The Yun family’s anti-theft mission had been quite heavy lately. They were all old thieves who ravaged the Yun estate in groups. First they would observe the potato harvest situation, then measure out a mu of land themselves and start digging potatoes. They didn’t use government personnel—all were their own household servants. After digging them out and weighing them, they paid no more attention. No one dared criticize them.
County Magistrate Hua and the chief clerk stood trembling under the blazing sun, not even daring to wipe the sweat from their heads, looking as if they might cry at any moment. These past two days they had received countless threats—they must take good care of the elderly. If even one had an accident, they would be flayed and their tendons torn out.
Yun Ye hid in the cornfield standing on tiptoe, watching those damned old thieves. Their families all had potatoes, but none had taken them seriously. Back when Li Er dug potatoes in the Golden Chime Hall, they viewed it as him putting on a show—a good performance in which the emperor participated. After satisfying their theatrical cravings, they turned around and forgot all about the potatoes. When the emperor bestowed potatoes upon their households, some placed them in ancestral halls to worship, others casually tossed them in treasure vaults where they sprouted. After growing long shoots, they took them out to feed the pigs. As a result, several pigs were poisoned to death. Since they were bestowed by the emperor, no one dared make a sound—they quietly dealt with it and that was that. Perhaps even several pig herders had been silenced.
The careless Yun Ye only now discovered that the only ones planting potatoes throughout the world were the Yun family, Zhangsun family, Niu family, Cheng family, Qin family, and Yuchi family. Moreover, it was Zhangsun Wuji who had consulted with several family heads—they wouldn’t tell those idiots, so their own families could plant them and get rich. So Yun Ye knew there were people secretly selling potatoes, he just hadn’t realized the suppliers were only these few families.
No wonder the emperor wouldn’t distribute the potatoes widely. Recognition was a very long process. Every time Yun Ye asked the emperor why the potatoes still couldn’t spread in all directions, Li Er always wore a wicked expression. He was waiting for these people to come begging him so he could thoroughly extort them. Things obtained for free—no one would cherish them. This principle held true everywhere in the world.
If these people didn’t recognize it, the common people even less dared to recognize it. Yun Ye had been blinded by the Yun estate’s false enlightenment, thinking all the people in the world were eagerly anticipating the potatoes’ arrival. Who knew all this only existed in the few families he frequently visited? Even the tenant farmers of the Yun estate didn’t spread this good news outside. When wives returned to their maiden homes, they weren’t allowed to talk too much. If they leaked the estate’s major affairs, they needn’t come back. The eighty-year-old grandfather was unyielding on this matter—not one person dared violate it.
In such an environment, how the hell was it supposed to spread? When potatoes sprouted, they were poisonous! Who would be crazy enough to eat potatoes that had grown purple shoots? Those things didn’t look like good types just by appearance. Besides, eating moldy grain could also kill people!
If County Magistrate Hua hadn’t pierced this layer of window paper, Yun Ye wouldn’t have known at all. Xinyue was hiding from Yun Ye—she had already received two beatings these past days. Although the beating process was quite sensual, having her bottom constantly covered with handprints wasn’t attractive either.
Old Qian was hiding in Luoyang and not returning, saying the family’s business in Luoyang needed careful inspection and couldn’t be completed in less than ten days to two weeks.
His Lordship had been black-faced for three days already. Two of the household dogs had been kicked lame, a crowing rooster had its neck wrung and went into the soup pot, and Xiao Ya and the young ladies’ coursework had become even more burdensome—it was already past the first watch and they were still tearfully writing large characters.
In short, the skies above the Yun household were covered with dark clouds. The lightning and thunder weren’t something ordinary people could endure. Life couldn’t go on like this. The servants and maids were all trembling with fear, until the arrival of Master Li Gang—only then did everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
“Young fellow, what are you losing your temper about? Isn’t it just about the potatoes? Think about it—if not for this ordeal, would people throughout the realm have this understanding of the thing? Just look at what kind of people are coming now. They’re all the people who truly hold power in each family. These people generally don’t leave their homes, yet now they’re all flooding to your estate’s fields to look at potatoes. This shows that next year this thing will definitely spread comprehensively. The imperial family, and places you can’t reach—everywhere will be planted full. Believe it or not?”
Yun Ye poured a cup of tea for Li Gang, placing it within his convenient reach, and said: “They’re all cheap-skinned donkeys—they won’t move when driven, but retreat when beaten. They won’t give up until I make a ruthless profit from them.”
“Then go ahead and profit! No one said you couldn’t. This time they’re willingly delivering themselves to your door—why not profit? If you sell cheap, they won’t be satisfied. This is their roundabout way of apologizing to His Majesty. Heh heh, perhaps right now the imperial family has already begun selling potato seeds on a large scale. Young fellow, you only planted a few mu. If the imperial family planted fewer than five thousand mu, come ask me. Would Empress Zhangsun, shrewd and capable as she is, fail to grasp this opportunity? You think keeping you confined at home for three months was for what reason? They had to wait until the imperial family’s potato seeds were sold out before seeing you.”
Yun Ye asked dejectedly: “Could it be that County Magistrate Hua was also arranged by Her Majesty beforehand?”
“What do you think? An obscure minor official dares to threaten his superiors with a rope around his neck—rebelling against them! If the Empress wasn’t supporting him from behind, he wouldn’t dare even with eight times the courage. You think reputation spreads that easily? If not for being close to your Yun estate, would such good fortune have fallen to him? What is he anyway?”
Yun Ye discovered that in grasping the overall situation, he was dozens of streets behind these old fellows. They calculated against others invisibly, and in the end he obediently stretched out his neck and drilled it into the noose. Emperor Li Er and his consort truly weren’t good people.
“Go cook me some porridge. That corn grits I had last time tasted very good. Getting old, I can’t digest big fish and meat—can only drink corn grits. My family’s corn is scarce, can’t eat it.”
After accompanying Master Li Gang in beautifully drinking two large bowls of corn grits, his anger subsided a bit. Turning around, he discovered Xinyue, Madam Cheng, Madam Niu, Madam Zhangsun, Madam Qin, and Madam Yuchi—these women hiding in the Yun family’s back garden drinking and celebrating. Madam Cheng Yaojin’s loud voice urging drinks could be heard across two courtyards. It seemed they all had drinking problems. Xinyue was actually describing how she had been beaten. Good heavens, was this something that could be talked about?
By nightfall, Xinyue entered the room with a flushed face, waving her handkerchief. As soon as she opened her mouth, the strong alcohol odor nearly knocked Yun Ye over. She clung to Yun Ye’s back rubbing her face against him, repeatedly saying how satisfying today had been.
Being able to force those ancient traditional nobles to come begging at their door—for these newly ennobled families, this was a huge victory. The traditional nobles’ circle—the Yun family still couldn’t enter it. This time they didn’t know how many invitations they’d received. Anyway, there was a bulging stack in her bosom. Taking the invitations from her bosom, he had no mood to look at them. It was all about interests—this was Xinyue’s territory. Yun Ye generally didn’t interfere. Stripping off her clothes completely, placing a spittoon by the bedside for her, he patted her bare back to help relieve her intoxication.
Even beautiful women weren’t attractive when drunk and vomiting, even when naked. The veins on her neck bulged wildly as she heart-wrenchingly vomited stomach acid. It was painful to watch. The alcohol smell in the room was so thick it couldn’t dissolve. Who knew how much she’d drunk?
The next morning, Xinyue, snoring softly, indeed had lost all sense of time. By the looks of it, she wouldn’t wake for a while. Yun Ye instructed the maids to cook millet porridge for her. Her stomach was vomited empty—hopefully today she’d have an appetite for porridge.
The Yan family’s invitation arrived, signed by Yan Zhitui. The emperor would be excited for quite a while upon receiving such an invitation, let alone the small Yun family. Only Grandmother Yun was qualified to receive this old gentleman. Last night he’d wanted to keep Li Gang to accompany them, but who knew Li Gang would spit at him, saying last time he’d taken the fall for the Yun family and ended up being spat in the face by someone at his advanced age without being able to wipe it off. That spittle was a lesson to Yun Ye for not knowing how to respect elders. In the Great Tang there was no one older than Yan Zhitui. Before Yan Zhitui, he was just a small child. Even if beaten, there was nowhere to complain. You caused the trouble yourself—you take the beating yourself. After speaking he ran off. It seemed he really didn’t want to see Yan Zhitui again and get spat on.
By the time Yun Ye had everything arranged, Grandmother had already completely changed out of her longevity attire and changed into the clothes from when she was a young bride. Her hair was combed meticulously, adorned with a white jade hairpin. She didn’t lean on her cane either. Her hands were crossed and placed on her lower abdomen as she waited for Yan Zhitui’s arrival. That old fellow was ninety-four and still wouldn’t die—shamelessly coming to trouble the Yun family.
Poor Xinyue’s face was deathly pale. She hadn’t managed to drink a single sip of the morning millet porridge—whatever she drank, she vomited. Now her body was weak, her feet unsteady, requiring maids to support her to stand firm.
Yun Ye stood far away beneath the memorial archway waiting for Yan Zhitui’s arrival. He dared not be the slightest bit careless with the etiquette. Even Li Er, upon hearing Yan Zhitui wanted to see him, would need to welcome him at the palace gate and help the old fellow into the Taiji Hall before formally speaking.
The Yan family was a literary patriarch. Their ancestor was Yan Hui. For generations the family had held pure and noble official positions. Compared to those hereditary powerful families, the Yan family posed no threat and was an indispensable family to every dynasty.
The family valued scholarly tradition passed down through farming and reading, didn’t participate in court politics, and only buried themselves in studying learning. Yan Hui was a pauper—with one gourd of drink and one basket of food he lived in poverty, yet was praised by Confucius as the person of highest virtue. Therefore the Yan family was far from luxurious.
Yan Zhitui sat in an ox cart pulled by a castrated bull. The cart’s age was ancient—the jujube-red wood emitted an amber luster. One wheel was new, the other old. The blue-clothed old servant bowed his waist, leading the ox in front to clear the way. Behind was a strong servant carrying a gift basket on a pole, following on foot.
Yan Zhitui arrived. Yun Ye hurried forward two steps, took the reins from the old servant’s hands, and personally led the ox into the Yun estate. The old man stuck out his bald head and carefully observed the continuous shops on both sides, then looked at those children as robust as calves, repeatedly saying in his mouth: “Good! Good! Good estate, good children!”
Don’t underestimate these two sentences—they made Yun Ye’s heart warm. Although the old man had come to trouble him, just these two fair evaluations allowed Yun Ye to gain a general understanding of the venerable elder’s character. This was a true scholar. He didn’t criticize the Yun family for being so close to merchant territory with suspicions of overwhelming copper stench, nor did he say the Yun family disregarded customs and lowered their status by holding a market in their own courtyard. He only noticed the tenant farmers’ prosperity and the children’s health.
Facing such an elder, what harm in retreating three courtyards?