“Ye Zi, I suddenly think we should report the situation here to officials from the City Patrol Bureau. What do you think?” Li Tai asked Yun Ye while looking at the jeweled and precious ornaments in the plate held by Hypatia’s personal maid.
“Let’s go. I still need to change clothes. Stop wasting your energy. Even if you told the Imperial Clan Court it would be useless. Those things will definitely turn into money. It looks like if not a thousand strings of cash, it’s close. If Little Ke were here, he absolutely wouldn’t talk nonsense like you. You don’t understand commercial matters, so stop making a fool of yourself.”
“Me, making a fool of myself? How is that possible? Look at those things—hardly any of them are allowed to be privately sold. If she dares take them out to sell, she’ll definitely be arrested. The head of the censorate patrol is Wei Zheng—he won’t show favoritism.”
Yun Ye wrapped the white robe more tightly around himself. Hypatia was coming over. Seeing Li Tai still acting unrelenting, he sighed and said: “These women’s donations will be auctioned in a few days. The buyers? Still these same women. Giving money directly to a scholar is too unseemly. When the time comes and Hypatia takes these things out to sell, it’ll be easy to handle. The Zhang family’s things will still be the Zhang family’s, the Li family’s things will still be the Li family’s. Unless two women have agreed to exchange jewelry, only then will they transfer to each other. Just look at what’s being donated—many are family heirlooms. If they can’t get them back, these women probably won’t even be able to return home. This way is much better—their own treasures are shown to others, they’ve shown off enough, their status and position have been displayed, and finally they spend some money to buy back their own things. They have both face and substance, and gain the good reputation of supporting scholarly research. Do you think everyone’s a fool? That Five Phoenix Facing the Sun golden hair ornament valued at a thousand strings of cash would have people fighting to buy it. Which family would be so prodigal as to give such a thing away?”
Li Tai scratched the back of his head and looked at his brother. Seeing Li Chengqian’s expression of being unable to help, he could only hang his head and walk out with Yun Ye, not planning to look at Hypatia’s arrogant face.
Yun Ye returned to his office, found a long shirt to put on, and only then felt somewhat better. He poured two cups of cold tea for Li Chengqian and Li Tai. Watching the blazing sun about to set, he instructed servants to bring some food for the three of them.
Li Chengqian picked up the two hemispheres from under Yun Ye’s desk and constantly studied them, alternately closing and opening them. Yun Ye wanted to explain, but he shook his head in refusal, preparing to solve the mystery himself.
“Ye Zi, that stinking woman is getting rich. If she sets the prices sky-high, won’t she become wealthy overnight?”
“Why are you still thinking about this? She’d be tired of living to do that. If she really did that, she couldn’t stay in Chang’an even one day. Being human requires some bottom line. Let me tell you, no matter what people donate, when the time comes the starting bid price will uniformly be one string of cash. If you want to donate more, bid more. If you don’t want to donate more, bid one string of cash. However, if you do that, that woman will die of shame tomorrow by suicide. In short, the money Hypatia receives this time will absolutely be no less than a thousand strings of cash—already a very large sum.”
Li Tai irritably kept turning Yun Ye’s hourglass on the desk over and over. Suddenly he slapped his thigh and said excitedly to Yun Ye: “Tonight I’ll dispatch guards to steal these things from her. When she discovers the things are gone, tomorrow she’ll come crying and begging us to help her find them back. Then won’t we be able to knead and squeeze her however we want?”
“Ah, Qing Que, can you settle down for a while? That woman would have to be stupid to put these things where she lives. The Academy has extremely secure places, like that forest maze. At night is precisely the good time for all those chaotic things to come out foraging. Right now I don’t even know what things are inside. A few days ago I went in to check on the jade tablet I hid. In just a short time I encountered two snakes, seven or eight large spiders, and very long centipedes. The ant nests are now nearly as tall as a person—your father even took away quite a few. The wasp nests on the treetops hang from branches like they’re covered with fruit. The buzzing sound makes my scalp tingle. The Academy’s most important things are all placed there, cabinet after cabinet, all iron cabinets. It’s said to be a new invention from the Gongshu family. The old man has been working on this thing for two years. Looks like there are results. Seeing all those densely packed numbers on top, they’re probably all password-protected. Who could take them out?”
Li Tai lay in his chair without making a sound. He knew the situation there best. The place with the most of those iron cabinets wasn’t the Academy but the palace, and his jurisdiction, the Wude Hall, had the most. Without knowing the password, even fooling around for a day might not guess correctly. To enter the Academy’s maze forest, one had to wear clothes like an iron can, wear iron gloves, and most critically, apply secretions from the ant queen on one’s feet. Otherwise, even if you went in, it was a dead end. He could go in without problem, but if he did this, even Li Tai himself felt he’d be detestable.
Li Chengqian finally successfully fitted the two hemispheres together, used the small bellows nearby to forcefully pump out the air, and couldn’t pull them apart with all his strength. Opening the air valve, the iron ball immediately fell to the ground in two halves. Then fitting them together again, he played with great enjoyment.
The food was delivered—Hong Cheng personally delivered it. Hearing that the Crown Prince and Prince of Wei wanted to eat at the Academy, he stared without blinking at the cook preparing it, and personally brought it over. Of course, before this, of the three portions of food, he had scooped out a little from each portion to taste before daring to bring it over.
The food was very simple, the same as what other Academy students ate. Each person had one portion of rice with toppings—Yun Ye’s was green pepper and shredded pork, Li Tai’s was potato braised pork, Li Chengqian’s was braised spareribs with broth. Each person had one bowl of soup and half a sweet melon—that was all. The two Li brothers were quite accustomed to this kind of food. After washing their hands, they sat at the table, chopsticks in one hand and spoon in the other, and began eating.
Hong Cheng, standing by serving them, continuously reported Hypatia’s whereabouts during gaps in their eating: “Your Highness, Master Hypatia wore iron armor clothes and went to the maze forest. She stayed inside for about a meal’s time. Now she’s inviting those women to dine in the Academy teachers’ dining hall. What we’re eating is exactly the same—no one is special, no exceptions. Master Li Gang was also invited, but the old gentleman insisted on paying for his own meal before eating.”
“Of course. The old gentleman wouldn’t allow that woman to abuse her position for personal gain, using the Academy’s money and grain to gain benefits for herself.”
“That’s not it, Your Highness. The old gentleman said Master Hypatia is researching scholarship, and the people invited are all Academy guests, so he’s treating all outsiders to a meal. Even the servants’ meals he’s treating, and they’re all exactly the same. Some women worried that not distinguishing status like this wasn’t quite proper. The old gentleman said that at the Academy, even when His Majesty came before, he ate these same things. The Academy has no particular emphasis on status. As long as they’re people of our Great Tang, when they come in, all are treated equally.”
Yun Ye and Li Chengqian secretly laughed. Li Tai’s heart hadn’t been comfortable from the time he arrived at the Academy until now. Previously he most loved the Academy’s atmosphere—taking a scroll, casually finding a lawn to lie down on, flipping through a few pages, taking a nap, enjoying the cool breeze, and half a day would pass. If he had interest, he’d go to the ball field and kick the ball around a few times. His mind had no troublesome matters at all. As happy as he wanted to be, he could be. He viewed the Academy as a resting place for his soul. Ever since that haunting woman came, the good days were over.
“Ye Zi, I’ll hurry to prepare the experiment. When the time comes, I’ll invite all the meritorious families of Chang’an to come, let them open their eyes, and by the way know that I, Li Tai, am absolutely not gaining a false reputation.”
Yun Ye and Li Chengqian buried their heads shoveling rice into their mouths, only each extending a thumb to show support. Li Tai, seeing these two acting completely unconcerned, could only lower his head and begin eating.
The ice-cold fermented glutinous rice soup went down, and the sweat that had just risen made his whole body uncomfortably sticky. In the height of summer, who would go to Huang Shu’s bathhouse to find discomfort? Having finally seen the three great nobles come over, before Huang Shu could feel happy, he saw the three nobles carrying their wooden basins, wearing shorts, and going down into the river. He had to go serve them—a sought-after good opportunity.
“Huang Shu, in a few days I’ll just call you Fat Pig. Look at you now—where’s even half a trace of Huang Shu’s shadow? Your belly’s sticking out, your butt is like his mother’s millstone. Can you still dig holes?”
“Your Highness, you can’t blame this on me. Nowadays the country is peaceful and the people are content. I don’t dare do my old trade, and work at the Academy has become easier too. There aren’t many things for me to do. If I didn’t get fat, that would be wrong of me. Try this—this is soap made by my daughter. Rub it on your body and it’s slippery and smooth. After washing once, your whole body feels comfortable.”
Yun Ye took it and looked at it. What was this? Just adding some inferior perfume to soap. However, it seemed something else was added too. Applying it on the body was indeed refreshing. Smelling it carefully, he discovered it was mint.
“Huang Shu, where did you get this thing? I remember Guanzhong doesn’t have this.”
“Marquis, you’re a noble person—how would you recognize this thing? My ancestral home is in Longxi. This is wild mint from the mountains. Last year when I went to pay respects at the graves, I saw this stuff growing all over the grave mounds, so I brought some back in flower pots. Who knew that by this year, it had spread into quite a large patch. Country folk all call it wild mint. My daughter liked this cool flavor, so she ground it up and added it to the soap. The effect is pretty good. Quite a few nobles at the Academy like it. Especially Master Hypatia—she bought back a lot. After you finish washing, I’ll wrap up some for all three nobles. It’s a cheap thing, but after washing with it, you don’t get prickly heat on your body. It’s best for children to use.”
Li Tai took it and vigorously worked up lather on his towel, then wiped it all over his body with the towel. He said to Li Chengqian with surprise: “Elder Brother, this thing is really quite good. Little Elephant would definitely benefit from using it. Elephant is plump and chubby with wrinkles all over. Bathing with this thing is indeed good.”