Madam Shi stumbled as she picked Shiyan up and took shelter behind Master Zhao. Suddenly, as though she had someone to rely on, she pointed at Jin Shanyao and complained to him.
"Master, you saw it too. This whole family is utterly unreasonable. The young one hits his schoolmates inside the academy, and the adult hits parents outside it.
"They're lawless, utterly lawless! If this goes on, who would dare send their children here to study?"
Master Zhao said, "Shiyan's mother, I told you and your husband last night. Shiyan tried to bully Meng Anci and failed, then ran into the wall himself. It had nothing to do with Meng Anci."
"Master Zhao, what do you mean? Didn't you see that we were all beaten? Let's not talk about yesterday. Let's talk about right now."
She pointed at the servants howling on the ground. "Look what she did to my people! And my son's head had just started to get better, and now it's bleeding again."
Madam Shi's eyes darted around. She couldn't beat the Meng Household's pack of brutes, but she could drive Meng Anci out of the academy. Once he was out, she had the means to make sure he had nowhere to study.
With that thought, she instantly turned her attack elsewhere and said to Master Zhao, "My son was beaten at the academy. You must give me an explanation, or this won't be over."
Master Zhao hadn't expected Madam Shi to be so unreasonable. He said coldly, "What explanation do you want?"
Madam Shi looked smug and pointed at Meng Anci. "Make this little..." The word "beast" was on the tip of her tongue, but she forcibly swallowed it.
"You must make Meng Anci leave the academy."
"And if I refuse?"
Madam Shi had expected that answer. She chuckled. "If you don't drive him out, I'll block the academy gates and make a scene every day. I'll let everyone see what sort of people you are.
"I'll make your academy so infamous that you won't be able to recruit a single student."
Meng Anci's little face went pale. He didn't want to leave the academy. Jin Shanyao hadn't expected the academy to be dragged into it either. Just as she was wondering how to resolve the matter, she heard Master Zhao rebuke Madam Shi angrily, his face cold.
"Madam Shi, though my Zhao Household isn't a distinguished or prominent family, it has some standing in the county town. We've never been threatened by anyone. I've already said this has nothing to do with Meng Anci.
"If Shiyan can attend, he may continue. If not, take him home. If you still want to make trouble, Madam Shi, I'll see it through to the end."
Madam Shi stared in shock. "What do you mean? You'd actually drive my son out of the academy for this little beast?"
"He is my student, not the beast you call him. If you insult him again, every child of the Shi Household will be expelled from Green Mountain Academy and never allowed to set foot inside again."
Madam Shi swayed. Zhao Cheng, the head of Green Mountain Academy, had once been the chancellor of the Imperial Academy and was also a member of Master Zhao's own family.
All Master Zhao had to do was say the word to keep a Lineage out of the academy. A chill rose from the bottom of Madam Shi's heart. She couldn't let the Shi Household's children lose their place to study because of her son.
Otherwise, her husband would divorce her.
Madam Shi stood awkwardly in place. She had thought that Meng Anci was powerless and had lost both parents, so she could do as she pleased with him. Who would have thought Master Zhao would protect him?
Seeing the wind had changed, Madam Shi changed her face faster than she could turn a page. "Oh my, look how this has turned out. Well, um... I have things to do at home."
She pushed Shiyan in front of her and, looking at his still-bleeding head, steeled herself. "Shiyan, hurry inside for class."
Shiyan was pushed several steps forward. He stared blankly at his mother. "Mother..."
"Mother what? Hurry inside. It's normal for boys to get a few bumps and bruises." With that, Madam Shi slunk away with her servants, afraid that delaying a moment longer would affect the entire Lineage.
Shiyan glanced at Master Zhao. Seeing that he said nothing, he endured the pain in his head and entered the academy, looking back three times with every step.
Jin Shanyao gave Meng Anci a push. "Go to class."
Meng Anci nodded and saluted Master Zhao.
The corner of Master Zhao's mouth twitched. He thought he ought to speak to the etiquette master and have Meng Anci singled out for instruction. If he didn't learn properly, he should be punished by being made to stand. Their academy couldn't afford to suffer such embarrassment.
Master Zhao looked at Jin Shanyao. "Miss Jin, Meng Anci..."
He hesitated, then gathered his words. "The child is young and his understanding is still incomplete. He learns whatever his elders teach him. You shouldn't have relied on being in the right to make him hit someone. A gentleman should convince others through reason."
Jin Shanyao humbly accepted the lesson. "Thank you for the guidance, Master."
Master Zhao nodded in satisfaction. He hadn't expected her to be so reasonable, unlike Madam Shi, who stubbornly insisted on having her own way.
Madam Shi had just stepped through the courtyard gate with her left foot when she saw Shi Chang'an standing in the courtyard, waiting for her with a dark face.
Her heart skipped a beat, and she asked guiltily, "Didn't you leave to escort a shipment?"
If the academy hadn't sent word, he really would have left to escort the shipment. Shi Chang'an looked past Madam Shi at the people behind her. The normally well-trained servants were supporting one another, their faces black and blue, their heads lowered as they avoided his gaze.
Shi Chang'an looked startled for a moment. The Shi Household's servants knew martial arts, and ordinary people could hardly get close to them. He hadn't expected them to be beaten so badly this time.
"Come inside with me." Shi Chang'an entered the study with his hands behind his back. Madam Shi waved at the people behind her, signaling them to leave quickly. The servants didn't dare linger and quietly ran off to find the household physician.
Inside the study, Shi Chang'an's face was grim. "What did I tell you yesterday? Shiyan was throwing his weight around at the academy, and I told you to keep a closer rein on him. Instead, you took him along to make trouble."
Madam Shi said, lacking confidence, "We can't just watch our child get bullied, can we?"
Shi Chang'an pressed a large hand to the space between his brows and said, his head aching, "So your child is allowed to hit people, but no one else is allowed to hit back? Let this be a lesson to him. You're not to bring it up again."
Madam Shi still wanted to argue, but seeing her husband's expression, she sheepishly shut her mouth.
"And another thing. The Shi Household's servants are for escorting shipments, not fighting. If I catch you taking people out to fight again, you can go back to your parents' home."
At the mention of returning to her parents' home, Madam Shi sprang to her feet in anger. "Well, well, Shi Chang'an, you've finally said what was in your heart! Tell me, have you been looking down on me for a long time?"
Shi Chang'an hurriedly shut the window. "Keep your voice down. Do you think you're in the right?"
"What does being right or wrong have to do with it? Just tell me what gives you the right to send me back to my parents' home..." ...
Jin Shanyao knew nothing of the quarrel at the Shi Household.
She was looking at shops with Meng Anzhi.
Shops in the county town were hard to sell; some stayed on the market for a year or two without finding a buyer. But Jin Shanyao had money. As long as the location was good, she could buy one outright.
She chose a single-story shop with a courtyard on the main street in the east of town, only two shops away from Qin Baitang's. It had been put up for sale the year before last, and the lease happened to expire this year.
Jin Shanyao found the owner and settled the deal without another word. The property deed was written in Meng Anzhi's name.
Everyone was shocked by Jin Shanyao's decision. Only she knew that she had come to repay a debt of gratitude and would return to the Heavenly Court sooner or later.
Besides, what did a tree need a house for?
And they were all built from the corpses of her own kind. How inauspicious... And to put her name on one? How was that any different from buying a grave?
Humans just loved cutting down trees to build houses.
The previous tenant had left the place a mess when they moved out. Jin Shanyao couldn't be bothered to do the work, and she didn't want Meng Anzhi to do it either.
So she stood outside the shop and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Hiring people to clean rooms! One hundred copper coins per person!"
Her bellow brought half the street to a halt. No one had expected they could make money cleaning rooms, and they all thought she was joking. Only one woman came forward, her face red.
"Miss, are you really paying people to clean rooms?"
"Yes." Jin Shanyao pointed at the shop. "One hundred copper coins per room. If you clean the whole shop, I'll give you one tael of silver."
"One tael?" The woman's eyes lit up. A tael of silver was enough to support her family for two months. With a basket of vegetables on her arm, she said excitedly, "I'll do it! Miss, wait for me. I'll go home and fetch some people right away."
Jin Shanyao smiled. "All right, hurry back, or I'll give the job to someone else."
"Oh, you can't give it to someone else! I..." The woman was so anxious she didn't know what to do. Finally, she shoved her basket into Jin Shanyao's arms.
"I'll leave this basket of vegetables with you as a pledge." With that, she turned and ran out of sight.
Jin Shanyao stared at the vegetable basket. Only then did she remember that her family hadn't stocked up on autumn vegetables yet.