This was getting competitive. Yun Ye didn’t believe he couldn’t win against a lotus flower. He found some hemp thread and pulled the lotus bud back to the center of the lotus vat. He deliberately used a ruler to measure—right at the vat’s center point. Didn’t the textbooks from his childhood have a story about tying up sunflowers? Well, he’d tie up a lotus flower.
For this, he specifically warned the maids and servants not to touch it. Whoever touched it would be planted in the vat to be raised as a lotus. Every day he carefully inspected it once to see if it was working. As long as there were results, his mood for the entire day would be good.
As the bud grew larger, the effect became increasingly obvious. Now the flower stem underwater had already curved into an arc and showed a tendency to become fixed. Powerful external force could change the direction of plant growth—could it also change people?
He spent the whole day at the academy grinning. Even when Cheng Chubi couldn’t solve the problems, he didn’t get angry. Although it was a very simple linear equation that had been taught eighty times already, Cheng Chubi still hummed and hawed with his face flushed red, like he was constipated. He wouldn’t make things difficult for this child. Although he was already taller than Yun Ye, in his bones he was still a child.
“Cheng Chuliang, if Chubi still can’t answer these problems by next class, prepare yourself for punishment. If you fail the final exam, you won’t get summer vacation. The academy is still short one artificial mountain—you’ll complete it then.”
Cheng Chuliang, who originally had a face of unconcern, was suddenly greatly shocked and stammered: “Teacher, if Chubi can’t answer, why punish me? I’m doing very well.”
“Stretch out your hand!” Hearing Cheng Chuliang say this, Yun Ye walked to Cheng Chuliang’s side with a dark expression and ordered him to extend his hand. He struck his left palm heavily five times without any mercy. The sound was loud. Cheng Chubi, who had been watching the joke, immediately lost his smile and looked at Yun Ye in shock.
“Do you know your error?” Yun Ye asked Cheng Chuliang again with a stern face, his tone even more severe than before. The classroom was silent as a tomb. The students all kept their mouths tightly shut without saying a word.
Unable to understand, Cheng Chuliang timidly extended his right hand, prepared to receive punishment. “Use your left hand. Your right hand needs to write and do exercises.”
On Cheng Chuliang’s already reddened left hand, he struck three more times. They could hear the sound of him gritting his teeth. For a child of Old Cheng’s family to cry out from being hit would be shameful.
“Cheng Chuliang, do you know why you were punished today?”
“Because Chubi hasn’t learned well, and I didn’t help him.” Yun Ye patted his shoulder to indicate he could sit down. Walking to the podium, he said word by word: “You and Chubi are blood brothers. Yet one is foolish and one is intelligent—what is the reason? Same environment, same teachers—why is your academic performance among the best while Chubi’s studies have clearly been neglected? You are the elder brother with the responsibility to teach. Why have you never been seen teaching him his studies? Therefore, his error exists but isn’t serious—he simply hasn’t learned the material. Your error, however, is a great one. In the academy, learning has never been the standard for measuring a good student. We place more emphasis on perfection of character. So the one who should be punished is you. Do you accept this or not?”
Cheng Chuliang stood up and bowed to Yun Ye, saying: “This disciple understands. Henceforth I will certainly supervise Chubi to study hard and won’t dare slack off in the slightest.”
Yun Ye said with a smile: “Chubi is unruly and you can’t beat him. But that’s fine—take this disciplinary ruler. Use it when needed. If he dares resist, I can still use the Cheng family’s house rules without any problem.”
After speaking, he turned to write new coursework on the blackboard. Cheng Chuliang looked at Cheng Chubi fiercely and waved the ruler in his hand. Seeing his younger brother’s defeated expression, he was satisfied and turned back to continue the lesson.
After class, in the office he discussed some academy plans with Teacher Li Gang, then estimated the scale and cost of the new school buildings in detail with Xu Jingzong, then left it entirely to Xu Jingzong to supervise construction. He knew Xu’s family had started a kiln and made many bricks, preparing to gain some advantage for his family’s farmers in this academy construction. These matters were trivial. Xu Jingzong couldn’t possibly let substandard bricks enter the academy—his old brother still had that much integrity. As for qualified bricks—whose wasn’t the same to use?
Wang Cai carried Yun Ye and Daya, trotting all the way home. Daya was now studying beside Master Yushan, conveniently serving the old teacher. But this child’s eyes were really a problem, very worrying. He had already told her to use her eyes less, but she wouldn’t listen. It seemed he must prepare eyeglasses for her. Several old teachers at the academy also had severely failing eyesight. Now they could only read with magnifying glasses. Among these elderly, only Wu She and Lishi hadn’t developed problems. The rest were all in poor shape. Teacher Jinzhu wasn’t old, but his eyes were very bad.
Unfortunately, the craftsmen weren’t doing well. After two months of fussing, they produced one pair of eyeglasses. When fitted on Daya’s eyes, they were exquisitely beautiful, to be sure. Unfortunately, the most important component—the lenses—didn’t meet requirements. After wearing them only two days, Daya said her eyes were very uncomfortable. This wouldn’t do—clearly the prescription was wrong. He quickly removed them. He could only wait until a complete set of eye-testing lenses was prepared, then select suitable ones for her.
A date-red horse galloped past. The rider on the horse reached out and snatched Daya from beside Yun Ye. After cursing a couple times, seeing that bandit disappear in the dust, Yun Ye helplessly had Wang Cai quicken his pace. He’d go to Dan Ying’s small courtyard to continue cursing. In broad daylight—was there no shame?
The small courtyard was empty, locked. After kicking the door heavily twice in frustration, he returned home in a huff, his anger not yet dissipated. Just arriving home, he saw Daya obediently sitting under the grape arbor in the garden talking with Xinyue. Dan Ying himself held a pig’s knuckle, eating it dripping with juices. Just as he was about to step forward to curse a few times, his eyes swept past the lotus vat below the gate and he turned pale with shock. The lotus that had been fine when he left this morning was now nowhere to be seen—only half a bare stalk stuck out of the vat. This made him furious. Who was so bold?
Under his thunderous roar, the Yun residence became chaotic. The servants and maids of the front courtyard knelt on the ground trembling, not knowing why the good-tempered Marquis would fly into a rage.
No need for Di Renjie to analyze—the culprit was quickly apprehended. The Yun family’s eldest young master, Yun Baobao Yun Shou, was waving the flower bud and happily babbling at Yun Ye, drool dripping from his little face, completely without the feeling of a criminal caught in the act.
The dark clouds filling the sky immediately dispersed. This little guy was smart—he knew the importance of this lotus flower. With one glance he targeted the key point and acted decisively and cleanly. He pulled the flower with great momentum, even pulling out the undeveloped lotus root below. Such strength—he deserved a reward. As for the woman holding the child, she needed to be taught a lesson.
Taking his precious darling in his arms, he planted a smacking kiss on his face. The stinky little brat used the flower bud like a copper hammer, smacking his father’s face repeatedly, venting his dissatisfaction.
Once the Marquis was happy, the servants and maids receded like the tide. Only then did Yun Ye realize his household actually had so many servants and maids. Since there were these servants, why did he wash his face in the morning with only Xinyue or Na Rimu attending him? Sometimes there were also Runniang and Daya. Not one of these four knew how to serve properly. Xinyue would slam the basin on the garden’s low wall with a clang, then disappear, saying she couldn’t stand Yun Ye’s disgusting gargling with green salt. The water Na Rimu brought was generally cold water. When wiping his face with a hand towel, it often got stuffed in his nostrils. After Runniang finished serving her brother’s face-washing, she would generally take one or two silver ingots from her brother’s purse. If there were small gemstones, she’d also take one or two, calling it compensation. Too expensive—couldn’t afford it. Seeing Daya squinting and looking so labored made Yun Ye uncomfortable, so he simply did it himself.
Why was there not one sweet, soft voice saying: “Marquis, please wash up,” followed by fingers white as scallions gliding across his face? Yun Ye had anticipated such a scene for a long time. With so many maids in the household, could they really not find even one good one?
Seeing Xinyue and Na Rimu drive away all the maids with furrowed brows, Yun Ye felt this wish of his probably had no hope of being fulfilled in this lifetime.
Left hand holding his son, right hand holding his daughter—such happiness made Yun Ye nearly delirious with joy. His daughter had finally grown out, and he could finally see some of Na Rimu’s shadow. This was good—as long as she didn’t grow crooked like her father. Most unable to bear those two women, he twisted his neck and took his son and daughter to the study.
Placing his son in the vat for storing scrolls and his daughter on the desk, watching her constantly kicking her little legs, joy flooded over Yun Ye like a tide. Changing diapers was a bit troublesome, but it didn’t stump Yun Ye. In his previous life, he’d done this kind of work countless times and was already skilled at it. The pile of things Na Rimu had haphazardly tied on the child was pulled off by him and thrown away entirely. Under the wet nurse’s astonished gaze, Yun Ye skillfully changed his daughter’s diaper. The little blanket was wrapped up in just a few moves. Holding the bottom with one hand, the soft cloth ties bundled the swaddling firmly. Inserting his hand under the ties to test the tightness—not bad. Although he hadn’t done this for many years, the skill remained.
No need for the wet nurse—feeding his own children some milk was no problem. His son was bigger—he gave him a bottle to hold and gnaw on. He held his daughter’s bottle himself, feeding her bit by bit. The cork from Guanzhong was quite good—made into bottle nipples, it was very suitable for children’s tender little mouths.
Now this type of bottle had reportedly become the Empress’s great invention. It was inspiration that struck the Empress while nursing children. At that time thunder and rain raged, fresh flowers descended from heaven, fragrance overflowed from cracks in the earth. In this environment even more exaggerated than Cangjie creating characters, the Empress completed this world-shaking invention, completely disregarding Yun Ye’s grief-stricken gaze in the corner, independently accepting the worshipful gazes of the world.
Xinyue and Na Rimu, who thought Yun Ye would be flustered and beg them to take the children away, were stunned by the harmonious environment as soon as they entered the study. Yun Baobao babbled learning to speak, and Yun Ye babbled back. Father and son communicated happily and joyfully. From Yun Ye’s tender gaze, one could see he understood what his son was saying.
While caring for his son, he didn’t forget to care for his daughter. New linen cloth boiled in water was rubbed soft by hand, dampened with clean water, and used to clean his daughter’s mouth. His technique was skilled, his movements quick and nimble.