Yun Ye sympathetically patted Di Renjie’s shoulder, stuffed a scroll of “The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions” into his hands, and planned to wander around the flower room to relax. After looking at white all day, gazing at some green plants would greatly improve his mood.
Before he had even entered the flower room, he heard the sounds of women playing around inside. The voices were very unfamiliar. After thinking for a moment, he knew who was inside—besides those four women bestowed by the Empress, there was no one else.
“Sister Zijuan, do you think we can keep living at the Yun residence? I don’t want to go back to the palace.”
“Only a fool would want to go back. The marquis’s residence is so wonderful! Even the fiercest Miss Xiao Ya is easier to get along with than the kindest princesses. Old Madam is the best—as soon as we arrived, she gave us new names and even burned our identity tags, constantly saying what a sin it was. I want to tell Madam I’d like to serve Old Madam. Bangtou, Miss Xiao Ya’s maid, says we can make that request.”
“Hongmei, don’t talk nonsense. We were born with the fate of servants—don’t hope for too much. That the master’s family is kind is our good fortune. Don’t ask for too much yourself. Great families and the imperial palace aren’t that different—they’re not places where we can act presumptuously. How many sisters in the palace relied on being favored and then disappeared? Keeping to the rules has no harm.”
“Sister Moli, I will keep to the rules, but I see the lord seems to really like you and Sister Hanxiao. That day when we were warming the lord’s hands, I saw his hands rubbing around on your chests.”
“Nonsense! That was the lord’s hands being frozen numb and trembling. His hands had turned blue-purple—what feeling could he have? Don’t speak nonsense. However, as I see it, the marquis’s residence is very clean. I saw that Yiniang Na Rimu secretly take Madam’s hairpin today. I thought she would blame it on us—I was scared nearly to death.”
“Who would have thought she’d just openly and boldly insert it in her hair and run to ask Madam if it looked good? Not only did Madam not blame her, she actually frowned and said she should have worn that pearl hairpin instead—the gold hairpin didn’t look good. Then Yiniang Na Rimu really did run back to Madam’s room to change it, just like taking her own things.”
“At lunch, I and two maids from Madam’s room were serving the lord and madams their meal. You all couldn’t imagine—after those two maids brought the dishes up, they dragged me out. I was still worried about being punished, but as it turned out, the lord and madams seemed not to notice we weren’t there. They moved their own chopsticks, turned the serving plates themselves. Even the youngest little miss—Yiniang Lingdang took care of her herself.”
“The lord kept serving food to Old Madam, to Miss Xiao Ya, to Miss Xiao Mu. Madam was busy taking care of the lord. Yiniang Na Rimu was busy taking care of the two young masters. Yiniang Lingdang took care of the two little ones. The marquis residence’s meals are all placed on one large round table—the whole family, old and young, all eat together. The imperial family doesn’t talk while eating, but at the marquis’s residence, they all talk while eating. Miss Xiao Ya said something wrong and was even smacked twice by Madam.”
“This is what it looks like when a family lives together. I dream of being able to live days like this myself, but that table probably can’t squeeze in anyone else. They are truly one family.”
“Hanxiao, have fewer strange dreams. You always do some odd and peculiar things. Don’t say elder sister didn’t warn you. Remember this—this is a hereditary state marquis residence that passes through generations. Even in Chang’an, it’s a ranked noble family among meritorious houses. Marquis Yun has the title of the Great Tang’s most intelligent person. Using a little small means to win over family members is almost no difficult matter for the lord. Since the lord wants to live more comfortably at home, we need to serve the masters comfortably. Only then will we have good days.”
“Hurry and pick the vegetables. Pick more peppers and string beans. Madam said the young master especially loves eating these two dishes. Don’t talk nonsense anymore. Working properly is what’s serious. Her Majesty is at the marquis’s residence.”
Yun Ye scratched his ear. Seeing there was nothing good to listen to, he no longer entered the greenhouse. He walked to the study with his hands behind his back, his mood joyful! So his own family’s uncultured eating style could actually arouse others’ envy—a good thing! Now they were a bit constrained, but after a period of time it would be fine. With four beauties added to the household, it really could raise the overall quality of the Yun residence’s servants. Yun Jiu and Twenty-One—these outstanding young talents all needed to be won over. When they came to the household after spring began and saw there were such absolutely beautiful women, they would definitely fight to the breaking point competing for them. This way, it would help the Yun Family hold on for several more years.
The great sun was blazing bright, but outside it was devilishly cold. The damned white snow couldn’t retain heat and reflected all the sunlight back to the sky. Added to that, the snow was melting, which had a heat-absorption process, so when snow melted it was even more dank and cold than when snow fell.
From time to time, the thunderous roar of avalanches came from the Qinling Mountains. A huge pile of accumulated snow on Eagle’s Beak Cliff slid down this morning, burying the roads. He didn’t know if those court messengers could follow the rivers to pass messages out and bring news from outside back in. However, when Yun Ye thought of how the Yellow River was frozen hard as a board, he felt this idea wasn’t very realistic. After the heavy snow melted, the entire Longshou Plateau would become a mud pit. The eight waters surrounding Chang’an would definitely become the eight waters flooding Chang’an. If the Yellow River didn’t have time to thaw by then, that would really be lively. So much snow water all melting into the fields—spring plowing? It would probably become summer plowing.
Sitting in command at the Ministry of War, he wouldn’t worry about the Ministry of Works and the Directorate of Agriculture. The big shots at the Ministry of Revenue couldn’t sit still either. Those big shots dressed like bears all day searching for outlets for that snow water. Looking at it was useless. Taiye Pool had already turned into a snow mountain. All the accumulated snow from the entire imperial palace was piled here. This year, Taiye Pool probably wouldn’t need any more water put in.
Taking advantage of the lunch break, Yun Ye planned to go to the imperial palace’s lotus pond to pick some lotus pods to bring back. There were no official duties in the afternoon, and the Ministry of War had no troops to dispatch either. It would be perfect to simmer a pot of lotus seed porridge to properly nourish himself. Last night, trapped by the heavy snow and irritable like a wolf in heat, Cheng Chumo had forced him to drink for half the night. He had also listened to half a night of his nonsense—what rubbish like if there hadn’t been heavy snow, by this time he should have already left Yumen Pass. Did he think Teacher Jin Zhu was cavalry under his command capable of traveling three hundred li a day? If they followed the marching plan he formulated, absolutely not many from the Academy would return alive—not killed by others, but worked to death being driven by Cheng Chumo to rush the journey.
The Department of State Affairs was inside the imperial palace, but the lotus pond was in the rear palace. Although Yun Ye had a token, going alone was quite taboo. Conveniently, Li Zhi walked out from the rear palace. With him there was no need for courtesy. Pressing down on his head, they did an about-face. This little bastard had recently swindled quite a bit of money from him. When providing disaster relief to Chang’an victims, this little scoundrel had wailed and cried saying his own fief of Jinyang must also be covered by heavy snow. The people there were already very poor. Now encountering a heavy snowstorm not seen in several hundred years, come spring there might be the tragic situation of exchanging children to eat. He hoped brother-in-law could help him out. He cried very loudly.
Jinyang also had an ever-normal granary—why should this old man provide relief? Mainly his crying voice was too grating in the palace. To shut his mouth, he could only give him fifty thousand dan of coarse grain. He wasn’t picky either—giving foxtail millet or corn was fine. And that very night he withdrew the grain from the granary and placed it at the home of Gao Yang, with whom he had the best relationship.
After meeting Li Chengqian and Li Tai, he learned that he had already cried before his two elder brothers twice, with the same words and the same actions. This bastard had even extended his claws toward those two little rich women Gao Yang and Lan Ling. Reportedly he had gained quite a few benefits for himself.
“Brother-in-law, you want to go to the rear palace? My mother isn’t there. Her elderly self is at Yushan. You definitely don’t want to go see my father. Could it be you want to go back there to look at beautiful women? Please spare me! That won’t work. If my father discovers us, both our legs will be broken.”
“Who has the time to look at beautiful women? I want to go to the lotus pond to pick some dried lotus pods, find some fresh lotus seeds to simmer porridge. I drank too much wine last night—my stomach is still empty even now.”
Hearing Yun Ye say this, Li Zhi’s stiff body softened. He kept saying eating more lotus seeds was a good thing. However, the implication in his words was probing into why, if he wanted lotus seeds, he didn’t ask the kitchen for them but had to go pick lotus pods himself.
They arrived at the lotus pond, but it turned out Yun Ye wasn’t the only one who wanted to pick lotus pods. A woman in blue clothes wearing a conical hat was standing on the ice holding a small knife, cutting lotus pods. Li Zhi looked at Yun Ye suspiciously. He had already determined that Yun Ye had come to secretly meet his old man’s woman and was using him as a shield.
Yun Ye sighed and prepared to take Li Zhi back. But that woman spoke: “One-legged ghost wearing a carefree cap—Marquis Yun has quick wit. Even words arranging and making fun of people can display literary talent. Now that I’ve cut down all the one-legged ghosts, I wonder what Marquis Yun has to say?”
Damn it, it was Xu Hui again. This woman couldn’t be provoked. Without saying a word, Yun Ye turned to leave. Li Zhi’s eyeballs rolled around, then he suddenly ran before Xu Hui, grabbed a big handful of lotus pods from her basket, twisted around and ran. Run if he was going to run—he also grabbed Yun Ye to run together. They ran all the way out of the rear palace before he sorrowfully and indignantly handed that handful of lotus pods to Yun Ye, saying vexedly: “Xu Hui is already a zhaoyi. If you have any intentions, put them all down. I owe you a favor. Helping you grab a handful of lotus pods from her to fulfill your wish is already greatly defying propriety. This is enough to repay the favor of your fifty thousand dan of grain, right?”
Having said this, he put his hands behind his back, raised his head to look at the sky, and walked out step by step, completely presenting the appearance of a generous and tragic righteous man. Yun Ye looked at the four shriveled lotus pods in his hand, then looked at Li Zhi. His own fifty thousand dan of grain were exchanged for four dried lotus pods? These lotus pods were too expensive, weren’t they? How did he have the face to say such words?
As soon as Li Zhi turned past the palace hall, he crouched at the corner of the wall secretly watching Yun Ye. Seeing him continuously scratching his head with a completely baffled appearance, he immediately laughed happily. So worth it! Four lotus pods repaid such an enormous favor, and this excuse could continue to be used in the future. He smacked his lips and said regretfully: “Pity it’s not real. If it were real, I could righteously and confidently ask him for relief in the future. That damned Xu Hui—couldn’t she be a bit more ambiguous?”
Yun Ye didn’t know Li Zhi’s sordid thoughts. He crouched in the Ministry of War’s room peeling lotus seeds and pulling out lotus cores, preparing to simmer porridge. Who could have imagined this sunny young boy, in order to get a bit more relief, had not half a point of hesitation about putting a green hat on his own father?