The current political situation in the court had been discussed to some extent by their husbands with the ladies of various mansions. They knew that although the ministers and prime minister seemed harmonious on the surface, underneath they were engaged in quite fierce power struggles. Now that Wei and Liang were not at peace with war looming, the Grand Marshal naturally appeared to hold an exalted position with overwhelming influence in the court. After all, without this person, it wouldn’t be so easy for Great Wei to find another figure who could rival Great Liang’s Qi Ying. However, although Gu Juhan was formidable, Prime Minister Zou was no pushover either. Since the Son of Heaven was in his prime and trusted the Zou clan extremely due to the Empress, and after the Son of Heaven’s passing, the successor Gao Jing had half Zou bloodline, in the long run, the Zou clan was still more advantageous.
Thus, once Lady Zhuang arrived, the ladies could no longer gather around Shen Xiling alone to curry favor. They all imperceptibly turned to align themselves under Lady Zhuang’s banner, but no matter how quick their movements, they couldn’t match Lady Pingjing, who had never gathered around Shen Xiling in the first place.
As soon as Lady Zhuang had taken her seat, Lady Pingjing struck up a conversation with her. After exchanging greetings, she praised the lady’s good complexion, then turned to ask whether Prime Minister Zou and the two young masters had also come today.
Lady Zhuang smiled: “The Prime Minister is too busy with official duties to spare time, and Chun’er stayed home to help his father. Today only Xian’er came.”
Lady Pingjing smiled back: “The Prime Minister and the eldest young master have labored for state affairs. It’s truly regrettable that they couldn’t spare time today. Fortunately, the second young master came, which will allow the Great Liang people to properly observe the scholarship of our Great Wei aristocratic young masters.”
“Please don’t say such things,” Lady Zhuang smiled and waved her hand. “You know my Xian’er’s temperament—he most dislikes showing himself in public. Originally he didn’t want to come today either, but Master Lu insisted he come, so he did. I only hope he can gain more experience of the world.”
“How can the lady be so modest,” Lady Pingjing laughed. “Given the second young master’s scholarship, he will surely make a brilliant showing today and serve as a model for the students of our dynasty…”
Just as she was halfway through her flattery, they saw a young servant hurriedly cross through the many corridors and bridges from the front courtyard into the back courtyard, announcing to the ladies and misses in the back courtyard that the Great Liang envoy had arrived and was now seated.
This was where Lady Zhong’s capability showed. She knew that today the ladies’ minds were no longer on drinking tea—they only wanted to catch a glimpse of Qi Jingchen’s true appearance. Unfortunately, they were blocked by this courtyard and couldn’t fulfill their wish, so she thoughtfully had young servants report everything happening in the front courtyard to the back courtyard at all times to console the ladies’ curiosity.
Such considerate arrangements were indeed well received. The ladies all stopped their small talk and compliments and began listening to the movements in the front courtyard while drinking tea. Amidst all the commotion, naturally no one noticed that when that young servant came in to announce, the usually quiet and aloof Duke’s wife had accidentally knocked over a teacup.
The servants came and went very quickly—four young servants taking turns back and forth. However, the men’s high-minded discussions were quite complex, especially the discussions of classics and metaphysics with many profound topics. The young servants listened as if lost in clouds and mist, really unable to memorize every word and sentence. Fortunately, the ladies didn’t care about this either, only asking those several young servants: What kind of appearance did the Great Liang envoy lord actually have?
The several young servants were all asked this question repeatedly, but when answering, they all seemed somewhat troubled. One answered “extremely handsome,” another said “couldn’t be better looking,” one with higher abilities answered “noble bearing,” and the last one with even higher abilities answered “like orchids and jade trees.”
These few brief sentences actually explained nothing clearly, yet they stirred the ladies’ hearts to feel soft and itchy, wishing they could follow these young servants and barge into the front courtyard to examine that Qi Jingchen thoroughly.
They knew these young boys were useless and only wanted to ask one definitive question: compared to Duke Yanguo’s appearance, which of the two—that Qi Jingchen of Great Liang or Duke Yanguo—looked better? However, with the Duke’s wife sitting properly in the gathering, such a perfect standard of comparison could only be wasted, truly making the ladies feel deeply regretful.
Since these young servants couldn’t clearly describe Qi Ying’s appearance after going back and forth, the ladies had to turn to listening to other matters. The servants said that the lords had already begun feasting, with much lively toasting and drinking at the table. Later, several scholars from the Imperial Academy took the lead, wanting to compete in scholarship with that Qi Jingchen, and now they had begun debating literature.
The young servant relayed: “The Great Liang envoy said, ‘Ying is but a junior, how dare I debate literature with the masters,’ and the scholars said that there were also many talented young men of Great Wei present today. If they could debate literature with the envoy, it would surely be beneficial, asking the envoy not to decline under any circumstances.”
A young lady pressed: “How did he respond to that?”
The young servant replied: “The envoy said, ‘It would be disrespectful for Ying to refuse.'”
These few sparse words actually allowed the ladies to visualize a Jiangzuo famous scholar before their eyes, making them even more eager for what would follow.
Finally they waited for a servant to return, saying that Young Master Wu Zhen from the Grand Astrologer’s family was the first to begin debating literature with Qi Ying. After a while, another young servant came in saying that Young Master Wu had lost.
The ladies were very surprised, because the Grand Astrologer’s son was also considered accomplished. Although he couldn’t compare to the famous reputation of the Zou family’s second son, he still had considerable literary fame. For him to lose so quickly was truly astonishing.
“How did he lose?”
The servant answered: “The envoy lord said, ‘Young Master Wu has read the Great Learning solidly, but his commentaries are somewhat unfamiliar,’ then discussed many versions of annotations with the scholars in questions and answers, and the scholars said Young Master Wu had lost.”
The ladies had neither read the Great Learning nor knew what commentaries and annotations were. They only knew that Qi Jingchen had won, which deeply satisfied them, feeling that the famous Jiangzuo minister in the rumors was indeed worthy of his reputation. Later, the servants returned several more times successively, all about different young masters debating literature with that Qi Jingchen, but unfortunately they all lost one by one. Hearing this, the ladies became increasingly admiring.
However, admiring though they were, they were Wei people after all. Watching their own people lose so frequently, after many times it really didn’t feel good. Even though they admired that Qi Jingchen, they also hoped someone from Wei could dampen his sharp edge.
After waiting and waiting with great difficulty, they finally waited for the Prime Minister’s second son to enter the field.
They placed great hopes on this young master, after all, he could be considered outstanding among the young scholars of Wei. If he also lost to Qi Ying, probably only the scholars themselves taking the field personally would have a chance of winning.
The ladies waited eagerly, only hating that the servants came too slowly. They waited for such a very long time before seeing someone return to report, saying: “The second young master Zou debated with the envoy lord for a long time without clear victory or defeat. The questions the envoy asked, the second young master Zou could all answer, so the envoy praised his solid scholarship.”
“Does this mean the second young master Zou won?”
The young servant couldn’t answer, then they heard hurried running sounds, and another young servant came to answer: “The envoy said that an essay the second young master Zou cited when making his argument was a forgery. The second young master Zou couldn’t answer, Master Lu was very angry and has personally begun debating with the envoy lord.”
Upon hearing this, the ladies naturally exclaimed in surprise.
Although they didn’t understand the rules for men in such situations, they knew that someone of Master Lu’s seniority shouldn’t personally enter the field, and his actually rolling up his sleeves and going down showed some loss of composure.
Looking carefully, the ladies saw that after the servant said “the second young master Zou couldn’t answer,” Lady Zhuang’s complexion became somewhat unsightly, and they knew that although this lady said her son was not talented, she actually couldn’t bear to see him lose to others. Thus, during this long time waiting for the servant’s report, they couldn’t help but say some words to console Lady Zhuang’s heart.
The Grand Astrologer’s wife took the lead in starting the conversation. Since her own son was the first to lose, she had been holding back her anger for a while. Now she finally caught the opportunity and quickly said: “The lady needn’t worry. The second young master’s talent is there for all to see. Even if he suffered a temporary setback, it’s just bad luck. Moreover, the second young master hasn’t even reached twenty yet, while that Qi Jingchen is nearly thirty. Even if he won, there’s nothing worth boasting about—it’s just using age to bully youth.”
Hearing these words, the ladies privately felt it wasn’t quite fair. Although that Qi Jingchen was older than the second young master Zou, he had been in office for more than ten years and had long passed the time for secluded study and research of literature, while the second young master was still a candidate for examination—studying was precisely his profession. To lose to someone else in his own profession really couldn’t be called being “bullied by age” by Qi Jingchen. Furthermore, even if it were using age to bully youth, as the challenging party, this second young master Zou should be willing to accept defeat without complaint.
However, such views naturally couldn’t be spoken aloud, as that would offend both the Grand Astrologer’s wife and Lady Zhuang, which was absolutely unacceptable. So they all followed along with these words, saying that Qi Ying was using age to bully youth and wasn’t very honorable.
Unexpectedly, at this moment they heard the Duke’s wife give a light laugh and say indifferently: “Using age to bully youth? Master Lu is seventy-three this year. His personally debating with the envoy—wouldn’t that be even more using age to bully youth?”
Everyone turned to look at the sound, seeing that the incomparably beautiful Duke’s wife was languidly half-reclining on the soft seat, holding a small golden cup filled with fruit wine, seemingly somewhat tipsy, her beautiful eyes half-closed, beautiful beyond words.
She was not only beautiful beyond words, but the words she spoke also left people speechless. However, though these words were accurate, being so unrestrained was like a slap across the Grand Astrologer’s wife’s face, while also leaving some aftershock on the faces of the other ladies, making everyone’s face somewhat uncomfortable.
While feeling their faces sting, everyone also felt strange: This merchant woman had always rarely attended gatherings, and even when she did attend, she seldom spoke, let alone slapping people’s faces so sharply as this. Why had she broken precedent today?
Her slap was naturally satisfying, but it was extremely hard for the Grand Astrologer’s wife to bear. She also had some anger rise to her head and actually retorted: “The lady speaks like this—could it be because you yourself are from Great Liang that you’re taking Great Liang’s side?”
Upon hearing this, everyone was secretly startled, thinking that this Grand Astrologer’s wife was truly an extraordinary woman, actually daring to make trouble for the Duke’s wife—who didn’t know that Gu Juhan loved his wife like his life? If he found out, wouldn’t the Grand Astrologer be forced to request retirement?
Then they heard the Duke’s wife say in a cold and stern voice: “In matters of scholarship, how can there be a division between Wei and Liang? Speaking as you do, lady, is truly bringing shame to Wei.”
This sentence was very severe, but even more severe was her expression. She was from merchant origins, and although the nobles of Shangjing City didn’t say so openly, privately they all looked down on her somewhat: So what if she married up and gained favor? Wasn’t she still someone of lowly merchant status? But now when she spoke these words, her demeanor was extremely dignified. Even the most favored princesses of today might not have such presence as she had at this moment.
The Grand Astrologer’s wife was indeed intimidated, lowering her head and unable to speak. The scene froze for a moment. Lady Zhong saw the situation was wrong and was about to play peacemaker and smooth things over when they heard a young servant running back with hurried footsteps, saying breathlessly: “Master Lu debated literature with the envoy lord. The two discussed the authenticity of several lost works in detail, studying together for a long time. Master Lu said the envoy lord has true scholarship, and that Jiangzuo’s scholarly atmosphere is broad and open, truly beyond what Great Wei can match.”