SEHE Chapter 76

Friction 

Qi Lan’s breath caught for a moment, then the corners of his mouth twitched slightly. “Such a small matter—how could you fail to handle it?”

“I’m now your Vice Chancellor,” Pei Yanci shook off the fallen leaves clinging to his body and got up from Qi Lan’s waist. “Our positions are different now. Making a move against students would lower my status for no reason.”

Qi Lan looked at him, who was acting exactly like a cat that had rolled around outside, coming home to show off. Strands of golden sunlight filtered through the lush, layered broad leaves, outlining his sharp, clean-cut features and illuminating the eyes that gazed down at him from above with a commanding air.

Qi Lan glanced at him, his long, straight eyelashes trembling slightly before he looked away.

“Benefits.” His right hand pillowed behind his head, he spoke lazily.

Pei Yanci squatted down, smiling as he tilted his head to look at him. “Aren’t you too lazy to attend classes? From now on, when you don’t want to go, you can come find me. I’ll give you private tutoring.”

Qi Lan rolled his eyes like a dead fish. “Just you? What can you even teach?”

“I may not know much, but I can let you do whatever you want.”

Those crystal-clear pupils seemed to peer into his heart. He did indeed need this convenience, and he also needed to escape from those boring, tedious classes.

“Fine.” He nimbly got up from the pile of dried leaves. With a surge of internal energy, all the dust, mud, and dried leaves fell from his body.

He crossed his arms and continued walking along the small path formed by the arching trees. The morning fog that had been trapped was just beginning to evaporate from the heat, merging with the strands of light. Fine dust particles tumbled and danced in the air.

Pei Yanci laughed and headed back the way they came.

Passing by the Three Departments’ Disciplinary Hall, he saw Xu Du and several others playing shuanglu inside, with sounds of laughter, cursing, and shouting echoing endlessly. The assistant instructors supervising them paid no attention, just burying their heads in their own work.

(TL: “雙陸” (shuānglù) is the traditional Chinese name for backgammon (an ancient board game with dice and pieces)

Seeing him pass by, Xu Du smiled coldly and drew his hand across his own neck in a threatening gesture.

How childish.

Though he should get along well with Qi Lan.

Pei Yanci paid no mind to these children and returned to the Gewu Hall, where several erudite scholars were whispering among themselves. When he arrived, they immediately dispersed and went about their own official business, occasionally glancing at him.

He walked to his desk and sat down, leisurely brewing a pot of tea. He casually picked up a poetry collection from the previous dynasty of Great Yu and began reading, yawning boredly.

This Imperial Academy Chancellor seemed unreliable too. As he read, he shook his head. Others thought he was reciting poetry by rote.

Before long, Fang Qingdu entered from outside. Seeing him comfortably nestled in his chair, his gaze darkened slightly. “Have you finished all your work?”

“Chancellor Daren hasn’t assigned me anything to do.” He stated the facts.

“He probably forgot—you saw how he was this morning. How about this: I happen to have a task on hand that you can take over for a few days.”

“What task?”

“The specific appointment documents for this year’s successful candidates haven’t come down yet. Currently, we’re short-handed on erudite scholars and assistant instructors, and we also have to teach. You can take over for me.” Fang Qingdu said, “You’ve received His Majesty’s favor. Although you may be lacking somewhat in scholarship, your other Six Arts should still be adequate.”

Seeing that Pei Yanci was about to refuse, he said, “Everyone knows this is just a helpless measure because I have too many affairs on hand to manage. The agricultural leave just ended, and there’s a pile of matters waiting to be handled. Once Chancellor Daren assigns you specific duties in a few days, you can return this task to me.”

As he spoke, he took a register and a stack of papers from his desk and handed them over.

“Vice Chancellor Fang certainly trusts me.” Pei Yanci said with amusement—he had never taught anyone before.

This was indeed novel.

Fearing he would refuse, Fang Qingdu said, “Everyone who can come to the Imperial Academy must have extraordinary qualities. Rest assured, if you don’t understand something or encounter any difficulties, just tell me and I’ll help you resolve them.”

How could Pei Yanci not know these were empty words? Once he took this on, the temporary few days would extend indefinitely, and it would eventually become part of his regular duties.

He didn’t know if having a Vice Chancellor take on an erudite scholar’s position had precedent in Great Yu, but it didn’t exist in Great Tao. The Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Supervisor, Director of Studies, and others were all there to maintain the normal operation of the Imperial Academy, while erudite scholars, assistant instructors, and lecturers only needed to teach.

When he looked at the register, he found that the names of Xu Du, Qiu Xiu, and the other troublemakers from this morning were prominently listed.

Fang Qingdu probably still held a grudge about the beating he made him take, and wouldn’t be satisfied until he himself got beaten once by someone surnamed Xu.

“Can I exchange with another erudite scholar?”

Fang Qingdu’s bruised mouth corners pulled into a smile. “Of course, as long as they’re willing.”

Pei Yanci surveyed the room behind him. The people who had been watching the excitement all lowered their heads, just like yesterday, looking very busy.

So he was being ostracized.

He roughly understood what Fang Qingdu meant. Not only was there resentment from today’s incident where he implicated others and caused them to be beaten by mistake, but yesterday when Fang Qingdu first saw that Pei Yanci was so young yet would soon be his equal in rank, and second, that he was Prime Minister Zheng’s adopted son specially recommended here, his eyes inevitably carried contempt and anger.

As for the others, their reasons were probably similar.

Literati were proud—it seemed they disdained associating with him.

“Fine then.” Pei Yanci flipped through the papers again and discovered that the next class was at the beginning of the hour of Wei.

“Only one hour left before Erudite Scholar Pei has to teach,” Fang Qingdu said helpfully. “I’ll have a student bring your meal here later so you can prepare properly.”

He looked at the book Fang Qingdu gave him—it was the Book of Changes.

“……”

In his previous life, he got sleepy just looking at this book.

To be precise, he got sleepy reading all Confucian classics and commentaries. If not for those ministers who were full of righteous words and morality, and his need for their support when he was still a prince, he wouldn’t have touched these books at all.

Pei Yanci rubbed his aching head.

At lunchtime, sure enough, a student diligently brought over a wooden tray with several dishes of food in wooden plates and small bowls. Though not comparable to restaurant fare, it was quite refined, with both meat and vegetables—already quite good.

Pei Yanci had been writing profusely on paper. Hearing the movement, he had the student place it in the corner of the desk. The student secretly glanced at it and was inwardly amazed. After skimming through it rapidly, he almost forgot to relay the message.

“Young Master Qi asked this one to pass along a message. He’s already given Xu Du and those troublemakers a beating and asks if you want to go see.”

“Not going. No time.” Pei Yanci took a sip of soup, then dipped his brush in ink and continued writing.

After a while, he looked up. “Anything else?”

The student hastily waved his hands. “Nothing, nothing.”

He slowly backed away, but after hesitating, he stepped forward again. “Vice Chancellor Daren, your lecture explanation is brilliant and captivating. It even resolved some confusion I’ve had recently. Could you perhaps give it to this one afterward to study?”

“Is that so?” Pei Yanci said. He also thought it was quite good—this person truly had good judgment. “Then come listen in this afternoon.”

“Many thanks.”

The student was overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly. After a pause, he said, “You’re so busy, you probably don’t have time to leave Gewu Hall, right?”

“Mm.”

“That’s good, that’s good.” The student rubbed his hands excitedly and left.

Pei Yanci tossed down his brush, stretched his back, and began eating lunch.

After lunch, he habitually went out for a walk to aid digestion, then came back for an afternoon nap.

He had long forgotten what the student who brought the meal had said to him at the end. Carrying the wooden tray with only leftovers, he walked out of Gewu Hall. Just as he rounded a small path, he saw three or four people walking toward him from ahead.

From the corner of his eye, he glanced to the side—several people were also coming from that end of the path.

Not far to his right was an artificially dug small lake. He couldn’t escape.

Clear waves rippled on the green water. In a tree by the lake, a person concealed his presence and aura, sitting on a branch with his back against the thick main trunk, one leg bent at the knee, the other hanging down casually.

He held a grass stem in his mouth. Through the dense branches and leaves, his gaze pointed directly at the person carrying the tray.

Behind him came Xu Du’s mindless laughter.

“Surnamed Pei, you can’t escape this time.”

More people surrounded them from all sides—more than double the number from this morning.

Pei Yanci roughly assessed the numbers and asked, “Is this all the people you could call?” Pretty impressive—able to gather fifty or sixty people.

“Don’t talk big, boy. Today is your death day. Right now everyone’s gone for their midday rest, and all the paths have people guarding them. This time you can’t call for any help.”

“I don’t have any help.” As Pei Yanci spoke, he set the tray on a nearby ornamental rock and methodically took out two strips of cloth to tie his sleeves.

Xu Du didn’t care what he was doing. Without a word, he was the first to raise his fist and swing.

Several people around him rushed forward together.

Setting aside this morning’s opportunistic tactics, this was Pei Yanci’s first time directly confronting people since he began learning martial arts. Outwardly relaxed but inwardly tense, he raised his hands to block while observing his opponents and the surrounding environment. He wrapped the cloth strips around his wrist several times, directly strangling one person’s neck, using that person’s body to block the punch coming from behind. He kicked someone to the side away, borrowed force from the strangled person’s shoulder, flipped to the other side, perfectly unwrapping the crossed strips from that person’s neck. He raised his cloth-wrapped hand and met Xu Du’s fist head-on, wrapping up his hand in just a few moves.

Xu Du flew into a rage, and another group joined the battle.

The space wasn’t large, surrounded by ornamental rocks and strange stones, yet so many people had been called. This morning when they swarmed all at once in chaos, that’s what let him fish in troubled waters and drag Fang Qingdu into taking the beating.

Now at least they knew to use wave tactics and even understood some tactical coordination.

But with Xu Du being such a weakling, even though his father was a first-rank Grand General of Cavalry, his martial arts were truly pathetic.

Pei Yanci shook his head and kicked Xu Du toward the second wave of attackers, then spun and kicked the person behind him away.

That person cried out and flew toward the large tree by the lake, then came another scream as the person was kicked back, falling to the ground and coughing up a mouthful of fresh blood.

Pei Yanci raised an eyebrow and looked at Xu Du. “See? You exhaust yourselves running errands and risking your lives for someone, but they don’t care about your lives at all.”

Xu Du scrambled up from the ground and hurriedly caught the person. “Qiu Xiu.”

The person on the ground had already fainted, with a trace of blood still at the corner of his mouth.

For a moment, Xu Du couldn’t tell if it was Pei Yanci who struck too heavily or the person in the tree.

“Enough, Qi Lan. Stop hiding. I asked you to help me deal with this bunch of trash, and you’ve created this scene for me.” Pei Yanci said.

After a while, Qi Lan’s voice came through the leaves. “I did deal with them. They all acknowledged me as their boss.”

“I don’t see them arriving here injured.”

“Gentle persuasion.”

“So you instigated them to come beat me?”

“They wanted to vent their anger. I’m their boss now—I can’t let them harbor resentment.” The person in the tree said indifferently.

“Can’t even soothe your subordinates’ emotions,” Pei Yanci sneered coldly. “Can you handle it or not?”

The person in the tree jumped down, his sharp brow bones pressing down, making his eyes appear even darker.

“Watch your words.”

“Looks like you want to continue wasting time in the erudite scholars’ nagging.”

“If I don’t want to listen, do I need your approval?” Qi Lan sneered. He didn’t care for the conditions Pei Yanci offered.

“Don’t want to attend classes, given the chance to skip you disdain it—yet you have reasons compelling you to stay here.” Pei Yanci smiled.

Qi Lan’s entire intimidating aura became almost tangible.

Pei Yanci seemed oblivious. Instead, he stepped forward and stood on the pebble path by the lake. “I advised you to take Xu Du and these people as subordinates. How will you thank me?”

“That was my own ability, not from your advice.”

What an unlovable little brat.

“Then I’ll be going.” Pei Yanci smiled as he bowed to him in farewell. “Young Master Qi and Young Master Xu can play slowly. I won’t keep you company.”

Rounding the flower bushes, he heard Xu Du belatedly cry out, “So you and that surnamed Pei were working together in this act to scheme against me?”

Pei Yanci silently laughed.

Though Xu Du was just a fly, he was still annoying. Moreover, his status was unusual. If he beat him up, there was no guarantee that the Grand General’s mansion wouldn’t intervene. If a minor friction affected his career prospects, that would be a terrible loss. Besides, Qi Lan was at odds with him—afterward, using this incident to fan the flames behind the scenes and make the conflict between him and Xu Du escalate further was entirely possible.

From Qi Lan’s reaction to agreeing to this matter, this morning’s farce wasn’t something he instigated behind the scenes. Perhaps at that time he hadn’t yet realized that the friction between himself and Xu Du was gradually expanding and had a trend of intensifying. When Qi Lan wanted to make the situation even more serious, he preemptively tied Xu Du and Qi Lan together. With Qi Lan surfacing, in the future he’d have less opportunity to use this matter against him.

And the anger from Xu Du being beaten would no longer be borne by him alone—there was now also the Princess’s mansion. No matter what, the Grand General’s mansion couldn’t settle accounts with two powerful families.

This matter would just end here.

Pei Yanci had a wonderful afternoon nap, then took his book to the lecture hall in the afternoon.

Xu Du and over a dozen lackeys had been beaten twice in succession in the morning and at noon. At this moment, they were extremely dejected. His subordinates were massaging his legs, causing him such pain that he wanted to hit someone.

“Lighter! Don’t you know what ‘lighter’ means? Can’t even do such a small thing!”

The scolding died down when a lean figure walked in.

Xu Du looked at the person at the front, his eyes widening as if he’d seen a ghost.