Driving the carriage with Xu Jingzong, they inspected the various construction sites of the academy, especially the perimeter walls. Building an academy into a fortified city capable of both offense and defense was an enormously ambitious project. Fortunately, construction at the academy had never ceased over these years—no matter how slow the progress, work had continued uninterrupted.
Better slow than stopped. For such a massive undertaking, a construction team of five hundred workers still seemed rather thin. However, these five hundred had completely transformed from farmers into highly skilled craftsmen whose efficiency sometimes astonished even Yun Ye.
Huang Shu’s recent task was to search everywhere for underground springs. Having accumulated modest wealth, when Huang Shu heard the academy had assigned him work, he immediately shed his loose Shu brocade outer robe and, like the academy students, tied his hair up into a neat ponytail. When the weather was hot and hair stuck to his neck, shaking that ponytail was quite dashing.
Carrying all his equipment, after tracing the water veins of the Dongyang River, he began drilling holes everywhere. At each location where he detected a water source, he marked it with black stones. In the future, the academy’s thick walls would follow these water veins—the moat of Dawang City had left too deep an impression on him.
In this era where city walls were still needed to provide security, following the trend and constructing an immense fortified city was something anyone could understand. Yun Ye’s grand plan had now become the consensus throughout the academy.
Xu Jingzong’s requirements for escape routes were simply obsessive. Standing on the rope bridge, as the mountain ravine’s fierce winds blew past, swaying unsteadily and making one dizzy, this hundred-meter-long cable bridge was Xu Jingzong’s design. Massive iron chains were firmly embedded into the cliff walls on both sides, with inverted V-shaped iron chain protective walls steadily guarding them. Even if giant stones were hurled from the mountaintop, they couldn’t possibly strike the chains. One couldn’t grasp the iron chains with bare hands—they were coated with thick grease to prevent wind and rain from rusting them.
“Old Xu, why arrange the escape route into the Qinling Mountains? With all those old, weak, sick, and disabled people at the academy, how many could survive entering the Qinling Mountains? Are you planning to become mountain savages the moment trouble arises?”
Xu Jingzong showed his white teeth in a grinning laugh: “Do you know what price my late father paid for the chance to hide in the Qinling Mountains from the flames of war? Once the academy’s fortifications can no longer hold, having the opportunity to enter the Qinling Mountains would be a blessing. Given the academy’s status today, no matter who becomes emperor, they won’t harm the academy but will do everything possible to protect it. So you see, dynastic changes among the Han people aren’t frightening—what’s terrifying is foreign invasion. Where iron hooves pass, smoke and flames roll everywhere. Those ignorant and barbaric people won’t understand what power lies within books. The only power they recognize is the blade in their hands.”
“You’re speaking very boldly today, without any reservations. This doesn’t match your usual character.”
“Here, touching neither heaven above nor earth below, speaking a few idle words will be blown away by the great wind—what’s there to worry about? If I, Xu Jingzong, can just watch this grand city rise from the ground, I’ll be completely satisfied. Haha, hiding in plain sight with such achievements far surpasses scrambling like flies and dogs in the court. What’s wrong with living freely for a lifetime?”
Watching Xu Jingzong spread his arms wide, shouting into the wind, Yun Ye felt quite satisfied. This was his pledge of loyalty—though this fellow did it rather extremely. Yun Ye believed that if a true crisis arose, this fellow would absolutely deny having said these words. Speaking them to Yun Ye now was merely workplace speculation.
What Xu Jingzong didn’t know, but Yun Ye clearly understood, was that there were six more academy bases inside the Qinling Mountains. For instance, the place where they conducted drug trials last time was one of them. The annoying thing was that Bai Qi Si seemed to know about them all.
There was one sum of money in the academy whose destination Xu Jingzong couldn’t inquire about. Sun Simiao took some each month, Zhao Yanling took some each month, and as for the two expenses for Master Li Gang and Master Yuanzhang, under normal circumstances, not even a bottom ledger was kept. Xu Jingzong knew that money must be used on critical matters, perhaps even related to the academy’s survival. Therefore, he was happy to play dumb.
Returning from the construction site, having just washed his face, the Yun Family servants hurriedly reported that old friends had come to visit. However, these old friends were unknown to them—they seemed to be from Lingnan, an old man accompanied by two young people, one male and one female.
Hearing the servant say this, a smile floated onto Yun Ye’s face—genuine happiness. These were truly old friends. Thinking of their pure, innocent smiles, even the gloomy sky outside looked pleasing to Yun Ye.
Those pure, innocent faces from the moon worship gathering were enjoyable just to think about. He wondered whether Meng Lu and Meng Na had married, whether they had children, and whether the children belonged to Meng Lu or Meng Na. That clever elder probably had another gourd case to judge—the old man was probably destined to be the Gourd Elder, planning to muddle through the village for life.
Wang Cai seemed to know Yun Ye’s thoughts and ran home at full speed. Upon reaching the front door, he impatiently nudged the groom to untie his halter, then followed behind Yun Ye toward the guest hall.
When Yun Ye wasn’t home, Old Qian handled entertaining outsiders. From afar, he could hear Old Qian talking with the elder, both seeming quite pleasant, with laughter periodically emerging.
The idle Meng Lu was resting with closed eyes while Meng Na turned her bright black and white eyes everywhere, looking around. Seeing calligraphy and paintings on the wall, she’d poke Meng Lu; seeing porcelain on the flower stand, she’d poke Meng Lu with her mouth agape; even seeing the auspicious patterns painted on the ceiling, she’d poke Meng Lu. Coming from distant Lingnan to Chang’an to visit friends had truly opened her eyes.
“Ah, wise Elder, seeing you in Chang’an truly delights me. Meng Lu, my brother, have you already plucked the most beautiful flower from the village?”
The elder’s appearance hadn’t changed—he still had that bad habit of wrapping cloth around his head. Hearing Yun Ye’s voice, Meng Lu suddenly opened his eyes, his smile immediately spreading. Meng Na, regardless of everything, jumped up and hugged Yun Ye’s arm, chattering away in a long string. Seeing this, Old Qian excused himself and went down to prepare a feast for the guests. He could tell these three were the Marquis’s true friends, and poor hospitality would bring reproach.
Yun Ye listened to Meng Na’s continuous chatter. Though he couldn’t understand it, nodding was the right response. Finally, seeing her pointing at the hairpin on a maid’s head and talking incessantly, he immediately understood—she had taken a fancy to the maid’s hairpin. In the village, they would share their last bite of food with friends, so asking friends for things was perfectly natural.
He sent a maid to ask Xinyue for a few pretty hairpins, and also to have Xinyue come out to meet the guests—it was proper. Meeting old friends was always joyous.
After greeting the elder and embracing Meng Lu firmly, Meng Na kept her eyes fixed on the doorway, waiting for the maid to return with those beautiful hair ornaments, completely unconcerned with what the three men were saying.
“Elder, why have you traveled ten thousand miles to Chang’an this time? The journey must have been extremely arduous. I’ve already sent people to arrange food and wine. Today we’ll drink our fill and not return until drunk. Whatever matters you have can wait until tomorrow.”
From the first moment he saw them until now, Yun Ye knew they had all suffered greatly. The elder was covered in dust from the road, his straw sandals worn and tattered. Meng Na, who loved being pretty, had become dark and thin, her skirt covered with patches. Meng Lu’s pants had lost half a leg, and the elder’s head wrap was reduced to just a thin layer. Ten thousand miles distant—they had walked step by step to Chang’an on nothing but their own two feet.
“Good, my friend. We walked across the earth for a full half year to reach Chang’an and truly need rest. Today we’ll drink wine, eat meat, say nothing, and think about nothing.”
Meng Lu also stammered: “Friend, drink wine.”
Hearing this, Yun Ye happily slapped his shoulder and said: “Being at my place, you must be happy. Whatever difficulties you’ve encountered, I’ll help you resolve them. I don’t believe there’s anything in the village I can’t solve. Today we drink wine and eat meat—we’ll handle matters tomorrow.”
Outside the door, Xinyue was surprised. Her husband never made such mindless promises. Without even asking what the matter was, he was already patting his chest making guarantees—this was truly strange.
Seeing Xinyue enter, Meng Na looked at her as if seeing a fairy. Her garments were a hundred times more beautiful than the prettiest clothes she’d ever seen, and Xinyue herself was a hundred times more beautiful than the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen. Especially that pretty thing on her head and the pretty things around her neck gave her an urge to go wild.
Forcibly pulling Yun Ye over and pointing at Xinyue, she launched into another long babbling stream. Simple people have simple thoughts, easy to guess. Pointing at Xinyue, he said to Meng Na: “This is my wife, named Xinyue.”
Then Yun Ye said to Xinyue: “This is Meng Na, Meng Lu’s wife. They’re all friends I met when wandering in Lingnan—all good people.”
“Beautiful lady, you are the most beautiful woman I have seen. Please accept our most sincere blessings.” The elder very earnestly praised Xinyue, making her flustered and unsure how to respond—this was the first time she’d heard such undisguised praise of her beauty from a man other than her husband.
“Lady, don’t be surprised. What comes from their mouths is surely what’s in their hearts—this is the finest praise. When with them, don’t be the least bit false.”
Hearing her husband say this, Xinyue relaxed and, pulling Meng Na along, examined the tray carried over by the maid item by item. The tray was filled with all kinds of hairpins—gold ones, gemstone ones, jade ones, agate ones, ivory ones—each one magnificently precious, each one making Meng Na unable to let go.
Wiping her hands clean on her clothes, she picked up a multicolored hairpin with the most brilliant colors and was about to stick it in her hair. Xinyue smiled and took it, personally inserting it in her hair, then took a pearl hairpin and inserted it as well. Seeing Meng Na pointing at the hairpins in the tray wanting to insert them all, Xinyue, caught between laughter and tears, wrapped up all the hairpins and placed them entirely in her hands—only then did she stop.