Women loving to go shopping was their nature, especially now that the Yun family had two mistresses, plus countless aunts, older and younger, sisters both older and younger. At year’s end they naturally needed to make some good purchases. Early in the morning they readied seven or eight carriages, a dozen or so servant girls, and a whole pile of household guards, preparing to magnificently descend upon Chang’an City.

“Wait, bring Shishi along too.” He called out to Daya and Xiao Ya who were about to leave, dragging Shishi over and handing her to Daya. This child had been hiding alone behind the door secretly watching the women’s joyful appearance, but didn’t want to go herself. The reason was very simple—she wanted to save the money her master had given her to buy the best sword for her monk father. Her father’s sword had already been sharpened until it had no edge left and couldn’t be used anymore.

Taking out his money pouch from his breast, he stuffed two silver ingots into Shishi’s hands and patted the little girl’s head: “You, don’t be too sensible. Children should play when it’s time to play. If you want to buy your father a sword, there’s no need to shortchange yourself. This time go buy more things you love to eat, buy some fun things, and buy yourself a hairpin too. I forbid you to save the money again.”

Shishi was very obedient. Smiling, she agreed to Yun Ye’s words, clutching the silver ingots with eyes curved in delight as she climbed onto the carriage.

Just as Yun Ye was watching his family members prepare to go spend money with a satisfied expression, someone tugged at his clothes. Looking down, it turned out to be Xiao Wu. One hand tugging at his clothes, the other stretched out far—she wanted money too?

“Xiao Wu, you’re a girl from a Duke’s household, with vast family wealth. How can you ask me for money? If I give it to you, your father will think I have no sense of propriety and am deliberately making your family lose face.” Yun Ye bent down to speak to Xiao Wu.

This girl had already taken root in the Yun family—freeloading lessons, freeloading food, freeloading drink, freeloading play, freeloading clothes. These were small matters, but if her father knew she was also freeloading money from inside, Yun Ye estimated that Old Wu would absolutely go crazy. The Duke’s manor’s face would be completely lost.

“You’re my master. If I don’t ask you for money, who should I ask? My mother has no money and only gives me five copper coins each month. Father doesn’t give me money either, only gives it to my brother. I’ve already called you master, so if you give Shishi silver ingots, you should also give me some. Two!”

The little girl’s tears were clearly swirling in her eyes but refused to fall. Two tender white fingers waved in front of Yun Ye’s eyes, demanding money with complete righteousness.

“When did you call me master? How come I don’t know about it? For something like taking on a disciple, if your father doesn’t agree, will it work?”

“The day before yesterday when you were sleeping in the sun, I called out to you and you even answered. Are you trying to renege now?”

Yun Ye scratched his head. Did this happen? However, when he was sleeping groggily, perhaps such a thing might have occurred. Looking at the little girl on the verge of tears, he really couldn’t harden his heart. Oh well, disciples—teaching one is teaching, teaching two is also teaching. Besides, the one actually teaching them to read was Old Scholar Wenfu, not him. The future Wu Meiniang had no problems with intelligence, so let it be. Tomorrow he’d send Old Wu a formal note. A bankrupt duke—he must give me this much face.

Two more silver ingots disappeared. The little girl rummaged through the money pouch for the two that looked biggest and cleanest, then carefully placed them in her own little money pouch, and leaped tiger-like onto the carriage.

Xinyue lifted the curtain on the side to watch, smiling without speaking. Na Rimu tried to stick her head out but was roughly pushed back by her. This little concubine always lacked propriety. Who knew whether Madam Cheng and Madam Niu would laugh when they saw her? Very troublesome indeed.

Yun Ye took out a hand warmer from his breast and passed it through the window to Xinyue, patting her pretty face and waving his hand to signal them to depart.

Today he had an appointment with Gongshu Mu, otherwise Yun Ye would have really liked to go to Chang’an for a shopping spree too. Working hard to earn money all year without spending it really did a disservice to oneself.

Returning to the back garden, he saw Grandmother, accompanied by servant girls, tending to the vegetables in the room. The old lady had already made the vegetable garden her favorite place to exercise her muscles and bones, preparing to nurture her health to hold a great-grandson. These past few years, because the Yun family had risen again, the old lady’s spirits were greatly lifted. All day long she smiled like a Maitreya Buddha, and now she was even more benevolent. There were already no targets for her to bestow charity on at the Yun family estate, which frequently drew complaints from the old lady—where had all the poor people gone?

Where had the poor people gone? There were many, but they couldn’t be seen at the Yun family estate anymore. The nouveau riche competed with each other to build houses, drinking housewarming wine all over the place. They were set on blue brick and big tile houses. More particular families used lime mixed with short hemp thread inside their houses, spreading it evenly all over, making it white and attractive, complementing the roofs woven from fine tamarisk branches—extremely beautiful to behold.

Farming households all used rammed yellow earth to form perimeter walls, not high, just reaching chest level. Apart from the Yun family’s wall which was over one zhang high, all other families had half-person-high walls, which stood out quite obtrusively in the estate.

The top flowers of eggplants that weren’t needed had to be pinched off, otherwise they would grow wildly without producing eggplants. Eggplants at this time were precious vegetables, each only the size of an infant’s fist, beautifully named “Kunlun Purple Melons.”

Grandmother was using a winnowing basket to toss those peas that had been soaked in water until they were plump. The white embryonic buds on top had already emerged. In another two or three days they would sprout stems and leaves on their own. Grandmother carefully picked out the bad, blackened, and rotten peas from inside, then poured the good ones into a wooden plate lined with hemp cloth, smoothed them evenly with her hand, and placed them in a shady spot.

Yun Ye stepped forward to help place the other few plates on the rack as well, and heard Grandmother say: “Ye’er, Xiao Yue loves eating these tender pea sprouts the most. Yesterday a plate of stir-fried ones was eaten entirely by her alone. Na Rimu seems to like them too, but Xiao Yue won’t let her touch them. These days Grandmother hasn’t asked about household affairs and doesn’t know how you’ve been handling things. Unrest in the back courtyard is a great taboo for wealthy families. How many families have fallen into ruin because family members schemed against each other? Our family must not have such incidents. Some words you can’t say well, so Grandmother will say them. Xiao Yue is the primary wife, so she should be able to accommodate the concubine. It’s just a few bites of vegetables. If she wants to eat them, just stir-fry two plates—one plate per person. Our family doesn’t lack this bit of food.”

“Grandmother, even if you stir-fry eight plates, she’ll still snatch them. No woman likes seeing her husband taken away by another woman. Your grandson taking a concubine now is actually most unfair to Xinyue. Her having a little temper is very normal.”

“A household should have rules. You’re a dignified marquis, yet you only have one concubine and not even a chamber maid. You’re an oddity among high officials. Although the Fang family has no concubines, does the title of ‘vinegar-drinking wife’ sound good? As a woman, she shouldn’t be managing these matters. More sons and grandsons for the Yun family is what she should be concerned about.”

The old grandmother now had quite an imposing presence. She was very dissatisfied about not having a large group of great-grandsons surrounding her. If Lingnan weren’t really too far away, she would have already run to Lingnan to see her eldest grandson.

She had prepared many things for the child. She had molded over a dozen clay figurines, baked them hard in the brick kiln, then colored them—very beautiful.

Grandmother wasn’t satisfied. She stubbornly used her own personal savings to prepare countless large and small garments. Fearing the child would freeze their bottom during night trips to the toilet, she insisted on finding two pieces of warming jade and inlaying them in a small chamber pot, making Yun Ye’s heart ache watching it.

“Grandmother, our family needs to allow people to speak up. If grievances are hidden in the heart and not spoken out, when they stab each other with knives later, that’s what’s truly disgusting. It’s quite good this way. Na Rimu will return to the grasslands when spring comes. There’s still a pile of matters on the grasslands.”

“Fine, Grandmother won’t interfere anymore. But these days don’t allow Xinyue to run to your room anymore. With such a big belly it’s inconvenient. Let her stay with me.”

Grandmother was like this—she couldn’t stand Yun Ye indulging his family members without restraint. Runniang had been sent by the old grandmother to a separate courtyard to specifically receive instruction from two old palace ladies. According to Xiao Ya’s tearful report: “It’s too horrible to look at.” Then she hugged Yun Ye and begged him never to send her over too. At most she would stop letting Hanhan play tricks on the family members anymore.

Looking at the sun, it was already noon. Gongshu Mu was still waiting for him. Bidding farewell to Grandmother, Yun Ye hurriedly harnessed Wang Cai and rode the carriage toward the academy.

Old Gongshu had aged considerably these past two years. The reason was that he had found himself a vampire of a disciple. Under Li Tai’s tireless exploitation, the old man was teaching his student with an almost tragic mentality. As Yun Ye saw it, “the silkworm spins until death ends its silk, the candle burns to ash before its tears dry”—this described Old Gongshu perfectly.

For someone whose mind was constantly full of ingenious ideas and who had the ability to act on them immediately, doing research was him, being a craftsman was him—if he hadn’t aged these past two years, that would be the strange thing.

The tea was brewed, and Old Gongshu arrived too. Li Tai was outside craning his neck to look inside, not daring to come in. Yun Ye had said that as long as he came in, he would beat him every time he saw him. Last time he gave Yun Ye’s teapot to his father, and Yun Ye beat him a full three times for it.

Being beaten with nowhere to seek justice—his father wouldn’t listen to his complaints at all, only telling him that if he had the ability he should beat him back himself. What kind of ability was it to complain to his old man?

Poor Li Tai—physical combat was completely his weak point, and his brain didn’t turn as fast as Yun Ye’s either, so naturally he suffered losses everywhere, suppressed to death. After eating countless losses in silence, he finally understood that staying far away from Yun Ye was the way to preserve his life.

“Marquis Yun, I’m not afraid of your laughter when I say this. His Highness Prince Wei is naturally intelligent, and even more difficult is that he’s willing to work hard. These past two years, all those things this old man has learned have been completely drained dry by him. From flying kites to water mills to looms, this old man has been running himself ragged trying to keep up. Finally making it to now, with nothing left to teach, I can no longer endure this feeling of being chased and forced to sprint by the younger generation. So I’ve come specially to consult Marquis Yun on how to teach His Highness Prince Wei. If this continues, this old man will lose his life.”

Old Gongshu had a face full of melancholy. The knowledge he used to take such pride in had actually been drained empty one day. Thinking about how he had violated ancestral teachings and taught many untransmitted family secrets without holding anything back, he couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.

Yun Ye said nothing. Such a student was too outrageous. It seemed Li Tai still hadn’t learned how to be considerate of others. Being a person this way was incomplete. If he wasn’t given some lesson, he wouldn’t learn these things. Only knowing how to take—this was the bad habit of the imperial family. It needed to be changed.

From the corner of the office he brought out two iron hemispheres, one of which had a thin tube on top, and the tube opening had a section of hollow cow tendon attached—who knew what it was for. Yun Ye smeared lard on the rim surface in the middle of the hemispheres, then pressed them together. Using a small bellows, he pulled hard. After just a few strokes, it couldn’t be pulled anymore. Yun Ye tightly tied up the cow tendon part of the tube opening, grabbed the tube, and lifted up the hemisphere. Gongshu Mu was astonished to discover that the lower half actually didn’t fall off.

He stood up and forcefully tugged at it several times, but still couldn’t pull it apart. He looked at Yun Ye in bewilderment.