Making Money in Earnest

Pan Hong slapped away the hand reaching toward him. "I'll mail it myself tomorrow."

But that soon became impossible. The constable came to their door to notify them, "Tomorrow at the hour of the Dragon, we'll be harvesting wheat two li east of town. You father and three sons have all been conscripted. Don't be late."

Then he called Pan Yue and Pan Yu by name. "The Second Battalion wants you to clean the stables. Hurry up, you have to be there in a quarter of an hour."

Pan Yue and Pan Yu did not dare say a word, only lowering their heads in acknowledgment.

Seeing how thin his two sons had become, so gaunt they were nearly unrecognizable, Pan Hong's heart ached. When he saw the constable eyeing the rice, flour, grain, and oil they had just bought, greed flashing in his eyes, he knew this road would not be easy to walk.

Pan Hong said nothing more and agreed. Once the man had left, he divided the buns they had bought between the two boys. "Eat more. Go on ahead first. I'll ask someone to help you later."

Pan Yue pushed the bun back. "Father, we've already eaten. This is for you."

"My appetite isn't good. I'll cook some porridge later. You two eat these."

Thinking of the money they had just collected, Pan Yue did not refuse again. He accepted the bun and shared it with his younger brother.

Pan Yu listened to him. Seeing his elder brother eat, he ate as well. "Father, don't worry. We're used to cleaning those stables. We can manage without asking anyone for help."

He did not want his father to have to beg anyone.

Pan Hong smiled. "Don't worry. Your old man won't suffer any grievance. This is mutual help—they help us now, and we'll naturally help them in the future."

It was just that they had only recently arrived and were weak besides. Even if they had wanted to seek allies before, they had no capital with which to begin or maintain such ties.

Those people kept a tight grip on their money. What the second son sent them, after being skimmed by others, was only enough to keep them from dying here. There was no spare capital at all for building connections.

Yun'er's hundred taels could be said to have relieved their pressing need.

After the two children left, Pan Hong put away everything they had bought, then tucked one hundred copper coins into his pocket and went out.

This place was called Exile Village, though it was not truly a village. They were disgraced officials and their families sentenced to Military Exile, living near the barracks and awaiting orders.

Some people married and had children after arriving here. As their numbers grew, more and more houses were built. In the end, the guilty and the pardoned still lived mixed together, and over time, it became a village.

It was called a village, yet it was much larger than an ordinary one. Its population was vast, almost enough to make it a town.

They lived off the military camp, occupying one corner of Datong's border town. There were quite a few Exile Villages like this in other northern border towns as well.

The laws of This Dynasty were strict. If one person committed a crime, the whole family—and sometimes even the entire clan—would suffer. Some crimes even implicated friends, so all kinds of people could be found among those exiled for military service.

Pan Hong had been here for three months. He did not dare claim to have mapped out the entire area, but he had at least gained a general understanding of it.

As a former censor, Pan Hong still had an eye for judging people. With money in his pocket, he went calling and quickly made some friends. When he went out again, two sturdy young men followed at his side.

They linked arms with Pan Hong as they headed for the Second Battalion's stables. "Brother Pan, don't worry. We brothers may have nothing else, but we have strength to spare. Leave this kind of rough work to us from now on."

Pan Hong gave a bitter smile. "How can I keep troubling you? We've only just arrived and haven't adjusted to the climate yet. Later, we still need to hone our skills, or it will be hard to survive here."

"That's true. Things are fine for now, but once autumn harvest grows busy, if those northern Tatars come down again, we people will have to harvest and transport supplies to the front. If our bodies can't take it, people will die."

By the time they reached the stables, the setting sun had appeared on the horizon. The brothers Pan Yue and Pan Yu were dragging over a huge bundle of fodder.

The fodder weighed more than a hundred jin. The two boys were young and weak, so they pulled it together with a single rope.

They were supposedly cleaning the stables, but they also had to chop the fodder for the horses and clear out the manure and soiled straw inside.

The constable had deliberately come to notify them at this hour, intending to drag their work into the night. Those with little strength and slow hands might not finish until dawn.

And not long after dawn, they would have to head out to the fields to harvest wheat again.

In just a few days, even a body forged of iron could be worked to death.

To escape such misery, they either had to bribe the constable or find a patron above him with greater power.

Pan Hong chose a third path.

He wanted to replace the constable.

With the Jin Brothers helping, the father and sons quickly finished the day's work at the stables. They returned home in the dark, slept for a while, then set out the next day to cut wheat. Only after work ended in the late afternoon, when Pan Hong returned to town from two li east, did he turn his steps and mail the letter himself.

He did not use the Civil Mail Bureau, instead sending it out through the postal station.

He did not know how closely the people watching him in secret were paying attention, but to avoid causing trouble for the Civil Mail Bureau, he had better use the postal station.

Others could send letters to him through the Civil Mail Bureau, but if he also used it to send letters out, those people would probably have an excuse to investigate the bureau.

Datong was different from other places. This was a border town, and the authorities acted even more tyrannically here.

After Pan Hong mailed the letter and walked out of the postal station, he sighed, hoping only that Yun'er would receive it safely.

Pan Hong did not know that hardly anyone had been watching him for some time.

After all, he was merely a minor censor. Too many court officials had offended Wang Zhen, and quite a few had been demoted or exiled. If the Imperial Guards watched every one of them, how could they possibly keep track?

The reason they had suddenly focused their surveillance again some time ago was merely because an Imperial Guard named Wang Yong had disappeared from the Capital City.

Before his disappearance, he had visited the Pan family. That was why the Pan family had once again been closely watched.

But their main focus was Pan Tao, who had returned to Changzhou Prefecture. They only made a brief inquiry into Pan Hong's side, confirmed that he was still in Datong obediently serving his military sentence and that there was nothing unusual in his correspondence, and the Imperial Guards lost interest.

The people watching Pan Tao, however, had not yet left.

A hidden watcher sat in a teahouse, watching Pan Tao leave with a beaming smile as someone saw him out. After carefully listening to their conversation, he wrote on a small slip of paper: "On the fourth day, Pan Tao met with his friend Meng Chun and agreed to teach at Jintai Academy on the eighth day, with a monthly salary of eight taels of silver."

A monthly salary of eight taels was higher than Pan Hong's monthly pay when he had been a censor. And as a teacher, Pan Tao would certainly earn more than that alone.

As the hidden watcher recorded this, he shook his head. No wonder they said Pan Hong had often needed support from his younger brother when he was an official.

Indeed, there was more than that. After returning home and taking a sip of water, Pan Tao reported to his mother and wife, "The monthly salary is eight taels. Each season, there will also be two sets of seasonal clothes, shoes, and socks. Festival gifts and pastries will not be lacking either. Most importantly, the academy does not restrict its teachers from teaching current-style essays."

Current-style essays were the subject students found hardest to master. To teach them, some instructors not only had their students write, but wrote essays themselves for them to imitate.

Thus, good current-style essays were highly valuable. Sometimes, one fine essay could be worth a teacher's annual salary.

Pan Hong had often used his younger brother's name to write current-style essays for sale, earning extra money.

Pan Tao's current-style essays were not as good as Pan Hong's and could not fetch such high prices, but the extra income was still considerable. With that income and the produce from their land, the family's life would soon recover.

Old Madam Pan finally let out a breath. "Send your elder brother small sums of money first, and save more of the rest. When the weather improves next year, have Chang Sheng go see him in person."

Pan Tao had planned the same. It was not a long-term solution to keep sending silver notes and remittance drafts through the postal station. Each time, only around one-third reached his elder brother's hands.

His elder brother had not benefited much, yet those people's appetites had been fed larger.

Pan Tao glanced at his wife, then stepped forward to support Old Madam Pan. "Mother, let me help you back to your room to rest."

Old Madam Pan wanted to say she was not tired, but Pan Tao pressed lightly on her arm, and she obediently went with him.

Pan Tao whispered to her, "Mother, I received word today that Yun'er is safe and sound."

Old Madam Pan's eyes lit up. She tightly gripped his arm. "Where is she now?"

Pan Tao shook his head. "That friend of mine was merely passing on someone else's message and refused to say anything more. He only said that if the other party wished to stay in contact, they would reach out to me themselves. Thinking of Yun'er's unusual nature, I did not ask further. But from the sound of it, she is safe now and has companions by her side.

"When the winds die down in a few years, she should contact us."

Old Madam Pan sighed deeply. "That is good too. I always said that child was extraordinary, different from the moment she was born. Look at our four children—the other three cried endlessly when they were little. But she ate when full, slept when tired, and ate again when she woke. Even when she wet herself, she only hummed twice. She was so well-behaved.

"Sure enough, she truly is extraordinary."

Pan Tao said, "...Is that so? Why do I remember Mother always muttering that the child never made a sound and might be a fool?"

Old Madam Pan shot him a glare. "You remember wrong."

Pan Tao smiled. "Yes, your son remembers wrong."

With news that Pan Yun was safe, Old Madam Pan and Pan Tao set down one of the burdens in their hearts. They began living earnestly in their hometown and making money in earnest.

Pan Yun was also seriously considering how to make money.

Since that night, she had not seen Lord Pan again.

Her Master had suddenly stopped appearing in her dreams, and Pan Yun was somewhat unaccustomed to it.

She was someone who kept her promises. Since she had said she would build him a temple, she naturally had to begin preparing in earnest.