Jealousy

Lu Song stared coldly at the youth before him and said nothing for a long while.

From his expression, the person standing before him might not have been a passing acquaintance, a low-ranking scion of a gentry family who had fled south, but a mortal enemy.

Liu Acheng naturally noticed something amiss. After exchanging a glance with Liu Jili to confirm he had not misunderstood, he showed no impatience. Instead, he continued speaking with a smile, as though he had not seen the other man's expression:

"Brother Song, actually, if you hadn't come, I would have gone to visit you. Since you're here, all the better... As you can see, everyone here has no one to turn to. The depths of winter are approaching. Without relief, lives will be laid waste, and frozen corpses will stretch for miles. I've long heard of the Way of the Celestial Masters' aspiration to bring relief to all beneath heaven, and I've seen for myself how you've always liked to aid those in distress and uphold those in danger. Besides, our two families were neighbors. As the saying goes, a distant relative is no match for a close neighbor..."

"Enough. Even if you spun flowers out of your words today, there would still be no relief for you." Lu Song seemed to come back to himself and abruptly raised a hand to stop him. "Liu Acheng, of course we of the Way of the Celestial Masters mean to save people. But five pecks of rice means five pecks of rice... No one's grain or cloth falls from the sky. We save only those who can save themselves, and the threshold for that is five pecks of rice. Otherwise, we would drag down those within the faith who could have been saved and leave them beyond saving too... If any of your people have five pecks of rice, I'll sit right here today and confer registers on them one by one. If they don't, then forgive our poverty. We have to count every grain of rice ourselves to get through the winter."

Liu Acheng nodded repeatedly, but his gaze wandered, as though he was still thinking about something.

"Besides, I haven't come today in my capacity as an Ordination Libationer of the Way of the Celestial Masters," Lu Song continued. "I've come in my capacity as this commandery's Household Office official... The commandery sent over a document saying there was a fatal incident here caused by a nighttime bandit attack. But neither the bandits nor those of you who killed or wounded them have household registrations, so the case can't be entered into the records. I was sent to establish your registrations."

Liu Jili hesitated, clearly wanting to ask something, but apparently sensing that the atmosphere was wrong, he did not immediately speak.

Liu Cheng, however, had no such scruples and immediately asked in delighted surprise, "Does that mean the commandery is going to give us winter relief? I knew Brother Song would never stand by and watch us die. So you've gone through official channels..."

"There's no way through official channels either," Lu Song said solemnly. "Liu Acheng, stop letting your mind run this way and that. You chose to stay, so you should bear the burden yourself. I've only come today to enter the people who killed that bandit, and the thieves you captured, into the white register. Releasing grain from the granaries requires the merit officer to act, and he certainly won't do so on his own when none of the other commanderies and principalities have moved. Especially with the Grand Commander ill at present, if Langya alone opens its granaries to relieve the people, others might suspect our Interior Minister Yuan of buying popular support with some ulterior purpose... Other people might not understand that, but how could you possibly fail to understand it, Liu Acheng?"

Having his own words thrown back at him left Liu Cheng helpless. He could only smile bitterly, though he still cupped his hands in earnest. "I've made a fool of myself before you, Brother Song. We truly have nowhere left to turn..."

As he spoke, he actually went over the story of how he had failed to sell any firewood these past few days.

Lu Song listened coldly, his face still rigid, as though everyone here owed him something... And it was hardly fair to say they did not. At the very least, the weapons used to kill people a few days earlier had all been "borrowed" from him. The clothes worn by these two presentably dressed managers of the refugee camp had been his outright gifts. Add to that the fact that the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice had indeed taken in large numbers of refugees with nowhere else to go... So whether it was Liu Acheng, Liu Jili, or this camp, they really did seem to owe Libationer Lu, who also served in the Household Office.

Thus, after hearing out the young firewood seller's story, Lu Song seemed finally to lose patience and waved a hand. "Whoever is involved in the case, come over here and establish your registration... I'll make a note of it and enter you into the white register when I return to the commandery offices today."

From the sound of it, he could not even be bothered to register everyone in the camp while he was at it. He would register only those specifically involved in the case, and he could not be bothered to go inside himself either.

The two Lius had nothing to say to that. They could only summon the men who did odd jobs and patrol duty. The seven or eight who had stayed in the camp that day had their names, ages, sexes, heights and appearances, family relationships, and places of origin recorded, and that was that... Liu Acheng stood beside them on tiptoe, watching for ages, yet never even learned what the place where he had settled was called.

By tradition, if this camp survived and reached a population of several thousand, it would probably receive a new name as a village ward.

As for gentry status, tracing paternal and ancestral lineages, obtaining noble rank, being officially recorded, and entering the assessment lists of the Nine-Rank System, that was another system entirely. Not only was it independent of the white register, but more importantly, this Household Office official Lu had no intention of even entering Liu Acheng into the white register.

Of course, just as commoners essentially proved their identities through identification by neighbors and neighboring households, genuine gentry status essentially came down to what Liu Jili had said last time: how many gentry families acknowledged your father and you. If General Huan recruited you to serve on his staff, then you were gentry. If the Xie Family married a daughter to you, then you were certainly gentry too. Any necessary documents could be supplied afterward, and no one could deny your status.

Otherwise, even if your registration listed you as gentry, it was at most useful for evading taxes.

This was no joke. Since coming here, Liu Acheng had already heard that because the yellow register required entries for gentry or commoner status, landed property, wealth, and the like, it was perfectly commonplace for rich men and landowners to secretly bribe local Household Office officials, obtain gentry registrations, and fabricate genealogies.

But gentry of that sort could never hold office, nor would other gentry families marry into theirs. Those families had their own circles and did not acknowledge them at all.

At this thought, something stirred in Liu Acheng's mind, but he did not immediately speak.

Only after the grim-faced Lu Song had filled an entire sheet of paper in his own hand and was leaving with several attendants in crimson headscarves-who might have been followers of the Way of the Celestial Masters from the estate, subordinates from the commandery's Household Office, or both-did Liu Acheng follow him again and call softly to him at the mouth of the valley:

"Brother Song, are those commandery officials using this affair to squeeze you out?"

Lu Song froze and instinctively started to deny it. But then he remembered that he had previously praised the other man for being clever. Such a denial would be ridiculous, leaving him awkwardly caught in the middle.

"Brother Song." Liu Acheng sighed, cupped his hands in a bow, and spoke earnestly. "We truly had no idea this would drag you into trouble... I asked Brother Jili to report the case only because we were at the end of our road. We wanted to use it to remind the commandery offices that all of us were about to freeze and starve to death, so they would hurry and provide relief. How could we have known you had become Langya Commandery's Household Office Registrar? Besides, even if we had known, with our limited understanding, we would only have been happy for you. How could we have imagined that someone with your family background, and Master Du Ming backing him, would still be pushed aside just for becoming a Household Office Registrar?

"We're truly sorry for putting you through this, Brother Song."

Lu Song looked at the youth before him, still at a loss for words. He could only give a perfunctory nod, turn, and leave.

Yet after a few steps, he turned back and finally voiced the words he had been holding in his belly. "Liu Acheng, I simply don't understand. How can someone as clever as you do something so stupid?"

Liu Acheng lowered his head without answering and merely bowed to him again and again.

Lu Song hurried away, having wasted more than half a day of the two Lius' precious time. Seeing that even if they set out now, they would not be able to do any market research today, the two simply stayed to sort firewood.

But before they even reached the central clearing, something had already shifted in Liu Jili's mood. Once they arrived, he plopped down, and before he had begun sorting, he pointed at the firewood before him and said despondently:

"Acheng, would you say we're hitting walls everywhere we turn now? Your plan to sort the firewood into grades and sell it hasn't worked. Going to the authorities to remind them to open the granaries and relieve the people hasn't worked either. And now we're being mocked for overestimating ourselves and doing stupid things."

"What does any of that amount to?" Liu Acheng beside him was utterly speechless. "Of course there are setbacks. But if you react like this whenever you run into one at your young age, how will you ever accomplish anything great?"

Liu Jili was rather speechless too. What did he mean, "at your young age"?

Still, he truly could not conceal his dejection and could only sigh. "Acheng, it's not that I can't take setbacks. It's just that all these past few years have come to nothing. I really am a little afraid now."

"Then let me be honest." Liu Acheng had already begun sorting the firewood. "We've run into setbacks, yes. But didn't we know from the start that this would most likely meet with setbacks? Apart from that, have you noticed that the reputation we wanted to build has actually shown clear results...? Honestly, even I didn't expect results this good, this quickly."

"Who have you seen treating us as though our reputation has grown?" Liu Jili shook his head, clearly feeling something was wrong. "Since Lord Ren left, isn't this the only gentry man we've dealt with? We used to have a little standing with him, but now all that's left is cold mockery."

"Think again, Brother Jili. Has that fellow's view of us really grown worse?" Liu Acheng rebutted without hesitation, his head still lowered.

Liu Jili finally froze. He seemed to grasp something, yet could not untangle his thoughts for the moment. After a long while, he sat with his arms folded and said slowly, "Are you saying that Lu Song, and that Master Xu before him, never actually thought anything of us? They only humored us and gave us clothes because we were draping ourselves in the tiger skins of Lord Ren, Garrison Commander Gao, and even the Grand Commander to borrow their authority? That at heart, they only treated us as beggars?"

"That's part of it, but not all." Liu Cheng broke twigs off the split wood in his hands and answered seriously. "If Lu Song had looked down on us completely before, and now only looked down on us half as much, I still wouldn't say we'd gained a reputation... Brother Jili, let me ask you something, and tell me the truth. Ever since you came back today, from the moment you saw Lu Song, you haven't taken the initiative to say anything. And now you're this dejected. Is it because you're jealous of him?"

Liu Jili looked slightly embarrassed, but the relationship between the two Lius was solid enough that a matter of saving face would not keep him from answering. After glancing at the women and children watching them curiously nearby, he finally lowered his voice and admitted it. "How could I not be jealous? We're all exiled gentry. We all came from the north, and we're all alone. We're so poor we don't even have clothes, and we can't even sell firewood in winter. Yet just because he inherited a family tradition as a Daoist, he immediately gained a patron like Master Du Ming. Not only does he have no worries about food or drink, he got such a huge fortified manor, and in the blink of an eye he became the commandery's Household Office Registrar... Becoming Household Office Registrar means his gentry registration is already in order. He can also attach himself directly to someone like Yuan Zhi, opening up his future prospects. How could I not be jealous? Even if you say he's being pushed aside, that's only because his colleagues are jealous of him."

"Then if I told you he was jealous of us just now too, would you believe me?" Liu Acheng nodded repeatedly, waited for him to finish, then asked in return while holding a piece of split wood.

"Are you joking?" Having vented, Liu Jili had been about to lower his head and start working, but now he was provoked into laughter again. "Even if you want to comfort me, Acheng, you can't spout nonsense. How could he be jealous of us?"

"If he wasn't jealous of us, why did he scowl at us and lose his temper?" Liu Cheng answered with the ghost of a smile. "Think about it, Brother Jili. Was he only angry at the people in the commandery who were squeezing him out? He was plainly directing it at us. But what mortal grudge is there between us? Would merely taking his anger out on us warrant all that?"

Recalling Lu Song's final words before leaving, Liu Jili felt a jolt. He already believed a little of it, but remained puzzled. "He certainly was directing his anger at us the whole time... But if it was jealousy, what could he possibly envy us for?"

"He envies us for being able to follow our own inclinations, for daring to do what we ourselves want to do." Liu Acheng did not keep him in suspense, but gave the answer directly. "Brother Jili, naturally we envy him for having such a large fortified manor to rely on, and for so easily becoming a commandery official-especially a Household Office Registrar, a post with real power... But let me ask you: is he truly happy with his present circumstances?"

"What right does he have to be unhappy?" Liu Jili sounded a little exasperated. "If he's still unhappy with all that, what does that make us?"

"True." Liu Acheng shook his head and sighed. "If it were me, of course I'd be happy. But I still think he probably isn't... Let me put it another way. Brother Jili, you've been in Jingkou for two or three years and know how things work here. Why was he sent straight to manage such a large fortified manor as soon as he arrived in Jingkou, and why did he become the commandery's Household Office Registrar so quickly?"

"Perhaps that fellow held a high position among the Daoists in the north..."

"No matter how high his position among the northern Daoists, what does that count for once he's in the south? His clansman Lu Gu had standing in the north comparable to Yuan Zhi's. Why did that cease to work once he came here? Why did he have to rely on this younger clansman to go cadge handouts at Master Du Ming's fortified manor?"

"Then... perhaps Master Du Ming genuinely looks after Lu Song..." Liu Jili finally mastered his emotions and began to savor the implications. "No! If Master Du Ming genuinely looked after Lu Song and had his future in mind, he shouldn't have put him in charge of mundane affairs in the fortified manor, nor should he have made him a commandery official so quickly. He should have taken him to Kuaiji to meet those famous men of pure discourse! He should have given him a reputation as a man of profound Daoist learning inherited from his northern family, let him engage in pure discourse and cultivate his standing, then worked to find him a good marriage. That's how he could become a high official."

"When I first went to that fortified manor with you, Brother Jili, I already found it astonishing. Such a large manor, such a fine property, and right beside the main road to Jurong and Jingkou Avenue. Even you, after two or three years in Jingkou, thought of that place first when you wanted to buy good equipment... Clearly, even among Master Du Ming's holdings, a fortified manor like that is rare," Liu Acheng said with a sigh. "Yet you also said Master Du Ming spends all his time traveling throughout the South of the Yangtze, especially dealing with high officials and dignitaries in Jiankang, so he has no time to stay at the manor and keep things in order. Add to that what you said before: however wealthy these people in the Way of the Celestial Masters are, at root they're no different from us. They're all lower-ranking gentry without official posts. Even Master Du Ming, with all his fame, hasn't been given a high office by the Prince of Kuaiji. How much less could the others expect?"

"I understand what you mean." Liu Jili slapped his thigh and sighed up at the sky. "I understand what you mean, Acheng! I arrived two or three years before you and understood all the principles, yet a mere commandery post became a leaf blocking my sight... Master Du Ming never meant to hold Lu Song in high regard at all. He merely made him a watchdog!

"He made him Household Office Registrar to protect and conceal that fortified manor on his behalf, not for the sake of his future. And if we think a little further, if Lu Song's family really does hold a high position among the northern Daoists, Master Du Ming might even be wary of him and intend to tether him with a commandery post and the manor's mundane affairs."

At this point, Liu Jili shook his head repeatedly. "Lu Song really is jealous of us! He knows that although our lives are hard, we're following the proper path for gentry! And because we stepped out of our shelter of our own accord, preferring poverty and destitution to abandoning our own path, he feels all the more ashamed! The way he treated us today was nothing but shame turning into anger!"

Liu Acheng kept his head lowered, sorting the wood, while inwardly letting out a long breath.

Half of that breath really was a sigh for Lu Song. He was not deliberately misleading Liu Jili; things most likely were exactly as they had analyzed them. The other half came from relaxing a little now that Liu Jili had managed to put aside his dejection... It was true that Lu Song's shame had turned to anger, but the two Lius' own circumstances had reached a critical point too. Liu Jili was his only partner, and the one who understood affairs in the South of the Yangtze. Without his help, Liu Acheng could not carry this project forward.

So it all came back to the same thing: they had to find a way to sell the firewood at a high price, and quickly.

Tomorrow, they had to go to Jiankang.

Emperor Taizu wandered in exile south of the Yangtze. In the depths of winter, the authorities provided no relief, and all the able-bodied men of his clan departed. Lang alone remained with him in the camp, personally carrying firewood to support the orphaned and widowed. Yet the two men's strength was meager, and often insufficient. Emperor Taizu, too, sometimes went hungry, and relied much upon Lang, who was older and skilled at comforting him.

-New Book of Qi, Biographies, Volume Three.