Buying fans

Leaving aside the fact that Wang Academy had been founded by the renowned Prince of Yuzhang, and that its presiding Libationer belonged to the Hedong Liu Clan, would he offend these powerful figures if he actually competed?

The simple fact that he had no household registration and was masquerading as a member of Langya Wang meant he should not draw attention to himself.

Seeing Wang Yang's hesitation, Liu Zhao sighed. "I know this is no easy matter. After all, His Highness favors Wang Academy, so although he has promised a hundred thousand cash as a reward to the victor, it is really only-" When Liu Zhao reached "a hundred thousand," he rather ambiguously blurred the words, whether deliberately or not.

"How much?" Wang Yang immediately perked up.

"A hundred thousand, awarded to the victor. If you win, Zhi Yan, that hundred thousand cash will be yours!" Liu Zhao coaxed.

Wang Yang was tempted.

He had arrived in this world as poor as a washed-out rag! Even his clothes had been bought with borrowed money, and he now owed Liu Zhao a total of sixteen thousand two hundred cash!

Even if Liu Zhao was in no hurry to be repaid, he could hardly go on eating and lodging in someone else's home for free forever.

At that thought, he asked, "Sir, what did you mean earlier by attaching my registration?"

Seeing his interest, Liu Zhao hastily explained, "It means temporarily transferring your existing household registration and attaching it to Jingzhou. Only then can you enroll in the Commandery Academy."

Meanwhile, he thought, Zhi Yan doesn't even understand attached registration. He really must have spent all his time buried in scholarship, with little understanding of worldly affairs.

After some thought, Wang Yang decided to use this opportunity to see whether Liu Zhao could help resolve his registration problem. Choosing his words carefully, he asked softly, "But... what if I have no household registration?"

Liu Zhao was startled. "No household registration? What do you mean, no household registration? Don't you live in Yixing? Were you never registered?"

Wang Yang gave a long sigh. "It is not that I am unwilling to tell you, sir, but the circumstances are hardly fit to be shared with others."

"My apologies, my apologies. I was presumptuous."

Liu Zhao naturally assumed this might involve family secrets and grievances within Langya Wang, and supplied an entire drama about an illegitimate son in his imagination.

"So even if I wished to enroll in the Commandery Academy, I couldn't. Attaching a registration would at least require an original registration first, wouldn't it?" Wang Yang ventured.

Seeing a chance, Liu Zhao immediately asked, "If the registration issue could be resolved, would you be willing to represent the Commandery Academy against Wang Academy?"

Wang Yang said solemnly, "I will do everything in my power and will not betray your trust, sir!"

Liu Zhao was delighted, but soon grew troubled again. Registering an ordinary unregistered commoner would certainly be easy, but Zhi Yan belongs to the gentry! What am I to do?

Seeing Liu Zhao's troubled expression, Wang Yang asked, "Sir, is something wrong?"

"Before Register Verification, it would indeed have been easy, but now..." Afraid Wang Yang might change his mind, Liu Zhao shifted his tone and feigned nonchalance. "Never mind. Leave this to me. Establishing an original registration outright may be impossible, but if we attach one instead, let me think..."

Wang Yang rose. "Then I'll leave you to think about it. I'm heading outside the city and won't be back for dinner tonight."

Liu Zhao said anxiously, "Zhi Yan, the scholarly debate is only seven days away. Liu Tan's learning is profound. You must not underestimate him!"

"Don't worry!" Wang Yang smiled, cupped his hands, and left the room.

Liu Zhao continued fretting. What am I to do about this household registration?

"Wow! So this is Jingzhou City! It's so big! So tall!"

Little A-Wu stood beneath the city walls, her head tilted back, staring in a daze.

The towering city walls formed a stark contrast with A-Wu's tiny figure.

"Can we go up there and look?" A-Wu asked eagerly.

"They don't let people go up onto the walls whenever they please."

"Oh." Little A-Wu looked disappointed. Then she blinked her large eyes. "Ordinary people aren't allowed up, but someone as handsome and capable as you, young master, must have a way!"

"A-Wu, patting someone's horse on the rump doesn't work every time."

Little A-Wu said, "Oh," then asked, "What does patting someone's horse on the rump mean?"

"Young master, what's a multistory building?"

"This is a multistory building."

"What kind of multistory building is this?"

"Uh..."

"Young master, what does 'uh' mean?"

"When you don't know something, or it's hard to answer, you can say 'uh.'"

"Young master, are there any bushes around here?"

"What do you need bushes for?"

"Uh..."

And so, one big and one small, they wandered around Jingzhou City.

It was little A-Wu's first visit to the city, so naturally she was brimming with excitement. As a "new arrival" who had crossed into this world only a few days earlier, Wang Yang was no less interested. They stopped here and looked there, making their way to the market.

Markets in those days had enclosing walls, gates, and a market tower with a flag pavilion used as government offices. They were centralized trading grounds under official supervision.

There were four market gates, each with a road leading toward the center, where they intersected in a cross.

Shops lined both sides of the roads, merchants gathered in throngs, and cries rang out from street stalls and alley shops. It was a lively scene indeed.

Wang Yang entered a fan shop with little A-Wu, who was holding a lotus-leaf packet and enthusiastically munching White Cocoon Candy.

White Cocoon Candy was a popular sweet of the time. Roughly speaking, cooked glutinous rice was pounded and pressed into cakes, dried in the sun, then cut into strips and deep-fried before being coated in powdered sugar and packed in lotus leaves. It was somewhat similar to modern sweet glutinous rice sticks.

Yet this tiny packet, containing only a few pieces of White Cocoon Candy, had actually cost twenty-three cash! An old riding whip Wang Yang had seen earlier had been priced at just ten cash. He could not help marveling at how expensive these "glutinous rice sticks" were! (Medieval historical sources generally record monetary amounts as "xx qian," but this was simply an abbreviation of "xx wen qian." The full expression was also in common use at the time, just less frequently than the abbreviated form.)

Seeing Wang Yang's distinguished bearing and gentry-like clothing, the shopkeeper enthusiastically introduced various exquisite silk fans. Wang Yang had already visited several shops, and after looking around this one, he finally confirmed that folding fans had not yet been invented. With that settled in his mind, he asked, "Can you make custom fans here?"

"Of course. May I ask what sort of fan you would like made, young master?"

Wang Yang described the appearance of a folding fan to the proprietor in detail. It took a great deal of explaining before the man understood what it was, and even then he was deeply puzzled.

"Why would you want to make such a contraption, young master? We have so many beautiful, convenient fans here. Wouldn't any of them work better than that thing? It probably wouldn't even stir up as much air as a palm-leaf fan! Besides, a fan is meant for fanning yourself. Why would you need to fold it up?"

"You needn't concern yourself with any of that. Just tell me whether you can find paper that's strong and smooth enough not to tear as soon as it's folded and opened."

"Perhaps... we can? But stiff paper like that is usually coarse and thick, hardly fit for a refined scholar's desk."

"That doesn't matter. But the paper must be white, with a bright color, as fresh and white as snow! How much would a fan like this cost?"

"Well... our humble shop has never made one before, so we would have to experiment. The materials and labor would both cost quite a bit..." As he spoke, the proprietor glanced at Wang Yang, then seemed to make up his mind. "How about this? I won't ask much. Just two hundred cash."

Before Wang Yang could speak, little A-Wu suddenly said, "Young master, I told you we should buy from that other shop. They only wanted fifty cash!"

Looking into A-Wu's large, innocent eyes, the proprietor suspected nothing, though he looked rather embarrassed. "Which shop was that? Let me tell you, plenty of little workshops cut corners. Their prices may look low, but they won't put any care into the work."

Wang Yang silently gave little A-Wu a thumbs-up, patted her head, and picked up the thread with perfect ease. "But that shop needs two days. I'd like to have it tomorrow."

Neither member of the bargaining duo blushed as they spun their lies. Their teamwork was seamless.

The proprietor hurriedly said, "We can have it finished before noon tomorrow!"

"Then I'll have you make it. I'll give you forty cash..."

"You-" The proprietor was about to erupt.

Then Wang Yang continued, "Forty cash per fan. If the work is good, I'll order all thirty fans from your shop. They must be finished within seven days. Can you manage that?"

Notes: ① Hu Sanxing believed folding fans already existed during Southern Qi, identifying them as "waist fans." Scholars have thoroughly refuted this view, so I will not elaborate. Readers interested in the question can consult Zhou Yiliang's Notes on the History of the Wei-Jin Period and the Northern and Southern Dynasties and Yang Xiangmin's The Story of Fans.

② In the source quoted in [Author's Notes], the character "zi" in "pound it into rice cakes" appears in the 2022 Zhonghua Book Company edition as a character with "mi" on the left and "zi" on the right. My input method cannot produce that character, so I used "zi" from Yang Xiong's Regional Expressions instead. These are variant forms with the same meaning, specifically referring to cakes made from ground rice.

③ In fact, every previous chapter's [Author's Notes] quoted a historical source related to that chapter's content, whether corroborating the objects and foods in the text, touching on the chapter's theme and hinting at the source of a particular idea, or illustrating the social customs and manners of the time reflected in the chapter.

But for some reason, the system failed to display many of them. I asked support, and they said the notes wouldn't appear if posted directly; I had to make a change first. I have no idea why, but adding one extra period made them appear. Quite miraculous, really. So if you notice a game of "connect the periods" in earlier Author's Notes, don't be surprised...