Zhangsun thoroughly enjoyed Li Tai’s meticulous filial devotion. She neither refused nor encouraged it, but simply accepted with peace of mind this rare moment of warmth. Unconsciously, she had also grown to love the academy’s vibrant and energetic atmosphere.

She loved the morning sun rising from Yushan’s mountain pass each day. The cool mountain breeze gently brushing past her cheeks captivated her with its tender sensation. Watching Li Tai clumsily pole the bamboo raft, drenched in sweat, filled her heart with joy, yet she deliberately urged Li Tai to pole faster so that red carp wouldn’t escape.

When tired from playing, she would return to the academy to listen to Li Gang lecture on the essential meanings of the Five Classics. For the first time, she discovered that this withered old man’s large head actually contained such vast wisdom. Hearing Yuchi Big Fool (now she too called the Yuchi father and son this in her heart, though only in her heart, never speaking it aloud) nervously stammer his answers due to her presence, mangling the ancient travel poem “Ascending that barren hill, I gaze toward my father. Father says: Alas! My son performs his service, working day and night without cease. Be careful above all, yet do not stop coming back!”—this ancestor of all poems about travel and service—she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing aloud. She opened her eyes wide in anticipation, watching to see how Li Gang would punish Yuchi Baolin, just like when she was small and watched her maternal uncle’s sons fail to recite their lessons properly and get punished by their teacher. This had been virtually her only childhood pleasure.

How disappointing! Not only did old Li Gang not strike Yuchi Baolin with the board, he actually said with a beaming smile: “Baolin carefully reviewed the homework this old man assigned yesterday. This old man is very satisfied. There are just a few minor flaws—work a bit harder next time.”

Zhangsun pursed her lips. Obviously favoritism. The old fellow also knew how to use learning for private gain. Who knew what benefits old fool Yuchi had given him to make him spare no effort in looking after the Yuchi family boy.

Meng Youtong stood up proudly and fluently recited this “Book of Songs: Wei Feng: Ascending the Barren Hill,” only missing a single character. Li Gang flew into a rage, raised his bamboo board, and struck Meng Youtong’s left hand heavily. The pain made Meng Youtong grimace and suck in his breath, but he dared not cry out. All the academy students knew one principle: if anyone receiving Master Li’s board couldn’t bear it and dared to cry out, the punishment would double.

This was too unfair! Zhangsun watched with her elegant eyebrows shooting upward, preparing to stand up and question Li Gang. Yuchi Baolin had recited it full of errors and Li Gang praised him, yet Meng Youtong missed only one character and had to receive the board. By the look of it, his hand would definitely swell.

After a moment’s thought, she sat back down and persisted in listening through the entire lesson. Li Gang’s lecture was both profound and accessible, extremely vivid. He made the dry and obscure ancient poetry emotionally moving, bringing listeners to tears. A great Confucian scholar was indeed a great scholar, far beyond what the tutors in her maternal uncle’s household could compare to.

When the lesson ended, Li Gang and Zhangsun left the classroom. Old Li said to Zhangsun: “Just now this old minister saw Your Majesty about to speak but holding back. You probably felt this old minister was too partial to Yuchi Baolin while being too harsh with Meng Youtong.”

“I was thinking that just now, but after you asked that question, I realized this empress might have been wrong. In the way of teaching and educating, you are naturally a renowned master of your generation. I hope you will resolve my confusion—what is your intent in doing this?”

Zhangsun very much wanted to know whether deliberately favoring one student would produce a negative influence on the other students.

“Your Majesty has been known as a talented woman since childhood—how could you not know the principle that teaching must begin with teaching character? This child Yuchi Baolin has a dull nature. What others can memorize after reciting three times, this child needs to recite thirty times, and even then might not remember. His performance in class today—if Your Majesty hadn’t been present, it would have been even better. This shows he truly worked hard yesterday.”

“This old man has taught and educated for decades and has seen countless students of exceptional talent, including Emperor Yang of Sui, Yang Guang. In the palace back then, his ability to draw inferences from one example and comprehend ten things from hearing one was insufficient to describe his capabilities. Yet what was the result? This old minister need not elaborate—proud, extravagant, and licentious, he brought ruin upon the realm. A perfectly good country was reduced by him to flames of war everywhere, with the common people in unbearable suffering.”

“Whenever this old minister thinks of this, my heart aches. If this old man had not only focused on those useless studies but had paid more attention to his moral cultivation, perhaps so many people wouldn’t have died.”

“Meng Youtong is different from Baolin. His own capabilities are not lacking—unfortunately he doesn’t apply himself. He always thinks that relying on a bit of cleverness, he can show off before all the class students, flaunting knowledge he hasn’t yet mastered and taking pride in it. This is something this old minister absolutely will not tolerate, so punishing him became inevitable.”

After hearing Li Gang’s words, Zhangsun performed a bow to him and said formally: “Master Li is truly a renowned master of your generation. The way of teaching and educating is indeed profound. You analyze the students’ temperaments with penetrating insight. This empress is inferior and has been instructed.”

Li Gang avoided accepting the empress’s ritual courtesy and said to Zhangsun: “Your children are the most outstanding in this academy. If we look only at learning, even Yun Ye falls slightly short. Li Tai’s ingenious imagination and Li Ke’s tenacious perseverance are the most precious qualities in this academy. These past two days, Your Majesty must have also experienced the changes in these two children. Of all virtues, filial piety is foremost. Being able to show filial respect to parents and brotherly love to siblings—it’s said that a compassionate family raises no evil children. Such children, even if they turn bad, can’t be that bad. This old man is full of anticipation for these two children’s future.”

What parent isn’t happy to hear others praise their children? Especially since Li Tai had already ranked first three times in the academy’s major examinations. It was said the academy had specially rewarded him with two strings of cash, called prize money.

The money Li Tai rewarded stable hands was more than two strings, yet receiving the heavy two strings of cash from Li Gang’s hands was as if he’d obtained ten thousand strings of copper coins. His mouth hadn’t closed since morning, driving the other students mad with jealousy.

The academy had an odd rule: any copper coins rewarded by the academy could buy things that would absolutely be impossible to purchase ordinarily. For example, one could spend one string of cash to have Master Li Gang inscribe a piece of calligraphy—you should know that Li Gang had stopped writing for others ten years ago.

Or one could ask Master Yushan to write a memorial text for one’s ancestors—ordinarily only the imperial family had such access. Or one could find Master Yuanzhang to carve a seal. Master Lishi’s portrait paintings were absolutely exceptional. If one used one string of cash to have Master Lishi paint a portrait, that too was extremely rare treatment. Master Lishi’s painting skill could be compared with Zhan Ziqian.

Li Tai used one string of cash to ask Yun Ye to prepare a meal for his mother. There must be no fewer than eight dishes and there must also be a staple food.

Yun Ye was at home sleeping comfortably. He couldn’t do anything else, nor was he allowed to do anything else. The moment he showed the slightest intention of going out, Yiniang who attended him would purse her lips and cry loudly. His other sisters would run out to grab his legs, pull at his clothes, terrified he would go out and cause trouble.

At such times, Xinyue, who was busy working around the house, would also come over and look at Yun Ye with tear-filled eyes without saying anything. As soon as he saw Xinyue and was blocked by several sisters, Yun Ye could only lie back on his reclining chair and continue boringly counting exactly how many pairs of swallows flew overhead, diligently carrying mud to build nests under the house eaves.

Yun Ye always wanted to find an opportunity to spend more time with Xinyue, but helplessly, several sisters watched him like hawks. Even when he went to the latrine, they would wait outside. According to Xiao Ya’s words: “Big brother must be watched carefully, otherwise he’ll go out and cause trouble, and the Emperor will lock him in a prison cell again without feeding him, and he’ll starve.”

Wang Cai’s coat had already been brushed eight times—only waxing remained. Its coat was bright and glossy, so smooth that even flies couldn’t keep their footing. Wang Cai didn’t like its new image at all and kept turning its head to lick the swirled hair at the hollow of its thigh. Its favorite spot had also been smoothed flat by Yun Ye’s brush.

Ever since Yun Ye returned, Wang Cai had resumed its life of drunken stupor. But now it had developed a new problem. The thick wine seller had somehow learned a secret recipe and knew to add some osmanthus flowers to the wine, making its fragrance even richer. Now Wang Cai would drink nothing but his thick wine.

This wouldn’t do! Sweet foods weren’t something a horse could eat long-term. It was already so fat it had lost all shape. Last time when they tried to harness it to pull a cart just this once, now even dragging couldn’t get it near the cart. Yun Ye had just prepared the cart when Wang Cai lay on the ground playing dead dog, lying on its side with all four legs stretched out long, eyes closed, its enormous belly not even rising and falling normally.

Helplessly, Yun Ye and the stable hand exerted great effort to finally push the lazy-sick Wang Cai upright. Just when they’d finally gotten it up, that damned thick wine seller started hawking his wares at the gate again. Wang Cai immediately ran off with a hundred times more energy, leaving Yun Ye and the stable hand looking at each other with bitter smiles.

Whether person or horse, wanting to change the habit of laziness all at once absolutely couldn’t show results in just a day or two. Yun Ye looked at Wang Cai drinking heavily outside the gate and decided that for the sake of its little life, he must solve its obesity problem.

Eating food would make it gain weight; eating without exercising would make it gain even more. Wang Cai wasn’t being raised to be slaughtered for meat. If it kept getting fatter, its four legs wouldn’t be able to bear the load—sooner or later there would be trouble.

Just as he was worrying about Wang Cai’s obesity, Li Tai came swaggering to his door, slapped one string of cash on the table with a “thwack,” and said to Yun Ye: “Eight dishes, no repeats, plus one soup and one staple food—something we haven’t eaten before. My mother empress is inconvenienced in her condition and needs nourishment. These few days at the academy, she’s lost a whole circle of weight. We can’t let this continue, or my father emperor will think I haven’t taken good care of mother empress and will skin me alive.”

Li Tai’s words made Yun Ye realize that Zhangsun seemed to want to stay at the academy and not leave. How could this be? Having an empress stay long-term at the academy was not good news.

If one said Zhangsun came for control of the academy, that would certainly wrong her. If she wanted to completely control the academy, she wouldn’t use such low-level methods—she could just take it back directly. This was originally the imperial family’s academy after all.

“Ah Tai, do you know how much longer Her Majesty the Empress needs to stay at the academy?”

“Three days, only three days. Xiao Ye, you only have two days to prepare. You must let her eat this meal before mother empress returns to the palace.”

Yun Ye’s face felt somewhat hot. What baseless suspicion he’d harbored!