SEHE Chapter 81

Initial Plans Take Shape

A simple horse carriage traveled along the wide, empty stone-paved road, the horses’ hooves rhythmically rising and falling, their “clip-clop” sounds echoing endlessly.

From Pingkang Ward at the foot of the imperial city in the eastern district to Liquan Ward near the Western Market in the west was nearly three quarters of an hour by carriage. Between the wards, the Jinwu Guards patrolled at night. If they saw anyone loitering, that person would receive twenty strokes of the cane.

Of course, no matter how strict the rules, privilege always existed.

If they encountered someone from the Elu Bureau conducting business, how would the Jinwu Guards dare say a single word? They would likely avoid them at all costs, afraid the other party might notice them.

Past the intersection of the great street before the imperial city and Zhuque Street, locust trees planted intermittently along the imperial canals on both sides of the road were already in bloom. White as snow, they drifted their subtle fragrance through the quiet night, which the thin cool evening breeze carried through the lifted curtain into the carriage.

Inside the carriage, lamplight flickered. Based on the problems Qi Xiang and Xiao Yu had revealed about the current state of the Imperial Academy, Pei Yanci organized his own understanding in his mind. He had Tang Xizhui bend over the desk with brush in hand, while he himself leaned to one side, propping up his upper body with his elbow, dictating intermittently.

The lamplight swayed with the carriage’s jolting, shadows and warm light alternately lingering over Tang Xizhui’s form, ghostly yet animated.

Occasionally pulling himself from his thoughts, Pei Yanci glanced across at the Nine-Thousand-Years, who held the brush with slight resentment yet obediently recorded his every word seriously.

He couldn’t help but smile.

He straightened up, placed his hand on the other end of the low table, and leaned over to look at Tang Xizhui’s writing.

The strokes were bold and pictorial, charming as silver hooks. Each character stood upright and elegant, naturally carrying a distinctive casual elegance. Upon closer examination, they concealed surging sharpness within.

He was the one who stained the vast pure whiteness with black.

Just as Pei Yanci was marveling at these characters, his forehead was suddenly tapped neither lightly nor heavily by the brush handle.

Looking up, Tang Xizhui’s face was higher than his line of sight, yet close at hand.

His mind went blank for an instant.

He couldn’t remember anything.

He was dazed for a moment, until Tang Xizhui pulled back slightly and bent down so their eyes were level, then he came back to his senses.

Tang Xizhui’s face was kind, his eyes smiling into crescents. “If you keep looking at me like this, I’ll press you down in this carriage and use a jade implement to make you come until your legs can’t close.”

Did he not know how adorable he looked, peering at him curiously with all his defenses down?

It really stirred one’s appetite.

The corners of Pei Yanci’s mouth stiffened slightly, and he instinctively glanced at the hidden compartments around the carriage. This was Tang Xizhui’s carriage—who knew, there might really be a few bedchamber implements to be found.

Outside the carriage, noisy sounds gradually arose. Liquan Ward was different from Pingkang Ward where nobles gathered—here it was still lively in the evening, with a squad from the Wuhou Office marching in formation on patrol with their swords.

“What eunuch is like you, thinking only of such matters all day long?” Pei Yanci sat up straight and replied indifferently.

Loved to look at spring palace pictures, loved to light aphrodisiac incense, yet the thing on his body was completely useless—he couldn’t even release, so perhaps he was infatuated with the feeling of burning with desire? But looking at how he always maintained his composure, even that time in bed when Pei Yanci’s legs had hooked around the man’s waist, Tang Xizhui had remained steady as Mount Tai, calmly smiling as he watched him sink into pleasure, himself wanting nothing.

He didn’t understand, nor did he want to understand.

Being curious about a person’s thoughts and feelings was the beginning of developing affection, and he had no interest in that.

“Are you finished writing?”

“Mm.” Tang Xizhui picked up the paper to let it air, but the carriage suddenly jolted, and he nearly tore the freshly written characters.

“This subordinate begs forgiveness, daren.” The driver outside hastily begged for mercy. “A carriage suddenly rushed out at the corner intersection and startled the horses.”

More heated commotion arose outside the carriage.

Pei Yanci lifted the door curtain to look. Several guard-like people were protecting the carriage across from them, and a young servant emerged from inside the carriage, standing beside the carriage shaft, looking down at them from above.

“You must have eaten a bear’s heart and leopard’s gall to dare collide with the princess’s carriage. Clear the way at once!”

Pei Yanci felt some regret that he had sent Wuli back today.

This was the driver’s first time encountering someone so arrogantly domineering in the Anjing area. He immediately lost the fearful timidity he’d shown when reporting to Tang Xizhui moments ago, his voice full and strong. “You were in the wrong to begin with. Vision is poor at night, with so many people coming and going on the street, yet your carriage was racing at such speed—you completely disregarded the safety of the common people. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll make way. Otherwise if this becomes a disturbance and offends an important personage, it’ll be enough to land you all in prison.”

That person carefully looked over the front and back of their carriage. By the brilliant lamplight, the carriage body appeared simple and plain, looking like one used by ordinary households in the capital, yet it bore no identifying plaques—meaning it was either truly a common household, or possibly really an important personage conducting business here discreetly.

For a moment he couldn’t decide, so he had to duck back into the carriage.

Then there was no further movement.

The two carriages each stopped at the corner. This area happened to have many brothels and pleasure houses, and the sides of the street were occupied by many small vendor stalls. For one side to pass first, they would have to first retreat to the side next to the small stalls and wait for the other carriage to pass before proceeding.

The driver hesitated and asked, “Dugong Daren, there’s no movement from the other side. What should we do?” This was clearly playing games, waiting for them to yield.

In all of Anjing City, besides the Emperor, no one dared make this lord give way.

Just as he was thinking this, he heard a clear and gentle voice from behind the curtain.

“Let them through. Better to avoid trouble than seek it.” Pei Yanci just wanted to find Yue Ting now.

“Did you hear?” Tang Xizhui’s languid tone sounded.

The driver hastily complied, not daring to delay further. He cracked his whip and pulled the reins to retreat and take another route.

Seeing the obstructing carriage retreat to the side to wait, clear mocking laughter from the young servant who had emerged earlier rang out from inside the carriage.

The driver felt somewhat uncomfortable inside. Watching helplessly as the opposite carriage passed by them, feeling quite unwilling, he was just about to crack his whip to pull the horse’s head when several successive cries of alarm and screams came from behind.

The two horses pulling the carriage let out long whinnies and thunderously collapsed to the ground, falling silent.

The voice of the young servant sitting in the carriage was distorted with fright. Before the carriage could be dragged sideways and overturn by the horses, a figure flew out, toes landing on the upturned eave of the carriage roof.

Qi Lan casually glanced at the mess on the ground. His accompanying guards surrounded him in tight formation, and the street immediately became tense with drawn swords.

The young servant from inside the carriage struggled to climb out, saying, “Young Master, it was definitely someone from that carriage who did this.”

The driver paid no attention to the barking behind him and cracked his whip to leave directly.

Qi Lan raised his chin, and several guards immediately moved to intercept, but just as they began to move, more than ten people suddenly surged from the surrounding alley entrances and street sides.

They wore various coarse cloth garments, both men and women, of different heights and builds. When they had each been doing their own business moments ago, Qi Lan’s group hadn’t noticed them at all, but now they had all gathered before them, silently confronting his guards.

A solemn killing intent spread between them.

The young servant who had been clamoring moments ago broke into a cold sweat down his back and swallowed. A phrase came to his mind.

Elu Bureau.

Someone from the Elu Bureau had been sitting in that carriage.

They were finished.

This was the second phrase that flashed through his mind.

Qi Lan watched helplessly as that low-key carriage turned the street corner and disappeared from view.

He raised his hand, and the surrounding guards warily stepped back one by one behind him.

Qi Lan looked at them deeply, then turned to leave.

That group of people again went about their own business as if nothing had happened.

When he had walked more than ten zhang away and looked back, those faces from before had already disappeared from this street, as if nothing had happened and they had never existed at all.

The confused vendors and common people on the street continued hawking their wares noisily.

“Young Master, are we still going to Huansha Tower?” The young servant stumbled after him. The Huansha Tower he mentioned was Anjing’s most renowned brothel.

Qi Lan didn’t answer.

He was a martial artist—just now he seemed to have heard Pei Yanci’s voice coming from that carriage.

Could it be a mistake?

“You all go back first.” Qi Lan thought for a moment, then suddenly folded his arms and turned into a narrow alley beside them that was only two people wide.

Darkness quickly swallowed his figure. By the time they chased after him, he had long since disappeared.

Soon, shadows drifted out from the darkness again, blocking their way.

****

“You attacked the people in that carriage?” Hearing the commotion outside, Pei Yanci casually asked, but didn’t look.

“Xiao Pei’er, next time I won’t do it in front of you.” Tang Xizhui said.

Just not in front of him, but not refraining from doing it.

Anyone who dared to look down on him or offend him would never meet a good end.

“What you want to do has nothing to do with me.” Pei Yanci said indifferently, putting away the paper. “We’ve arrived. Prepare to get off.”

He had said he had matters to discuss with Yue Ting tonight, and Tang Xizhui was displeased and insisted on coming along.

Pei Yanci got off the carriage and knocked on the door several times. Xin Hai opened it, his eyes lighting up. “Pei Daren, you haven’t come in quite some days.”

He nodded in greeting and entered the courtyard. Every room still had lamplight burning bright, with low recitation sounds coming intermittently.

The path to the imperial examinations was long and arduous. Relying on perseverance more astonishing than ordinary people, they had fought their way through countless trials. Now they only had the capital examination three years hence. If they could pass with honors, their entire family’s decade-plus of single-minded dedication would not have been in vain.

If they failed, some would have to endure another three years. Most could only accept their fate and return to their hometowns.

Day after day of monotonous existence, as if there were no end, with no goals and no visible future—their eyes often revealed confused and desperate expressions, carrying a numbness as if their souls had been extracted.

Sometimes even Xin Hai didn’t understand. Rather than wasting their lives like this, wouldn’t it be better to directly inherit their ancestors’ fields, go home to farm and hunt? Their days would be full and comfortable—why did they need to rack their brains so much?

After hearing his complaints, Yue Ting only smiled. “But what if those officials don’t want to let them live well?”

Xin Hai completely didn’t believe it. Great Yu’s prosperous peace was there for all to see—life would only get better and better. Otherwise his brothers, Cui Nan and Gu Xing, wouldn’t have had the chance to register for military status.

“For a dynasty to maintain long-lasting prosperity without decline, it needs generation after generation of enlightened rulers, generation after generation of civil and military officials and people of insight.” Yue Ting smiled bitterly. “You don’t understand.”

Many people didn’t understand.

Rough common folk who couldn’t read a single character felt as long as they could live well now, that was enough.

Many of these struggling scholars also didn’t understand. Most of them only saw the present, believing that as long as they studied diligently and passed the examinations, they would naturally leap through the dragon gate, gaining both fame and fortune, completely escaping their current poverty.

Those aristocratic families only knew how much benefit their clans could gain from one political upheaval after another.

Pei Yanci saw clearly that the source of all this began with ignorance and the selfish undertone of human nature.

This didn’t mean they were all selfish and self-serving. Among the scholars living here, there were also a few who read for the sake of all the poor and suffering people in the world, wanting to let everyone live equally good lives. Yue Ting came from an aristocratic family and had traveled extensively in his early years with broad experience. Having no worries about food and clothing gave him a broader heart to think about the benefit of all the common people in the world.

But such people were still too few in this dynasty.

In the former Great Tao, in that dynasty approaching its end, they were even fewer and farther between.

This was something Pei Yanci had always wanted to do but never had the time or energy to change.

For a national policy to benefit the people, it must stand on the footprints left by predecessors, look back at the path traveled, and put forth bolder yet more meticulous visions for the future road.

He couldn’t eliminate human nature, but what he could change was ignorance.

National righteousness in times of crisis was already commonplace. If in times of peace, more and more people remained vigilant for a country, for a court, then this nation’s long-lasting prosperity would not be a myth.

After Pei Yanci explained his thoughts on reforming the Imperial Academy to Yue Ting, he had him and the scholars in the compound draft an appropriate plan over the next few days, which he would then implement initially at the Imperial Academy.

Finally, he brought up the second matter for his late-night visit.

“Prepare to open a printing house?” Yue Ting and Xin Hai were slightly startled.

To them, this seemed like completely thankless work.

Currently, printing houses were basically all established by the government. Private merchants rarely engaged in the book printing business. They would purchase books from the printing houses and resell them. By the time they reached ordinary people’s hands, one volume of a book cost about one guan, or one thousand wen.

As a fifth-rank official, Jiang Yi’s monthly salary totaled 4,600 wen—not even enough to buy five volumes of books.

For ordinary families, take this year for example—one farming household could be allocated about thirty to forty mu of land. One mu produced one dan of grain per year, and one dan of grain could sell for about one thousand wen. That meant if a household wanted to support a child’s education, the price of one volume of a book would cost them one dan of grain.

Papermaking was already difficult. For a printing house to print a book, they first needed to use wooden blocks to carve out the text content of an entire book. No errors could be tolerated during this stage, and it was the most time and labor-intensive. After that came various printing and binding processes—all extremely tedious and massive projects.

The high production costs meant the selling price could never come down. For an ordinary family to have a few volumes of books already meant they were a well-off household.

Seeing that the two had some reservations, Pei Yanci said unconcernedly, “Set this matter aside for now. Xin Hai knows many people—during this time, pay more attention to skilled craftsmen coming and going in Anjing. Hopefully we can find master craftsmen who can help us solve problems with printing typesetting and papermaking. The theater has only just opened two months ago. Yue Ting, you focus on matters there for now. What plays are currently most popular?”

Ordinary street puppet shows had been moved into a grand courtyard and immediately became wildly popular in Anjing. In just the second month, after distributing dividends, Pei Yanci still received over six thousand taels.

Adding the eight thousand taels obtained through connections by servants from the Crown Prince’s Mansion, and the five thousand taels for handling matters for Song Qi’an to rescue Song Suixi and others, after deducting all expenses, Pei Yanci could now be considered a minor wealthy merchant.

“They’re all about those matters between men and women—talented scholars paired with beautiful ladies. Those downstairs write them easily, and the common people love to watch them.” When it came to the theater, Yue Ting, who had taken the Imperial Academy reform and printing house matters to heart, could talk endlessly.

“Not just talented scholars and beautiful ladies—you can also write stories from around them, like wealthy gentry bullying men and women, chivalrous heroes coming to their rescue, or how they get through natural disasters and man-made calamities.”

“Won’t this displease the wealthy gentry?” Yue Ting worried.

“Of course those gentry won’t be happy.” Xin Hai laughed dismissively. “I think it’s good.”

“Perform these in the main hall. Each private room and elegant chamber has distinguished guests, so still focus mainly on talented scholar and beautiful lady stories. Occasionally you can also have human-demon romances, stories of past lives following into this life—more variety in the stories.”

“Alright.”

Pei Yanci looked through the recent business operations of the theater and made corrections to previous mistaken decisions. “Currently many of the small gardens and elegant chambers still have lots of empty space. Renovate them more luxuriously and continue raising prices. Differentiate those elegant chambers into high, middle, and basic grades. Find more people from Jiang Yi to guard the gardens and increase privacy. Anjing has no shortage of nobles and aristocratic families willing to spend a fortune—what’s lacking are symbols that can display their status.”

“Yes.”

Pei Yanci had never done business before and was also in the exploratory stage. After pondering for a moment, he added, “After this, take out one or two good plays and only schedule them in the highest-grade elegant chambers and small gardens. Make the distinguished guests feel they’re receiving special treatment, and make the ordinary audience in the main hall feel they’re being treated with equal respect. That will be sufficient.”

“Understood.”

In the adjacent room, Tang Xizhui waited idly for the person, listening to Pei Yanci methodically issue one directive after another. He took out a skeleton puppet and placed it sitting on the table before him.

It was assembled from the bones of a child-sized person, delicate and exquisite, white without a single flaw. Fine threads barely visible connected all the joints, with only the left hand missing.

He gazed at the stark white bones, his gentle and ethereal tone carrying deep melancholy. “Will it get better?”

Will Great Yu get better?

The puppet’s jawbone was manipulated to move up and down, the bones making clacking collision sounds, as if answering his question.

“Good child.” He contentedly stroked its smooth skull.