A night of heavy rain washed away the summer heat. By morning, the rain was still falling in a steady patter. Yun Ye hadn’t slept all night, pacing endlessly under the eaves. Just as he’d arrived at Na Rimu’s room last night, she had begun experiencing labor pains. This pain had continued throughout the entire night, and only by morning did the midwife say that the Second Madam was ready to give birth.
The ginseng soup had been prepared long ago. Sun Simiao had checked it twice and said there was no problem. Xinyue held her child and kept a wide distance from Yun Ye with a furtive manner. She knew her husband would be in an irritable state at a time like this, so it was better to stay far away. When she herself had given birth, even while in excruciating pain, she could sense her husband’s anxiety and restlessness. The situation now was presumably the same.
Girls from the grasslands were tougher. Na Rimu didn’t scream loudly but only moaned softly. This time, no matter what, the midwife wouldn’t allow Yun Ye to enter the delivery room again. Seeing that Yun Ye seemed intent on rushing in, Xinyue couldn’t worry about anything else and quickly grabbed him, begging him not to be so stubborn. Last time, just because he’d entered the delivery room and been tainted by inauspicious energy, the child hadn’t even reached a full month before being kidnapped by Dou Yanshan. If something went wrong again this time, the whole family wouldn’t survive.
The sensible Na Rimu must have heard the dispute at the door. She no longer made pained moans, only the sound of rapid panting. It was torture for everyone. Grandmother in the Buddha hall had already sent maids to inquire three times.
The child’s cry came through—not as loud as Yun Baobao and Yun Shou’s had been. The crying was like a kitten’s, which immediately made Yun Ye’s heart seize up. He glanced at Xinyue and was about to go in when the midwife came out smiling, crouching down to bow and congratulate him: “Congratulations, Marquis! Felicitations, Marquis! It’s the joy of a daughter!”
Yun Ye didn’t care whether it was a son or daughter. As long as it was his own flesh and blood, it was precious to him. He’d long wanted a daughter, and now his wish was fulfilled. The Yun family’s rewards had always been generous—he casually gave the midwife a pearl the size of a fingertip.
No wonder the voice was so small. The child truly was small, thin and frail like a little kitten, looking like she could be blown away by a gust of wind. Her two little fists were clenched tight, her small mouth still open crying, just with a softer voice.
This was his own daughter—she must be treasured. Watching the midwife’s rough hands wrapping the child in swaddling clothes, Yun Ye wanted to strike her. Why were they binding the baby like a rice dumpling?
Impatiently dismissing the three tidied-up midwives, he held the child and beamed with joy for quite a while before realizing Na Rimu was staring at him with wide eyes, tears streaming down.
He held his daughter and placed her at the head of the bed, letting Na Rimu get a good look at her own child. Who knew she would turn her head away, quite dissatisfied with her own creation.
“Having a child has made you unreasonable. What are you thinking? I love this daughter who’s like a celestial fairy right down to my bones, and you’re disdainful? If you don’t like her, I’ll raise her. I never dreamed that I, Yun Ye, would one day have a daughter. This is Heaven’s gift to me. When the child is out of confinement, at the hundred-day celebration, watch how I host a grand banquet. Everyone of importance in Chang’an will be summoned. Those who don’t come, I’ll show up at their doors. Your father has a daughter!”
Na Rimu turned her head back, still crying. Women crying during confinement would leave lingering ailments. Yun Ye wiped away her tears and snot, kissed her forehead, and said softly, “Thank you. You’ve worked hard.”
“I wanted to give you a son, to birth a hero who would roam the grasslands, but now it’s a daughter. I don’t want her!”
“She’s already been born—we can’t exactly stuff her back in to be reborn. Besides, what’s wrong with having a daughter this time? My heart is blooming with joy.”
After much persuasion, Na Rimu finally became happy and immediately began dreaming that her daughter was a peerless beauty. Yun Ye looked at his own appearance in the shadows by the bed and sighed. With his looks, producing a kingdom-toppling daughter probably wouldn’t be easy. Even Li Er, praised as having the bearing of heavenly sun and dragon-phoenix grace, hadn’t produced many good-looking daughters among his several girls. Li Anlan and Gao Yang were considered decent, while all the others were uniformly called “gentle and virtuous.” Tang officials still wanted some face and didn’t want to lie through their teeth praising how beautiful the princesses were, so they could only praise them all as gentle and virtuous. Without looks, they could only speak of character, and character was elastic—you could praise it however you wanted without going too far.
How would his own daughter be praised in the future? Forget about beauty—the bloodline wasn’t good, nothing to be done. Could he also only praise the child as gentle and virtuous? One look at Na Rimu showed that path wouldn’t work.
Na Rimu suddenly began liking her daughter again, holding her and showering her with kisses. What woman in confinement would sit up like this? Yun Ye stuffed her back under the blanket. Mother and daughter lay head to head, extremely affectionate.
Xinyue clearly wanted to laugh heartily, grinning as she praised the daughter for being beautiful. Seeing her little tongue constantly trembling and watching her repeatedly lift Yun Baobao high, one could tell she really wanted to sing right now.
Daughters were great! Just one dowry set would send her off. No matter how much the husband doted on his daughter, at most it would just be a more generous dowry. The Yun family had many dowries to prepare; they didn’t mind preparing one more.
Seeing Yun Baobao, Na Rimu was extremely envious. Then looking at the ugly daughter in her arms, her smile disappeared and she wanted to cry again. Yun Ye finally managed to shoo out Xinyue, who very much wanted to stay, when Old Grandmother arrived.
Aunts and maternal aunts crowded in, holding the swaddling clothes and carefully examining the great-granddaughter. Grandmother smiled so much that the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes became even more pronounced. She spoke kindly to console Na Rimu, saying she was still young and could have more children once her body recovered. These encouragements clearly worked—Na Rimu became happy again.
The Yun family had joyfully added a daughter, so He Shao naturally rode a fast horse to offer congratulations. These past days dealing with kelp had kept him extremely busy—not only teaching people how to soak and prepare kelp but also how to cook it. Things had turned out beyond Yun Ye’s expectations. Poor households loved kelp most of all. There was no other reason—they simply valued how kelp would expand. A small handful soaked in water would quickly become half a basin, enough to feed a whole family, and the price wasn’t expensive—five wen per catty, more economical than eating grain.
The imperial clan members could only grit their teeth and swallow their anger. Yun Ye had already spread the word, praising those noble ladies as Guanyin Bodhisattvas. To provide soldiers with one more set of clothing, they had bought kelp at ten times the price—truly worthy of being from distinguished families and so on.
The birth of Marquis Lantian’s daughter naturally called for grand celebrations. Led by Li Xiaogong, the imperial clan members’ congratulatory gifts invariably included ten catties of kelp, placed in the most prominent position. For a time, the reputation that Marquis Yun couldn’t go a day without kelp spread throughout the streets and alleys of Chang’an, complementing his reputation for loving cucumbers.
“My daughter’s name is Kelp? Who spread that? Just watch me tear their mouths apart!” Na Rimu sat in the foul-smelling confinement room throwing a tantrum. In the July heat when Chang’an could roast people, the confinement room was sealed airtight. Na Rimu wasn’t unfamiliar with this smell—on the contrary, she rather liked it. Her home had once smelled like this. Ever since her parents and younger brother had been swept away to the grassland depths, she’d never smelled this scent again. Na Rimu had searched for a long time without finding them and could only assume they’d all died in the chaos.
The little maid, seeing that the Second Madam who never lost her temper was now angry, quickly fetched Xinyue to calm her down. Xinyue, having caught her breath outside, steeled herself and entered the room, nearly fainting from the smell. Although her own confinement period hadn’t smelled pleasant, at least that had been in the dead of winter—how could it compare to this exaggeration?
Stuffing a handkerchief in her nostrils, she said nasally to Na Rimu, “That’s not true at all. How could your daughter be called Kelp? Those imperial clan members, unwilling to accept being tricked by my husband, deliberately spread this rumor. You don’t know—my husband really swindled them badly…”
“The kelp matter can hardly be called swindling. As imperial clan members, they ought to set an example. With one more edible food in the world, they should only celebrate grandly. How dare they complain? They’ve only eaten a few full meals! Yun Ye did nothing wrong in this matter. This old man has also eaten kelp. The taste isn’t particularly good or bad, but the soup it produces is exceptionally savory—it’s excellent food. Shigu, go buy another five hundred catties at the price of fifty wen. If the imperial clan doesn’t understand propriety, our Yan family cannot fail to understand it.”
In the Yan family’s great hall, the old man Yan Zhitui was instructing his descendants. The old fellow was ninety-six this year. He had few hairs left on his head, but they were combed neatly. His tall hat sat only on the crown of his head. His large head was covered in age spots, but his spirits were good. His voice was still resonant, and moreover, his eyes weren’t dim and his ears weren’t deaf—he looked more spirited than his nephews in their seventies and eighties.
“Old Ancestor, this grandson will send someone to handle what you’ve instructed. The Yan family indeed has no need to take advantage of common people. Even if Yun Ye did well with the kelp matter, still—writing is an endeavor for the ages. How can we allow unorthodox paths to occupy the pinnacle?”
The tall and burly Yan Shigu bowed to address Yan Zhitui. He could tolerate the Academy standing alone at the peak, could tolerate Yun Ye walking the path of publishing books, but absolutely would not tolerate Yun Ye blocking this entire road by himself.
Only by tasting sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy could one understand flavor. For a youth barely past his capping ceremony to stand at the pinnacle looking down on all others—wasn’t this bullying the Tang for having no one?
“Shigu, you’ve studied for many years. The *Correct Meanings of the Five Classics* has made you famous throughout the realm. But in terms of pure scholarship, you truly are inferior to Yun Ye. Those skilled at clever argument often contradict the Way; those clumsy in speech necessarily fall short in learning. Better to be distant from the world than to contradict the Way. These years you’ve become somewhat unable to tolerate others. *Elementary Arithmetic* was originally a magnificent work. Some of its theories are exquisitely subtle—it’s proper scholarship, not some unorthodox path. Confucius executing Shaozheng Mao had great righteousness on his side, yet even so, he’s been criticized for a thousand years. My reason for not wanting him to monopolize glory alone has only one cause—I don’t want him to be destroyed by excessive praise. A fine master’s material, ruined in the hands of those with malicious intentions. Remember this—I’ll tell you once more: Though rivers number ten thousand, all eventually flow to the sea. Though scholarship has a thousand forms, all paths lead to the same destination. Have you noted this?”