Chapter Summaries

At a wine house, Yan Youcheng tried to lift Liu Cheng’s spirits after Wang Yang’s success and Liu Cheng’s resentment over Xie Xinghan had left him withdrawn and bitter. Yan Youcheng persuaded him to see Wang Yang as a potential ally to recruit for the Liu family, giving Liu Cheng a new way to think about his rival.

• Liu Cheng ordered the singing girls out after one sang Wang Yang’s poem, then tried to leave the wine house.
• Yan Youcheng stopped Liu Cheng and suggested his anger stemmed from Xie Xinghan growing close to Wang Yang, which Liu Cheng angrily denied.
• Liu Cheng denounced Wang Yang for pursuing trade and profit, calling him a dangerous hypocrite despite his talent.
• Yan Youcheng argued that Liu Cheng should use his family’s influence to win Wang Yang over as a protégé rather than compete with him.
• Yan Youcheng’s advice gave Liu Cheng a new perspective on turning Wang Yang into an ally for the Liu family.

Liu Cheng regained his confidence after Yan Youcheng reassured him that he would always rank above Wang Yang, while Wang Yang managed the merchants’ brocade orders and received their gifts. The chapter ended with Wang Yang learning that Liu Cheng had requested an audience.

• Yan Youcheng’s consolation restored Liu Cheng’s sense of superiority, and Liu Cheng imagined Wang Yang and Xie Xinghan someday bowing before him.
• Wang Yang recorded the gifts merchants sent after he won their brocade contracts through competitive bidding.
• Wang Yang reflected that the commercial venture would increase his profits and connections while drawing attention away from his planned counterattack.
• Wang Yang told A-Wu to save some clams for dinner and distribute the rest among five residences.
• Black Han reported that Liu Cheng had requested an audience, leaving Wang Yang wondering what Liu Cheng wanted.

Liu Cheng offered to have his father, Elder Duke Liu, take Wang Yang as a pupil and urged him to skip the Yu Family’s Dragon Boat Festival banquet. Wang Yang weighed the offer against his obligations and plans, then decided to visit the Prince of Badong’s Residence.

• Liu Cheng proposed ending their past disputes and offered to use his family’s influence to advance Wang Yang’s career.
• Liu Cheng showed Wang Yang a letter praising his talents and asking Elder Duke Liu to accept him as a pupil.
• Liu Cheng told Wang Yang not to attend the Yu Family’s Orchid Bathing Festival banquet and said he would explain Wang Yang’s absence.
• Wang Yang considered the Liu family’s offer alongside his threats, his ties to the Yu Family, and his plans to seek Yu Yi’s cooperation.
• After Liu Cheng left, Wang Yang called Black Han to prepare a carriage for the Prince of Badong’s Residence.

Wang Yang proposed establishing an Ever-Normal Granary to the Prince of Badong, offering a plan to win the gentry’s cooperation and stabilize grain prices. In return, he secured the Prince’s support for a military headquarters appointment and two other requests, while Yu Yi read a letter that could determine Wang Yang’s fate.

• Wang Yang reported on the brocade business, then urged the Prince of Badong to establish an Ever-Normal Granary and explained how Yu Yi could help coordinate the gentry.
• Wang Yang proposed threatening to operate the granary with his own grain business if the gentry refused to cooperate, and the Prince of Badong approved the strategy.
• Wang Yang persuaded the Prince of Badong to appoint him Acting Staff Officer of the Southern Zhonglang General after his rank appraisal at twenty.
• Wang Yang asked for help with two additional matters, and the Prince of Badong granted both requests.
• The Prince of Badong questioned whether Wang Yang could persuade Yu Yi, then said he cared only about results.
• Yu Yi read a letter on which Wang Yang’s fate hinged.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, Wang Yang and Little A-Wu trained and prepared for the holiday, while Wang Yang was knocked out after challenging Chen Qing Shan to spar. At the Yu family banquet, Liu Cheng claimed Wang Yang had joined the Liu household, but Xie Xinghan insisted Wang Yang would come.

• Yu Yi read a letter questioning whether Wang Yang’s talent made him fit to serve and considered how carefully he should be examined.
• Little A-Wu prepared Wang Yang’s desk and supplies, then trained living stances with him and made five-colored cords for the household.
• Wang Yang gave Little A-Wu brushes and ink for her schooling as a birthday gift, then challenged Chen Qing Shan and was quickly knocked out.
• At the Yu family’s Dragon Boat Festival banquet, Liu Cheng claimed Wang Yang had become a protégé of the Liu family and apologized for his absence.
• Yu Yuling doubted Liu Cheng’s claim, and Xie Xinghan declared that Wang Yang would come.

At the Dragon Boat Festival feast, Liu Cheng condemned Wang Yang for personally engaging in trade and challenged his worth as a scholar. Wang Yang arrived after Liu Cheng had silenced his defenders and began answering the accusations, leaving the clash over righteousness and profit unresolved.

• Liu Cheng accused Wang Yang of abandoning a scholar's duties by doing business, while Xie Xinghan defended trade as a respectable way to earn a living.
• Liu Cheng argued that scholar-officials should pursue the Way rather than profit, leaving Xie Xinghan and Yu Yuling unable to answer him.
• Liu Cheng offered to summon Wang Yang, but Wang Yang arrived at the Yu Residence with Qing Shan and apologized for being late.
• Liu Cheng accused Wang Yang of breaking his word about joining the Liu family, and Wang Yang denied having agreed to anything.
• Liu Cheng challenged Wang Yang's right to honor Qu Zi while pursuing trade, and Wang Yang cited Shun and Zi Gong as precedents for seeking profit.

Wang Yang and Liu Cheng continued debating whether profit conflicted with righteousness, with Wang Yang dismantling Liu Cheng’s arguments and then defending commerce as a source of public benefit. The chapter ended with the young men astonished by his claim that commerce could greatly benefit the nation and all under heaven.

• Liu Cheng cited Emperor Shun and Zi Gong to argue that pursuing profit reflected shallow understanding and could keep a person from the Way.
• Wang Yang challenged Liu Cheng’s assumptions about the status of scholars and mocked the logic linking Zi Gong’s commerce to his supposed inferiority to Yan Hui.
• Wang Yang turned Liu Cheng’s own examples against him, arguing that Zi Gong’s statement about Confucius’s teachings could have been an expression of modesty and rejecting Liu Cheng’s use of Zhuangzi.
• Liu Cheng restrained himself from throwing his wine cup and renewed his case by citing Confucian teachings that distinguished righteousness from profit.
• Wang Yang argued that benefiting the nation and all under heaven was both great righteousness and great profit, and that commerce could achieve this.
• Yu Yi and the other young men were astonished as Wang Yang openly praised commerce’s potential benefits.

Wang Yang argued that commerce increased society’s wealth through exchange and specialization, then defended commercial policy as essential to state revenue and military strength. Liu Cheng’s objections collapsed under Wang Yang’s reasoning, leaving him trembling with humiliation.

• Liu Cheng condemned commerce as unproductive, but Wang Yang explained how exchange let people specialize and raise their total output.
• Xie Xinghan confirmed Wang Yang’s calculation, while Yu Yuling and the others recognized that exchange increased production.
• Liu Cheng challenged Wang Yang to defend his argument against the dynasty’s policy, but Wang Yang said the state suppressed private merchants while using commerce and taxation to raise revenue.
• Liu Cheng warned that commerce encouraged greed and undermined morality, and Wang Yang countered that prosperity and public welfare required practical economic policies.
• Wang Yang argued that commercial revenue was vital to funding horses, weapons, provisions, and military administration, then called Liu Cheng useless for relying on empty talk of benevolence and righteousness.
• Liu Cheng trembled as Wang Yang’s attack brought back the humiliation he had suffered at the Wang banquet.

At Yu Yi’s feast, Liu Cheng demanded that Wang Yang be expelled for defending commerce, but Yu Yi instead ordered Liu Cheng to leave. After Liu Cheng departed and Yan Youcheng followed him, Yu Yi asked Wang Yang to finish explaining the great failing of taxation.

• Liu Cheng interrupted Wang Yang’s discussion of taxation and demanded that Yu Yi drive him from the feast.
• Yu Yuling defended Wang Yang, but Yu Yi instructed Yu Qianlou to see Liu Cheng out instead.
• Yu Yi refused to yield to Liu Cheng’s threats and ordered the attendants to escort him from the residence.
• Wang Yang defused Liu Cheng’s apparent rage by suggesting that his family and friends be summoned, prompting Liu Cheng to leave after threatening the Yu Family.
• Yan Youcheng apologized for Liu Cheng and promised to return to hear Wang Yang’s unfinished argument.
• Yu Yi asked Wang Yang to explain the great failing of taxation.

Wang Yang explained how reliance on agricultural taxes created two destructive cycles and suggested expanding commercial and foreign trade revenue, while Yu Yi pressed him for further details. Meanwhile, Liu Cheng sought revenge against Wang Yang, but after his retainers balked at targeting him, one silent retainer promised a secret plan.

• Wang Yang explained to Yu Yi and the others how agricultural taxation could lead to escalating burdens and rebellion, and how suppressing commerce created a second cycle of dependence on agriculture.
• Wang Yang proposed safeguarding agriculture while expanding commercial revenue and mutual trade, but Xie Xinghan cautioned him and Yu Yi’s questions remained unanswered as food arrived.
• Liu Cheng told his retainers that Wang Yang had humiliated him and demanded revenge, but they fell silent after learning Wang Yang’s status and connections.
• Liu Cheng rejected several proposed schemes and dismissed his retainers after their suggestions failed to satisfy him.
• The retainer who had remained silent returned to Liu Cheng, promised a secret strategy, and asked for time to prepare it.

Wang Yang tried to persuade Yu Yi to help establish Ever-Normal Granaries, but Yu Yi refused and challenged him to solve a problem involving wealthy families’ copper-clad eaves. Wang Yang proposed a workaround that astonished Yu Yi, leaving the granary question unresolved.

• Wang Yang and Yu Yi drank and discussed Qu Yuan, while Yu Yi avoided discussing Liu Cheng’s accusation against Wang Yang.
• Wang Yang explained the Prince of Badong’s Ever-Normal Granaries plan and asked Yu Yi to mediate with the great families, but Yu Yi said the proposed incentives would not persuade them.
• Wang Yang suggested using his family’s grain business to pressure the great families, and Yu Yi asked whether he truly had enough grain.
• Yu Qianlou and Yu Yuling watched from a covered walkway, worried that the conversation between Wang Yang and Yu Yi was growing tense.
• Yu Yi refused to intervene in the granary plan and presented Wang Yang with a problem about wealthy households melting coins to decorate their eaves in Xuancheng Commandery.
• Wang Yang proposed requiring brothels to buy copper from the authorities and use it on their eaves, making the wealthy families abandon the fashion; Yu Yi was stunned by the solution.

Wang Yang proposed a government-supervised, merchant-operated model to make the costly Meng Mountain mint profitable, impressing Yu Yi with his solutions. Yu Yi brought Wang Yang to meet his sons and pressed him to answer one final, most important question.

• Yu Yi asked Wang Yang how the court could address the rising costs and poor output of the Meng Mountain Mint Office.
• Wang Yang blamed excessive administrative overhead and proposed letting qualified private parties participate in mining and minting under government supervision while the court retained ownership and control.
• Wang Yang explained that private capital, management, and profit incentives could improve efficiency, while inspectors and checks on their authority could guard against corruption and debased coins.
• Yu Yi praised Wang Yang as a tremendous talent and insisted on asking him one final question, promising to grant him ten requests if he answered it.
• Yu Yuling and Yu Qianlou hurried over fearing an argument, but Yu Yi ordered tea and a late-night meal for Wang Yang.

Yu Yi asked Wang Yang to devise ways to improve Southern Qi’s grain transport, and Wang Yang proposed sweeping reforms that astonished him. Yu Yi stayed up all night writing to Lay Buddhist Xuanlong to praise Wang Yang’s exceptional talent.

• Yu Yi showed Wang Yang and his sons a map from the previous dynasty, then sent Yu Qianlou and Yu Yuling away before discussing confidential matters.
• Yu Yuling learned that Yu Yi had stopped socializing in the Jiwei Year, the founding year of Southern Qi, and wondered why his father stayed out of court despite caring deeply for the country.
• Yu Yi explained the delays, costs, and labor burdens of grain transport and asked Wang Yang for improvements.
• Wang Yang proposed relay transport using temporary granaries and trading yards, coordinated shipments from nearby sources, and flexible seasonal allocation backed by dedicated reserves.
• Yu Yi was overwhelmed by Wang Yang’s proposals and spent the night writing to Lay Buddhist Xuanlong, praising Wang Yang’s talent and ability to assist a sovereign.

Wang Yang led the Prince of Badong’s guards to surround Ruyi Tower and confronted Xiao Baoyue over her role in covering up his false identity and ordering him to spy on the prince. He closed the distance between them to five paces, leaving Xiao Baoyue’s reaction uncertain.

• Xiao Baoyue ordered Lian San to burn Xu Xiaosi’s letter and tried to dismiss her recurring stomach pain despite Lian San’s concern.
• Wang Yang arrived at Ruyi Tower with the prince’s guards, ordered the building surrounded, and had Chen Qing Shan kick the proprietor aside when he resisted.
• Wang Yang confronted Xiao Baoyue, accusing her of helping conceal his false identity and directing him to spy on the Prince of Badong.
• Xiao Baoyue laughed at Wang Yang’s accusations and bantered with him about his shamelessness and ambition to become Commandant of the Imperial Son-in-Law.
• Wang Yang stepped toward Xiao Baoyue until he was five paces away, while the surrounding swordsmen moved with him.

Xiao Baoyue revealed that the Prince of Badong had secretly bought Jingzhou brocade and traded it to the Southern Man for weapons, implicating Wang Yang in treason through his silk business. As soldiers closed in on the tavern’s secret chamber, Wang Yang realized the prince might eliminate him if he was not ready to rebel.

• Soldiers began searching the tavern, while Wang Yang challenged Xiao Baoyue’s threats and insisted they should act as partners.
• Xiao Baoyue explained that Jingzhou’s supposedly closed brocade workshops had secretly continued operating and that the Prince of Badong had arranged for brocade to be bought in small quantities.
• Xiao Baoyue said twenty-three brocade buyers were military households from the Cao Gong Grove Outpost, which Man soldiers had massacred.
• Wang Yang connected the brocade trade to the Prince of Badong’s scheme and guessed that the fabric had been sold to the Southern Man.
• Xiao Baoyue concluded that the Prince of Badong had exchanged brocade for Man weapons, warning Wang Yang that the prince might kill him to keep the plan secret.

Wang Yang negotiated with Xiao Baoyue, trying to secure her as a fallback while avoiding entanglement in the Prince of Badong’s uncertain plans. Xiao Baoyue agreed to reveal the person in charge of her operation, and the curtain was opened to show the mysterious woman’s face.

• Wang Yang judged that Xiao Baoyue’s claims about the Prince of Badong might be true, but he refused to show weakness and challenged her to produce evidence.
• Wang Yang explained his plan to draw the Mysterious Woman close, guard against the Prince of Badong, and use the prince’s soldiers to strengthen his bargaining position.
• Wang Yang and Xiao Baoyue dismissed their armed followers from the room and argued over what each could demand in their proposed cooperation.
• Wang Yang refused to risk his life for information about Xiao Baoyue’s allies, but demanded to see the person in charge of her operation.
• Xiao Baoyue accepted Wang Yang’s demand, and two maids opened the beaded curtain to reveal the mysterious woman’s true face.

Wang Yang met Xiao Baoyue face-to-face and agreed to study Southern Barbarian Studies so he could help her plan and avoid being implicated in the Prince of Badong’s treason. Xiao Baoyue warned him against deceiving young women, then revealed she had an escape route through connected courtyards and planned to introduce him to several beauties.

• Wang Yang persuaded Xiao Baoyue to lift the curtain and said they should meet face-to-face from then on.
• Xiao Baoyue gave Wang Yang a scroll on Southern Barbarian Studies and ordered him to study it within a month, with lessons and tests every four days.
• Xiao Baoyue warned Wang Yang not to use his claimed Langya Wang identity to seduce or deceive women, and Wang Yang protested that he was a gentleman.
• Wang Yang warned Xiao Baoyue that soldiers from the Prince’s Residence might investigate, but she explained that the connected courtyards and nearby private brothels would let her escape unnoticed.
• Xiao Baoyue said she would introduce Wang Yang to several beauties, leaving him privately questioning who counted as an upright gentleman.

Wang Yang brought Wang Tai gifts and described the Prince of Badong’s Ever-Normal Granary plans, prompting Wang Tai to suspect the prince was using Wang Yang as a cover for grain theft. Wang Tai decided to exploit Wang Yang’s trust to investigate, and Wang Yang ended the chapter by voicing that suspicion aloud.

• Wang Yang gave Wang Tai gifts and praised his kindness, then explained that the Prince of Badong had rewarded him and rented warehouses in his name.
• Wang Tai examined the warehouse lease and grew suspicious that the prince had involved Wang Yang in a scheme connected to the Ever-Normal Granary.
• Wang Yang asked Wang Tai to help him stop writing accusations against the prince, and Wang Tai agreed to consider another way for him to earn credit.
• Wang Tai warned Wang Yang that the prince’s warehouses at the Linjiang Freight Depot could be used to conceal illicit shipments.
• Wang Yang feigned shock and asked whether the Prince of Badong planned to steal government grain and sell it privately.

Wang Tai warned Wang Yang that the Prince of Badong might be using him to take the blame for grain schemes, then sent men to investigate. As the Ever-Normal Granary began receiving grain, rumors about Wang Yang’s role sparked a fierce academic dispute, which ended with his name spreading widely and people pressing him for confirmation.

• Wang Tai cautioned Wang Yang that the Prince of Badong might make him responsible for any wrongdoing involving grain transport, and urged him to watch the warehouse closely.
• After Wang Yang left, Wang Tai sent men to investigate Jingzhou’s granary plans and the connection between Wang Yang’s warehouse and the Prince of Badong.
• Grain carts began arriving at the government granary, and people across Jingzhou praised the Prince of Badong while speculating about Wang Yang’s involvement.
• A student in Nanping Commandery wrote a long essay arguing that Wang Yang had entered the silk trade to procure grain and establish the granary.
• Old-Text scholars tried to have the student punished, but the New-Text School supported him, turning the dispute into a provincial controversy that made the student and his essay widely known.
• With Xie Xinghan secretly encouraging the debate, people began cornering Wang Yang to ask whether the claims about his silk trading were true.

Wang Yang’s supporters defeated the accusations against him, and he withdrew from the debate to focus on his studies and affairs. Over hot pot, he and Xie Xinghan chose a school for A-Wu and discussed Liu Yin’s rise and ruthless record, leaving Wang Yang pondering the man’s character.

• Xie Xinghan’s anonymous essay, Proof Without Words, spread through the debate and branded Wang Yang’s critics as “flying flies,” causing the opposition to collapse.
• Wang Yang kept to his studies and routine, while Xie Xinghan, Zong Ce, and Little Fatty found ways to draw him into social visits.
• Wang Yang and Xie Xinghan shared hot pot, and she admitted she had eaten duck blood despite previously refusing it.
• Xie Xinghan recommended Liu Qiu’s household school for A-Wu, and Wang Yang agreed that it would suit her better than the Lu clan school.
• Xie Xinghan described Liu Yin’s career and his ruthless crackdown on local magnates, prompting Wang Yang to wonder why Liu had waited three years before becoming a county magistrate.