Hypatia very much liked this soft-boned little girl. The other songstresses were all heavily made up, trying to seduce the academy students, but only this little songstress shrank timidly to the side, rolling her eyes to look at everyone, just like a frightened fawn. Anyone who saw her would feel great pity, and moreover this little girl smelled fragrant all over—hugging her was very comfortable.

Gao Shanyang struggled to extract her head from Hypatia’s towering bosom and said softly in her ear: “I really want to see the academy. I always hear people talk about all its wonders.”

“What’s so good about the academy? It’s all stinking men. Sister will take you to the hot springs—the water there is so smooth, and after bathing you feel so comfortable. Don’t you want to become even more beautiful?”

Gao Shanyang stubbornly shook her head. Her warm breath tickled Hypatia’s ear. Since the little girl liked seeing the academy, they might as well go look together. Who would refuse such a beauty?

The academy disciples could only watch helplessly as Master Hypatia took away the most beautiful one from the group of songstresses. From behind, one wore flowing blue robes, graceful and elegant, while the other had an exquisitely curved and charming figure—they seemed a perfect match. Those unaware felt envy and admiration, while those in the know beat their chests and stomped their feet in anguish.

Yuan Jia naturally wasn’t among these people. Having just poled a bamboo raft for half a shichen, he’d earned fifty copper coins. Now he needed to change back into his blue robe and prepare to return to the academy for class. Every day at noon he came to the Dongyang River bank to pole rafts. The raft belonged to the Huang Shu family—he just needed to borrow it. The Huang Shu family was never stingy about such things.

“You are a dignified academy student. You shouldn’t demean yourself like this.” A familiar voice came over. Yuan Jia turned his head to discover it was Xiao Yuanbao. Happily pulling her hand, he said: “How did you come today? How did Yanlai Tower’s Yaoniang permit you to come to the academy?”

Xiao Yuanbao pulled her hand away, tears streaming down as she said: “It’s enough that I earn money at Yanlai Tower. Why don’t you study properly? Why do you do this menial work? Am I not lowly enough? Must you also make yourself this way?”

“You’re different from others—studying isn’t easy. Why don’t you apply yourself? For a few copper coins, you pole boats for people. Just now seeing you accept people’s reward money, I wanted to throw myself in the river and die.”

Yuan Jia scratched his head in confusion and said to Xiao Yuanbao: “How is poling boats lowly? I’m using noon time to do social practice. It’s very normal at the academy. Look, the one replacing me poling boats now is called Shen Gonghai—his father is a Regional Inspector, yet doesn’t he still need to wear hemp clothes and pole boats? You don’t understand, this is also coursework. The masters say this kind of coursework is even more important than classroom coursework. At the end of term it will be graded. If you fail, you can’t get the academy’s graduation certificate and can’t complete your studies.”

The confusion on Xiao Yuanbao’s face only lasted a moment before clouds filled it again. Her voice trembling, she said: “Never mind that you do menial work, now you even know how to lie. What school would be like this? I sold myself into a brothel hoping you could succeed. Even if I died, I’d be content. Do you know how happy I was learning you’d tested into the academy? Knowing full well you won’t marry me in the future, I was still happy for you. As long as you can get ahead, even if I die, I can face our parents.”

Looking at the tearful Xiao Yuanbao, Yuan Jia smiled bitterly, not knowing how to explain. Xiao Yuanbao was his child bride. From childhood, his parents raised her like their own daughter, hoping that one day when Yuan Jia grew up, the two could marry. But the old folks didn’t live to see that day and both died. At that time Yuan Jia was still studying at private school, his studies excellent. His teacher said he would surely get ahead in the future. But the family could no longer support Yuan Jia’s continued studies. Xiao Yuanbao steeled her heart and sold herself to Yanlai Tower, raising enough money to arrange the elders’ funeral, then paying for Yuan Jia to continue his studies. Facing such a child bride who was both mother and wife, Yuan Jia’s heart wanted nothing more than to rescue her from this sea of suffering as soon as possible.

Yuan Jia suddenly saw the academy’s main gate. An idea struck him and he said to the nearly fainting Xiao Yuanbao: “Perfect, you’ve never been to the academy. I’ll take you in to see. The academy is very wondrous—there’s a huge dragon head, big fish bones, and countless butterflies. You can go ask the masters whether what I’m doing is lowly or not, and you’ll know. This is a rare opportunity—let’s go now.”

Xiao Yuanbao, seeing Yuan Jia didn’t seem to be deceiving her, followed behind him toward the academy. Yuan Jia very consciously didn’t take her through the main gate—he himself didn’t yet have the ability to walk out through it.

Reaching the side gate, Xiao Yuanbao refused to enter no matter what. She saw the academy was full of students hurrying about with books, and masters with flowing beards. Inside were many beautiful buildings. The tall white buildings gave her tremendous pressure. Although her clothes were beautiful, she could feel the academy’s invisible oppressive force, as if it would crush her alive.

Having long since become like the other slippery characters at the academy, Yuan Jia had been tempered by the academy until his face was incredibly thick. Reciting his terrible poetry before thousands was nothing—carrying a woman into the academy naturally didn’t count as anything.

Only now did Xiao Yuanbao realize how foolish she’d been not to commit suicide earlier. Yuan Jia proudly carried her into the academy. When others looked questioningly, he smiled and said this was his wife, too afraid to enter the gate, so he’d carried her in, winning everyone’s applause.

Under Xiao Yuanbao’s scratching and biting, Yuan Jia finally put her down. For some reason, after a burst of intense embarrassment, Xiao Yuanbao actually felt a trace of sweet feeling rise up. She said quietly: “I can walk.”

Yuan Jia tried to hold her hand. After two or three unsuccessful attempts, he walked forward with his hands behind his back, very dignified. Xiao Yuanbao lowered her head and followed exactly one step behind.

“Look, this is the academy’s side gate. It’s not that I won’t take you through the main gate—I just don’t have the ability to walk out through it. We normally all use the side gate. Not many walk through the main gate, only those blockheads with extremely inflated self-confidence do, and it’s time-consuming, laborious, and thankless. The white building you see is the academy’s library. Look, this is my borrowing card. With it I can enter. The classics inside are as vast as the sea—you couldn’t finish reading them in a lifetime.”

“Don’t look at me like that. I definitely won’t finish in this lifetime. The masters don’t require us to finish either. They say those who read everything become bookworms, unable to do anything in life except read books—useless to others, useless to themselves. The meaning is they’re worthless.”

“Isn’t reading more books better?” Xiao Yuanbao felt Yuan Jia was deceiving her again.

“Not necessarily. A person’s lifetime is limited. If you can understand and absorb all the books you read into your own learning, that’s already remarkable. We still need time to serve as officials and research scholarship. We can’t just pour things in our whole lives—we must absorb and transform them into motivation to advance our world.”

Xiao Yuanbao couldn’t understand what Yuan Jia was saying, but she was very happy. What she couldn’t understand must be very profound learning. That Yuan Jia could say these learned things showed he’d applied himself.

“Yuan Jia, why are you still wandering outside instead of going to class?” Xiao Yuanbao looked up in shock. She saw a bearded, imposing man standing before Yuan Jia, seemingly quite angry.

“Reporting to Master, today my humble wife visits the academy for the first time. This student wanted to show her around the academy. Earlier I already asked a classmate to request leave from the master.”

“Mm, if that’s the case, then continue. This is your first time requesting leave—approved.” Having said this, he continued his patrol of the academy with hands behind his back.

“You dead man, what does it matter if I see the academy or not? You hurry to class.”

“None of that. I’ve already requested leave. Going now would be laughable. I know what kind of life you have at Yanlai Tower, but you know nothing of what kind of life I have. Today you’ll understand—I’ll properly accompany you for the whole day. I’m a man, I decide. From now on the household will be like this too. In the future you just need to take good care of the children.”

Xiao Yuanbao nodded through her tears. Thinking that redeeming herself required at least eighty strings of cash, which Yuan Jia could never produce, the kind of life he spoke of could never come.

Following Yuan Jia, she saw the dragon head, saw the big fish, and saw many beautiful butterflies. The floor there was so smooth it reflected images. Hearing Yuan Jia say many students used this floor to peek under women’s skirts, she looked down and indeed could see her undergarments clearly. Embarrassed, she pinched Yuan Jia’s ear.

The dreamlike half-day, Xiao Yuanbao felt heaven could be nothing more than this. This was also good. She was in hell, but looking up she could see Yuan Jia in heaven—that was also very good.

“This is where we live. Prepare yourself, the smell might not be good.” Yuan Jia embarrassedly opened his dormitory door. He hadn’t lied—a strong smell of sweat and foot odor rushed out. Xiao Yuanbao covered her nose with her handkerchief and entered, wondering in her heart why a building that looked beautiful outside would be lived in by several men with the effect of a pigsty.

Scattered shoes, blankets rolled into strips, and most shameful was a painting of a nude woman on the wall by who knows whom. Yuan Jia frantically tried to cover it up, looking so comical. He forgot she was a courtesan who’d seen countless spring palace paintings, but she still liked this feeling of being respected. At this moment, what did death matter?

The room was quickly tidied very clean by Xiao Yuanbao. A large basin of dirty clothes was also washed by her. Xiao Yuanbao truly wanted such days to continue forever.

Yuan Jia suddenly smiled mysteriously at her and pulled out a wooden chest from under the bed. The chest was very clean. Xiao Yuanbao still remembered this chest was one she’d given to Yuan Jia. So he’d always kept it.

Yuan Jia opened the chest. Xiao Yuanbao was immediately stunned. The chest was full of copper coins and some scattered silver. Yuan Jia pulled out a small money pouch from his bosom and poured today’s fifty copper coins in as well.

“In here there’s a total of sixty-eight strings, seven hundred forty-seven coins. Adding today’s fifty coins, that’s sixty-eight strings, seven hundred ninety-seven coins. Just eleven strings, two hundred three coins more and it’ll be enough to redeem you. This is all my labor’s fruit from these three years. Every day I only eat the simplest food, do the most work, read the most books, all to pull you from that fire pit. If I don’t get you out, I’m not worthy of being a man.”