Chapter 76 If a ruler is unrighteous, then rebel against him. ...
Chapter 76
Zhang Xuanqing rarely gets truly drunk.
In his youth, he never drank alcohol. Later, after failing the imperial examination and witnessing the tragic state of his deceased wife and children, Zhang Xuanqing, in his early twenties, couldn't sleep for nights on end. He then developed a drinking habit, and to this day, he can drink almost a thousand cups without getting drunk.
Zhang Xuanqing rarely slept soundly. Every time he fell asleep, what appeared before his eyes were either the dead state of his wife and children, or his more than ten years of ups and downs in the court, his failure to achieve his ambitions, and his forced seclusion in the Taihang Mountains; or his old friends with whom he used to drink and laugh together, who had turned into skeletons without flesh and blood.
Whichever it was, it was an unspeakable nightmare for Zhang Xuanqing. After he went into seclusion, he joined Taoism and drank alcohol all day long. To others, he seemed crazy, but in reality, it was just a helpless act of escaping reality.
But for some reason today, perhaps because the knots in his heart were temporarily released, Zhang Xuanqing actually slept well all night until dawn. When he woke up, he felt much lighter.
He smacked his lips twice, his craving for alcohol kicking in, and began searching for his wine gourd again.
Shen Suining had long anticipated that he would seek out wine as soon as he woke up, so she had already hidden his wine gourd before he became fully conscious. She sat on the ground with a chipped brush washer at her feet, containing the ashes left after the calming incense had burned.
"You're awake." Shen Suining turned around and scooped a bamboo tube of water from the water vat next to him. His room was not big, and Zhang Xuanqing's cursive calligraphy was piled up everywhere. Several water vats were full of ink.
Zhang Xuanqing didn't feel awkward when he saw Shen Suining. He just chuckled twice, with a hint of ingratiation, "Niece, where's my wine?"
“You’ll get to drink wine once you answer my questions,” Shen Suining said, throwing the ash from the extinguished incense sticks outside the door. “Otherwise, I’ll smash all the wine He Hansheng sent you, so you won’t get a single drop.”
Upon hearing that Shen Suining was going to smash his precious wine, Zhang Xuanqing's beard bristled with anger. "That was the wedding wine that my nephew invited me to drink!"
“Yes, that was our wedding wine. I can do whatever I want with it, right?” Shen Suining put the brush washer back in its place, turned to the side and looked at him with a smile. “Uncle, you haven’t had a drop of wine today. Don’t try to fool me by pretending to be drunk.”
Zhang Xuanqing pouted, flicked his whisk, and laughed angrily, "Compared to your older brother, you're really not cute at all."
Shen Suining ignored him and called out towards the door, "Ling Rui!"
As soon as the sound faded, the crisp sound of a wine jar breaking immediately came from outside.
Zhang Xuanqing's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately showed a pained expression, "No, don't really smash it!"
Shen Suining: "Then please speak."
Zhang Xuanqing hesitated for a moment and didn't speak, so Shen Suining had Ling Rui smash two more jars of wine.
The wine seeped into the soil, and its aroma wafted in from outside. Zhang Xuanqing's heart broke. He relented, "I'll talk, I'll talk, I'll stop her from smashing it! I'm counting on this wine to get through the winter!"
Shen Suining then called for a stop.
Zhang Xuanqing sighed heavily. "Actually, you've already guessed it, so why bother asking me? I don't want to talk about it for two reasons. First, I don't want to get involved in these messy things and cause more grief. Second, whether it's you or Yun Chu, what can you do after knowing these sordid matters, besides harboring resentment towards the person in the high position?"
Shen Suining laughed arrogantly and said indifferently, "If a ruler is unrighteous, then rebel against him."
“Little girl, you make it sound so easy,” Zhang Xuanqing shook his head bitterly. “Go back and ask your father how many brothers died under his command just to support such a scoundrel. If you want to rebel against him, what do you, a little girl, have to do with it? And what will happen after you rebel? Who will be the emperor? If the world falls into chaos again, won’t it be the common people who suffer?”
“These are all things to be discussed later. If it really comes to that, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Shen Suining said, never wanting to dwell on things that hadn’t happened yet. She changed the subject and asked directly, “Why does the emperor want Lord He to die? He knows there are no loyal ministers left in the court. Lord He is his own brother-in-law. What good will it do the emperor if he dies?”
"Because he's sick!"
Zhang Xuanqing sneered and cursed, "He's a beast! An ungrateful wretch! Brother-in-law? He'd even give away his own sister to win over his subordinates. How can you expect him to have any blood ties with a brother-in-law who's not related to him by blood but whose achievements threaten the emperor? If it weren't for the Empress Dowager keeping things under control, Jingchuan and his family would have died a thousand times over!"
Shen Suining stared at him in astonishment.
Realizing his loss of composure, Zhang Xuanqing coughed twice to calm himself down. "You and your father are both people who value relationships and loyalty, so naturally you can't understand the ruthlessness of the emperor's family. Rulers and subjects, fathers and sons, sisters and brothers are all meaningless in the face of power. He is the emperor, and he can kill whoever he wants."
This was somewhat beyond Shen Suining's comprehension. After a moment, she asked again, "Does He Hansheng...he know about the things you just mentioned?"
“I don’t know,” Zhang Xuanqing gestured with his hand. “When I left Huadu, he was only this tall, a teenager, in the prime of his youth. At that time, he and his father started to disagree on many things. Yun Chu was a stubborn boy, and Jing Chuan was impatient. Whenever they argued, Yun Chu would get a good beating. I often acted as a peacemaker for their family back then.”
Shen Suining thought for a moment and then asked in a different way: "Given your understanding of him, and given He Hansheng's keen sense of politics, is it possible that he has guessed something? After all, he has never given up investigating the cause of Lord He's death in recent years."
Zhang Xuanqing was silent for a while. "I don't know. But based on my understanding of him, this child's personality is very similar to his father's. He is sincere, fierce, loyal and courageous. He also has half of the Li family's blood in his veins. Even if he really knows that his father's death is related to the emperor, it is not an imperial edict or personal instruction from the emperor. Would he really go against his own uncle to support an unrelated person?"
The two remained silent for a moment. Then, Shen Suining stood up and placed the wine gourd hidden behind her back in front of Zhang Xuanqing. "I will have two more cartloads of wine sent up the mountain as compensation. Tomorrow is the beginning of winter, so you should wear some thicker new clothes."
Shen Suining clapped her hands, and Chen Zui came in carrying two newly sewn clothes. He knelt on the ground, head down, and didn't say a word.
The clothes were made of the finest fabric, not as fine as brocade, but probably the best cloth that could be bought from the villagers down the mountain. Although the sewing technique was a bit rough, every stitch was a testament to the students' gratitude.
“This garment was sewn by Chen Sheng himself over several nights,” Shen Suining spoke up for Chen Zui from the side. “Since he is so earnest, it’s impossible to persuade him otherwise. Why don’t you let him try it himself? If he really hits a wall in the future, he will surely understand your good intentions.”
Zhang Xuanqing guessed what he wanted to do, sighed deeply, picked up a calligraphy brush and hit Chen Zui's head hard without saying a word, then got up and left.
Chen Zui followed on his knees for a few steps, looking at Zhang Xuanqing's back with teary eyes, and said to Shen Suining, "Miss Shen, it seems that the teacher still disagrees."
As Shen Suining watched Zhang Xuanqing's retreating figure, he thought of what Zhang had said yesterday: that he had argued with the Master just like Chen Zui had. Now, times had changed, and things were no longer the same. The stubborn and unconvinced boy of yesteryear had become the old Master who had opposed him back then, while his most beloved and youthful disciple had become the same person he once was.
Zhang Xuanqing was not willing for his prized student to return to the swamp that he had desperately tried to get close to and then desperately tried to escape. He probably just saw his younger self, full of vigor and ambition, doing what he knew was impossible.
She had initially felt a little sad, but upon hearing Chen Zui's clueless words, she immediately felt a sense of disappointment and frustration.
Shen Suining looked at him helplessly and patted his head, "You'd better hurry up and see if there's anything missing at home, and make sure everything is settled before you leave!"
Chen rubbed his head in pain, finally realizing what was happening.
He chuckled to himself, "Then Miss Shen will have to spend money again. The writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones that the teachers and fellow disciples need every day, the food and charcoal for the winter, and the cloth for the brothers to make new clothes... it's not a small amount."
Shen Suining: "..."
...
After bidding farewell to Zhang Xuanqing, Shen Suining took Chen Zui to the capital.
Shen Suining had just arrived in the north for the winter and was still recovering from her injuries. Feeling a bit cold, she put on a thick fox fur coat early to keep warm. The fur collar brushed against her fair cheeks. She was already sweet-looking, but now, with her neck hunched over, she looked even more charming and innocent like a woman from Jiangnan.
When the carriage arrived at the gate of the Yong'an Marquis's residence, Shen Suining got off first and let Chen Zui, who was sitting outside shivering in the wind, sit inside the carriage. She instructed Ling Rui: "Take him to buy some personal items for the winter and send them to Pu She for Father to look after. Just say that it was entrusted by Master Zhang."
Lingrui nodded and drove the carriage away.
When Shen Suining returned to the Marquis's residence, Jing Hao and Jing Yue bowed respectfully at the gate. She nodded hastily in response. As soon as she stepped into the gate, she heard the shouts of a vendor selling soy sauce outside the high walls.
Shen Suining stopped in her tracks, subconsciously glanced around, and only after confirming that no one was following her did she walk out of the mansion through the side door and arrive at the stall of the scalper.
As the weather gets colder, the sweet soups on the stalls have been replaced with warm sweet wine and rice porridge, as well as various shaped sugar figurines, which are popular with children.
Shen Suining saw a child wrapped in cotton cloth like a bun, looking up at the sugar figurines on the stall. His little face was red from the cold, and his eyes were full of longing and expectation. The old man holding his hand was dressed in tattered clothes. He seemed to sense the child's longing, and his face showed a bit of embarrassment and pity. He tugged at the child's little hand and said with his hunched back, "The harvest wasn't good this year. After Grandpa sells the vegetables in his field, I'll buy you sugar figurines, okay?"
The child was very sensible, and replied in a sweet voice, "Okay," reluctantly letting the old man lead him away, but his eyes never left the stall.
Shen Suining thought for a moment, then called out to the old man and the child, and turned to the rice vendor, saying, "Warm up a bowl of rice porridge."
The porridge seller responded with a "Yes," then turned and poured the porridge into the jug on the charcoal brazier. He added two more pieces of charcoal, and the brazier crackled with a sound. The child timidly hid behind the old man, looking at Shen Suining with a hint of fear.
Shen Suining thought she looked too fierce, so she took a sugar figurine from the stall, half-squatted down, and showed a sweet and gentle smile, "Here you go."
The child dared not take it, but clung tightly to the old man's clothes. The old man also carefully protected the child and took two steps back, bowed several times to Shen Suining, and ran away in a panic.
Shen Suining stood there stunned, staring at the frail figures of the old man and the child. After a moment, she stood up and put the sugar figurine back into the rake on the stall.
"What kind of mission is it this time?" Shen Suining looked at the rice porridge that was gradually steaming, her calm eyes turning cold.
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