SEHE Chapter 85.1

Banquet (part 1)

Beneath the long corridor, the rain outside had stopped. Black eaves dripped strings of intermittent water ripples.

The evening breeze was somewhat cool, blowing against exposed skin, inevitably raising goosebumps.

Qi Lan’s eyes held a mocking light as he leaned against a square pillar with crossed arms, his head tilted sideways against the column, leisurely watching the two of them with an air of taking his time.

Pei Yanci had no interest in providing entertainment for others. He pulled his collar free from fingers that had turned white from gripping, “If Your Highness has no other matters, this official will take his leave.”

As he passed by Qi Lan, the latter said with a half-smile, “Good nephew, not leaving yet?”

Qi Lan muttered quietly, “How boring,” uncrossed his arms from his chest, and followed along.

Gu Jiuqing’s hand dropped powerlessly, concealed by his wide sleeves, darkness surging in his eyes.

Qi Yunsheng glanced left and right. After both men had disappeared from sight and his master still hadn’t moved, he cautiously approached. “Your Highness?”

Gu Jiuqing stood beneath the swaying red lantern, his bright red robes disheveled.

“Yunsheng, I didn’t mean to scold him.”

A murmur drifted past his ear. Before Qi Yunsheng could ponder its meaning, it had already slipped away.

He dared not think deeply.

“Let’s go.”

In the blink of an eye, Gu Jiuqing’s cold and decisive voice appeared once more in the endless corridor, like ice particles formed from the moisture drifting outside.

****

When Pei Yanci saw no one following behind, he slowed his pace, lowering his head to straighten his disheveled collar. Suddenly someone bumped his shoulder from behind.

Qi Lan asked, “Hey, were you and the Crown Prince close before?”

“Why are you asking so many questions?” This person just loved to watch drama unfold.

Pei Yanci rubbed his shoulder, saying irritably, “Can’t you watch where you’re walking?”

Such a wide path, yet he insisted on jostling him.

“You Great Yu men are just delicate. No wonder after fighting so many years of war with us Great Xi, you’ve hardly won a few times.”

“My shoulder hurting from your collision has nothing to do with being delicate or not. Even if a brute bumped you like this, it would still hurt.”

“Fine, I’ll rub it for you.” Qi Lan wore an expression of finding this troublesome. He straightened his posture and placed his hand on Pei Yanci’s shoulder, but didn’t move. Instead, his fingers hooked at the collar, his fingertips lifting it slightly open.

Pei Yanci looked down and saw that Gu Jiuqing had used a bit of force earlier in his anger, his nails leaving a red mark on his skin.

A strand of curled hair by his temple fluttered in the wind, sweeping across his hawk-like eyes, softening the sharpness within.

Qi Lan’s finger traced that mark, and his hand was immediately slapped away by Pei Yanci.

“Let go.”

He withdrew his hand, and with an unruly, critical gaze, looked him up and down again. After a long moment, he said, “Passably handsome, with a nose and eyes.”

(TL: “有鼻子有眼的” means “has a nose and eyes,” but it’s an idiom that means “well-formed,” “decent-looking,” or “presentable.”)

“…If you can’t compliment people, then don’t.” Pei Yanci scoffed. Looking more carefully, Qi Lan’s eyes weren’t the brown commonly possessed by Great Yu people, but a purer, lighter amber color. It was harder to see one’s own reflection in those eyes, making them appear even more dismissive of others, revealing a savage fierceness.

“I don’t see anything about you worth praising,” he said, perplexed.

The dignified Crown Prince—what kind of men and women hadn’t he seen? How could he have taken a liking to such an ordinary man?

But he had to admit, someone who could make the Great Yu Crown Prince unable to forget had aroused in him a bit of interest in seducing him.

“Do you know which tribe has people with different colored eyes, like red, green, or purple?” A thought of another person suddenly came to him from looking at these eyes.

“Hm?” The topic jump was rather large. Qi Lan paused before answering, “Green is common among Western Region people, though there are also quite a few minority tribes in the deep mountains of our Central Plains’ west. A hundred or so years ago, when Great Yu and Great Xi were expanding their territories, they both attacked those ancient tribes. Many have already been slaughtered to extinction.”

Pei Yanci’s eyelids lowered slightly, not knowing what he was thinking.

“You’ve encountered someone with unusual pupil colors? Interesting.” Qi Lan stroked his chin. “I can help you search through ancient records.”

“No need. I saw your eye color differs from ours and was just curious whether there might be people with even more unique colors.”

Pei Yanci’s gaze looked at him, but his thoughts had already drifted far away, as if seeing someone else through him.

Qi Lan’s eyes narrowed slightly, three parts worldly cynicism mixed with two parts dangerous dissatisfaction. “You’re looking at me while thinking of someone else?”

“No one.” Pei Yanci called out to Wushu in the distance to prepare the carriage at the gate.

A strand of evening breeze blew through his fingers—he couldn’t catch it, couldn’t stop it. The figure before him was already gone.

Qi Lan stroked his chin, pondering something unknown.

****

The next day, Pei Yanci took the reform proposals drafted by Yue Ting and the scholars from the small courtyard and went directly to visit the Qi residence.

Qi Xiang had just woken from his drunken stupor, his sleepy eyes barely able to read half a word on the page.

“Well then, why don’t you take this to the Imperial Academy first, and we’ll discuss it in detail this afternoon.”

He yawned. His hand suddenly empty, the next moment his face was splashed with a cup of cold overnight tea.

“Is daren awake now?” Pei Yanci wore a warm smile on his face, holding the empty teacup in one hand and the documents in the other.

“…” Qi Xiang wiped his face, spitting out the tea leaves in his mouth twice, and obediently nodded.

If he wasn’t awake before, he was now.

Pei Yanci walked to the washbasin in the room, wrung out a damp cloth for him to wipe his face, and told him about Jian Zeqian and Xu Du’s argument and his expulsion of them. Finally he said, “I plan to use this incident to implement a strict enrollment and graduation system.”

“That’s difficult.” Qi Xiang rubbed his eyes. “The Ministry of Rites won’t agree.”

“Why?”

“No money.”

“Students complete their five-year studies before graduation. The Ministry of Rites has recently been wanting to shorten it to three years. Fang Qingdu is currently arguing strenuously against this. If you also want to make graduation examinations stricter, who knows how long those delayed students will have to stay here. Where would we get the space and extra erudite scholars and teaching assistants?”

Pei Yanci had heard them mention before that some students bought their way in with silver. “Why is our Imperial Academy so short of silver? How much are we short?”

“A lot. Oh right,” Qi Xiang said, “next month your salary will have to be cut in half first. We’ll see about the revenue and expenditure at year’s end before making it up to you. Just giving you advance notice—it’s not the Academy deliberately withholding.”

“…That poor?” No wonder those erudite scholars looked so bitter and resentful.

Qi Xiang nodded heavily.

“Does the Ministry of Rites not allocate funds to us?”

“Not quite. Every year, the court’s various offices’ funding is uniformly allocated by the Ministry of Revenue.”

Similar to how Great Tao did things.

So the court was short of money.

No one had ever mentioned this.

A month ago, hadn’t there been a grand dragon boat race on the Yuechong River? The Emperor had even rarely held a polo match.

“This proposal—reject it first.” Qi Xiang didn’t even look at it before flipping through several pages, squinting to read for a while. “Reclaim control of state academies from the prefectures? Hmm… the specific measures are good, practical and feasible. Looks like you didn’t just copy what I gave you before… Establish separate education offices in each prefecture… How did I not think of this! Previously, the Imperial Academy managed all of Great Yu’s village schools, county schools, and state schools, naturally spreading itself too thin. But if each prefecture had a dedicated office, the office could manage a province’s state academies, and we would only manage the offices. Wouldn’t that save a lot of effort!”

“I think even two hundred and twenty-six provinces is too many.” Pei Yanci said, “We could establish these offices in the twenty-four Military Governor regions. The court would only manage the Military Governor offices, which manage the provinces, which manage the counties, in descending hierarchy.”

“There’s still one problem—the Ministry of Rites won’t agree.”

“I know. Let me try first.” Pei Yanci said, “Daren, just see whether these measures benefit the Imperial Academy’s development.”

“Who did you ask for ideas?” Qi Xiang said excitedly with certainty, “Some points hit right at the heart of matters. Even I couldn’t think of them.”

“Pooling wisdom and efforts,” Pei Yanci smiled. “Daren’s methods were thought up by one person. This official had many people helping.”

Qi Xiang laughed heartily. “Good, good, good! ‘Pooling wisdom and efforts’—well said! If five years ago I had taken such excellent measures to debate with those sons of b*tches at the Ministry of Rites, His Majesty might have agreed on the spot. Such a pity. The court’s finances are in difficulty now. You’re saying each prefecture needs to establish new offices—this is an enormous expenditure, not to mention the Ministry of Rites would never agree. Do you know why?”

“I do. If independent education offices are established, they would be under direct court jurisdiction. The Imperial Academy is the nation’s educational standard-bearer. State academies were always managed by us, so naturally the power to promulgate policies and regulations would fall to us. The Ceremonial Bureau couldn’t seize it. They’re at odds with the Imperial Academy and certainly won’t stand by and let us gain real power.”

“Exactly.” The drunkenness in Qi Xiang’s eyes had long since been swept away, leaving only the confusion and melancholy after excitement.

He had a belly full of complaints and concerns.