The matter of Pei Ying, Pei Laosan, needed to be discussed with the other people at the academy. Why was he already wearing the academy uniform before even entering the academy? Someone must have already agreed to let him study at the academy. Only three people had this authority—Yun Ye, Li Gang, and Liu Xian. Yun Ye just wanted to ask who exactly had brought such big trouble to the academy—Li Gang or Liu Xian? He hoped desperately it wasn’t Li Gang. The old man was soft-hearted, and it was said he had a decent relationship with Pei Ji. If the old man couldn’t withstand Pei Ji’s pleading and took on this hot potato, Yun Ye would be at his wit’s end.
The academy from top to bottom was united. When the academy was established, everyone had reached a consensus—to jointly plan for the academy’s development, to jointly exhaust their efforts for the academy’s future. One person’s trouble was the trouble of all the academy’s colleagues. This was the rule from the founding days and had long since become deeply rooted in people’s hearts. No matter who took on the trouble, it would become the academy’s own affair.
If it was Liu Xian who took it on, that would be ideal. He himself was nothing more than a puppet at the academy. His dull forehead shone with the radiance of His Majesty the Emperor. With such a big head taking the brunt, Yun Ye would fearlessly face all storms and rain. History had already proven that all those who challenged His Majesty Li Er came to no good end. Although not certain, Yun Ye believed there was an eighty percent possibility that Liu Xian had done this.
He reharnessed the small carriage to Wang Cai and handed him over to Huang Shu and Xiao Ya, telling Xiao Ya to find Xinyue who was hiding behind the big tree and not coming out, and to drive the carriage slowly home by herself. Wang Cai was very well-behaved, so there was nothing to worry about.
Ying Niang’s small stall had become a small restaurant selling cold dishes and braised meat. A huge wine gourd hung in front of the shop door, proving there was wine inside the small shop. Ying Niang with her big belly continuously greeted the diners in the small shop. Her round face rippled with the radiance of happiness. To her, the academy was simply paradise—no worries about food and drink, no one bullying her, facing all these courteous scholars. What she most loved to see was scholars holding a scroll of books, ordering two small dishes, warming a pot of wine, hiding in a corner of the small shop in solitary leisure. Whenever such a person appeared, she always gave extra generous portions of the small dishes. As soon as a scholar’s teacup on the table was empty, she would diligently refill it, making eighty trips without finding it tiresome.
This greatly displeased Huang Shu, who wanted to scold Ying Niang a couple of times, telling her to properly observe women’s virtue. As a result, Ying Niang dismissed him with one sentence: “Do you still want the child in my belly to absorb more scholarly atmosphere or not?”
Once this statement came out, Huang Shu immediately had no objections. He was now gradually getting along harmoniously with the people at the academy, slowly integrating into the academy’s small circle. The steward who had looked down on him now no longer glared at him when they met, and occasionally even called him “Master Huang.” Every time he heard someone call him this, his back would unconsciously straighten up a bit. As for passing on his tomb-raiding skills to his child—he never mentioned it at all.
The academy’s teachers all had some literati’s refined rogue qualities. For instance, they liked to make rubbings of stele inscriptions, find tombs of famous people from previous dynasties, compose elegies, and reminisce about antiquity—generally they would look for Huang Shu. When it came to familiarity with these ancient tombs, no one knew them better than Huang Shu. Last time, Master Wenjie who came from Jinyang discovered the tomb site of Prince Wu’an Liu Shang from some ancient text. He and Master Jinzhu took Huang Shu and wandered around Yeyou Plain for three days. Relying on Huang Shu’s natural instinct for tomb raiding, they actually found Liu Shang’s tomb. Although it was already dilapidated and broken, if you didn’t look carefully, no one would imagine a prince was buried below.
They didn’t dig up the grave. Master Jinzhu found half a broken stele inscription and was extremely excited, saying something like the “Book of Han” was wrong about Liu Shang’s divided territory at Handan—the stele inscription had no such text at all, not even mentioning Handan. This proved the history book was wrong and couldn’t be used to teach students, lest it mislead them.
Huang Shu’s mouth was practically watering. This tomb was actually intact, without a single tomb-raiding hole. He used a Luoyang shovel and immediately found the location of the coffin. Judging from the hardness and softness of the tamped earth mixture, the coffin was very well preserved. If they dug it open, there must be a large amount of treasure inside. He told Master Wenjie this news, waiting for Master Wenjie to give the order so he could enjoy the novelty and excitement of opening a coffin in broad daylight.
Who knew that Master Wenjie would glance at Huang Shu contemptuously and order him to carry the half-broken stele inscription, without even a moment’s hesitation, heading straight back to the academy. Huang Shu’s heart itched unbearably. He kept turning back to look at the receding Liu Shang tomb, sighing endlessly in his heart. A group of people searched for several days, spending several strings of cash, all for half a rotten stele inscription? The good stuff was all buried in the ground!
His hands itched terribly. He tossed and turned unable to sleep, provoking Ying Niang into a good bout of complaining, saying he had bumped into her big belly and wasn’t afraid something would happen to the child. Mentioning the child, Huang Shu’s thoughts of getting rich immediately vanished. Stroking Ying Niang’s big belly, feeling his child wriggling inside, Huang Shu shook his head. At this moment, let alone Liu Shang’s tomb—even the Emperor’s tomb couldn’t arouse half a bit of his interest.
The academy had changed a great deal. For instance, the academy’s main gate in front of Yun Ye—in addition to being tall and magnificent, it also carried a trace of eerie atmosphere. Why say this? The reason was that Yun Ye had led Pei Ying through the gate three times, and each time, after passing through some corridors, they ended up back outside the gate. Entering from the left door, they would inevitably exit from the right door. Entering from the right and wandering around for quite a while, they would inevitably exit from the left. The classrooms behind were clearly not far from the main gate, yet they just couldn’t get through. What was the reason?
Pei Ying was already trembling. He believed he had committed evil deeds and that Heaven wouldn’t forgive him, wouldn’t let him take refuge at the academy. He knelt there praying to Heaven, begging for forgiveness. Yun Ye grabbed Pei Ying and lifted him up, looking him eye to eye and saying: “Once you enter the academy, don’t believe in any demons or ghosts, and don’t believe in any deities. Otherwise, just based on this one point, no matter what happens to you, I’ll immediately expel you from the academy. For a scholar who studies the ultimate principles of Heaven and Earth to believe in these illusory things is a disgrace to my academy. What we’re facing now is just a small labyrinth. In the future, we’ll encounter even more complex things. What will you do then? Kneel down and beg every time?”
Tossing aside Pei Ying who had gone soft as mud, Yun Ye put his hands behind his back and carefully examined the main gate and the corridor behind it. Needless to say, it must be that old thing Gongshu Mu playing tricks. First, to show off the Gongshu family’s powerful mechanism techniques, to let the teachers at the academy take a look and prove he didn’t have an undeserved reputation. Second, to raise the Gongshu family’s status at the academy, to prove that his family’s knowledge was useful, very useful. For this kind of benign competition, Yun Ye welcomed it with open arms and legs. Bring out your real skills, blind others’ eyes, make everyone feel amazed. The more of this kind of showing off at the academy, the better. Yun Ye didn’t mind providing convenience in all aspects.
Yesterday, these damned people ate and drank heartily at his home, yet not a single person mentioned this matter even once—Old Li Gang, Yushan, Yuanzhang, Lishi, and Zhao Yanling. These people’s consciences had gone completely bad. Eating my food, using my things, and now ganging up to tease me. These disrespectful old fellows were probably all hiding now waiting to see me make a fool of myself. Once I break through your crappy contraptions, we’ll see what expressions you have then. Just some illusions, combined with bodily disorientation, could create such a setup. The Gongshu family was truly formidable.
This was the main gate. The so-called gate was a passage for people to enter and exit. What was the most important function of a passage? Convenience—convenience for people to enter and exit. If the passage was designed too complexly, it would lose the original intention of convenience. The Gongshu family was a construction clan—they couldn’t fail to understand this principle. In this world, whether now or in the future, all things must follow certain rules, namely, putting people first. All things and matters must follow this point; otherwise, these newly appearing things would have no use at all.
Yun Ye walked in through the left door, not forgetting to push Pei Ying in front. Where there was a labyrinth, there would inevitably be mechanisms. This guy was wearing armor and had thick skin—most suitable for blocking mechanisms. He estimated the Gongshu family wouldn’t use mechanisms like crossbow bolts, thousand-pound gates, or rolling stones on their own people, but cold water and white powder probably wouldn’t be lacking. If Li Tai participated, even feces and urine were possible. Such a bastard student needed to be severely criticized next time.
Pei Ying’s legs were terribly weak, especially with Yun Ye’s appearance of being ready to run at the first sign of trouble, which made him even more nervous. He hugged the door frame and wouldn’t go in.
“You had the guts to turn someone into a eunuch, yet you don’t have the guts to break through a labyrinth? Nobody’s going to die. If you can’t enter the main gate, when the Dou family comes knocking, I won’t even be able to protect you. Think it through—enter or not? Make a decision quickly. The Dou family’s people are arriving soon.”
Pei Ying, also seventeen years old, was frightened to tears. He wasn’t afraid of knives—he’d been on the battlefield several times. But he feared unknown things, especially things like ghosts and spirits. This made him tremble from his very bones, like a warrior who killed without blinking on the battlefield yet feared a pond. The reason was simply that he couldn’t swim and knew water could drown him, thus producing tremendous fear.
After much coaxing and persuading, Pei Ying was finally pushed through the gate by Yun Ye with an attitude of being ready to sacrifice himself at any moment.
The path in front of the main gate must be straight; otherwise, it would ruin the feng shui. No family had a gate that turned as soon as you entered—that would be laughed at to death. At most, there would be a spirit wall. Inside the academy’s current main gate was an open space, not large. The spirit wall was right in front, with Confucius’s wise saying written on it: “When three people walk together, one of them must be my teacher.” He didn’t know who had it written there. It would be better to write “Unity, tension, seriousness, and liveliness”—that would roll off the tongue better. This needed to be changed.
Pei Ying habitually walked to the left because the road surface was slightly sloped, and walking left would be comfortable. Looking at the distant buildings, making a comparison, Yun Ye pulled out a glass bead. This seemed to be something from Li Chengqian’s belt. How did it end up in his pocket? Never mind—once it’s in my pocket, it’s my thing. When he saw Li Chengqian again, he absolutely couldn’t admit it. He’d say he’d never seen it. Otherwise, his things wouldn’t be so easy to take next time.
He placed the bead on the ground. Under Pei Ying’s terrified gaze, the bead rolled uphill by itself…