All Under Heaven

[Arc 2 - Scholars should be well-versed and eloquent]

The season of the blossoming of the Chinese Scholar tree flowers1 was also the moment to say goodbye.

Outside Chong Wen Men in the suburbs of Beijing was the Willow Pavilion which had been constructed at an unknown time. It had been worn down by years of disrepair but it was the place that everyone had to pass through on the road to leaving the Capital, so people came and went, and to the side of it there were a few tea vendors to rest or stop over, so it was not particularly calm.

Zhao Su accompanied Yuan Shu out of the city on horseback, when they arrived here Zhao Su dismounted his horse, but Yuan Shu didn’t move.

The maids and pageboy who Yuan Shu were taking with him to take up office had poor equestrian skills and were lagging behind, tired and panting, they finally caught up to them. 

 

“Accompany the gentlemen a thousand miles, but we’ll still have to say goodbye in the end2, why don’t you turn back now.” Yuan Shu said slowly, even if he couldn’t bear to leave, but he still needed to confront the fact that the time had come. He didn’t like those kinds of lengthy goodbyes where the parent is reluctant to part with their children, they exchanged a few more words, and then he turned around to leave.

Zhao Su quickly stopped him, laughing he said: “Little shixiong, do you still remember the bet we made back then, saying that if I’m able to pass the Court Examination, you must fulfil me one wish?”

Yuan Shu curled his lip: “I thought you’d forgotten about this, sure enough you’re not willing to lose out, tell me then.” He didn’t ask Zhao Su what he wanted, he just asked him to tell him because he would do it no matter what. 

 

Zhao Su laughed loudly: “Look at your face, someone who didn’t know would think that I wanted you to go take the stars and the moon down from the sky for me. In fact, it’s only a small thing, after shixiong arrives in Qujing could you please collect some local land surveys, tax records, local and cultural items, books will work as well, or even a general history of the county. You could even collect the local stories told by the residents, and give it all to me the next time we meet.”

This kind of strange request was something that Yuan Shu would never have expected. He was astonished: “What do you want to do with all that?”

Zhao Su winked: “I’m giving you something to do, in case you arrive there and instantly become besotted with a Miao girl3, and forget about me, your shidi.”

Yuan Shu, seeing that he didn’t want to tell him, didn’t ask again and just agreed to his request. He knew that from a young age, Zhao Su had always had his own views, everything he did had his own reasons. He knew that it wasn’t because Zhao Su didn’t want to tell him the reason but because he didn’t know what to say.

Transportation and dissemination of information was not particularly wide in ancient times, it wasn’t like modern times when it was possible to know exactly what was happening on the other side of the world in a mere few seconds. Zhao Su just wanted to understand a bit more about each ethnic group, but he was not able to leave the Capital at this moment, so this wish could only be temporarily fulfilled by Yuan Shu at this moment. He couldn’t say that these items could actually be of any use, but there was no harm in collecting it in advance as it may come in use later on.

“I’m leaving.”

“Shixiong, be safe.”

Zhao Su took a step back, cupped his hands together and bowed deeply with much seriousness and solemnity.

“Have a pleasant journey and we will meet again some day!”

Yuan Shu looked at him solemnly: “Until we meet again4!”

He raised his whip to his horse and set off in the dust.

Zhao Su stood there staring at his departing figure, and didn’t move for a long while.

The strangeness of being new to this era, somehow had long since disappeared without a trace. Lady Chen, Dai Gongwang, Yuan Shu, Zhu Yijun, these people had been at his side slowly influencing him，slowly changing him into a person of the Great Ming dynasty.

That’s right，I am a citizen of the Great Ming, even if the words Chinese national5 was not in use right now, it would be in a couple of hundred year. Right now, they still had a common form of address: Huaxia national6. Since he was here, even if he had limited power, he still wanted to work hard, at least to be of clear conscience and not regret in the future，so he will just do what he can.

The evening wind blew up the sleeves of his robes, and the tangerine yellow sunset pierced through the clouds sprinkling down on the ground, making his face appear even more like a beautiful jade7. The little pageboy who was standing next to him, had stood until his feet hurt, he couldn’t help lightly saying: “Gongzi, shall we go back?”

Zhao Su replied with an “en”，but didn’t get back on the horse, the two led their horses by its reins, slowly walking back.

“What the hell are you doing! Go go go, get further away. We still want to do business!”

He heard the voice of the tea stand owner berating someone. Zhao Su and the pageboy walked towards the crowd and saw someone curled up next to the pavilion, dressed in shabby robes with a dirty face. It wasn’t possible to discern what this person looked like but they saw him stretch out his hand trying to pick up the steamed bun that the patrons of the tea stand had accidentally dropped on the floor. His body odour was indeed atrocious; those who were close to him pinched their noses.

This person was tall, even if he was hunched over, it was obvious to see.

This person, who had been berated by the owner, quickly picked up the steamed bun and then flew back to where he was before. Starting to nibble at the food, he didn’t look up. The owner was furious but couldn’t do anything to him, so she could only turn around work —— her tea stand was just a small business and he had only picked up something dirty off the floor so she had to let him have it.

Zhao Su couldn’t help stopping.

“Gongzi?”

Zhao Su muttered out loud after a moment: “Take these copper coins8 and give it to him.”

The little pageboy was confused but did as he was told, he went over there，pinched his nose and threw the copper coins in front of that person, his attitude was not particularly friendly.

That person, seeing the copper coins, slowly looked up, seeing Zhao Su, his pair of eyes were dark and deep, a vast contrast to the rest of his appearance.

He didn’t say anything, he could only bow to Zhao Su a few times. He put away the copper coins, got up and staggered over to the other side of the pavilion. He sat down and held his head up with his hand seemingly wanting to sleep.

Zhao Su was a bit disappointed, he thought that he had been greatly mislead by the movies and tv series in modern times, seeing a strange beggar, he thought that this person might have been some sort of hidden talent or able person, but in the end the man was indeed just a beggar.

“Let’s go.”

“Ok!” the little pageboy answered very happily, following behind Zhao Su.

The evening twilight fell on the backs of the two people, creating elongated shadows.

The 41st year of Jiajing, Yan Shifan had returned to his hometown due to the passing of his mother, without him plotting left and right, Yan Song began to lose his grip on the imperial court. In addition to this, the Taoist Master Lan had warned that Yan Song was a treacherous official, making Emperor Jiajing begin to become wary of Yan Song.

In contrast to this, Yu Che’s memorial impeaching of Yan Maoqing became a mere fuse for the explosives.

In the fifth month of the lunar year9, the Right Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Justice, Yan Maoqing, was dismissed from his post and his family home was raided. He was found to be hoarding a total of three million taels of silver and dozens of boxes of jewellery and jade, all of which were put back into the treasury of the Palace, and Yan Maoqing was exiled to the border.

With the fall of Yan Maoqing, Zhao Nuan, a small and insignificant person, was finally released from the imperial guard prison. Thanks to the friendship between Zhao Su’s teacher and Liu Shouyou, the commander of the Imperial Guard, they did not treat him too harshly, but even so, Zhao Nuan had lost a lot of weight and looked utterly malnourished and emaciated.

Fortunately, after this incident, Zhao Nuan became very enlightened10 and finally put an end to his youthful habits and started to build his business on the ground.

The shop that had been rented out by Zhao Su was taken back, and Zhao Nuan went out early and came back late, burying his head in his work and not even mentioning Maiden Yu anymore.

The news of Zhao Su achieving third place in the court examinations also spread back to Changle, and naturally he became a sensation across the county. The Zhao clan was overjoyed and forced the legitimate wife, Lady Wu to ask Zhao Su’s mother, Lady Chen, to come back to the manor to live with them. In the end, it was Lady Chen who refused so they gave up on the idea.

Lady Chen ran the little snack shop as calmly as ever, business was getting better and better, and she listened to Zhao Su’s advice to not expand at the local scale, but only sent two employees to Zhao Nuan to open a second Tang Song Ju in the Capital.

Shen Shao-dongjia11‘s business Hui Chun Tang was also getting bigger and bigger, and he wrote to Zhao Su to tell him that next year he would go North to Shanxi for business and he would also come to visit them in Beijing.

In the eighth month of the lunar year12, Yan Song begged to resign from his official post due to sadness and bereavement of his wife as well as his old age. Jiajing Emperor agreed.

Yan Song went to the palace to say goodbye, and the Emperor and his official talked all night. When he came out, Yan Song’s eyes were red, and according to the news coming out of the palace, the Emperor’s face was similarly saddened.

Afterall, Secretary Xu had given twenty years of service – that fact could not be refuted, there was indeed a friendship between the Emperor and his official. Since Yan Song was leaving, it was natural to only reminisce and evoke the memories of the past. The Emperor looked at his old official with his white hair and grey beard. Originally he had wanted to get rid of this old official but his heart was starting to waver.

In the end, Yan Song still left, departing in the middle of sixth month of the lunar year, but perhaps because of his old age, he fell ill when he entered the borders of Zhili13. When the Emperor Jiajing heard about this, he sent eunuchs and imperial physicians to visit him, telling him to recuperate until he was well enough to make the journey.

In the blink of an eye, it had been a year since Zhao Su joined the Hanlin Academy.

The work he had at the Hanlin Academy was not too busy for the average Hanlin, but it was not too idle either, from writing literature and history, or accompanying the Emperor in case he asked questions, to organising books and archives, there was basically something to do every day, and occasionally he could make a pot of tea and get together and gossip about the happenings in the Imperial Court. But for Zhao Su, he also had the additional task of teaching the little princely heir of Prince of Yu Manor, so he was basically running from the Hanlin Academy to the Prince of Yu Manor every day, which turned into an indirect exercise to train his body every day.

On this day, he finished the tasks at hand and then went over to the Prince of Yu manor again.

He walked along a familiar route taking him to Zhu Yijun’s courtyard, when he saw from afar Zhu Yijun lying on his stomach, practising his calligraphy, whilst there was a man standing next to him.

The sound of his footsteps startled the two people, and they both looked up at him at the same time.

Zhu Yijun was elated, whilst the other person smiled slightly.

“Shao Yong, you’ve arrived.”

It was Zhang Juzheng.

Zhao Su didn’t dare to be discourteous, and he immediately cupped his hands together to greet and said, “Zhang da-ren!”

At this time, Zhang Juzheng was just past his thirties and at the height of his glory. Although his face was fair, it was not feminine. Standing there, his eyes were bright and soulful, his manner was calm and steady, a true prodigy of his teacher, Xu Jie.

Zhang Juzheng smiled and said, “Shao Yong, no need to be so polite, I was just passing by and happened to see the little princely heir studying and practising calligraphy, so I came in to take a look.”

He was a Hanlin Academician Expositor-in-waiting14 in the Hanlin Academy, in charge of the Hanlin Academy, and could be counted as Zhao Su’s direct superior. So in theory, the two of them were able to meet often, but because Zhang Juzheng also had duties in the Imperial College15, he was often running back and forth, not to mention he also had to go over to Xu Manor from time to time, so in the end, they had only seen each other a handful of times.

Now that Zhao Su was able to see him up close, he took a closer look.

Unbeknownst to Zhao Su, while the other was greeting him, he was also secretly sizing him up.

Zhang Juzheng thought to himself: “This Zhao Su has been praised by the teacher several times, so he must have some excellent personal qualities, the only problem is that his appearance is too good, his face is too gentle and soft. The way he saw it, even the princely heir was completely taken with Zhao Su, that it was no wonder that the princely heir had not made much progress with his learning.

What Zhao Su was thinking was: Zhang da-ren’s lower jaw does indeed have a lusciously long black beard16, gentle and agreable yet graceful, he was indeed the infamous man that had been noted in the 《History of Ming》. If this description could be supplemented by the slogan from an advertisement, well that would be even more wonderful ——I only use Rejoice17.

Translator Note:

New arc! New arc! This one is shorter than arc 1.

Awww I’m so sad that little shixiong is going so far away but at least little bunny Zhao Nuan is back ♡

Hahaha their inner thoughts made me laugh! WTF with the luscious beard.

Oh and MXS said next chapter → little history lesson – she was too tired to write it at the end of this one.