An Appeal to Study

The capital was a tapestry of bustling splendor, with breakfast stalls all over the streets. Xu Qi'an filled his stomach at one two streets away from the county yamen.

The stallholder was a small, skinny middle-aged man with dark skin and a grimy black apron. He greeted everyone with a humble smile.

His cooking was quite good, and Xu Qi'an ate to his heart's content. The only drawback was that the people of Great Feng's capital had a taste for sweets. Sweetened soy milk was one thing, but they even put sugar in their tofu pudding.

Xu Qi'an had no intention of compromising in this city overrun with heretics. He told the stallholder to leave out the sugar and add soy sauce, pork fat, chopped scallions, and minced garlic.

Besides that, he had four fried dough sticks, six meat buns, two steamed buns, a bowl of congee, and three small dishes of pickles.

When he finished, Xu Qi'an prepared to pay.

"Officer, you're too polite. It's my good fortune to have you eat breakfast at my stall." The stallholder looked at Xu Qi'an's uniform and refused to take his money, no matter what.

His gaze swept over the empty plates Xu Qi'an had left, and pain flashed in his eyes.

"You really don't want it?"

The stallholder swallowed. Xu Qi'an had eaten enough breakfast for four or five people. His was a small business that earned him just enough to get by, despite his working from dawn till dusk.

But he still didn't dare take the money. He really didn't dare.

"No, no, how could I take your money?" One look at the stallholder told Xu Qi'an that life had given him a thorough beating.

"All right, I'll sit here and digest for a while. Go on, don't disturb me." Xu Qi'an waved the stallholder away.

The stallholder meekly withdrew.

"The Great Feng dynasty's system has been plagued by abuses for a long time. Until the yamen underlings are brought to heel, ordinary people's lives won't improve." Xu Qi'an watched the stallholder's busy figure, recalling the pain in his eyes and his fear of asking for payment. He had looked as pitiful as a beggar.

"From ancient times to the present, those who have harmed ordinary people the most have always been the flies that the big shots cannot see."

He took ten copper coins from his pocket, stacked them on the table, and left in silence.

"He's finally gone." The stallholder breathed a sigh of relief and came over dejectedly to clear the dishes.

What rotten luck! he thought bitterly.

When he reached the table, the stallholder froze. A stack of copper coins sat on it. The constable had not only paid, but had also given him extra.

The stallholder hurried out a few steps, but all he could see was a glimpse of the constable's uniform among the crowd. The man had already gone a long way.

He opened his mouth, but it was as though something had lodged in his throat.

In all these years, this was the first time he had met a yamen underling who paid for his meal.

After answering roll call, Xu Qi'an went to the back hall and asked County Magistrate Zhu for leave. Old Zhu readily agreed.

He hurried back to the Xu Residence and pushed open Erlang's door. The brothers exchanged knowing nods, and Xu Erlang brought out a moon-white scholar's robe he had prepared long ago, covered in pale gray cloud patterns.

Xu Qi'an glanced at the sky-blue robe his younger cousin wore, with its subtle swirling cloud pattern, and suggested, "That one looks good on you, Erlang. Let's swap."

Xu Xinnian sneered, his expression seeming to say, Dream on.

For a martial artist in the Essence Refining Realm, a scholar's robe simply didn't fit right. His full muscles and imposing build would stretch out the loose garment.

A scholar's ideal of elegance, however, was billowing sleeves and fluttering robes.

The brothers left the Xu Residence, spent three taels of silver to rent two yellow horses, and raced out of the capital like wind and lightning.

Their destination was Clear Cloud Mountain, sixty li outside the capital. There was an academy on the mountain, the renowned Cloud Deer Academy!

Clear Cloud Mountain had not originally been called that; its actual name had been forgotten. Ever since Cloud Deer Academy had settled there, the sound of students reading had rung out without cease, and pure Qi had swirled up into the heavens.

Thus, it had been renamed "Clear Cloud Mountain."

The two rode side by side along the imperial road. An hour later, Xu Qi'an gazed into the distance and vaguely made out the outline of Clear Cloud Mountain and the academy buildings, tiny as beans.

"Cijiu, I've always been curious about something."

Xu Qi'an slowed his horse, and after his younger cousin also pulled on the reins, the two horses went from a gallop to a trot.

"Do you think the Sage was first rank?"

He was immensely curious about the major systems of this world, but unfortunately had no way to learn about them.

Xu Xinnian lifted his chin haughtily. "You think I'd know?"

If you don't know, you don't know. What's with that proud look? Xu Qi'an rolled his eyes and continued:

"Then do you know how long the Sage lived?"

Xu Xinnian nodded. "He died at eighty-two."

The mighty Sage, founder of the Confucian Dao-even if he wasn't first rank, he couldn't have been far off. He only lived to eighty-two?

All right, for an ordinary person in this era, that would count as a long life, but the level of martial power in this world is extraordinary.

Even the Sage couldn't live forever?

Hmm, I shouldn't jump to conclusions. After all, I know too little...

"Cloud Deer Academy doesn't take in outsiders. That's the rule. Even I can't get my teacher to agree," Xu Xinnian said.

"Are you really confident, Brother?"

Xu Qi'an shook his head. "It depends on what we do."

They had decided to send the women of the family to Cloud Deer Academy before making their move. That way, even if the vice minister of revenue did retaliate, the academy could shelter the women of the Xu Residence.

The tax silver case nearly turned me into a loot box. Is this damned mess never going to end? Sigh, if I don't handle it well, it'll be another threat to the whole family's lives. Xu Qi'an squeezed his horse's flanks, left Xu Xinnian behind, and galloped off in a cloud of dust.

Xu Xinnian refused to concede. He swung his whip and raced his older cousin.

Clear Cloud Mountain was neither majestic nor beautiful. If not for the pure Qi soaring into the sky, it would have been no different from any ordinary wild mountain.

There were courtyards, towers, plazas, and waterfalls on the mountain. Paths paved with bluestone slabs linked them together like a spiderweb.

In a tower beside a cliff, there was a private room on the second floor. The side facing the sheer cliff had no wall, and from the edge of the corridor one could gaze out over the vast plain and the outlines of distant mountains.

Li Mubai, the great master who had sworn never to play chess again, stood at the edge of the corridor with a book in hand, listening to his two friends argue fiercely behind him:

"I made the wrong move. I want to take it back, and I don't care what you say."

"A move made can't be taken back. That's the rule."

"The Sage said, 'There is no greater virtue than correcting one's mistakes.'"

"Is that what the Sage meant?"

"Isn't it?"

"You old scoundrel, you want to debate the Dao with me? Fine. Only one of us will leave here alive today."

"I wasn't raised on a vegetarian diet either."

Li Mubai shook his head. "Two hopeless chess players."

One of the two behind him was Zhang Shen, a master of military strategy. The other was an old man in a black robe, with a long beard reaching his chest.

Chen Tai, courtesy name Youping, was one of Cloud Deer Academy's four great scholars.

Each of the four had his own specialty. Li Mubai's was chess, Zhang Shen was well versed in military strategy, and Layman Ziyang, Yang Gong, who served as Qingzhou's provincial administration commissioner, excelled in scholarship.

Chen Youping, meanwhile, had a talent for governing. His book, Strategies for Governing the State, was highly sought after in Great Feng's officialdom.

Li Mubai turned away from the corridor and returned to the private room, interrupting the two arguing men:

"Where's the headmaster?"

"The eldest princess is here. The headmaster's keeping her company." Zhang Shen kept his eyes on the board as he answered offhandedly.

"Oh," Li Mubai said, nodding.

Chen Tai sighed. "The spring examination is only three months away, yet the academy's students have little enthusiasm for study. I went around the dormitories last night, and hardly any were burning the midnight oil."

"The few lamps that were lit were shining on chessboards." As he spoke, he swept a hand across the board, scattering the pieces. With grief and indignation, he said, "Playing with toys saps the will."

"Shameless old scoundrel!" Zhang Shen was furious. When he lost, playing with toys sapped the will; when he won, he strutted about in triumph. "You're just like Li Mubai. You can't take a loss."

"What does this have to do with me?" Li Mubai was angry.

At the mention of this subject, the three great scholars fell silent.

The students of Cloud Deer Academy faced difficult paths in officialdom. Even if they passed the provincial or metropolitan examinations, it was hard for them to rise swiftly through the ranks. More often than not, they were sent to serve in some poor, remote backwater, or tossed into an obscure corner to gather dust.

This greatly dampened the academy students' enthusiasm for the imperial examinations.

After a moment's silence in the private room, Zhang Shen said gravely, "We can't let this trend continue. We have to rekindle the students' enthusiasm for the examinations."

Chen Tai nodded solemnly. "Even if we have to struggle to hold on, we must keep going. Cloud Deer Academy cannot let its path into officialdom be cut off."

Li Mubai pondered. "Let's hold a session to encourage them to study, and have the headmaster speak."

Zhang Shen rolled a chess piece between his fingers. "The headmaster urges them to study every year. The first drumbeat rallies the troops, but the second weakens their resolve. It won't have much effect now."

Chen Tai stroked his beard and frowned. "We need a novel way to make the students study hard of their own accord and take the spring examination seriously."

"How about writing an essay?" he proposed.

"A thankless task," Li Mubai said, shaking his head.

"Then poetry is all that's left." Zhang Shen took a sip of tea. "Since ancient times, poetry has moved people's hearts. Composing a poem that rings in their ears and shakes them awake would be much more effective than holding a session to urge them to study."

With that, the three great scholars exchanged glances and shook their heads in unison.

In Great Feng's Confucian circles, poetry had long been in decline.

P.S. Is writing the most time-consuming thing since I started this book? No, it's reading your comments on each chapter. You're all so brilliant my scalp tingles. I'm proud to have a bunch of readers like you. Every one of you is a premium product of the nine-year compulsory education production line. Also, you little goofballs and troublemakers, come slap me in the face with your recommendation votes! A new book needs recommendation votes.