorting. If wealthy households encountered this kind of thing, they had to properly thank the government—thanking them for giving themselves a good opportunity to display their wealth and manifest their virtuous reputation.
Yun Ye found this phenomenon very strange. He had asked Old Niu and Old Cheng. Old Niu didn’t explain, only telling Yun Ye that if there was this kind of opportunity, he definitely had to scramble to do it. There absolutely couldn’t be half a moment of hesitation. He just didn’t tell him the reason.
This time, the rice and grain for disaster relief were all won by Yun Ye from those civil and military great ministers. The officials distributing grain would also casually mention that this grain was purchased with money and wealth Marquis Yun won from wagering with others. His family’s money and wealth were too abundant—there was no place at home to put those filthy things, so he simply sold them for rice and grain to invite you poor ghosts to eat one full meal.
Go to hell! Was there anyone who provided disaster relief like this? Wasn’t this nakedly pulling hatred toward me? But Old Cheng and Old Niu watched cheerfully, wishing those petty officials would say even more vicious things.
However, seeing Xinyue’s large carriage pass through the snow road and all the people cupping their hands in salute, only then did he understand. There were no fools in this world. The common people were very clear about what was what. Disaster relief was a virtuous deed. No matter what the officials’ mouths said, your actions were a virtuous deed. Even if they didn’t necessarily go receive it, they would all respect the person performing virtuous deeds. This was the best opportunity to expand the family’s reputation.
Yun Ye and Li Tai walked into the house where they were providing relief to disaster victims. Yun Ye grabbed a handful of wheat to smell it—no mildew, all good grain. The millet and corn were also very dry. This was correct. It was all for people to eat—one couldn’t carelessly fool around.
There were still many people lacking grain in Chang’an City. According to what the petty official said, they had already distributed over a thousand dan of grain. There were four places distributing grain in total. The total number absolutely exceeded five thousand dan. Since the Wagang Army had conducted a large-scale grain scattering ceremony after breaking through the Luokou Granary, this grain scattering action by Marquis Yun in Chang’an had to be counted as the largest undertaking.
The Wagang Army had scattered a total of less than one thousand dan of grain. Old Niu had long since said it was merely that they had created an extremely grand momentum. Li Mi relied on this grain scattering action to gather a large batch of subordinates and eliminated Zhai Rang, ultimately leading to the Wagang Army’s defeat. This was a one-stop transaction. Yun Ye planned that after finishing being a wealth-scattering boy, he absolutely would not go to the gambling table—too inauspicious.
Yun Ye sat in the carriage, rubbing his fingers, and asked Li Tai: “The day before yesterday when His Majesty was defrosting us brothers, putting our hands and feet into beautiful women’s bosoms to warm up—did you move your hands to grope or not?”
Li Tai half-squinted his eyes and said: “At that time, I was frozen like an idiot—where would I have had that leisurely mood? Speaking honestly, even now I don’t have much interest. Could it be that after you were frozen, you could still have interest?”
Yun Ye chuckled twice and said: “Although my hands and feet were frozen without feeling, I could still manage to move my hands and feet a few times. With beauties before me—tofu delivered to the door, where is the reasoning in not eating it?”
Li Tai had always held Yun Ye’s petty small-household behavior in contempt. Seeing him so smugly pleased with himself, he said lazily: “Women that other men have touched cannot possibly remain in the palace. If you don’t believe me, watch—those four women will definitely appear at your house tonight. My house will be the same. Be careful not to let Xinyue kill those few women to death. They’re all pitiful people. If you don’t want them, you can give them household registration and let them find people to marry. Don’t bring disaster!”
Yun Ye estimated that those few women would also have this kind of fate. He had already told Xinyue yesterday—the Yun family doesn’t create bad karma. Having three wives was already sufficient. Those four women were being doctors at the time. Using their chests as hand warmers wasn’t shameful, and they could still marry.
The standard of lodging these two days was very high—they had been staying in the Imperial Palace continuously. Both Yun Ye and Li Tai’s hands and feet had mild frostbite. The tips of their ears were extremely itchy now. Yesterday, yellow fluid continuously flowed. Xinyue wiped them for an entire day.
Establishing merit would bring rewards. Li Er was never stingy on this point. The pastures on the grasslands finally shed their bandit name. According to the current territorial borders, they were formally confirmed under the name of Marquis of Lantian, Yun Ye. As for rewards of noble rank, Li Er had forgotten about it, or rather from now on, he no longer had the habit of rewarding noble ranks.
The heavy snow still sealed Chang’an tightly. Today, three brave warriors would ride the hot air balloon for a long-distance flight. This was inadvisable. The hot air balloon was far from reaching conditions that could support long-distance flight. Yun Ye had always believed that he and Li Tai being able to fly from Yushan to Chang’an already counted as having walked in dog luck.
Xinyue sat beside Yun Ye and asked in a low voice: “Husband, today is the great day of our family’s hot air balloon’s second ascent. Why don’t you go out to look? Could it be you’re still worried about these four little beauties? Rest assured, your concubine is not a jealous woman. I will definitely keep them for you.”
“Cut it out. I’ve long since said that having you few is already sufficient. Our household is only so big. When there are many women, they easily fight. You and Na Rimu have already given me a huge headache. I don’t dare have more women. When we return home, you should register household status for these four women. No matter what, they are benefactors who treated your husband medically. Give them more money and settle them properly.”
Yun Ye didn’t tell Xinyue how much risk those three people would be taking, lest she be frightened afterward. He diverted the topic to women. Xinyue was forever sensitive to this topic.
Xinyue was a bit embarrassed. The more Yun Ye spoke like this, the stronger her sense of guilt became. Compared to other nobles, there were really too few women in the Yun family who had intimate relations with the family master. They hadn’t even gathered together the seven women receiving stipends that the court’s ritual regulations stipulated. Madam Cheng always advised Xinyue not to go too far. If they hurt the husband-wife relationship because of these small matters, it wasn’t worth it. Each time, Xinyue argued that it wasn’t that she didn’t agree, but rather that her own husband didn’t have the slightest thought of taking concubines. Now her husband was unwilling to even take these four beauties bestowed by the Emperor, which was sufficient to prove he truly was unwilling to take more concubines.
Yun Ye understood Xinyue’s thoughts. Stroking her face, he said: “This thing called affection is only valuable when it’s unique. When there’s more, when it’s rampant, it becomes worthless. I’ve already divided my heart into four portions and given them to you four. It’s already not very valuable. If I divide it further, it will become completely worthless. Once affection becomes worthless, it will be easily discarded or harmed. I want to keep some bottom line. It’s not your business. If Auntie Cheng mentions taking concubines again, just tell her I already have no heart to divide to anyone else, and that’s enough.”
Xinyue grasped Yun Ye’s hand and gently caressed it. While husband and wife were intimately whispering in the Imperial Palace’s side hall, they heard a huge boom resound in the Imperial Palace. Xinyue wanted to go out to look, but was firmly grasped by Yun Ye, not letting her move. He could imagine without even thinking—that fuel canister had exploded. When Yun Ye took off from Yushan, for insurance, the canister had only been filled halfway with kerosene. Since Li Er wanted to dispatch people on a long voyage, naturally it had to be filled to the brim. The danger increased in geometric data. Not exploding would be the strange thing.
Before long, Li Tai walked into the side hall and said to Yun Ye: “The hot air balloon exploded just as it left the ground. Three people were burned into charcoal. The hot air balloon was also destroyed. I said it wasn’t safe—nobody believed me. They thought that since we two brothers could come down from the sky safe and sound, they could too. There were even people saying strange words, believing I was unwilling to let others establish merit and was finding excuses.”
“Ha ha ha, nobody believes that we brothers were risking our lives three days ago. Ha ha ha, they died well! They thought they could randomly find two cats and dogs to replace us brothers?”