Another Destiny (Seeking Follow-up Reads)

The next day.

Chen Jian'an invited friends and companions, hosting a banquet at Serene Residence to celebrate the end of the academy's minor examination.

A total of thirteen scholars came.

Seven of them were already licensed students.

Under Chen Jian'an's introduction, though Xu Xing had not become the focus of the banquet and still stood around like a lackey, he nevertheless won the recognition of quite a few licensed students. They believed that he would one day stand among their ranks.

Having made so many fellow students at once, Xu Xing's fortune also grew somewhat.

Another new destiny trait appeared on his panel.

[Mirror Master: Xu Xing.]

[Dao Fruit: A Life of Ordinariness (White).]

[...]

[Destiny Trait: Broad Learning and Strong Memory (Gray↑).]

Xu Xing fell into thought as he looked at the altered panel.

"Brother Xu, what are you staring blankly for?"

"Yingying is offering you a toast."

Beside him, the thoroughly drunk Scholar Qin patted Xu Xing on the shoulder and pointed toward the young woman toasting him. Her face was like a crescent moon, and at sixteen, she possessed a slender, graceful figure.

Serene Residence did not merely provide wine for the academy scholars—it also offered prostitutes.

Though the academy's rules were strict, these scholars were, after all, mostly honored xiucai. Having lived like ascetics in the academy for too long, they would indulge their natures once they arrived in the county town...

These men had both talent and money, making them the favorites of the girls in the brothels.

A love of frivolity was in a scholar's nature.

In the capital during the early Republic, there had been a saying that those who most loved visiting the Eight Great Hutongs were "two academies and one hall." That hall referred to the Imperial University Hall.

"Gladly, gladly."

Xu Xing collected himself and drank the wine Yingying had offered him.

As for the "cup games" everyone called for afterward, he smiled and declined.

It was not that he was feigning lofty purity. Rather, the thought that "a pair of vermilion lips had been tasted by ten thousand men" was a hurdle he could not get past in his heart.

No one took offense. They merely thought Xu Xing was fresh out of the gate and did not yet understand the pleasures of women.

At the fifth watch.

After they finished drinking.

Xu Xing and the others slipped back into the dormitories through the academy's rear gate.

"Does Broad Learning and Strong Memory count as a destiny trait too?"

"Besides, why did I gain the destiny trait Broad Learning and Strong Memory?"

The moment he entered, with some free time at last, Xu Xing began examining the changes to his destiny traits.

He frowned and pondered for a while.

Before long, he guessed the reason.

In the instance world, he had exploited his own advantages to cheat successfully, fooling Instructor Wang and the others.

Yet to the people of that instance world, his cheating was impossible to detect.

In other words, the cheating itself was a kind of talent.

At its core, it was no different from the geniuses who could remember everything at a glance or recite what they heard.

And... the Ancient Bronze Mirror had "reversed cause into result," turning it into one of his own destiny traits.

But the reason the trait had not emerged on the day of the examination, instead appearing after the feast at Serene Residence, was likely inseparable from the recognition he had received from all those licensed students.

On a grander scale, that recognition was [public esteem].

Public esteem meant the direction in which people's hearts leaned.

When the people's hearts leaned toward the emperors of old, their fortune flourished greatly; when people turned their backs on them, their fortune declined sharply.

"Looks like... choosing to cheat in the academy's minor examination... was the right decision..."

"Now I only need to wait for news from Master Ma and the brothers of Filial Righteousness Hall."

He thought to himself.

Six and a half days had passed in the real world since he discovered the Ancient Bronze Mirror—more than a month in the instance world.

He was now one of the brothers of Filial Righteousness Hall on Qin Phoenix Mountain.

But having spent so long at the academy, his ties with Filial Righteousness Hall had inevitably grown somewhat tenuous. Master Ma had not informed him of the exact time for the mission to assassinate Governor Fang Yun at the First Normal School in Qin Province.

Judging by the time, though, it should have been more or less over by now.

Yet just as he was about to climb into bed, the Ancient Bronze Mirror in his mind suddenly sounded a warning. With a shift of his thoughts, he returned to the real world.

In the blink of an eye.

Xu Xing returned to the Celestial Prison.

Once more, he felt the devastation of his battered body.

This body was nearly at the end of its oil, its lamp about to go out.

"Lord Xu, Commander Liu himself has come, and you're still sleeping?"

"If you offend Commander Liu, you'll suffer for it."

Seeing Xu Xing sprawled on a pile of straw, sleeping like a dead pig, Clerk Wu shouted several threatening remarks.

If a prisoner died under his watch, he would be held accountable as well.

"No need to call him."

"Looking at that frail body of his, he's about to die anyway."

Commander Liu was a tall, burly man clad in a bullfighting robe, a goose-feather saber hanging at his waist. He stopped three or four paces from Xu Xing and examined him for a moment. Seeing how gaunt and emaciated he was, he shook his head and sighed. "Too many aphrodisiacs, and lately he's been worn down by official paperwork. Even a body forged from iron couldn't withstand such abuse."

Hearing this, Xu Xing closed his eyes again just as he was about to open them.

The three days Commander Liu had stipulated were not yet up.

Commander Liu had likely come to inspect him because, recently, Xu Xing had not only copied down the mathematical knowledge from Talks on Heaven, but had also secretly copied the model civil-service examination essays from Thirty Thousand Selected Essay Topics.

Those examination essays had aroused Commander Liu's suspicions.

That was why Commander Liu had chosen to visit the Celestial Prison in person, afraid that something might have gone wrong.

"Is this what he's written lately?"

"Mathematics... mm, written with considerable depth. But these classical interpretations? Does he intend to establish his own doctrine in classical interpretation as well?"

By his ear came the rustle of Commander Liu flipping through papers, along with his conversations with Clerk Wu, Commandant Deng, and the others. Yet most of what they said was mockery directed at Xu Xing.

Establishing a doctrine in mathematics was one thing.

Given Xu Xing's scholarly credentials, he seemed capable of it.

But establishing a doctrine in classical interpretation... even Grand Academicians would not dare make such a claim.

"Then..."

"What are your orders, my lord?"

Commandant Deng looked at Commander Liu with obsequious flattery, bending himself as low as he could.

The commanders of the Night Patrol Directorate had always been confidants of the emperor, but Commander Liu was more than that. His mother had been Chongming Emperor's wet nurse when the emperor was still Crown Prince; the two had been as close as men who wore the same pair of trousers.

"Since it is Chief Minister Ouyang's instruction..."

"Then carry it out without fail."

"But remember this: not so much as a scrap of paper may leave the Celestial Prison."

"As for the mathematics volumes written by Xu the Stable Master, I will take them and personally present them to His Majesty."

After weighing the matter, Commander Liu gave the order.

Not even Chief Minister Ouyang had the influence to openly show favoritism in the Celestial Prison. After Academician Su had petitioned Chief Minister Ouyang, the latter had merely put in a word before Chongming Emperor. Only then had Xu Xing been permitted to use paper and brush in the Celestial Prison.

But... even if it had only been a word casually mentioned, and Chongming Emperor had not taken it to heart, the Night Patrol Directorate still had to handle the matter properly. There could not be the slightest error.

This was the Son of Heaven's authority!

It could not be disregarded!

Soon after, a group of constables swaggered out through the prison gate.

"Lord Xu."

"Stop pretending to sleep. Even if you really were asleep, you must wake up now."

"Wu has gone to see the Commander off. I'll recite an incantation for you—memorize it... Consider it my repayment for the hospitality you've shown me lately."

The moment the footsteps in the Celestial Prison corridor stopped, Chang Ji's urging voice came from the cell to Xu Xing's right.

"What?"

"You're passing an incantation on to me?"

A blessing fallen from the heavens had suddenly landed on Xu Xing's head, leaving him completely dumbfounded.