Chapter 10
# Chapter 10
Lanyi Academy did not go bankrupt that day.
Inside the palace, even admitting a mistake required an auspicious date.
But classes stopped.
The students remained for three days while our families were summoned. Those three days were quiet. No one practiced walking or smiling. No one was deprived of food.
For the first time, the kitchen served us a whole roast chicken.
“If I’d known rebellion ended in chicken,” Qi Tang said, “I would have rebelled on the first day.”
Ye Chan ate two pieces of meat and began to cry. She cried softly, as though afraid of disturbing someone.
I took the drumstick back from her bowl.
“Cry if you must, but don’t waste meat.”
She laughed through her tears.
Qin Zhaomian sat by the window without touching her food. I carried my bowl over.
“Eat.”
“My father sent a letter.”
“Scolding you?”
“Yes.”
“Badly?”
“Very.”
“Then you need the food even more. Being scolded takes strength.”
Qin Zhaomian looked at me, then suddenly smiled. She lifted her chopsticks and took a small bite.
“My brother lost his appointment.”
I said nothing.
“Mother will blame me too.”
“Do you regret it?”
She thought for a long time.
“Yes.” She raised her eyes. “But if I had to do it again, I would still speak.”
I did not try to comfort her further.
She was hurting, but she had not retreated.
On the third day, the empress’s edict arrived.
Lanyi Academy would close for reorganization. Each family’s courtesy gifts would be investigated and returned. Because we had already received two months of instruction, only half the official tuition would be refunded.
The evaluations would be rewritten. No comments such as impulsive, disobedient, or ill-fated-words that could condemn a life-were permitted.
Court Lady Song was transferred away.
For failing to instruct his students properly, Jiang Yanbai was demoted to assistant instructor at the Imperial College and would be sent to teach in Qingzhou three months later.
The crown prince was confined for one month to reflect on his conduct.
When I heard of Jiang Yanbai’s demotion, I was calculating my refund.
Half of the two-hundred-tael tuition meant one hundred back. If the four hundred in courtesy gifts was verified, that would also be returned.
Five hundred in all.
Enough to redeem the apothecary.
Yet my hand stopped on the abacus.
I went to find Jiang Yanbai.
He was packing his books. The room was nearly empty. He owned few books and fewer clothes, as though he had always been ready to leave.
I stood in the doorway. “Tutor.”
“I’m no longer a tutor.”
“Assistant Instructor Jiang.”
He looked at me. “That sounds poorer.”
“It is.”
He smiled. “A little.”
I entered and placed a packet of cakes on his desk.
“Repayment.”
“For what?”
“The cakes from the side courtyard.”
“I told you to put them on my account.”
“I dislike owing people.”
Jiang Yanbai looked at the packet but did not take it.
“What will you do now, Xu Man?”
“Redeem the apothecary first. Then open an accounting office.”
“To keep other people’s accounts?”
“Women’s accounts.”
He nodded. “Good.”
“And you?”
“Teach in Qingzhou.”
“Teach *Admonitions for Women*?”
“Arithmetic.”
I looked at him.
“To boys and girls alike,” he added.
Some tension left my chest. “Acceptable.”
Jiang Yanbai drew a page from an old evaluation register and handed it to me.
It was mine.
Xu Man: eats too much, writes too stiffly, and smiles like a debt collector.
Least suited to enter the palace.
Beneath it, in smaller characters, he had added:
Suited to leave the palace. Suited to keeping accounts. Suited to freedom.
My throat tightened.
“Aren’t you afraid that writing this will get you demoted again?”
“I’ve already been demoted.”
His tone was mild.
I closed the register. “Jiang Yanbai, you know how to collect a debt too.”
“What debt?”
“A debt of gratitude.”
“Will you repay it?”
I looked at him.
Wind passed through the corridor, ringing one of Lanyi Academy’s little bells.
“Put it on my account,” I said.