Xishi of Jiang Prefecture

Some of the books in Fang Yun's mind were very clear, while others were hazy. Still, he felt that he could slowly recall those blurred portions.

An uncontrollable look of delight appeared on Fang Yun's face.

There's hope of passing the Licentiate Examination! Fang Yun shouted in his heart, clenching his fists tighter.

Before long, Fang Yun arrived at his home. The earthen walls stood more than a person's height, and thirty or forty neighbors had gathered around the courtyard gate. Voices came from within.

"That brat Fang Yun didn't come home all night. He must have been struck dead by yesterday's lightning. Little lady, just submit to our young master. Several young masters of the Liu Household are taking the County Examination, so no one from the Liu Household can leave. That is why our young master could not come fetch you himself; please do not be angry. If you do not leave today, once the results are posted tomorrow, our young master will certainly come for you."

"I was born a member of the Fang Household, and I'll die a ghost of the Fang Household! If Little Yun is dead, I'll be buried with him! Get out! Get out at once!"

"All right, all right! Please do not act rashly. Put down those scissors quickly. If you die, Second Young Master will skin us alive!"

Fang Yun vaguely realized what had happened and shouted, "Move aside! Let me in!"

The watching neighbors turned and made way for him. Some silently stepped aside, while others wore expressions of eager anticipation for a good show. Most, however, looked sympathetic, and several even chattered all at once as they cursed the Liu Household's servants.

"Little Fang, how did you...?"

"Fang Yun, you're finally back! They've gone too far! You must report them to the yamen!"

"Snatching someone away in broad daylight—what kind of world is this?"

"Just because they're from Dayuan Prefecture, they can bully us people of Ji County?"

"Little Fang, your injuries look serious. Hurry back inside and rest."

Fang Yun did not respond. He strode swiftly to the courtyard gate and saw four burly men staring at him in utter disbelief. Though the four tried their best to conceal it, traces of panic still showed.

At the center of the courtyard stood a young woman. She was slender and delicate, dressed in a blue coarse-cloth gown, her appearance exceedingly simple. Yet her beauty was peerless, like a pure white orchid blooming in an empty valley. Fang Yun had the illusion that she was the moonlight in this courtyard; even the sun could not conceal the radiance upon her.

She looked somewhat exhausted, as though she had not slept well, but she was impeccably neat from head to toe. Her eyes were bloodshot, yet their black and white were distinct. Her gaze was clear as a lake, and her eyes were resolute.

Only upon seeing Yang Yuhuan in person did Fang Yun realize that she was a hundred times more beautiful than the person in his memories. No wonder she was called Xishi of Jiang Prefecture.

At that moment, Yang Yuhuan held a pair of scissors in reverse grip. Their tip had already pierced her fair neck, drawing a little blood.

"Yuhuan!" Fang Yun hurried forward.

"Little Yun!" Yang Yuhuan was startled and overjoyed. She flung down the scissors and ran toward Fang Yun.

When Yang Yuhuan saw Fang Yun covered in injuries, tears poured down like floodwaters bursting through a dike. As she wept, she asked, "How were you hurt so badly? Who did this to you? Was it that beast Liu Zicheng? Come, I'll help you back inside to sit down. Aunt Sun, can you go ask a doctor from Benevolent Life Hall to come?"

"Yuhuan, don't panic. I'll go right away!" A woman in her forties turned and ran toward Benevolent Life Hall.

Fang Yun hurriedly said, "No! I have to take the County Examination. If I do not go now, I'll be late. Yuhuan, quickly bring out the things I prepared a few days ago and take me to the County Academy. I need to sit the examination!"

Wiping her tears, Yang Yuhuan said, "You're injured like this, and you're still talking about the County Examination? You're not going!"

"No! As long as I still have one breath left, I will take the County Examination! Yuhuan, I usually listen to you, but not today! I've grown up!"

Fang Yun imitated the tone of that Fang Yun and looked calmly at Yang Yuhuan.

Yang Yuhuan stopped crying and stared at the somewhat unfamiliar Fang Yun in astonishment. He was still the same person, yet both his bearing and his eyes had undergone earth-shaking changes.

This Fang Yun had heaven and earth in his heart!

"The beating woke me up." Fang Yun seemed to be explaining himself, yet also speaking to himself as he looked at the four burly men.

The ones who had beaten him last night had also been four men, and they had also spoken with Dayuan Prefecture accents.

The four burly men were extremely guilty. One of them pretended to be impatient and said, "What are you looking at? Move!" After saying that, the four quickly left.

Yang Yuhuan looked at Fang Yun, wiped away her tears, and calmed herself. "Fine! Today, I'll listen to you! But you must wait for the doctor to come and apply medicine to your wounds. Otherwise, you won't make it through the County Examination!"

Fang Yun knew that the County Examination lasted an entire day and was also a test of endurance. If he went straight there now, he might truly fail to hold out.

"All right!" Fang Yun said as he looked at Yang Yuhuan.

Yang Yuhuan noticed that Fang Yun's gaze upon her was somewhat different. It was no longer the way a younger brother looked at an older sister, but the way a man looked at a woman.

Little Yun has truly grown up. Yang Yuhuan's eyes flickered slightly as she supported Fang Yun toward the house.

The doctor from Benevolent Life Hall came and frowned deeply upon seeing Fang Yun's wounds. When he learned that Fang Yun insisted on taking the Licentiate Examination, he waived the consultation fee and charged only for the medicine.

While the doctor treated his injuries, Yang Yuhuan left the room, and Fang Yun did not know where she went.

After the doctor finished treating the wounds, Yang Yuhuan came in, slung Fang Yun's examination book case over her back, and helped him outside.

A bullock cart that Yang Yuhuan had borrowed stood outside.

Warmth filled Fang Yun's heart. In a low voice, he said, "Thank you, Yuhuan."

Yang Yuhuan paused slightly. Her gaze rippled, and she gave him a soft, radiant smile. "Why be so polite with your sister?"

Fang Yun secretly thought that she truly deserved to be called a peerless beauty. Even her tiniest movements carried an innate allure.

As Yang Yuhuan spoke, she helped Fang Yun onto the cart. She sat behind the shafts, picked up the whip, and lightly flicked the yellow ox.

"Moo..." The yellow ox let out a long cry, raised its hooves, and began walking forward.

Fang Yun quietly watched Yang Yuhuan. She was already nineteen, at the very height of her beauty.

Her blue cloth dress had been washed until it was somewhat faded, with several patches upon it. On her feet were cloth shoes she had sewn herself. Her glossy black hair was coiled atop her head, fastened with a wooden hairpin she had carved herself, painfully conspicuous to the eye. Apart from that wooden hairpin, no different from a thin stick, she wore not a single piece of jewelry.

Fang Yun's heart ached as fragments of memories concerning Yang Yuhuan surfaced in his mind.

The year Fang Yun's parents died, Yang Yuhuan was twelve, and Fang Yun was nine.

Even then, Yang Yuhuan had grown exceptionally lovely. After the Fang Yun family's relatives helped Fang Yun arrange the funeral, several households wished to adopt Yang Yuhuan. But Yang Yuhuan had one condition: they had to adopt Fang Yun along with her, and they had to support Fang Yun's education. Those relatives could only give up one after another.

Most of those relatives came from ordinary households. Raising two children would not have been difficult, but supporting Fang Yun's studies on top of that would have been. As for the wealthy families, they feared that an adopted son would grow up and claim a share of the family property; an adopted daughter would not.

Studying required attending a private school, buying brush, ink, paper, and inkstones, and even more importantly, purchasing great quantities of books. Even borrowing books cost money, and passing the Licentiate Examination required reading far too many texts. Books in this era had no punctuation. Without a teacher leading one through them, even someone who knew the characters could not understand them. Scholars had to mark their own pauses and stops, the equivalent of periods.

Though those relatives did not take in the two children, they provided the siblings aid every few days, ensuring that the two did not starve to death in those early years.

Once Fang Yun turned twelve and had gained some strength, he could work odd jobs for others and no longer went hungry. Yet life was still hard, because the costs of studying were simply too great.

Yang Yuhuan had cared for Fang Yun like both a mother and an elder sister for seven years, never voicing the slightest complaint. The nearby neighbors all liked Yang Yuhuan greatly and wanted her as their own daughter-in-law.

Yang Yuhuan was now nineteen. In the Jing Kingdom, that was already considered old for marriage. Most women married at sixteen, and fewer than one in ten women remained unmarried at nineteen.

It was not that Fang Yun felt no attraction to this elder sister who seemed like a celestial maiden. He simply felt that marrying her like this would wrong her. He swore that he would first gain scholarly honors, then marry her into the household with great splendor. Thus, the two had yet to consummate their marriage and had always slept separately in the eastern and western side rooms.

Yang Yuhuan treated Fang Yun like her own younger brother.

During their hardest year, she drank only one bowl of thin porridge each day, yet told Fang Yun that she had already eaten so that he could have porridge.

The eggs their chickens laid were either sold to support Fang Yun's studies or given to Fang Yun to nourish his body. They had raised chickens for five years, yet apart from being forced by Fang Yun to eat an egg every Spring Festival, Yang Yuhuan had never once voluntarily eaten one.

Once, Fang Yun had not peeled an egg cleanly. When Yang Yuhuan cleared the table, thinking Fang Yun was absent, she secretly picked off and ate the egg white stuck to the shell. Fang Yun saw her.

Fang Yun silently returned to the kang bed, covered his head, and wept bitterly. From then on, he became more sensible and respected this elder sister even more.

Last year, the two had both contracted severe colds. Yet Yang Yuhuan bought medicine only for Fang Yun. After Fang Yun recovered, she brewed and drank the medicine he had left over. When Fang Yun discovered it, she smiled and said that she was afraid of bitterness; medicine boiled several times was not bitter, so it suited her perfectly.

Those memories gradually merged together. Fang Yun's nose stung, and he turned to look elsewhere. Only after steadying his emotions did he turn back and study Yang Yuhuan carefully again.

Though she wore tattered clothing, it could not conceal her natural beauty. The back of her neck was delicate, and her skin was fair without the slightest flaw.

Fang Yun's gaze fell upon her hands, and he could not help letting out a sigh. Her hands were rougher than Fang Yun's, somewhat swollen as well, and marked by many wounds.

If one looked only at those hands, no one would believe their owner was a beauty worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Xishi and Diaochan.

But in Fang Yun's eyes, Yang Yuhuan's hands were the most beautiful, because they had held up this home!

Yang Yuhuan looked toward Fang Yun. With one backward glance and a smile, a hundred charms sprang forth. Her eyes were like water, and her pupils were so black they could reflect a person's image.

"Little Yun, you said that once you passed the Licentiate Examination, you'd buy your sister a silver hairpin. Does that still count?"

"Of course it counts, but passing the Licentiate Examination is too difficult," Fang Yun said helplessly.

"I believe our Little Yun can certainly do it! Not only can you become a Licentiate, you'll surely become an Academy Student too. Perhaps you'll even become a Provincial Graduate!"

Fang Yun froze slightly before he understood. Yang Yuhuan was not merely making conversation. She had heard his sigh just now and was deliberately trying to comfort him.

Fang Yun could not let her worry. Smiling, he said, "If I can pass the Licentiate Examination, it will definitely be thanks to Yuhuan. When that time comes, I'll set Yuhuan up in comfort and let you eat and drink well every day. Then I'll have you tell me every day that I can become an Academy Student. Once I become an Academy Student, I'll have you tell me every day that I can become a Provincial Graduate!"

Yang Yuhuan could not help laughing softly, revealing her white teeth.

"Little Yun, you seem like a completely different person." Yang Yuhuan looked at Fang Yun, faint concern hidden in her eyes.

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