Prince Yu was dead. Young lord Yang Zhuo was dead. For the carriage depot, the biggest change this brought about was that Gao Xining no longer had to skulk around as she had before.

Previously she had essentially not gone out while at the carriage depot. On the rare occasions she did need to go outside, she would disguise herself with careful, meticulous attention.

What was remarkable was that this extraordinary young woman — whose approach to learning anything else was a resounding failure, except for eating, at which she excelled above all others — had actually made modest progress after studying the art of disguise with Changmei the Daoist for a stretch of time.

Changmei the Daoist lavished praise on her natural talent, thrilled as though he had finally found someone to inherit his arts. Gao Xining told him: Master, you just don’t know — most girls can learn this.

She had resumed her training. Her aptitude for martial arts was genuinely not outstanding, but she was diligent enough, and Tang Pidi’s assessment of her martial skill was: just below that of the ninth sister.

Girls love beautiful things. She and Xiahou Yili and some of the others had planted quite a few flowers in the courtyard.

As summer drew to a close while the flowers were still in bloom, they gathered quite a few and dried them, then arranged them in various bottles and jars around the courtyard, giving the whole place a fresh, light, airy quality.

Li Chi had gone to the military commissioner’s residence. Gao Xining was actually not at ease about it.

Though Li Chi had said that Military Commissioner Zeng Ling wouldn’t give him any trouble for now, worry has a great deal to do with affection — the more you care, the more you worry.

So not long after Li Chi left, Gao Xining found she couldn’t settle herself, and went to wait by the carriage depot gate.

She waited a good while. Finally she saw the carriage coming, and the corners of Gao Xining’s mouth curved upward of their own accord.

When Li Chi stepped down from the carriage and saw Gao Xining, he lifted what he was holding and gave it a wave.

Gao Xining grinned: “You bought such a big fish head — are you going to have Aunt Wu make fish head with flatbread?”

Li Chi said: “That wasn’t quite my original intention.”

Gao Xining asked: “Then what are we doing with it?”

Li Chi said: “Today I negotiated a big deal with Commissioner Zeng Ling, so I was in good spirits. On the way back, I saw someone selling fish. One of them was enormous — nearly as long as a person. I thought of what my master once said: in moments of success, one should be all the more inclined to do good deeds and double one’s good fortune. I thought it had probably taken a lot for a fish to grow that big, so I thought I’d buy it and release it back into the water.”

Gao Xining looked at the fish head.

Li Chi said: “I didn’t have enough money on me.”

He paused, then added: “But I told the fishmonger to wait — he shouldn’t count it as separate purchases. I said I’d definitely come back and pay for the whole fish.”

Gao Xining said: “What did that fishmonger brother say?”

Li Chi said: “He said it was the first time he’d ever met someone so sincerely committed to buying a fish to release it back into the water.”

Gao Xining said: “Then you should get it into water while it’s still fresh—”

Li Chi said: “Coming right up, I’ll go boil the water.”

The two of them walked back into the carriage depot side by side. Not far away, a carriage stood parked on the road, and inside it, the headmaster of the Siyue Academy — Gao Yuanzhang — let out a quiet sigh.

He had originally come to take Gao Xining home, but seeing this scene, he was now hesitant.

He felt somewhat awkward about it. When his granddaughter had been in the most danger, he had placed her in Li Chi’s care — and had never once come to say thank you. Now it seemed the danger had passed, and without giving any prior notice, he had simply shown up intending to take her away. It felt a bit cold.

So he sighed and said to the coachman: “Don’t go to the carriage depot yet. There’s a pastry shop not far from here as I recall — go buy some.”

The coachman gave a sound of acknowledgment and said: “If we buy some on the way, we can head straight back to the academy afterward.”

Gao Yuanzhang said: “No. Wait until the fish head is about done.”

Half an hour later, Gao Yuanzhang’s carriage drew up outside the carriage depot. When a shop hand heard that Gao Xining’s grandfather had come, he quickly led the visitor inside.

As Gao Yuanzhang walked into the carriage depot, he couldn’t help but look everything over with great care. He wanted to see for himself what kind of place his granddaughter had been living in all this time.

He hadn’t gone far before he spotted Tang Pidi. He recognized him at once.

Though Tang Pidi had changed quite a bit from his time at the academy — he was so much taller now — this once most outstanding student of the academy was not someone Gao Yuanzhang could easily forget.

Seeing Gao Yuanzhang arrive, Tang Pidi also hurried over to pay his respects.

“No need for such ceremony.”

Gao Yuanzhang steadied Tang Pidi with a hand and said with a smile: “I’m glad to have run into you as well. There are many people here I haven’t met — later you can introduce me around.”

Tang Pidi agreed and led Gao Yuanzhang toward the rear courtyard.

Passing through the front courtyard, Gao Yuanzhang saw a young man sitting on the roof in a daze, chin resting on his hand, as though pondering some matter of great importance.

Gao Yuanzhang appreciated people who thought deeply. People who thought often tended to have more foresight than others and more wisdom, and at first glance this person did look like a man of intelligence and insight.

“Who is that?”

He asked.

Tang Pidi said: “He’s with the carriage depot, and with the Yanshan Camp. He’s also the Yanshan Camp’s second-ranking leader — his name is Zhuang Wudi.”

Gao Yuanzhang was taken aback. This man was the Yanshan Camp’s second-ranking leader?

The Yanshan Camp’s strength was by now beyond any need of elaboration — and a second-ranking leader was here, at Li Chi’s carriage depot.

“What is he doing on the roof?”

“Li Chi said the main hall roof in the front courtyard was leaking a bit, and asked him to go up and patch it. He must have just remembered — he got himself up there, but didn’t bring a single thing he’d need to fix the roof.”

Gao Yuanzhang: “…”

They made their way through the front courtyard. Turning the corner into view was the rear courtyard gate, and there at the gate a young man was crouching down, writing and sketching on the ground, as though practicing calligraphy.

Gao Yuanzhang also had a soft spot for diligent young people like this. In his view, learning required both diligence and persistence.

The young man was scrawling away with such concentration it was hard not to admire the spirit.

“And this young man?”

Gao Yuanzhang asked.

“Oh, he’s called Yu Jiuling.”

Tang Pidi introduced him.

Gao Yuanzhang said: “I wonder which master’s style he’s practicing…”

Before he had even finished, he watched the young man look up excitedly and wave toward the distance, calling out: “Shendiao! Shendiao, come here — do you think this looks like you?”

Then a great wild boar weighing over a thousand catties came trotting over with a bouncy little gait. It genuinely seemed to look — and then began rooting up the ground, obliterating everything Yu Jiuling had drawn.

Gao Yuanzhang: “Ah…”

He followed Tang Pidi onward. Entering the rear courtyard, he immediately caught sight of the Flowing Cloud Formation board.

A young man was making his way through the wooden figures and posts, quick and agile, reactions sharp.

Moreover he was tall and slender, and his features were remarkably refined — one glance and you could tell he came from distinguished stock, because his sense of style in dress was not something ordinary people could imitate.

Only that iron loincloth was a little too eye-catching.

Tang Pidi didn’t wait for Gao Yuanzhang to ask. He quickly introduced: “This is Dantai Yajing, the only son of Liangzhou General Dantai Qi.”

He waved in Dantai Yajing’s direction as a greeting. Dantai Yajing called out: “Hold on a moment…”

Clang clang clang, clang clang clang, clang clang clang clang clang…

Gao Yuanzhang’s mouth twitched. He wasn’t quite sure how to express himself. After a long moment he finally sighed: “The son of Liangzhou’s general — truly…”

He kept “truly” going for quite some time, but nothing came after it.

Yet Gao Yuanzhang was even more astounded. The Yanshan Camp’s second-ranking leader and the only son of a Liangzhou general were both here at Li Chi’s carriage depot?

Moving on, he saw several well-built young men in the midst of training. Their method was rather distinctive.

Several of them, bare-chested, stood there making their chest muscles bounce repeatedly, as if they found it great fun.

Gao Yuanzhang was just about to ask who this person was, then recognized him — this figure whose behavior was so thoroughly unbecoming was the former military preparedness commandant’s son, Jiang Ran.

And so Gao Yuanzhang was briefly astonished again.

Jiang Ran also spotted Gao Yuanzhang and quickly stopped his chest-bouncing exercises, jogging over to exchange a few pleasantries.

After they exchanged a few words, Jiang Ran returned and resumed shifting his posture, showing off a body of impressively robust muscle.

At last, Gao Yuanzhang could no longer hold himself back.

He looked toward Tang Pidi, hesitated a moment, then asked: “Were they… already like this before they came here, or did they become like this after?”

Tang Pidi also felt a little awkward. Gao Yuanzhang was the greatest Confucian scholar of the age, the man who prized propriety and bearing above all else — and the people in this carriage depot now all seemed to share only one kind of bearing.

Cheerful little reprobates.

“They…”

Tang Pidi didn’t know quite where to begin.

Just then, Gao Yuanzhang saw a group of girls come charging out — and in an instant his expression became something remarkable to behold. The corners of his mouth twitched, once, twice, involuntarily.

Four girls, each riding a small wooden hobby horse on little wooden wheels, came bursting out through the moon gate over on that side, whips in hand, racing to be first.

Two of the three following behind, he actually recognized. One was Instructor Yuan’s daughter, Yuan Jiabei. The other was a former student of the academy, Liu Yingyuan.

The one at the front was his own dear granddaughter, Gao Xining.

Gao Yuanzhang coughed a few times, pretended to examine the architecture of the carriage depot, and turned his head to look the other way.

Tang Pidi quickly waved toward Gao Xining and the others. Gao Xining pulled up sharply, then turned and rode her wooden horse back the way she had come.

By the time Gao Yuanzhang turned back around, four gentle and serene young women were sitting beneath the moon gate reading — truly a picture of bookish refinement.

Tang Pidi said: “If I told you now that they were probably all like this before they came — Headmaster, would you believe me?”

Gao Yuanzhang: “…”

Just at that moment, Li Chi came charging out on a broomstick, brandishing a small bamboo switch.

“You little villains — where do you think you’re running?!”

He caught sight of Gao Yuanzhang and froze.

“Whoa!”

He actually reined in his mount to a halt…

Gao Xining buried her face in her hands.

A quarter of an hour later, in the sitting room.

Li Chi and Gao Xining stood side by side, both with heads bowed, neither daring to look at Gao Yuanzhang.

Gao Yuanzhang sat there drinking his tea. Changmei the Daoist, as the elder of the household, sat to one side to keep him company.

Changmei the Daoist gave an awkward laugh and said: “It’s the nature of youth — you can’t really blame them. I suppose it reflects poorly on me as the elder for not managing things more strictly…”

Gao Yuanzhang, ever mindful of propriety, quickly said: “This is entirely their own unruliness. It has nothing to do with the Daoist.”

Changmei the Daoist shot Li Chi a glare and scolded: “I’ve told you time and again — you’re the head of the carriage depot now, and everything you do must be mature and steady. Look at you — how old are you and you’re still riding a broomstick like a child? I made five perfectly good wooden horses, and you’ve decided mine aren’t good enough?”

Li Chi thought to himself: Master, please be quiet.

The corners of Gao Yuanzhang’s mouth twitched again, involuntarily.

Just then, a rallying cry rang out, and Gao Yuanzhang looked toward the door to see a figure appear.

It was Aunt Wu — the cook from his academy’s dining hall. Aunt Wu had a small iron basin balanced on her head, straddling a wooden hobby horse on little wheels, right hand gripping an iron ladle.

“Charge!”

Aunt Wu shouted, then drew up short at the sitting room entrance.

“Urgent dispatch — reporting to the master of the house: the fish head is ready, we may eat…”

She saw Gao Yuanzhang.

Then she snatched up the wooden horse in both arms, turned, and ran. She ran so fast that the iron basin flew off her head.

Li Chi felt that something ought to be said to ease the awkwardness. He looked toward his master and said: “About that — Master, as you can see, that one… is at Aunt Wu’s.”

……