Chapter 48 This Young Master is Different
On the nineteenth day of the sixth month in the sixteenth year of the Fengli era, the academic duel at Lin'an Academy concluded with Chen Xiaofu's absolute triumph.
There was no poetry competition in the afternoon.
The contest was abruptly interrupted because that scholar from the State of Qi had vomited blood and fainted.
To the onlookers among the Lin'an townspeople, this was quite an unfulfilling end, and to Chen Xiaofu, it was a matter of profound regret—
He firmly believed that the morning's contest would spread throughout the entire city of Lin'an by noon!
In that case, holding a poetry competition in the afternoon... would require collecting admission fees all over again!
He had already planned it out; if anyone wished to attend the afternoon session, the price would be twenty taels of silver per person!
He was certain that even more people would show up, yet just as that young gentleman had read through his ci poetry, he had actually gone and coughed up blood and passed out!
What kind of nonsense was this?
So fragile?
There went his silver!
Fortunately, he had wagered one hundred thousand taels with him, and those one hundred thousand taels in silver notes were successfully fished right out of that young gentleman's sleeve pocket!
And then... after bidding farewell to Elder Jiang and the others, with A Lai clearing the path in front, he led An Xiaowei and Liang Jingru away from Lin'an Academy amidst the warm cheers of the crowd.
After that, he did not show himself again.
Yet throughout the streets, lanes, teahouses, and taverns of Lin'an, everyone was talking about his story these days.
He had instantly transformed from the village idiot of yesteryear into a grand literary master of today!
The Huaxi Courtyard once again earned the respect and awe of everyone in Lin'an.
And Chen Xiaofu, the former fool... had now become a great literary master universally praised!
To think that young master Chen possessed such magnificent talent... the maidens of Lin'an were regretting it so deeply their entrails were turning green!
In the past, whenever that young gentleman walked down the streets and lanes and cast a couple of extra glances their way, they would feel quite uncomfortable, imagining those eyes to be lewd and tainted.
Those young ladies of noble backgrounds looked down upon this illegitimate son of the Huaxi Courtyard!
In private, they would often speak of him.
Their words were full of mockery, and their demeanor dripping with disdain.
Yet who could have known that he had simply been faking it all these years!
The fellow had acted the part so convincingly that he had fooled everyone in Lin'an.
He actually possessed a fiancée, and that fiancée was so dazzling that she made them feel utterly inferior, leading them to believe that having once caught his eye was actually a supreme honor.
Consequently, whenever these young ladies met nowadays, they no longer discussed whose silk fabrics were of fine quality or whose rouge and powder smelled better.
Instead, they talked about how, on such and such a day in such and such a year, Young Master Chen had glanced at them a few times right there!
They took immense pride in this.
The fellow even possessed talent comparable to a great Neo-Confucian master!
His literary genius was so lofty that even in their regret, they dared not harbor any thoughts of trying to climb into his favor.
The one they admired most was that courtesan from the Admiring Moon Tower named Hongxiu.
She had actually made an appointment with Young Master Chen in front of tens of thousands of people...
During the days that followed, the scholarly path of Lin'an Academy suddenly saw an influx of young maidens who seemed completely unfazed by the heat.
During the nights, the Admiring Moon Tower was packed to capacity, and half of the patrons turned out to be none other than the young ladies of Lin'an's elite families!
They perhaps hoped for a chance encounter with Young Master Chen, wishing to catch his eye once more,
or perhaps they simply desired to catch another glimpse of the poetry and essays he had composed, knowing that first-hand ownership of his literary works was the ultimate bragging right among their circle of bosom friends.
Naturally, they were destined to be disappointed.
Because over these past few days, Chen Xiaofu had not visited the Admiring Moon Tower by West Lake—
It was not that he didn't want to go!
It was just that his fiancée, An Xiaowei, was right by his side, and one simply could not do such things right in front of one's fiancée.
In truth, the pleasure houses of this era were not sordid dens of iniquity.
The maidens within them were required not only to be beautiful, but also to possess exceptional artistic skills.
People mostly went to such places to listen to the maidens play tunes, share drinks with them, and watch them dance gracefully.
It was an elegant establishment.
And whenever something was associated with the word elegance, the consumption costs were bound to be exorbitant.
Under the diligent governance of Her Majesty the Empress over recent years, the region of Jiangnan, historically prosperous to begin with, had grown even wealthier than before.
There was no shortage of wealthy people in Lin'an.
And Lin'an retained a deeply scholarly atmosphere.
The pleasure houses never lacked patrons, yet guests invited by the courtesan laureate without charge were virtually nonexistent.
Chen Xiaofu must have been the very first in all these years!
He hadn't even returned to the grand library of Lin'an Academy!
He remained at the Huaxi Courtyard.
Accompanied by An Xiaowei, Liang Jingru, and a few servants led by Chen Ergou, he traveled among the homes of the tenant farmers tied to the Huaxi Courtyard!
He had taught Chen Ergou how to look for a substance known as 'earth frost' along the foundation corners of those rammed-earth houses, as well as in the cattle sheds and pigsties.
The stuff smelled terrible, so naturally Chen Xiaofu did not allow An Xiaowei and Liang Jingru to touch it.
However, A Lai seemed quite interested.
Because there was plenty of this 'earth frost' right beneath the old walls of the Wuji Taoist Temple, and even more of it inside a cave deep within Qingyun Mountain.
He had no idea what his young master intended to do by collecting this stuff.
The twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the sixteenth year of the Fengli era.
Five days had slipped by in the blink of an eye since that contest at Lin'an Academy.
Early in the morning of this day, Chen Xiaofu once again led his entourage out of the Huaxi Courtyard and headed toward the nearby village.
Today, his destination was the home of Old Grandpa Zhang.
This was the very last household in this nameless village that he had yet to visit.
Old Grandpa Zhang was overwhelmed with flattered astonishment.
"Old woman, hurry, hurry, the young master and young mistress have arrived!"
Before Chen Xiaofu's group had even reached the spot, Old Grandpa Zhang's dog had already let out a couple of barks.
Catching sight of the young master's party from afar, Old Grandpa Zhang felt a mixture of immense joy and deep anxiety.
Joyful that the young master was finally gracing his home with a visit.
Anxious because there was truly nothing in his humble household worthy of entertaining the young master and young mistress. Word had it that the young master and young mistress were both very easygoing, but while they could afford to be casual, he, an old tenant farmer, could not afford to be remiss.
A woman in her fifties hurried out.
She wiped her hands on the floral cloth apron tied around her waist, looking rather nervous: "Old man, what, what should we do?"
"Quickly sweep the courtyard... I'll set out the table. The house is too dark and messy, so we'll ask the young master and young mistress to sit in the courtyard."
"Right, call Dahiu and Yuanhong back."
"Give me the broom, you go boil some water, and for tea... just use the tea Dahiu picked from the mountain the other day."
"Alright..."
The old woman scurried off in a rush.
Old Grandpa Zhang hastily swept the courtyard, set out the family's sole eight-immortal table, and arranged four dark wooden stools around it.
Chen Xiaofu's party had arrived.
Old Grandpa Zhang hurried forward to greet them, bowed deeply, and said deferentially, "This old servant greets the young master and young mistress... Please, young master and young mistress, come this way!"
Young mistress,
Over these past few days, An Xiaowei had grown accustomed to the villagers calling her young mistress.
On the very first day when they visited their first household, it was that Brother Zhou who had first addressed her as young mistress!
She had initially intended to correct him, but the words died on her lips.
She discovered that she rather liked this form of address; it felt much more intimate than being called Miss An.
It meant these tenant farmers truly regarded her as the mistress of their house!
Splendid!
Only Liang Jingru felt a lingering sense of grievance in her heart, because Chen Xiaofu hadn't even bothered to introduce her identity to those tenant farmers!
Once again, she found herself left out in the cold.
Yet by now, she seemed to have grown used to it.
She simply listened in silence, watched in silence, and followed along in silence.
At this moment, Chen Xiaofu had already reached out both hands to help the bowing Old Grandpa Zhang back to his feet.
"Old Grandpa Zhang, you are my elder!"
Old Grandpa Zhang was startled: "No, no, no, the young master is my elder!"
"Look at what you're saying, a young master is just a young master, but your grandfather will always be your grandfather!"
"Let's dispense with the formalities!"
Saying this, he turned his head to instruct Ergou and the other two servants to go collect the 'earth frost' around Old Grandpa Zhang's house. Then, casually supporting Old Grandpa Zhang by the arm, he sat down at the table and began chatting about everyday household matters as he always did.
A Lai found this master of his rather peculiar, though he couldn't quite put his finger on why.
Liang Jingru thought this fellow was quite extraordinary, completely different from the young scions of the imperial capital.
An Xiaowei felt that such a fiancé was rather wonderful—so approachable!
After a bout of casual chatter that successfully bridged the distance between them, Chen Xiaofu finally steered the conversation to the main topic:
"I pulled your roster from the head steward's records a couple of days ago."
"Old Grandpa Zhang, were you a blacksmith before?"