Getting older, constantly taking advantage easily caused lower back pain. Xinyue would still lose her temper. Crawling into bed with Li Anlan, being pointed at by the nose and scolded by Xinyue, there was a feeling of being caught in adultery in bed.
At such times, a man either obediently listened or became angry from embarrassment. Yun Ye decisively chose to become angry from embarrassment. He pressed Xinyue against the bedside and fiercely slapped her buttocks twice, then left with a flourish with the fully dressed Li Anlan, leaving her alone in the room losing her temper. According to her, it was her room.
Xiao Wu stood prettily beside her master without speaking, just grinning foolishly. It had to be said that even when this child foolishly smiled now, she presented a brilliantly attractive appearance.
“I know your Bai Yujing has been built. No need to be so proud. Bai Yujing is in the sky—it’s that round bright moon. Do you understand bright moon? Let me tell you a principle. For short distances, distance units are naturally used, such as cun, chi, li. If the distance is far, another kind of length unit needs to be used to express it—that’s time multiplied by speed. For example, the distance light travels in one year is called a light-year.”
“Now your master is not only old in age but also high in official position. I can speak nonsense at will. Just consider that I’m talking nonsense, and you listen in confusion. This is a little story between us master and disciple.”
“It’s said that when your forward speed surpasses the speed of light, the entire world becomes very different. Do you know how fast light can travel? It’s not the blink of an eye, a flash, an instant, that can express it. Since our family’s fundamental learning is mathematics, there must be a definite number. As far as I know, if you divide half a shichen into three thousand six hundred portions, in one portion of time, light travels a distance of six hundred thousand li. This point, your master can guarantee is correct. Unless your speed surpasses this limit, otherwise, you won’t see Bai Yujing.”
Xiao Wu still smiled cheerfully, not caring a bit about the strange tales Yun Ye spoke of. From her sleeve, she took out a silk diagram and said with a smile, “What you say is naturally correct. Your disciple will just take it as a future goal. However, you should first look at our family’s Bai Yujing.”
Yun Ye glanced at it once, then very disdainfully threw the silk diagram aside, saying, “Small-minded. Building a few houses in a mountain hollow, digging a few caves, and thinking it’s Bai Yujing—far too inadequate.”
Yun Ye reached out and rubbed Xiao Wu’s head, then said again, “When will you change this little girl’s temperament? Your child is about to get married, yet you still only care about playing yourself. How can you not worry about Xiao Laohu’s marriage? Liu Zhengwu has already run to my place to complain five or six times. How old do you plan to have him help you raise your daughter?”
Xiao Wu couldn’t be bothered to tidy her messy hair and hurriedly chased after the silk painting blown away by the wind. After finally catching up with it, she hid it in her bosom and said huffily to Yun Ye, “I just don’t like his family’s daughter. She’s tall and big, only growing a body without growing sense. Xiao Laohu is the eldest legitimate grandson of the Di Family. Not only is he clever, his appearance is also good. If he marries a foolish woman, I, as mother-in-law, will be angered to death.”
Yun Ye chuckled and said, “Then you tell me, whose daughter have you taken a fancy to? Xiao Laohu very clearly told me he likes Liu Zhengwu’s daughter. Your son’s temperament is exactly like yours. If you have the ability, try breaking them up for me to see. Be careful that in a rage they elope. Your reputation as an evil mother-in-law will be set for certain.”
“He dares!” Xiao Wu’s eyebrows immediately stood up. The prestige of Yushan Academy’s Vice Director was considerable.
“How would he not dare? Xiao Laohu has an official position. He doesn’t care about Di Renjie’s earl title either. What can you do to him? When the time comes, he’ll apply for external transfer. Do you think Liu Zhengwu can’t arrange a good position for his son-in-law?”
“I know what’s on your mind. You grew up at home from childhood. After coming of age, you’ve been a teacher at Yushan Academy. Your entire life, everyone you’ve dealt with has been Great Tang’s elite. Not liking the Liu Family’s dumb girl isn’t strange. You like clever people, but Xiao Laohu doesn’t! He’s willing to find an honest and simple wife to stay with for a lifetime.”
“In my view, Xiao Laohu’s thinking isn’t wrong. When marrying a wife, you must marry someone a bit dumber. Look at Di Renjie now, frowning and worried all day—where’s half a bit of joy to speak of? Isn’t it all because you manage him to death?”
“Xiao Laohu has seen all this, which is why he insists on marrying a simple wife. Our family’s children are each as clever as monkeys. If you want to hold them in your hand, it’s probably not easy.”
“Back then, you married Helan to Shou’er, thinking you had succeeded. Actually, they had already taken a liking to each other. Helan isn’t actually a domineering temperament. These years, helping Yan Rong manage the household properly and appropriately—though a concubine, her days are more comfortable than main wives in other families. Those tricks you taught Helan just don’t work. Your master discovered he made a mistake. I taught you a belly full of all sorts of messy things but somehow never taught you to properly love others. According to Bai Yujing’s words, your IQ is outstanding, your EQ is very low. Silly girl, wisdom has no use in dealing with emotions. Sometimes some silly methods are what move people.”
“Clever people naturally know how to handle emotions. If they can’t handle them well, then they’re not clever people!” Xiao Wu rarely contradicted her master, after all, wisdom was what she had always been proud of.
“Eh? This statement stumps me. However, as far as your master knows, wisdom has sharp edges and easily hurts people. The advanced manifestation of wisdom is worldly wisdom! Or open-mindedness. Look at Master Yan, look at Master Li Gang, then look at your master—all manifestations of open-mindedness. Just now when your master’s wife caught us in adultery in bed, do you know what method I used to escape? Angry from embarrassment—this is a very stupid method, but very effective. The wise use appropriate methods at appropriate times to escape predicaments.”
Hearing her master say this, Xiao Wu laughed so hard she nearly fell over. How could she not know the household situation? Ever since Li Anlan entered the mansion, the master’s wife guarded against Li Anlan like guarding against a thief. The master and Li Anlan both considered their status, but the master’s wife had no way to use status to speak to Li Anlan, so she threw tantrums righteously.
Seeing Xiao Wu start to laugh, Yun Ye chuckled and said, “The way of husband and wife is like this—no reason to discuss, nor is it a place for discussing reason. You yourself are devastatingly beautiful and clever beyond all predecessors and successors. Back then, finding a husband for you really worried your master. I couldn’t bear to send Xiao Jie into your tiger’s mouth, yet couldn’t find another scapegoat. Finally, looking across the Great Tang, only Xiao Jie could still hop around a few times before you, so I facilitated this marriage. These years, watching you in harmonious matrimony, living comfortably, your master is genuinely happy for you both.”
“But these past few years, you’ve been obsessed with the so-called Bai Yujing, wanting to establish your own school and become a generation’s grandmaster. Girl, grandmaster isn’t something you pursue like this. It naturally arises when you have deep foundations. Back then, I witnessed Master Yuanzhang’s enlightenment, witnessed Master Lishi’s enlightenment too. That process is very painful, like a python shedding skin. Only by shedding the shackles already formed from the past can new vitality be obtained. It absolutely can’t be achieved by building five towers and twelve cities. If you want to reach the grandmaster’s realm, cleverness will be your greatest enemy. Come, come, come—your master will give you some calligraphy. Properly comprehend it. This is a bit of insight your master had back then. It should help you.”
Before Yun Ye, no matter how old she got, Xiao Wu would still become a little girl with a strange temper. Unwilling to follow, she was dragged by Yun Ye forcibly into the study.
Smiling, he spread out a very large sheet of paper. After a maid ground the ink, she withdrew. Yun Ye took up the brush. With a few strokes, a huge overturned turtle leaped onto the paper. Yun Ye had stopped painting turtles much these years. Although the Duke of Chu’s turtle paintings and Zhan Ziqian’s figure paintings had long been called twin masterpieces, the Duke of Chu treasured his ink like gold and rarely painted turtles for people, to the point that in the market, a thousand gold pieces couldn’t obtain one.
Zhan Ziqian painted figures, skillfully using tight lines and colors that could shade into varying depths to express the personality characteristics and spiritual appearance of subjects, reaching a realm where spirit was lifelike and meaning fully sufficient.
The Duke of Chu painted turtles using only shades of ink. With just a few strokes, he could make an adorably naive turtle leap onto paper. Most valuable was that each turtle’s form was completely different. If you looked long enough, you’d discover that turtle was smiling.
“I don’t want a turtle. This is still an overturned turtle!” What others sought with a thousand gold pieces was worthless here with Xiao Wu. Seeing her master paint a turtle, she thought he was mocking her.
“Shut up!” Yun Ye scolded Xiao Wu without good humor, took up the brush again, and on the blank space of the large paper, wrote in bold calligraphy a line of large characters: “Lying on the beach for three and a half years, when the great wave comes, I’ll flip over!”
He carefully used a dry cloth to absorb excess ink, blew it dry and let it air, then rolled it up and stuffed it into Xiao Wu’s hands, saying, “When your master was at his most unfortunate, I lived by these words. Think carefully about the meaning within. Paste it on the wall and study it carefully.”
“If outsiders see it, they’ll say you’re an old turtle and your disciple is a little turtle!” Xiao Wu wore a mournful expression, extremely unwilling.
“Hmph! As long as your days can be happy and comfortable, what does it matter if our school changes from Bai Yujing to Turtle Gang? Not only must you look at it, Xiao Jie must also look at it more.”
Having finished speaking, he shooed Xiao Wu out the family gate, telling her to quickly go back.
The sullen Xiao Wu returned home and saw Di Renjie working on official business. She sighed, then instructed the kitchen to prepare some sweet dishes for Di Renjie. Di Renjie most loved eating sweets—he had never changed his whole life.
She herself quietly sat in a chair accompanying her husband. She had listened to what her master said just now. Watching her husband for a long time, she finally discovered his age was already considerable.
Di Renjie, having processed one document, looked up to discover Xiao Wu staring at him without blinking and said with a smile, “You’re back. What did Master say? What’s his view on your Bai Yujing?”
Xiao Wu silently opened that sheet of paper and pointed at the image on it, saying to Di Renjie, “This is Master’s teaching to me—an overturned turtle!”