Chapter 63 A man as resilient as You Longqian deserves the most dazzling...
"Hahaha, is that really what the sage said?" Fu Sui rested his chin on his hand, his eyes crinkling with laughter.
Today wasn't a day off, and Yue Shanling had been summoned from the Southern Office to have dinner with Fu Sui. He would have to go back immediately after dinner; with winter training approaching, the Imperial Guards were putting in extra training every day, and he couldn't stay away for too long.
Seeing Fu Sui smile, he couldn't help but smile back. This was the first time he'd seen Fu Sui since their parting on the pleasure boat that day. He'd thought a lot these past few days, wondering if Fu Sui would give up on him, and what else he could do for Fu Sui in this matter.
In the end, he still went to court every day, went to the Southern Office, and went home, devoting himself to the winter training of the Left Guard.
Since Fu Sui told him to give up everything, he wouldn't do it. He had already betrayed her trust once, and he couldn't let her down a second time.
"How did it end?" Fu Sui stared with bright, dark eyes, like black grapes, making Yue Shanling's heart pound.
"The emperor was so angry that he dismissed the court session immediately. Supervisor Xu ordered people to clean the Taiji Hall and told the Earl of Yuyang to take both books with him."
Fu Sui never expected that the Earl of Yuyang would come up with such a despicable trick after only three days of thinking. Those two books must be forgeries. Fu Sui had already sent people to Jiangling Prefecture to collect the books copied by Xue Guangting. Although Banshanting Bookstore specializes in erotic novels, its content is still relatively restrained, and it would never have such detailed illustrations as the books in the Earl of Yuyang's possession.
Remembering the fake post from last time, Fu Sui thought that interrogating that crazy scholar would probably yield some results.
However, Xue Guangting's reaction was also surprising. Regardless of whether the two books were real or fake, for the sake of one's reputation, such lewd and immoral acts should never be admitted. Xue Guangting could have easily argued that the matter was fabricated and slanderous; there are many people in the world who can imitate handwriting, and mere resemblance in handwriting is hardly convincing.
These two men, one so upright he refused to lie, the other so stupid he was capable of any evil, turned a perfectly good court meeting into a street argument. No wonder the emperor was furious.
Since the sage did not punish Xue Guangting, it means he also found the Earl of Yuyang's reasons absurd. Whether the Wang family wanted to extricate themselves from the matter or the Earl of Yuyang wanted to implicate Xue Guangting, relying on two trivial obscene books was not enough.
As Fu Sui counted down the days until the people who went to Hedong returned, his smile deepened. It was time to give Xue Guangting some more leverage.
Thinking this, she smiled and looked up, only to see the man opposite her staring at her intently. When he saw her looking at him, his calm, dark eyes lowered quickly, as if startled. His long, thick eyelashes trembled slightly, concealing the unspoken thoughts in his eyes.
Fu Sui suddenly found it amusing. What was he avoiding? Was he still ashamed of what happened last time? Why did he become so afraid to even look her in the eye?
“Reach out,” she said, her tone leaving no room for argument.
The order came too suddenly. Yue Shanling heard it but didn't know what to do. Hesitantly, he stretched out both hands at the same time, palms up, in front of Fu Sui.
Fu Sui didn't say much, just pointed to his left hand: "Roll up your sleeves."
He hesitated for a moment before crossing the mountain ridge, wondering why he had to use his left hand. He gripped his cuff, feeling the slight bulge inside, and pushed the bulge upwards through the sleeve.
Half of his arm was exposed, his tanned skin covering his bony wrist bones, and the veins extending from the base of his palm had a faint bluish tinge.
Fu Sui didn't call a stop, and his sleeve continued to move upwards. The protrusion that Yue Shanling was pressing down on could no longer move and got stuck on his forearm.
He looked at Fu Sui with some expectation, but Fu Sui tilted his head, looking at him with a questioning gaze: why not continue?
Yue Shanling sighed inwardly and simply rolled up his sleeves all the way to his elbows.
The complete forearm was revealed, and what was also exposed to Fu Sui's eyes was the five-colored thread stuck on the forearm.
The five-colored thread had been worn for some time; the colorful silk threads had lost their vibrancy, showing signs of fading and wear. The entire thread was also not smooth, but rather rough and frizzy, clearly indicating that its owner was not a quiet person. This was why the thread was often rubbed, causing several threads to be on the verge of breaking. Only the few small gold beads hanging from the tassel remained bright and lovely.
Fu Sui was very familiar with those few small gold beads; she had picked them out from the gold beads prepared for her to make a bracelet, and then personally threaded them onto the tassel.
The five-colored thread from the Dragon Boat Festival should have been thrown into the water after the first rain after the festival. Countless rains have fallen in the capital; how come this five-colored thread is still in his possession?
Yue Shanling lowered her head, her ears red. Fu Sui suddenly chuckled, reaching out to trace the clean lines of her wrist, up her strong arm, until she reached the five-colored thread.
"General, you travel between the palace and the capital, yet you wear such childish things under your dignified official robes. Aren't you afraid of being ridiculed by your colleagues?"
Of course I was afraid, but even if I was afraid, I didn't want to take it off. Even if I was afraid, I would wear it every day, carefully hiding it under my official robes, not daring to reveal the slightest clue.
Fu Sui followed the five-colored thread that had been pulled out of his arm and hooked it down. The five-colored thread loosely encircled his wrist, which was not slender but had distinct joints. The colorful and hard lines contrasted, adding a touch of vibrancy to his otherwise plain wrist.
Such resilient skin deserves the most dazzling gold and jade jewelry.
Fu Sui picked up the small box on the table, opened it, and inside lay a wide silver bracelet. Without saying a word, she picked up the bracelet and slipped it onto Yue Shanling's wrist.
A thin, cold silver lining clung to his tanned skin, like a cool spring rippled across his wrist. A gaping hole in the shimmering light clung tightly to the warm flesh, making the dark skin, adorned with faint scars, appear even more vibrant.
"Do you like it?" Fu Sui asked. It was worth it for her to specially draw the design and have it custom-made by the craftsman; the wide bracelet really suited him perfectly.
"I like it," Yue Shanling said softly.
He didn't really understand why Fu Sui would give him something like this. Bracelets were women's jewelry, and it was already strange enough for a man like him to wear a single five-colored thread, let alone a bracelet.
It wasn't cold metal in his hands, but rather a burning, deeply rooted sense of shame that tightly bound him, taking root and piercing his skin, winding its way along his veins to his heart.
But what does it matter? If Fu Sui likes it, then he likes it.
The sleeves that had been rolled up high were lowered, and the five-colored threads and wide bracelets were all covered by the purple official robe. The arm became solemn and dignified again, and no one could guess the gorgeous scene under the purple robe.
In the quiet of the night, apart from a few places with banquets and entertainment venues where people were still singing and dancing, most of the neighborhoods were already dark.
The courtyard where Shen Siming lived was still brightly lit. Shen Siming was preparing for the imperial examination in the spring of the following year, the tribute student surnamed Liu was still waiting to be selected and was also focused on the selection examination of the Ministry of Personnel, not to mention Xue Guangting, it would not be surprising if his room was lit all night.
At midnight, the scholar surnamed Liu was the first to extinguish his lamp, and a little while later, Shen Siming also went to bed. Only Xue Guangting's room was still filled with the warm yellow light unique to lamps.
A figure quietly slipped over the wall from next door into the courtyard and silently arrived in front of Xue Guangting's house.
He took out a book and placed it on the ground in front of the house, then raised his hand and knocked on the door. A shadowy figure moved in the lamplight reflected on the window, approaching the door. The person knocking moved a few steps to the side of the house and disappeared into the shadows.
It was late at night, and Xue Guangting assumed that Shen Siming wanted to see him, but when he opened the door, he found the room empty. He looked around in confusion, but couldn't find a single person.
Xue Guangting didn't really believe in ghosts and gods. Seeing this, he assumed that he hadn't rested well recently and was just confused, so he misheard.
Just as he was about to close the door, his eyes caught sight of something on the ground.
Looking at what appeared to be a register, Xue Guangting picked it up from the ground with suspicion. The cover was blank, and there was no binding on the spine; it was as if it had been hastily covered and thrown here without being bound or inscribed.
Xue Guangting took the register and walked out of the room, looking around the not-so-spacious courtyard. The night was deep, and there wasn't much to see. The area under the eaves and behind the house was pitch black, making it seem like there were people there, but also like there were no people there. Xue Guangting wasn't sure.
He steadied himself and cautiously approached the shadowy figure.
The person knocking on the door had practiced martial arts since childhood, and his skills were far beyond those of a scholar like Xue Guangting. He braced himself against the wall, pushed off with his legs, and in two steps leaped onto the roof. He lay down behind the protruding ridge and disappeared completely into the darkness.
Xue Guangting walked around the courtyard, carefully examining every shadowy spot, but found no trace of anyone having been there.
"This register must have been deliberately placed here," Xue Guangting thought, glancing around. He hadn't heard a sound whether the person entered or left the courtyard, demonstrating their exceptional skill.
He withdrew his gaze, pondered for a moment, took the register and returned to the house. Regardless of the purpose of the visitors, since they had made their move, he would accept it.
As the door creaked shut, a figure silently appeared on the roof. The person leaped down, crouched low, and crept to the window, peering through the crack in the window frame. Seeing Xue Guangting sitting behind his desk, he crouched down and slipped away, retracing his steps to return to the next room.
Xue Guangting adjusted the wick to make the light brighter. He rubbed his slightly sore eyes and opened the mysterious book.
The papers inside the cover varied in size, some with very fresh ink, as if hastily copied and haphazardly stuffed into an unsuitable cover.
The first few pages are all names of people, along with their place of origin, age, the year they passed the imperial examination, and their career changes.
Xue Guangting didn't know almost anyone there. He had only heard of a few of them or met them by chance, so he didn't have a deep impression of them.
He flipped through the pages, finding several large sheets of paper interspersed among them, containing land survey maps. Xue Guangting, having come from a poor background, was very familiar with land survey maps and dimensions. He did a quick calculation and was somewhat surprised; where was this land from, and why was there so much of it?
The following drawings not only depicted the land but also included plans for houses and gardens. However, these drawings were quite simple, only roughly sketching the shapes and marking the area; the details of the structures were left blank.
Next to each drawing was a place name, all of which were county governments that Xue Guangting did not recognize.
As he flipped through the pages, a thought popped into Xue Guangting's mind: if all these lands and estates belonged to the same family, wouldn't that family occupy most of the state's land?
The last few pages appeared to be accounts, and it took Xue Guangting a long time to figure out that they were tax accounts. The accounts were clear in terms of inflows and outflows, and a rough calculation showed no discrepancies. Xue Guangting compared the place names in the accounts with those on the survey map and found that they matched perfectly.
The survey map shows a large amount of land, and although the tax amount in the accounts is huge, if calculated based on the number of lands on the survey map, the amount paid in the accounts is less than one-tenth.
Xue Guangting became increasingly alarmed as he calculated. The records in this register alone wiped out half of the prefecture's tax revenue, and the accounts in the register did not only cover one year.
He turned to the last page, which was a map of the prefecture, with the townships and counties mentioned on the previous page marked on this map.
On the map, in black and white, it reads: Hedong (East of the River).
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