Chapter 42 Lanxia Qiu: "Why bother with all this trivial stuff?"
On the eighth day of the month, Fu Sui received a festival gift from Yangxian. The gift was supposed to be delivered before Qixi Festival, but it was delayed on the way and missed the festival.
"Interesting. This person's handwriting is simple, elegant, and well-structured, yet the content reveals a secret affair, a clandestine union. It is clearly a love story, but the handwriting gives it a touch of solemnity."
Fu Sui reclined on the cushioned couch, flipping through the legendary novel that Yang Xian had sent him.
Somehow, they learned that the Princess's residence in Yangxian purchases a large number of miscellaneous books every year, and thus they also collect some local folk tales to send over. This year's festival gifts included three books: one a travelogue describing the geography and scenery, and two old folk tales that are no longer available on the market.
Books on the market are divided into two categories: woodblock printing and handwritten copies. Because woodblock printing is time-consuming and labor-intensive, books with high demand, such as the Four Books and Five Classics, are mostly woodblock printed, while less popular books or miscellaneous books produced locally are mostly handwritten.
Copying books for bookstores and wealthy households was a highly sought-after job for impoverished scholars. Firstly, it earned them some money to supplement their household income; secondly, since books were expensive, copying them allowed them to learn to recite them from memory, thus saving on paper and pen costs.
Judging from the handwriting of this erotic novel, it doesn't look like the smooth and effortless work of a professional copyist; it was probably written by some poor student.
Qin An was tidying up the bookshelves. Some books hadn't been put back in their places after being aired out yesterday. Today, Kou Yun and Fei Qing went to check on the storage of books in the warehouse, so Qin An sorted out and put the books in Fu Sui's study back in their original places.
Seeing Fu Sui hand him the novel, Qin An put down his own book and took it to read. As he read, Qin An's brows furrowed slightly, as if he were puzzled. He turned to the title page and saw the large seal of "Banshanting" stamped on it, and chuckled knowingly.
"What?" Fu Sui asked.
Qin An returned the novel copy to Fu Sui, replying, "This was copied by Xue Guangting."
"Xue Guangting?" Fu Sui gasped in disbelief, turning the book over and over in her hands, but she couldn't find the transcriber's name anywhere. "It's unsigned here either."
Qin An was only concerned with putting the book he was holding back on the bookshelf, and said casually, "Xue Guangting's handwriting is still easy to recognize."
Even if it's easy to recognize someone, you still have to have seen them before. Fu Sui asked Qin An hesitantly, "You didn't steal the imperial examination papers, did you?"
"What would I use stealing exam papers for? Do you think your head is too heavy?" Qin An expressed his disdain for Fu Sui's wild imagination. "Rice is expensive in the capital. Xue Guangting took on many copying jobs while waiting for the exam in the capital. His handwriting is not hard to find."
"Perhaps it's because the handwriting is similar. Xue Guangting probably never went to Yangxian."
Qin An was certain that it was Xue Guangting's copy. He gestured for Fu Sui to look at the seal on the title page: "Banshanting is a bookstore in Jiangling Prefecture that specializes in erotic legends. Xue Guangting is from Jingzhou. Judging from the fact that he had to make a living by copying books for others while waiting for the exam, he probably couldn't afford to attend a private academy. The official school in Jingzhou that teaches poetry and essays was located in Jiangling."
Fu Sui was stunned. She turned the book to the middle and read it word by word.
When that person from Yangxian was collecting books, he probably didn't carefully check the contents of the stories. He only looked at the beginning with talented men and beautiful women and the happy ending, and sent them over as ordinary romance novels. He didn't expect that there were many explicit descriptions mixed in.
Upon learning that Xue Guangting had copied the book, Fu Sui couldn't help but laugh more and more. Although Xue Guangting copied books for Banshanting most likely because the job paid well, the thought of such a cold and aloof person meticulously copying obscene lyrics and songs in neat handwriting still felt absurd.
"Do you know what he's doing now?" Since learning that Xue Guangting had been stripped of his official post, Fu Sui hadn't paid any attention to his news.
Killing that old scoundrel Wang Yifu was a relief, and Fu Sui's long-standing tension suddenly eased, allowing some of his chronic ailments to find an outlet. It wasn't that Fu Sui was greedy for comfort; he simply lacked energy most of the time, and when he had a spare moment, he devoted it all to Yue Shanling.
In addition, Wang Lingshu was observing mourning and staying at home, and the entire Wang family remained silent and dormant. If it weren't for seeing Xue Guangting's old handwriting today, Fu Sui would have almost forgotten about the Wang family, their old enemy, let alone Xue Guangting, who was only noticed by Fu Sui because of his slight connection with Wang Lingshu.
Not only Fu Sui, but Qin An also relaxed considerably and was taken aback by Fu Sui's question.
Seeing Qin An's reaction, Fu Sui knew he didn't know either, so he didn't press the matter further. He simply asked Qin An to find a few more copies of Xue Guangting's handwriting. Reading love poems in Xue Guangting's handwriting had a rather morbid pleasure, like watching an old scholar visiting a brothel.
The Imperial Guards in the capital are different from those on the border. They have always only followed orders and not people. As top-level generals, their control over soldiers is far less than that of mid-level officers. Yuan Shenquan's confidants did indeed bring a lot of trouble to Yue Shanling.
The current Left Guard General is a veteran who followed Emperor Taizu in conquering the country, and is over seventy years old. The Emperor is considerate and no longer requires him to inspect the troops in the guard every day, and even the regular court sessions are waived. All affairs of the Left Guard are handled by the two Left Guard Generals.
Another Left Guard General, Li Tan, was a graduate of the Imperial Academy. Although they had spent several months together, Yue Shanling was not particularly familiar with him. He neither restrained the officers left behind by Yuan Shenquan nor hindered Yue Shanling's control over the Left Guard. He simply focused on his own case each day and didn't say a word more than necessary.
He crossed the mountain ridge early in the morning to attend court. As expected, the emperor's act of forcibly escorting all the ministers back to their residences yesterday aroused much dissatisfaction. In addition to pointing out the drawbacks of the system of appointing officials and attacking Qian Tingzhi, there were many more memorials today from the Left and Right Guards.
General Awusijidiqincha of the Right Guard was originally a member of the Turkic royal family. After surrendering with his troops, he fought against Kucha. He was also the son-in-law of Princess Huainan.
Awusijidiqincha was eight feet tall with an aquiline nose and hawk-like eyes. Civil officials were somewhat intimidated by his direct criticism, and most of the impeachments were directed at the four generals of the left and right guards.
He was subjected to a barrage of insults, from "disrespecting officials and beating courtiers" to "tyrannizing scholars and damaging culture." He spent half a day in court, crossing mountains, without uttering a single word, yet he was still subjected to half a day of abuse.
Even after the court session ended, several officials who firmly opposed the system of appointing officials by appointment were still unwilling to leave, so the emperor kept the three provincial ministers to continue the discussion.
"Damn it, this court is so frustrating!" Right Guard General Meng Yan began to complain even before leaving the palace gates.
He was also from the civil service, and he even applied to the civil service department instead of the military department. After spending a few years in the army, he spoke even more coarsely than a regular soldier.
Yue Shanling, Meng Yan, and Right Guard General Huyan He walked together towards Chang Le Gate, handing the fish tally to the gatekeeper for inspection. Li Tan followed a few steps behind the three.
"Tell me, are these civil officials just bored and have nothing better to do than meddle in every little thing? It's one thing to damage civility, but to impeach me for being vulgar? I'm on the list too, what right do they have to call me vulgar?"
Hu Yanhe winked at Meng Yan, signaling him to keep his voice down.
The area inside and outside Chang Le Gate was filled with officials who had just finished court. Several officials heard the commotion and turned to look. Meng Yan fell silent and muttered under his breath, "They were already in mortal danger, and now they're caught in the middle."
Hu Yanhe reached out and nudged Meng Yan, telling him to stop talking.
Looking back at Li Tan from the mountain ridge, he seemed to have heard nothing and was lost in thought with his head down.
Awusijidiqincha rode off on horseback as soon as he left the palace gate. The Left Guard and the Right Guard were not in the same place. Huyanhe and Mengyan bid farewell to Yueshanling at the palace gate, led their horses and went their separate ways.
Yue Shanling and Li Tan walked towards the Left Guard Post, one after the other. When they arrived at the entrance of the post, Li Tan nodded to Yue Shanling as a greeting, and then went into his office.
He took a deep breath over the mountain ridge, mustered his spirits, and then stepped inside.
As luck would have it, before I even stepped into the garrison, I ran into Tian Ganyou, who had just emerged from the garrison of the nearby Qianniuwei.
Tian Ganyou used the excuse that he had worked an extra day yesterday to ask the sage for a day off today.
Ever since he tasted A Cai's mutton soup, he couldn't forget A Cai's cooking skills. However, A Cai's fame had soared because of Fu Sui's invitation, and Tian Ganyou couldn't get a table even after going several times.
After learning about this, Zhao Qi thought that he could not afford to offend the powerful and influential people in the capital, so he took the initiative to find Tian Ganyou and said that if Tian Ganyou wanted to drink mutton soup, he could let him know in advance and he would bring the mutton soup directly to him, which would save Tian Ganyou from having to eat with the peddlers and laborers.
Tian Ganyou was naturally delighted. Since he had nothing to do that day, he sent someone to A Cai's shop to get a bowl of mutton soup.
Zhao Qi had been on duty all night and could rest for half a day today. He slept for only two hours before getting up to help A Cai. Zhao Qi couldn't get into the Imperial City government office, so when Tian Ganyou came out with Yue Shanling in his arms, Zhao Qi was waiting outside Yanxi Gate, rubbing his hands together.
Tian Ganyou took the food box and invited Yue Shanling to eat together.
Yue Shanling declined, saying, "You eat your food, don't worry about me."
Tian Ganyou didn't stand on ceremony with Yue Shanling and carried the food box back to the imperial city.
He inquired about Zhao Qi's recent situation from across the mountains.
"I have already found a private school that specializes in early childhood education. In a few days, Little Stone will be going to study at the private school."
Zhao Qi taught his son to read, partly hoping he could achieve some success in the imperial examinations in the future. He dared not dream of a student who didn't need to take the autumn examinations; it would be ideal if his son could attend a private school or a government-run academy and participate in the autumn examinations.
Now that Yue Shanling has taken the initiative to mention to Zhao Qi that he can help him get a place in an official school, Zhao Qi is so excited that he hasn't been able to sleep for several days. He immediately went to inquire about private schools for his young son's early education so that Xiao Shitou could study well with a teacher.
“I heard that the minimum age for students admitted to official schools is fourteen, and Xiao Shitou is still many years away. I have already obtained the number and types of books needed for the donation. Most of them are easy to obtain, but some books are difficult to buy. I am afraid that we will have to borrow books to copy them. I think that when Xiao Shitou goes to a private school, he can borrow books from the teacher to copy them. I will then ask around at other private schools. I should be able to gather the necessary materials.”
The regulations for book donations to official schools not only stipulated the quantity but also the types of books, to prevent wealthy families from using woodblock-printed books and the same type of books as a substitute. Some of the books used in the prefectural schools in the lower states came from donations, and students who could not afford to buy books copied them for their own study.
Seeing that Zhao Qi already had a plan, Yue Shanling nodded. After thinking for a moment, he asked, "Are there any hard-to-find books?" Yue Shanling was studying at the Imperial Academy, so borrowing books through the Imperial Academy was much more convenient than Zhao Qi asking around.
Zhao Qi was worried about the trouble of crossing the mountains and the possibility that he might not be able to borrow any books, so he could only say, "I haven't read much, and I only have a superficial understanding of the books on those lists. It's alright for now, it's just a bit of work, but not difficult. If there are any books that I've never heard of before, I'm afraid I'll have to trouble Third Brother."
Yue Shanling agreed, chatted with Zhao Qi for a few minutes, and then told Zhao Qi to go back early.
Zhao Qi wanted to make another trip to deliver some mutton soup to Yue Shanling, but Yue Shanling said that he had already eaten and told him not to bother.
There was no shortage of food vendors near the imperial city. After Zhao Qi left, Yue Shanling bought two pancakes for lunch.
Busy until sunset, Madam Zhou sent someone to summon Yue Shanling back to the Yue residence for a meal.
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