Chapter 48
Chapter 48
The burly scholar continued writing on the ground: “You were staring so intently that I could not bear to disturb you.”
Xie Chengze: “…”
Why, thank you. How very polite.
Huh? Wait a minute.
Xie Chengze narrowed his eyes as another wicked idea came to him. Smiling broadly, he reached out and slung an arm around the burly scholar’s shoulders like an old friend. “Brother, we’ve known each other for so long, but I still don’t know your name or where you’re from.”
The burly scholar wrote: “Zhang Yuheng, from Yuzhou.”
Yuzhou?
Sweat broke out over Xie Chengze.
He had previously told Zhu Xiaobiao to tell Yizhou’s commoners that Yu Gong moving the mountains was a folk myth from Yuzhou. In truth, he had no idea whether this world’s Yuzhou had any such tale, or whether Mount Taihang and Mount Wangwu even existed there.
He had assumed no one would care.
Never in his wildest dreams had he expected one of the scholars to be from Yuzhou.
Zhang Yuheng seemed to notice his embarrassment and wrote on the ground: “According to the Chronicle of Yuzhou’s Mountains, during the Xia Yuan Dynasty, Mount Taihang and Mount Wangwu did shift a great distance, causing countless deaths and injuries. Later chroniclers classified the event as the result of an immense earthquake. However, I have never heard the story of Yu Gong moving the mountains.”
Xie Chengze laughed awkwardly. “Ahaha, is that so? I wouldn’t know. Maybe Prefect Liang invented the story specially to persuade the people to excavate the mountain!”
Zhang Yuheng did not expose the lie. The Xia Yuan Dynasty had existed several centuries ago. How could a Prefect from Yizhou know what had happened in Yuzhou hundreds of years earlier?
More importantly, the Chronicle of Yuzhou’s Mountains was privately held by the County Magistrate of Nanyang County in Yuzhou. It recorded changes to Yuzhou’s mountains and rivers across successive dynasties. At present, the only people who knew that Mount Wangwu and Mount Taihang had once moved were the Nanyang County Magistrate and Zhang Yuheng himself.
Although Zhang Yuheng did not know how Xie Chengze had learned of it, he assumed that someone must have taught him about earthquakes at such a young age. Xie Chengze also happened to be a merchant from a family that had traded in Huaiyang County, Yuzhou, for generations, and Huaiyang County lay only a little over three hundred li from Nanyang County. Perhaps one of his ancestors had once seen the chronicle by chance.
Xie Chengze had no idea that the man before him had already patched every hole in the identity he had invented offhand. At that moment, his thoughts were entirely occupied by how he might trick Zhang Yuheng into refining saltpeter for him.
Rubbing his little hands together, he asked expectantly, “Brother Zhang, look, I just answered so many of your questions. As it happens, I have a tiny task that requires another pair of hands. Could you help me with it?”
Zhang Yuheng shook his head.
Xie Chengze, who had been brimming with confidence, immediately felt as though the sky had collapsed. “Why? Did I not teach you enough?”
Zhang Yuheng wrote on the ground: “My father says anyone who smiles the way you are smiling must be plotting something bad and should not be helped.”
Xie Chengze: “…”
Xie Chengze: o(▼_▼;)o
“But I think you are a good person,” Zhang Yuheng continued writing. “As long as it does not violate the law, I will do my utmost.”
Xie Chengze beamed again: Don’t worry, brother. It definitely won’t be illegal (＾ω＾)~
…
Ignore an elder’s advice, and trouble would soon arrive.
Zhang Yuheng quickly began regretting why he had not listened to his father.
“Do this, then that, then the other thing.” Not far away, Xie Chengze pinched his little nose and waved his fan as he loudly directed Zhang Yuheng in extracting saltpeter from excrement.
He knew two extraction methods. One involved boiling and filtering the material in a clay jar; the other used seepage through an earthen wall. Both were deeply undignified, but the procedures were simple, so Xie Chengze made Zhang Yuheng try each one.
Half-dead from the stench, Zhang Yuheng snatched a spare moment from his work to write on the ground: Brother Cheng, I hate you.
Xie Chengze guiltily waved his gold-threaded fan. “Brother Zhang, only by repaying kindness can the mortal world remain full of love! Hold on a little longer. I will certainly reward you handsomely someday.”
Zhang Yuheng: …Let us hope I live to see that day.
Villagers passing by saw them handling filth and crowded around curiously. Once they realized how simple the work was, they immediately thought letting the two young men do it was an outrageous waste. Disappointed by their foolishness, one cried, “Good heavens! How can the two of you be doing this?”
“Put that down. Leave this kind of work to us.” An elderly villager snatched the dung ladle from Zhang Yuheng’s hand and muttered, “The hands of scholars like you aren’t meant for filthy work! The autumn provincial examination is almost here, and the spring imperial examination follows right after it. Those are the great days when you earn your official rank. You should be studying!”
To the villagers, this little task was neither dignified nor undignified. Carrying manure to fertilize fields was perfectly ordinary farm work. But Zhang Yuheng and Xie Chengze were different. Zhang Yuheng was a scholar who would become an official one day, while a single glance revealed Xie Chengze to be the pampered son of a wealthy household, someone whose fingers had never touched menial labor. Neither should be doing such work.
“That’s right, young master. You’re far too handsome for this sort of thing!” An older village woman gazed fondly at Xie Chengze’s excessively beautiful face. “How old are you this year, young master? Are you betrothed?”
Several village women crowded over at the question, all prying into Xie Chengze’s background, his family, whether he was betrothed, whether he had someone he fancied, and so on…
Xie Chengze was quickly overwhelmed. Then, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Shen Yuan and hurriedly sent him a pleading look.
Shen Yuan held a red oil-paper umbrella. He took one look at the situation, pivoted on his boot, and decisively walked the other way.
Xie Chengze: “?”
Shen, do you have no heart?
Shen Yuan’s quickening steps seemed to answer: My apologies. I do not.
Very well. Very well… Xie Chengze laughed in anger. If you refuse to show mercy, don’t blame me for doing the same!
Xie Chengze immediately squeezed out of the crowd and strode after Shen Yuan. Wrapping both arms around his waist, he cried with theatrical inflection, “Husband, you’re here~ Husband, have you come to take your husband home for dinner~?”
Shen Yuan: “!!!”
The villagers: Oh~ Oho~!
Held fast, Shen Yuan turned stiffly and looked down, grinding out, “Let. Go – ”
“No!” Xie Chengze bared his little white teeth viciously. “If you stand aside and watch today, no one will beat the drum to seek justice for you tomorrow! Every cause has its effect, and I am your retribution!”
Shen Yuan: “?”
What incomprehensible nonsense was he spouting now?
With a deep sigh, Shen Yuan pried Xie Chengze’s arms from his waist. Under Xie Chengze’s displeased stare, he slowly opened the red oil-paper umbrella and pushed it into his hand.
Then, with one arm, he scooped Xie Chengze up and slung him over his right shoulder. In a low voice, he said, “Very well. Your husband will take you home for dinner.”
His tone was thoroughly resigned, yet carried a trace of indulgence.
The villagers again: Oh~ Oho~!
Young people~ So passionate~~
Aaaaaah… Xie Chengze silently tilted the oil-paper umbrella to hide his burning, mortified face.
Damn Shen Yuan! How could he carry him like this? Did Xie Chengze not deserve any dignity?!
Only after they had walked into the distance did Shen Yuan set him down and ask as though casually, “From the brief glimpse I caught just now, what were Your Highness and Zhang Yuheng doing over there?”
“Playing with shit,” Xie Chengze answered absently as he twirled the oil-paper umbrella in his hands. The moment the words left his mouth, Shen Yuan stared at him in horror.