CH 29

Yan Shifan was in a bad mood lately, he usually didn’t have a good temperament anyway so now it was even worse. If his concubine did not serve him well, he would have her dragged out and had her beaten. His face was as dark as the bottom of a burnt pot. To the extent that the two men, Yan Maoqing and Wan Cai who were standing in front of him were almost trembling with fear.

Yan Maoqing seeing that Yan Shifan was playing with jade balls in his hands, and hadn’t spoken in so long, he couldn’t help breaking the silence: “Little Ge Lao1, recently, the people made an offering of 200,000 taels, this official has ordered people to cast a gold and silver tree. On the top the leaves and flowers will be entirely gold and white silver….”

He hadn’t finished before being cut off: “What kind of time is it now, lao-zi doesn’t have time to be listening to this nonsense!”

Wan Cai, seeing Yan Maoqing deflated, looked over at Yan Shifan and smiled: “There seems to be something bothering Little Ge Lao, perhaps you could tell us so we can also help you to find a solution.”

“You both have really lived well for too long, you don’t know how the word death is written!” Yan Shifan smiled coldly: “My mother is so ill that she can’t leave her bed, it’s a lingering illness, don’t you both know that?”

Yan Maoqing and Wan Cai looked at each other, they didn’t know why he would suddenly bring this up, especially since ordinarily he had never shown any filial piety.

Wan Cai quickly replied: “Lao fu-ren is very ill, this weighs heavy on our hearts…”

“Idiot! Lao-zi just wants to tell you both, if my mother dies, I will have to go back to my hometown to observe mourning for my mother!”

Yan Maoqing finally understood what Yan Shifan was trying to say. If a parent died, the children must observe a period of mourning, this was right and ulterable, and imperial officials were no exception. If this was the case, you’d have to go back to your hometown and observe a period of three years of mourning before you could come back to your official post. But three years is a long time and things changed very quickly, no one would just leave the position empty waiting for you to come back.

So in order to continue working as an official, in a previous dynasty had created a method to get around this called “Duo Qing”2. When you evoked “Duo Qing” that meant that your official post was too important, and you absolutely couldn’t leave your position, so the Emperor would order by imperial decree, in the name of the country, you must continue working, and there was no need to observe the mourning period. So in successive dynasties and successive generations, anyone who didn’t want to go into a period of mourning would use this method, it was tried and tested.

However, during the Ming dynasty, this method was not upheld, because the Ming dynasty court had a decree – “All officials observing the period of mourning, must not present “Duo Qing” to the Emperor”. That meant that if one or both of your parents died, the period of mourning had to be observed, it didn’t matter if you were a high-ranking official, you must go, and you cannot use “Duo Qing” as an excuse.

So, if Lady Ouyang passes, Yan Shifan was obliged to return to his hometown for three years to observe the mourning period. Yan Song was already eighty years old this year, so he was already far less able before, there were many things that Yan Shifan would actually take care of behind his back. If Yan Shifan had to leave, he was afraid that something would inevitably go wrong in the Yan faction3.

Yan Shifan was very clear that although it seemed like smooth-sailing now, because on the outside he had Hu Zongxian, and on the inside he had his father. The inside and outside of the imperial court looked like a steel tube. They had allies in the highs and the lows of the government. However, there were many eyes coveting their position, secretly hoping that father and son would slip up. And these people would stop at nothing to get a piece of the action.

Yan Maoqing and Wan Cai were both idiots. As soon as Yan Shifan said it explicitly, they finally understood the consequences, they nervously got up and said: “Little Ge Lao, then what should we do?”

If Yan Shifan wasn’t there. They would have lost their backbone, and they could be pulled off the horse anytime, so they were naturally panicking.

“Look at you guys,” Yan Shifan sneered, put down the jade balls casually, then got up and paced about.

“Has the imperial exam results been released?”

Wan Cai quickly replied: “It was just released today?”

Yan Shifan was pleased with himself: “We can say that it was Gao Gong and the others were playing favouritism and we might as well say that they leaked the exam questions as well.”

As soon as Gao Gong and the others fell, the Emperor would also be extremely disappointed with the Prince of Yu. This way, a single net wiped out all the enemies.”

“Just how do we get Zhao Su to admit his guilt? There is still Xu Jie and the Prince of Yu behind him. Should we use force…”

“No need for you to do anything, lao-zi will borrow three knives to kill three people!”

……..

“Luckily, your friend was also at the place where they were releasing the results. His name is Chen Zhu, he asked his pageboy to bring me here so I was able to find this place.”

Zhao Su seized the opportunity: “Transferred back to the Capital so it means you’ve been promoted? You need to treat me to a good meal then.”

Yuan Shu snorted, suddenly grabbing Zhao Su’s chin: “You got a good ranking in the metropolitan examination and I came over as a lucky coincidence. But you look very calm, you’ve not even expressed any emotion at all!”

Zhao Su smiled bitterly, his little shixiong hadn’t matured emotionally at all, it was just for show. Nothing had changed inside, he still had a child’s temperament.

He smacked away the other’s hand and then massaged his red chin: “How can you say I’m not touched. In this lifetime, I only have you, my little shixiong. You’ve been promoted, I should share in the glory with you. Where are we going to eat Yunlai House or Liuquan Pavilion8?”

Yuan Shu listened to the first half of that sentence, his eyes widened and he smiled, but this smile was eroded by the second half of his sentence, he was so angry his teeth were chattering.

He plopped down hard onto the chair :“No need to go anywhere. You sit down now! I need to ask you something, what have you been doing in the last three years?”

Zhao Su was laughing inside but on the outside he sighed and said angrily: “I’ve been out all day hungry even if you’re a penny-pincher and don’t want to treat me to a meal. You could at least let me drink some water.”

Yuan Shu twitched his eyebrow: “You little b*stard, you’ve been crafty since you were a child. Don’t count on me to be soft-hearted. How could the guest of the Prince of Yu manor be hungry?”

He just finished speaking, when he saw Zhao Su looking at him with a smile, it was a warm expression, and he wasn’t teasing anymore.

“Little shixiong, I really did miss you.”

Yuan Shu was slightly startled, and a sour and astringent feeling rushed into his heart. In reality, the two study brothers had only spent a handful of years together. That year when Yuan Shu had passed the metropolitan exam, Zhao Su had missed the opportunity because he got sick from saving Yuan Shu from drowning. A freak accident, and then just like that they had to separate. When they met each other again, they were no longer the two youths that used to study in Dai Gongwang’s study.

Plus, these last few years, Yuan Shu had taken up official post, he had experienced quite a few twist and turns, he had seen a lot and encountered his fair share of tragedies, dealt with all kind of people, the arrogance of the past gradually turned into a restrained arrogance, he felt that the friendship of his youth was more and more precious.

In fact, there is still a knot in his heart. Zhao Su was supposed to go to the exam with him back then, but he was delayed by that illness. Three years were wasted in vain. Yuan Shu had never let this go, but he was young and proud, even if he felt guilty he didn’t know how to express it, so he suppressed it deep down, and he didn’t even write the letter. He had left home at a young age, to follow Dai Gongwang on his travels, even though he had siblings at home, they were not particularly close to his heart, if there was someone who he really felt close to, it was only this shidi.

“I’m sorry,” Yuan Shu finally said it out loud.

“What’s there to be sorry about, if other people saw you acting like a child, they would think that you’d done something awful to me. Isn’t it just treating me to a meal, penny-pincher, alright, I’ll treat you then, let’s go!” Zhao Su sighed, pulling him towards the door.

Yuan Shu didn’t react for a moment, he lost his usual sharpness, and let him pull him along. In that moment, he discovered that the other’s originally youthful hand had gradually revealed the outline of an adult’s silhouette, which had become more slender and beautiful.

The two had not seen each other for a long time, so naturally had a lot of things to say to each other. When they arrived at Yunlai House, they bumped into Chen Zhu and some others, and were pulled in with them, unable to leave so they ended up drinking together. It turned out that in addition to the first place, Qi Yuanzuo, Xu Shixing took second, Wang Xijue took third, followed by Zhao Su and Chen Zhu. The names of these people were all next to each other, and they all knew each other. It is naturally more lively to get together, plus a former court examination graduate, Yuan Shu was also present. Everyone was about the same age, so this meal carried on until dark.

In the following days, Zhao Su was either made to go socialise with other scholars by Chen Zhu, or he was made to meet Yuan Shu’s peers. This was to prepare for his future career, so although he had finished the metropolitan exam, he felt more tired than he did before the exam. After a few days of this, he felt overwhelmed.

One day, Zhao Su finally had the opportunity to relax and was reading a book. He was preparing for next month’s court examination. Yuan Shu sat lazily practising his calligraphy.

A faint fragrant scent blew in from the window, the two didn’t speak, they were just happily enjoying the calmness.

Yuan Shu finished a line of calligraphy, he lifted his head and saw that Zhao Su was fully concentrating on his book. He was extraordinarily serious and handsome, Yuan Shu couldn’t help but smile and said: “This is a rare sunny day, you…”

Before he could finish, they heard banging on the door. After a moment, Li Song ran to open the door. He’d just opened the door and shouted but was pushed backwards.

The two of them saw that something was up, so they went outside to take a look, where they saw a group of people coming. They were wearing flying fish robes9 and carrying an embroidered spring knife10, expressing an aggressive aura.

Yuan Shu’s face dropped: “The Embroidered Guard?!”

“Which one of you is Zhao Su!””

“I am.”

The guard looked him up and down and then pointed: “Arrest him!”

“Wait!” Yuan Shu said, he walked forward, standing in front of Zhao Su. “What crime has he committed?”

Perhaps it was because Yuan Shu didn’t look like an ordinary commoner, the other person looked at him but didn’t say anything.

Zhao Su’s heart skipped a beat, he took out an embroidered pouch containing some loose silver from his sleeve, handed it to the guard, and said, “Da-ren, the Embroidered Guard Commander, Liu Shouyou, Lui da-ren is an acquaintance, could you tell us what is going on?”

The guard’s expression eased a lot: “So you know Liu da-ren, however, this situation is particularly delicate. It’s in regard to cheating in the metropolitan examination; the Emperor has ordered a thorough investigation.Someone has accused you of colluding with the Chief Examining Officers and receiving the exam questions in advance. So that’s why you were able to pass with honours, so you must come with us.”

The information was shocking and Zhao Su’s face couldn’t help turning a little pale, but in the end he didn’t lose his composure: “Could you tell me the name of my accuser?”

The guard did not intend to conceal the information and replied: “His name is Zhao Rong.”