796. Aunt Mu

Qingyun Mountain, Cloud Deer Academy.

Inside the academy, which was shrouded all year round in righteous spirit, Yang Gong’s eyelids twitched slightly, then he opened his eyes.

The first thing he felt was a piercing, bone-deep pain. Every muscle in his body felt torn, and all his meridians were severed. Then came the burning in his lungs, and the dryness in his mouth and throat. Every breath tugged at his injuries.

But his mental state was excellent. His thoughts were clear and flowing, and strands of imperceptible clear light were hidden within every inch of his flesh and blood, every cell.

It was rather hard to move his limbs. After Yang Gong tried and failed to sit up, he said in a deep voice:

“Tea, come.”

The teapot on the table rose by itself, moved above his lips, then tilted its spout and poured tea at an unhurried pace.

Gulp, gulp… Yang Gong opened his mouth to catch the tea and drank until he was half full. Only then did the burning in his lungs and the dryness in his mouth ease considerably.

After his thirst was relieved, Yang Gong looked around the room and discovered that this was his residence within the academy.

They brought me back to the academy. I wonder whether Yongzhou was preserved, and how many of the soldiers who retreated with me are still alive… The moment Yang Gong thought of the battle, his heart grew heavy.

The joy of surviving a great calamity diminished accordingly.

How long have I been unconscious? Has the war in the north ended? Did the National Teacher… with Yongzhou’s current forces, if they held the city to the death, not many would survive… The more Yang Gong thought, the more anxious he became. He struggled with all his strength for a while and finally managed to sit up.

He let out a breath and said in a deep voice:

“Clothes and cap in order.”

The robe hanging on the stand flew up on its own. The Confucian robe, which would normally have been troublesome to put on, was dressed onto him in the blink of an eye. His hair wound itself up, and a jade hairpin flew over and slid into his topknot.

Then Yang Gong recited:

“The place where I am is the bamboo hut on the back mountain.”

The scene before his eyes blurred. Yang Gong knew he was undergoing spatial transfer. In his vision, Dean Zhao Shou’s bamboo hut shifted from hazy to clear. Just as he was about to arrive, a familiar voice suddenly sounded beside his ear:

“No, you aren’t in the bamboo hut. You’re here with me.”

The bamboo hut close at hand turned blurry, and another scene appeared before Yang Gong’s eyes. In an elegant, spacious tea room, Li Mubai and Chen Tai, in broad robes and wide sleeves, were drinking tea and playing chess. At a nearby table, Zhang Shen stood by the desk, guiding Xu Xinnian in gaining deeper control over the abilities of the Scholar rank.

The scene was both leisurely and harmonious, leaving Yang Gong frozen on the spot, wondering whether he was hallucinating.

Zhang Shen turned his head to glance at him and said:

“The Dean is on duty in the Cabinet, not at the academy.”

After saying that, he continued instructing his prized student.

“You…” Yang Gong drew a deep breath, suppressing his emotions, and probed, “How long was I unconscious? What’s the battle situation now? Did Yongzhou hold? Is there a result from the northern tribulation-crossing battle?”

“You were unconscious for half a month.” Li Mubai pinched a chess piece and set it down with a smack, speaking without even raising his head.

“The Yunzhou rebellion has already been put down. Xu Pingfeng is dead. Qi Guangbo and the other rebel generals will be publicly executed at the Vegetable Market in three days.” Chen Tai said regretfully, “The Dean told me to stay behind and guard the academy, so I didn’t get a scrap of military merit.”

Xu Erlang looked up at Ziyang Jushi and added:

“My big brother,

“has reached first rank.”

Yang Gong’s head buzzed. Although, seeing how carefree they all looked, he had vaguely guessed something already, Yang Gong had erred on the side of caution and only guessed that the northern tribulation-crossing battle had gone smoothly, that the Great Feng had regained the advantage, and that it was now locked in a standoff with the Yunzhou rebels.

He had never imagined that everything was already over.

It was like a young man with nothing to his name, who had originally only been thinking about marrying a wife, only to find on the day of the wedding that he had a grand mansion, a carriage, a beautiful wife, and even children as well. It was almost too perfect.

Of all these realities, the one Yang Gong found hardest to believe was this, Xu Qi’an had reached first rank?!

A first rank martial artist?

If he remembered correctly, Xu Ningyan had only advanced to second rank after the Jianzheng was sealed. How long had it been? How could he have become a first rank martial artist in such a short time?

But if Xu Qi’an had truly advanced to first rank, then together with the National Teacher, an Earthly Immortal, it really was possible for them to quell the Yunzhou rebellion in an extremely short time.

Li Mubai smiled and said:

“The fact that we can sit here and play Go at our leisure is the best proof.”

Yang Gong let out a breath and barely managed to digest this series of shocking pieces of news.

Chen Tai scrutinised Yang Gong and said:

“Righteous spirit fills your body and purifies your flesh. You’re about to step into third rank.”

After saying that, he, Li Mubai, and Zhang Shen all felt sour with envy.

Yang Gong smiled and said:

“This is the boon returned to me by the court, the soldiers, and the common people.”

Ever since Yunzhou rose in rebellion, Yang Gong had stood on the front line against the rebels. From Qingzhou to Yongzhou, he had exhausted all his efforts and had nearly died in battle.

At last, because of this, he had welcomed a breakthrough and touched the threshold of third rank.

Chen Tai said sourly:

“The Dean said His Majesty intends to promote you to Prefect of the Capital Prefecture. Once the imperial decree comes down and the golden words are spoken, you’ll be able to advance naturally into beyond-mortal. Zhang Shen and Li Mubai earned quite a lot of military merit too, and benefited a great deal as well. Once the court grants them official posts, their cultivation is certain to rise another level.”

Fortunately, after Huaiqing ascended the throne, the court no longer resisted the scholars of Cloud Deer Academy.

Previously, the Emperor, the Jianzheng, and the assembled lords had kept the scholars of Cloud Deer Academy under pressure, restricting the development of the Confucian path.

Now, however, with the Central Plains in turmoil and the court reshuffled, officialdom no longer rejected Cloud Deer Academy. It even adopted a welcoming attitude.

After all, class interests stood above individual interests. First there was the class, then the individual. If the class ceased to exist, what individual interests could there be to speak of?

In the eyes of the lords and ministers, the scholars of Cloud Deer Academy were precisely the sort of people who could stabilise class interests.

Yang Gong sighed:

“Compared with Xu Ningyan, this amounts to nothing.

“As expected of my student. I’ve taught and nurtured talent for twenty years, and my pupils are everywhere under Heaven. Yet among them all, Xu Ningyan is the one I like best.”

Li Mubai spat out a mouthful of tea.

“Shameless!”

Chen Tai gave a cold laugh.

“You’ve read the sages’ books all your life, and all you’ve learned are the four words ‘brazenly thick-skinned’?”

“What a pity I didn’t get the chance to let you record spells. Real combat is the best way to master the abilities of the Confucian stage.”

As Zhang Shen instructed his disciple, he turned his head and spat to one side.

“Pah!”

Isn’t there an opportunity right now… After thinking it over, Xu Xinnian said:

“Teacher, now that I serve in the Hanlin Academy, when I compile history in future, I can add a line like this: when the Xu brothers were young, both studied under Zhang Shen!”

As soon as the words fell, the tea room went silent.

…

“Quick, quick, get out there and watch the show. The great scholars are fighting again.”

“What are they fighting over this time? Has Silver Gong Xu come?”

“Come on, come on, let’s go watch.”

“Er… with the Dean not at the academy, are they going to tear the academy apart?”

The righteous spirit over the summit of Qingyun Mountain fell into disorder, and clear qi surged into the clouds.

One by one, the students ran out of the school halls, watching with great interest as the four great scholars exchanged blows in the air. The students discovered that the great scholars were especially worked up today, as though they wanted nothing less than to kill one another.

Seizing the chance, Xu Xinnian recorded many spells whose ranks were not high but which were extremely practical. Then he tucked the “spellbook” into his robes and left Qingyun Mountain in a rather good mood.

“Teacher’s right. Real combat is the best opportunity to master the Confucian stage. This harvest wasn’t bad.”

Xu Xinnian mounted his horse and returned to the capital along the straight, broad official road.

He was in a very good mood, because he had finally stepped into sixth rank and become a “Scholar”. In the Confucian system, only upon reaching sixth rank could one be said to possess respectable combat power.

And only at sixth rank did one truly count as the backbone of the Confucian path.

“I may not be able to catch up to Big Brother, but I can’t fall too far behind either. At this point, I count as something of an expert myself. In the Xu family, my cultivation talent ranks second. Even Father isn’t as good as me,” Xu Xinnian thought to himself.

As for Lingyin, she was only a little child, and when she left the capital she had only been ninth rank.

…

Xu Manor.

Xu Lingyue sat in the pavilion, propping her cheek up with a pale hand as she watched the little white fox dart in and out of the flowerbeds. Her mother and Mu Nanzhi were squatting by the edge of the beds, planting exotic flowers and strange herbs.

“Mum, Big Brother’s wedding to Princess Lin’an is getting close. Should we bring Lingyin back?”

Xu Lingyue suddenly thought of her younger sister, who had been left to run wild in the Southern Marches.

As soon as Auntie heard that, she remembered at once that she had another young daughter, and quickly nodded.

“If you hadn’t mentioned it, I’d have forgotten. We really should bring her back. Once your big brother’s back, I’ll speak to him about it.”

Baiji, who had been happily racing about the flowerbeds, suddenly stopped and looked alert.

“What’s wrong with it?”

Auntie noticed Baiji’s odd behaviour.

“It probably remembered your daughter wanted to eat it,” Mu Nanzhi said, utterly unsurprised.

After they finished planting the flowers and herbs, Mu Nanzhi gave a gentle puff from her little mouth, and at once the whole flowerbed burst into bloom with flowers of every shape and beauty. Auntie watched with stars in her eyes.

Mu Nanzhi said:

“Your way of tending flowers leans more towards the south, and it’s the kind used by great households there. But the capital’s much further north, so a lot of flowers don’t grow well here.”

Auntie said helplessly:

“Ningyan’s mother taught me. Back when Xu Pingzhi was fighting at Shanhai Pass, I was all alone at home and terribly bored, so I learnt from her how to raise flowers and plant them, just to pass the time.”

Mu Nanzhi’s heart stirred, and she asked:

“What kind of person was Xu Ningyan’s mother?”

Auntie tried hard to remember for a moment, then shook her head.

“I can’t remember very clearly now. Anyway, she was a very good person. When she was around, I didn’t have to worry about a thing. Life was so easy.”

After all, it had been twenty-two years, and Auntie couldn’t remember things from so long ago all that clearly.

Just then, she heard her daughter cry out in delight from the pavilion:

“Big Brother…”

The cry broke off abruptly.

Auntie and Mu Nanzhi both heard at once that something was wrong and turned to look. First they saw Xu Qi’an, returning home for the first time after suppressing the rebellion. Then both their gazes fell at the same time on the graceful, gentle woman behind him, a woman who was clearly no ordinary person.

Auntie froze. In that instant, memories long sealed away burst through her mind like floodwaters from a broken gate, surging violently through her thoughts.

Mu Nanzhi frowned. She instinctively disliked any woman by Xu Qi’an’s side.

“Xiaoru.”

With a smile on her face, Ji Baiqing slowly walked over to Auntie and said softly:

“I haven’t seen you for twenty-two years, yet you haven’t changed at all.”

Auntie’s face went blank. Her lips trembled, and she said:

“Sister-in-law?”

The woman smiled and nodded.

Xu Qi’an explained from the side:

“We brought her back from Yunzhou.”

Mu Nanzhi gave an “oh”, and that slight hostility vanished at once. Nor did she feel any awkwardness of an ugly daughter-in-law meeting her mother-in-law. She didn’t even like Xu Qi’an anyway. They were perfectly innocent…

Auntie’s expression was complicated, carrying both the joy of meeting an old acquaintance again and the awkwardness of not knowing how to greet her or how to act around her.

“Lingyue greets Aunt.”

Fortunately, there was still a soft, easily bullied daughter in the house, who stepped forward at just the right moment and eased the awkwardness for her.

Auntie hurriedly said:

“Sister, this is my daughter Lingyue. You left in such a hurry back then, you never even met my children…”

As she spoke, her eyes suddenly reddened.

Xu Qi’an knew that Auntie had always had a very good impression of his birth mother. Whenever she talked about her in the past, she always said she had been an exceptionally good person.

Ji Baiqing looked Xu Lingyue over and smiled gently.

“What a beautiful girl.

“Is she betrothed to anyone yet?”

Hearing that, Auntie said helplessly:

“Not yet. Lingyue’s standards are too high. She doesn’t think much of any of the noble young masters in the capital.

“A grown daughter can’t be kept at home forever. Keep her too long and she’ll only turn into a grudge. This year, we must get her married.”

Ji Baiqing smiled.

“There’s no need to rush. A true lover is the hardest thing in the world to find. A parent’s arrangement is certainly important, but she must also like the man herself. To me, Lingyue looks like a girl with her own mind.”

Xu Lingyue smiled faintly and immediately found herself rather favourably disposed towards this unfamiliar aunt.

Auntie sniffed and said:

“What mind could she possibly have? She’s got such a soft temperament, anyone can bully her. She’s not like us at all.”

She really isn’t like you at all… Xu Qi’an silently muttered to himself beside them. He was a little impressed by his birth mother’s sharpness. From Auntie’s helplessness, she had seen at once that as a mother she couldn’t make the decision, and from that had inferred that Lingyue was in fact very opinionated.

After this brief exchange of reminiscences, the strangeness of reunion after long separation gradually faded. Auntie at once said:

“Lingyue, take your aunt to the inner hall and have the servants serve tea.”

She quietly shot Xu Qi’an a meaningful glance.

When Xu Lingyue led her Sister-in-law into the inner hall, Auntie tugged at Xu Qi’an’s sleeve and asked with a frown:

“What’s with her?”

Xu Qi’an glanced at her and understood what Auntie meant. Lowering his voice, he said:

“It’s a long story. If she hadn’t secretly escaped back to the capital to give birth to us back then, I’d most likely have died long ago.”

Only then was Auntie completely reassured.

Although she had a very good impression of this sister-in-law, she had still feared she might be the same sort as Xu Pingfeng.

When it came to silver and children, Auntie was especially sensitive.

After soothing Auntie, Xu Qi’an turned to Mu Nanzhi and asked in a low voice:

“Why are you here?”

He had quite clearly left Mu Nanzhi at the Stargazing Tower.

“Wasn’t it you who had Huaiqing send me to Xu Manor?” Mu Nanzhi frowned and asked in return.

…Xu Qi’an stopped asking.

The three of them entered the inner hall. Xu Lingyue had already prepared the tea. Auntie linked arms with Mu Nanzhi and said warmly:

“Sister, this is Mu Nanzhi, my sworn sister.”

Before the woman could speak, Xu Qi’an suddenly raised his voice:

“What?!”

796. Aunt Mu

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