After his subordinates left, the Yun household regained its usual tranquility. Watching the steward see off the four generals, Xinyue entered the great hall. Seeing her husband dozing alone in his chair, she delightedly leaned on Yun Ye’s back and whispered in his ear: “Husband, these four generals were requested from the Left Martial Guard, weren’t they? Lady Du told me that you got a great bargain. General Du has been in a foul mood these days, saying that all the fierce generals of the Left Martial Guard have been drained away by you. He’s now just a general without troops.”
Yun Ye leaned back to sit more comfortably and said helplessly to Xinyue: “Haven’t you figured it out yet? The Du family is angling for benefits. He lost in official matters, so he wants to regain face through other channels. But this time I’ll let him succeed once. Does our family have any business dealings with the Du family?”
“There’s some entanglement in the fur trade. The Du family originally operated a fur business, but once our family took on Liaodong furs, their business suffered.” Xinyue had been trained over these years. When Lady Du brought up these matters, it was nothing more than wanting to grab some benefits from the Yun family business, which was why she specifically mentioned it to her husband.
The Yun family differed from other families—they only sold their furs at their own market. The manager of Pianyi Fang had requested several times but was rejected by Xinyue. Liaodong was a bitterly cold land, so the furs produced there were top quality. Furs from other regions were a step below those from Liaodong, and naturally the prices differed vastly.
“Give the Du family a shop space at the estate. Pick a good location and permit Du family furs to be sold at the market. Our family will only deal in the best furs and the largest volumes of sheepskins—let’s give up the middle market.”
Yun Ye thought it over and told Xinyue his decision. Xinyue nodded. At the next gathering of noble ladies, she would tactfully convey this news to the Du family, letting them know the Yun family weren’t people who only took advantage without reciprocating.
Having not slept well last night, by this time Yun Ye’s brain had long turned into a pot of mush, still bubbling. If he didn’t sleep now, any decisions he made would definitely be foolishly bubbling too.
He told Xinyue righteously that he was very ill and needed rest. Now, no matter who came, the doors would remain closed. Getting a good sleep was the urgent priority. Chang’an’s waters ran deep with treacherous currents—he needed a clear head.
When Yun Ye woke up, he discovered it had long been dark outside. After a sleepless night plus excessive lovemaking, despite resting this long, his whole body still ached. Lying in bed, his mind struggled endlessly—should he get up to eat a meal? Or continue sleeping?
The room was perfectly quiet, with only the stove emitting uncertain flickering light. The kettle on the stove whistled as it expelled white mist. If he used the boiling water to brew a cup of flower tea, it would surely taste wonderful. The fragrance of jasmine would definitely fill the entire room. These things were actually all within easy reach—he only needed to call out once. Immediately a maid would prepare everything and bring it to his lips. But Yun Ye just wouldn’t call out. This feeling of being tired, hungry, and thirsty—he hadn’t experienced it in a long time.
People couldn’t endure suffering but couldn’t enjoy excessive blessings either. He’d experienced wilderness, jungle, and desert. Each time he emerged from those places he swore never to return, but now his thoughts drifted to that small cave in Lingnan. Back then he’d also faced a fire alone. The flames leaped, and the simple stick-figure paintings on the cave wall seemed to come alive—some holding spears to hunt wild deer, some kneeling on the ground cooking food.
Others danced around a bonfire. If Yun Ye hadn’t looked carefully, he definitely would have mistaken the stick-figure sun for a flying saucer. Some people worshipped toward the sun. A corpse lay on a woodpile, and those people didn’t seem to be grieving but celebrating.
“Why lament birth, why suffer death”—this was a line from Zoroastrian scripture. Perhaps it made sense. When he had time, he should visit the small Zoroastrian temple. He Tianshang’s place was very strange—exactly what kind of strange, he’d only know by going to see.
Life and death were humanity’s great obstacles. Couldn’t see through them, couldn’t understand them, couldn’t fully comprehend or enlighten to them. A single thought of immortality caused those who hoped for eternal life to hastily sacrifice their lives. He wondered if they regretted it before dying? Truly “those who accomplish great things cherish their bodies, but see small profit and forget their lives.” Cao Cao had wronged Yuan Shao—these people were the real examples.
Lying in bed looking at the stove with slanted eyes, he didn’t know how much time passed. When Yun Ye struggled to choose between dying of thirst and getting up, Xinyue returned and saved Yun Ye’s life.
Seeing her husband staring fixedly at the teapot on the table, how could she not understand? She poured a cup of cool tea, thought better of it, added some hot water, then brought it to her husband’s lips. He drained the tea in one gulp. Yun Ye stared at the teapot again. Xinyue had no choice but to add more hot water to the teapot and offer it to Yun Ye. Drinking from the spout, he truly drank like a whale swallowing a hundred rivers. He didn’t stop until the tea was drained and he’d spit out two tea leaves.
Very amusing. When he lay back down, his belly sloshed and clanked, just like a donkey that had just drunk water. Yun Ye couldn’t help but shake his body—the clanking sounds started again. He was now just a layer of skin wrapped around a jar of water.
Xinyue scratched her hair, unable to figure out what was wrong with her husband. His behavior was strange, and he hadn’t said a word, just stared blankly at the stove fire. Could he really be possessed?
The maid was quite annoying. Carrying a dustpan of coal, she opened the coal stove and dumped in the whole dustpan. The iron stove immediately billowed with black smoke—those beautiful flames were gone.
Yun Ye suddenly sprang up. Putting on his shoes while running and unfastening his belt, Xinyue anxiously followed behind. Seeing him rush headlong into the privy, she pursed her lips and stood in the courtyard to wait.
It came like the Milky Way pouring down, left like seas and rivers bursting their banks. This urination seemed to carry away all of Yun Ye’s fatigue. After shivering with cold, his spirits were a hundredfold better.
After fastening his pants and seeing Xinyue in the courtyard, he shouted loudly: “You woman—are you trying to murder your husband? You still haven’t prepared food for me. Are you trying to starve me to death?”
“You slept for five hours. It’s already the third watch now. I checked on you several times—you were always sound asleep. The food has been reheated several times, but you don’t eat leftovers. Now you remember to eat.”
Though Xinyue said this with her mouth, she’d long ago instructed the maids to make Yun Ye a large bowl of noodles with toppings. Squatting in the pavilion, he heavily added chili peppers and vinegar to the noodles, then chewed two cloves of garlic. After a huge bowl of noodles went down, his whole body felt comfortable. At this moment, even going to fight tigers would be no problem.
Chasing away Xinyue, Yun Ye went alone to the study and took out documents accumulated from before the new year to review. In the navy, Liu Renyuan and Dongyu managed things very well. This year they’d made three round trips total. In another month they’d return, having completed ahead of schedule all tasks assigned by the court. They had a full three months of leave to squander.
People couldn’t be idle, especially soldiers. Once idle, problems arose. On this point, Yun Ye had deep experience—he himself was like this. Lan Ling’s order of sea vegetables had been delivered in full. Without sea vegetables, agar couldn’t be made. If Lan Ling wanted to expand milk candy production, large quantities of sea vegetables must be prepared. The navy soldiers could also profit handsomely from this. He just didn’t know if the palace had turned into a dairy farm yet.
Li Chengqian was quite interesting. Court gazette reports said he was now practically a model of brotherly harmony. Whatever he did, he’d pull along his two younger brothers. If this continued, even eating dog excrement would be divided into three sections for all three to swallow together.
They’d all learned to exploit traditional Chinese virtues. After the three brothers wore theatrical costumes to perform for their imperial father, celebrating their father becoming the Heavenly Khan, a trend of brotherly harmony swept through the entire court. Now throughout the streets you could hear: “Ah, little brother, this pear is for you to eat!”
“Ah, big brother, this is clearly just a pear core. Little brother will eat that smaller pear core instead!”
Clearly in their hearts they wished they could hack each other to death and inherit the family estate alone, yet they had to pretend not to care. Chasing brothers far away while claiming it was for the brother’s benefit.
Shaking his head to dispel these strange thoughts—these past days his mind kept inexplicably producing some puzzling things. He’d asked Li Gang about it. The old gentleman said this was a sign of a butterfly in its cocoon. As long as he endured this difficult period, he’d definitely break through the cocoon and emerge as a butterfly. Then his personal cultivation and learning would rise to a higher level.
Yun Ye didn’t think so. Life wasn’t about fighting through levels, killing one version of yourself after another until you didn’t even recognize yourself anymore. Was that interesting?
Being a caterpillar was fine—body hunching along eating leaves, how nice. Becoming a butterfly meant not many days left to live. Yun Ye was someone who only pursued length of life—he didn’t care much about quality. Rather than a brilliant moment like fireworks, he’d prefer to live obscurely like a turtle.
The Great Tang was unconsciously changing in ways that made everyone somewhat unfamiliar with it. Wei Zheng, who’d been constantly active in the court gazette, now seemed to have become invisible. No longer did one hear his memorials impeaching others everywhere. Those arrogant and overbearing nobles had now become refined and courteous. Rarely did one hear anymore of someone throwing someone else’s child into a well. The former wastrels were either suffering hardship at the frontier or being exploited at the academy, or had become civil officials working hard to establish merit and career. At worst, they’d taken over family businesses, rushing north and south for a few copper coins.
No one knew why the Great Tang had these changes. The Emperor increasingly resembled a deity. Farmers who clearly felt lighter burdens enshrined Li Er, this emperor who never increased taxes, in their ancestral shrines. In the swirling incense smoke, people felt even more awe. It was just that he seemed much more distant from them.
An advertisement appeared in the court gazette, shocking Yun Ye so much he nearly overturned the ink on his desk. Though only a small line of text, it read: “Leave Guanzhong, pass through Yunzhong—there lies endless land. Exchange ten mu of Guanzhong wasteland for one hundred mu of good fields in Yunzhong. Great Tang, Zhenguan Year Seven.”