DCPRT Chapter 65

After the heads of various influential families had beaten their troublesome sons, they finally calmed down. Now they needed to find out exactly how many printed copies the Crown Prince had in his possession.

Although they had voluntarily donated handwritten copies of their unique and precious works, they still did not want the books in their hands to become ordinary volumes available everywhere. After all, these rare and precious works symbolized the heritage and cultural depth of an aristocratic family — and this very fact already created an enormous chasm between them and those of humble origins.

Moreover, these rare and precious works were also their means of attracting talented individuals. If they were to become commonplace goods found everywhere on the street, how could they not be distressed?

For a time, the heads of several aristocratic families gathered together, intending to think of a way to find out how many printed copies the Crown Prince had.

“These wretched brats — told them to copy the books and they couldn’t even do that properly, just freely handing their own family’s texts over to others. This is absolutely infuriating,” the Cui family head said.

“Who isn’t angry? We knew this group of troublemakers was lazy, but we never imagined they could be this lazy. You’d think copying a few books would be the death of them,” the nearby family heads shook their heads and sighed.

“The key issue right now is to find out how many printed copies the Crown Prince has in his hands,” someone said.

“The Crown Prince has fallen ill again. He has not attended court for a whole month, and there has been no word of him leaving the Crown Prince’s Eastern Palace either,” the Cui family head said. “And who among us would dare go to the Crown Prince’s Eastern Palace?”

Their Emperor kept a very strict watch over any association between the imperial princes and outside officials, and besides, the Eastern Palace was not a place they could enter whenever they wished.

At that moment, the head of one of the aristocratic families looked at the Cui family head and said, “I have heard that the Cui family head is on close terms with Lord Xie. Why don’t we sound him out?”

“Good idea,” the others agreed.

Upon hearing this, the Cui family head lowered his head in thought, wondering inwardly whether he was once again going to have to accompany Lord Xie on a fishing trip.

“That’s settled then. Cui family head, we’ll leave this matter to you. Lord Xie even held you in his arms when you were a child — no one is more suitable than you,” everyone immediately declared, slapping the table.

The Cui family head, forced to bear this responsibility: ……

“Very well then. I shall go and sound out Lord Xie,” he said, and rose to take his leave.

Early the next morning, the Cui family head arrived at the entrance of the Xie residence, fishing rod in hand.

“Uncle Cui, what brings you here?” asked Xie Ling, who happened to be at home on a rest day.

The Cui family head was holding a fishing rod and wore a rather stern expression — he did not look like someone paying a visit, but rather someone coming to pick a fight.

Without waiting for the Cui family head to reply, Xie Ling said, “Uncle Cui, the Xie family’s daughters of marriageable age are barely past ten — they really aren’t a suitable match for Cousin Yan.”

Upon hearing this, the Cui family head’s face darkened even further. Had his son truly reached a point where he couldn’t find a wife and had to set his sights on young girls?

“I am here to go fishing with your cousin-aunt’s husband,” the Cui family head said through gritted teeth.

(TL: biaogufu ‘表姑父’  

表姑 = the speaker’s parent’s female cousin (older generation, same generation as the speaker’s parents).

表姑父 = that woman’s husband.)

“Oh? Ah, right, right, right.” Xie Ling acted as though he had just caught on, and stepped aside. “Please come in, Uncle. My grandfather is fishing in the garden.”

In the garden pond, Xie Yi sat contentedly fishing. That old fellow Gu Shen had been sent off to oversee the book compilation work, and no one was calling on him to attend court anymore — these days he could sleep until he naturally woke, then come out to fish at the garden pond.

What’s more, without that old fellow Gu Shen around, he was catching far more fish than before. When fishing together with Gu Shen, all he could reel in was a single turtle. Xie Yi was now beginning to wonder whether Gu Shen’s presence had been cursing his luck.

Just as Xie Yi was happily stroking his beard while fishing, that Cui boy walked in carrying a fishing rod.

“My dear young nephew of the Cui family, what brings you here?” Xie Yi set down his fishing rod and said. “I rarely see you on ordinary days — it’s a rare thing indeed that you’ve come to keep me company fishing.”

Yet in his heart, Xie Yi understood clearly: for the Cui family head to come to him in person, the Crown Prince’s remarkably fast printing technique must have alarmed the aristocratic families and set them on guard.

In such a short time, nearly half of the books donated by the aristocratic families had already been printed. Anyone would be unsettled by this — and the families who had donated the books were even more afraid that their treasured heirlooms would become worthless paper found everywhere on the street.

“Lord Xie is too kind,” said the Cui family head, who found himself a spot and sat down beside Xie Yi to start fishing, then began chatting with him about everyday matters.

“I hear that His Highness the Crown Prince’s health has been worsening of late?” the Cui family head opened with.

Xie Yi gave a cold inward snort upon hearing this, then said, “Indeed. Fortunately, your family’s son has been on hand — I hear that once spring comes to an end, the Crown Prince’s condition will be fully stabilized.”

The implied meaning in Xie Yi’s words was: Cui Yan is the imperial physician treating the Crown Prince — surely your own son is the most reliable source for how His Highness is faring?

“I hear the Crown Prince has created a new printing technique — faster and more convenient than woodblock printing. I wonder what it looks like,” the Cui family head continued.

Xie Yi thought to himself: Here it comes. Then he slowly said, “Yes indeed. The Crown Prince calls it movable type printing. The movable type used is cast from molten copper — a single set of copper type weighs over three thousand jin. Although the printing speed is faster, the cost is beyond what ordinary people can bear.”

“What?” the Cui family head exclaimed in astonishment.

Over three thousand jin of copper — and that was just for one set of type! If one wanted to print faster and needed several sets of type working simultaneously, that would be tens of thousands of jin of copper.

This kind of printing method — there were probably very few people in the world who could afford it.

In truth, the Juxian Pavilion Bookshop under the Crown Prince had long since switched to clay movable type, dramatically reducing costs. But in order to make the aristocratic families believe that this printing technique could never possibly turn their treasured rare works into worthless paper found everywhere, Xie Yi had told them only that the Crown Prince was using expensive copper type.

Xie Yi beside him continued without so much as a change of expression. “For this printing of books, the Crown Prince only printed three copies of each title — two were placed in the Wenyuan Pavilion, and the remaining one was sent back to each of the donating aristocratic families for their reference and perusal, so as to avoid damage to those rare and precious heirlooms. This was also a gesture of goodwill on the part of His Highness the Crown Prince.”

“That is reassuring,” the Cui family head said quietly.

Only three printed copies in total — two entering the Wenyuan Pavilion, one returning to the aristocratic families’ hands. There was no way for these books to spread widely.

“As for the copper type after the printing was done, I heard His Highness say he intends to use it to print the most popular story books in the capital to earn some money,” Xie Yi added.

“Oh?” The Cui family head was taken aback on the spot.

Xie Yi said in a perfectly natural tone, “It’s already been made — it can’t just be left sitting there after use, or melted down. Using it to print some story books and official gazettes isn’t bad either. It counts as making full use of what one has.”

“Well…” As a proud young master of an aristocratic family, he didn’t quite understand this notion of making full use of what one has — but this visit had accomplished its purpose.

And so, after the Cui family head had obtained the answers he sought, he patiently kept Xie Yi company fishing for a while longer, then excused himself to Xie Yi on the grounds of having matters at home to attend to.

Xie Yi, sitting on a stone and fishing, glanced in the direction of the Cui family head’s departure and said, “What an impatient young man.”

After the Cui family head had sounded out Lord Xie, the aristocratic families in the capital relaxed somewhat, and the group of aristocratic young masters who had been beaten were given a stern face-to-face dressing down, to make sure they remembered this lesson.

A few more days passed, and the design drawings for the Lingchuan Grand Academy were at last completed, comprising over a dozen major structures: student dormitories, faculty residences, a dining hall, a training ground, the Wenyuan Pavilion, a secondary Wenyuan Pavilion, a Wenyuan Pavilion catalogue office, classrooms for each year level, the academy’s main hall, an astronomical observation platform, and a bathhouse.

The secondary Wenyuan Pavilion had been requested by You Yusui. It was built specifically to house backup copies of the Wenyuan Pavilion’s collection, and was situated far from the main Wenyuan Pavilion — so that even if one were to catch fire, the other would not be affected. Building an additional pavilion was costly, but You Yusui felt it was worthwhile. What would be truly heartbreaking was if the ancient sages’ texts were destroyed by fire.

You Yusui looked over the architectural drawings for the Lingchuan Grand Academy, then pointed to the Wenyuan Pavilion and said, “Both Wenyuan Pavilions must be built near water. Inside each book pavilion, a water vat must be placed every few bookshelves, and the bookshelves must be fitted with wheels — so that even if fire should unfortunately break out, the books can be quickly removed and losses minimized.”

Eunuch Fubao, who was standing to one side, smiled and said, “The Wenyuan Pavilion hasn’t even been built yet — why does Your Highness keep thinking about fires? It’s quite inauspicious.”

You Yusui smiled but said nothing. He recalled that in several past lives, some unknown person had set fire to the imperial palace’s book repository, and hundreds of thousands of volumes had gone up in flames. When his father emperor had heard the news and stood before the ashes of the repository, he had nearly been unable to remain standing.

And so, to prevent such a tragedy from occurring, one had to learn to distribute one’s eggs among different baskets.

“His Highness is most thorough,” Huo Xiling said.

You Yusui coughed a few times, then handed the academy drawings back to the draughtsman and said, “The Wenyuan Pavilion is to be built exactly as I have specified. As for the rest, do your utmost to meet Teacher Xu’s requirements.”

Teacher Xu was a gentleman of integrity, a man who pursued perfection, and someone who would provide students with an excellent learning environment. Whatever You Yusui might not think of, Teacher Xu would — and so You Yusui felt entirely at ease leaving the remaining matters to him.

“If Your Highness has no further requirements, construction of the Lingchuan Grand Academy can begin tomorrow,” the draughtsman said.

“Very well then,” You Yusui’s lips curved into a smile. “As for funding — if it falls short, you may come to this prince at any time.”

“Understood.”

And so, when the great stone carved with the four characters for “Lingchuan Grand Academy” — bearing You Fengyun’s personal seal — was hauled up onto Mei Mountain, the Lingchuan Grand Academy that students across the realm had been eagerly anticipating finally broke ground. And You Fengyun’s ugly handwriting would soon become known to scholars throughout the land.

Time passed at a leisurely pace. By the time You Yusui finally realized he could no longer avoid attending morning court, summer had already arrived. He, the Crown Prince, had at last — reluctantly — recovered enough from his illness that he could attend court.

In the court hall, the Prince Yan faction and the Prince Wu faction attacking each other and tearing at each other’s hair had become the standard daily spectacle of every morning court session. Even You Fengyun had grown tired of watching it after nearly two months.

Just as You Fengyun was about to speak and put a stop to it, a bloodstained urgent dispatch was delivered into Xuande Hall by a courier soldier. You Fengyun tore open the letter, and his expression changed drastically.

The county magistrate of Dayang County in Hedong Commandery had colluded with local powerful clans to embezzle disaster relief funds, annex large amounts of farmland from peasants, and forced commoners to become tenant farmers — leaving tens of thousands of people displaced, selling their sons and daughters.

And all of this had only been reported to the central government through a bloodstained urgent dispatch, more than three months after it had begun.

“What exactly is the governor of Hedong Commandery doing?” You Fengyun was smiling, but the smile did not reach his eyes — within them was nothing but boundless cold fury.

The assembled ministers bowed their heads, not daring to meet the Emperor’s gaze.

“Your Majesty, the most pressing matter is to dispatch someone to investigate this affair and pacify the displaced people!” Prime Minister Su was the first to step forward and say.

“So then — who shall be sent?” You Fengyun asked.

Given that such a serious matter had arisen, dispatching an ordinary official would accomplish little. Only an imperial prince could intimidate the Dayang County officials and local powerful clans into submission.

And so, Prince Yan You Yuyi and Prince Wu You Yushan spoke in unison. “Father Emperor! This son is willing to spare you this burden!”

At that moment, You Yusui wished with all his heart that he could fall gravely ill on the spot.