He glanced at his cousin, who wore a perfectly blank face.
"Your two seniors show me such favor that I dare not presume... but my path is the martial arts. Though I studied the books in my youth, my schooling stalled long ago," Xu Qi'an said, unable to read the situation.
"No matter. Reading and seeking knowledge is the work of a lifetime — it is never too late." Li Mubai chuckled, stroking his goatee.
They hold me in such high regard...? Xu Qi'an was stunned.
Then a bright idea struck him, and glancing once more at his cousin he smiled: "True enough. Learning knows no shore, and I do have a gift for the classics. Since you two have taken notice, should I attend the Academy, I shall surely be the latecomer who surpasses everyone — including Cijiu."
Xu Cijiu let out a proud "Ha!": "What Teacher and Master Mubai have taken a liking to is your poetry. Take, for example, 'Farewell at Sheep Pavilion, Seeing Off Yang Gong to Qingzhou.'" The moment the words left him, the Second Young Master's face stiffened, and he lowered his head, not daring to meet his teacher's or Li Mubai's eyes.
Sheep Pavilion, seeing off Yang Gong to Qingzhou... Yang Gong... so that's how it is. Xu Qi'an had boxed in his proud, sharp-tongued cousin, and at those words he had his answer. A moment's thought and he understood the two Grand Confucian Masters' intent.
This was, indeed, the shortcut to immortality on the page. Consider their fellow student Wang Lun — he polished Li Bai's boots so thoroughly that he sailed into eternal fame and is passed down to this day. Which shows bootlicking is its own craft: in olden days the lackey served a sworn brother and licked his way to endless glory; in the modern age the lackey worships a goddess and licks his way to penniless ruin. Preferring the old and belittling the new — no injustice done there.
The civil-service path out of the White Deer Academy was grueling beyond measure; without high office, no one was ever written into the histories. And so Xu Qi'an's poetry stood out all the more. Those two old foxes play dirty... Xu Qi'an twitched at the corner of his mouth, somewhat indignant, for they had not taken him on for his handsome bearing or sterling character — no, they were covetous of his poems. The two Grand Confucian Masters, thick-skinned and weathered, kept their smiles unchanged.
Xu Qi'an mused a moment: "Many thanks to the two masters for your kindness. Ningyan is single-minded in his devotion to learning, and would be churlish to refuse. Lately I've been struck by inspiration and am brewing a few fine poems. Once this present matter is settled, I shall call on my two teachers at the White Deer Academy."
Two teachers... Xu Cijiu's cousin is far more quick-witted than the man himself. Li Mubai let out a small breath of relief, his smile widening — had he insisted on fighting Zhang Shen for the disciple, the other man held the bond with Xu Cijiu; his odds would have been poor indeed.
"Then we shall await you at the White Deer Academy." Zhang Shen cast a deep look at Xu Xinnian: "Cijiu, to cultivate oneself one must first nurture the disposition. You opened your acuity a year ago, yet you have long been unable to break through to the Self-Cultivation realm... Hm. Go home and copy the Sage's Analects three hundred times, and give it to me in a week."
Xu Xinnian felt as though he had been struck by lightning.
"In one stride, this old man covers thirty zhang." Zhang Shen turned, took a single step, and vanished outright. Li Mubai, making a deliberate show of his skill, drew a circle at his feet with his toe and intoned gravely: "Within three inches of me, I no longer belong to this place — but to the city gates." And his figure blinked out of sight.
Xu Qi'an's eyes went wide!
"Cijiu — what realm are those two Grand Confucian Masters?"
Xu Xinnian had yet to claw free of the despair of three hundred copies when Second Uncle spoke: "From what Nian tells me, it is Virtue, the fifth-rank Confucian realm." He eagerly shared with his nephew everything he had witnessed outside the city walls.
Just so long as I blow my own horn loudly enough, there is nothing in this world I cannot do? Xu Qi'an was astonished yet again.
Xu Xinnian expelled a cloud of stale breath and, somewhat rueful, shot a glare at the older cousin who had schemed him: "The Virtue realm can regulate a man's conduct and manipulate others through speech. Its core ability is a preliminary grasp of the true meaning of 'words become law' — the power to alter the rules of things to a degree. For this reason it is also called 'letters to undermine the law.' The kind of trickery those two pulled, though, is beyond any ordinary Virtue-realm practitioner."
The two martial artists listened with hearts soaring. Second Uncle said regretfully: "Every system has its wonders — only we warriors spend our days brawling and grappling."
So they're crude lumps. The proud scholar Xu Xinnian, mindful that both crude lumps outranked him in seniority and had ample cause to use their fists, swallowed the words before they could escape.
Then he noticed his elder cousin staring at him with burning eyes.
"Second Young Master..."
"Mm?"
"Your big brother has not treated you unkindly all these days."
"Before you say that, Brother, touch your own conscience."
"I have a favor to ask of you."
"...Speak."
"One day, when you reach the Virtue realm, I shall need a promise from you."
"...Speak."
"When that day comes, you must say to me: Where is Big Brother's Diao Chan? Oh — Big Brother's carving knife is coiled about his waist."
"You lecher!" Xu the Second flicked his sleeves and stormed away. Xu Pingzhi, hearing his nephew, sank into deep thought.
......
Xu Qi'an was bound for the Directorate of Celestials; Xu Pingzhi and his son made for the Changle County yamen, the Second Uncle bidding his daughter to wait in the side hall before he left.
It was his first visit to the Star Observation Tower, the capital's tallest building, and Xu Qi'an clicked his tongue, inspecting it with unabashed interest.
"Have you been to the Star Observation Tower before?" Song Qing asked.
"First time."
"And yet you don't look surprised." Song Qing read four words in Xu Qi'an's eyes: utterly unremarkable. Anyone who first saw the Star Observation Tower would gape at a towering miracle — its foundation twice the height of an ordinary house, its pillars thicker than the palace's coiled-dragon columns, its bricks taller than a man. The labor and coin it had consumed equaled a third of the Great Feng Dynasty's annual tax revenue, and its height had no rival on earth: no one alive could raise a loftier structure. Its alchemists and the Ministry of Works had built it together over twelve years, unique beneath heaven.
Because I've grown used to towers and skyscrapers... Xu Qi'an smiled: "My Second Uncle always says that from childhood I have kept a serene stillness in my heart, that my face betrays nothing even as the mountain crashes down before me. Perhaps this is simply a gift."
Song Qing's eyes lit up: "Only that serenity fits a man to conspire with me." Xu Qi'an, eyeing the fellow's black circles, felt he might have said the wrong thing.
On the seventh floor he met Chu Caiwei, whom he had encountered once before. She wore a willow-yellow gown and sat at a low table laden with a dazzling spread. Steamed lamb, steamed bear paws, steamed deer tail, roast duck, roast spring chicken, roast goose... a whole old litany skimmed through Xu Qi'an's mind.
"Why have you gone and made trouble again?" Chu Caiwei shot a glance at him, both cheeks stuffed, greeting him garbled past her mouthful.
"Were you not in the Tower earlier?" Xu Qi'an had already learned the course of events from Song Qing.
"I was off scavenging a meal at the Grand Princess's."
Hungry as it happened, Xu Qi'an sat down with all the ease of an old friend and reached for a chicken leg. Slap! Chu Caiwei swatted away his hand, her great apricot eyes brimming with wariness: "You haven't eaten?"
"Mm."
"Senior Brother Song, take him home. When he's eaten his fill, bring him back."
...I can see exactly what Xu Lingyin will look like when she's grown! Xu Qi'an choked on a complaint, unsure whether to let it out.
"How did you come to blows with that Zhou fellow?" Chu Caiwei asked between bites.
"I was shopping with my sister. The man took a fancy to her looks."
"Is your sister pretty?"
"Barely your equal."
"Then she must indeed be a beauty beyond the mortal world."
Xu Qi'an looked up at her. Sunlight fell through the wall's vents, and her graceful oval face glowed with a healthy, gentle luster. Her great, round apricot eyes were clear and bright as though holding stars — Xu Qi'an rarely met eyes with such a touch of the second dimension. This face is a match made in heaven for my past life...
"The tax silver case is over. Do you know who switched your uncle's tax silver?" Chu Caiwei sucked at her fingers.
Xu Qi'an shook his head. "I'm only a lowly constable."
Chu Caiwei lifted her eyes a moment, then bowed her head to bite a crisp-fried roast duck: "Thousand-Household Commander Lu Chengzhi of the Imperial Blade Guard, and Chief Clerk Zheng Xin of the Revenue Ministry's Measures Bureau."
"So?" Xu Qi'an arched a brow.
"I've heard that Vice Minister of Revenue Zhou Xianping is their backer."
"!"
Son of a— Xu Qi'an could not stop a curse rising. It felt as though a current had shot through his skull, and in an instant he understood a great many things.
So after hearing me announce my name, that Zhou was dead set on having me killed — because I broke the tax silver case and ruined his father's grand scheme. He wanted revenge. No — perhaps today's business had even been premeditated... The Vice Minister's mansion stood in the inner city, far away. Yet this Zhou fellow just happened to be strolling near Xu Manor? Unless he had been deliberately hanging around the district... The lad had investigated me — so how could he not know Lingyue's face? Harassing a respectable girl was a performance; the true aim was to pick a fight and finish me off.
Xu Qi'an felt as though a cold snake were slithering down his back, and a chill rose in his heart.