Yun Ye’s smile was gentle, and his words spoken softly. Though his hands kept moving around on Li You’s chest and blood flowed down like a waterfall, he still patiently explained to Li Yin.
“Xiao You’s heart has been blocked by some dirty things. He can’t reopen his mind on his own. The only method is to give him a new heart. Xiao Yin, look—this is a sheep’s heart, from a big ram no less. Proud and brave, and very protective of its flock. It’s perfect to give to Xiao You. Don’t tell Xiao You—he’ll gradually become a good child from now on and will surely become a great prince in the future.”
Li Yin watched helplessly as a person in white brought over a platter with what was truly a fist-sized heart covered in fresh blood. Yun Ye grabbed that heart and placed it on Li You’s body. With a forceful pull of his hand, he yanked out Li You’s heart—it was blackish and extremely ugly. Li Yin desperately shut his eyes, not daring to look anymore. His sweat flowed like a stream.
After a long moment of silence, he opened his eyes slightly into a crack, only to be frightened into a long stream of urine. Yun Ye was staring at him face to face. Li You had already disappeared—perhaps he was already dead.
“Brother Ye, I promise I’ll study hard from now on and never cause trouble again. Please don’t change my heart, okay? I swear it.” Li Yin hastily made vows and oaths, saying he would definitely reform.
Yun Ye frowned as if he didn’t believe him. “How about I chop off my finger to swear it!” Li Yin quickly raised the stakes.
Only then did Yun Ye’s expression improve somewhat. He said to the person in white behind him, “Since Xiao Yin has reformed, we won’t go through all that trouble. Besides, changing hearts always has some downsides. For instance, Xiao You will prefer eating grass recently. Give him more vegetables and don’t let him go to grassy areas. Having a prince crawling on the ground gnawing grass would be bad for His Majesty’s reputation if word got out. Eat more vegetables for the next two months. Whatever you do, don’t let him come into contact with flocks of sheep—he might learn to bleat like one.”
Li Yin’s eyes bulged enormously. A terrifying scene of Li You crawling on the grass gnawing had already appeared in his mind. After all, what was in his chest wasn’t a human heart but a big sheep’s heart. If sheep don’t eat grass, what would they eat?
They took Li Yin down from the rack. The person in white washed his body with cold water and dressed him in the academy’s uniform. Yun Ye stepped back and said to the person in white, “Xiao Yin has indeed grown up. The academy uniform fits him well. Tomorrow morning I’ll take him to see the consort.”
Li Yin obediently let Yun Ye lead him by the hand out of that gloomy, terrifying dungeon and accompanied him to the dormitory the academy had assigned him. Looking up at the starry sky, he had the feeling of living two lifetimes.
Li You was already in the dormitory, sitting on his bed in a daze, staring straight at the white wall without saying a word. Li Yin suddenly felt he was very unfamiliar. Behind his back, an old ram’s head always seemed to emerge, grinning at him.
“Xiao You, what are you spacing out for? It’s dinner time now. Why aren’t you going to eat?” When Yun Ye’s voice sounded, Li You seemed startled and quickly jumped down from the bed to stand obediently on the floor.
The academy’s sunset was worth seeing. Standing on the third floor office area overlooking the green mountains, watching hundreds of birds returning to the forest—it had its own unique scenery. Yin Fei had just visited Master Li Gang, wanting to plead for her son. Thirty strokes of the rod—a twelve-year-old child couldn’t endure it.
She was severely scolded about how loving mothers often spoil their children. Yin Fei humbly accepted the teaching. Acting somewhat spoiled, she begged Li Gang to forgive Li You once. Finally, the old master relented.
“Li You and Li Yin were not actually punished. This is in consideration of their young age and the fact that they haven’t officially entered the academy yet. So Yun Ye said it wasn’t appropriate to deal with them using the academy’s rules for now. If there’s a next time, they definitely won’t be let off lightly.”
After speaking, he glanced at the eunuch behind Yin Fei and added, “The academy is a place of righteousness and honor. How can eunuchs be allowed to come and go? In the future, if you want to attend classes or visit, bringing palace maids is sufficient. The academy does not permit eunuchs to enter.”
The Grand Tutor’s authority made the eunuch bow his head nearly to the ground. Ever since Wu She had schemed against Yun Ye last time, the fiery-tempered Li Gang had issued this order, which was written into the school regulations.
Taking leave of Li Gang and standing on the balcony viewing the scenery, Yin Fei immediately spotted her son. He was very well-behaved. Yun Ye was holding one in each hand, walking toward a tall building. The three seemed to be talking. Seeing her son looking so obediently receptive to instruction, Yin Fei felt a wave of relief in her heart. How could she not know her son’s temperament? Beating eunuchs, molesting palace maids—last time, if she hadn’t discovered it early, a scandal would have spread. Now it was good. Seeing him being so obedient at the academy, Yin Fei was immensely impressed by the teacher’s methods of educating people.
“Master Xu, where are Master Yun taking Xiao You and Xiao Yin?” Yin Fei was extremely curious about everything at the academy.
Xu Jingzong, who was accompanying Yin Fei and introducing the academy’s environment, bowed and answered, “Your Highness, it’s dinner time now. Marquis Yun is taking the two princes to the dining hall for their meal. That tall building is the academy’s dining hall. Every mealtime, it’s crowded with people, extremely lively. Currently, the academy has over eight hundred students. It can be called the largest academy in our Great Tang. Once they finish eating, this humble official will invite Your Highness to tour the dining hall.”
“Over eight hundred people eating together? That must be extremely interesting.” Yin Fei wanted to go see right now, but she also felt it wasn’t appropriate.
“More than eight hundred people, Your Highness! You’ve forgotten—there are also over a hundred teachers and over a hundred academy servants. Now the guards cook separately; otherwise, there would be over a thousand people dining at the same time. The scene is spectacular.”
Having spent a long time at the academy, the ingratiating air that used to emanate from Xu Jingzong’s very bones had diminished considerably. He liked his current way of speaking.
Yun Ye and the two princes arrived at the dining hall. By this time, there were already far fewer people. The sharp-eyed Li You and Li Yin still discovered many familiar faces—their three young uncles, plus a large group of uncle and brother relatives. Each held a meal tray with chopsticks in their mouths, queuing at a small window waiting to receive food. When had they learned to get their own food? Before, hadn’t palace maids always brought the food to their tables for them to eat? That Li Yuanqing who just turned ten—when they’d met last year, he still needed palace maids to feed him. How was he now holding a big plate of food, sitting at a large table eating so skillfully? And Li Yuanming never ate tofu before, but now he scooped a big spoonful into his mouth, eating it with such relish.
“Xiao You, Xiao Yin, you two brothers came too! Excellent! Last time I told you the palace was boring beyond belief and asked you to come out, but you refused. How about it—now you have to come whether you want to or not. Be careful of the rod!”
The fourteen-year-old Li Yuanjia was still as annoying as ever. Yun Ye snorted, and Li Yuanjia shrank his neck and ran off with his meal tray.
“He probably had his heart changed too.” Li Yin looked suspiciously at the departing Li Yuanjia, silently pondering. The palace bully had become so docile now—there must be something fishy. But what creature’s heart had he been given? Just now he’d seen him eating meat, so it wasn’t a sheep’s heart. So timid—could it be a fox’s heart? Li Yin felt he had grasped the academy’s darkest secret.
Without queuing with those people, Yun Ye brought out three meal trays from another window labeled “Teachers,” handing one to Li You, one to Li Yin, and keeping one for himself. He sat at the huge long table and began eating.
Li Yin scooped up a spoonful of rice with his spoon, but his eyes were fixed on Li You. Sure enough, Li You didn’t touch the greasy meat chunks at all but picked up the vegetables on his tray and ate them with relish. It was over—the sheep’s heart was taking effect.
To verify whether his own heart had been changed, Li Yin stuffed a big piece of fatty meat in his mouth and chewed hard. It was delicious—the meat wasn’t greasy at all, soft and very tasty. He involuntarily ate a few more bites.
Yun Ye’s stomach was cramping from trying not to laugh, but his face showed no emotion. Several times he almost fed rice into his nose. Li Yin’s performance was too funny—he actually truly believed in such nonsense as heart transplantation. Li You couldn’t help eating vegetables now—Sun Simiao’s calming pills, six in a row—it would be strange if he could eat meat.
Those two sheep hearts should now be in Liu Xian’s stomach. Sheep hearts made an excellent accompaniment to wine.
As soon as he’d received Li Er’s notice, Yun Ye’s scalp had gone numb. These were two famously recorded bastards from the history books. One was denounced by his own father as: “Birds and beasts can be tamed and trained by humans; iron and stone can be chiseled and forged into square or round vessels. But as for Yin, is he not even as good as birds, beasts, iron, and stone?!” The other hunted without restraint, making life unbearable for the people of his Qi Province fiefdom, and in the end even killed his own teacher Quan Wanji. Li Er sending these two fellows here was purely the greatest test for the academy.
Conventional teaching methods clearly wouldn’t work—only thunderous measures would do. The figure of Huang Shu kept floating before Yun Ye’s eyes. Ever since being frightened by Yun Ye and humiliated by Li Tai, this fellow had truly become a good family man. Unless the academy assigned him a task, he absolutely wouldn’t leave home. He loved from the bottom of his heart the stepdaughter Ying Niang had brought along, to say nothing of his own ugly son. Now no one at the academy mentioned his grave-robbing past anymore. When they met him, they all politely called him Master Huang. Huang Shu treasured this title extremely, working recklessly hard. When taking students out, he always did the dangerous work himself and treated students as well as could be. He just wanted to hear them call him Master Huang more often.
Could Li You and Li Yin be dealt with the same way? He’d submitted a secret memorial to the Emperor saying he wanted to use some new educational methods that might be somewhat intense, asking whether the Emperor would permit it. The memorial sent in the morning received a reply in the afternoon: as long as it didn’t harm their lives, the academy could deal with them as it saw fit.
With Li Er’s consent, even Liu Xian felt sorrow for the two young masters. Falling into Yun Ye’s hands, being played to death was inevitable—not being played to death would be lucky. When arranging the scene, his heart had tightened, not knowing if these two tyrannical little fellows could endure this ordeal.
Mischievous boys always had some unexpected qualities. Very brave—Li Yin hadn’t fainted as Yun Ye had envisioned but had watched the entire process with wide-open eyes. This made Yun Ye discover one of his few merits: strong willpower, or perhaps extremely thick nerves. He needed guidance, to properly use his talents. Who says a stubborn stone can’t become useful?