Xi Lian took her leave but didn’t go far. Instead, she waited at the street corner for Shen Ruhui to return. She figured that if Shen Ruhui hadn’t returned, then Yu Xun definitely hadn’t either.
The gatekeeper closed the door again, shaking his head and sighing as he headed to the back courtyard. They were pulling up cabbage.
Seeing him dawdling, the woman’s liver fire flared greatly, and she shouted loudly: “Who was it?”
The gatekeeper glanced at her and said: “A lady, but unfortunately she’s already married. I thought she was a lady who wanted to marry our master. What a pity.”
Hearing this, the woman immediately fell silent.
Shen Xian, carrying a shoulder pole back from the cellar, said quietly: “Don’t worry about such things. The master has no such intentions. Taking a wife would only waste the young lady’s time.”
He set down the shoulder pole before asking: “Which family’s madam was it? What did she come for? Did she send a calling card?”
Hearing that the person had come to apologize, Shen Xian immediately frowned. He understood their master well—inner wisdom, outer clumsiness. He appeared gentle on the surface, tongue-tied and introverted, but extremely decisive in his mind, inwardly wise and intelligent, knowing everything.
But because he couldn’t express himself well verbally, Shen Ruhui would often remain silent with unfamiliar people, yet constantly complain to those he was familiar with—like himself, this servant, or Fu Tinghan, who was similar to him.
Because of this temperament, Shen Ruhui felt his own inadequacies, so he didn’t take small matters to heart, which had earned him a reputation for tolerance.
Therefore, for someone’s wife to personally come apologize, either the other party had ill intentions and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity, or their master had suffered a great grievance outside, and the apology was likely meant to avert disaster.
Shen Xian furrowed his brow and began paying attention to the sounds outside.
When the sun set in the west and the horizon was filled with brilliant sunset colors, there was finally movement outside the residence. Shen Xian immediately stuffed the half-peeled cabbage into the gatekeeper’s arms and headed outside.
Shen Ruhui was stopped outside the gate by Xi Lian.
After learning she was Censor Lu’s wife, Shen Ruhui didn’t want to accept her gift, but upon seeing Xi Lian open the box, Shen Ruhui couldn’t move.
This gift was too precious. He wanted it, but also didn’t want it—what was this feeling?
Those who know their sons are fathers, though of course Shen Xian and Shen Ruhui’s relationship wasn’t father and son, but the two had grown up together. Whenever the master stuck out his backside, Shen Xian knew what he was thinking. Seeing him glance at the box, look away, then glance at it again, Shen Xian knew he really liked it. So he stepped forward and reached out to take the box, saying to the gentle-faced Xi Lian: “This gift is too precious. Our master doesn’t wish to take what you treasure, but he truly does like it. How about we borrow it from madam for a while? After our master finishes reading it, we’ll return it.”
Xi Lian said: “Since it’s being given to Gentleman Shen, then this book belongs to Gentleman Shen. Today Gentleman Shen was frightened. My husband has been troubled in conscience since returning home. When his injuries improve somewhat, he will certainly come personally to apologize.”
Seeing that Shen Xian had already taken the box, Shen Ruhui became even more reluctant to return it. So he politely said: “Knowing one’s errors and correcting them is good. The Grand General has always been fair and impartial, addressing matters rather than people. In the future, as long as Censor Lu is cautious in words and deeds and doesn’t commit such acts again, all will be well.”
Xi Lian quickly agreed on behalf of her thoughtless husband and told Shen Ruhui that she would go apologize to Scholar Yu shortly, asking if Scholar Yu had left office.
Shen Ruhui, seeing she hadn’t overlooked Yu Xun, looked more pleased and said: “He left office together with me.”
Xi Lian understood immediately. She bowed in farewell and turned to go to Yu Xun’s home.
She didn’t even need to take the carriage—just turn the corner and it was the Yu residence.
From Zhao Hanzhang’s preferential treatment of Yu Xun, one could see how much she valued him.
Not all officials could be allocated houses. Besides people like Shen Ruhui who had come early to join Zhao Hanzhang and had ability, later recruited officials were provided with public rental housing by the court. For example, those without money to buy houses—various ministry scholars, gentlemen, and assistant ministers—all rented public housing from the court.
Cheap, spacious, and respectable, it was a favor the court granted to worthy talents.
And Yu Xun was both a Court of Agriculture Scholar and an Imperial Academy Agricultural Studies Scholar. Although he held both positions, his official rank wasn’t high. By rights, he should also be renting housing, or else paying for it himself.
Yet Zhao Hanzhang had selected a residence near Shen Ruhui’s home and given it to him. Reportedly, there was also a settlement allowance, allowing Yu Xun’s entire extended family to settle securely in Luoyang.
Xi Lian thought on one hand that her husband was foolish and couldn’t see through this point, while on the other hand she put on a smile and knocked on the Yu family’s door.
Unlike the coldness of Shen Ruhui’s home, the Yu family’s three-courtyard residence was packed full of people. Yu Xun had just returned home, and his father and brothers had also just returned from the fields. The main gate was open, and they were leaning on hoes in the courtyard talking with Yu Xun. “…After turning over several hoe-fulls, they were all insect eggs. If we don’t take advantage of winter to kill these insects, I’m afraid there’ll be an insect plague next year.”
Children were chasing and playing noisily in the courtyard, running around the several adults talking and cackling with laughter. Yu Xun seemed deaf to all this clamor, discussing with his father and brothers: “Tomorrow I’ll go to the fields with you to take a look. I don’t know if it’s just our plot like this, or if it’s widespread. If the range is large, we need to turn over those insect eggs before the freeze and see if we can freeze them to death…”
“Who are you looking for?” A child noticed Xi Lian standing at the gate and asked in a crisp voice.
The Yu father and sons heard the voice and turned to look.
Xi Lian came to her senses, bowed at the gate, presented the gift she had brought to Yu Xun, and apologized on behalf of her husband.
Yu Xun was even more inwardly wise than Shen Ruhui and didn’t take today’s conflict to heart at all. This afternoon his thoughts had been immersed in the crossbreeding of improved varieties and wild varieties, and he had nearly forgotten about this matter.
So he directly forgave her, then accepted the bamboo scrolls she handed over, his eyes lighting up as he opened them.
Seeing this, Xi Lian sighed. Having learned from Shen Ruhui’s precedent, she had taken the bamboo scrolls out of the box beforehand. When he was about to refuse, she preemptively explained the contents of the scrolls. Sure enough, Yu Xun accepted them.
Yu Xun’s father and brothers stood to the side, also curiously looking at the bamboo scrolls in his hands.
The Yu family’s background wasn’t high—they were just literate farmers.
Their grandfather had farmed well. During the chaos of the Three Kingdoms, because he had grain, he united with fellow villagers and barely survived the turbulent times. Only then did their father have the opportunity to learn some characters.
Throughout their grandfather’s life, the family had only accumulated five books.
Yu Xun and his three brothers had used these five books for their early education since childhood. He was the youngest but also the best at studying. What made his three brothers wholeheartedly convinced was that he was also the best at farming.
He was exceptionally intelligent. Naturally, his insights differed from others. Decades of the Yu family’s management in the countryside had made them quite renowned locally.
The local county magistrate had once wanted to recommend Yu Xun as a filial and incorrupt candidate.
Yu Xun then told his three brothers: “The world is about to fall into great chaos. Being an official won’t provide better protection for our family and fellow villagers than we have now. At this time, we should farm more, store more grain, and hide grain and money in mountains or cellars. Perhaps then we can survive.”
—