Chapter 656: At the Old School
The old locust tree that used to spread a cool shade like an umbrella in the scorching summer was gone. The iron-locked well had been privately enclosed, and the sweet well water that the elders missed so much could no longer be drunk. The sound of crickets at the Immortal Graves had diminished greatly. The old porcelain mountain, which used to creak underfoot, could no longer be climbed. Fortunately, in spring, Peach Leaf Alley still had its rows of peach blossoms, the deep red lovely, the light red also lovely.
In life, there are gatherings and partings; fortunately, there are partings and gatherings too.
At the old school today, many who had left their hometown and returned gathered.
Li Huai, Lin Shouyi, Dong Shuijing, and Shi Chunjia, before returning to the academy, had agreed to revisit the school that day. There wasn't much to say—they just wanted to go there, look around, and sit.
Dong Shuijing had someone ask the clerks in the county office's household section to get the key and help open the door. Ordinary people didn't know Dong Shuijing's ability or the nickname "Dong Half-City," but the glutinous rice wine he sold had long been exported to the Great Li capital. It was said that even the immortal ferry boats that came and went like birds among the clouds stocked this wine—a rolling source of wealth everyone could see.
The four former schoolmates and close friends, Li Huai and Dong Shuijing carried water together on a shoulder pole. The pole, buckets, and rags were all brought from Li Huai's ancestral home. Shi Chunjia carried a basket with things inside. Lin Shouyi, in those days, was a rich family's young master who never worried about clothes or food and rarely had a chance to do such chores. Today, he also wanted to carry water, but Dong Shuijing laughed and said, "The place near Li Huai's house where we draw water, I'm more familiar with it."
So Lin Shouyi, empty-handed, chatted with Shi Chunjia, who was close by.
Both their families had moved to the Great Li capital. Lin Shouyi's father had been promoted to a capital official, but the Shi family was merely wealthy. In the eyes of the native capital residents, they were just country rich folks reeking of mud. The Shi family had encountered difficulties in business early on, and when they were cheated, they couldn't even find a place to reason. Shi Chunjia had some things she wanted to say. Last time at the shop in Qilong Lane, with many people around, even joking was hard. Now, with only Lin Shouyi present, she openly mocked and complained to him, saying that her family had run into obstacles in the capital. They had tried to visit Lin Shouyi's father with gifts, but though they weren't turned away outright, they were offered tea and chatted about old times, and that was it. Lin Shouyi's father clearly wasn't willing to help.
Shi Chunjia, now married and no longer the carefree little girl with pigtails, was willing to speak so directly because she still considered Lin Shouyi a friend. How their fathers dealt with each other was their business. Having left the school and academy, Shi Chunjia had become a woman who managed the household and taught her children, and she cherished those childhood school days even more.
Complaints spoken to someone's face meant there was no resentment in the heart.
Lin Shouyi did not gloss over his father's and family's faults. He said, "You know well what my father's temperament is like and what my family is like. Back then, which schoolmate dared to come play at my house? Bao Ping was bold back then, but how many times did she come to my house?"
The Lin family's style had always been strange in the small town, not inclined to engage in social niceties with outsiders. Lin Shouyi's father was even stranger. At work in the Supervision Bureau, he was clear and efficient—one person. At home, he was silent and taciturn—another person. Facing his son Lin Shouyi, he was almost harsh—yet another person. That man seemed to keep everything too clear-cut with everyone. Because he was competent, he had an excellent reputation at the bureau and got along well with several supervisors. So aside from the praise of his colleagues, Lin Shouyi, as the family head or a father, appeared somewhat cold and ungrateful.
Back when Lin Shouyi traveled far to the Great Sui Academy, the letters from home were always concise, like keeping accounts.
No matter how renowned Lin Shouyi had become in Great Sui, even gaining a great reputation in the Great Li officialdom, that man still acted as if he had no such son. He never wrote to Lin Shouyi with a single word about coming home when free.
Shi Chunjia recalled something and joked, "Lin Shouyi, even some of my friends have heard of you. What great ability you have, that your deeds have spread to the Great Li capital. They say you will surely become a worthy of the academy, maybe even a gentleman if you dare to think it. And you've succeeded in cultivation, becoming a mountain immortal, and you're good-looking too..."
At this point, Shi Chunjia turned sideways and looked at Lin Shouyi in his blue robe. "Ooh, you really are handsome. Back then, I really couldn't tell. You always wore a straight face like a little teacher—not very likable."
Lin Shouyi said, "Say that in front of Bian Wenmao if you dare."
Shi Chunjia laughed. "I didn't say you're better looking than my husband."
Lin Shouyi shook his head and said nothing.
Shi Chunjia sighed. "Back then, you and Li Huai had the newest books in the school. After a year, they still looked the same. Li Huai didn't like reading—he'd get sleepy as soon as he looked at a book. You turned pages most carefully."
Lin Shouyi smiled. "Such a trivial thing, and you still remember?"
Shi Chunjia retorted, "If I don't remember these, what should I remember?"
Lin Shouyi nodded. "A good habit."
He hesitated, then said, "If anything happens in the capital in the future, I'll ask Bian Wenmao to help."
Shi Chunjia was startled, then burst out laughing, pointing at Lin Shouyi. "Since childhood, you've spoken the least but thought the most twists."
When did Lin Shouyi ever need to ask Bian Wenmao for help?
This kind of help that also laid the groundwork and built a ladder was probably Lin Shouyi's unique gentleness and goodwill.
Over at the school, Li Huai, while cleaning, loudly recited the opening of a family precept essay: "Rise at dawn, sweep the courtyard!"
Thinking back, in the early mornings, Mr. Qi would start cleaning the school early. He always did these tasks himself, never letting the pageboy Zhao Yao do them.
Dong Shuijing smiled and responded, "Keep both inside and outside tidy."
Shi Chunjia wiped the table, raised her rag, and followed, "Rest at dusk, lock the doors and windows."
Not far away, Lin Shouyi smiled and added, "Must check personally."
Lin Shouyi carefully wiped the window rails. Studying at the foot of the mountain, cultivating on the mountain, cultivating the mind and body—wasn't it the same?
Shi Chunjia's husband, Bian Wenmao, had also returned to this Huaihuang County. The town housed both the county and commandery governments. Bian Wenmao had submitted a visiting card and needed to visit Baoxi Commandery Governor Fu Yu.
Fu Yu was also a scion of a notable capital family. The Bian family and the Fu family had some old ties, both belonging to the Great Li's pure stream, though the Bian family was much less prominent than the Fu family. However, the Fu family wasn't as prominent as the Cao or Yuan clans, eventually not belonging to the pillar surnames. Fu Yu had once been the literary secretary of Wu Yan, the first magistrate of Longquan, and was quite inscrutable.
After Longquan Commandery was elevated to Longzhou, it governed the four counties of Qingci, Baoxi, Sanjiang, and Xianghuo. Governor Yuan was a local promotion as the chief official of Qingci County. The other three county governors were all capital officials, from both noble and humble families. Baoxi Commandery fell into Fu Yu's hands.
Bian Wenmao was willing to visit the Baoxi Commandery Governor's mansion but dared not visit the Qingci County office—such was the deep-rooted authority of the pillar surnames.
In fact, although Fu Yu now held the same rank as the Yuan family's direct grandson, both being commandery governors, every time they went to the state capital for prefect discussions, not only Fu Yu but even Prefect Wei Li felt uneasy facing that Yuan governor.
It wasn't just because of Yuan's background; the governor's own moral integrity and governance methods were even more crucial.
Yu Lu and Xie Xie first went to the Yuan ancestral home, then hurried to the school, picking two empty seats.
Both had been out-of-town students at the Great Li's old Shanya Academy, but they weren't as close to Mr. Qi as Li Huai and the others. As remnants of the Lu clan, they had drifted here and only met Cui Dongshan, not Mr. Qi, who had founded the Shanya Academy and this town's school.
Coincidentally, Song Jixin and his maid Zhigui also revisited the place today. They didn't sit in the school classroom. Song Jixin, aside from Zhao Yao, had almost no dealings with Lin Shouyi and the others. He took Zhigui to the backyard and sat at a stone table—the place where Mr. Qi had instructed him and Zhao Yao in chess. Zhigui, as usual, stood outside the northern firewood door.
Song Jixin looked dejected, his hand brushing across the table.
He wondered if Zhao Yao, who always lost to him in chess, was doing well now, traveling in foreign lands.
Song Jixin turned his head and looked at Zhigui, who was idly bending a willow branch.
She stood on tiptoe, gently shaking the branch.
Song Jixin looked at her profile, which he never tired of and liked more and more. He couldn't bring himself to hate her, didn't want to, couldn't bear to.
She turned her head, as if completely forgetting the frank talk that day, and became again the maid who shared life and death with Song Jixin. She released the branch and smiled charmingly, "Young master, feel like playing chess?"
Song Jixin shook his head slightly.
Besides Li Huai and Song Jixin's group, two unexpected high-ranking officials had graced the place with their presence.
Governor Yuan, diligent and pragmatic, and Superintendent Cao, romantic and unrestrained.
Neither brought attendants—one deliberately didn't, the other had none.
In fact, both of these contemporaries from pillar surnames had been students at the Great Li capital's old Shanya Academy.
But like the deposed prince Yu Lu, they had never personally seen Mr. Qi, let alone heard his teachings.
Superintendent Cao leaned against the window, a vermilion wine gourd hanging at his waist. It was an ordinary material, but however many years he had been in the town, that small gourd had accompanied him that many years. Polished to a shine, with a pleasing patina, it was Superintendent Cao's beloved possession, not to be traded for a thousand gold.
Seeing the commandery governor, who had shed his official robe for a blue scholar's gown, Superintendent Cao exclaimed in surprise, "Governor Yuan is a busy man, spinning like a top every day, feet never off the ground, back never on a chair. If you, Governor Yuan, aren't dizzy, those watching you feel like they're drunk. This round trip to Huaihuang County must delay a lot of official business."
Governor Yuan's expression was indifferent. "Talking to you is a waste of time."
In all of Great Li, the Yuan and Cao clans were now the most famous pillar surnames in Vase Bottle Continent. The reason was simple: half of the door gods plastered across the continent were the ancestors of these two families. At the Old Porcelain Mountain's Civil Temple and the Immortal Graves' Martial Temple in Huaihuang County, the ancestors of both families were also enshrined as attendant deities, receiving offerings.
Superintendent Cao took down the gourd from his waist, took a small sip, and squinted his eyes, as if every time he drank, life was complete.
Governor Yuan stood straight as a ramrod, the complete opposite of the lazy Superintendent Cao. This scion of the Yuan clan, well-regarded in Great Li officialdom, said, "I wonder if every time Superintendent Cao stumbles out drunk and sways home, seeing the portraits of your ancestors on the door helps sober you up a bit."
Superintendent Cao was famously approachable, addicted to wine but not fond of heavy drinking—only small, slow sips. So it seemed he was drinking all day long. His life path was the road to buy wine, pausing halfway to chat with anyone.
Fortunately, the Kiln Affairs Supervisory Office, located right in the town, was a quiet yamen that answered to no one. Nominally under the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Personnel in the capital had no authority over it. In fact, whether the Ministry of Rites could truly control the Longquan Kiln Affairs Superintendent was an open secret in the Great Li capital's officialdom.
Superintendent Cao had specifically instructed his subordinate officials that all performance evaluations for yamen officials and clerks should be written as either "good" or "excellent."
If it only said "good," and some good wine was sent, then it became "excellent."
If it was "excellent" last year and no wine was sent, then it would no longer be "excellent" this year.
The rules of the Kiln Affairs Supervisory Office's officialdom were that simple. It saved so much trouble that officials, both pure and turbid streams, were left stunned, then overjoyed. Such an easygoing superior was hard to find even with a lantern.
Superintendent Cao himself didn't take his official hat seriously. Over time, the townspeople saw that this young official wasn't just pretending to be approachable, so they stopped taking him seriously too.
Huang Erniang would scold and laugh at him. Liu Big Eyes, who had moved to the state capital, would drink with Superintendent Cao and call him brother. Back in the state capital, he would tell everyone that Superintendent Cao was his good buddy. Even the little kids in open-crotch pants liked to play and roughhouse with the idle Superintendent Cao. If they complained to their fathers, it was usually useless. If they cried to their mothers, as long as the woman was sharp-tongued enough, she might even dare to strip Superintendent Cao's clothes.
Superintendent Cao had long mastered the local dialect to perfection. Speaking in the Great Li official language felt unnatural to him.
Cao slanted his eyes at his extremely familiar contemporary and replied, "I wonder if the most etiquette-abiding Governor Yuan, every time he sees the door god portraits, would kneel and kowtow."
If these two hadn't come to this town for training as a starting point in officialdom, Governor Yuan Zhengding would never have spoken a word to the other, while Superintendent Cao Gengxin would have proactively spoken to Yuan Zhengding, but definitely not so "euphemistically."
Yuan Zhengding was silent for a moment. "Being so neglectful of your duties, do you have the face to go to Toothpick Street in the future?"
Cao Gengxin swirled the wine gourd in his hand and grinned. "Walking on my face—that was quite witty of you, Governor Yuan. If anyone ever says again that Governor Yuan's only flaw is a lack of humor, when I meet them on the road, I'll go up and give them two big slaps."
Yuan Zhengding continued, "Do you still remember Guan Yiran and Liu Xunmei? If I recall correctly, as children, these two military scions liked to hang around you."
Now those two, though still not of very high rank, could sit on equal footing with him, Yuan Zhengding, and Cao Gengxin. The key was that in their later official careers, the two military seed seemed to have broken through a major bottleneck.
That was the transformation from military to civilian identity.
Cao Gengxin smiled slightly. "Governor Yuan, since you don't know who I am, don't say words that claim you do."
Yuan Zhengding feigned surprise. "Oh? Dare I ask who you are?"
Cao Gengxin took a sip of wine. "When I haven't reached the door of drinking, I'm Cao the Drunkard. When I've reached the door, then I'm Cao the Great Wine Immortal."
Yuan Zhengding smiled. "Truly a waste of time."
Cao Gengxin shook his head. "I came to see Mr. Qi's direct disciples, especially to ask Brother Dong for some glutinous rice wine without having to owe credit. Governor Yuan, on the other hand, came to curry favor with a prince. The difference is clear. I'm the mud in a shabby alley that dirties your boots if you step on it. Governor Yuan is a bronze mirror hanging high on a gate—noble, upright, and aboveboard."
Yuan Zhengding frowned. "After all these years, you've only learned to wag your tongue?"
Cao Gengxin asked back, "And have you learned?"
Yuan Zhengding said gravely, "This is no joke!"
Cao Gengxin hung his little wine gourd back, clasped his fists in apology, and said, "Governor Yuan, just go ahead and rise through the ranks on your own merits. Don't bother about whether this lazy fellow improves himself."
Yuan Zhengding sighed inwardly.
He strongly disliked this man's demeanor, but deep down, Yuan Zhengding still hoped this scion of the Cao clan would put a bit more mind into climbing the official ladder.
Of course, Yuan Zhengding mainly thought of himself.
Whether in officialdom, literary circles, the martial world, or on the mountains.
That's how the world worked: all onlookers liked to see evenly matched rivals, paying more attention. If someone rode out alone early, leaving everyone in the dust, it wasn't necessarily a good thing.
The Kiln Affairs Supervisory Office actually had great responsibilities.
Yuan Zhengding was very envious.
First, it could prevent thieves and even catch thieves personally.
The town's four surnames and ten clans—Song, Zhao, Lu, Li, Chen, Shi, etc.—all fell under the supervisory office's jurisdiction. This office, which on the surface only supervised the firing of imperial porcelain, could actually manage everything: Yang Family Shop, North Sacred Piyun Mountain, Linlu Academy, Longquan Sword Sect, Fallen Mountain, all the immortal mountain peaks west of the town, the school later run by the Chen clan of Longwei Creek, the civil and martial temples in the state, commandery, and county, the City God Pavilion and Temple, the various mountain and river deities including Iron Symbol River, the three rivers of Chongdan, Embroidery, and Jade Liquid, Red Candle Town, high-ranking officials, major households, common honest families, base people, even cultivators with their Peace Tokens—as long as Superintendent Cao wanted to investigate, he could. The Great Li Ministries of Justice and Rites would not and dared not hold him accountable.
But this Superintendent Cao, appointed by the late emperor, seemed to have chosen to do nothing.
Yuan Zhengding was both pleased and worried. Pleased that his neighbor, who could have been a future mortal enemy in the Great Li court, was so ineffectual. Worried that the young, ambitious emperor, who disliked this Cao Gengxin, might one day lose patience and, not caring about the Cao family's face, replace him entirely. Then when Yuan Zhengding later took office as Longzhou Prefect and became a true regional magnate with real power, he would find himself tied hand and foot. After all, precedents were clear: a new superintendent would definitely not be so easy to deal with.
Not far from the school stood Ma Kuxuan and his maid Shudian.
They had exchanged glances with both Cao Gengxin and Yuan Zhengding, but neither side intended to greet each other.
They were never on the same path.
Ma Kuxuan said, "When my grandmother was alive, she loved to curse people. She'd curse to their faces if she could; if she didn't dare to their faces, she'd curse behind their backs. Among the people she knew, there were only three she never cursed. Mr. Qi of the school was one. My grandmother said Mr. Qi was a truly good person."
Ma Kuxuan curled his lip, crossed his arms, leaned back against a mud wall, and said, "The people of my hometown like to speak without restraint, without locking the door."
Ma Kuxuan laughed and then said a strange phrase, "Dang bei dang de ci."
Shudian couldn't understand it at all; it was probably a local saying.
Shudian only knew that the local dialect had many flat tones, hence no ups and downs.
Ma Kuxuan, rarely speaking to her in such harmless words, as if in an unprecedented chat about home, explained with a smile, "It means when you hear others' words, it's like carrying a load—whether you can bear that weight."
A young man walked out from the ancestral home on Mud Vase Alley and lingered for a long time in front of Chen Ping'an's ancestral home.
Gu Can had originally planned to go directly to the state capital, but after thinking it over, he headed toward the school.
Meanwhile, at Ox Horn Mountain Ferry, a tall man stepped off a transcontinental ferry that had gone from Old Dragon City north to North Juju Continent. It was his first return since leaving home.
Ruan Xiu smiled and greeted, "Hello, Liu Xianyang."
Liu Xianyang strode forward, beaming. "Miss Ruan!"
Ruan Xiu nodded and tossed him a sword token. With it, he could fly freely within Longzhou territory.
In fact, in a few more years, Liu Xianyang should become a direct disciple of the Longquan Sword Sect's Patriarch Hall.
Liu Xianyang was only on loan to the Chunru Chen clan of South Patience Continent for twenty years.
Liu Xianyang took the sword token, bid farewell, and flew directly to his ancestral home. Then he went to a grave near the dragon kiln, and finally returned to the town.
He blocked the entrance of Mud Vase Alley and beat Gu Can up.
Gu Can didn't fight back.
A woman in red, who had been hopping across the clouds, changed her mind. She calculated the time, so instead of going to the Great Li capital, she detoured back to her hometown.
Lowering her head, she landed at the school.
Ruan Xiu went to the Year-Pressing Shop on Qilong Lane, eating pastries along the way, and also headed to the school.
So the already lively school became even more crowded.
Bian Wenmao left the Commandery Governor's mansion and rode a carriage to a street near the school. He lifted the curtain and looked over, surprised to see Superintendent Cao and Governor Yuan standing together.
After weighing the pros and cons, Bian Wenmao decided that since those two pillar scions were there, he wouldn't go and exchange pleasantries. He let the curtain fall and told the driver to move the carriage elsewhere.
As for the others near the school, Bian Wenmao either knew them and had already interacted, or they were unfamiliar, so he paid them no mind.
He just waited for Shi Chunjia to leave that little school, then they would set off together back to the Great Li capital.
A man who looked like a frail scholar had changed his mind. He brought his Longbo brother and, careful step by step, arrived in the town to wander.
Attracted by the "commotion" at the school, Liu Chicheng gritted his teeth and silently told himself he was just going to look, not cause trouble. Even if some brat on the roadside suddenly jumped up and slapped him, he would greet it with a smile!
So Liu Chicheng and his Longbo brother saw a scene.
At the school, people were dispersing around the same time, so at one moment, all of them came into view of the pedestrians on the main street.
The woman in blue with a ponytail, Ruan Xiu.
Li Baoping in her red cotton-padded jacket.
Li Huai, Lin Shouyi, Dong Shuijing.
Yu Lu, Xie Xie.
Ma Kuxuan.
Song Jixin, Zhigui.
Liu Xianyang, Gu Can.
Those people, more or less, glanced at Liu Chicheng standing by the roadside.
Especially Gu Can, whose smile was meaningful.
Liu Chicheng's scalp went numb. He regretted it deeply; he absolutely shouldn't have come.
If no one were around, he would have slapped the Longbo brother across the face right then. You saw me being foolish and didn't even try to dissuade me—how can you call yourself a true friend?
Chai Bofu had lost his cultivation realm, but his eyesight remained. But he was more resilient than Liu Chicheng. Now that he had nothing left to lose, he figured he might as well not care.
Liu Chicheng humbly asked, "Brother Longbo, if you had to make a living here, how many days could you survive?"
Chai Bofu was speechless.
But as those people moved farther from the school and closer to the street,
Chai Bofu felt increasingly suffocated.
Liu Chicheng no longer spoke through mind voice but smiled openly to his Longbo brother, "Did you know? I am a close friend of Chen Ping'an!"
Chai Bofu thought for a moment and nodded. "I am too."