Li Diudiu had not expected to find so many people in the cafeteria at such an early hour. Had the academy disciples who had just returned from the field holiday all undergone some change in personality?

Or was it that, with the situation outside Jizhou City growing more chaotic by the day, they had begun to cherish the academy’s free meals?

While Li Diudiu was thinking these thoughts, Auntie Wu was already boiling dumplings for him. He soon noticed that although the cafeteria was packed to the point of overflowing, the seat he usually occupied was somehow empty. People were standing further away rather than coming to sit here.

Then it dawned on him — these people hadn’t come to cherish the free meals at all. They had come to watch him eat.

Ever since he had gone to work at the Yunzhai Teahouse, it hadn’t taken long for his reputation to grow. During his nearly ten days there, people had begun traveling from considerable distances just to come listen to him play music and tell stories.

He himself hadn’t noticed, but the name of the “Young Master of Yunzhai” had already become quite well known.

This sort of thing could not be kept secret. Besides, from the very beginning, Madam Sun had known Li Diudiu was an academy disciple — that had been part of Yunzhai’s own promotional angle. So in just over ten days, the “Young Master of Yunzhai” had become a name as good as gold.

The people in the cafeteria looked at him the way one might look at some rare exotic animal. Not long ago, a group of people from the Western Regions had come through Jizhou City, leading elephants through the streets — and the looks people gave those elephants were still friendlier than the looks being directed at Li Diudiu now.

Because they thought the elephants were not a joke. Li Chi was.

They had come to watch the spectacle. Those who had seen Li Diudiu at the Yunzhai Teahouse all knew that his most remarkable quality wasn’t his music or his storytelling — it was how he ate.

The people who came to see him at Yunzhai were much the same, but the academy disciples’ gazes were even more nakedly contemptuous.

Did Li Diudiu care?

He walked over and sat down calmly at that table and waited. Some people started heckling. Someone laughed and said the pig was about to put on its show. But Li Diudiu remained unmoved.

Before long, Auntie Wu brought out five portions of dumplings. Her expression was somewhat unpleasant, somewhat angry — but given her station, she naturally could not say anything. Yet in her heart, she stood with Li Diudiu.

She had nothing but contempt for those doing the heckling. In her eyes, they were human refuse — and even if they came from prominent families, they were simply better-dressed, better-looking human refuse.

“Young Master Li, your dumplings.”

Auntie Wu lowered her voice and said: “Don’t pay them any mind.”

Li Diudiu gave Auntie Wu a brilliant, warm smile, then picked up his chopsticks and said, “I’ve been craving dumplings. And I’ve missed you, Auntie Wu.”

Auntie Wu made a sound of acknowledgment, and those words made her eyes grow ever so slightly moist.

Li Diudiu ate his meal. Whatever the others shouted, he ignored it. Whatever antics they performed, he ignored those too. They looked at him as though he were a clown — but in Li Diudiu’s eyes, the ones who looked truly ugly were them, so ugly they barely looked human at all.

The heckling came to an abrupt halt when Xiahou Zuo strolled in through the door. Not everyone knew that Li Diudiu and Xiahou Zuo got along well, and those who did know had been too cautious to heckle recklessly in the first place.

Li Diudiu continued eating, steady as a mountain. But Xiahou Zuo’s expression had already turned dark enough to look like he might devour someone.

“You. You. You. You. You…”

Xiahou Zuo raised his hand and pointed at the academy disciples who had just been heckling — some were sixteen or seventeen, others twelve or thirteen. Every single one he pointed at began to feel afraid. But it was too late for fear.

“Whoever I pointed at, step forward. If you don’t step forward, I’ll come find you myself.”

Xiahou Zuo’s voice was so cold it felt as though summer had instantly plunged into deep winter — like a north wind carrying flurries of snow, cutting against the face and driving into the heart.

They were afraid. They were trembling. And they did not dare not to come forward. Those who had called Li Diudiu a pig, those who had heckled that he was a hungry ghost — one by one they drooped their heads and shuffled out from the crowd, lining up to stand before Xiahou Zuo.

Not one of them dared meet Xiahou Zuo’s eyes, because they all knew how terrifying he could be.

“Auntie Wu.”

Xiahou Zuo called toward the kitchen: “Boil me two portions of dumplings, and bring me a spatula.”

Auntie Wu responded at once and, spatula in hand, came jogging out. She didn’t dare look directly at Xiahou Zuo either. She handed him the spatula and immediately turned and jogged back.

Xiahou Zuo weighed the spatula in his hand, walked up to the first person in line, and looked at this young man — fairly decent-looking, though his smile had been grotesque just moments before.

“Open your mouth,” Xiahou Zuo said.

The young man startled, his face draining to the color of paper in an instant.

Xiahou Zuo said it again: “Open your mouth.”

The young man tremblingly opened his mouth. Xiahou Zuo brought the spatula down squarely against it. The blow instantly broke several teeth, split the lips nearly open, and left a mouth full of blood from a single strike.

“Next.”

Xiahou Zuo looked toward the second person.

“Senior Brother, Senior Brother, I know I was wrong, Senior Brother—”

The one behind was already crying and begging: “Senior Brother, I swear I’ll never do it again.”

Xiahou Zuo said flatly, “I don’t care about next time. Next time is someone else’s business. I only deal with this time.”

He pointed the spatula at the person’s face: “Open your mouth.”

Smack!

Another mouthful of blood.

Xiahou Zuo moved to the third person, who looked about fifteen or sixteen and was already shaking.

“Just now you were the one shouting loudest — you called Li Chi a pig, didn’t you? Said that in his past life he starved to death, so in this life he eats more than a pig? What else did you say? That he eats so much of the free food because he was so poor before?”

The person bowed frantically in apology: “Senior Brother, I truly know I was wrong, I was speaking nonsense, I’m not worth anything, Senior Brother please let me go, whatever you want me to do in the future I’ll do it, Senior Brother please be merciful, Senior Brother…”

Xiahou Zuo remained as flat and cold as ever. He looked at that face and felt his contempt growing.

“What would I need someone like you for?”

Xiahou Zuo raised his hand, grabbed the person by the hair, and yanked backward — the face tilted up, and Xiahou Zuo began bringing the spatula down against that mouth, blow after blow. The others received one strike. This one received at least six or seven.

By the third blow, droplets of blood were already flying.

Xiahou Zuo released him. The person writhed in agony, howling and weeping.

Xiahou Zuo was a fair person. Though he was somewhat lazy, he would not let off those at the back just because he had already vented some frustration on those at the front. He went from first to last without exception.

When he was done with all of them, he set the blood-streaked spatula on the table, sat down across from Li Diudiu, and said, “Next time, handle it yourself.”

Li Diudiu shrugged and said nothing.

Xiahou Zuo turned and looked at Auntie Wu, who had brought over his dumplings, and smiled. The smile gave Auntie Wu such a fright that her shoulders visibly shuddered.

Xiahou Zuo said, “Auntie Wu, all that work tired me out — add another portion, if you would.”

Auntie Wu agreed at once. She had never witnessed anything like this in her life. Even without him speaking to her, she was already half-inclined to run as far away as possible.

Xiahou Zuo picked up a dumpling with his chopsticks, put it in his mouth, and scalded himself. He blew on it with rapid puffs, shifting the dumpling back and forth across his tongue — a great deal of work for that tongue.

Li Diudiu pushed his water cup over. Xiahou Zuo picked it up and drank a few swallows, and then finally managed to get the dumpling down.

Xiahou Zuo raised his head and looked around. Those people were still standing about watching. His brow furrowed slightly: “Still not leaving?”

Those three words hit like a general pardon. With a great clamor, the crowd turned and fled.

Li Diudiu finished all five portions of dumplings and sat waiting for Xiahou Zuo to finish eating. As Xiahou Zuo ate, he glanced around the room and found that there were still people who hadn’t left.

Those who remained were all girls. They didn’t seem to be academy disciples — it was unclear how they had gotten in. If the academy could accept female disciples, then how could the Dean’s treasured granddaughter have failed to gain entry?

Xiahou Zuo looked over at them, and they all gave a startled jump.

“You…”

Xiahou Zuo opened his mouth, then finally decided to let it go. He shook his head, sighed, and said to Li Diudiu: “If you keep going to the Yunzhai Teahouse, Gao Xining is going to lose her livelihood.”

Li Diudiu didn’t understand what he meant at first. When he finally did, he felt a small jolt of alarm. If that were really the case, wouldn’t he stop seeing Gao Xining?

“It’ll be fine,” Li Diudiu said. “She has an exclusive arrangement over the matter of my lifelong happiness. Anyone who isn’t chosen by her won’t do.”

Xiahou Zuo thought to himself that Li Diudiu was truly a complex specimen of degeneracy. Call him childish, and yet sometimes his perspective was more mature and more comprehensive than most full-grown adults. Call him mature, and then a thought like that would bubble up out of nowhere, guileless as spring water.

So in Xiahou Zuo’s eyes, Li Diudiu was a person who swung back and forth between genius and idiocy — leaping from one to the other and back again.

Xiahou Zuo lowered his voice: “I suspect there’s another soul hiding inside your body, and it’s definitely an ancient spirit.”

Li Diudiu thought about it, then smiled and said: “Is that ancient spirit’s Daoist title Changmei?”

Xiahou Zuo was taken aback, then burst out laughing.

Li Diudiu’s maturity had been cultivated by Daoist Changmei over all these years — not merely through all the books he had read, but through all the roads they had walked together. If it came to experience of the world, Xiahou Zuo might not even be Li Diudiu’s equal.

Xiahou Zuo asked, “Have you found out who your main-course instructor is?”

Li Diudiu shook his head. “Not yet.”

Xiahou Zuo said, “With your means, that’s understandable.”

Li Diudiu asked, “And have you found out?”

Xiahou Zuo said, “With my means, I just woke up.”

Li Diudiu gave a casual nod and then said, as if it were nothing, “On the way back last night, I got into a fight with Wang Heita.”

Xiahou Zuo’s eyes flew open: “What?!”

Li Diudiu reached over and pinched a dumpling from Xiahou Zuo’s plate. Xiahou Zuo rapped him across the knuckles with his chopsticks. Li Diudiu winced and pulled his hand back — but still managed to stuff the dumpling into his mouth through sheer determination and pain.

“You have no chopsticks?!”

Xiahou Zuo glared at him, then asked: “Did you win or lose?”

“A draw, more or less,” Li Diudiu said.

Xiahou Zuo asked, “He found out that the Qingyi Formation has people coming to kill him, so he tried to strike first.”

Li Diudiu nodded, then said: “Ironpillar, who do you think told Wang Heita?”

Xiahou Zuo’s expression darkened.

“Lian Gongming’s people.”

“Mm…”

Li Diudiu reached out again. Xiahou Zuo’s chopsticks rose. Li Diudiu sighed — then, seizing a moment when Xiahou Zuo wasn’t watching, snatched a dumpling and crammed it into his mouth so fast his cheeks puffed out like a hamster.

The girls who were still there watched this scene and found it rather extraordinary.

Without quite realizing it, they had quietly divided into two factions — one that watched Xiahou Zuo, and one that watched Li Diudiu.

Li Diudiu stretched his arms out wide and stood up: “Are you done eating?”

Xiahou Zuo: “What is it?”

Li Diudiu said, “I want to go check the posting board for main course assignments. I still don’t know which hall I’ve been placed in.”

Just at that moment, Liu Shengying came running in from outside, his face flushed from exertion. He spotted Li Diudiu and called out excitedly: “Li Chi! Li Chi! We’re in the same hall!”

—