“Jointly submitting a memorial is a small matter, and I don’t find anything inappropriate about it. But there’s one thing I’d like to ask advice about from the distinguished expert of the Court of State Ceremonial. Now the court is full of upright officials—the court is filled with none other than people of profound virtue and ocean-deep learning who have always spared no effort in promoting their juniors. Why is it that I have never experienced being cared for by you elders? When it comes to private matters, everyone is cheerful and excited, each enjoying themselves thoroughly. But as soon as I bring up official business, all the officials at court hang out their ‘do not disturb’ signs and talk about everything except the matter at hand. Why is this?”
Today Tang Jian had something to ask of him, so Yun Ye dangled the prospect of jointly submitting a memorial claiming merit to keep Tang Jian hooked, forcing him to explain why every matter Yun Ye handled at court required repeated study before receiving an ambiguous reply. Often he had to find Li Er and explain things clearly to him before the matter could proceed. What was this all about? Yun Ye believed he hadn’t harmed anyone’s interests—basically everything was mutually beneficial. Why was it so difficult to accomplish anything?
“Marquis Yun doesn’t know?” Tang Jian instead asked Yun Ye.
“I don’t know. Although I’m young, when it comes to academy matters, I always do everything properly and give no one anything to criticize.”
As soon as Yun Ye finished speaking, Tang Jian and Xu Jingzong burst out laughing together. This time they left Yun Ye utterly baffled.
After laughing for a long while, they finally stopped. Tang Jian said to Xu Jingzong: “Yanzu, you explain properly to this brilliantly talented but confused marquis the way things work here. Let this old man laugh a while longer. Being able to make Yun Ye, Yun Buqi—the foremost of Chang’an’s Three Scourges—scratch his head in confusion is truly worth a hearty drinking session.”
Xu Jingzong wiped away his tears and said to Yun Ye: “Marquis Yun, your misfortune lies in thinking through every matter too thoroughly, leaving your superiors unable to find even the slightest flaw. The reason superiors are superiors is that they must be more brilliant than you. Your memorials make them feel that you are the superior. To eliminate this strange feeling, they have no choice but to search for errors between your lines—even finding a single wrong character would count. Unfortunately, you’ve never given them this opportunity. When you submit a memorial to your superiors, you hope they can correct and supplement it before giving you a final reply. But your memorials leave no room for their corrections. This means one party must be a fool. To avoid being the fool themselves, they can only impose upon you to be that fool.”
“When I was at the Ministry of Works, I was often called in to review your memorials. Speaking from the heart, each of your requests was well-reasoned and well-founded. Every idea was unexpected yet absolutely brilliant. Each time I reviewed them, I gained new insights and often slapped the table in admiration, wishing I could personally go to the academy to seek instruction. Such memorials—I remember there were three in total. The first was ‘Petition for Approval to Establish the New Academy of Investigation.’ The second was ‘Petition for Allocation of Work Expenses.’ The third was the famous ‘Academy Overview.'”
“I’ve seen no fewer than a thousand memorials, but yours left the deepest impression on me. In the first one, you expounded from four aspects the necessity of establishing the academy. Whether military, industrial, agricultural, or commercial—each point was so thoroughly documented that no one could refute it. One felt they only needed to sign and seal the memorial without giving it any further thought, that you would certainly succeed in making this happen.”
“The second memorial, ‘Petition for Allocation of Work Expenses’—needless to say, the Minister at the Ministry of Works uses it as a model. Those strange yet undeniably real expenses were an eye-opener for us all. We suddenly realized that calculating the costs of a project could be done this way! You don’t know—the Minister was sweating profusely reading your memorial. If such a memorial were fully approved, the Ministry of Works would certainly become a laughingstock. Tell me, would they approve such a memorial?”
“The third memorial was your masterpiece, and it left the chancellors of the Three Departments utterly embarrassed. I’m afraid even His Majesty regretted his bold statement that ‘all the heroes under heaven have fallen into my net.’ Anyway, I don’t have the courage or ability to comment on it. I just heard that after His Majesty read your memorial and returned to the palace, he punished seven or eight palace attendants in succession. The next day, however, he personally ordered the academy’s construction and required that all future memorials from civil and military officials reach the standard of being substantive. If they were full of only flattery and praise of merits, they would be fined and have their grain rations deducted. Minister Tang! You had money and grain deducted too, didn’t you?”
Tang Jian said to Yun Ye with a smile: “This old man was unlucky. I submitted a memorial requesting funds right after your ‘Petition for Allocation of Work Expenses.’ Who knew that not only did I not get the money, but my own silver was deducted for two months! Young man, this is all trouble you caused, making me the butt of jokes for half a year. How will you repay this debt?”
Yun Ye suddenly understood. So this was the root cause! He had inexplicably become a minority in official circles. The entire court of civil and military officials was muddling through their days in a spirit of “you’re good, I’m good, everyone’s good.” Suddenly an annoying fellow jumped out and stirred the clear pool into murky darkness, leaving no one at peace. Naturally they would find fault with this fellow.
Fortunately, just when everyone was waiting for Yun Ye to展开 grand plans, unexpectedly Yun Ye retreated from the rapids and hid in the academy to teach, nearly making their eyeballs pop out. Thinking of this, Yun Ye secretly felt pleased. This is exactly how unpredictable I am! You all fight desperately over a dog bone while I stand aside eating meat and watching the excitement, kicking anyone who gets in my way. What’s wrong with that?
“Heh heh, just three formatted official documents and you all treat it as if facing a great enemy. Let me tell you—learning is like rowing upstream; not advancing means retreating. You’re now lying on your laurels eating your old capital, and you still have two or three years left to eat. After the academy students graduate, their official writing will all come from the same mold as mine. Then it won’t be three pieces but thirty pieces, three hundred pieces! At that time, Minister Tang, Minister Xu—how will you manage?” After speaking, Yun Ye laughed heartily and left.
“Old Tang, I’m fine. After returning, I’ll assume the position of academy administrator. At worst I’ll put down my airs and attend classes in the classroom. With my, Xu Jingzong’s, qualifications, how could I not learn? Old Tang, just wait and see my new memorials.” Seeing Tang Jian looking thoughtful, he stimulated him once more, then walked away with his hands behind his back in a leisurely manner to watch He Shao pierce nose rings on the other bulls.
Another anguished bellow from a bull startled Tang Jian awake. Thinking of Yun Ye saying countless memorials would flood in like an overwhelming tide in the future, while he would be unable to judge the errors within them—in such a terrible situation, he would have no choice but to pack up and go home.
No, it’s too embarrassing for me to study at the academy, but my son Shanshi can go! He’s still a child, and hasn’t he been clamoring to attend the academy?
With this worry resolved, he felt completely relaxed. Even the bulls’ cries of anguish seemed so lively.
Yun Ye returned to his tent. The sky had completely darkened. Actually, he very much hoped Na Rimu would accept his goodwill. Earlier he had deliberately avoided her just to give Huan Niang space to persuade Na Rimu. Now with only himself in the tent, Yun Ye thought it was time to sleep. In this ancient era without entertainment, he had naturally developed the living rhythm of working at sunrise and resting at sunset.
Huan Niang was nowhere to be seen and hadn’t even prepared foot-washing water. Although they’d only been together a short time, Marquis Yun had already been spoiled by Huan Niang into a young master who expected food brought to his mouth and clothes held out for his arms.
There was no choice—if she wasn’t there, he could only do it himself. Before he could take action, the tent flap lifted and Na Rimu, wearing red brocade clothing, walked in. She was very strange tonight—her face had not a speck of mud on it, the hands holding the water basin were clean, and her hair was full of silver ornaments—who knew where she’d gotten them.
Tonight the tent didn’t have oil lamps but two thick candles. They were clearly white but someone had forcibly embedded a layer of rouge on the outside. The environment was wrong, the atmosphere was wrong, even the person was wrong. As Yun Ye’s mind worked to guess why things were this way, Na Rimu crouched down, placed the water basin on the ground, pushed Yun Ye to sit on the bed, undid his robe, removed his boots, and then took off his socks.
Na Rimu’s hands were somewhat rough. Grabbing Yun Ye’s feet, she forcibly stuffed them into the basin. The water in the basin was very hot. Yun Ye wanted to pull his feet back and give Na Rimu a slap while he was at it, but seeing Na Rimu’s solemn expression, he endured the discomfort in his feet to see what she intended to do.
The rough hands sliding across his soles were itchy. Na Rimu didn’t know how to serve people—she grabbed his toes and scrubbed vigorously. This wasn’t enjoyment at all but torture! Fortunately, she washed quickly. When Yun Ye’s scalded red feet were lifted from the basin, he was still lamenting how they were almost cooked.
Whenever his feet were washed, if it was Huan Niang, she would take the basin outside and carefully secure the tent flap for Yun Ye so wind wouldn’t blow in.
Tonight it was Na Rimu washing Yun Ye’s feet, so she didn’t go out. She actually started undressing! Considering all the bizarre scenes tonight, Yun Ye understood—tonight he’d been married off without consent! Needless to say, the mastermind was Huan Niang and the executor was Na Rimu. They’d actually had time to produce two red candles!
Very quickly, Na Rimu stripped completely naked, wrapped herself in a blanket, leaving only a pair of large blinking eyes exposed, constantly winking at Yun Ye—could this be the legendary “flirtatious glance”?
He knew the grassland customs. If he drove Na Rimu out now, by tomorrow she would surely become a corpse. In Yun Ye’s camp her tribesmen didn’t dare harm her—the only one who could harm her was herself. A woman driven out on her wedding night was an “umi”—a barren woman. Legend had it that the god Tengger’s wife was the incomparably beautiful Umi. Umi had been cursed by demons so she could never bear offspring with Tengger. Umi went to the land of the dead herself, cut off all the flesh from her body leaving only her skeleton, then used the most beautiful parts of ninety-nine dead virgins to reassemble her flesh, becoming even more beautiful. She and Tengger together produced the great grassland peoples. So barren women had to make a trip to the land of the dead. If she didn’t want to go herself, her enthusiastic tribesmen would help her.
Yun Ye didn’t know whether Na Rimu had the ability to rise from the dead—he thought the possibility was very small. Unable to drive Na Rimu out, Yun Ye could only climb onto the bed and say to Na Rimu: “Move in a bit, make some room for me.”
He heard no movement, only Na Rimu’s steady breathing.