CH 42

The season of the blossoming of the Chinese Scholar tree flowers1 was also the moment to say goodbye.

Outside Chong Wen Men in the suburbs of Beijing was the Willow Pavilion which had been constructed at an unknown time. It had been worn down by years of disrepair but it was the place that everyone had to pass through on the road to leaving the Capital, so people came and went, and to the side of it there were a few tea vendors to rest or stop over, so it was not particularly calm.

Zhao Su accompanied Yuan Shu out of the city on horseback, when they arrived here Zhao Su dismounted his horse, but Yuan Shu didn’t move.

The maids and pageboy who Yuan Shu were taking with him to take up office had poor equestrian skills and were lagging behind, tired and panting, they finally caught up to them. 

“Accompany the gentlemen a thousand miles, but we’ll still have to say goodbye in the end2, why don’t you turn back now.” Yuan Shu said slowly, even if he couldn’t bear to leave, but he still needed to confront the fact that the time had come. He didn’t like those kinds of lengthy goodbyes where the parent is reluctant to part with their children, they exchanged a few more words, and then he turned around to leave.

Zhao Su quickly stopped him, laughing he said: “Little shixiong, do you still remember the bet we made back then, saying that if I’m able to pass the Court Examination, you must fulfil me one wish?”

Yuan Shu curled his lip: “I thought you’d forgotten about this, sure enough you’re not willing to lose out, tell me then.” He didn’t ask Zhao Su what he wanted, he just asked him to tell him because he would do it no matter what. 

Zhao Su laughed loudly: “Look at your face, someone who didn’t know would think that I wanted you to go take the stars and the moon down from the sky for me. In fact, it’s only a small thing, after shixiong arrives in Qujing could you please collect some local land surveys, tax records, local and cultural items, books will work as well, or even a general history of the county. You could even collect the local stories told by the residents, and give it all to me the next time we meet.”

This kind of strange request was something that Yuan Shu would never have expected. He was astonished: “What do you want to do with all that?”

Zhao Su winked: “I’m giving you something to do, in case you arrive there and instantly become besotted with a Miao girl3, and forget about me, your shidi.”

Yuan Shu, seeing that he didn’t want to tell him, didn’t ask again and just agreed to his request. He knew that from a young age, Zhao Su had always had his own views, everything he did had his own reasons. He knew that it wasn’t because Zhao Su didn’t want to tell him the reason but because he didn’t know what to say.

Transportation and dissemination of information was not particularly wide in ancient times, it wasn’t like modern times when it was possible to know exactly what was happening on the other side of the world in a mere few seconds. Zhao Su just wanted to understand a bit more about each ethnic group, but he was not able to leave the Capital at this moment, so this wish could only be temporarily fulfilled by Yuan Shu at this moment. He couldn’t say that these items could actually be of any use, but there was no harm in collecting it in advance as it may come in use later on.

“I’m leaving.”

This person was tall, even if he was hunched over, it was obvious to see.

This person, who had been berated by the owner, quickly picked up the steamed bun and then flew back to where he was before. Starting to nibble at the food, he didn’t look up. The owner was furious but couldn’t do anything to him, so she could only turn around work —— her tea stand was just a small business and he had only picked up something dirty off the floor so she had to let him have it.

Lady Chen ran the little snack shop as calmly as ever, business was getting better and better, and she listened to Zhao Su’s advice to not expand at the local scale, but only sent two employees to Zhao Nuan to open a second Tang Song Ju in the Capital.

Shen Shao-dongjia11‘s business Hui Chun Tang was also getting bigger and bigger, and he wrote to Zhao Su to tell him that next year he would go North to Shanxi for business and he would also come to visit them in Beijing.

In the eighth month of the lunar year12, Yan Song begged to resign from his official post due to sadness and bereavement of his wife as well as his old age. Jiajing Emperor agreed.

Yan Song went to the palace to say goodbye, and the Emperor and his official talked all night. When he came out, Yan Song’s eyes were red, and according to the news coming out of the palace, the Emperor’s face was similarly saddened.

Afterall, Secretary Xu had given twenty years of service – that fact could not be refuted, there was indeed a friendship between the Emperor and his official. Since Yan Song was leaving, it was natural to only reminisce and evoke the memories of the past. The Emperor looked at his old official with his white hair and grey beard. Originally he had wanted to get rid of this old official but his heart was starting to waver.

In the end, Yan Song still left, departing in the middle of sixth month of the lunar year, but perhaps because of his old age, he fell ill when he entered the borders of Zhili13. When the Emperor Jiajing heard about this, he sent eunuchs and imperial physicians to visit him, telling him to recuperate until he was well enough to make the journey.

In the blink of an eye, it had been a year since Zhao Su joined the Hanlin Academy.

The work he had at the Hanlin Academy was not too busy for the average Hanlin, but it was not too idle either, from writing literature and history, or accompanying the Emperor in case he asked questions, to organising books and archives, there was basically something to do every day, and occasionally he could make a pot of tea and get together and gossip about the happenings in the Imperial Court. But for Zhao Su, he also had the additional task of teaching the little princely heir of Prince of Yu Manor, so he was basically running from the Hanlin Academy to the Prince of Yu Manor every day, which turned into an indirect exercise to train his body every day.

On this day, he finished the tasks at hand and then went over to the Prince of Yu manor again.

He walked along a familiar route taking him to Zhu Yijun’s courtyard, when he saw from afar Zhu Yijun lying on his stomach, practising his calligraphy, whilst there was a man standing next to him.

The sound of his footsteps startled the two people, and they both looked up at him at the same time.

Zhu Yijun was elated, whilst the other person smiled slightly.

Now that Zhao Su was able to see him up close, he took a closer look.

Unbeknownst to Zhao Su, while the other was greeting him, he was also secretly sizing him up.

Zhang Juzheng thought to himself: “This Zhao Su has been praised by the teacher several times, so he must have some excellent personal qualities, the only problem is that his appearance is too good, his face is too gentle and soft. The way he saw it, even the princely heir was completely taken with Zhao Su, that it was no wonder that the princely heir had not made much progress with his learning.

What Zhao Su was thinking was: Zhang da-ren’s lower jaw does indeed have a lusciously long black beard16, gentle and agreable yet graceful, he was indeed the infamous man that had been noted in the 《History of Ming》. If this description could be supplemented by the slogan from an advertisement, well that would be even more wonderful ——I only use Rejoice17.

Translator Note:

New arc! New arc! This one is shorter than arc 1.

Awww I’m so sad that little shixiong is going so far away but at least little bunny Zhao Nuan is back ♡

Hahaha their inner thoughts made me laugh! WTF with the luscious beard.

Oh and MXS said next chapter → little history lesson – she was too tired to write it at the end of this one.