The sun rose in the east, sunlight filling the earth. A rare fine day—Yushan was lush and green without a trace of mist. The morning exercises had already ended, and the academy students carried their meal bowls to the dining hall to eat.

Almost everyone wore smiles—except for these few, of course.

Li Tai rubbed his dark circles, took a sip of porridge and yawned, listlessly taking a few bites of his steamed bun before heading back to his room. Last night had been too noisy—he’d barely slept all night. The early morning exercises were mandatory, and though Liu Xian was his family’s servant, here he was truly the Academy Supervisor wielding the power of reward and punishment. If he suffered losses here, even running to the Emperor wouldn’t gain him any advantage.

Same for Duan Meng, Meng Youtong, and a few others—they were also sluggish and couldn’t muster energy for anything.

Huang Shu arrived at the dining hall full of vigor, filled a huge clay basin with thin porridge, wrapped a dozen steamed buns in cloth, hummed a little tune, and walked home.

Suddenly looking up, he discovered Li Tai, Duan Meng, Meng Youtong and several others angrily blocking his path.

“Put the food aside—don’t spill it,” Li Tai ordered.

Huang Shu obediently placed the thin porridge on the bench to the side, also set down the buns, then came over with a careful attitude.

“Squat down, hold your head.”

Following this demon king’s instructions, he had just gotten into position when a storm of fists and feet rained down. Huang Shu didn’t dare resist and could only forcibly endure until the group found it boring and stopped.

Li Tai was a very reasonable person—after the beating he explained the reason: “Know why we beat you?”

Huang Shu, nose bleeding, shook his head indicating he didn’t know.

“Could you keep the damn noise down when you do your business? Are we brothers supposed to sleep or not? You damn well carried on all night, and we brothers kept our eyes open with you until dawn. If it weren’t for the fact that you bastard had your wedding night last night, you think we’d wait until now to beat you?” Duan Meng explained very loudly, drawing roaring laughter from the surrounding students.

Huang Shu practically stuffed his head into his crotch, squeezed through the crowd, picked up his food, and fled in a flash.

Ying Niang was tidying the house, wiping everything over and over until spotless. Recalling last night made her blush—five years of abstinence released in one night of indulgence had been so passionate.

She loved this environment. Everyone looked refined, without the usual vulgar language. Everyone smiled at her—sincere and warm smiles. Her husband told her these people all had great learning, even the Daoist Sun Simiao lived here. Heavens, was this a place where only immortals could live?

Huang Shu ran in with a bloody face. Ying Niang quickly took the food and asked: “Did you fall? Or did someone hit you?”

Huang Shu said nothing, only buried his head in the basin to wash the blood from his face.

The injury wasn’t serious. Huang Shu could tell they’d only accidentally hit his nose, causing the bleeding. How humiliating—last night in his excitement he’d forgotten this was the academy, not like visiting a brothel where he could be unrestrained.

“Let’s go find them and reason with them! Even if he’s the village chief’s son, he can’t bully people!” Guanzhong women had fierce temperaments—Ying Niang was no exception.

Pulling back the raging Ying Niang, he said in a low voice: “We made too much noise last night and kept the nobles next door awake all night. They vented their anger at me this morning. It’s fine—we were in the wrong.”

Ying Niang’s face flushed red, then she flared up again: “Even if we were wrong, they shouldn’t have hit you! Look, your nose is broken! I don’t believe they’re more powerful than the county magistrate! Is there no place for justice in this world?”

Huang Shu was both moved and found it amusing. He pulled Ying Niang to the window and pointed at Yun Ye stretching his legs outside: “That’s the Marquis.” Then he pointed at Li Tai who had just beaten him: “The one who beat me is this one. His father isn’t the village chief—his father is the current Emperor.”

Yun Ye was somewhat worried. Yushan Academy’s reputation had grown ever greater. In just half a year, the academy had over one hundred thirty students, with new students enrolling almost daily. Teachers were always insufficient, but he didn’t want to make do haphazardly. What could be done?

Originally it was agreed to recruit once a year, but now it was problematic. Everyone brought letters to find Yun Ye. Alright then—one from Zhangsun Wuji said his son went to the battlefield, so the academy must let another Zhangsun family child enroll to be fair.

This couldn’t be refused. Zhangsun Chong’s face still had to be respected, so Zhangsun Wen arrived at the academy.

Fang Xuanling had someone send over a thousand strings of cash, saying this money gained from riding Marquis Yun’s coattails should be used for teaching and educating, fully demonstrating a prime minister’s broad-minded concern for country and people. Only his youngest son constantly caused trouble, vexing him greatly. If only…

Very well, the prime minister’s worries must be shared, so Fang Yi’ai arrived at the academy. Looking at the ten-year-old Fang Yi’ai before him, Yun Ye sighed wordlessly.

If those two were people Yun Ye couldn’t refuse, then Old Liang from the Left Militant Guard who specially came from the front lines under the pretense of reporting military intelligence, bringing seven or eight children of Left Militant Guard comrades, kneeling at the Yun residence, begging Marquis Yun for the sake of their brotherhood to give their unworthy children a chance to make something of themselves—how could Yun Ye refuse this?

A burly man crying so pitifully—fine then! He waved for the steward to send the children to the academy and welcomed Old Liang into his home, asking about military affairs while at it.

Once the opening was made, trying to block it was just a joke. When Yun Ye took roll call at the start of the new month, he discovered the academy already had nearly two hundred students.

Where was he to find teachers with good learning, high morals, and willing to dedicate themselves to teaching students?

“Give me three thousand strings of cash and I’ll get you fifty teachers.” Li Gang munched on newly available cucumbers, crunching loudly, pointing at a row of large characters on the blackboard with half a cucumber—very much in Yun Ye’s style and quite imposing.

What the academy lacked least was money. New students who didn’t pay several hundred or thousand strings of cash would be too embarrassed to establish themselves at the academy—except for those poor wretches from the Left Militant Guard.

Simple—a three-thousand-string promissory note slapped down before Old Li, then with a cupped-hand salute, Yun Ye left. As for how to find people and what kind of people to find, Li Gang understood far better than himself.

The old man was growing younger by the day. He could probably live another ten years without problem, only his temperament grew increasingly strange, progressing toward childishness. First he fussed about wanting a residence, then furniture, now he was opening his mouth for money. Let him be—as long as he lived well and helped prop up the academy, there was no problem.

He knew the old man was afraid—afraid Yun Ye would use his money for things he didn’t understand. Last time when shown the academy’s long-term development plan, the old man had been frightened. He worried the academy would clash with the court. With these students flocking here, it would be strange if their teachers’ influence wasn’t behind it. He’d rather burden himself than let students tie Yun Ye’s hands and feet. Such painstaking effort!

Class divisions! All children newly arrived at the academy were assigned to first grade, then through examinations, the academy students were divided into three grades. The senior grade had only fourteen students. Physics, mathematics, geometry, and other modern subjects were only taught to these fourteen people, and these fourteen rotated teaching basic arithmetic to lower grades.

Thus Li Gang discovered that while they grew ever busier, Yun Ye became more relaxed.

In this year of disaster, everyone lived in fear. The Guanzhong region began seeing displaced people. They abandoned land and homes, surging toward cities, hoping to find something to eat. Farmers at this time had no reserves to last over two years. The harvest they’d been waiting for was completely devastated by the sky-covering locusts. Without harvest in the fields, there was nothing to eat. Disaster victims unwilling to await death while still having some savings flocked to other places. Strangely, no one went south. Even though Guanzhong suffered disasters everywhere, they aimlessly wandered within Guanzhong rather than going elsewhere.

The Yun family estate now had many people. The locust industry absorbed large amounts of idle labor. Not only could no idle people be found on their own estate, but farmers from neighboring estates also came to work. The Yun family accepted all comers. As long as they worked, they either received money or grain—no second words. The sacks of locust powder piled ever higher. After the locusts passed, the household returned to normal. The wheat in the fields had long been harvested—sure enough, only sixty percent. Even so, the tenant farmers happily celebrated for several days.

They brought out ten percent of the grain to pay rent to the household. How strange—Yun Ye remembered saying that this year suffered disaster, so no rent need be paid. This was also the court’s decree. He came home today specifically to handle this matter.

These people said not a word and wouldn’t eat the food the household provided. They just waited at the back gate, preparing to pay rent. Seeing Yun Ye arrive, a ninety-year-old elder was helped down from an ox cart. He could barely speak clearly, but his age demanded respect. Yun Ye needed to treat him as an elder—at his age, he needn’t even bow before the Emperor.

After straining to listen for a long time, he finally understood. The tenant farmers believed that this year suffered disaster and everyone was unlucky—the Yun family too. The fields yielded only sixty percent, so the Yun family must have their share. This was proper.

Very simple reasoning. Though in his heart he looked down on these fools, tears flowed from his eyes. Where was the landlord exploiting farmers? The farmers were exploiting the landlord! Heavens! Li Er had already beheaded seven or eight landlords who still collected rent during disaster years. Did they hope he’d be beheaded? Being a landlord to this extent—Heaven and reason wouldn’t tolerate it!

Other landlords either snatched someone like Xi’er or took advantage of disaster years to buy up land at low prices. Anyway, they did whatever felt good. When it came to him being landlord, even collecting rent carried the danger of beheading.

Yun Ye shed tears, the tenant farmers shed tears, Sun Simiao passing by also smiled through tears, and Old Granny cried until she couldn’t face anyone.

Grabbing the food the Yun family had prepared, Yun Ye tore open a large flatbread, took a bite, and said loudly: “Eat! When coming to the master’s house to pay rent, providing food is customary. You’ve fulfilled your duty, so now it’s the Yun family’s turn to fulfill our duty. Start eating!” He then handed the remaining half flatbread to the old elder. The old man opened his toothless mouth and bit hard into the flatbread. Unable to bite through, he still wouldn’t let go, choking out that this was the best flatbread he’d eaten in his life.

The tenant farmers scrambled madly for flatbreads, even the Yun family servants grabbed some. Qian Tong wiped away tears, gathered his core energy and bellowed:

“Collecting rent!” His voice stretched out long…