CH 41

Since ancient times, scholars proclaimed themselves to be talented in letters and unconventional in lifestyle. In the early Ming Dynasty, although the Taizu Emperor1 forbade officials from seeking prostitutes. Where there is demand, there is a market, no matter what dynasty or what generation it was, this kind of thing cannot be forbidden. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it was even more popular. It was common for officials to pretend to be a commoner and go to Song and Dance Palaces to meet with prostitutes. Scholars and merchants were even more open and honest about it. Sometimes even if a scandal or two with a certain prostitute would arise, this could still be passed off as a fun anecdote. 

Although Zhao Su and the others had achieved scholarly honour, they still hadn’t received their official posts, even if they had some fun in private, normally no one would say anything about it, and everyone present was young, and open-minded, so when they heard the suggestion, they all naturally applauded.

To everyone’s surprise, Zhao Su did not even blush – after all he was not really the inexperienced youth he appeared anyway, he raised his eyebrows and asked Wang Xijue: “Yuanyu-xiong, perhaps you have actually taken a fancy to one of the beauties on the flower boat and you are trying to use me as an excuse. Why don’t you just own up to it and bring the person over here and let us all see the beauty for ourselves?”

Wang Xijue didn’t expect that not only was his joke unsuccessful, but he was actually ridiculed instead. After hearing Zhao Su’s words, everyone turned their mischievous and dubious eyes towards him. “Zhao Shaoyong, you…” 

Suddenly amongst the party there was an eruption of scolding words that interrupted Wang Xijue’s words. “Dignified disciples of the Son of Heaven, new jinshi, who will take up their official posts in a few days would actually come together and make such vile and obscene jokes. it is simply unbearable, forgive me for not being able to continue partaking in this, I will take my leave!” Qi Yuanzuo then stood up without hiding his anger, cupped his hands together quickly without much thought and then walked away without looking back once.

Everyone watched as he left, then they looked at each other and were all silent for a while.

Wang Xijue was baffled by this sudden outburst, and as the leader of the group he was upset: “Wasn’t it just a bit of fun, why did Qi Xizhong have such a big reaction!”

Xu Shixing coughed: “Qi-xiong may be tired.”

Originally, Qi Yuanzuo was the first placeholder in the metropolitan exam, but he fell behind the crowd during the court examination. It would have been weird if he had been in a good mood. Yu Youding, who had an equally rigorous temperament, didn’t come to the gathering, presumably for this reason.

The others understood the reason more or less, so they all changed the subject and talked about the interesting things they had encountered.

When Zhao Su was taking the metropolitan exam, he had seen Gao Gong shout at a juzi “Why are you still standing there, sit down and start the exam”. The juzi was so afraid that his face went pale and his legs were shaking. Everyone laughed heartily, Wang Xijue laughed so much he cried and shouted, “Gao daren is really powerful with a threatening aura. You guys probably don’t know this but I have a clan brother who has been to Chun’an in Jiangsu, and heard that there was a County Magistrate called Hai Rui2. Apparently, he shouted at everyone he saw, locals or members of the gentry, so now all those who have been scolded by him, will make a detour if they see him. I wonder between this guy and Gao daren, which one is scarier?”

Pan Yunduan disagrees: “How can a small County Magistrate be compared to our Zuoshi?”

Zhao Su thought to himself that this small County Magistrate will surprise the world in the near future. As a low-ranking official, he even dared to challenge the emperor’s authority and scolded him about everything that everyone in the world would not dare to say. Although he had a lot of defects, in this regard, he was unmatched. Zhao Su thought that he also did not have this kind of courage.

As conversation began to flow, the atmosphere gradually became more relaxed, and everyone began to talk about everything under the sun.

The topic shifted towards their individual upbringing and backgrounds. When it got to Chen Zhu, he first sighed, took another sip of wine in his cup, and then slowly said: “Actually, I’m not afraid that you will laugh at my humble upbringing. Although I come from the Chen clan in Changle, a generation of scholars, I am the son of a concubine, even though my family never shortchanged me on expenses, but a concubine’s son is still a concubine’s son, I will always be different from a legitimate born son, the imprint of this identity will never change, the way that people look upon my brothers and I will always be different.”

Everyone agreed, and they all toasted and drank.

If there were no exceptional incidents, these people would be closely linked together in their lives as officials for half a lifetime. They had the friendship of being fellow scholars, but they were also natural political allies. For example, If there was one person here who can enter the Grand Secretariat in the future, then all those people that he once guided, the friends that he made along the way, as well as his teacher and the other students will all form his backing, firmly supporting him. This was an unspoken rule of being an official of the Great Ming.

After three rounds of drinking, they were all a little bit drunk, unconsciously, they all began to feel closer to one another. When it was Xu Shixing’s turn to speak, he was a little drunk and looked at others mysteriously: “Did you know, my last name is Shen, not Xu…”

Everyone ah’d in surprise, whilst Wang Xijue patted him on the shoulder: “You must be drunk, right?”

“I’m completely sober!”

Xu Shixing frowned and pushed Wang Xijue’s hand away, and then laughed mockingly at himself: “Before I turned twenty-six years old, I always thought my surname was Xu, but one day, my father suddenly told me that I was not from the Xu family and my surname is Shen. My father, not my real father, my mother… I don’t know where she is either …”

Everyone was dumbfounded when they heard this secret, and they didn’t know what to say.

“In life, not everything will go to plan but we must always look forward. Nothing will change the fact that you are the son of your adoptive father and also our friend. Now you have scholarly honour and the Emperor even bestowed the title of Zhuangyuan upon you, the Shen family won’t dare to do anything to you, even if they abandon you one day, there will still be this group to support you.”

Everyone came back to their senses, and they all agreed with him, with everyone coming together trying to comfort him. Xu Shixing’s heart warmed: “Thank you, Shaoyong, thank you everyone.”

Wang Xijue also said: “Shaoyong is right, Rumo, you don’t have to take care of the Shen family. If they really want to recognize you, why didn’t you see them appear before you passed the imperial examinations? Seeing that you are exceptional, they wanted to gain a share of the pie, what shameless people!”

Zhao Zhao Su was speechless, Wang Yuanyu was a little too much, although it was true, there was no need to be so blunt. The others seemed to have pacified the situation, but his words were just adding fuel to the fire.

Chen Zhu said, “Speaking of which, I was once awakened by Shao Yong’s words, enlightened by his perfect vision, that I actually realised that I was too narrow-minded before…”

Xu Shixing knew that he was deliberately trying to change the subject to stop Xu Shixing being too absorbed in his own emotions. So he asked, “What did he say?”

Wang Xijue shook his head: “Corruption is corruption. It is said that Hu Zongxian was embezzling military pay, spending extravagantly, and even required sixteen people to carry his palanquin. This kind of person, even if he was killed a hundred times over, it would not make up for his crimes.”

Zhao Su smiled: “I didn’t mean to excuse him. I just wanted to say that nowadays, corruption in the imperial court has become commonplace, and will continue despite repeated prohibition, and it cannot be stopped with just one or two laws. The only thing that we can do under these circumstances, is to be like Hu and Qi daren4, and do everything in their power, but still be despised and rejected by others. In this case, if one’s reputation is completely destroyed, what benefit would that have for the people and the world?”

His words caused everyone to fall into deep contemplation, and even Wang Xijue seemed to twitch his lips, but didn’t refute him again.

Chen Zhu smiled bitterly: “Is there no way to have the best of both worlds?”

Zhao Su said without thinking: “Yes, when you are able to make rules, and be able to make others follow your rules, otherwise before then, you still have to abide by their rules. ”

Xu Shixing sighed: “Shaoyong is not as youthful as he looks.”

Zhao Su laughed, “That’s right, because I’m actually the fox under the pagoda tree that has cultivated enough to attain human form!”

[End of Arc 1]

Author Note:

Please note: 1- Xu Shixing’s background, there is one part that is false and one part is true, he really was surnamed Shen and he was an illegitimate child, another part that is unofficial history + I made up myself.

2 – I originally wanted the steamed bun to make an appearance, but in the end I couldn’t squeeze it in, and had to release the chapter. I can’t believe I wrote so much about just one meal, but I had to let Zhao Su and the others build up a relationship.