When someone fell into a well, Yun Ye generally would not throw stones into the well. But when he fell into a well, others seemed not to show him enough tolerance, especially Xinyue, who not only cried loudly but also wanted to jump into the well again.
The matter had to be told from yesterday. The water well in the Yun Family’s back garden had suddenly stopped producing water ten days ago. Within three days, the water in the well had disappeared. This well’s water was very good—the entire Yun Family’s drinking water came from here. Without water, this was extremely troublesome. Yuan Tiangang, who happened to be visiting the house, calculated with his fingers and said that the Yun Family this year was afflicted by petty people, causing this excellent water well’s water vein to be cut off. In feng shui terms, this was an extremely inauspicious omen and required high moral masters from the Lord Laozi Temple to chant scriptures in order to ward off evil.
To pacify the old grandmother and Xinyue, Yun Ye paid out one hundred silver coins to have Old Yuan take action. Just chant a passage of scriptures and quickly bring out the well water—the household was still waiting for well water to cook meals.
Old Yuan was also straightforward. He personally made a round by the water well, chanted scriptures, performed the ritual, and took away the silver coins. But the well water simply did not appear. It was very difficult to swindle away Yun Ye’s money. Even immortals could not just take money without doing work. One reaps what one sows—getting something for nothing was wrong. When Yun Ye was pulling at Yuan Tiangang’s sleeve demanding his one hundred silver coins back, Xinyue was already so ashamed and indignant she wanted to commit suicide by jumping into the well. In all of Great Tang, only her husband could do such a thing.
Yun Shou and Yun Mu naturally stood on Father’s side, also helping Father demand their family’s silver from Yuan Tiangang. Xinyue had no way to deal with her husband, but how could she be polite with the two little ones? A feather duster drove the two children away, and she begged her husband not to lose face anymore.
Yun Ye had no way to reason with Xinyue. Ever since the hot air balloon went up to the sky, he had become like a god of fortune, prosperity, longevity, and joy. How could Yuan Tiangang care about one hundred silver coins? What he cared about was that these one hundred silver coins came from the Yun Family. Being able to obtain these one hundred silver coins meant he could tell the story as a new legendary tale.
Unable to withstand Xinyue’s pleading, Yuan Tiangang still got his way. The old Daoist left, but the household well’s problem still had not been resolved at all. Liu Jinbao went down to the bottom of the well and came up saying there was no water at the bottom of the well. Even the sand dug out for filtering water quality had almost dried out. The water vein had run off to who knows where and they needed to find a new water vein to dig a well.
For a water vein to run away, there could only be one possibility—the geology underground had changed. As for what changes had occurred, Yun Ye knew very well in his heart. The tunnel the household retainers were digging seemed to have already reached near the garden.
Those loyal old men had not stopped considering the Yun Family’s future even for a single day. They had sold themselves very thoroughly. Not only were they themselves household retainers, their descendants in the future would inevitably also be household retainers. Great Tang was now cracking down on nobles possessing military retainers. Yun Ye’s fifty households of military retainers had now been reduced to only thirty-two households.
“Those without military merit may not receive titles”—this was a hard condition. In the past two years, there had never been new faces joining. But today, Li Ji was celebrating grandly at home the addition of a new noble to the military’s big family.
Yun Ye would not go. Hiding at the bottom of the well researching hydrological conditions, he also would not go welcome the arrival of a new colleague. For no other reason than this new colleague was Li Dayin, ennobled as Baron of Cangwu County and a powerful figure holding the seal of the Water Supervision.
The Water Supervision was the central institution responsible for water conservancy, including planning, construction, and management of navigation, bridges, and other engineering projects. Although it had connections with the Ministry of Works, which supervised water conservancy administration, and its subordinate Water Department, there was no subordinate relationship.
The establishment of water officials began in the Qin Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty continued the Qin system. The Water Chief and Assistant established by Qin and Han managed mountains, marshes, parks, pools, rivers, lakes, water springs, agricultural irrigation, and the repair and maintenance of canal dikes. They were subordinate to central institutions like the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, Lesser Treasury, Water Balance Commandant, and Minister of Agriculture.
During the Western Han, a Three Capital Districts Water Administration was established in Guanzhong. During Emperor Cheng’s time (some say Emperor Wu’s time), the Water Supervisor Envoy was established to uniformly manage water officials in various institutions. The Eastern Han abolished the Water Supervisor Envoy and placed water officials under local administration. A Water Administration Chief was established at Dujiangyan. Shaobei also had water officials. During the Western Jin, a Water Administration Platform was established with a Water Supervisor Envoy. During the Xiao Liang period, the Water Administration Platform was once changed to Grand Boat Minister. During the early Sui, the old system was continued and it was called the Water Administration Platform, later changed to Water Supervision, with the chief official being the Water Supervisor Envoy. Great Tang was no exception.
According to what Yun Ye knew, the Water Supervision was listed under the Lesser Treasury. When the Yun Family had cleared the Chang’an river channels and established water and land docks back in the day, Yun Ye had dealt with the Water Supervision quite a bit. They were all decent, honest people—a place where learned people stayed, all upright technical bureaucrats. Give them a few dozen strings of cash and they would work themselves to death for you. The Academy had poached quite a few officials from there.
This Water Supervision was vastly different from that Water Supervision. Now the authority to manage mountains, rivers, lakes, and marshes had been devolved to provincial governments. The Water Supervision had already become a department existing in name only. How could such a leisurely place that couldn’t be more leisurely possibly dispatch a proper founding baron to govern it?
Yun Ye continuously examined the official regulations of the Water Supervision, comparing the current ones with the previous ones. He was surprised to discover that the new Water Supervision had an additional authority to monitor all the boats, bridges, waterways, lakes, and mountain forests under heaven.
That was right! How could they not monitor? Inside and outside the Tang court were all kinds of demons and monsters. Without a pair of eyes like Bai Qi Si, how could the Emperor rest easy?
The bastard actually wanted to start his first fire upon taking office by burning this old man. If he didn’t know, that would be one thing, but now that he knew, if he wanted not to burn this old man, this old man wouldn’t agree.
Xinyue sat opposite Yun Ye. Na Rimu also sat beside them. Lingdang was embroidering shoe insoles and also looked worriedly at her husband, because her husband’s expression right now was very frightening. His eyebrows moved up and down. Whenever her husband had this kind of expression, it meant his heart was filled with anger. They were already an old married couple—what they were familiar with wasn’t just each other’s bodies.
“Prepare gifts. I’m planning to celebrate a bit for this Water Supervisor Envoy and incidentally ask him to come help our family look at the well. The household doesn’t even have drinking water—this is precisely what he as the Water Supervisor Envoy should be doing.”
Xinyue breathed a long sigh of relief. Her husband never fell short in matters of human relationships and social proprieties. Now that others were all going to Li Ji’s residence to congratulate him, if her husband didn’t go, it would be extremely discourteous. Not only would he fail to give that Baron of Cangwu County face, very likely even Li Ji would be offended. For nobles, an ennoblement celebration was the same principle as an emperor’s enthronement.
A banquet was not only a process of finding friends but also a good opportunity to see enemies clearly. Would you expect someone who was unwilling even to attend others’ ennoblement celebrations to become your friend?
“This concubine has long prepared everything. If you don’t like that Water Supervisor Envoy, just show your face at the banquet, drink a cup of wine, and come back. Our family doesn’t care for his friendship, but we shouldn’t offend him either. Look, the gifts this concubine prepared are just right—neither too light nor too heavy. Anyone who looks will see it’s just social formality. Those stewards receiving gifts will know at a glance and naturally will inform the master. This concubine guarantees that damned Water Supervisor Envoy won’t come bother you.”
The gifts that were neither too light nor too heavy filled exactly one cart, all packed in beautiful boxes, appearing very classy. It was courtesy to an excessive degree. Very likely the gifts inside the boxes weren’t even worth as much as the boxes themselves. When the Yun Family sent gifts to Old Cheng’s family, Old Niu’s family, Old Qin’s family, including to Yuchi Gong, Li Chengqian, and Li Tai, they never used boxes—it was always a messy two or three carts, all good things.
Li Ji’s outer residence was not far from the Yun Family, right by the Ba River. The Ba River was covered everywhere with weeping willows. To display his identity as a scholarly general, Li Ji had specifically named his estate Green Willow Manor—one of the few famous gardens in Chang’an.
Li Ji’s family had monopolized the “Misty Willows on Ba Bridge,” one of the Eight Scenes of Chang’an. He had great merit, so naturally he would have fine scenery. Zhang Liang’s estate at Mount Li had been massacred—who knew when Li Ji’s estate would also be massacred.
Seeing the willows hanging like silk threads on the riverbank, Yun Ye was jealous to the point of madness. The willow trees in Guanzhong just grew so charmingly, especially when sending forth tender new leaves. The entire branches drooped down softly, not that kind of deep green that disturbed the heart, but rather presenting a light goose-yellow color. If at this time a beautiful woman wearing a light green shirt appeared here, it would definitely arouse strong protective desires in males.
Just as he was appreciating the beautiful scenery looking for beautiful women, a man in green clothes dressed up like a toad abruptly appeared and completely ruined the absolutely beautiful scenery here.
“Ah! Brother Yun, this younger brother pays his respects.” The toad man recited the courtesy formula and mechanically bowed in salutation. One look showed he had only practiced last night and still wasn’t very skilled. Standing with feet in an outward splayed position while cupping fists in salute and bowing—this difficulty was not small.
“Ah! Brother Li, not having seen you for several days, my brother’s elegance remains as before. This is truly cause for joy and congratulations. Hearing that today is my brother’s ennoblement ceremony, this younger brother has specially come to congratulate you. These humble gifts are not worthy of respect. Please accept them, Brother Li.”
Since the other party used grand courtesy, Yun Ye had to bring out that set he had learned long ago to deal with the occasion. And you really couldn’t say—Li Dayin really liked this sort of thing. He had probably been poor and shabby for so long that now he had finally made it, he wanted everyone to know he had escaped the country bumpkin class. From clothing and dress to etiquette and walking, he didn’t want a single thing to be the same as before.
From the main gate to the great hall—this short hundred or so steps—this fellow walked with measured steps for the time it took half a stick of incense to burn. Two steps probably weren’t walked to his satisfaction, and he even had plans to go back and walk them over again. Seeing Yun Ye’s face full of impatience, only then did he abandon this strange notion.
Li Dayin was indeed a strange person. When others’ awkward situations were exposed, they might blush. As for feeling shame—that was a basic emotional color. Li Dayin didn’t have even half a bit of embarrassment. Walking to the entrance of the great hall, he cupped his hands toward Yun Ye again and said, “Ah! Brother Yun, this younger brother just now walked two steps not quite correctly, bringing disgrace to our generation’s dignity. Please allow this younger brother to walk it over again—how about it?”
Walking it over again would be losing face for all two-legged walking animals. An ugly person with splayed feet—however he walked, that’s how it looked. The imposing official bearing of officials had been completely destroyed by him, because everyone was watching this fellow learn to walk like a duck.