SEHE Chapter 95

Debate 

Pei Yanci didn’t just entrust Zheng Qinglai with this matter. After returning home, he also used a string of agate prayer beads to bribe Wang Lingche.

Wang Lingche smiled foolishly and scratched his head strangely. “Why is it red? I’m a grown man—how can I wear this out?”

“The red color makes your complexion look good. Look, how handsome.” Seeing him about to take off the beads, Pei Yanci quickly grabbed his hand. “These are all small matters. Brother Zhaohui, your clan still has many young men studying, right?”

Wang Lingche obediently nodded. “Those who excel in learning should serve as officials—who doesn’t want to be an official? But I’m an exception.”

He looked at the brilliantly red prayer beads on his wrist, his right hand covered by two other hands until it felt hot, and his face couldn’t help but redden slightly. “You want me to ask my clan elders to help with something? There’s no way. I’ve already decided to cut ties with them—why would they still give me face?”

“It’s fine, aren’t you still a member of the Wang family?” With this bookworm, there was no need to beat around the bush. “Recently at the Dali Temple, they haven’t been making things difficult for you, have they?”

He shook his head. “We’re all colleagues working together—why would they make things difficult for me?”

“Didn’t they ask where your clan’s young men are studying?” Pei Yanci said. “You’re currently living with a Vice Chancellor of the Imperial Academy.”

“Is that so impressive?” Wang Lingche looked him up and down suspiciously.

“It’s not about being impressive or not. When you chat with them casually, you can tell them that your clan elders are planning to send all the children to Mingshan Academy and aren’t considering the Imperial Academy for now.”

“Why? Isn’t the Imperial Academy the best?” Wang Lingche thought for a moment. “Are you trying to avoid suspicion, worried that if my clan’s young men enter there in the future, there will be gossip about our two families? If that’s the case, don’t worry. I’ll explain it clearly to those colleagues. You’re an impartial person, and I’ve never asked you for anything regarding this matter.”

“No, just do as I say. Whether your clan’s young men enter the Imperial Academy in the future depends on their scholarship. For now, just say this for a while.”

“I don’t know what they’re thinking. You’re asking me to lie—I won’t say it.” Wang Lingche’s face grew stern.

“How can it be called lying? Since you don’t know, then it’s a possibility, right?”

Wang Lingche kept a serious expression and moved Pei Yanci’s hand away. “I don’t agree. ‘In cultivating the heart, nothing is better than sincerity.’ That you could even suggest this shows a deficit in your virtue. I must help you correct it…”

“Enough with the gentleman talk. You’re a lay Buddhist now, planning to become a monk in the future.”

“Buddhist scriptures also say that slander ruins virtue…”

“I really can’t deal with you.” Pei Yanci collapsed and patted his forehead, then without another word fled back to his room.

Wang Lingche watched him leave in confusion, lowered his head to touch the red agate prayer beads on his wrist, and smiled silently.

****

That said, Wang Lingche still helped him spread some words among his colleagues.

Soon, Chen Sihong found Pei Yanci. The warmth on his face was much more genuine, and he patted Pei Yanci’s shoulder, saying the documents had been submitted and an official decree would be issued shortly.

A single word from Minister Zheng had directly saved Pei Yanci from much trouble.

After leaving the Ministry of Rites, Wushu quietly asked in wonder, “Big brother, when did you get evidence on that fat man?”

The erudite scholars at the Imperial Academy all had servant boys with them. Pei Yanci had Wushu follow along, usually attending lectures with the academy students. When Pei Yanci went out, Wushu would follow, and during this period had accompanied him to many places.

“What evidence? They’re all thousand-year-old turtles—slippery as can be. Where would I find evidence?” Pei Yanci said. “Tang Xizhui and Minister Zheng’s words are more effective than us running our legs off.

“Zheng Qinglai accepted me as part of the Zheng family and spoke for me at court. Chen Sihong’s attitude completely changed—though this is out of respect for Minister Zheng’s face, it will make things much smoother in the future. He doesn’t know whether I actually have evidence or not, but he knows my capabilities aren’t something he can handle. I could impeach him at any moment. He’ll have to think about finding an excuse to give back the coordinating authority over the Imperial Academy sooner or later.”

“So you just used a big banner to trick him.” Wushu covered his mouth and giggled.

“In official circles, how can it be called trickery? If you haven’t done anything wrong, why fear ghosts knocking at your door?” Pei Yanci said leisurely.

A few days later, the court officially issued a decree approving the Imperial Academy’s new admission standards.

One stone stirred up a thousand waves.

First, the Imperial Academy had established Educational Affairs Bureaus in all provinces and prefectures, bringing all national government schools under unified control. Now came internal reform of the Imperial Academy—admission would no longer depend on whether one came from an official family. All children from good-status families across the realm would be treated equally, judged only by their scholarship.

Many powerful nobles in the capital thought of the rumors that had circulated earlier about the Wang and Zheng families. Some said they had keen information networks; others suddenly realized that the rumors spread by the aristocratic families earlier had all been laying groundwork for this Imperial Academy reform.

Previously, only children from official families could attend the Imperial Academy. If the standards were relaxed, how could the powerful nobles and aristocratic families agree? But the two great Wang and Zheng families remained silent and spread word that they intended to send their children to Mingshan Academy—completely showing they didn’t want to obstruct this Imperial Academy matter. Other nobles naturally just complained once or twice, understanding this likely represented the aristocratic families’ wishes.

Moreover, even if the standards were relaxed, the difficulty level for aristocratic families and powerful nobles versus common people entering the Imperial Academy hadn’t changed at all.

After the decree was issued, the erudite scholars and students in the academy quarreled in chaos with no resolution. Finally, Qi Xiang grabbed a few troublemaking students and said, “Do you want to be expelled like Jian Zeqian?” Only then did they fall silent.

Jian Zeqian—these three characters had already become the Imperial Academy’s laughingstock. At the same time, Pei Yanci had become someone no one in the Imperial Academy dared provoke. Even the academy’s biggest little tyrant, Xu Du, now warmly put his arm around Pei Yanci’s shoulders when they met, honestly calling him “Brother Pei.”

Pei Yanci returned from the lecture hall carrying the Book of Changes, greeted several erudite scholars, sat down, and brewed himself a pot of tea.

Since his conversation with Scholar Wang last time, his relationships with many of the academy’s erudite scholars and assistant instructors had improved. When Fang Qingdu returned from the Ministry of Rites, he noticed this change and his face darkened considerably.

At this moment, Fang Qingdu was sitting at the desk opposite Pei Yanci. Seeing him arrive, he slammed the decree and documents onto Pei Yanci’s desk.

The surrounding erudite scholars saw this, exchanged knowing glances, and retreated to the back.

“I can’t handle this reform.”

“You should tell Qi Daren about this,” Pei Yanci said.

The Imperial Academy’s internal reform was originally Fang Qingdu’s responsibility—he now managed the Educational Affairs Bureau.

“Who told you to interfere in my affairs! Are you showing off how capable you are?” Fang Qingdu looked up at the erudite scholars present, and they all tactfully left.

Only the two remained in Gewu Hall. “How did Sui Lu agree to help you submit this proposal? Just as discussed at Hongtu Restaurant before—you got the Educational Affairs Bureau approved by inciting him to sell offices and titles, then got this matter done by giving him annual kickbacks from the Imperial Academy?”

“Just tell me whether these two matters got done or not, whether the Imperial Academy’s financial problems have been alleviated?”

Pei Yanci felt that Fang Qingdu carried that laughable naive innocence of scholars.

Going with him to Hongtu Restaurant to dine with Sui Lu, naively thinking it was just a simple meal, believing he only needed to persuade Sui Lu to accept his proposal.

Hearing what he and Sui Lu discussed at the restaurant, then self-deceptively asking again now, as if this could yield a different result.

“The Imperial Academy won’t accept money obtained by selling student quotas. Also, I won’t agree to opening the admission requirements, and neither will the eunuch faction.”

“I don’t understand your reason for opposing this. Outsiders think this will make the Imperial Academy worse, but you’ve been in this position for several years—don’t you know in your heart whether it will get better or worse? Are you as ignorant as they are?”

He said nothing. Seeing his solemn expression, Pei Yanci understood somewhat.

The Imperial Academy only accepting children of high officials was, in some people’s eyes, an honor. The lowly status of commoners would only disgrace this establishment.

“I remember you also came from a common family. Don’t you want to see more such people have the opportunity to receive guidance from great scholars?”

“Have you thought about this—people from common families lost from the very beginning? Those prosperous farming families might pool their entire family’s resources to support one child’s studies for over a decade. Meanwhile, children of powerful noble families are born with access to mountains of books, writing at three, composing poetry at six. You give common people a remote hope—and what’s the result? Noble children who should enter the Imperial Academy still can, while children from common families might face failing the imperial examinations after ten years and their families returning to poverty.”

Fang Qingdu’s face contorted, tears in his eyes. “What a desperate situation this is! How can they live? How can they face their aging parents and the high expectations placed on them?”

“We’re discussing the Imperial Academy’s admission requirements—don’t bring up the imperial examinations. These are completely separate matters.” Pei Yanci maintained calm reasoning. “Everything has good and bad aspects. The emergence of one thing inevitably brings a chain of other problems, but we can’t reject current decisions just because we worry about potential future problems.”

“The problem it brings is your collusion with the Bureau of Ceremonies, selling offices and titles, openly engaging in bribery!” Fang Qingdu said. “Tomorrow I’ll go to the Censorate to report you. If the Censorate fears your Zheng family, I’ll go to the Elu Bureau. Sooner or later, you’ll receive your due punishment.”

Hearing this, Pei Yanci couldn’t help but laugh, though the smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“Would Sui Lu and his people not do this if I didn’t discuss it with them? You go to the Bureau of Ceremonies with righteous indignation, telling them how good this proposal is, how beneficial the regulations are for students across the realm—did they approve it for you? As long as it can’t be implemented, no matter how good the concept, it’s just waste paper!

“Vice Chancellor Fang, you alone carry the future of scholars in your heart, the career dreams of millions in your chest, but that doesn’t mean others are the same. Sui Lu and I are both vulgar people—I want achievements, he wants wealth. Neither of us is as noble as you, but I’ve kept the Imperial Academy alive. Forget everything else—at least it can hold on for a few more years. Sui Lu also ran errands for us, implementing these measures in concrete terms.

“Also, you say these measures harm the country and people, giving common folk hope while still being blocked by aristocratic families. Vice Chancellor Fang, aren’t you being too extreme, taking yourself and a few examples around you as representing everyone? These measures haven’t even officially begun, yet you’re already afraid of what might happen later. Besides, do you think I haven’t considered what you’re worried about? You’re treating others as fools. Would Sui Lu agree to these measures because the money he takes isn’t enough? Who doesn’t know the Imperial Academy’s erudite scholars all have terrible tempers? All the money he makes from selling admission quotas isn’t as much as selling one position to the Educational Affairs Bureau. Isn’t it because he wants to watch the Imperial Academy completely fall into ruin to satisfy his hatred? Rather than let him finish us off ourselves sooner.”

“Since you know this, why are you still vigorously pushing this matter forward? What are your true intentions!”

“Since I know this, why couldn’t I have a backup plan?” Pei Yanci shook his head and sighed. “Vice Chancellor Fang, you can’t get fat in one bite—things must be done step by step. You’ve blocked all paths for everyone. If they can’t gain anything from you, why would they give you any convenience?”

That’s why he said Xiao Yu and his group of scholars always had perfect ideas, considering every aspect—except reality.

Fang Qingdu’s face flushed red, furious beyond words. He completely disagreed with this scoundrel’s words but had no way to refute them.

“Official affairs aren’t actually difficult. Though not as simple as you think, they’re also not as dark and unbearable as you imagine. Everyone is human, everyone has selfish interests.”

Pei Yanci poured him a cup of tea to help him calm down, or this man might truly be angered to death here. “Fundamentally, it’s about the exchange of power and interests. You give people convenience, and they can give you convenience. You give them dignity, they return dignity. After many transactions, when interests align, that’s a faction.”

This was the most fragile chain of interest relationships. If one person fell into trouble someday, they would abandon each other without hesitation.

But for Sui Lu and Chen Sihong, this was already enough.

Pei Yanci had no hope of life-and-death bonds with these two.

“Cough cough cough cough...”

An unstoppable coughing sound came from under the window, interrupting their conversation.

“Qi Daren.” Before Fang Qingdu even walked to the window, he had already called out the name of the person below.

Clearly he had known all along.

Pei Yanci smiled slightly without speaking.

Qi Xiang finally smoothed out his breathing, greeted the two, and walked in through the front door after going around from the window.

“The erudite scholars said my two Vice Chancellors were quarreling—how could I be so rude as to interrupt?” Qi Xiang coughed lightly twice.

He approached and bowed to Pei Yanci.

“Daren, why are you doing this?” Pei Yanci stepped aside, a flash of pleasant surprise on his face.

“Hearing your words today, I felt as if I’d been enlightened. Unfortunately, no one told me these things when I was Vice Chancellor Fang’s age.” Qi Xiang said kindly.

Fang Qingdu immediately understood he had come to support Pei Yanci, not him.

Even though Qi Xiang knew this person’s conduct was improper.

His face immediately turned iron-blue.

“Vice Chancellor Fang, the decree has been issued. Please begin preparations.”

“Yes.” Fang Qingdu reluctantly responded and left angrily.

“That’s just his temperament,” Qi Xiang said. “But once you give him something to do, you can rest assured. He works like me—stubborn, inflexible, rigid—but his heart is good.”

“Daren, I understand,” Pei Yanci said. “I’m too busy with my own affairs. If he can’t handle it well, I’ll still have to trouble you, Daren.”

He and Fang Qingdu were of equal rank—how could it be his place to lecture anyone? It would definitely have to be Qi Xiang who stepped in.

“If you want to trouble me, it’s only for the next month or two. Cough cough cough…” Qi Xiang coughed a few more times, clearly not fully recovered from his illness.

“Daren should drink less alcohol,” Pei Yanci said with concern.

“With so much good news lately, how could I bear to drink?” Qi Xiang smiled. “The world is turbid, so people want to spend their days drunk and dreaming, ignoring worldly affairs. But Pei Daren’s words just now awakened me as from a dream. Living in this world, one cannot avoid turbidity. Wanting to keep yourself completely pure is both impossible and putting the cart before the horse. For that bit of light in my heart, that bit of dream, what does it matter if I sacrifice this body’s reputation?”

Outside the door, Fang Qingdu, who hadn’t gone far, heard these words and couldn’t help remembering that night at the entrance of Hongtu Restaurant, that orchid-jade-tree youth looking at him with a smiling, peaceful expression.

The brilliant lamplight and the half-dim shadowy figures passed through his eyes but couldn’t obscure the light in them one bit.

His gaze flickered with stubborn ambition and certain determination.

And infinite tolerance and gentleness.

“The gentleman harmonizes without conforming.”

That night, he had said such a thing.

He didn’t even have “harmony” with those people at court, just holding onto his “nonconformity”—wasn’t that just narcissistic self-admiration?

Yet Pei Yanci seemed very tolerant of everyone.

This tolerance gave him a very strange feeling, as if nothing he did could anger him, hurt him, or reform him.

He was just himself.

His difference existed independently from all of them, like a spectator watching them in their sorrow, joy, laughter and scolding, then at the appropriate moment, stepping on them to achieve his own purposes.

Fang Qingdu didn’t know why he had this thought—Pei Yanci had never used him. Perhaps it was that behind those gentle eyes, there was always something that inexplicably made his hair stand on end, constantly watching everything around him.

Just as he was thinking this, he heard Qi Xiang inside the room speak.

“If you want to become this Imperial Academy’s Chancellor, you must win over Fang Qingdu. Otherwise, this position will have nothing to do with you.”