Chapter 3
Chapter 3
In truth, I suspected he had taken me to see those two deathly residences as a malicious little warning.
But I had no proof.
What was even more terrifying was that this house was far more comfortable to live in than my own shabby, declining home. Before I knew it, my days had become almost effortlessly smooth.
Over the past few days, I begged Yan Luoxi to let me go out for a stroll, and he agreed readily enough.
He merely summoned several dozen burly servants to follow the carriage step for step, but he did not place any harsh restrictions on me.
The carriage rolled along at an easy pace and entered the eastern market.
Here, shops stood in front and workshops in the rear, with bookshops everywhere. Nearly all the classics commentaries and popular storybooks in the Great Jin Dynasty were produced here. Because of that, scholars were everywhere, examinees filled the streets, and now and then one could even spot high officials in purple robes with golden seals.
I put on a veil and stepped down from the carriage. The shop assistant waiting for customers hurriedly welcomed me into an inner room.
“Miss, you’re here. Do you have a new manuscript again?”
I took a roll of manuscript from my sleeve and handed it to him. “Yes. This is the fourth volume.”
Quick as lightning, the assistant accepted the manuscript, then lowered his voice and asked, “May I ask the gentleman when this book will be finished?”
“I don’t know either. We’ll have to see.”
Seeing that my answer was vague, the assistant nodded and did not press further. “In that case, I’ll go fetch the payment at once. Please wait here a moment, miss.”
With that, he hurried away.
In the vast bookshop, I was suddenly the only person left.
I was idly flipping through the storybooks on the shelves when two middle-aged men suddenly turned in through the door. Both had pale, beardless faces and thin, shrill voices.
Perhaps thinking there was no one in the bookshop, one of them let out a long sigh. Even with his voice lowered, it was still rather grating. “In my opinion, good days are a gift from Heaven. Who knows when Heaven might take them back?”
The other understood at once. “Godfather, are you referring to the Northern Pacification Office overstepping its authority?”
“What else? Today, a censor remonstrated unto death before the court, blood splattering three feet across the floor. It frightened Xu Bingbi half to death!” The man shook his head with unconcealed schadenfreude. “His Majesty immediately summoned two commanders and ordered them to refute the impeachment memorial point by point. They argued from this morning all the way until court was dismissed. Now the palace gates have nearly been locked, and they still haven’t been released!”
“Ha! Delightful! Fortune turns like a wheel. It would be best if it were just like the Feng Yu Case back then, right there in court…”
As he spoke, the eunuch pressed his hands together like a blade and made a chopping motion. The other hurriedly covered his mouth.
“Keep your voice down!”
After that, the two of them carefully looked around, then lowered their heads to search for books and said no more.
A short while later, the assistant came back with the silver. I silently stepped out from the shadows, giving the two men quite a fright.
But when they saw I was only a frail young woman, they did not take it to heart.
I left the shop and heard the eunuch lower his voice to ask, “Assistant, do you have a copy of Records of Qingming printed in the twenty-fourth year?”
The assistant immediately began shouting in a fluster, “My lord, you’re trying to get me killed with that question!”
“This is a proper bookshop. How could we possibly have banned books?”
His voice was so loud he seemed intent on making the whole street hear him, startling the two men into rushing over to cover his mouth. I quickly climbed into the carriage waiting by the door. Seeing this, the young servant driving the carriage laughed and said, “Did that frighten you, miss?”
“Before our lord, they’re nothing but clowns from the Eastern Depot. They’re not worth fearing.”
Seeing how smug he looked, I could not help sneering inwardly.
In the hundred and fifty years since Great Jin was founded, the last official who had not been released from the palace by the time the gates were locked already had grass three feet high growing over his grave.