To Rule in a Turbulent World Chapter 14-Chapter 15 34 Feb 09, 2020

Book 2: Butterflies in Love with Flowers

INFO MAP

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15



Chapter 10

Since historical times, Liuzhou Prefecture has been bountiful with resources and, having experienced none of the chaos of war for a century, it's become the land of fish and rice in the south. The over ten million mu of hills in particular are the largest land in the Yangtze river basin region for planting and picking tea.

Riverwave Estate isn't close, but it's not that far either, about four hundred miles from Peixian County; an urgent horse can get there in a night and a day. However, You Miao is carrying with him an entire carriage of luggage, and he isn't in any hurry, so he goes at a leisurely pace, making frequent stops. He rests in the Peixian County for a number of days, thinking to pay Doctor Xing a visit to thank him, but Doctor Xing has gone out to visit patients, so You Miao can only leave his thank you gift and continue on his way.

Roaming about and taking their time the whole way, after crossing through Jiang Prefectural City, they head in the direction of the border of Yangzhou Prefecture. The Riverwave Estate sits at the crossborder of Suzhou Prefecture, Yangzhou Prefecture, and Liuzhou Prefecture; seven parts in Jiangnan, three parts in Jiangbei.

The boundaries of this estate certainly are a headache. It used to be land both Yangzhou Prefecture and Liuzhou Prefectures fought over; there's Guozhuang Village in the south and Anlu Village in the north, the villagers once disputed over a river port so hard, the fight got so big that there were even a good number of casualties. The village reported to the county chief, the county chief reported to the prefecture chief, and so the prefecture chiefs of the two prefectures started fighting too. In the end they left the issue alone, ditched it aside.

From then on Riverwave Estate sits across both the south and the north unapologetically with the harsh-winded, strong-waved Yangtze cutting through the middle.

You Miao didn't know this at first, and originally he'd been really excited to try his hand at achieving great things, but now that he's observed the landscape, he finds this really isn't a good place. All other things aside, with this river sitting there, if he wants to inspect his own estate once a day, he would have to run from Jiangbei to Jiangnan, take a ferry across in the middle, before he can go home for dinner in Jiangnan?!

You Miao can't help but droop, his hand propping his forehead up. Why did his old hag pick such a useless land and get attached?

You Miao goes to rummage through his chest of books, and from the outside, Li Zhifeng asks, "Looking for food?"

"Looking for a book." You Miao replies.

You Miao takes out "Liuzhou Prefecture Guide" and starts to compare it to the record his father had put together. Then he notices Li Zhifeng driving, and calls out, "You tired? If you are then come in and take a break."

Li Zhifeng replies from the outside, "I rest, and let the horses run on their own?"

You Miao laughs, he didn't think Li Zhifeng would ever joke around, and replies, "I'll drive."

"No," Li Zhifeng replies without sparing a looking back. "You'll drive into the gutters."

You Miao pulls open the carriage door, and the tepid rays of the winter sun outside come shining in. After leaving the last stretch of road of Jiang Prefectural City, the skies are clear, the warm sun is bright, gleaming across all of this earth, and You Miao's mood instantly brightens up too.

Bringing his book with him, You Miao gets out and sits on the driver's seat plank too, covering Li Zhifeng's eyes with both his hands, laughing as he says, "Now you can't see, haha!!"

Li Zhifeng's lips curl up and he continues to drive like nothing's the matter, and at first You Miao thinks Li Zhifeng will say something along the lines of "Don't play around", yet who knows, Li Zhifeng is perfectly fine. You Miao asks dubiously, "Hey, aren't you scared of crashing the carriage?"

"No." A small smile hangs off of Li Zhifeng's lips. "I can hear."

You Miao drops his hands, and sticks his fingers into Li Zhifeng's ears. "How's this then?"

Li Zhifeng grins. "Now my eyes can see again."

"CHE——!"

Li Zhifeng bursts out laughing, and You Miao is stunned. For all that he's known Li Zhifeng for so long now, this is actually the very first time he's seen him laugh so happily, and You Miao stares in a daze. Li Zhifeng's smile is candidly handsome, and under the sun it is exceedingly attractive, so much so that You Miao can't help but gulp.

Li Zhifeng turns his head to watch You Miao, his smile fading gradually, and shakes his head with a grin. You Miao thinks inwardly, this guy is so handsome… no, actually, he's not quite handsome, since there's a scar on his brow and a tattoo on his neck; his looks are definitely not the clean elegance of those aristocrats, and the colour of his skin is also on the darker, rougher side. Yet with his deep blue eyes, his lean narrow face and tall nose, there's a certain different flavour.

Even the blade scar that cuts through the straight, slanting upwards left brow is inexplicably good looking.

"Did you get the scar on your eyebrow from Li Yan's beatings?"

"No." Li Zhifeng doesn't look at the road, focusing only on staring into You Miao's eyes as he answers in a small voice. "It's a scar left from back when I first went out to war. It was an arrow wound."

As he speaks, Li Zhifeng leans in and softly kisses You Miao's lips.

You Miao's heart instantly starts to thump in his chest, like something is being lit on fire. This isn't the first time him and Li Zhifeng have kissed; Li Zhifeng's entire person belongs to him, he can kiss him whenever he wants, tell him to do anything and he'll have to obey. Usually he'll use Li Zhifeng like a cushion to lean on, order him around, and it doesn't make him feel a thing. But now, what he's experiencing is something different.

After Li Zhifeng kisses him he goes back to focusing on the road ahead and You Miao notices there's a very faint smudge of red on his cheeks. You Miao starts to chuckle but doesn't say anything, and leans into Li Zhifeng's arms. Li Zhifeng thus reaches out an arm to hold him while the other hand drives the carriage. Although the year hasn't ended, this winter sun brightens their moods, and the winds aren't strong either, so You Miao lets himself laze like this under the sun, flipping through the books.

The original plan had been to reach Riverwave Estate by dusk, but their path turns left and right, and after leaving the official road they actually get lost. You Miao stands at the fork of the road, looking and comparing with his parchment map, mumbling, "That's not right, we definitely saw the boundary stone of Yangzhou Prefecture earlier."

Li Zhifeng reads with his head down using the last light before the sun sets. "Head south along the prefecture border…"

The skies darken, the flocks of crows caw. The night comes faster during winters, and this is the middle of nowhere, not a single household in sight along the roads, only large fields of straw bent forward on the grounds.

You Miao only had one meal in Jiang City when he got up this morning; it's been nothing but dried rations on the road, and now that everything's eaten, his tummy is hungry. As the night deepens it starts to get colder on the road, but as their carriage rolls on, it suddenly lurches to the side. Li Zhifeng instantly calls out, "Watch out!"

All the stuff inside the carriage falls to the right, and outside, Li Zhifeng shouts to the horse, "Go, go!"

The wheel twists and sinks into a mud puddle, and the entire carriage tilts on the side of the road. You Miao staggers down the vehicle. Li Zhifeng appears very woeful, and is just about to say something when You Miao calls out, "I'm fine, I'm fine."

Feeling a bit scared, You Miao yells, "IS ANYBODY THERE?"

The wilderness is empty and deserted, but it feels as if there's something watching them with predatory eyes. Then, sharp howls of wolves comes from the far distance. The flocks of crows start cawing in agitation, flapping their wings as they take off.

You Miao sees out on the vast fields are a few pairs of dotted green light drifting about, and a cold shudder runs down his back. "W-w-w… What's that? Wolves?"

You Miao asks as he goes to hide behind Li Zhifeng, and Li Zhifeng soothes, "Don't be scared."

"H-h-had… Had I known, we would've packed your bow and arrows…" You Miao stammers.

"They're packed," Li Zhifeng says. "They're in the trunks."

Li Zhifeng turns around and climbs into the carriage. It's pitch black all around, not even the moon is visible in the night sky, and You Miao feels out a flintstone while standing on the dark road, ppa as he strikes it, trying to start a light.

Li Zhifeng re-emerges with the bow carried on his back and the quiver held in his hand. "Come into the carriage."

You Miao is both cold and famished as he sits in the carriage. Li Zhifeng is just about to close the carriage door when You Miao calls out, "Don't, don't close it."

You Miao places the furnace on the seat plank then shrinks into Li Zhifeng's arms, letting Li Zhifeng hold him. Li Zhifeng only casually scans the far distance before he shakes open a throw blanket, covering it over You Miao.

"Don't be scared." Li Zhifeng's voice is indifferent without emotion, but it's incredibly steady and dependable. "Even if there are wolves they won't dare to come over."

"You've seen wolves before?" You Miao asks.

"There are plenty beyond the border…" Li Zhifeng says. "The wolves in the Midlands are only dens of mountain wolves, the wolves in the great desert beyond the border run in large packs, much more aggressive than the ones here."

In between their conversation, another "awoo" comes from the distance, and this time You Miao hears it properly.

"How do you chase away desert wolves?" You Miao asks in a small voice. "Would lighting fires help?"

Li Zhifeng replies, one of his hands petting You Miao's head mindlessly, "When I ran into them in the great desert, I didn't have fire at the time, nor did I have my bow and arrows, only a scimitar. About over twenty desert wolves came, and they formed a pack."

You Miao is terrified as he listens, and in the darkness, there comes another "AWOO——" Since the night is quiet, the sound of the howl is clear. Those few wolves appear to be approaching closer and closer.

"What did you do then?" You Miao asks.

Li Zhifeng starts, "I…"

In between words You Miao can sense Li Zhifeng pause for a short moment, his chest rising like he's inhaling deeply, then soon after…

"WOO…" From deep in Li Zhifeng's throat comes the vague howl of a beast, then following right after is the bright and clear "awoo" of the howl of a wolf, so strong that You Miao's ears are buzzing. That sound is heavy with spirit, like a lone alpha wolf singing in full pride under the moonlight.

Outside, there's the sound of the wind blowing over the grass, shashaa as the stalks sway, but the mountain wolves have ceased their howling, as if they've sensed the danger in Li Zhifeng's howl.

The green lights of those wolves' eyes vanish, and the wind blows through the black night, silence returning in an instant.

"What happened after you howled?" You Miao asks.

"The alpha of the pack came out to challenge me, and I killed it." Li Zhifeng replies.

Li Zhifeng is hugging You Miao with his left arm while he mindlessly plays with a wooden arrow in between the long and shapely fingers of his right hand. The arrow twirls in and out between his fingers, the arrowhead shimmering with a singular glint in the dark.

"And then?" You Miao presses.

"Of course I killed it," Li Zhifeng answers. "I also got bitten a few times, so I laid there in the desert all by myself."

You Miao pictures Li Zhifeng covered in blood, lying there with the corpse of the wolf king, and says, "Did the wolf pack not come after you?"

"No." Li Zhifeng replies faintly.

"What were you doing lying there?" You Miao asks.

"Moon watching." Li Zhifeng answers in a soft voice.

The great desert, the bright moon, wolf packs… and Li Zhifeng who lies in the centre of the desert beneath that silver light.

Chilly is the sea wind blowing over Tianshan after snow;

Of all tunes, Tough-Going on the Road is most common on the flutes.

Three hundred thousand warriors trudging laboriously across the desert

Turn their heads and stare longingly at the moon above.#

You Miao imagines that faraway scene, leaning in Li Zhifeng's embrace as he falls into slumber. In the silence of the deep night, there seems to be the barking of dogs and the voices of people coming from the distant end of the road.

Li Zhifeng's ears flick, and the twirling arrow between his fingers stops. The arm holding You Miao loosens, and Li Zhifeng lets You Miao simply lean on himself while he picks up the longbow that had been placed next to their bodies. He stacks the arrow over the bow and pulls the string taut, pointing it into the pitch black night road.

"Could they have run into wolves…"

"They've been on the road all night and still haven't arrived…"

Li Zhifeng squints his eyes. By this time the clouds have dispersed, and a full moon hangs above in the sky, illuminating their surroundings.

You Miao wakes, and when he blinks open his eyes he sees Li Zhifeng pulling on the bow at the ready, and immediately he turns to the direction of the voices. A dog is barking viciously but is quickly hushed by the villagers holding its leash.

"It's the young master!"

"Young Master You!"

"We've finally found you…"

Li Zhifeng lowers his bow and You Miao comes fully awake, realizing that these men have come to receive him.

The tenant farmers surround them, babbling and chattering as they ask questions. Turns out, where they are isn't more than five kilometers away from Riverwave Estate. Having been tormented for half the night, You Miao is exhausted in both body and spirit. The tenant farmers help push the horse carriage out of the gutter, and with one man in front leading the way, they escort the two into the estate under the bright light of the moon.

You Miao passes out completely for the rest of the night. The next day when he wakes up, he finds he's lying on an old, ragged bed, with the blankets he'd brought over from home. He's itching all over, and after scratching, he yawns as he sits up.

A dishevelled and loose-haired Li Zhifeng sits up from the ground, the suddenness of his movement scaring You Miao out of his wits.

"What's this place?" You Miao asks.

"Riverwave Estate," Li Zhifeng answers, then he ties up his hair, rising to his feet to go draw water for You Miao to wash his face.

Huddling in his blankets while sitting in bed, You Miao looks the place over. He vaguely remembers how they'd come in the night before——by the middle of the night though his head had already been cloudy from drowsiness, and everything had blurred as he'd entered the estate in the carriage. Li Zhifeng had been driving the vehicle up front while he'd slept inside in the back. Once they'd arrived the tenant farmers didn't say much either before they'd led them in. Li Zhifeng had gotten into the carriage and said a few words but You Miao no longer remembers anything.

"What did you say to me last night?" You Miao asks.

The sound of water pours in from the outside, and Li Zhifeng answers, "I said, I tidied up the side chamber first and we'll make do with it for the night. Then I'll clean up the main house today."

You Miao nods, then sees from the lattice of the window Li Zhifeng pouring water from the wooden bucket into the copper basin before he comes in to place the copper basin over the coal furnace to heat the water.

"I can do it." You Miao says. He knows right now is not the time to be attended to, there are many things that he'll have to do himself. First, this is a new environment where he knows nothing and no one; second, he hasn't hired anyone yet. There's only Li Zhifeng who genuinely treats him well, but good steel should be used on the blade; he can't have him take care of everything, otherwise it wouldn't be good value if Li Zhifeng gets exhausted.

"Just rest." Li Zhifeng says.

You Miao gets out of bed and dresses himself. "I figure since we're here, everything will have to be simple for now." Then, he casually pushes the window open. Outside the sun is beaming down, the winter day bright and charming. Beneath his gaze, the endless vast fields shine with the sun's rays.

"What do they plant out there?" You Miao has never laboured nor cared to differentiate the grains, and now he leans over the window looking out, realizing that all of this land belongs to him. This house is his, the chicken, duck, fish, the rivers, the hills, the woods… these are all his.

"Don't know." Li Zhifeng replies.

He brings the towel to You Miao's cheeks and starts to rub his ears and face. After dressing, You Miao drops his feet down to the ground to put on his shoes. "Let's go out and take a look around today."

"En." Li Zhifeng answers.

You Miao then asks, "What are we doing for breakfast?"

Only when the question is asked does You Miao realizes a big problem. This place isn't anywhere like Sunshower Jade Estate; there's no cook, no attendants, everything must be done by his own hand. Thankfully when they departed a few days ago they'd bought some food at Jiang City, so they dowse some water on the fried noodles, heat it up, then make do with what's there and eat it.

"The women of the tenant families have come to deliver breakfast." Li Zhifeng announces.

You Miao delightedly goes out, but the moment he steps foot out of the side chamber he is dumbfounded.

The sun is still shining brightly, but the yard is completely run down, messy and desolate. The foot of the wall is piled with moss over the chipped and moldy clay pots, long weeds grow from the cracks of the stone tiles in abundance, the spirit wall has ivy crawling all over, and the wheel of one of the wells has already rotten through and broken, fallen to the side.

When Li Zhifeng had carried him in the night before, You Miao hadn't bothered to look carefully. Now that he's seeing it in broad daylight, it's completely different than the view at night.

"Interesting." You Miao says to Li Zhifeng.

You Miao crosses through the corridor and heads to the main courtyard with Li Zhifeng in tow. More than half of the roof of the corridors overhead have fallen through, and in the far back of the backyard, the entire enclosure's walls are collapsed in. Gazing over, the skies are bright and clear.

This crappy place… When You Miao sees, he really doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. Yet for some reason, this scenery has a particular paradise-like peace and harmony. Perhaps this is the very reason why his mother had fallen in love with Riverwave Estate and purchased this land.

Without any mountain ranges to block the view, the field of vision is wide, and clouds roll softly in the horizon. As long as he properly renovates and puts his heart into it, this place can certainly become beautiful.

"This is actually my first time living in a house like this," You Miao says with a smile.

Li Zhifeng nods. When You Miao reaches the front courtyard, he immediately can't smile any longer.

How is this an estate?! IT'S PRACTICALLY A BROKEN DOWN SHRINE!

The doors and windows, chairs and furniture, they're all rotten through and broken, there's not a single piece still whole, and cobwebs are everywhere. There are a few women conversing by the end of the corridor, and the moment they see You Miao and Li Zhifeng they disperse.

"Hey! Where are you going?" You Miao calls out.

The women's dresses are both dirty and poor, and they keep fleeing to hide in the back of the house. You Miao figures it's because they're not used to seeing people and are scared of strangers, so he doesn't say any more, and steps foot into the main house. But there isn't a single spot he can place his foot down inside. In the gloomy back of the wall there's a pot of ready-cooked noodles, two chipped bowls and a plate of salted veggies.

You Miao: "..."

"Did we bring bowls?" You Miao asks.

"No." Li Zhifeng picks up the chopsticks on the table and brings them outside. The inside of the well is still covered in heavy layers of fallen leaves and moss, and the voice of a man comes from the outside. "There's water here."

Li Zhifeng takes the half-filled bucket of water from the tenant farmer and carefully washes the chopsticks clean. The tenant farmer outside then asks, "Has the young master risen?"

"Go wait outside the second entrance. After he's done with breakfast he'll see you all." Li Zhifeng replies.

The tenant farmers all step down and leave, and You Miao grins as he listens; the way Li Zhifeng speaks certainly has the air of a housekeeper. A moment later, You Miao casually eats some. The food is simple: the noodles are simply mixed with salt, but after having starved an entire night, You Miao easily wolfs down half a pot, only thinking the noodles are tender and delightful, the pickled radishes crispy and delicious, simply heavenly.

Usually, at home, dishes like these wouldn't even be looked at. This Riverwave Estate also seems rather poor; not even an egg spared for a pot of noodles. Little does You Miao know that for typical impoverished families, even using exquisite grain for a meal is pure dreams; a coarse steamed bun with some pickles can take care of a meal; a pot of white flour noodles is already a show of all of their hearts.

After You Miao is done, he pushes the bowl towards Li Zhifeng. "Eat. Take your fill so you can get to work." And so Li Zhifeng eats up all the remaining noodles. You Miao adds, "The only one left that I can depend on is you. Put your heart into your work."

Li Zhifeng nods. Of course, You Miao knows Li Zhifeng very much puts all of his heart into his work when it comes to him, so this bit of talk is nothing more than empty nagging. It's more so that he himself is feeling a little hollow and unsteady. After he's come to take over this run down mansion, he's practically afraid to go out now, fearing that he'll see stuff even more broken down outside.

But no matter what, since he's come, he's gotta tidy up.

You Miao understands more or less that if this isn't a dilapidated landscape, then there's no way this Riverwave Estate would've come into his hands. Four tenant farmers, nine thousand mu# of land. Taking away the fields to the east of the estate, the rest is just wasteland. There's no one to cultivate those lands either; every tenant farmer takes fifty mu of land——they can't handle much more than that either.

The first order of business is to clear this land, have people farm, and harvest grain.

However, in order to plant the fields the land needs to be cleared. There are nine thousand mu of land on paper, but a part of it is all hills and mountains. Taking those away from the equation, what's left that can really be cultivated is only about six, maybe seven thousand mu.

Six thousand mu… spring and autumn are each a season of rice; one mu can produce six hundred catties, and after taking away the ration of each tenant farmer and their rent, then the rest is what You Miao can take as profit. If he rents out all six thousand mu of land, then he can make several thousands of silver in pure profit per year.

Of course, this is under the most ideal situations. In reality, You Miao doesn't have the labour hands he needs and the land still needs to be cleared, plus he still needs to pay taxes to the government. Based on the current situation, with four households, each with fifty mu, You Miao would be lucky if he can take in a hundred silver. The most troublesome issue right now is that there's no water.

Rice is a water-heavy grain, and needs water to grow, but water is a huge issue. A good field with enough water can harvest three seasons of grain; lands without water suffering a drought can harvest only one season, even two would be pushing it. The farmers need to work to draw water over from the wells, and without enough hands, arable land is limited. They'll also be dependent on the heavens, see how much it rains, but it can't be too much either lest the sprouts drown.

"Come, tell me. What're you all called?" With the account book in hand, You Miao doesn't bother holding himself with a young master's air, and the moment he comes out he sits himself by the side of the guardian lion stone. Outside the second entrance the tenant farmers have been waiting for a long time, and when they see You Miao come out they each bow to greet him.

"To answer Young Master," one man speaks up. "This humble one is surnamed Li, the name is Li Zhuang."

You Miao nods, then looks over the four men calculatingly. He figures they're all the heads of the families of the tenant households; this man named Li Zhuang looks to be about fifty years old, next to him is a hunchbacked old man, on the other side of him is a tallish young man, and the last one is a skinny man.

Even the old man is a tenant farmer?

Li Zhuang introduces each of them to You Miao: the old man is Old Uncle Liang, the young man is Zhang Er, and the skinny man is called Zhu Tang.

"Uncle Liang is still working the fields?" You Miao asks.

"It's getting worse every year!" Old Uncle Liang says, his brows quivering. "Who knows how many more years we can farm."

The others trade looks but no one speaks up. You Miao is taken aback at first, but then he understands immediately. In the past it's always been Sunshower Jade Estate that would send people over to collect rent; now that You Miao has come personally, taking over the management of Riverwave Estate, this group of tenants more or less have their own little agendas, hoping to beg for the promise of rent not increasing in order to have a good year next year.

"Rent won't hike." You Miao has already thought about this while on the road. "But I have a condition."

Yet unexpectedly, Li Zhuang speaks up. "Young Master, this humble one has come with the intention of bidding Young Master farewell."

You Miao is taken aback again. Inside the house, Li Zhifeng finishes his breakfast and comes out to stand behind You Miao.

You Miao steadies himself mentally and replies, "What? Farewell?"

Li Zhuang is obviously the leader of this group, and has long discussed this matter through, so the moment he speaks he says, "Life here isn't passable. Young Master, this humble one wants to take my wife and son and head to Yangzhou Prefecture to look for some work."

"Young Master, I've gotta go too." That young man Zhang Er also says. "Both my ma and pa have gone, there's only me left in the family. I can't take care of all this land and I can't find a wife this way either, so I plan on going to seek my uncle come spring."

You Miao then looks at that skinny man, and sees that skinny man Zhu Tang also looking hesitant. "I… I gotta go too. Land like this can't be farmed, I might as well go fish for a living."

"Uncle Liang is also getting on in age," Li Zhuang says. "Uncle Liang's son is in the army in Liuzhou Prefecture, eating royal rations and earning a royal salary, so he doesn't want his father to continue labour in farming either."

You Miao has never imagined that what he would face coming to Riverwave Estate would be a dilemma such as this. Not only is the estate itself barren and wild and the houses rundown, but even the tenant farmers no longer plan on continuing their lease. If these four households take off, then there'll only be Li Zhifeng and You Miao himself left in the entire Riverwave Estate.

You Miao asks, still a little incredulous, "Is harvest really that bad? So bad none of you can feed your families?"

The group of them doesn't speak, and You Miao doesn't make any speech to keep them either, only saying casually, "If you're leaving then… do as you will. Wait here for a moment."

You Miao goes into the house and grabs for a bit of broken silver from the horse carriage in the backyard, packs several grants, each grant a tael of silver. Then he comes back out and passes them to the four tenant farmers. "I looked through the land deed and account book, so I know you four households have worked the Riverwave Estate lands for many decades. This bit of money is a show of my goodwill, and if in the future any of you want to come back, the doors are open for you anytime."

With this, three of the tenant farmers are incredibly surprised, while the young man, Zhang Er, reaches out to take the grant, cupping his hands to You Miao. "Thanks, Young Master."

You Miao waves him off, gesturing that it's nothing, and the group of them leave. Watching their retreating backs, You Miao suddenly feels mixed emotions. Li Zhifeng has been standing behind You Miao with his hands dropped the whole time, and You Miao waits until everyone's gone before speaking up. "Did you notice?"

"En." Li Zhifeng nods. "They won't all leave."

You Miao rises to his feet and starts pacing leisurely in the yard. "That skinny man most likely won't leave. He only heard that the others were coming so he came along with to gain some benefits. That old man might not leave either; those who have farmed their whole life might not be comfortable living in Liuzhou Prefecture. That young man however, both his parents are gone, so it's no surprise if he doesn't want to farm if he has ambitions."

"Li Zhuang is uncertain," Li Zhifeng says. "Now that you've lowered rent, he might not leave."

You Miao nods, really feeling the headache now. "Is Riverwave Estate's land really that infertile?"

"I don't know anything about farming," Li Zhifeng replies.

It's time to learn. Right now You Miao doesn't even know what it is his lands produce; he ran over on such an impulse, and now that he's here and sees the situation, he imagines even if he wants to sell the land for profit there will probably be no buyers.

The land his mother left for him can't just be sold either.

You Miao focuses himself and thinks it through thoroughly. "Let's go walk around. There's no hurry in tidying up the house."

"This entire Riverwave Estate," You Miao says as he and Li Zhifeng walk towards the door. "More than half of it is a wasteland."

Li Zhifeng en's. "Need a way to reclaim land."

"Indeed we'll need to reclaim the land," You Miao says. "But I don't know what's suitable to be planted here, or if it's suitable to grow anything at all."

You Miao holds Li Zhifeng's hand, the two of them walking side by side as they walk around the spirit wall covered in ivy. You Miao hums for a moment and mumbles to himself, "It might be tough for the first couple of years, and since no one is willing to farm the land, we'll just have to grow something ourselves. But the lack of water certainly is an issue, all the tenants' time and energy are wasted on drawing water to irrigate land."

"Want me to go find potential tenants in town?" Li Zhifeng suggests.

You Miao laughs. "It's best if we can find people, if not that's okay too. We can reclaim a piece of land for ourselves, provide for ourselves, grow some vegetables, raise some chickens, a pig, and as for food, we'll just buy from the outside."

"Planting tea is the most profitable, but with my dad suppressing the price of tea, competing with him is seeking my own death." You Miao pulls the ivy aside, and Li Zhifeng comes up to help him with the work, the two of them cleaning out the spirit wall together. You Miao then continues, "But it's fine if we just grow tea for fun. I think if we section off a small bit of land on the hill over there, buy some tea shoots and keep an eye on them every so often, it'll be fine."

"Oh." Li Zhifeng nods. "Makes sense."

You Miao continues, "Then we pick a couple of the good fields around here, hire some temporary labourers over and help plow a few days, throw some seeds down, and we'll be able to grow some vegetables for ourselves."

"Doable." Li Zhifeng replies.

Li Zhifeng doesn't provide any ideas, he knows You Miao is saying all these things also to help himself clear the thoughts in his head, going one step at a time. He needs to settle down first and clean up this house before he can start to develop the estate. You Miao clears out about half of the spirit wall and sees a column of sharp and weighted but steadfast words, and he's surprised in spite of himself. "There's a poem written on here?"

"Therein I saw…" You Miao mumbles. "Perhaps the previous owner of this place was an elegant figure, let me see…"

As the rest of the ivy is cleared away, verses of a poem appear before them

Therein I saw her graceful figure once reflected.

Li Zhifeng yanks off the vines from the left side of the spirit wall, and the whole spirit wall is revealed.

Most heartbreaking are the green waters underneath the bridge;

Therein I saw her graceful figure once reflected.#

You Miao stands in front of the spirit wall, a little dazed for the moment. He can now vaguely understand why mother bought this estate.

"To Tang Wan#." Li Zhifeng notices the words at the bottom corner.

Those are words engraved by a chisel by someone, and You Miao says, "Let's go out and see."

The two exit the front doors. Over the entrance hangs a plaque and a swallow flies into the hole behind the plaque as they are looking. You Miao is delighted. "That's a good sign!"

"Take it down and wash it out?" Li Zhifeng asks.

"Don't!" You Miao exclaims. "Don't alarm the swallow."

Having swallow nests under the roof is an extremely lucky sign, and while You Miao doesn't really believe in superstitions, he's still familiar with folklore. He's now very confident in the future of Riverwave Estate, and if he's guessed right, perhaps this place is even a historic site.

Li Zhifeng runs up the wall in two steps and a leap, and lands on the guardian lion statue. He knocks lightly on the plaque above the entrance, and a thick layer of dust falls off. You Miao goes in and finds a ladder, and they prop it up together. Then he finds a rag and clambers up with Li Zhifeng holding him from behind.

You Miao wipes the dust carefully off the plaque, and two large characters appear: Shen Garden#.

You Miao: "..."

The gilded characters are dull and worn from age. You Miao shakes his head and sighs, "So that's what this place is…"

"What place?" Li Zhifeng helps You Miao back down to the ground, and the two of them stand there, contemplating the overhead plaque.

The swallow peeks out from behind the plaque to stare curiously at them. You Miao says, "This was once the residence of a renowned Han poet… no wonder my mom bought it."

Li Zhifeng mn's in acknowledgement and asks, "Can it be repaired?"

You Miao smiles as he replies, "Now that Shen Garden belongs to me, that's a matter of course."

They stand at the entrance to the estate for a while, just gazing up at the clear blue sky. Finally, You Miao speaks. "Ride to Anlu Village and buy some rice and flour, and oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and such. Also, while you're there, swing by the market and see if there's anyone looking for work, get a couple of workers, we'll cover food and housing."

You Miao goes inside and returns with ten silver, along with the letters he had written to Zhao Chao and Li Yan in the Capital, instructing, "Spend it sparingly, and bring these letters to the post station, have the courier deliver them to the Capital. Come home early."

Li Zhifeng says, "I have more here," as he takes out a small money pouch. Inside are the twenty silver You Miao had given him before when he'd sent him away back then. He's held onto it this whole time.

You Miao is absolutely thrilled as he says, "Well done! Go on then."

Li Zhifeng flips onto the horse and rides off.

---

Chapter 11

TW: underage sex, explicit (16 was of age back then, but by modern standards)

Money can't be spent frivolously now. A tael of gold exchanges to thirty taels of silver, and a tael of silver exchanges to one string of maces#. A string of maces can do many things: a catty of rice only costs eight coins, and a chicken costs twenty-five. You Miao never kept accounts in the past, he's never known about living costs. Now that he adds it all up, the one hundred silver father had given him is enough to feed him in Shen Garden for five to ten years.

But this little bit isn't enough. He keeps contemplating how to make more off of this starting Capital. The first thing he needs to do is to properly renovate the house. Of course, the house can't be so easily reconstructed; the moment You Miao had seen the two words "Shen Garden" he knew that every blade of grass and every tree, the rockery and stone benches, they all have a history. Who knows, maybe there might even be many more antiques. If he thoughtlessly throws them out then it'd be a real waste of genuine treasure.

You Miao strolls once around the courtyard. This Shen Garden certainly is huge, his feet are already sore but he's still only along the enclosure walls. He walks a full ten minutes before he makes it to the backyard, and from the stables he brings out another horse, hopping on before he rushes towards the plains.

The four tenant households are located in all directions, and You Miao plans on finding a few hands to help him tidy up. It's around noon time now, and he sees in the distance there's a house that has faint smoke rising out of its chimney, so You Miao stops the horse outside this household and calls out, "Who's house is this?"

"Young Master!" Li Zhuang comes hurrying out.

"Are you free right now?" You Miao asks.

Li Zhuang's family is just having their slack season, Li Zhuang had just gotten home and drank a sip of water, then he was probably going to discuss the future with his wife. When he hears You Miao has come to seek hands, he quickly comes out to heed, "What does Young Master wish?"

You Miao notices there's another household right across and asks, "Who's the one living across the road?"

Li Zhuang chuckles. "That boy Zhang Er."

"ZHANG ER!" You Miao yells.

From the courtyard across the road comes a faint answer from Zhang Er. You Miao says, "If the two of you aren't busy, come up to the estate. I've got things to say."

After tossing those words out You Miao immediately urges the horse to return. After all, the horse carriage is still ditched in Shen Garden, and all the money is in there.

From the outside, Shen Garden looks even more run down, yet bathing in the sunlight, his new home doesn't appear sombre at all. Instead, it carries the will to survive, like that of plants growing from the cracks of a cliff, like something that grows from under shattered tiles and bricks, so lush it's almost ready to break through the wreckage, standing tall and afraid of nothing.

You Miao tethers the horse by the tree outside the entrance where weeds are growing in abundance so it can graze. Then he peels off half of his outer robe, ties the sleeves around his waist, and lets the robe hang loosely on his hips before he goes to lug the stuff out of the horse carriage.

The most important thing at home is his money. There's only a hundred silver left, he must keep it safe. You Miao carries the money box into the bedroom of the main house. As he enters, the screen crashes thunderously, collapsing to the ground. Even the bedding has rotten into a pile of floc-like mush.

You Miao looks around. There's unexpectedly a red-painted chest by the foot of the wall, but when he pushes it with all of his might it's to no avail. When he looks down, he discovers that this thing seems to have been cast directly onto the ground.

There's no lock, so You Miao opens it and pokes his head in. There are only several scrolls of calligraphy and paintings inside, and there's still more space within the chest, which goes into the ground a meter deep. You Miao understands now. When this house was first constructed, half of it was buried underground, secured with bricks.

This is perfect. First, it prevents theft. Second, he now has a safe for more valuable goods.

You Miao takes the items inside the chest out with great difficulty, then places that money pouch You Han'ge had given him inside the money box along with the one hundred silver, and the little money box into the giant copper chest. Then he goes back to the carriage to retrieve a lock to lock up the giant copper chest, and locks it up with a kchak.

Two keys, one for himself and the other for Li Zhifeng.

In the future they'll need to keep a guard dog for the courtyard, You Miao thinks. He should've told Li Zhifeng to buy a dog home too.

"Young Master——" From the outside comes Li Zhuang's yell.

"Come in." You Miao dusts himself off and goes out. "There are some trunks in the carriage, help me haul those in."

Li Zhuang and Zhang Er have both come, and Zhang Er looks around, appearing rather surprised, "Young Master is settling in here just like that?"

You Miao knows they're all feeling rather amazed, but it's true. Based on how most would think, a little young master raised in prestige and luxury like himself might not stay for more than a night before he packs up and hurries back to Sunshower Jade Estate.

"No choice." You Miao laughs as he takes them to unload the belongings in the carriage. "Dad doesn't care about me, mom doesn't love me, a gege has come into the family, so naturally I've no share in the family fortune."

The other two exchange a look with each other and takes the trunk You Miao pulls to them. You Miao however, doesn't care to dodge the subject, and asks, "You've all heard about this affair too, right?"

"We've heard some," Zhang Er answers.

Li Zhuang sends Zhang Er a look, and the two help You Miao carry the trunk into the house.

"Gotta depend on yourself for everything," You Miao adds.

Li Zhuang chuckles, "That buddy following Young Master looks like an honest man."

"Yea, thank goodness for him." You Miao re-enters the main house, pushing each of the windows open, and the sun beams in from both sides. Instantly the main house brightens greatly, and the furniture layered with heavy dust doesn't seem as gloomy and abandoned anymore.

"No one's actually stolen any of the furniture?" You Miao is amazed.

Li Zhuang grins. "Who'd come to Shen Garden to steal things?"

"Is this a place where people don't lock up at night and leave lost items on the ground where they were?" You Miao wonders. "Come, let's throw out the rotten wood."

You Miao has taken a great fancy to that bed in the master bedroom; a large bed by itself is worth a lot of money, and while the paint on the frame's engravings and sculptures has chipped and faded, as long as they repaint it, it will be restored to its former glory. Light peeks through the top of the canopy bed; the drapes and mosquito net hanging are tattered, but once the drapes are changed and the bedding spread, it'll become a little world of its own.

Li Zhuang tidies up the things and brings them outside to the courtyard. The furniture inside the house is built with birch and another type of wood. You Miao knocks on each of them and confirms that the furniture within the master bedroom is all made of rosewood. Rosewood is quite valuable, heavy and enduring. Meanwhile, all the birch-made shelves and such have all rotten through, and get piled into the corner of the yard, perfect to be used as firewood. The doors are made of rosewood too, a nicely built, sturdy thing. At least the doors and windows won't need changing. Just hammer in new rivets, sand them down, and repaint them and they'll be good.

You Miao cleans out the rooms and puts those trunks in place. While Li Zhuang wipes and washes the room, You Miao takes Zhang Er over to the study.

The bookshelves and desk here are also made of rosewood. An entire house on display like this, it's worth at least several hundreds of silver. That no one's come to steal anything in close to a century is a miracle. Is it because none of the thieves recognize the goods?

"It's really so weird." You Miao laughs, turning to Zhang Er. "Not a single thief in almost a century."

Zhang Er helps him open the trunks together; ten giant trunks, all with books inside——piles and piles of books.

"Are these all yours?" Zhang Er asks, but he immediately realizes the lack of address and quickly corrects himself. "Young Master sure has a large collection of books."

You Miao en's and dusts off the bookshelves, sneezing a couple times. "Some are my mom's, some are my little uncle's."

"All scholars." Zhang Er places the books onto the shelves, and You Miao goes to push the windows open. The back window of the study faces the garden; the rockery in it is covered in weeds, and the ponds between the trees are topped with moss. If he gets a gardener to clean this up, it'll be a beautiful sight for sure. Zhang Er tucks in each bundle of books properly. "So many books, hopefully the humidity won't ruin them."

You Miao sits in the desk's large chair, pulling each of the drawers out to see. There's even a complete set of stationary inside: a mint-coloured porcelain brush holder, a crow-black inkstone dotted with scarlet clouds, and even peony cinnabar ink paste#.

The ink paste is already dried. You Miao wipes the desk clean and places each item upon the table. "I'm more scared of robbery than anything else, really."

"No one will come steal anything here," Zhang Er replies.

You Miao also finds a jade bracelet that's broken in half in one of the desks, and attempts to connect the pieces back together. "There's not even a watchman at Riverwave Estate, and no one's taking care of Shen Garden, so how come…"

Zhang Er gets up. "Because this place is haunted."

You Miao: "..."

"A woman died from illness here in Shen Garden," Zhang Er elaborates.

You Miao's face is now dark, and Zhang Er adds, "Then later I heard the one who bought this garden also died…"

"That's my mom," You Miao says.

Zhang Er realizes he's said the wrong thing and quickly says, "I've misspoken."

"So the reason why there aren't many tenant farmers at Riverwave Estate is because you're all afraid of ghosts?" You Miao asks.

"No, it's not that," Zhang Er replies. "Afterwards there were a few daring folks who came and took stuff home from Shen Garden, but they all died one after the other…"

You Miao's lips can't stop twitching now. "Are you kidding me?"

Zhang Er lowers his voice and says, "Uncle Liang had three sons. The eldest one stole stuff from the estate… but then both he and his wife passed away from illness, and Uncle Liang personally came to return the stuff."

You Miao only feels a chill run down his spine, the muscles of his face spasming. He doesn't know if what Zhang Er is telling him is real or not, but he doesn't ask for more details.

A pair of talented scholar and beauty, having parted in bygone years#, now the beauty actually became a female ghost. If there really are ghosts in the world, You Miao would rather believe it's because of her longing and yearning for her lover that she's stayed all this time.

Zhang Er goes out to draw water for washing, and You Miao sorts through the books as he mumbles to himself, "I didn't do anything to wrong her, if I don't do anything guilty during the day, I'm not afraid of ghosts coming to knock at night, hehe."

"Young Master is a fortunate soul, you have lucky stars watching over you. Nothing to be afraid of," Zhang Er says.

You Miao flips through the books, and there are plenty of subjects he himself has never touched before. Recalling that Zhang Er is going to go to the Capital, he asks, "Are you thinking of going to the Capital for the exam or going to find work?"

"My ma and pa," Zhang Er says. "Both wanted me to become a scholar. In a few years, I can go for grace exams# or attend the exams held every three years. The teacher at Anlu Village told me to go for the Prefectural Exams first."

You Miao nods. "Well don't rush off so quickly then, feel free to come study here in Shen Garden any time."

Instantly Zhang Er's eyes are filled with surprise, and You Miao adds, "I don't think you can head off to the Capital any time soon anyway. When you do go, remember to come give me a shout, and take a letter for me. I have many friends in the Capital, it'll be good if there's someone who can look after you too, yea?"

Zhang Er knows this means You Miao is willing to lend him a hand, and he quickly bows and kneels. "Thank you very much, Young Master!"

You Miao quickly pulls him up, gesturing to say he's welcome. Zhang Er then goes to continue cleaning the study, and You Miao goes back to flipping through the books. As he flips, he comes to the last little chest.

On the inside cover of the chest is written a line of delicate and beautiful words: "Within books there is its own house of gold; within books there is its own beauty like jade."

You Miao starts to laugh, remembering how mother back then would hold the brush and teach him how to recognize letters. Qiao Ke'er preferred the "make love not war" ideals of Mohism#, her beliefs quite different from the common idolization of Confucianism of the Jiangnan region back then, perhaps the entire country. Mohism has an intimate knowledge of the art of war, of engineering, and of agriculture, and Mozi's art of argument was often even able to shut You Dechuan up, rendering him unable to rebuke.

You Dechuan on the other hand, believes solidly that studying the classics and following the teachings of Confucius and Mencius is the right path, so he looked down quite hard on Qiao Ke'er's preference for Mohism. Later, he would often lecture You Miao, telling him his mom was shrewdly clever, and had raised him as a shrewdly clever little bastard too.

Opening the chest, You Miao wants to see if he can find any useful information from his mother's past collection, and all of a sudden, he sees "Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People"#. Instantly, his eyes light up.

"Exploitations of the Works of Nature"#, "The Dream Pool Essays"#, "Divine Farmer Shennong"#, "Elder of the Wild"#...

And there's even a "Mohist Classics"!

This is practically like getting treasure. This chest of books mother has left him is the precious treasure that'll teach him to manage the estate! Instantly, You Miao stops cleaning the study and, hugging his books, he goes to sit under the eaves of the corridor, becoming completely engrossed in the books.

The first is "Exploitations of the Works of Nature"; it clearly records how to build a waterwheel, how to paint, make sugar, refine salt… how to build canals, produce the five metals, etc. Even units of measurements are all written down.

You Miao examines the waterwheel in detail, and after analyzing for a while he gets up to flip through "Mohist Classics", comparing the Mohist's engineering techniques with it, and after studying the two, he goes to find a charcoal stick, sitting himself on the ground simply, and starts to draw and notate.

The sun sinks in the west, and in the main courtyard, Li Zhuang calls, "Young Master, the main house and the master bedroom are all tidied up. If Young Master has any other commands?"

Zhang Er has also finished wiping the study down, and stands in front of the bookshelf reading You Miao's books.

You Miao en's without looking up, "Go get the money pouch on top of the shelf."

Li Zhuang quickly humbly declines that he can't take Young Master's money, and You Miao responds, "It's fine, just go get it. I've got more errands for you to do."

It's less than ten days to new years, the tenant farmers are right in their slack season, so rather than sit around at home they might as well come out and help You Miao do work. You Miao gives him a string of maces, taking twenty coins off it, and gives them to Zhang Er. "Take this."

"I can't take Young Master's money," Zhang Er says. "I'm already immensely grateful Young Master permits me to come read books."

You Miao reconsiders; since he's so adamant, there's some air of a scholar to it, so You Miao doesn't force him. He turns around and gives the twenty coins to Li Zhuang, "Twenty maces for today's labour. I'll give you another string, go into town for me tomorrow, and buy all the little things I've listed here. Keep count of everything you spend, I'll be asking."

You Miao hands Li Zhuang a slip of brown packing paper with words written in charcoal. "For timber you just need to ask for the price. Li Zhifeng isn't familiar with the town, so I don't want him tricked."

Li Zhuang quickly repeats yessir yessir yessir, and You Miao says, "Both of you go home for dinner now."

"I'll have my wife come up later and cook for Young Master," Li Zhuang says.

"It's fine, Li Zhifeng should be back soon too, we'll just eat whatever's here. I'll hire a granny cook in a few days," You Miao replies.

You Miao sends Li Zhuang and Zhang Er home, and he himself sits in the front corridor, his head buried in the books as he continues to read. It must be known that Li Zhuang has completely changed attitude compared to this morning because You Miao is rich.

Money makes the world go 'round; going out to do temp labour, the pay for each day is only ten coins. Working for him, Young Master You? Twenty coins, easy.

With the sun sinking on the western horizon, there comes the sound of a horse carriage outside. You Miao is about to look up and yell, shout for Li Zhifeng's name, but then feels rather awkward. He suddenly realizes that even after having bought this Quanrong slave for so long, he actually hasn't given him another name, just going along with Li Yan's surname.

Usually when You Miao calls for him, it's either "Oi" or "Hey", like calling for a dog, and Li Zhifeng would come.

"You back?" You Miao calls out.

"I'm back." The horse is neighing, and Li Zhifeng's indifferent voice comes from the outside.

You Miao doesn't budge from where he is, however, just sits flipping through his books, feeling a bit hungry. A moment later Li Zhifeng comes, his massive form blocking the sunlight.

"Go away, you're blocking me," You Miao chides.

Li Zhifeng doesn't move, kneeling with one knee bent to the ground by You Miao's side, and something stirs in his mind. He looks up, and sees Li Zhifeng smiling.

That smile is warm and handsome, but this isn't what catches You Miao's attention. What makes him incredibly surprised is, Li Zhifeng is holding in his arms a very, very small puppy!

You Miao instantly tosses his books away. "Where'd you get it?"

Li Zhifeng gives a small smile, then raises the two paws of that puppy, crisscrossing them and making pawing gestures with them to tempt You Miao.

That dog is a spotted dog too, its body white with large black spots littered here and there all over, its eyes black and keen, staring at You Miao. A spot covers one of its eye, looking silly and dumb, very cute.

"Let me hold it!" You Miao takes the dog and holds it, playing with it, then he asks, "How much did you spend to buy it?"

"Nothing," Li Zhifeng replies. "The female dog in front of the rice shop gave birth to a whole litter, so I asked the boss for one."

The puppy starts yapping and You Miao is incredibly pleased. "Here I was thinking of getting a guard dog, and you bring one home."

The corners of Li Zhifeng's lips lift, and he en's, petting that puppy's head, then pets You Miao's head.

You Miao doesn't know whether to laugh or cy, and rises to his feet, following him to the backyard. "So you bought everything?"

"Yes," Li Zhifeng replies. "Spent a total of three silver, and rented a cart."

There are two horses in Shen Garden, so it's perfect to have one pull the cart. You Miao goes out to check it out, and sees Li Zhifeng has purchased a full cart of stuff; there's salted meat, winter bamboo shoots, several large jugs of pickled vegetables, rice noodles grain, oil salt soy sauce and vinegar, vegetable, everything they need. There are even a few live chickens in the cage cooing, a few wild rabbits hanging at the front of the cart.

Li Zhifeng unloads the stuff off the cart and carries them into the kitchen.

"Did you send the letters?"

"En."

"Hire temporary labourers?"

"En."

"When are they coming?

"Tomorrow."

The exchange between You Miao and Li Zhifeng is succinct and plain. After Li Zhifeng places everything in order, he sweeps the ground, and You Miao goes over to open the covers of the stove. The pots and ladles have all rusted. Li Zhifeng puts each of the oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar in place, but in the face of a kitchen like this, both of them are feeling a little helpless.

"Do… you know how to cook?" You Miao asks.

"A little bit," Li Zhifeng replies.

Li Zhifeng goes out, and when he comes back he's holding two new pots and pans in his hands, putting them over the stove holes. The left side is the frying pan while the right is a stewing pot. Then he goes to retrieve a large iron basin, putting it over the coal furnace next to the stove top, and stacks the steam baskets over it. Turns out it's a steamer pot.

You Miao: "..."

Li Zhifeng: "..."

You Miao: "So you know how to cook too? That's great."

"I used to." Li Zhifeng replies.

"What did you make before?" You Miao asks.

"Barbeque." Li Zhifeng replies.

You Miao: "..."

"I think rice is meant to be steamed." You Miao looks around curiously, and sees Li Zhifeng is using a large cup to scoop rice, and he reminds him, "I think you have to add water, you can't just steam it directly."

Li Zhifeng stops, then nods. "Right."

You Miao deflates and loses all annoyance.

"Go read," Li Zhifeng says. "No need to worry about this."

The corner of You Miao's lips twitch, and he says as he exits, "Li Zhuang cleaned out the well today, I'll go draw water."

"Let me." Li Zhifeng willfully takes the bucket from him, so You Miao can only pull over a chair and watch while sitting in the yard in front of the kitchen. That little puppy is running back and forth around Li Zhifeng, panting and wagging its tail. Li Zhifeng gives it a look and says, "Go sit."

"C'mere, Xiaohei." You Miao waves at it.

The spotted dog comes running over and quietly lies by You Miao's feet. Li Zhifeng carries the water inside, then washed the water basin once before carrying the water basin out single-handedly. That giant clay basin of sixty catty is like a water bucket in his hands, and he rocks it before dumping the water from the bottom of the basin and placing it down flat, wiping it dry with a rag.

This guy really is so strong… You Miao can't help but think, if they fight, then he can more than likely crush him to death like crushing a small chick. You Miao recalls that Li Yan once told him that Li Zhifeng had taken some kind of medicine, and after taking it he would lose all of his martial skills.

"Have your martial skills recovered?" You Miao asks.

Li Zhifeng enters the kitchen holding the water basin and answers from the inside, "No, only about a fifth is recovered."

You Miao jumps in surprise. This is only a fifth?!

"How do you get it all back?" You Miao can't help but ask.

"Don't take that medicine, and it'll get better eventually," Li Zhifeng replies.

You Miao remembers the day Li Zhifeng rescued them from the village of those Tatars as a lone fighter on a single horse, and how his one arrow could pierce two men. The power to pull that bowstring is probably at least over a hundred catty, terrifying.

Just as he's about to ask more questions, a large amount of smoke comes pouring out of the kitchen like something has caught on fire, and Li Zhifeng starts coughing nonstop. You Miao hastily asks, "Did something catch on fire?"

"Cough… cough… don't come in…" Li Zhifeng chokes out.

The moment You Miao steps foot inside the smoke chokes him to tears. Li Zhifeng coughs for a bit and the two escape from the kitchen, their faces black with soot, and You Miao points out as he coughs, "The chimney… the chi…"

With one hand hooked onto the eaves of the roof, Li Zhifeng flips up lightly, and over the chimney comes the cawing of crows. Several crows caw as they flee. The chimney is blocked by weeds and crow nests, and with a single slap, Li Zhifeng knocks all that down with a rumble, and several bricks come falling down too.

"Okay, okay!" You Miao immediately cries. "Don't knock the kitchen down too!"

With the smoke dispersed, fire is finally started in the stove. You Miao uses a blower to blow into the stove, and accidentally takes in a breath of smoke, so he coughs heavily for another moment.

Li Zhifeng bursts out laughing, unable to stop himself, and urges, "Here, let me."

With the smile still hanging on his face, Li Zhifeng stirs the fire for a moment then starts to cut the vegetables. Next to him, You Miao orders, "Cut them into slices."

"Understood," Li Zhifeng replies without looking up.

As the skies turn darker, the temperature starts to drop outside. You Miao sees that there's nothing he can do to help so he goes out to stroll about Shen Garden leisurely. As he leaves, Li Zhifeng calls out, "Go put on another layer."

What a nag, You Miao thinks, and he abruptly realizes that it doesn't seem like Li Zhifeng calls him by name a lot either. At the beginning he'd still say Young Master, but now the Young Master form of address seems to have been dismissed too. Ever since the day they left the estate, Li Zhifeng has become much more proactive, almost as if he's taking care of You Miao like his own didi.

You Miao has never been a stickler for etiquette like Li Yan and his group, in fact, even if Li Zhifeng is to call him 'bro' You Miao would probably not think anything of it. It'd actually make them feel more intimate that way.

Standing on a high point in the yard and gazing out, You Miao can see streams of smoke from chimneys of households in the distance. The skies darken, the winter draft is wistful, and as it rolls through Shen Garden the bamboos bristle, creating its own particular atmosphere.

To have fallen so low as to survive with only one family servant is a fairly sad business, but what's special about it is that this family servant is Li Zhifeng. He's nothing like your typical servant; if this had been anyone else, for example Shiqi-er, Muqi-er… You Miao is sure he would be grumbling and whining to himself for a good while, getting irritated just by seeing the attendant's face.

But with Li Zhifeng it's different. Even You Miao himself finds this amusing. With Li Zhifeng around to accompany his days, no matter how he looks at it, it's like they're playing house, inexplicably fun.

Maybe when Li Zhifeng was beyond the border, he also had the fate of a young master. Judging by the way he speaks, the way he behaves, You Miao deeply feels that this man is no one ordinary.

A short while later, each of the lights within the main house, the bedroom, the study are all lit up. Even though a massive estate such as this only has the two of them, it appears very warm. Xiaohei sticks by You Miao's feet, not leaving an inch away; no matter where You Miao goes it follows.

You Miao is very hungry now. He's only had a bit of noodles around noon and nothing else the rest of the day. When he returns to the courtyard however, he can smell something burning.

You Miao, "..."

Li Zhifeng, "..."

There's rice on the table, at least that's cooked. It's good rice too, each grain sparkling and translucent, emitting the sweet fragrance of rice. The bowl of mushroom soup has the proper look of it too, with a splash of green onions over the top. Unfortunately for the fried meat, it's burnt to ashes, and a plate of vegetables has been fried to barely anything left, sitting sadly in the middle of said plate.

"HAHAHAHAHA——" You Miao bursts out laughing.

Li Zhifeng has nothing to say to counter, and You Miao is laughing so hard tears are streaming down, but he doesn't complain. "Let's sit."

"I wasn't able to control the fire right." Li Zhifeng explains.

"It's fine, it's fine," You Miao says.

Li Zhifeng puts the chair in place and goes to serve You Miao his meal as before but You Miao tugs at him. "Just eat, don't worry about those rules."

"No, you're the master." Li Zhifeng says.

"Oh shut up." You Miao says. "There's only us two in Shen Garden, come, eat. It's kinda boring if there's no one who can eat with me, I won't be able to swallow."

Only then does Li Zhifeng seats himself and pass You Miao a clean bowl. You Miao speaks up, "Give some to Xiaohei too."

Li Zhifeng rises to his feet and uses a bit of mushroom soup to mix the rice. Xiaohei stuffs its face into the bowl, eating happily and soundly with vigour. You Miao doesn't move his chopsticks, only staring at it, smiling.

"Eat." Li Zhifeng serves You Miao's rice. "Give me a few days to learn. I'll learn eventually."

You Miao grins and tries a bite, "It's a bit salty."

Li Zhifeng en's and eats a bit himself, then his face scrunches up into a tragic expression.

"I'll go knock on Li Zhuang's door, have them scramble us a couple eggs." Li Zhifeng says as he gets up.

"Forget it forget it." You Miao says. "Don't go tormenting people. Just eat, savoury makes things taste better."

You Miao's been starved for an entire day, so he doesn't have the mind to be picky either. If this was at the Capital or at home and the cook had whipped up something like this, they would've been called over by You Miao and had the dishes thrown in their face right then and there. Yet, since it's Li Zhifeng who cooked the dishes like this, You Miao is fully satisfied and merry, especially since besides roasting meat beyond the border, Li Zhifeng probably has never cooked anything else before.

"This soup is a bit bland." You Miao says. "Next time, when you cook, try and taste as you add salt and soy sauce, stop when you think it's good."

Li Zhifeng en's at first, then it seems he has something to say, so You Miao adds, "There ain't that many crappy rules and etiquette. Did you forget what we've already done together? We've even swapped saliva already, who cares about some dishes?"

Li Zhifeng starts to laugh, unable to hold back, and shakes his head as he laughs. When he's done, he grins and nods.

You Miao slowly feels that Li Zhifeng is finally starting to act like a person. When they first met he was like a wooden log, now, there's finally some display of emotions and he'll even take the initiative to speak to him. You Miao figures it's because the days are going smoothly, and he's in good spirits.

"I want to build a waterwheel." You Miao says.

"Alright, I'll build one for you tomorrow." Li Zhifeng replies.

You Miao says, "There's no rush, I sent Li Zhuang for a cost estimate. There are some trees on the mountain out back, I wonder if they can be used."

Li Zhifeng nods, and You Miao continues, "We should section off a plot of land nearby and plow it, so we can plant something there. Starting tomorrow, you take care of things outside, I'll take care of things inside."

Li Zhifeng mn's.

After dinner, Li Zhifeng washes and puts away the dishes, then heats up water for You Miao's bath. You Miao is exhausted from busying about the whole day, but as he lies collapsed on the bed after bathing, he feels tired yet accomplished.

The bedroom is more or less cleaned up now, but Shen Garden is so damn big, four sections and eighteen rooms, it'll take at least half a month to sort out. You Miao didn't actually do much, but he just can't stop feeling exhausted; this is a far cry from back when he used to just eat his fill then goof off, after all.

But he finds that his appetite is bigger now—he'd eaten two whole bowls of rice, and even some pickled radish.

Li Zhifeng bustles about busily all the way until nearly midnight before finally calling it a day, and the sound of water comes from the yard. You Miao, already drifting off, suddenly sits bolt upright at the sound. He vaguely sees that outside in the freezing cold of winter, Li Zhifeng has stripped completely naked, his body toned and handsome like a stallion where he stands under the moonlight as he pours a bucket of ice-cold water over himself.

"Oi!" You Miao calls out in a hurry. "Don't catch a cold."

"I won't," Li Zhifeng replies nonchalantly. "Go back to sleep."

You Miao says, "Come sleep in my room."

Li Zhifeng mn's in reply. Now that You Miao's woken up once, he finds it a little hard to go back to sleep, tossing and turning until he hears Li Zhifeng come in as usual, close the doors behind him, and spread out his bedding on the floor.

You Miao sticks his head out to look. On the ground by the bed, the quilt Li Zhifeng is using is still the same one You Miao had given him months ago, back in the Capital.

The wind picks up outside, sounding just like the cries of a female ghost. Remembering what Zhang Er had said during the day, that this house is haunted, all of You Miao's hair immediately stands on end.

"Come up here and sleep with me," You Miao says.

Li Zhifeng doesn't move, lying there and breathing evenly, clearly worn out from the day.

You Miao tries again, "Li Zhifeng?"

Li Zhifeng moves this time. You Miao continues, "Are you already asleep? Come to bed and sleep with me."

So Li Zhifeng gets in bed and lies down; his skin feels warm despite the cold shower just now. You Miao tugs at his arm, and Li Zhifeng stretches out the powerful limb for him to lie on, drawing him close and holding him snug.

You Miao had been a little scared at first, but now that he's cuddling with Li Zhifeng, he's thinking about something else altogether.

Li Zhifeng's breathing catches, that soft thing between his legs hardening in You Miao's hands after a few caresses.

You Miao looks up at him to find Li Zhifeng gazing at him as well.

"Do you want it?" Li Zhifeng asks in a low voice.

You Miao mn's, so Li Zhifeng unties his waistband and pulls You Miao close, moving to lie on top of him. He wraps one hand around You Miao's waist and reaches into his underclothes with the other, stroking and groping as he leans down to capture You Miao's lips with his own.

"Mm…" You Miao closes his eyes, feeling only hot and good. Doing it with him this time is a little different from the last time; there seems to be something more between the two of them now.

Li Zhifeng strips You Miao out of his clothes, one-handedly rummaging through a bag at the head of the bed for the mutton tallow used for warding off the cold, applies some to himself and then slowly pushes in. You Miao gasps out a soft "ah" at first, pained as that cock opens him up, but then Li Zhifeng begins to fuck into him, and he really doesn't want him to let go either. So they hold onto one another, the quilt shifting in time with their rhythmic movements. You Miao murmurs helplessly, "Come in a little, a little more…"

So Li Zhifeng drives in deep, and You Miao's abdomen tenses up with how good it feels as he brushes against that spot inside of him. He clutches at Li Zhifeng and bites down on his shoulder, but is pushed back down and his head forcibly turned, and Li Zhifeng's tongue pushes past his lips to rub heatedly against his own, kissing the breath right out of him.

You Miao doesn't know how long it's been, but he can't hold on for much longer, and above him, Li Zhifeng's breaths are coming out hard and fast as he bears down on him like a feral beast, even as he caresses his cheek with one hand and presses little kisses to his ear, then pulls out of him.

You Miao is still somewhat keen as he clings to Li Zhifeng, the two of them lying there quietly like this. Li Zhifeng pulls him against his chest and murmurs, "A little fast today."

You Miao grins and says, "They say this place is haunted."

Li Zhifeng responds, "I'll hold you, so don't be afraid."

"Mm." You Miao rubs his cheek against Li Zhifeng's chest, feeling sleep creep up on him, and dozes off.

---

Chapter 12

When he opens his eyes the next day, the winds outside have already stopped, the sky is clear and blue, and the chirping of birds can be heard. You Miao stretches, feeling rested and refreshed. He dresses himself and gets up, then hears Li Zhifeng outside talking to someone.

After washing up, You Miao crosses the corridor to see two laborers standing in front of the main hall, both around twenty years old, give or take, and someone following behind them. Li Zhifeng sees him coming over and goes inside to get the breakfast.

Breakfast is still just a bowl of noodles, but with three eggs this time. You Miao slurps the noodles down while the two laborers look around the place. One of them says with a grin, "Young Master, this sure is an old house eh, even older than my great aunt's place. It's gonna be a lotta work to fix it all up."

"Don't have the money to fix it all up." You Miao wipes his mouth and sets the empty bowl aside. "Seven parts new will do."

"Renovating all this to seven parts new is too much for just the two of us," the older craftsman that was the first to speak says. "Young Master might have to hire another person. Besides, there isn't enough lumber. Look at this window, and the door, they're barely even holding together…"

You Miao's dealt with so many merchants, how can he not know what these guys are getting at? Of course it all comes down to wanting more money. You Miao says tartly, "As if I'd let you change the door even if you wanted to. This is from the Tang dynasty, look at the craftsmanship on the carvings, this is rosewood. Don't try to pull a fast one on me, this is the same wood used in my own house."

You Miao taps on the wood in front of them and says, "The wood's perfectly fine, it's the rivets that rusted and broke, all it needs is a couple of new ones. Or what, you wanna tear my door off and use it as firewood? DLiang, the beams are fine too, be careful and don't mess up the door, you can't afford to pay for it if you break it."

The craftsman only grins unabashedly. "No can do, Young Master, really, we can't do this job."

You Miao knows that Li Zhifeng had found these guys at Anlu Village. Anlu Village is situated to the south, Guo Village is at the north, and Riverwave Estate is stuck right in the middle. There's bad blood between Anlu Village and Guo Village, and they're always at each other's throats year after year, so he casually comments, "Didn't think you could either, head on back then, I'll go find someone from Guo Village instead. What do you think they'll say when I tell them I want to fix up Shen Garden but you lot from Anlu were too chicken to take the job?"

The craftsman, hearing that, certainly can't leave now. He says, "Well that's not very fair of you, Young Master, we didn't know the job would be to fix up this huge place with just the two of us. Pounding and hammering aside, we don't even have the manpower to move stuff around. Even if it's just taking down the doors for a planing, the door alone's twenty-some kilos..."

You Miao says, "Couple of big buff guys like you can't even lift a door? Li Zhifeng!"

Li Zhifeng answers, and You Miao says, "This housekeeper of mine is tall and skinny, hardly even gets enough to eat every day… Li Zhifeng, go fetch me that water jar from outside."

Li Zhifeng walks to the middle of the garden, bends over, and hooks his fingers into the holes in a stone block sitting there.

All three people in the hall are silent as they watch Li Zhifeng. The water jar is only ten, maybe twenty kilos, but the stone block is nearly fifty kilos. Li Zhifeng lifts the stone block using only one hand and hauls it over to the hall, setting it down on the ground just outside with a dull thud.

You Miao: "Alright, you can put it back."

So Li Zhifeng picks up the stone block again using two fingers and hauls it back, dropping it on the ground with a thud, sending dust flying.

Both craftsmen are dumbstruck.

"Th-th-that…" The older craftsman stutters. "Young Master, seriously, it's not just about how heavy things are, this job really is too difficult."

You Miao says, "Just forget it if you won't take it, shoo shoo, why're you still here yabbering? Look at those puny builds of yours, you don't even look like you work in the great master's trade…"

"Says who!" The younger craftsman seems extremely offended as he rambles, "You're the stingy one that won't pay up! Making two people do the work of ten, you tell me, you tell me if that's fair!"

The older craftsman hurriedly shoots him a look to shut up. You Miao taunts, "What's wrong with doing ten people's worth of work and getting ten people's worth of pay? It's not like I'd short you there."

The older craftsman seems to be considering it. You Miao adds, "And if you need something lifted or moved, just have my housekeeper help. Anyway, don't say anything yet, just come with me and take a look first."

You Miao leads the two craftsmen through the estate while he talks, "For these rooms, fix up the windows, doors, and the wood panelling inside. Ask me before you tear down or toss anything, absolutely no taking anything down without my say-so."

They walk around for a quarter of an hour. From the main hall to the east wing, west wing, guest house, inner gate, main gate#, You Miao looks the whole place over and says, "Here's your pay for renovating the house, one string of coins# in total for the whole job, I'm not going any higher than that, don't bother haggling with me, I know your price anywhere else is just ten coins a day tops, this is ten days worth."

The younger craftsman hurriedly tugs his partner's clothing. You Miao is well aware that hiring these two for ten days at market value would just be two hundred coins. His offer is indeed ten people's worth, there's no way they won't take it.

The older craftsman asks, "Boss, you gonna cover meals?"

Since he's already calling him boss, that's as good as any agreement, so You Miao says, chipper, "Course, you get a share of whatever I eat."

"We're big eaters," the younger craftsman warns.

You Miao says, "One catty of rice per person per day, and two taels of wine for dinner, that's all you'll get."

"Alright." The older craftsman nods. "Lemme mull things over, plan things out for this job of yours. The Young Master knows his stuff, we'll have to get it done in ten days."

"No rush, just look over the places that need fixing and run things by me first. It's fine if you really can't finish in ten days, you can just keep working in that case, I don't mind," You Miao says casually.

The older craftsman laughs, "Yeah but us bros still gotta go home for New Years, what're we gonna do if we don't finish in time?"

You Miao laughs 'hehe', he doesn't actually care about spare change like this—after all, back at the Capital he used to spend money by the taels, and one string of coins isn't even enough for a pot of tea at the bigger teahouses there. It's just better with fewer people, easier to keep an eye on them that way, so that no one gets any funny ideas or sticky fingers, and there won't be any infighting between them, and so they won't feel inclined to slack off, hoping the others will do the job.

Li Zhifeng eats breakfast where he's crouched in the corridor and You Miao sips leisurely at his tea while the pair of craftsmen figure things out between themselves. Paying them no mind, You Miao grabs the pre-packed bag and leaves with Li Zhifeng to go section off land.

He didn't really look around too closely before, but now that he's walking around the place, You Miao is actually getting a bit scared of just how big Riverwave Estate is, just large plots of vacant land stretching into the distance as far as the eye can see. He laments internally, what a waste, what a waste, if only there were people to farm them.

Nine whole thousand mu of land, but only two hundred are being farmed, barely even enough for small change, and still gotta pay nine thousand mu worth of taxes year after year. Although the tax comes out of Sunshower Jade Estate's coffers, and father probably doesn't care about this measly amount anyway, but since he's taken over the place now, starting next year, he might have to figure out how to squeeze out those couple hundred silvers for those bloodsucking vampires at the government.

You Miao's feet are getting tired from all the walking, so Li Zhifeng carries him on his back. They walk past a canal that's long since dried up; the canal follows a winding course, originating from Anlu at the south and heading curiously toward the north.

"The water here's all dried up?" You Miao asks.

Li Zhifeng answers, "I asked about it, it used to draw water from Anlu Village, but it doesn't flow anymore."

You Miao climbs off and bends over to pick up some of the soil, spreading it out between his fingers to check the color, then says, "Gimme some water."

Li Zhifeng pours water from the leather pouch into the prepared wooden cup in his bag. You Miao melts some mud into the water, and finds that the soil quality actually isn't bad.

He flips open "Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People" and skims through the section on agriculture, then says, "This land isn't suited for planting tea, the soil's a bit too sticky."

Li Zhifeng doesn't understand what he's saying, so he simply stands there and listens. You Miao continues, "Let's go check that mountain over there."

They arrive at the bank of a river, its waters streaming past in a powerful torrent. There's no crossing ferry to be seen, but the banks are a couple dozen feet above the water line and a thick rope hangs between them for crossing purposes. You Miao can't help muttering, "Fucking hell, that's way too dangerous, who the hell does that."

Li Zhifeng says, "I'll carry you across, don't look down."

You Miao clings to Li Zhifeng's back, and Li Zhifeng repeats, "Don't be afraid, and don't look down." He then uses his belt to tie the two of them together and starts climbing across using the rope just like that. Halfway across, You Miao can't help himself from looking down, and immediately feels dizzy from it.

The soil north of the river is different from that south of the river; the land here is good, perfect for planting trees.

You Miao walks to the end, where a boundary stone of the Riverwave Estate marks the border. Past here, the road headed into Guo Village is all but buried under weeds. But just across the boundary, someone's farm plot is encroaching into the estate's territory. Said someone is currently burning hay, and when he notices them, he immediately hollers, "What're you doing here! Where'd you come from?"

You Miao thinks to himself, you tired of living or something, planting your land into my turf? But then again, there hasn't been anyone to manage this estate for a hundred years, so he can only let it go for now, and deal with him later. Looking at the guy, he's probably from Guo Village.

Guo Village and Anlu Village have straight up gotten their people together to duke it out on the downlow before, even killed a couple people in the process. They literally can't stand the sight of one another.

You Miao waves his hands. "I'm from Riverwave Estate!"

The farmer straightens up and says, "Riverwave Estate? Someone's finally taking charge of that haunted place?"

Li Zhifeng's face darkens, but You Miao gestures not to mind it, then says with a laugh, "My name is You Miao, You Dechuan's son. I'm planning to tidy this place up and live here. If it's not too much trouble, I'd appreciate it if dge can let your Guo Village folks know I'm gonna be the new neighbor."

The person looks You Miao up and down before saying, "So you're Young Master You? No wonder…"

Suddenly getting an idea, You Miao asks Li Zhifeng, "How far away is Guo Village from here?"

But it's the farmer who answers, "Right over there, two and a half kilometers straight ahead."

You Miao nods and says to Li Zhifeng in a low voice, "Go back and bring me some tea from the second drawer in the study, measure out half a catty from the box inside."

Li Zhifeng heads back while You Miao grins, sits down on a big rock, and—paying no mind to the fact that the plot the farmer is currently opening up infringes on his land—strikes up a casual conversation with him, asking what crops he usually plants. The farmer seems somewhat incredulous and only treats him as a pampered little young master. He's not wrong, You Miao is a young master, has barely ever lifted a finger all his life and is hardly even able to tell the difference between the various crops, but since he's here now, who he used to be before doesn't much matter anymore.

You Miao is clever by nature, and knows exactly what to say and who to say it to. Li Zhifeng returns before long, and the two of them follow the farmer back to Guo Village.

This place is already within the Liuzhou Prefecture. Liuzhou and Yangzhou are divided by the Yangtze River, which was that ropeway they just used to cross#. Liuzhou people have an unyielding temper and are loud and fierce in arguments, while Yangzhou people are coolly scathing. There's only a river between them, but the people and customs are quite different.

You Miao meets with Guo Village's old village chief and gifts him a small case of tea. The village chief is quite surprised as he says, "How can your dad bear to toss you out here?"

You Miao replies with a smile, "No I chose to come here, Sunshower Jade Estate is boring."

The old village chief is already sixty-something and easily grasps the meaning behind his words. He smiles and says, "I met your mom once, back then."

You Miao wasn't expecting that. "Really?"

The old village chief continues smilingly, "You're clever just like your mom." Then he turns toward the couple of people sitting in the hall and says, "Young Master You is here to manage the estate now, so we'll be neighbors from now on, make sure to visit often."

You Miao smiles. "That's a matter of course. How much tax is collected on Guo Village's lands?"

The old village chief sighs. "Four parts, both last year and this. The county hasn't sent a guarantor yet, so who knows what it'll be next year."

"Oh." You Miao nods thoughtfully. Four parts, so in other words, four-tenths of the harvest has to be handed over as tax every year, and the tenant farmer gets the remaining six-tenths.

"My dad's estate," You Miao says with a smile, "is taxed at seven parts."

"That's different," the village chief says. "A tea plantation can make do however much it gets taxed, but the lands here can't grow tea, and no one'd want it even if we did grow tea here, aye, it's really not easy here."

Struck by a sudden idea, You Miao says, "Actually, I was thinking about putting down some tea trees in the estate, but I don't have anyone to do the work, didn't have any luck recruiting tenant farmers either. If it's alright, would you mind keeping an eye out for me, and if anyone comes looking for long term work, send them my way?"

The village chief doesn't say anything either way, so You Miao continues with a smile, "Sunshower Jade Estate is gonna give me twenty thousand tea saplings per year, the top of the top Beauty Brow variety. Once the leaves are sun-dried into Springsun Guapian, it's sure to sell. The Empress Dowager was rather fond of it a couple years back, but it hasn't been sent to the imperial court as tribute these recent years, going to Banan, Shuzhong, and Hanzhong instead, so my dad hasn't bothered to plant it lately, and all the saplings are just sitting in the estate collecting dust…"

The village chief asks, "Young Master You wants to plant tea on this mountain?"

"That's the plan." You Miao grins. "But I don't really have any people, and tea trees take a couple years to grow anyway, so I'm not in any rush."

The village chief says, "Yeah, we're all just making do year by year these days, there isn't even enough grain left over to feed people, so we can't afford to wait the couple years it takes for the tea trees to grow, and besides, tea trees are hard to care for…"

You Miao laughs. "My mom and dad spent their whole lives growing tea, surely the chief doesn't think me incapable of taking care of a couple of tea trees?"

The village chief replies, "You're Lady Qiao's son, of course you're more than capable of growing tea trees. I'm just afraid that tenant farmers won't be willing to go, since it'll take at least two years for the tea trees to grow, but their families still gotta eat in the meantime, that's not something you can wait on!"

You Miao nods an 'mn' and says, "I was looking to hire some long term workers, but had no luck since everyone's gone home to celebrate the New Year. Chief, if you have any idle hands sitting around in between harvests, let me hire a couple to open up some land for me. I'll make it worth their time, ten coins for every mu of land."

"Alrighty," the village chief says. "Sure, I'll keep an eye out for you, send people your way if anyone wants to earn some extra money."

You Miao is quite satisfied with that; he knows that, toward the end of the year, there are always people looking to make some extra money to pay back debts or buy new clothes for their wives. With old man Guo helping, people will definitely come knocking within three days. With that settled, You Miao gets up, bids his farewells, and heads out together with Li Zhifeng.

Li Zhifeng asks, "Wanna go to the market?"

You Miao, feeling all lazy, says, "I don't wanna walk anymore."

Li Zhifeng smiles, "I'll carry you."

You Miao grins and pushes him as he says, "Get out first, don't be embarrassing in here. Is the market far?"

Li Zhifeng replies, "It's not far, just at the riverside pier."

They leave Guo Village via the eastern road, then Li Zhifeng carries You Miao on his back, the two looking just like a married couple strolling along the river bank—You Miao realizes with a start, they really are just like a married couple!

You Miao tugs on Li Zhifeng's ear and says, "Hey."

"Hm?" Li Zhifeng answers.

You Miao was thinking to tease him a bit, but then can't think of what to say, so he flops onto his back with his arms hanging lazily over his shoulders, dangling to and fro as he whispers against his ear, "Oi, I said, is the market far?"

He's already asked that earlier, and is clearly just messing with him now. Just like how he used to pull the same thing on Li Yan back at the Capital, even though it never ended well for him—every time he teased, Li Yan would shoot him a glare, smack him around, and then grab and smooch him.

But Li Zhifeng's response is only to turn bright red.

"I said…" You Miao is practically pressed up right against his ear now.

Li Zhifeng turns his head to look at You Miao, then abruptly presses their lips together. You Miao closes his eyes; being carried on his back and kissed like this, something that's been accumulating in his heart seems to be melting away.

"It's not far." Their lips part, but Li Zhifeng's face is still red as he keeps walking.

You Miao sticks his finger in Li Zhifeng's ear and wiggles it. Li Zhifeng's breathing speeds up, and even his steps are faltering a little as he walks toward the river bank carrying You Miao. His voice is a little unsteady as he says, "Was last night not enough to fill you up?"

You Miao laughs 'hehe' as they arrive at the river bank east of Guo Village. The corner of Li Zhifeng's lips tug upward slightly as he says, "We're here."

Past the high cliffs near the Riverwave Estate, the flow of the Yangtze River in this area becomes calm and waveless. There's a pier here for ships from Shudong, Badong, and Jiangcheng to load and unload goods for transport past Guo Village, located at the lower reaches of the river toward the northern regions of Yangzhou Prefecture.

There's a lively market right in front of the pier, stretching out for at least half a kilometer and lined with stalls on either side, half of which are selling fish while the other half are peddling cosmetics, Suzhou embroideries, sea salt, and other food and every day items, and there's also a street performer with three monkeys.

You Miao strolls around and doesn't see anything he wants to buy, but does feel like eating fish, so he picks out two large carps and says, "Let's have this for dinner."

Li Zhifeng carries the fish while they stroll around some more. There's a ferry moored at the river bank with its sails open, hollering, "River——crossing——"

The two of them board the ferry and toss two copper coins into the bamboo canister, and the boatman steers the ferry leisurely across the river.

"We should mark the borders of the estate," You Miao says.

"Mn," Li Zhifeng agrees. "We can fence it off, I'll do it."

You Miao says, "Actually, if we get some people to farm the lands near Guo Village, we can just have those families watch over the land there, and then set up a couple of lookouts, that should suffice."

Li Zhifeng nods. You Miao watches the river streaming past; the waters here in the Jiangnan area never freeze over, which is a good thing. There's really too much to do, clearing land for farming, planting the actual crops, building the waterwheel, recruiting farmers… and the house still has to be fixed up too.

You Miao licks his lips and, looking toward the eye-rolling carps that Li Zhifeng is holding, asks, "This fish is tasty, do you know how to cook it?"

Li Zhifeng answers, "I know how to grill fish."

You Miao says, "Then I'll leave it to you when we get back."

The ferry reaches the other shore, and You Miao asks how many rounds the ferry makes per day before following the crowd off. The pier that the ferry is docked at is two and a half kilometers outside of Riverwave Estate, and they still have to walk back the rest of the way. When they get to the entrance to the estate, You Miao notices a big pit that's at least a dozen mu large and overgrown with grass.

"This is a pond?" You Miao is suprised.

"Young Master You." A skinny man is just squatting by a large pit smoking tobacco with a long-stemmed pipe, and when he sees You Miao's come, he greets with a smile on his face, "Young Master went out? Didn't see you around."

"Mn," You Miao replies, taking a few steps around the pit, "Where's your house? What's your name again?"

The skinny man points casually to the west with the long-stemmed pipe, smiling apologetically. "This humble one is called Zhu Tang. I was just scolded by the wife at home, so I came out for a stroll."

You Miao nods. With only the first look yesterday he knew this guy didn't want to leave, and when he said he was scolded by the wife, it isn't hard to guess that it must be because he came up to ask for a lower rent but didn't succeed, and when he got home the wife gave him a good talking to. But You Miao doesn't point this out and only grins, "If I was to decrease your rent by ten percent, would you still leave?"

Zhu Tang is dumbstruck on the spot. Just as he is about to nod, he seems to have thought of something and stops halfway, "This humble one… will go back and ask the wife."

"That's fine," You Miao replies. "I've already planned on lowering your rent, it's just everyone said you all don't want to farm anymore, so I didn't get a chance to say anything. Why don't you go home and discuss it with your wife. It's not easy to find a good land to farm nowadays. I'm not tricking you, and it's better to farm for me than my dad."

Zhu Tang laughs brightly. "Young Master is right, even north over by Guo Village the rent for the fields is forty percent, I say."

You Miao mn's, then spaces out looking at that giant pit. This here should've been a big lake, so how did the water dry out? The three of them walk along the lake and reach the western-most side, and You Miao sees a creek. He then points to Anlu in the south. "This pond doesn't have water anymore?"

"It's been dry for ten years," Zhu Tang replies. "There was water in the past, and Uncle Liang used to fish here too. When there's rain in the spring and summer, the water sometimes even overflows a bit."

"Where does that creek lead to?"

"To Anlu Village," Zhu Tang replies. "Our estate is good in everything, it's just water that's inconvenient."

You Miao nods slowly, but ideas have already settled in his mind, and he pats Zhu Tang's shoulder, looking all mature, before he and Li Zhifeng head back to the estate the way they came.

You Miao only thinks time is moving too fast. He's done practically nothing and it's already past noon. The two craftsmen are a pair of brothers, called DLiang and Xiao-Liang# respectively, and when they see You Miao's come back, they hand him a piece of paper. "Everything that needs to be repaired in the front courtyard is listed on here, will the Young Master take a look."

The things drawn on the paper are also marked with plenty of notes, and normal folks wouldn't have understood, but to You Miao it's nothing. "Tidy things up a bit first and go wait in front of the main house. I'll come momentarily."

You Miao enters the study and spreads open that "Exploitations of the Works of Nature", then using it to match against what DLiang has measured, he changed a few places before taking the paper back out, "Renovate based on this and we're good."

DLiang sees that You Miao is one who understands the trade and asks, "Young Master also learned these crafts?"

"My mom studied under the great master once upon a time."

Now the two craftsmen no longer dare to underestimate him, and go to busy themselves measuring things out with rulers and marking places to repair with chalk and ink strings. You Miao returns to the study and gestures at Li Zhifeng to push the desk close to the long couch, then reclines on the couch and starts reading.

"Why don't I go and watch over them?" Li Zhifeng suggests.

You Miao waves his hand dismissively, "No need, they won't try anything funny. You just need to go grill the fish a bit later."

The puppy has come, curling in front of the bed and wags its tail. You Miao leans against Li Zhifeng, his manly body warm, and he holds him. Being held like this, You Miao is distracted and only feels his mind wandering, thinking about simply ripping Li Zhifeng's clothes off and committing debauchery inside the study in plain daylight.

But the craftsmen are just outside; if they are seen by accident, they'll become a laughing stock, so he can only hold it in.

You Miao digs out a "Treatise of Gongshu"#, and starts to immerse himself fully, enjoying his reading, and moments later, all his little agendas become absorbed by all the mechanical drawings within the book.

Gongshu Ban and Mozi are both equal in talents, and in this book, a very interesting mechanism is mentioned——A cliff wheel. You Miao's eyes light up instantly, and he spreads all three books out.

"These three can actually be combined together." You Miao mumbles to himself. Then he speaks up, "Bring over the charcoal stick… let me see."

You Miao spreads the map of Riverwave Estate over the table. "If this water wheel can be fabricated, then this'll be an investment of a million gains."

The waterwheel designs from both Mozi and Gongshu are very good, but they're not quite suitable for use at Riverwave Estate. In this moment, a daring plan comes to You Miao——He will combine the two waterwheels, and create an apparatus upon the cliff that will last forever.

If a cliffside waterwheel like this can be built and a canal is dug, then it can irrigate the over five thousand mu of land in the southern part of the estate, then enter the lake from the canal, before flowing to Anlu village via the creek.

Once the waterwheel and the canal are done, Riverwave Estate will truly become a paradise on earth. Digging a canal is the easy part; the hard part is building a waterwheel with a chain belt on that cliff hundreds of feet tall. They'll have to set up scaffolding on the cliff and hire at least ten craftsmen. And if the Yangtze floods, there's no guarantee the waterwheel will hold against the rising water levels.

But it's the lunar month in the midst of winter, the water level of the river is low, so it's the perfect time to develop any water-related mechanisms. If they miss this chance, then when the ice sealing the Yangtze is melted, building anything then would require swimming.

There's no time to lose, they must act now.

You Miao says to Li Zhifeng, "Go dig the canal, starting at the cliff facing the river and following the line I drew here."

Li Zhifeng doesn't ask any questions, he simply nods and leaves. As for You Miao, he stays in the study for the rest of the afternoon, drawing and notating, calculating dimensions and water capacities, determining where to fix the chain, referencing both "Mohist Classics" and "Treatise of Gongshu" while he marks everything down.

This will undoubtedly be a massive undertaking—getting the materials, the actual construction, and then the scaffolding to put it all up, who knows if there will even be craftsmen out there willing to take on such a dangerous project, climbing up the cliff to install the chain waterwheel, or if anyone will even have the skills for it.

While You Miao is scribbling away, Li Zhuang comes by with ink strings, line markers, cutters, hammers, saws, hatchets and such, as well as nails and asphalt. You Miao goes out to the courtyard to ask, "Did you get a cost estimate for the lumber?"

"To answer the Young Master," Li Zhuang smiles. "It's all written on here. I can't read, but I was afraid I might forget something, so I had a scholar write it down for me."

It's a list of lumber prices from Anlu Village, clearly written, from the more expensive black sandalwood, white poplar, and maple lumber, to the cheaper birchwood and willow planks. You Miao sits while contemplating it, mentally calculating how much it's going to cost to build this waterwheel.

Li Zhuang keeps glancing at the craftsmen renovating Shen Garden, and sends them a greeting.

"Young Master wants to build more houses?" Li Zhuang asks.

"I want to build a waterwheel." You Miao answers absently. "Have water flow from the higher plains down. When spring comes the reclaimed lands will need watering, no?"

Li Zhuang nods and You Miao waves. "Why don't you all come and rest a while, don't overwork yourselves."

With a long-stemmed pipe dangling in his mouth, DLiang comes over to take a break, puffing smoke. Even on this cold winter day, his back is covered in sweat as he heh-hehs. You Miao shows him his drawings. "What do you think of this?"

DLiang doesn't waste time on small talk either, and takes the drawing to give it a glance. "Whoa! Young Master, you're trying to build a big stack here."

"D'you think this can be done?" You Miao asks.

The drawing is of a chain waterwheel fixed to the cliffside, a humongous wooden wheel with a chain in the middle, pinned to the face of the cliff to be driven to rotate by the flow of the river, the wheel in turn rotating a sprocket to lift water scoops full of water up the hundreds-feet-tall cliff to dump into the canal.

DLiang can't speak for a long moment.

"Young Master," DLiang starts. "What are you…"

"What?" You Miao looks at him with a big smile.

You Miao knows DLiang thinks he's out of his mind, so he explains, "Look here, there's also a sliding groove."

You Miao points at the vertical sliding groove on the cliffside and says, "If the bearing of the waterwheel is fitted inside, then if the water level rises during a flood, the wheel will rise with it and not get submerged by the flooding, and if the water level drops during the dry season, the waterwheel will likewise lower with it, this way, it'll spin year-round. As for the water scoops, these are just a plank, and a big water tank…"

"Gotchu, gotchu," DLiang nods along. "I get what you're doing here, it's just that I've never seen this kinda…"

DLiang looks at it over and over again. You Miao says, "Let me know if you see any issues with it. What say you to staying here through New Years to make the parts for me? I'll pay you well for it."

"This I can't say," DLiang says. "I'll have to go back and ask the master."

"Then when you're free, go ask him for me," You Miao says.

Xiao-Liang pipes up, "Our master loves these kinds of weird…"

"Watch your tongue!" DLiang is instantly angered and scolds, "What the Young Master is studying is divine craft! You're the one who doesn't have the eye for it!"

Xiao-Liang can only hold his tongue. DLiang can see that this waterwheel isn't anything ordinary, and speaks up, "I will run back to Anping County for a bit."

DLiang makes a copy of You Miao's drawings and leaves. By evening, Li Zhifeng returns. "Everything's marked."

You Miao is still notating and calculating, his head down. Li Zhifeng asks, "I'll start digging tomorrow?"

You Miao laughs. "By yourself?"

"I can try," Li Zhifeng replies. "It's just manual labour."

"Alright," You Miao says cheerfully. "Let's do it together. Let's dig a canal."

Li Zhifeng en's and goes to make dinner. You Miao stretches. With the coming of night, Shen Garden is even more quiet, only a small puppy running back and forth outside, knowing it's meal time and circling about Li Zhifeng.

"Are we having fish?" You Miao is as excited as that dog.

"Un." The corners of Li Zhifeng's lips hang a smile as he slits the stomach of the fish, taking out the gills. That big carp is still flopping, making the puppy bark madly at it.

Li Zhifeng washes both carps clean, and applies a heavy layer of salt and black bean sauce, stuffing the stomach full of ginger slices, star anise, and dill. On the scales a layer of lard is smeared, then four silver forks pierce, crisscrossing through them. A campfire is started in the yard, and the fish are thus stacked over the fire to grill.

Once the aroma starts drifting You Miao's drool immediately begins to roll, and he exclaims, "I'll go steam the rice!"

"Is it ready yet?" You Miao asks after he's covered the steamer pot and comes back out.

Li Zhifeng gives You Miao a look. "No."

"Is it ready yet?" You Miao asks.

"No," Li Zhifeng replies expressionlessly.

"Is it ready yet?" You Miao asks.

"No," Li Zhifeng replies.

"Is it ready yet…"

"No…"

The two continue their boring question and answer, until the scales have been grilled to a beautiful golden colour, sizzling as the grease drips down. You Miao's eyes finally see stars and he falls immobile into Li Zhifeng's arms, unmoving.

Li Zhifeng starts to laugh, and with one hand holding You Miao and the other holding the two fish, he takes them into the main house. The moment You Miao is seated he starts to eat up. This time it tastes just right; the skin of the carp is crispy and delicious, the fish meat tender and fresh, but it's the fish maw that's the tastiest, using green onions, ginger, and other such seasoning to stuff the stomach and with lard fused within, it's truly the number one delicacy of the world.

You Miao wolfs down two bowls of rice, and is so stuffed he lazes over the bed, unable to move. Only then does Li Zhifeng use the remaining fish juices to mix some rice to feed the dog, then he himself squats in the corridor and stuffs down his rice.

---

Chapter 13

Early the next day, the sound of people talking outside wakes You Miao.

"He hasn't risen yet, you can't go in!" Li Zhifeng is practically outraged.

The voice of an elderly man comes, even more aggressive than his. "And you're gonna kill this old man, are you?!"

You Miao jolts in surprise and quickly gets up, running into the yard in bare feet, and sees an old man standing before DLiang. The old man has his cane raised and pointed at Li Zhifeng as he yells, but Li Zhifeng is having none of it, and has the other end of the cane gripped in one hand.

"Ay, wait a minute," You Miao calls out.

Li Zhifeng instantly calms down a little, and You Miao turns to the old man. "Please sir, wait in the main hall first."

"You're the one who called this old man over," the old man says. "Since you invited me, how can you make your elder wait?!"

You Miao instantly rages inwardly, thinking well who the heck are you? But just as he is about to retort, the old man continues scolding, "You young man who snoozes so much, not rising 'til the middle of the day, self-indulgent and lazy, there's no hope for you!!"

As he speaks he raises his cane, ready to beat down. Li Zhifeng's face darkens and he's just about about to push that old man away when You Miao, afraid Li Zhifeng will strike too hard and accidentally take a life, quickly stops him. "This elder is right to scold me, I've received the discipline."

That old man harrumphs heavily, stomping his cane on the ground. When You Miao had spoken those words he hadn't really mean it, yet the moment the words "I've received the discipline" leaves his lips, something clicks.

"I won't oversleep in the future," You Miao promises.

"A man must account for himself. You want to build a family from scratch, land some achievements, do something great? Then you can't be lazy." The old man leans on his cane, scolding in all seriousness and reason. "When you're done with breakfast come to the hall."

You Miao nods repeatedly as that old man walks away with DLiang.

Only then does Li Zhifeng go in to attend to You Miao's dressing and washing. As You Miao is washing up, his mind is entirely filled with the lecture from that old man earlier. It's true. You Miao refuses to accept it when his father tells him these truthisms, yet in this moment, in this place, to have a complete stranger say them to him feels like a bat to the head, knocking him awake.

"Go get some Sunshower Jade Qingfeng#," You Miao says. "Brew tea for that old man, and be more polite."

"Alright," Li Zhifeng replies.

Li Zhifeng turns to leave, and You Miao starts to wash his own face. When Li Zhifeng returns, You Miao asks, "What did he say?"

"Said you're a child worth teaching," Li Zhifeng answers.

Done with washing his face, You Miao looks up and glances at Li Zhifeng, giving him a smile.

You Miao eats his breakfast as quickly as he can before heading over to the main hall to sit, and only then does DLiang make the formal introduction for You Miao. "Young Master You, this is my shifu. Everyone addresses him as Huang-shi#."

"This young one You Miao greets the teacher," You Miao says humbly.

You Miao bows in respect, and Old Craftsman Huang doesn't demur either, accepting his respect with open arms. "Liang Bin came back last night and showed me this drawing. Did you think this up all on your own?"

You Miao doesn't dare to take the credit and replies, "This is something this young one came up with after reading "Mohists Classics", "Treatise of Gongshu", and "Exploitations of the Works of Nature". If there are any flaws, please enlighten me."

"There are flaws all over." Old Craftsman Huang rises to his feet. "Where do you plan on setting this thing up? Bring me over to see. Liang Bin, go back to your work. You Miao, you lead the way."

You Miao notices that when Old Craftsman Huang is around, DLiang doesn't dare speak a single word, and even now he only answers with the utmost respect, "Yessir." With this, it's obvious to see that that Old Craftsman Huang is extremely strict with his students, so You Miao doesn't dare be impolite either, and heads out to lead the way properly, beckoning Old Craftsman Huang to follow him as he makes his way towards the cliff.

"Teacher." You Miao brings the drawing over to Old Craftsman Huang for him to see, then gestures to the cliff. "I want to install the waterwheel there, but I haven't had the chance to dig the canal yet."

"If this construction project does go through, it's not going to be something that can be done in a day or two," Old Craftsman Huang says. "And it's gonna take money. You're sure about this?"

You Miao only knows the principles but he's never actually done projects like these in real life, so he quickly asks, "How many days would it take?"

"The waterwheel aside," Old Craftsman Huang replies, "just this canal alone, if you want to dig it all the way to the front of the village entrance, then without at least fifty labourers even a month won't cut it."

You Miao then asks where he can hire labour hands but Old Craftsman Huang only shakes his head. "Go dig out the canal first and I'll bring you the construction craftsmen."

Recruiting for volunteer labourers is the government's business; You Miao is new to the land and a stranger to the people, plus it's close to New Year, so it's probably inconvenient to make a run to the county government offices until the end of the year. Old Craftsman Huang himself lives in Yangzhou Prefecture, and that time when You Miao had gone to see him with the drawings, he'd agreed to help You Miao fabricate bits and pieces of the waterwheel parts here and there. Now, with the help of this old man,You Miao knows the waterwheel project is most likely going to be successful.

Hiring for fifty labour hands to dig a canal however, is the more troublesome issue. In You Miao's mind, things are just becoming more and more convoluted, a complete mess. Originally he'd just wanted to find something to do to occupy his time, yet he hadn't expected that each problem would drag out another; farming needs a waterwheel, a waterwheel needs lumber, then a canal dug, and now he needs to recruit for labour hands… one after the other, the problems are endless, and they're gonna cost a pretty penny too.

Fifty labour hands aren't so easily hired, he doesn't have enough money!

With a heavy heart, You Miao returns to Shen Garden once he's sent off Old Craftsman Huang. The two craftsmen are still banging and hammering about, while Li Zhifeng is washing an iron shovel at the well.

"Back?" Li Zhifeng asks, "What did he say?"

"Gotta spend money, hire people," You Miao answers. "It all comes down to money, left right and centre. What… what are you doing?"

"Digging a canal." Li Zhifeng replies.

You Miao recalls what the two of them talked about the night before and says, "Let's go, I'll come along too. Together, together."

It's the time of the day when the breezes are soft and the day is bright; as Li Zhifeng drives the horse-pulled cart to the first field on the high plains, the endless horizon is filled with big, fluffy dandelions, and when the river breeze blows, the white blossoms take off and dance in the wind.

You Miao gazes over to where the river is, shovel carried in his arms, his spirit light and relaxed.

"It's right here," Li Zhifeng says. "The range you marked yesterday."

"How long is it?" You Miao asks.

"About 7.5 kilometers," Li Zhifeng replies.

7.5 kilometers. Just walking that would make You Miao collapse from fatigue. Truthfully, he's already quite exhausted having walked here from Shen Garden then back, then coming over again with an iron shovel.

"Ok ok, let's dig," You Miao sighs, hopeless.

"You sit and rest," Li Zhifeng says. "I can do it."

7.5 kilometers; ten meters in a day, five hundred meters in a month, this would take a year and three months…You Miao clenches his shovel, suddenly feeling the magnitude of this construction project. But Li Zhifeng just rolls his sleeves up, sticks his shovel into the dirt, and starts digging.

The soil here is very hard, and there's also a layer of rock formation underneath; the shallower areas on top are easier to dig, but the deeper it goes the more difficult it gets. Still, when Li Zhifeng digs and tosses earth, it's as easy as cutting tofu.

You Miao always believes this guy, Li Zhifeng, is practically the most powerful man on this earth. He can fight battles and cook, he can kill people and kill chickens, grill fish, and his body seems to have a reservoir of strength that never depletes itself. He's practically a different person compared to when they'd first met. Li Yan had actually locked this treasure up in the firewood house and force fed him medicine, even planning on beating him to death. What a waste.

But looking at it from a different angle, if he'd followed Li Yan, he wouldn't have been useful either. Li Yan usually deals in the political scene, but Li Zhifeng doesn't know anything about playing around or forming cliques for personal advantages. He can't fight and kill people in the capital either, never mind be an attendant.

It's only after he's started following the unfortunate You Miao that he's got a purpose other than being a bed mate. But this is also precisely why You Miao is unable to leave Li Zhifeng.

Li Zhifeng digs a pit, while You Miao squats on the side watching as the pit grows gradually deeper and deeper, till its almost half the size of a man. Afraid he'll exhaust himself, You Miao keeps calling out, "Alright, take a break."

"No need," Li Zhifeng answers.

After having dug out a pit, Li Zhifeng stands in it himself, covered in beads of sweat that roll down his back. He peels off his outer robe and hands it to You Miao. On such a cold day, his strong, healthy back is exposed as he continues to dig, on and on. You Miao is scared he might catch a cold and calls out again, "Let's hire people to come dig after all, I worry about you."

Li Zhifeng smiles and shakes his head.

Two whole hours pass and Li Zhifeng has dug about one and a half meters of land. On the ground, You Miao takes his shovel and shovels up all the dug out earth to pile onto the cart, then has the horse haul it away.

It only takes one cart of transporting earth and You Miao is done. The palms that had gripped the shovel are covered in red marks, and throb painfully.

When he returns Li Zhifeng finally comes up to take a break by the gutter, appearing a little tired.

"I've gotten old," Li Zhifeng says. "Can't go on."

You Miao bursts out laughing, unable to hold back, and the two sit in the bushes, snuggled against one another. You Miao feels warmth filling his heart again.

This won't do. If they keep digging like this, they're gonna waste their entire lives here. Labour hands will need to be hired. You Miao has never done anything like this before, and hadn't known how puny the strength of one man is, but now he understands. There are many things that can't be done just because he says so. This is practically like Mr. Gump and His Mountain#.

You Miao takes out a charcoal stick and starts scribbling on the wooden board, and Li Zhifeng asks, "What's this?"

"I'm calculating to see how much money it'll take to complete both the waterwheel and the canal," You Miao replies.

You Miao counts for a while; the waterwheel needs lumber, scaffolding built by the cliffside on the river, transport, construction craftsmen… ordinary construction workers can't do this kind of work either, they'll also need to setup a fixed point for excavation, get barrels and dynamite.

The blades of the waterwheel will also require the best of lumber, otherwise it's not guaranteed that they can keep scooping water for decades. They'll also need thick, waterproof paint and asphalt.

Once the canal is dug it needs to be bricked to prevent water leakage, so on and so forth. In the end, everything adds up to money.

"How much money?" Li Zhifeng asks.

"At least five hundred silver," You Miao replies.

Li Zhifeng nods. What You Miao lacks the most right now is money, he's only got about a hundred or so silver. If this was the past when he would squander big time in the capital, money wouldn't have been a problem at all.

Where is all that money gonna come from? Old Craftsman Huang has already gone to go fabricate parts and look for people for him, and this project will need to be complete by spring next year, otherwise with days dragging on, who knows how things will look like come the end of the next year?

No money no money no money… money money money money money… You Miao tosses the charcoal stick away and yells a few times.

"Is there not enough?" Li Zhifeng asks.

"Not even close," You Miao replies, distaste written all over his face.

"Let me think of something," Li Zhifeng says.

You Miao starts in surprise. "You've got an idea?"

"I'll go try robbing the government coffers."

"..."

"You still need five hundred, right?" Li Zhifeng says.

You Miao: "!!!"

You Miao thought Li Zhifeng was joking at first, but he didn't expect the man to actually be serious, and quickly replies, "Don't you dare do anything funny! All government silver is stamped, patterned silver patterned silver, that refers to government silver. Even if you steal them you won't be able to use them, we can only sit around waiting to be arrested!"

Li Zhifeng mn's and You Miao adds, "If you get executed whatever would I do?"

Li Zhifeng smiles and nods, and seeing that nonchalant face, You Miao repeats his chiding over and over. "Absolutely do not do anything funny, alright?"

Li Zhifeng acknowledges him then jumps back down into the pit to continue his digging. You Miao inwardly repeats in his mind that he must absolutely not allow him to go steal from government coffers. This guy is totally scared of nothing, and he'll do them both in.

Li Zhifeng digs for an entire day, and only when the sun is setting in the west does he speak up, "Let's go home and I'll make you dinner, then come back later at night."

"Don't bother coming back later, just cuddle me to sleep," You Miao says.

Li Zhifeng grins. "Okay."

Having dug for so long to excavate only about over three meters, You Miao really wants to cry but no tears come. "Don't bother coming tomorrow, I'll think of another way."

Li Zhifeng doesn't respond and only carries the tools up to the cart. The two transport all the earth and dump it in a further off area, then Li Zhifeng leisurely drives the cart home.

"We should purchase some donkeys," Li Zhifeng says. "People over at Anlu told me that donkeys are very useful, and if we're planting fields, we'll need a few cattle too."

"Alright…" All of You Miao's spirit has already left him. Counting over and over, he only has a small amount of money, and nothing more. He figures that all the outsiders, knowing that he's the younger son of Sunshower Jade Estate, will all think he's rich, but other than those few trunks of fox pelts he'd brought from home that could maybe get him at most another hundred silver or two, he's got nothing.

He can't sell the tea; Shen Garden will have to receive guests sometimes, if the County Chief comes visiting, what tea would he offer his guests?

So powerless. All he needs is one or two thousand silver.

Still, You Miao would never go home to ask for money from his old man. In this moment, a number of ideas enters his mind. What if he leaves all this for the moment, and go out to do a couple days of reselling business? Or maybe write a letter and send someone to go borrow money from the Capital? Agree to make repayments in the Autumn, twenty percent dividend… But though he'll be able to borrow no problem, he can't guarantee absolute profit for sure, so if he can't pay up in time, then he'll have betrayed his good bros' trust.

Li Zhifeng is killing a chicken in the yard, and that little spotted puppy is chasing the chicken as it squawks and runs all over, blood still spilling from its neck as it dashes for its life. Li Zhifeng then goes inside, and when the pot of water is boiled, he comes back out. He snaps a stick off of a branch and hurls it nonchalantly, piercing the head of that chicken right through.

"Nice!" In that instant You Miao forgets all of his troubles and claps vigorously.

Dangling the chicken, Li Zhifeng brings it inside to pluck. The boy that he is, You Miao drops everything and chases after him. "You're really skilled at archery. That accuracy!"

The corners of Li Zhifeng's lips curl slightly, and he en's as he sits on a small stool plucking the chicken. "Why don't you praise me for my skills in bed too?"

You Miao starts to laugh, and reaches over to pat Li Zhifeng's handsome face, the two of them sitting together in the darkening kitchen. The water's boiling, bubbling as steam rises. You Miao feels his heart stir in spite of himself, and huddles over. Li Zhifeng says, "My face is dirty, it's all muddy." But he turns his head over and softly kisses his lips.

In this moment, You Miao can't help but think, money is but a small issue, if he can pass his days like this, then it'll be an extremely happy life.

"I'm starving." You Miao starts to whine. "When can we eat?"

"Soon," Li Zhifeng replies. "Won't be long."

Li Zhifeng plucks and butchers the chicken, then after cleaning it thoroughly he places the whole chicken into a clay pot, adds three bowls of water, and puts it all into the big boiled pot to steam. A short period of time later, the aroma of the dish begins to fill the air; even from outside, craftsmen DLiang and Xiao-Liang, who are starving, keep peeking into the kitchen from the yard.

That night, a fat chicken steamed in partitioned boiling water is set on the table, and the moment You Miao sees it his eyes become completely fixed. Li Zhifeng cuts all the tender parts, the drumsticks and wings out properly and has You Miao start first, then the chicken breast, the chicken rear, and chicken back are carved out. The not-so-tender and bony parts are taken outside along with a jug of two catties of wine and a bucket of rice, and given to the two craftsment for their meal.

"Come and eat too," You Miao says.

Li Zhifeng sits down at the table and You Miao puts a drumstick into his bowl, so Li Zhifeng eats it. He eats whatever You Miao gives him. You Miao eats three giant bowls of rice, till his tummy so full it's round, and then collapses in his chair in the main hall. Li Zhifeng brews him a pot of tea before he goes to do dishes.

Life is too beautiful, You Miao thinks to himself. In the past, he'd eaten all over the Capital, but none of those meals tasted as good as the chicken did tonight. A man's really gotta be hungry in order to eat.

"I found a cellar in the kitchen backyard," Li Zhifeng says.

"What's in there?" You Miao asks. "Not dead bodies I hope?"

"Eighty jugs of fine wine," Li Zhifeng replies.

"!!!"

"Shall I bring one out for a taste?" Li Zhifeng inquires.

"Nah, it's okay, I'm already full," You Miao says. "But this wine must be something extraordinary. Take me to go see?"

Li Zhifeng leads You Miao over, and he discovers there really is a cellar in the undergrounds of Shen Garden, and that what's hidden inside are all incredibly high grade Champion Reds#! After over a century, they've now become thick fine brews. You Miao inwardly valuates them; these eighty jugs of wine are all priceless treasures, and they can be offered to guests in the future.

After finishing his tea, You Miao goes to bed, skipping his bath altogether. Around midnight, he can hear Li Zhifeng dunking water over his own head outside, and You Miao calls out to him, "Come in and sleep."

After washing in cold water, Li Zhifeng tiptoes in and burrows into the blankets, falling asleep holding You Miao. This man really is made of iron, You Miao thinks to himself.

Over the next few days, every morning Li Zhifeng will carry his shovel out to go dig the canal. You Miao doesn't have any energy left to dig anymore, and tells Li Zhifeng time and again that he doesn't have to go, but the man still leaves soundlessly. You Miao doesn't have anything else for him to do either, so he stops caring about it.

One morning, You Miao gets up early, so he goes around inspecting Shen Garden, starting from the main house. His home is starting to be fixed up bit by bit; the doors and windows have been removed, and the surface layers have been sanded off under the sun, waiting to be painted anew. Zhang Er came by very early in the morning to study, so You Miao has him watch over the repairs. Meanwhile, Li Zhuang's wife comes to Shen Garden carrying a basket of eggs, saying she's going to cook for the young master, so You Miao figures Li Zhuang most likely went home and told her everything, so he's not likely to leave now. Thus, You Miao has her stay at Shen Garden temporarily to cook lunch for the workers.

Ever since moving to Shen Garden, You Miao only eats two meals a day, and lately he's been getting up earlier and earlier, so by noon he's starving. He puts all the food Li Zhuang's wife cooked into two containers and hops onto the horse, taking the meal to the high plains with the intention of eating together with Li Zhifeng.

Li Zhuang is just standing on top of a mound of reclaimed field, watching Li Zhifeng digging the canal. They've been at it for five days and now about 35 meters is excavated. Just by watching, You Miao feels tired.

"Lunch!" You Miao comes delivering food. These past several days under the sun has tanned Li Zhifeng somewhat. He climbs out of the canal, face all covered in mud, and sits down next to the mud mounds before blows a breath.

Li Zhuang chuckles. "We were just talking about it and Young Master shows up."

"Your wife cooks well," You Miao takes the chance to compliment him.

Li Zhifeng takes over the clay pot and lifts the cover, revealing salted pork fried with winter bamboo shoots, and a full container of rice at the bottom. He instantly starts wolfing the food down. You Miao speaks as he eats, "Let's hire some people to come help, yea? Don't keep digging endlessly like this."

"If you don't use your strength, there'll be less and less of it," Li Zhifeng replies. "Even if I don't dig I'll need to train, so this is fine."

Li Zhuang squats by the reclaimed field and chuckles. "It takes too long digging on one man's power alone."

"I'll think of something come spring, see if I can hire a few hands," You Miao says.

As the three converse, You Miao shares half of his rice with Li Zhifeng. It's obvious Li Zhifeng must be ravenous and thirsty, gulping water down nonstop. You Miao asks Li Zhuang when he plans on moving, however, Li Zhuang replies, "I've discussed it with my wife, we're not leaving anymore. We'll farm the fields with Young Master."

You Miao starts to laugh. "And what changed your mind?"

Li Zhuang shakes his head hopelessly. "It's not easy to find work in Yangzhou Prefecture right now either. I can't find anything and was originally planning on seeking my little uncle, but little uncle recently offended an official and was flogged. The family runs a general store but they're not looking to hire anyone either, so if I go I'd be staying and eating for nothing, getting on others' nerves."

"But ain't that the truth," You Miao says. "Rather than depending on others, it's much better to use your own hands to make a living."

"If it wasn't for Young Master coming, who'd want to stay in this estate forever!" Li Zhuang says. "No one to care for the harvest, and even when there's a drought or a flood, no one says anything about digging a canal or anything. Every year at the same time, Sunshower Jade Estate sends someone to collect rent, but they don't care how the harvest is or whether sales for the produce have been good, the reins are tight on us."

"Since Riverwave Estate is given to me, of course I wouldn't neglect you guys, so don't worry," You Miao says.

Li Zhuang smiles. "It's true, we know Young Master is a good man, you even told Zhu Tang you'd lower his rent by ten percent…"

You Miao laughs inwardly; news certainly travels fast. He replies without skipping a beat, "All the same, your rent will go down too, Uncle Liang's as well, either way everyone will be paying the same rent, and you can just pay it to me directly. When you pay, I'll collect, if you can't pay on time, taking an extra few days isn't a problem, no need to sell your wives and daughters… I'm an easygoing kinda guy."

Li Zhuang nods, smiling, and You Miao can tell that after this, all four tenant households will know he's not a stingy landlord. Other than Zhang Er who needs to study and travel to the capital for the exams and can no longer farm, the other three probably won't be leaving anymore.

You Miao's mind however, isn't on those several fields held by Li Zhuang and others; they don't make much money in the first place. The priority right now is how to lease out the wasted land. But in order to reclaim land for farming, there needs to be water, and in order to get water, there needs to be a waterwheel and a canal… going around in circles, in the end he still comes back to the problem of the waterwheel.

Truly, a hero can fall over a single coin… there are many wealthy merchants in the Jiangnan area, what if he lends out some land, pulls in several of the rich and borrows from them, coax them to pay and help solve the problem of this canal and waterwheel using land as exchange, and then hires farm hands to help them farm? The idea might work, but who knows how many would actually be willing to open up their wallets. This is where You Miao falls short - his age. Most of the businessmen are all about the same age as You Dechuan, so if he pays a visit to their residences, he'll appear like nothing but a child, and his words will naturally weigh less.

Just as he is thinking this, someone comes from the estate. Li Zhifeng stands up to look, and whistles into the distance. It seems it's a messenger.

That man hops off the horse and bows. "Sorry to bother Young Master You. This humble officer is called Tang Hui, I've come from the Capital urgently to bring a letter, and was told it must be personally delivered into your hands."

When You Miao first sees that man donned in military cape he's surprised, but he then soon recalls how it was Nie Dan who'd delivered a letter last time, and immediately knows who the letter is from -- it must be from Zhao Chao! "Let me see!" he exclaims in great delight.

Tang Hui takes out a letter from his robe, and very respectfully hands it over with both hands to You Miao. It is indeed Zhao Chao's name on the envelope, and immediately You Miao is cheered. "Let's talk back at Shen Garden. Li Zhifeng, come back and rest too, stop digging."

Tang Hui gives a look at that canal but doesn't say anything, and follows behind You Miao as You Miao leads the group of them back into Shen Garden. Li Zhuang sees that that man comes with influence, an officer no less, and paying such respect to You Miao too, and his attitude changes significantly as well. The moment they return he goes off to help his wife tidy up this residence.

You Miao settles in the main hall and orders Li Zhifeng, "Go bring the tea from the topmost lattice in the study."

"I don't dare trouble Young Master You," Tang Hui quickly says.

You Miao smiles. "No need to be so polite, you're an officer, I've no official title, so it should be me who calls you 'sir'."

You Miao has a great impression of the soldiers; he'd been rescued by the soldiers of the Fortress of Yanbian first, and after re-entering the pass it had also been the military who'd helped him. He knows to repay grace, that's the first thing. Moreover, Zhao Chao seems to be very familiar with the military; it's been soldiers he's sent every time. Love for the person shall extend to even the birds under his roof, that's the second thing.

When Li Zhifeng comes holding the tea set and tea leaves, You Miao takes them from his hands and smiles. "Go take a bath now. I'll be chatting with the officer."

Li Zhifeng nods, then turns to exit.

Thus, You Miao personally brews a pot of tea for Tang Hui. He places top grade green tea leaves into a bowl to shake, shshing as it's mixed, then pours boiling water over the tea set to heat it. The teacups in the set are made to look like green lotuses, dotted with golden carps. This is a dowry his mother had brought to You Dechuan, and the moment water washes over them, the green lotuses shimmer like they're made of glass, and even the golden fish within the cups look alive.

Tang Hui is also a man with a good eye, and comments, "They all say Young Master You's family is aristocratic, and truly it shows. Even the Prefectural Chief's household wouldn't be able to put together a tea set like this."

You Miao grinns proudly. "Nothing but freeloaded goods from the parents. This toy is what my mom brought over when she married. My dad doesn't like me now, so he packed all my mom's things nicely and kicked me out."

Tang Hui smiles then shakes his head. "Back then my dad didn't like the looks of me either, so he sent me here to Jiangnan when I was young."

"Oh?" You Miao is interested, "You're not from Jiangnan, sir?"

Judging by his accent You Miao hadn't thought he was either. Tang Hui replies, "I'm from Hebei#. We're not that far apart in age; if you don't mind it, you can just call me Tang Hui."

"Let me call you dge then." You Miao smiles. aAs he brews the tea, he thinks to himself that it's not a bad thing to make closer connections. This time when Tang Hui came it isn't the same as that time with Nie Dan. Last time, Nie Dan had been travel-worn and followed by a civil official, having come all the way from the Capital nonstop. On the other hand, Tang Hui's leather armour is tidy and clean, and the horse he'd ridden also hasn't been tired out. It makes it easy to see that he's a military officer stationed nearby, maybe even a military lieutenant in charge of Yangzhou Prefectural Government's defense. Just as You Miao is about to get in good with him, Tang Hui hastily replies modestly, "Oh no, I don't deserve that title, you mustn't say so."

You Miao doesn't know whether to laugh or cry listening to him. Just then, the leaves being roasted upon the coal begin to emit a soft fragrance, and in an instant, the hall is filled with the scent of ambrosial tea. Tang Hui keeps praising it, and once the water is brought to boil three times, You Miao gives a show of sprinkling the tea leaves into the teapot, infusing it into an eight part boiled hot water. After a round of tea cleansing, he pours a cup to seven parts filled, the tea water faintly green, the sweet smell of it pleasant to the nose, and personally hands the cup to Tang Hui.

You Miao may not be good at anything else, but the craft of brewing tea is something he's learned the authentic art of since he was young. It's not everyday that the Taizi's faction can taste tea brewed by You Miao. While they say quite a number of gongzi's are only pretending to be elegant, Li Yan understands this art profoundly, otherwise he wouldn't be doting so much on You Miao.

It can be said that in all the grand Capital, those who can brew this particular flavour out of Jiangnan tea like You Miao, there's only one in the palace, one at Tingyu Pavilion, and You Miao himself, no more.

You Miao has the mind to get acquainted with Tang Hui, so he brews the tea personally. Now that the tea is poured, You Miao opens his letter, and concentrates on reading it.

After having praised the tea as delicious several times, Tang Hui falls silent and drinks quietly, looking like he's let his mind wander. You Miao finishes reading the letter; there's nothing special written in it, it's all advice and counsel from Zhao Chao. In the last letter You Miao replied, all he'd talked about was complaining about his current status, then mentioned the management of the Riverwave Estate, thinking of taking Li Zhifeng with him alone to go on the journey, his dad doesn't want him anymore, etc., etc.

Zhao Chao's response letter thus says, what xiandi is thinking is very good. After all, being born on this earth, real men must achieve great things, build up enterprises for oneself, make a bang, so as to make this life worthwhile. The letter also mentions himself, who also often gets spurned by his father, and also has a dge above who's very much favoured, so rather than sticking around at home, he'd rather go out to find his own entertainment.

You Miao knows Zhao Chao and the military are close, so in this moment he gradually starts guessing perhaps he's the son of some great general of the current court. The current court has always placed emphasis on civil service and nothing on the military; there's a saying that goes "Good men don't become soldiers, good iron doesn't hammer nails", civil officials look down on military officers#.

And to enlist as a soldier, one must brand their troop number on the side of their face. The military salary is small and its status low. The position of the grand general is only equal to a civil official of the fourth rank, and other than rotating stationed defense troops every two years, he enjoys no real power. One can say that in the court of the Great Qi, being a soldier is even less than that of a studying Xiucai#. To be a soldier is to defend the country and protect the homeland, but the founder of the nation was afraid of military coups, and so the military was unjustly hammered down in each level of government.

In the letter, Zhao Chao also mentions that if You Miao can't make do in Jiangnan anymore, just send a letter to the Capital. Once he's in the Capital, Zhao Chao will think of a way to arrange an official position for him, etc. Then he goes on to say that Jiangnan and Yangzhou are places full of pleasurable distractions, so remember to study hard, work hard, and never be lazy. Absolutely do not hang around the red light district, lest his determination diminishes. If he runs into any difficulties, he can ask for help from the Defense Bureau of Yangzhou.

In short, if you need money or people, just send a letter back to ask. Gege will take care of you.

You Miao stares at the last few lines, dumbfounded. Zhao Chao must know what kind of person You Miao had been back at the Capital, but while there is the sense of a lecture, guidance and fondness are filled in between the lines. It makes him want to cry. He closes his eyes, placing the letter aside, and sighs deeply.

Li Yan's letter hasn't come in yet, so it's probably going by way of the post. After reading the letter, You Miao speaks up. "Zhao Chao, this fellow, he replies pretty quick. My letter was only sent ten days ago, and his response is already here."

Tang Hui smiles. "Sometimes, a penpalling relationship all depends on how deeply the other party cares. They're all thinking of the Young Master back at the Capital, I hear the Chancellor's gongzi is also talking about you, so it has nothing to do with how many days have passed."

You Miao is overjoyed and keeps nodding.

Placing the teacup aside, Tang Hui adds, "This humble officer was just reporting in at the Capital, and has only just returned from General Nie and San-Dianxia."

"Mn, Nie Dan and San-Dianxia…Wait?! WHAT DID YOU SAY?!!" You Miao exclaims, almost toppling his own teacup, causing a rush of rattling on the table. Tang Hui instantly dashes forward, agilely catching the teacup that's fallen off the table.

The two stare at each other for a long while, both speechless.

"Zhao Chao that guy… is…" You Miao starts.

The dumbfounded expression on Tang Hui's face is interestingly colourful. It's as if thunder has exploded inside You Miao's head, and he turns around to bring out a clay bowl, holding it in his hand. "S-s-say… say it again?"

"S-say… say what?" Tang Hui questions.

"What did you say Zhao Chao was again? Say it again?" You Miao urges.

Tang Hui seems to have realized something, and replies, "Zhao… San-Dianxia has the one word name Chao."

With his mouth hanging open, You Miao smashes the clay bowl onto the ground, and with a loud CRACK it shatters into pieces.

Tang Hui: "..."

You Miao: "..."

Li Zhifeng comes in, having taken his bath. "What's going on?"

You Miao waves absent-mindedly. "Go… bring my brush and ink over."

Li Zhifeng goes back out to retrieve the stationary. You Miao's entire person is feeling dazed. Tang Hui is amused as he watches him, and says, "Young Master You doesn't know… about San-Dianxia?"

"I only know him, he never told me he's… the third, third prince…"

You Miao then recalls some of the things Zhao Chao had written in the letters, including some of the things he'd told him while the two were imprisoned together. That's right. In that case, Zhao Chao is most likely neglected in the imperial palace. His brother is the Taizi! He's born of a mistress! His dad is the emperor… so that's it!

You Miao can't help but huff with mixed feelings, and taking the stationary, he says, "I'll reply to his letter right now."

Tang Hui grins and nods. You Miao asks, "You've seen Zhao Chao then? How has he been recently?"

Tang Hui cups his hand respectfully to the north and replies, "San-Dianxia is still the same as ever."

You Miao smiles in good humour. "I can't get used to the new address…"

"It's fine," Tang Hui replies. "San-Dianxia naturally cares for Young Master You, so if the Young Master has any orders, feel free to call on the brothers in the Defense Bureau."

When You Miao hears this, something in him stirs, then soon after, clicks. "Excuse my impertinence… what position do you hold right now, sir?"

"Advising Lieutenant of Yangzhou regional Defence Bureau, Military Officer of Seventh Rank," Tang Hui replies.

You Miao nods. Advising Lieutenant is basically the officer who manages the entire Yangzhou Precture region, and someone who's been sent directly from the imperial guard, but it's only of the seventh rank, so when he meets the County Chief of Anxian County who's of sixth rank, he still have to greet him as sir. What a pain.

You Miao writes his reply, telling Zhao Chao of his own happenings, but after having only written halfway, he rips up the paper, and changes the content to more happy news than concerns. There's an affection deep in his heart that seems to be pouring out, ready to spread across the paper.

"What about General Nie?" You Miao asks.

"Promoted." Tang Hui smiles. "Right-hand Supervisory Officer of the Imperial Guard."

"That ain't easy," You Miao smiles.

Tang Hui chuckles in tacit understanding. "Indeed. Lord Nie also talked about Young Master You, and if there's time after New Years, he will come to Jiangnan again."

You Miao nods. He and Tang Hui both know that it really isn't easy for a man like Nie Dan to be promoted. It's usually incredibly difficult for military officers who don't know how to please civil officials to make it to the position of vice general of the imperial guard. It was mostly likely a recommendation from Zhao Chao.

You Miao cheerfully adds in an invite for Nie Dan to come visit into the letter, and adds, "Tang dge is from Hebei, have you gotten used to Jiangnan? How long have you been here?"

"I've been in the imperial guard for five years," Tang Hui replies. "And it's only with Lord Nie's recommendation that I've been sent out. I came to Yangzhou Prefecture at twenty, and now, it's been six years."

"Being out is not the same as being home, so of course it's hard." You Miao says, "When is Tang dge getting transferred back to the Capital?"

Tang Hui shakes his head hopelessly. "I can't connect with any of the lords in the Capital. If I'm lucky, maybe I can go back during next winter's defense rotation. Right now the defense transfer papers are still stuck at the Ministry of National Defense. Jiangnan, how do I say this, it's good, but…"

A thought comes to You Miao. "Is Tang dge going to the Capital again next year?"

"Hard to say," Tang Hui replies. "What is it?"

You Miao knows that Tang Hui and Nie Dan are both in the same faction, the Third Prince's faction. Unfortunately, the father of the nation had used force to establish the country, and his ascension to the throne had been unjust, and so ever since the country was founded, in order to prevent the military from revolt, the Bureau of Military Affairs, the Supervisory Bureau, and the Ministry of National Defense were all established, all of them forming a system that heavily suppresses the military, pushing a military officer's rank to the bottom. Many despair for achievements. It's better still to stay in the Capital; those who are sent out have no payoffs and no military power. After stationing them at Yangzhou for a few years, in order to slice off even more military power, the imperial court would transfer these military officers to beyond the border, and that's really when nothing and no one shall heed their calls.

"I'm an old acquaintance of both Li Yan, the Chancellor's gongzi, and Ping Xi from the Minister of National Defense's household." You Miao smiles. "If Tang dge is going to the Capital next year, please do take the trouble of delivering letters and a few scrolls of calligraphy and paintings for me… wait here, sir."

Tang Hui is instantly overjoyed. In truth, You Miao doing this isn't all for him; Zhao Chao is raising his own faction, and You Miao doesn't know how many people he's got under his belt, but if he's showing favour to Tang Hui, then sending the man to him would be in line with Zhao Chao's goals.

You Miao goes to the back and retrieves three paintings, all of them the works of Shen Garden's old owner. In the past few days he's already dusted them off and had them sun dried once then pressed his own collection seal on them. Other people don't know these paintings; never mind painting and calligraphy experts, even Prefecture Chiefs and other lords don't know how to appreciate them. But Li Yan would absolutely know; these are one of a kind in the world, only from Shen Garden.

"This one for Li Yan, this one for Ping Xi." You Miao rolls up two paintings and ties them with a red string each, smiling. "And this set of verses, is for that royal bro of mine."

You Miao spreads out the third scroll for Tang Hui to see. Above the flying dragon and dancing phoenix is a set of verses.

Outside the post by the Parted Bridge,

In loneliness bloom wild blossoms.

Sunset has arrived as I dwell in melancholy in solitude.

Weathering wind and rain.

I have no intention to spring hold onto,

I'll leave jealousy for various flowers to endure.

As blossoms fall to the ground and dust turn into,

There leaves only fragrances that doesn't change.#

"Good verse!" Tang Hui praises in awe.

"It's work of Shen Garden's master," You Miao says.

You Miao sits down cheerfully, and whips out his brush, writing a letter to Li Yan, basically saying that the man delivering the painting is my good bro, you gotta take care of him for me, and when my estate is all set up, come stay and eat however you want any time of the year. When the time comes we can call out Ping-er, Idiot-Lin, Little Hubby Huang, and others, have them all join you on the trip down south to Jiangnan, and I'll take you all to listen to tunes and see the pretty ladies in Yangzhou Prefecture, etc., etc.

Meanwhile the letter to the gongzi of the Minister of National Defense is nothing but silly, completely frivolous, basically saying I miss you I miss you, here's a painting for you, I know you like this stuff. There's more at home, when you're free come down to Jiangnan, come over to my house, I'll cover everything, take all the paintings and calligraphies you want. The military officer bringing you the painting is my solid good bro, his transfer papers are stuck at the Ministry of National Defense, think of a way to let your old man accommodate a little, yea? I'm forever in tears grateful.

Tang Hui is watching next to him, and his expression is the real 'forever in tears grateful'. This is the first time he's witnessed You Miao's ability to be slick and smooth.

After You Miao finishes the letters and seals them with a fire seal, he hands them to Tang Hui. Tang Hui says, "You Miao, gege is gonna drop the politeness. The thing today, dge will remember in his heart."

"Don't worry, don't worry." You Miao laughs. "It's nothing but lifting a finger."

You Miao knows that a small time military officer of the seventh rank like Tang Hui would surely be scorned everywhere when he goes to the Capital, and here in Jiangnan he can't exercise his full strength either, so he might as well be sent to Zhao Chao's side to be used as an arm. Tang Hui needed to send gifts and make connections, and it's all people of the Third Prince's faction where Nie Dan's at, so if Tang Hui wanted to knock on the Taizi faction's doors he's out of luck.

But all Tang Hui really needs is just this chance to deliver letters, and You Miao is also at a time when he can't offend either party, he himself has to oil and flex his connections at the Capital more, so he might as well take this chance to show some grace.

When it comes to writing the letter to Zhao Chao, You Miao becomes more prudent, and goes on to write a thick reply in full seriousness. Ever since his mom passed away, there haven't been many who have treated him as well as Zhao Chao has. Li Zhifeng is one, but the concern Zhao Chao shows seems to be different. You Miao understands all of these affections.

You Miao knows perfectly well who treats him well and who looks down on him. He's written all of this into the letter, and hopes that one day he will get rich, travel to the Capital in glory, and help Zhao Chao out. As he writes, You Miao's eyes grow red in spite of himself, and starts to sob.

"You-di#, don't get too emotional now," Tang Hui comforts, watching from the side.

"You don't understand." You Miao sniffs, and seals the letter. "Everyone knows to join in on the good when times are good, it's much rarer to find those willing to help in times of need."

"That's it exactly." Tang Hui chuckles. "Gege also thinks that defeat is temporary, and there's always the opportunity for a comeback in the future."

You Miao nods and smiles, glancing at Li Zhifeng. Li Zhifeng is still the same, quiet and expressionless, standing silently by the table.

Tang Hui tucks the letters away and You Miao takes the initiative to go send him off. But then Tang Hui thinks of something and turns back around to ask, "What's the brother under your command digging? When I first came over you were still sitting all the way out there. You're the young master, why are you doing something like digging?"

"I want to dig a canal." You Miao laughs. "After winter began everyone's gone home for the New Year, and I can't find any temp labourers, so I thought I'd do a little digging myself, take it as a workout."

"Aye!" Tang Hui immediately responds. "Why not request for government volunteer labour? Gege has plenty of men, I can bring you a hundred men over, and we'll get it all dug in ten days, half a month. Digging the way you're doing it, how long will it even take?"

You Miao had already expected something like this and quickly smiles. "It's no problem, no problem, thanks so much, dge. Are the brothers from the Defense Bureau? How much is the pay per day?"

"Why talk about money?" Tang Hui replies. "We were just troubled there's nowhere to go for winter training, so it's free. You helped gege with his affairs and I haven't even thanked you…"

"That won't do." You Miao hastily declines modestly, so Tang Hui adds, "There really is no need for pay, soldiers all have salary, so even if we don't come help you dig, we still gotta find some construction work to do. The way I see it, there's still quite a bit of wasteland here on the hills, I'll send forth a commander# to bring the brothers over, and reclaim the land for you too…"

You Miao is instantly beside himself with joy, and tackle hugs Tang Hui's waist, exclaiming, "You're my blood brother now! Take all the calligraphy and paintings that you fancy! Order any kind of tea you want to drink!"

Tang Hui doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Don't say that, all this gege didi, it's fine if it's just casual, but make sure you don't let your mouth slip when you go to the Capital. The one in the Palace of Yande is your real ge…"

You Miao hugs Tang Hui, rubbing and patting, trying to burrow himself deep into his arms to butter him up, and nearly kisses him a few times. Tang Hui's handsome face flushes. "Alright alright, I'll have the brothers come in a few days. There's still a moat we have to repair outside the Prefectural Government office, gege has to go be the supervisor so I won't be coming here, I'll send you someone easygoing…"

You Miao quickly replies, "No need to trouble you to come again, when the brothers come, I'll offer them booze, and I'll cover all the meals."

Tang Hui nods, then hops onto the horse to bid You Miao farewell before the horse trots off.

These soldiers are all genuine people. Mingling with them really is different compared to those civil officials, You Miao thinks to himself. When you're just a bit good to military officers like Tang Hui, the other party would literally die for you.

"This is great!" When You Miao returns to the estate, he pushes Li Zhifeng onto the bed and burrows into his arms, groping all over, rolling here and there.

---

Chapter 14

The next day, when You Miao gets up he personally takes Li Zhifeng along to go out, bringing with him thirty silver, ready to purchase that hundred-men worth of food supplies. "Wouldn't that be too many people?" Li Zhifeng asks.

You Miao was too overtaken by delight yesterday that he suddenly realized now that perhaps there really may be too many heads. Fortunately he only needs to feed them for about ten days, half a month, if he had to feed them for a whole year, he'd have them eat himself poor. A catty of rice per person a day, that's a hundred catty a day… close to one tael of silver. And that's not including other stuff like pork and vegetables, and he's gotta offer booze too!

Tang Hui manages over ten thousand soldiers, all paid through the prefecture's account; it certainly is a huge expense feeding so many people.

Even if labour is free for digging the canal, but without spending at least fifty silver it really can't be done. Every time You Miao starts to count money he regrets the lavish way he spent back at the Capital. Fifty silver; play with some crickets, cover a meal, and all the money flows away like water.

Li Zhifeng bargained at the produce stand and buys a large cart of carrots and two whole butchered pigs. When he sees You Miao eyeing him, he asks, "What is it?"

"You're worth five canals, you know." You Miao says.

Li Zhifeng grins, "When Li Yan bought me he only spent twelve silver."

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS SOONER?!" You Miao wails.

Li Zhifeng replies plainly, "I didn't want you to think you overspent on buying me and have it bother you."

You Miao is thoroughly speechless.

Gritting his teeth, You Miao spent all that he has to spend. Buying four donkeys and four carts, they haul a cart of carrots, a cart of potatoes, a cart of cured meat and sausages, and a cart of booze.

And this is only half. They'll have to go back to haul for a second round later.

Hauling twice like this and there's only enough to feed a hundred people for half a month.

You Miao spent every last bit of his thirty silver, and Li Zhifeng's twenty silver too, and having hired a couple drivers, they drove the carts back to the estate. When they arrive at the entrance of the estate, the Commander has already come bringing him one hundred soldiers.

You Miao laughs, "Already? So fast! How do I address you, dge?"

"You-Gongzi can just call me Wang Gou-er. Lord Tang has ordered personally for us to come…."

You Miao quickly cuts him off, "Wang dge can just call me You Miao. Come come, have the brothers come."

Commander Wang had intended to start digging the moment they've arrived, but You Miao kept telling him to eat first, that it's better to labour on a full stomach, and forcibly pulled that band of soldiers into Shen Garden. Back when Sunshower Jade Estate was undergoing renovations, You Miao had seen his own father generously offer a meal for the craftsmen. It's easier to have people work after having offered an opening feast, and when the work is done, another feast would be offered.

Commander Wang had also gotten his men to bring ten days worth of food supplies, but You Miao wouldn't allow it. He first orders for the stoves to start heating the pots, then the two whole pigs are chopped up to be braised. When DLiang comes around and sees this setup, he instantly laughs out, "Ho, is the Young Master about to bless the next ten thounsand generations? What a grand setup, do we two get a bite too?"

"Of course of course." You Miao replies, "If you all got nothing going on, come and help!"

Thus the soldiers get down to help with the cooking while You Miao brings Commander Wang with him to retrieve the wine. "Drink some good wine, warm the body."

You Miao takes out ten jugs of Champion Reds and divides them. He had people bring the tables out to the yard, and when there aren't enough he sends for people to borrow benches from Li Zhuang and others' households. It's like celebrating a festival, and the soldiers are fed and boozed, their stomachs filled.

When the jugs of Champion Reds are opened, the thick fragrance of the wine shocks the soldiers into cheering loudly. They're all brutes anyway, so no one bothers with anything else, instantly hollering and hooting on the spot, downing the wine and playing drinking games. Eat first, everything else comes after.

After having eaten once at noon, in the afternoon the tipsy soldiers pick up their hoes and shovels, and go off to dig You Miao's canal. They don't return until the sun has set in the mountains in the west, and You Miao has Li Zhuang and Zhu Tang's wives come over to cook. After the soldiers have collected their meals, they don't even need to build camp or set up tents, each finding a spot casually in one of Shen Garden's unkempt rooms, laying themselves out as is.

At night, You Miao scribbles while studying the books under the lit lamplight, and there's the sound of snoring outside. Even You Miao is a little amazed that Shen Garden managed to house a hundred people. Yet what's even more unbelievable is that this courtyard isn't even filled to full capacity after having housed a hundred men. It's not hard to imagine just how big this place used to be at its peak.

The whole affair of the Yangzhou Army coming to help dig the canal has roused the civilians of both Anlu and Guozhuang villages. Especially the people of Anlu, after You Miao comes by time and time again to make purchases, they've all become familiar by all the shopping, so there are quite a number of people who goes over to the estate to check things out. After all, this canal is going to be leading to the sunken ground that is the great lake, and after the lake is filled, the water will be flowing down to Anlu village through the small creek.

By that fact alone, what You Miao is doing is blessing the people's production and livelihood of the entire Jiangnan region. Thus the Village Chief of Anlu sends someone over to the estate with forty live chickens and two hundred catty of eggs as thanks. You Miao takes it all unapologetically, and plans to add these as extras to the soldier's fares at New Years.

Within a night, Riverwave Estate booms with the bustling of voices, having a number of people now here, and it's all people, going in and out. When they see You Miao, they would all nod and greet him, and You Miao starts to finally feel that, man, it's great having so many people around. No wonder when people go pray to Gods and Buddhas, they all pray for sons and daughters, the incense all alight in abundance.

In five days, the water canal is nearly half dug, and in probably another five days, it'll be able to reach the lake. This water canal is dug and built neatly and orderly, and Commander Wang boasts to You Miao, "Don't you know, the moat surrounding Yangzhou Prefectural City is dug by the brothers. After this canal is done, I guarantee you can use it for two hundred years."

You Miao has also been silly and joking around the past several days, having becoming familiar hanging out with these soldiers. They may be brutes, but brutes have their own fun, draping their shoulders over Commander Wang, punching him twice on the shoulder, "Who knows what it'll look like in two hundred years, but it'll cover seventy, eighty years at least."

Commander Wang smiles grandly, "In fifty years, if dge is still alive, then come find me if the canal breaks. Even if I have to crawl in my old bones I'll come crawling to build you a new canal."

You Miao is just standing by the canal watching over the work when someone from Shen Garden comes to call, saying there's a guest, and so You Miao has Li Zhifeng stay and supervise before he himself goes straight back to greet the guest.

When he comes to the entrance of Shen Garden, he sees a horse carriage from Sunshower Jade Estate, and You Miao's heart stops for a moment, thinking, heh-heh, has the old man finally remembered him?

It's been almost a month since he's left Sunshower Jade Estate. There's still about sixty, seventy silver left, and You Miao was calculating in his head when he would be selling off some valuables from Shen Garden, either some of those paintings and calligraphies left behind, or the hidden wine in the cellar, or the fox pelts in those trunks he himself brought back from beyond the border… what does the old man mean to come over now? To give him money?

You Miao kind of doesn't want to see him, and after crossing through the second entrance, he sees there's someone standing by the spirit wall, and it's You Han'ge. You Dechuan didn't come.

You Miao relaxes a bit and asks, "What are you doing here?"

You Han'ge was just studying the characters on the spirit wall, and when he sees You Miao has come back, he smiles, "Why are there suddenly so many soldier folks in your house?"

"A friend called them over to help me dig the canal, and using this as an opportunity for winter training." You Miao replies, "How's recognizing letters going for you?"

"I can recognize some words now, following the guidance of the books teacher… this is the heart word, this is… the word for 'spring'."

"Most heartbreaking are the green waters underneath the bridge; Therein I saw her graceful figure once reflected." You Miao finishes for him irritatedly. "Come in."

You Han'ge smiles, "Good poem. A few days ago dad heard that the Advising Lieutenant of the Yangzhou Defense Bureau came by, he didn't bring you trouble did he?"

"Nothing of the sort." You Miao answers offhandedly, leading You Han'ge inside to the main hall. The doors have already been painted, and the furniture have also been repainted, giving off the looks of antique, radiating opulence. On the master's chair is a tiger pelt for cushion, and on each side of the walls hung the head mounts of a buck and a doe respectively, incredibly magnanimous.

You Han'ge sits down on one of the side chairs, and You Miao calls out, "Li Zhifeng!" But soon realizes that Li Zhifeng isn't around, so he has to get up himself to retrieve the tea.

"Dad told me to bring some people over," You Han'ge says, "So you're not short of anyone to serve. I was afraid that you had already bought new attendants and maids, so I didn't bring any over. When I get back I'll assign some people and have them come over themselves."

"No need." You Miao is annoyed the moment he heard those words, "Even if they come I won't find them easy to order around, glaring at each other, what a pain."

"Why didn't you buy a couple then?" You Han'ge asks.

"No money." You Miao laughs derisively.

You Han'ge hums for a moment, "Did you spend all the money from before? That's true I suppose, you need to rebuild this estate, there's many places that needs money." He says as he reaches for his money, but You Miao stops him, "I'm joking with you. I'm just too lazy to go buy them. There's only me here, what use do I have for so many servants? It's pointless having so many people."

"I know your expense is great…" You Han'ge says as he brings out a small pouch and smiles, "Gege isn't able to save much generally, but it really isn't dad who told me to give to you…"

Seeing him like this, it's now You Miao the one who is acting unfairly, and he replies, "What are you doing now, I'm not a beggar, put that way."

You Han'ge wants to push but this is making You Miao a little mad, feeling like You Han'ge has come just to give him money because he pities You Miao, and says firmly, "Put it away, I really don't need it."

And so You Han'ge can only put the pouch away.

You Miao looks You Han'ge over calculatingly, and suddenly feels bad now. You Miao can tell when someone is genuinely good to him. Before when he was leaving the estate, You Han'ge gave him a bag of his own money, and that was probably all of his savings in the past two years.

If it wasn't for the whole thing with father, if You Han'ge was an older cousin, then You Miao would've treated him really well, taking him for his own blood brother. Or maybe if You Han'ge came to live in the house as the mistress' son, You Miao might not be very willing at first, but he would still take care of him.

Yet what's annoying is the way You Dechuan handled this business is too dirty, making You Miao gag every time he sees You Han'ge even if the man has never done anything.

"I'll brew you a cup of tea." You Miao says offhandedly, opening the tea jar, spooning for leaves."

DLiang sees from outside the door and smiles, "Young Master You, can us workers request for a cup of tea too?"

"Take a break, you've worked hard too." You Miao says, "Come in and take a seat."

"Oh let's not dirty the place," DLiang quickly says, "Just pour me a gulp and it'll be good. Life's been tough, I ain't ever tasted what rich people drink for tea."

"Heh, rich people." You Miao says, then gives a smile, who knows if that was a joke or if he was laughing at himself, and You Han'ge is feeling somewhat awkward. Fortunately You Miao doesn't make any more comments with hidden artillery to tease him, only wriggling his brows, shaking the leaves apart, "Even the Third Prince of the current court wants to request for me to brew him tea and I rejected him."

You Han'ge watches You Miao work, warming the cups, stirring the leaves, sprinkling the leaves, his movements indescribably beautiful like moving clouds and flowing currents, but coming from a young man, it doesn't have any trace of a Jiangnan maiden's charm, and is instead clean and frank, an air full of sunny strength.

You Miao holds up the long-spouted teapot and carefreely flicks his wrist, and that boiling water streams down windingly like that of a swimming dragon, shaa as it enters into the pot, twirling bringing the leaves with it, forming a swirl.

"I learned a poem a few days ago." You Han'ge says.

"Which poem?" You Miao looks up and asks.

"The heart-stirring breeze brings in the tidal bore; The heartless wind sees it flow out from river shore…" You Han'ge recites. "What's the title of this again?"

You Miao gives a smile, "That verse is Su Shi's "Eight Beats of Ganzhou Song"#."

"That's right. Your hands in making tea roll around like the tide, really beautiful."

"Mn, good eyes." You Miao responds plainly, "Just by learning a couple verse lines and you can recognize my technique. Tea Ceremony has Three Criteria and Three Non-Criteria; Thirteen Properties, and Seven Taboos#. The art of tea has the Hai School, Xizi School, Ganzhou School, Chuan School, Hantan School, Wulishanyun… and others, altogether a total of seventy-two techniques. The technique I'm using is precisely "The Coming and Going of Tide" from the School of Hai.

"To brew a pot of tea like this," You Miao uses his thumb, index, and middle finger to lift the teacup by the rim, then, pressing together the index and middle fingers of the other hand, he uses them to cushion the bottom of the cup. You Han'ge reaches out to take the tea, but You Miao places the cup on the corner of the table instead and explains, "the scent of the tea itself can be extracted by the hot water."

You Han'ge picks up the cup, and You Miao adds, "Use an index finger to cushion the bottom of the teacup, then use two fingers from the other hand to steady the rim of the cup. Don't let your fingers touch the boiling cup walls."

You Han'ge smiles, a little embarrassed, then shakes his head, "Dad never taught me tetasting."

DLiang laughs, "This your gege, boy?"

You Miao mn's, and DLiang says, "Your nose ridges are so similar. Both your noses and ears are alike. The nose ridge is handsome, the look of fortune and wealth. People all depend on good noses; good nose, good fate!"

You Miao neither agrees nor disagrees, and eyes You Han'ge as he says, "Liang-shifu, your bowl."

DLiang brings over a bowl and You Miao fills it up. "Good tea, good tea," DLiang says as he brings it out with him.

You Miao pours himself a cup and takes a sip, and gazes out the door thoughtfully, his demeanour more relaxed, no longer openly nor passively taunting You Han'ge. Earlier, after Craftman Liang said so, You Miao himself noticed that he and You Han'ge really do look somewhat alike. Although he takes more after his mom, but father's mark is still branded in their lives, and no matter how You Miao treats this elder brother, they're both still the sons of the You family. When they're out, others still recognize them as brothers.

"This cup is really so pretty." You Han'ge comments in awe, "The fish at the bottom of the cup looks like it's moving."

You Miao replies, "Water for mother, pot for father, six cups per pot, and the fish in every cup is different. This was my mom's dowry. Ruyao# only produced two sets; one set shattered, and another became my mom's dowry, now in my hands."

"When I go back I'll have to learn more words, then I can read. Dad says I can't understand tea so he didn't teach me much. After you left, dad often sits by himself in the tea room, and not even mom or I are allowed to go in."

What's on You Miao's Mind however, is something else, and he replies, "I should set up a tea room too, hang "The Classic of Tea" by Lu Yu#. One, it'd be elegant, second, it can fool people…"

You Han'ge starts to laugh and says, "Dad wants you to come home for the thirtieth, eh. How about I come pick you up in a few days?"

"Nah, I'm too busy. Can't get away." Of course You Miao understands what You Dechuan's intentions are, but just thinking about having New Years Eve reunion feast with Madam Wang is making You Miao's stomach churn. You Han'ge adds, "We have to pay respects to the ancestors on the thirtieth, did you forget?"

Only then does You Miao remember. Other things he can leave aside, but paying respects to the ancestors is something that has to be done. You Dechuan may have offended him, but the ancestors didn't offend him, he can't just forget the ancestors like that. You Dechuan is betting on You Miao going home.

But You Miao's quick-witted too; he's got another trick up his sleeve.

"I plan on going to Yangzhou Prefecture for the thirtieth to buy some stuff." You Miao says absent-mindedly, "I'll go back to the clan house then, and have the year-end feast with the clan elders. I'll pay respects to the ancestors there. Come, gege, another cup."

You Miao places the second cup of tea in front of You Han'ge, and smiles slyly. You Han'ge instantly doesn't know what to say."

"Why don't you come home anyway just for a bit?" You Han'ge asks, "Even if you don't come home for New Years, still… find some time to come visit dad, please, take it as gege begging you."

You Miao answers disinterestedly, "Then I'll go back on the fifteenth#, either way I'm busy here."

You Han'ge can only nod, then asks after the situation at the estate, inquiring what You Miao plans to do for planting, if the wastelands have been reclaimed, what the water canal is for and such. You Miao lazily answers only what he feels like, and after noon is past You Han'ge rises to head home. You Miao doesn't keep him for dinner either, lest You Han'ge can tell how poor You Miao is by how coarse the food is, and tell Madam Wang to let her make a joke of it, and so You Han'ge is sent off.

The year end is close and the temperature is cooling. Shen Garden is getting fixed up bit by bit, looking more and more stately. You Miao only feels that this string of maces was worth it, and maybe he's paid too little, even. DLiang renovated the entire courtyard, using everything that he should; all the colonnades have been repainted, and every time You Miao comes in through the door, it almost feels like he doesn't recognize his own house.

Sculpted windows and engraved doors, each lattice carries with it the air of elegance and wealth. Every new glass tile is bought with his own money, freshly hauled back from Guangzhou village. Using lye water to wash them over once outside, the glass tiles lined the light coloured walls neatly in rows.

Tidying up such a large yard really did take quite the effort. The soldiers even helped turnover the soil in the garden, cleaned out the rockeries, and built support stacks for the wisterias. When spring comes, an entire yard of wisterias would pour out like a waterfall. Once water is properly installed in the garden, it would attract herons and swallows immediately, and create a beautiful sight. However, the great lake out there is still dried, so there's not much here either.

You Miao plans on fabricating a long bamboo rack to draw some water from the canal over. Then, with the ponds in the garden wrapped around the corridors, he'll build a tiny little bamboo waterwheel. It'd be quite the rhythm to have the bamboo rack drip bit by bit into the water wheel.

On the night of the twenty-ninth, You Miao packs a grant of two hundred coins for DLiang and Xiao-Liang, and gifted each of them a jug of wine. This money is so well spent; this quiet and deep Shen Garden of centuries old is almost restored to its original appearance. That night, You Miao also invited the soldiers over to feast, taking it as New Years celebration.

The next day, it's the thirtieth so no one needs to work. The band of soldiers thus sit out in Shen Garden, sipping on a bit of wine while flipping coins and rolling dice to play. Before the day lightened You Miao takes Li Zhifeng with him to cross the Yangtze, heading to Jiang Prefectural City, bringing with them half a trunk of animal pelts to go greet the clan.

The You Family Clan is a large clan in both Liuzhou and Yangzhou prefectures, but You Dechuan is closer with Liuzhou, and after recent events, You Miao long knows why——back then when You Dechuan wanted to change the principle son, the grand uncles from the Yangzhou side were against it, which was why You Dechuan personally went to Yangzhou Prefecture to request for a clan meeting. The Liuzhou side sent out a number of clan elders to help speak for You Dechuan, and in the end the You Family in Yangzhou had no choice but to make him swear that he would never strip You Miao's right to inheritance.

You Miao remembers dearly the affection these granduncles have shown him, so he goes to visit personally, gifting the animal pelts to many of the houses, then chats with the uncles and cousins. The clan kins here on this side certainly are thriving; twelve houses, each doing their own business. You Miao smiles and toasts, and the subject ends up on Riverwave Estate once again.

One of the uncles pipes up, "Didn't I say our boy You isn't one to screw around waiting to die? Look at him now! Y'all look!"

All the uncles laugh, and You Miao, being clever and knowing how to butter people up has always been favoured since he was young, even the cousins love him too.

"There's no one to farm the land yet," You Miao says, "Aye, I'll have to think of something when spring comes."

Another cousin speaks up, "Well isn't that easy to solve? Just go to the Yangzhou Government Office, give a shout to the Vice County Chief, and when spring comes and there's people looking for work in the field, have him send them over to your estate. Or, you can go find that little uncle of yours from Shaoyuan Estate, what's his name again?"

"Qiao Jue." Someone answers.

The people all nod, and the cousin continues, "That guy Qiao Jue is super good with people, his bargaining skills are top notch. Go look for him, he'll definitely take you to the markets there. There's a bunch of people selling themselves for a bite to eat, so spend a bit of money and buy some people back. Hiring for permanent labour and search for tenants are all done in that same place, so just go, it ain't hard looking for people. What's really difficult is do you actually have that much food supplies to feed all those mouths?!"

You Miao nods, and another one of the uncles speaks up languidly, "Since you've come out into the world, you'll have to do good business to show your dad. I've also said our Miao-zi isn't that dumb."

"Uncle-Er, help me write a letter, and I'll go knock on the Yangzhou Government Office's door." You Miao says.

"Of course." The uncle replies, "After New Years Day is over, I'll write a letter and have it sent directly to the Yangzhou Government Office, so don't you worry a thing."

You Miao finally relaxes, then starts to inquire after current businesses. Half the You Clan in Yangzhou owns land, and the other half does business. There's over thirty thousand mu of land left by the ancestors, planting tea, planting mulberries, raise silkworms weave brocades, grow castor beans and plums… Some of the clansmen take care of the fields, hiring hands to farm, the other houses who have clever minds thus take the produce out to sell.

The green plum wine of the You Clan is infamous throughout Jiangnan, and this fine wine is also taken as tribute to the imperial court. There's even less need to talk of the embroidery of Yangzhou.

As for the You Family over on Liuzhou Prefecture side, it's where You Dechuan was born, and there they hold a couple thousand mu of salt fields, their main business being salt sale. They also hire hands to deliver fish, shrimp, and other such seafood to do resale business, as well as sale of precious goods such as coral, pearls, seashells, agarwood, etc.

You Miao only wants to know what's profitable, and having asked around, all the cousins tell him: in the current era, as long as you know how to do business, everything is profitable.

"But I still gotta pick something, yea?" You Miao says.

"Tea plantation makes money." The uncle You Miao has always gotten along with since young joked, "Look at your dad, one catty of tea for one tael of gold, isn't the best of Biluochun# profitable? Junshan Silver Mist#, two silver for a catty of tea leaves…"

One of the younger uncles pipes up, "If Miao-zi wants to plant tea, why bother with his dad? Go find Shaoyuan Estate."

"No good." Someone says, "Shaoyuan Estate has good tea shoots but they've been having trouble selling their stock. These past few years, sigh…"

The others signals for him not to go overboard, it's You Miao's mother's family at the end of the day, but an idea hits You Miao. Going to his uncles on his mother's side for some tea shoots to grow within his own estate can work. Isn't the soil on Jiangbei side perfect for planting trees?

"Growing mulberries can work too." An uncle says, "Tens years ago silk is expensive, so a number of landlords cut down their fruit trees to grow mulberries, but then a few years ago the price of silk crashed, all of them lost their returns and capitals, so they could only cut down their mulberry trees to grow tea. If you figure closely, the price of silk should be inflating again."

This is something dependable, You Miao thought, "What about oil?"

"Rapeseed." Someone says, "That might work. But the fields here in Yangzhou are all foggy at night, and with the rainy season it's not easy to grow."

"Oil these past few years is expensive too." Uncle says, "Miao-zi, why don't you grow some rapeseed, and when they're ready I'll go collect, we split twenty-eighty on profit."

"Done." You Miao agrees readily, "Spring is about to come, the seeds will need to go down come february. I'll hire some labour hands then, and after I've planted those I'll flatten land and think about what else to plant."

Another cousin speaks up, "Then raise some bees. Have someone harvest honey, and eat rapeseed leaves with honey."

You Miao is completely and utterly taken by these uncles and cousins, and he laughs, "Okay, okay, after the fifteenth I'll go buy the seeds."

"I'll point you to a place." That same cousin says, "Once you cross Liuzhou Prefecture, head northwest to Cangzhou Prefecture. There are many who grow vegetables there. Don't ask for anyone, go straight to Yibaoxian County in Cangzhou, and pretend to be a comprador buying rapeseed oil for next year. Pick the fat and full rapeseeds, the unroasted ones, and buy two thousand catty of them, then you can bring them back to dry and plant yourself. Mix one part urine and nine parts water to soak them for two days and two nights, then after they've dried they can be planted."

You Miao keeps nodding, remembering that the same method is also mentioned in "Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People", then asks, "Where do I find beekeepers?"

"They're everywhere." An uncle answers. "Go take a walk in the hills blossoming with camellias, there's plenty of beekeepers there worried there's not enough flowers. Get a couple of them; if you've got flowers all year round, then it's a good thing to keep them in your estate too, not just for making money, but it's nice to always have honey to drink."

"Done. I'll have someone go look when the time comes." You Miao says.

After paying respects to the ancestors and the feast is over, the clansmen try to keep You Miao for the night. You Miao's still got his mind on his home, so he quickly declined, no no it's okay. When he comes out, the driver is just tethering the cart onto the steeds. You Miao looks around, "Where's Li Zhifeng?"

A boy attendant answers, "To answer Young Master, that servant said he's going out after he finished his meal. I haven't seen him come back since."

You Miao stays by the door to wait for a little while, and the skies begin to flurry. This is the coldest time of the year, and it finally snows in Jiangnan. Who knows what beautiful scenery it'll become tomorrow when snow drifts past the distant bridges.

He kind of wants to go home, but also kind of want to walk around in Yangzhou with Li Zhifeng. After waiting for a long while, the cousins with him are stomping their feet, freezing, and one of the relatives teases him, "Heh, all the other households have servants waiting for the young master, look at how you are as a young master, waiting for your own attendant."

With those words, all the cousins start to laugh, and You Miao clicks his tongue, "You guys don't understand, Li Zhifeng and I are like brothers. Don't call him servant this servant that, he's not the same as your little attendants."

"You keeping him in your room, are you?" A cousin teases You Miao, hugging him and squishing his face.

"Look at him, maybe he's the one being kept in the room by the attendant!" Another cousin teases, making everyone around laugh boisterously. You Miao straightens and says seriously, "If it wasn't for Li Zhifeng helping me, who knows where I'd be right now. Didn't you all see how at Sunshower Jade Estate, my dad randomly stuffs me an older brother, some guy I've never met. This Li Zhifeng is my real brother, he's genuinely good to me…"

Just as he is saying this, Li Zhifeng turns the corner down the street and appears. You Miao is still a little embarrassed, and calls out, "Where've you been?"

Li Zhifeng passes him a paper package, "Went to buy you something good."

"Mn. Let's go." You Miao says.

Now the cousins are laughing even harder.

"It's like he's talking to the little wife."

"Yea, the happy couple."

Then someone laughingly scolds, "Who says you can say "you", where's your manners, not even addressing your master as Young Master? Miao-zi, you've gotta discipline him properly when you go back."

Li Zhifeng's face is a little red, and he stands in that dusting of snow, watching You Miao with the hint of a smile. You Miao rebukes, "Aye, he's never known how to talk properly. It's fine as long as I know he's good to me, don't bully him. We're off, come visit at the estate when you've all got the time."

"Of course of course." The cousins bid their farewells to You Miao, and someone says, "Since we're all relatives, there's no reason for you to scorn your gege's."

"WHO'S SCORNING WHO!" You Miao laughs and mounts the carriage, waving farewell to the crowd then departs Yangzhou Prefectural City.

The clan kins still treats him extremely well; father always says the attitude of the world is fickle, the affections of people hot and cold, he's said this so much You Miao's ears were going to grow callous. At first, You Miao thought those words were right, but as he grows up, he's starting feel maybe You Dechuan isn't all right. Cousins and uncles, they're all reasonable people, everyone's living their lives well, and when the family gathers, first it's not to borrow money, second it's not to annoy anybody; do some business together, socialize, everyone profits, how is that so bad?

People like You Dechuan, so promiscuous and scandalous when he was young, plus he spent gold like dirt, so to be scorned by the clansmen was entirely his own fault.

The wind is blowing outside. This is the coldest time of the year, and although it's flurrying, compared to the Capital this is still pretty good weather. Who knows what kind of heavy snow the Capital has gotten by now. You Miao shrinks in Li Zhifeng's embrace, wishing he can limply roll into one with the man. Li Zhifeng on the other hand, opens up the wool throw blanket then wraps him with it, his fingers holding You Miao tight, asking him in a low whisper, "Sleepy?"

"No." You Miao is too lazy to even raise his eyelids, "Hold me tighter."

Li Zhifeng hugs him, his lips gently dotting over You Miao's eyebrows and eyes.

You Miao is feeling nothing but warmth and comfort, and asks, "You bought me something good?"

"You'll see when we get back." Li Zhifeng whispers into his ears.

By the time they get back to Shen Garden it's midnight. The soldiers are still drinking and playing games, making jokes and merry. The large garden is hung full of red lanterns, the voices of people bustling and lively, and there are even some who are hollering at the top of their voices telling stories, the atmosphere joyous and cheerful.

At the front doors, Li Zhifeng opens the paper package for You Miao to see, and inside is a big string of a firecracker. You Miao exclaims in surprise, then quickly goes to find a bamboo stick. Li Zhifeng chuckles and says, "No rush, there's this too."

Li Zhifeng then rummages out a tiger hat from his waist pouch, flips it around in his hand before putting it on You Miao. You Miao immediately yells, "OPEN THE DOORS WE GONNA BLOW!"

The soldiers all come over, and You Miao grips the bamboo stick, raising the three meters long firecracker. Li Zhifeng goes to light the firecracker, and as it cracks and blows, the sound booms clearly to the horizon.

---

Chapter 15

First day of the new year#, and You Miao opens the door to a thick blanket of firecracker scraps on the ground. The soldiers are still just doing their own thing; You Miao leaves them be to play however they feel like. A bunch of people head across the river to go hunting in the mountains to the north, and bring back quite a haul of pheasants and wild hares first thing in the morning. You Miao, for his part, gets sleepy after only a while there and goes back home to rest.

All four tenant farmers come visiting at Shen Garden at the start of the year to offer their New Year's greetings, and You Miao gives each of them a grant. The young tenant farmer Zhang Er starts coming regularly to read in the library, so they set up a coal stove in the library. You Miao and Zhang Er each have a book in hand, You Miao flipping through "Divine Farmer Shennong", Zhang Er studying "Classic of Rites, and Li Zhifeng reading "The Art of War" with much interest. It's snowing lightly outside, but the library is warm and cozy, very comfortable.

Second day of the new year, and the soldiers of Yangzhou Army are finally done goofing off, grabbing their tools to go back to digging the canal. It'll probably be done in another four or five days, then once the canal is connected, the waterwheel is built, and the footpaths between the paddy fields are dug, the water will flow from the river through the entire Riverwave Estate, criss-crossing like a spiderweb as it flows into the pond on the south side, filling it, and then continue onwards toward Anlu Village.

You Miao circles out a couple plots of land on the map. Rice is a must—with such a huge estate, it'd be nonsensical to buy rice and flour from the outside. Riverwave Estate has nine thousand mu of fertile land in all, of which seven thousand mu are south of the river. If he uses the three thousand and four hundred mu on the east side to grow rice, then assuming that each mu produces three hundred catties, times three planting seasons per year, nine hundred catties.

So three million catties of rice per year——twenty five thousand five hundred dan#.

In the Jiangnan region, one dan of rice goes for one silver, so in other words, twenty five thousand five hundred silver per year! Each mu produces seven silver and five coins!

You Miao's eyes stare fixedly in shock, fingers shaking so much he almost drops his abacus. Li Zhifeng and Zhang Er both look over in confusion.

"Minor case of epilepsy," You Miao says. "Don't mind me."

Li Zhifeng grins and reaches over to wrap an arm around You Miao, continuing to read his book while You Miao click-clacks away on his abacus in his embrace.

Of course the twenty five thousand five hundred silver won't all be his; he lowered the rent for the old tenant farmers by one tenth, but any new tenant farmers or long term workers won't get that rate, they'll be charged at five-tenths at least.

Twelve thousand five hundred silver, then deduct the land tax paid to the government—one coin per mu of vacant land, five coins per mu of farmable land—that's four thousand five hundred silver, so eight thousand silver left as profit.

As long as he can rent out all the paddy fields, he won't have to worry about starving to death, and there'll be eight thousand silver per year in profit. You Miao always used to hear people say that it's hard to farm the land at Riverwave Estate——and they weren't wrong, what with there being no water no fertilizer and no farm hands. The rice has trouble growing and the lake is all dried up, gotta count on the heavens sparing some rain just to water the crops.

But once the waterwheel is done, there'll be an unlimited supply of water from the river for irrigation. Never mind growing rice for two seasons a year, even three seasons will be easily doable, and that'll make for three times the production. You Dechuan doesn't grow crops, and naturally doesn't care about tilling equipment like ploughs, double-row harrows, spades, and such. You Miao sets "Divine Farmer Shennong" down and says, "Zhang Er, toss me the 'Mohist Classics' from the shelf."

A book flies over with its pages flapping. Li Zhifeng grabs it out of the air and passes it to You Miao, who begins to flip through it studiously.

In these recent days, You Miao has more or less managed to grasp the major agricultural techniques used since the ancient times.

"Treatise of Gongshu" is a compilation of the works of master craftsman Lu Ban. It includes descriptions of all kinds of elaborate devices like waterwheels, bamboo pipes, and wooden surveillance kites, covering everything from small playthings like figures of copper and iron to structural renovations and building constructions. Carpentry and metalworking are certainly useful, but there isn't too much relation to agriculture.

"Mohist Classics" was written by Mozi, the founder of the Mohist school of thought. It is a treatise on machines and mechanisms, divided into a chapter on military implements and another on agricultural ones. The military chapter is dedicated to ballistas, moat excavators, and even things like scaling ladders for siege warfare, catapults, and trap-sprung crossbows. You Miao has no need for these, so he sets them aside for now, but the agriculture chapter is full of useful things, including three-row ploughs, heavy ploughs, seeders, double-row harrows, spades, weeders, stream-splitting trenches, copper scarecrows, and such. With equipment made according to the teachings of this book, together with the grindstones, winnowing baskets, sieves, and other such tools from "Exploitations of the Works of Nature", one household and two oxen could easily take care of up to a hundred mu of land.

"Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People", meanwhile, lists the characteristics of all kinds of crops, including the appropriate fertilizers to use in each region, be it wood ash or livestock urine, as well as important techniques such as threshing and seed selection.

And then there's "Divine Farmer Shennong", which catalogues plant species and uses.

All of these books, without exception, carry his mom's annotations. Looks like mom also once wanted to fix this estate up and set aside a couple plots of land to plant some things for fun. To that end, the analysis in the margin annotations include notes that no matter how the soil quality is, how the harvest is, or what the market price of rice is, one of the crops planted must be rice, so as to prevent famine.

Qiao Ke'er then went on to right about the plague that swept through Jiangnan when she was young. The plague left a very deep impression in her; there were corpses everywhere in the wilderness, people traded their children for a bite to eat, and even those who had the money couldn't find any rice or flour to buy. That's why, regardless of whether the harvest for the year is good or bad, setting aside grains for storage is a must.

Reading for a bit more, You Miao also believes that rice is the safest. After all, no matter the year, everyone has to eat, and even if the rice and flour don't sell, storing them in the granary is just as good.

You Miao circles out a region of the paddy fields and writes "eight thousand silver" on it. The higher elevation lands to the east side will be slated for rice, then, with planting scheduled to start once spring arrives and the waterwheel is done. As for the low-lying land stretching from the the east of the manor to the large pond, where the soil is loose, that region might be a good candidate for rapeseed, and once they find some beekeepers, maybe build a row of beehives next to the pond. This way, whenever they step outside the manor, they'll be greeted by the delightful sight of the verdantly green rapeseed fields.

"How much is oil going for right now?" You Miao asks.

Zhang Er glances up at him briefly and answers, "Fifty eight coins per catty."

Li Zhifeng says offhandedly, "Fifty five to sixty five."

You Miao nods, then asks, "How much oil does one mu of rapeseed produce?"

Neither Zhang Er nor Li Zhifeng knows the answer to that one, so You Miao goes to look in "Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People." In it is written that one mu of land produces two hundred fifty catties of rapeseed, and that one hundred catties of oil can be extracted thereof. So five silver per mu, plus honey—about the same as growing rice, maybe slightly more profitable, but not by much.

With a flick of his wrist, You Miao circles out another five hundred mu of land for rapeseed.

There's someone yelling something outside; can't really hear, but seems to be calling for You Miao.

"Boyo!" The voice of a man calls, "You home? I've come to visit!"

You Miao jumps up like he's been stung, hastily tries to put on his boots, can't get them on, gives up on the boots and runs out barefoot. There's a man in the courtyard looking around, commenting, "Such a grand manor, but not a single servant girl?"

"Xiao-jiu#——!" You Miao cries happily as he runs through the corridor and throws himself into the man's arms, rolling and nuzzling like crazy.

The person is his uncle on his mother's side, Qiao Jue. He pulls You Miao into a big hug, then presses him against the wall and ruffles his hair as he says, "You little brat! You really not gonna go visit your mom's side of the family unless your xiao-jiu comes to see you first huh!"

You Miao is caught between crying and laughing at the sight of Qiao Jue. He drags him inside the hall, pushes him down on the couch and immediately burrows into his arms, squishing his face into his chest and not saying a word for a long while.

"Alrighty alrighty," Qiao Jue chuckles helplessly as he pats You Miao's back trying to get him to get up. You Miao's eyes are red-rimmed when he pulls back, and Qiao Jue teases, "I was just going to say that you got taller, but you're still crying like a little kid."

You Miao sniffles. Li Zhifeng comes over with his boots and puts them on for him, then You Miao goes to the inner room to fetch tea, asking, "What're you doing here?"

Qiao Jue says, "Coming to see you, course. I've just about had it at your er-jiu#'s place, so I was thinking about coming here to live with you instead."

Laughing through his tears, You Miao says, "I've got nothing but rooms here, pick whichever one you like."

You Miao stands on tiptoe and retrieves a tea set and a box of tea leaves from high up. Qiao Jue looks around appreciatively and says, "So this is the estate er-jie bought back then? Not bad." Then he turns and nods toward Li Zhifeng, "You don't have to wait on us, go ahead and do what you need to do. I'm his xiao-jue, just treat me like family."

Just who is Qiao Jue? He was originally Shaoyuan Estate's second master. Qiao Ke'er's parents had four children; both the eldest daughter and her husband died when the plague swept through Jiangnan, leaving behind a daughter named Qiao Rong.

The eldest principal son Qiao Zhang took over the estate after their parents passed, and married a well-known local lady by the name of Bai.

The third daughter Qiao Ke'er married You Dechuan—this was You Miao's mom.

The youngest son Qiao Jue was born right as the estate fell into decline. He looked a bit like You Miao when he was young—the saying does go that nephews look like their uncles. Qiao Jue is only five years older than You Miao; he was practically raised by Qiao Ke'er, and spent much of his childhood living at Sunshower Jade Estate. He and You Miao look just like a pair of brothers, both of them delicate and pretty yet handsome with an air of easy grace.

Even more coincidental, their parents caught the plague and passed soon after Qiao Jue was born, so Qiao Ke'er found him a wet nurse—old granny Sun, who was also You Miao's wet nurse later on. According to Jiangnan custom, those who suckled from the same wet nurse should be good brothers from young, look after one another.

So Qiao Jue and You Miao are both uncle-nephew and childhood playmates, and are naturally very close. When You Miao first left home and came here to Riverwave Estate, he had actually wanted to go see Qiao Jue first, but there are so many people with so many opinions at his uncle's place, and er-jiu's wife, who's in charge of the place, isn't exactly easy to get along with, so it'd probably just end up being irritating if he went. Thus he decided to get settled in first and get the place tidied up, then invite Qiao Jue to come visit.

Qiao Jue is a man of no few talents as well—astronomy and mathematics, the Four Books and Five Classics#, divination and tea ceremony, you name it. In his days as a student, he once debated the teacher into speechlessness; but he's also unruly by nature, and cares neither for composing scholarly essays nor for rank and achievement in the imperial exams. When You Miao went to the Capital to study, Qiao Jue was still doing accounting for Shaoyuan Estate, just casually running some numbers every day then going out to stroll and play around once that's done.

You Miao takes out a black-white porcelain teapot along with two cups, one black and one white, and says, "I just so happen to have some Junshan Silver Mist."

"Hang on," Qiao Jue hurriedly says. "I brought some tea for you to sample."

Qiao Jue takes out a packet of tea from his sleeve, saying, "Here's some Dongding Oolong I kept from the year before last."

You Miao brews the tea using the two cups instead of his mom's dowry tea set, then asks, "How are things at home?"

Qiao Jue sighs and says helplessly, "Same as always, bickering every day while the business gets worse every year. If you ask me, might as well just close the tea shop, maybe open a pawn shop instead. That er-jiu of yours, every year after the tea harvest… it'd be one thing if he just sells it all to the tea sellers at their price, clear out his stock, but he won't listen, and insists on hanging onto the stock to sell at his own tea shop."

You Miao is well aware that part of the reason why Shaoyuan Estate's business is in dire straits is because his old man You Dechuan is a little too good at doing business. The competition in the Jiangnan market for tea these days is so fierce that the tea merchants are doing just about everything short of murder and arson; with Qiao Zhang's little bit of brains, how could he possibly hope to fight with the rest of the tea merchants that are all in cahoots?

He had heard his mom and er-jiu's wife arguing a couple of times when he was young. He didn't understand then, but he more or less gets it now.

"So they're all working together to force down the price of our family's tea, huh?" You Miao says. "Tell er-jiu to just sell what he can."

"Your er-jiu is a blockhead," Qiao Jue says with a huff. "Things wouldn't have gotten to this point if he was any kind of amenable to suggestions, but he acts like you're trying to maim him if you say even just a couple words extra."

You Miao laughs, "How's biao-jie#?"

Qiao Jue says, "Same old. Argues with that woman day in day out; can't marry out. As soon as your mom left and there was no one left at the estate to keep things in check, your er-jiu's wife's been getting more and more overbearing. The way she gives out the monthly stipends is like she's getting rid of beggars or something."

You Miao says, "Why don't you just stay here? Don't even bother going back."

Qiao Jue doesn't answer, examining the cup instead and saying with a smile, "These cups are pretty interesting."

You Miao replies good-humoredly, "I bought the set in the Capital. It's called Taiji Pot, two silver from a street side stall."

You Miao pours the tea into the Taiji cups and takes a sip. It's nothing special at first, but after a bit of savoring, the aftertaste is mellow and sweet like the grandness of mountains and rivers with a touch of the fragrance of ink, spreading out on the tongue layer after layer.

"It's good tea," You Miao notes.

"Right?" Qiao Jue replies. "I've brought it up with your er-jiu several times already, but he still insists on growing green tea instead of this one."

You Miao smiles and says, "People here prefer green tea though, don't they? If you want to deal in oolong tea, you'd have to go to places like the Hubei and Hunan provinces, the Capital, and Shuzhong to sell."

Qiao Jue says, "I actually heard that the lord officials in the northern regions are quite fond of oolong tea."

You Miao: "Do you have tea seedlings?"

Qiao Jue: "I have plenty of seedlings, just nowhere to plant them."

You Miao: "Forget about going home and contending with that woman, go gather your seedlings and come here to plant them. I mean it, xiao-jiu, I've missed you to death!"

Qiao Jue lets out a sigh. You Miao was actually just thinking about paying Shaoyuan Estate a visit in a couple days to get some tea seedlings to plant. He definitely won't win in the Jiangnan green tea market, not with his old man in the race, but he can always grow some oolong tea to sell in the Capital.

"I'll have to go home and see first," Qiao Jue finally says.

You Miao knows Qiao Jue won't ditch; even if he himself doesn't end up coming, he'll definitely still send the tea seedlings over, so he's not worried at all. Three rounds of tea later, he takes Qiao Jue out on a tour of the estate. Qiao Jue clicks his tongue appreciatively and the conversation turns toward You Miao's time in the Capital, which You Miao tells him all about, rather smugly—about how the Third Prince Zhao Chao likes him and wanted him to be his study companion, and about what happened at home.

-

Qiao Jue is famed in the Yangzhou Prefecture for his looks, and with You Miao next to him, the uncle and nephew each has their unique air of handsomeness. The two of them stroll leisurely on horseback through the entire estate during the day, then You Miao treats Qiao Jue to a farmer's dinner in the evening. Li Zhifeng makes steamed fish, while Li Zhuang and Zhu Tang's wives simmer a pot of chicken soup. They also make bacon stirfry, sliced blood sausage, and fried rice cakes, as well as seasonal vegetables and savory egg custard.

You Miao keeps Qiao Jue's cup full of wine, saying, "We just got settled in, so there's nothing too fancy in terms of food and drink, but do help yourself."

"It's all good, all good," Qiao Jue's face is wine-flushed as he says, "food back at the estate is more or less the same stuff, anyway."

Hearing that, You Miao is surprised at first, and then pity wells up—his mother's side of the family was one of means as well, once; how could they have been reduced to this?

"Is there not enough money coming in?" You Miao finally realizes that things might actually be serious.

"To say the least!" Qiao Jue says, "It's lumbering and cumbersome, this handed-down family business. Sure, it worked fine twenty years ago, but doing the exact same thing still in today's market is totally unworkable. Back when san-jie was still around, at least there was still eight, nine hundred silver coming in each year, but in recent years your er-jiu's just been pulling down the east wall to fix up the west wall, heaven knows how much debt is owed now. It's debt slips every day with no sign of any incoming payment, and your uncle's wife keeps drawing money from the accounts to provide for her gaggle of relatives, sigh, things are tough."

Qiao Jue is in charge of Shaoyuan Estate's accounts, and knows exactly how much is coming in and going out, whether money is being made or lost. So if he's saying such things, then the business probably won't be able to hold out for much longer.

"Come sit," You Miao tugs at Li Zhifeng.

Li Zhifeng hurriedly waves his hand. "I'll eat outside."

"Just sit," Qiao Jue says with a smile. "My nephew already told me you're like a good brother to him…"

You Miao immediately turns red and hurries to say, "Alright alright that's enough."

Qiao Jue lets out another sigh and says, "I heard about what happened to you. Xiao-jiu wanted to go have a talk with him but…"

You Miao flashes a grin and says, "Don't worry about it, life happens."

Qiao Jue picks up his wine and clinks with You Miao. "Shaoyuan Estate is still even standing only because of monetary assistance from your dad; that being the case, we naturally must defer to him, and that sister-in-law of mine won't stop sucking up to You Dechuan… but your xiao-jiu I was mad for you as well."

You Miao says, "My dad's always been kind of a bastard, he would've just ignored you anyway even if you had gone. Seriously, don't worry about it."

They clink again and each take a gulp of the wine, then Qiao Jue says, "But it's the principle of the thing! I cried when I first heard about it that day; it's a good thing san-jie bought this estate back then, else xiao-jiu won't be able to sleep, thinking about how you'd have to put up with that evil woman."

You Miao laughs, "There's no point being mad about it. I'm just going to carve out a good life for myself, with good food and good drinks. She wants me down in the dumps, so I'll do the exact opposite, I'm going to live my best life, there's no better revenge than that."

Qiao Jue smiles and says, "That's the way, you're much smarter than me. I let those irritating things at home get to me too much and get all worked up over nothing." He notices Li Zhifeng standing off to the side as he speaks, so he taps his chopsticks against the wine bowl and says with a grin, "Li Zhifeng, come sit. I'm already treating you as family, so you gotta extend me the same courtesy, yeah?"

Li Zhifeng nods and takes a seat at the table, the three of them eating and drinking together. Afterwards, You Miao insists that Qiao Jue stay the night, and the two of them share the bed, hugging around the waist the way they used to sleep when they were young, with no end of things to talk about.

Qiao Jue was raised by Qiao Ke'er, and is proficient in everything from the four arts of zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting, to poetry, history, rites, and etiquette. You Miao's always looked up to his xiao-jue since he was little, and the two of them chatter late into the night, until they fall asleep, but then they would wake up and talk some more. You Miao tells him about the waterwheel he plans to build, and Qiao Jue volunteers the couple hundred silver he's put aside in savings the last couple of years for the project.

They doze on and off in each other's arms and end up sleeping in til the sun is already high in the sky on the third day of the new year. After lunch, Qiao Jue says he's heading back. You Miao still wants him to stay some more, but Qiao Jue tells him that he still has to stop by the estate to check on the land, get ready to have people pick the spring sprouts, so You Miao has to reluctantly let him go.

Fourth day of the new year, and the canal is complete, just waiting on the waterwheel now. You Miao knows that if he wants to plant trees on the lands to the north, he'd first have to cut down some of the basswood that's currently there. These trees were planted there nearly a hundred years ago by the original owner of the estate, and whenever the people from Guo Village need to make new furniture, the northern mountain is where they go for wood.

You Miao goes and borrows a couple dozen hatches and asks the soldiers to cut down some trees and toss them into the river, while Li Zhifeng on the other side lassos the timber across the river to the opposite bank. Although there should be enough money for the waterwheel now, there's no harm in saving where possible and using materials from the estate itself, like the timber.

You Miao doesn't have any plans to reclaim the land north of the river for farming. First, the terrain is uneven and thus harder to plow than the land south of the river, and any land for farming would have to be in the form of stepped fields, for which irrigation then becomes a problem.

Second, the river runs right through the middle, and it'd be too troublesome to go back and forth every day to tend to the fields. Far easier to just plant tea trees and mulberry trees, make it into woodlands instead, which will also serve to shield against fierce winds and mudslides. There's more than two thousand mu of land there, one thousand mu for tea trees, one thousand mu for mulberry trees, and the rest for plum trees.

The Yangzhou army soldiers have more or less reclaimed all the uncultivated land south of the river for You Miao by now. Next they set a fire to clear out the weeds, and smoke billows out magnificently over the entire estate. Everything's done by the seventh day of the year, and You Miao holds another grand feast, feeds everyone full to the brim, and pays the soldiers five strings of coins before sending them off.

Now that everyone's gone, Shen Garden returns to its former peace and quiet, with just You Miao and Li Zhifeng.

Zhang Er still comes up to read every day, and helps out with the cleaning while he's here.

"Is there enough money? Li Zhifeng takes the rare initiative to ask.

"Should be." You Miao and Li Zhifeng are sitting by the riverbank guarding their giant pile of basswood logs. They're at large clearing by the lower reaches of the river, and the logs are piled neatly into ten stacks. The tenant farmers take turns watching over the timber at night, bringing the puppy along, but You Miao himself hangs around the place during the day, strolling along the river side, sometimes spacing out, or reading books, or poking at rocks, or grilling fish with Li Zhifeng.

The time spent at the Capital feels like another lifetime now that he's here at Jiangnan taking care of his own estate. The days pass calmly and uneventfully; waking at sunrise and sleeping at sundown, You Miao feels more and more like a farmer.

"Xiao-jiu said he can lend me some money," You Miao explains. "When the old man comes by in a couple of days, I'll add up the costs and then go borrow from him."

Money money money, everything needs money. He hasn't even gotten around to recruiting more tenant farmers yet and so much money's already flowing out of his pockets like water. He'll have to wait til the canal's functional before hiring workers; don't know how many he can get yet, but hopefully a lot.

The whole year must be planned for in the spring; it's almost time to start planting the fields.

The markets at both Guo and Anlu Villages have opened, and it's even more lively and bustling over at Yangzhou City. You Miao wants to go play but can't get away, stuck holding down the fort as he is. Just when his patience is beginning to run thin, someone finally hollers from up above.

Zhu Tang is at the top of the cliff and yelling down toward them, "Young Master——!"

"What is it?!" You Miao looks up.

Zhu Tang yells something that You Miao couldn't catch, but Li Zhifeng's hearing is excellent, and says, "Old man Huang is here, and he brought a bunch of people."

You Miao is thrilled as he says, "C'mon, let's go up there right now."

Li Zhifeng says, "No rush, they're coming down along the road by the river."

You Miao feels tense and restless inside as they wait. Less than an hour later, DLiang arrives carrying old craftsman Huang on his back, along with some thirty-odd workers following after. You Miao is startled—this many people?!

These all experienced craftsmen, nothing like the soldiers from before, heaven only knows how much it'll cost to hire them all. But since they've already come, You Miao can only go up and offer his greetings. Old craftsman Huang asks, "How come you didn't go home for the New Year? Or go look around the markets?"

"Couldn't get away," You Miao answers with a smile. "I'll feel uneasy wandering off with things unfinished."

"I see," old craftsman Huang sits down on a large rock by the river, putting both hands on his walking stick and saying, "Once construction gets started in a couple of days, you're free to go take a stroll elsewhere."

You Miao asks a little nervously, "Has teacher finished looking over the schematics?"

Old craftsman Huang says, "Come over and take a look at the additions I made. It's not gonna be cheap, make sure you know what you're getting into here."

"Yes of course," You Miao wipes his sweat, expression a little tense. A couple of the craftsmen are looking at the logs and chatting casually. You Miao knows that it'll really cost him this time—old craftsman Huang probably won't let him off for anything less than a couple hundred in silver.

"Think it through clearly," old man Huang says. "This waterwheel, once made, will be a blessing for hundreds, thousands of years. I don't care about the money, but if you're reluctant to open your moneybag, then say so right now so I can take my people and leave. You can't find guys like these at Anlu; I recruited them from all over Yangzhou, so don't go changing your mind at the last second."

You Miao stands obediently like an apprentice as he says solemnly with great respect, "I would never do that."

Old craftsman Huang continues, "They didn't come to build your project entirely for the money, either, to be frank with you. Such a huge waterwheel project is hard to come by for the average craftsman, and making such a machine is quite a different matter from building houses."

The craftsmen nod in agreement, and old craftsman Huang says, "You lot have to work hard too. Take it as both a building project and a learning opportunity, make sure it's done well for the Young Master."

An older craftsman from the group pipes up, "That goes without saying, course. Everyone knows that once us Anping craftspeople take a job, sloppy's the last thing it's gonna be, right guys?"

Old craftsman Huang nods and says, "You Miao here is from Sunshower Jade Estate, there's no need to worry about being short even a single coin for your pay, so everyone just make sure you do a good job."

This is the first the craftsmen are hearing of You Miao's background; meanwhile, You Miao's heart is lurching all over in his chest from old craftsman Huang's speech, thinking that this old man Huang is either an old swindler or an eminent master craftsman.

But considering the effort that his apprentices DLiang and Xiao-Liang had put into restoring Shen Garden for him, and the quality of the renovations, it's probably not the former.

Then old craftsman Huang probably seldom makes a showing to take on work anymore, and only accepted this project because the waterwheel piqued his interest. And if what he said was right, then these craftspeople all came for the waterwheel as well. Few in Yangzhou, or indeed even in the entire Midlands, could manage something like building a waterwheel on the side of a cliff. The skills and experience to be gained in joining the project to build this enormous machine is worth far more than the pay itself.

Old craftsman Huang then introduces his eldest apprentice to You Miao. The apprentice is named Wu Zhuang, already in his sixties but still very sturdy and fit. You Miao exchanges greetings with them and then invites, "Let's go to the manor first and have some tea?"

But old craftsman Huang says, "Let's talk money first. I've already made you a list of the needed materials, which you will procure and pay for on your own, and I won't charge you anything for you. Of the people here, twenty are skilled workers, five hundred coins per person per day, agreeable?"

You Miao thinks ok ok, that's not too much, and says, "Yes, as teacher says."

Old craftsman Huang continues unhurriedly, "Ten helpers, two hundred coins per person per day."

You Miao: "Sure."

Old craftsman Huang: "You take care of two meals, an opening feast before the work starts and a closing feast once it's done. A whole pig and a jar of good wine for each. The rest of the time you lot go eat at Guo Village or Anlu Village, don't freeload off of Young Master You. Doesn't look like there's many people in his manor, it'd be too much trouble to feed this many mouths."

You Miao says with a smile, "That's alright, shouldn't be too hard to cover daily meals for the worker gege's as well."

Old craftsman Huang shakes his walking stick and says, "They're spoiled picky eaters, just go with what I said unless you have other objections."

You Miao hurriedly nods in agreement, and old craftsman Huang glances at the basswood logs sitting at the river bank out of the corner of his eyes as he says, "I was going to have you go buy lumber, but you seem prepared already."

You Miao brings old craftsman Huang over to look at the logs, asking, "Is it useable?"

Old craftsman Huang taps the wood with his walking stick and nods. "This is hundred twenty year old basswood, good material. Lads, come plank the lumber."

The craftsmen had already scattered, but at old craftsman Huang's words, they start taking off the things they were carrying and promptly begin assembling planers, marking up the wood, and polishing their saws. You Miao makes to go over and help, but old craftsman Huang halts him, "Hold it, what's this lad's name, the one behind you."

Li Zhifeng gives his name, and old craftsman Huang says, "You-boy, have him stay here so that if anything pops up that needs buying we can just send him."

You Miao mn's, and old craftsman Huang goes back to his rock to sit, waving him over, "Come over and see the changes I made now."

You Miao drew the diagram roughly, copying bits and pieces from "Mohist Classics" and combining them ad hoc without actually learning anything from it. Old craftsman Huang points to and asks about several of the design points, but You Miao is at a complete loss and can offer no good answers.

"I thought you learned the trade from your family!" Old craftsman Huang snaps irritably, "But turns out it's just another empty qualification! Tell the truth, who gave you this diagram! Call the original designer over!"

You Miao gripes, "Teacher, I really did draw it! Wait here a little, I'll go fetch the book to show you."

You Miao runs up to the manor and comes back with a pile of books. Old craftsman Huang flips through the books at the riverbank, mulls it over, and finally nods, saying, "This teacher will explain it to you. Listen well, I'm only going over it once."

You Miao takes a seat next to old craftsman Huang, and he explains things to him one by one, from the anchor, chain, bolts and rivets to the waterwheel capacity and so forth. You Miao starts grinning as he slowly begins to understand how things work. Old craftsman Huang shoots him a look, "What are you grinning for."

You Miao replies, still grinning, "I'm grinning cause I understand, like how Kassapa smiled knowingly when Buddha held the flower#."

"Hm," old craftsman Huang says. "Anyway, that's how it works. There's still things you have to see to; you two have your work cut out for you."

You Miao takes the stack of sheepskin drawn with the exploded view diagrams of the entire waterwheel, with no fewer than a hundred and eight water scoops, a wooden framework divided into five sections, and two chain belts, eighteen hundred feet in length with six hundred segments each three feet long. There's also the giant iron hooks for securing the water scoops, and the rotor in the middle made of eight components. And then there are the pieces like the central shaft, bearings, rollers, four-way spokes, eight-way spokes, so on and so forth. The most complex part is the large wheel itself, fastened vertically against the face of the cliff with its lower half submerged in the river to be rotated by the flow of the water, in turn driving the four hundred feet long chain belt to lift the water scoops up the cliff to dump the water into the canal.

And whenever the river floods, the vertical wheel will rise with the water level, and the chain waterwheel with the greater part of it submerged under water will rotate slower. There's also a crank in the middle for adjusting the speed at any time.

Li Zhifeng says, "We have to buy iron right? I'll go."

Old craftsman Huang says, "You both have to go, you can't explain it by yourself. You-boy, make a run to Yangzhou first to buy iron, then deliver the iron to the villages to the north and south and have them forge the parts according to the diagrams."

You Miao mn's, groaning inside about all these troublesome things that need doing. Everything else aside, just the amount of iron needed is going to be a hassle—normal folks are hard-pressed to even find that much to buy. But old craftsman Huang adds, "Take this wooden tablet to Yangzhou Prefecture Military Defense Bureau, ask for Tang Hui…"

You Miao pipes up immediately, "I know him! We're friendly, like brothers."

Old craftsman Huang shoots You Miao another glance and says cheerfully, "Even better then. Tang Hui always comes to my apprentices whenever he needs carts and carriages made, but since you know him already, I'll just hang onto the favor he owes me. Go on then."

You Miao mn's and is about to head back to the manor, thinking to take account of his funds while he's there—he only has fifty silver left, so he'll have to grab some stuff to go sell. He's calculating the wages for the craftsmen when he suddenly remembers something. "Teacher, your pay…"

Old craftsman Huang waves his hand 'no need' and says, "Just treat this teacher to a nice cup of tea when the work's done."

"I couldn't possibly just…" You Miao smiles politely.

Old craftsman Huang shows a rare smile as he looks at the river flowing past, saying, "I'm getting on in years, who knows when I'll kick the bucket, and I'm not short for money either. I'll just treat the work as exercising these old bones for fun."

You Miao knows the old man's temperament and doesn't push the issue. He takes Li Zhifeng with him back up along the river, thinking and calculating his money the entire time.

Li Zhifeng sees the look on his face and asks, "There isn't enough money, is there?"

You Miao mn's and says, "Let's take the fox furs to Yangzhou to sell first. Too bad we didn't do this before the New Year, would've fetched a better price then."

Li Zhifeng carries You Miao on his back as they go up the mountain. He says, "Are there delivery services in the Jiangnan region? I'll go rob one."

You Miao doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Don't be ridiculous."

Li Zhifeng makes a masking gesture and says, "I'll wear a mask, no one will know it's me."

You Miao chides, "Do not do that. We're not actually short on money; just my mom's tea set alone is worth two hundred silver, I just don't wanna sell it is all. But if it comes to it, I can pawn it at a pawn shop and buy it back later when we have the money."

Li Zhifeng nods. You Miao's mind goes all over the place, thinking to go borrow money from his xiao-jiu Qiao Jue, then wondering if he should just pawn off things from Shen Garden instead. The first thing he does once they get back to the manor is to take out the abacus and calculate the wages for the craftsmen. The project's gonna take a month at the very least, and the wages alone will cost him three hundred sixty silver.

And then there's the cost of the iron too, at least four thousand catties of it to account for waste and scraps; that's gonna be a hundred twenty silver, plus thirty silver for the forge job for a total of one hundred fifty silver.

Two hundred sticks of bamboo for scaffolding, twenty silver.

Over five hundred silver… You Miao calculates in despair, holding his fifty silver in hand and kind of wanting to cry. He ponders for a while then goes and digs through the boxes for whatever he can find, desperate for any little bit at this point. He finds the money pouch that You Han'ge had given him when he left and turns it over to pour out its contents——

——And more than ten sparkling gold ingots fall out with a clatter!

You Miao is startled to say the least, and Li Zhifeng says, "Gold?"

You Miao: "What is this? Is that bumpkin brother of mine this generous?"

This is quite the development. You Miao has Li Zhifeng close the door while he takes out an iron ruler and carefully tallies the gold on the table. A couple had fallen under the cabinet; Li Zhifeng bends over and picks them up to put back on the table.

Five, ten… fifteen… eighteen.

Eighteen gold ingots. You Miao turns his head to ask for the scale, but Li Zhifeng is already putting the little scale used to measure silver pieces on the table. You Miao weighs each ingot in turn; each ingot is two taels, for a total of thirty six taels of bright shiny gold.

"How thoughtful," Li Zhifeng comments.

You Miao mn's as he turns the gold ingots over in his hands, noting that they all have inscribed on them things like "Longevity", and guesses where the gold's from——must be what You Dechuan's been secretly giving to You Han'ge for his birthday every year. You Han'ge is eighteen this year, and there are exactly eighteen gold ingots.

You Miao feels a bit of a stinging in his nose, thinking how can he possibly spend this gift of gold.

You Miao's always cared deeply about friendships and sentiments; if someone is good to him, he'll pay back the kindness tenfold. Holding You Han'ge entire life savings in his hands, You Miao doesn't know what to do for a moment.

Finally, he sighs tiredly and asks, "What's one tael of gold worth in silver right now?"

Li Zhifeng says, "Not sure, we'll have to go ask."

You Miao mulls it over repeatedly, and in the end takes the gold with him when he leaves with Li Zhifeng to head to Yangzhou City.

A couple years ago a tael of gold was worth eighteen taels of silver in the Capital, and it seems the exchange rate is even higher now in the Jiangnan region. You Miao checks at several gold shops, all of which say twenty and four-tenth taels. In the end You Miao just feels like it'd be wrong to cash out the gold, so he ends up going to a pawn shop and pawning the gold You Han'ge gave him for seven hundred silver.

The guy at the pawn shop sighs endlessly about the moneyed young master while he writes the receipt, but You Miao only looks on with a deadpan expression, takes the paper money, tucks it into his robes, and leaves to go to the Military Defense Bureau for iron.

But it turns out that Tang Hui isn't at Yangzhou right now—the sub-lieutenant says he went to the Capital on the third day of the new year. What an impatient guy, You Miao thinks as he keeps asking around, but thankfully Tang Hui had left instructions to help You Miao out with whatever he asks if he comes by. So You Miao asks for papers to buy iron. The sub-lieutenant is a little troubled, but in the end still grits his teeth and gets You Miao tickets for six thousand catties of crude iron.

"This much iron?" Li Zhifeng asks once they're out.

You Miao had given the sub-lieutenant five silver to smooth things along. He answers, "We'll need iron for plows and other tools too, and it doesn't hurt to keep some for the future, since we can just go redeem some from the salt and iron storehouse whenever, anyway."

The two of them head to the salt and iron storehouse next. The tickets in You Miao's hands draw from the iron issued to the Yangzhou army; it's a good thing they're here early, right at the beginning of the year, cause there probably wouldn't even be half a catty of iron left if they had come at the end of the year instead. The manager of the place is already more than used to something like private citizens buying the government's salt and iron, and doesn't even bother to beat around the bush, directly asking for twenty silver in payoff. You Miao cusses him out on the inside while smiling agreeably and obediently paying up on the outside, and the manager lets him into the storehouse for his iron.

But the person in charge of the storehouse wants his palms greased too, and You Miao has no choice but pay him two silver too while mentally cursing these money-grubbing bastards, if I end up a government official I'll pelt you lot with silver til you're bleeding from the head.

"Let's just redeem all six thousand catties," You Miao mutters quietly to Li Zhifeng, "else this lot's gonna charge us again next time."

Li Zhifeng says, "We'll have to rent a cart to move the iron to the dock, then load onto a boat to ferry up the river."

Six thousand catties of iron ingots. Just the sight of it makes You Miao want to cry. Thankfully it's fifty catties per unit; else if it had been thousand-catty chunks, You Miao wouldn't even know who or where to cry to.

"Do you wanna go visit at your uncle's place?" Li Zhifeng asks.

"Maybe next time," You Miao sits on the pile of iron ingots and says. "I'm exhausted. Go rent us a cart while I rest a bit?"

Li Zhifeng heads off to the market for a cart, and after the cart he'll have to hire a boat too, so he probably won't be back for a while. You Miao sits outside the salt and iron storehouse staring off into space.

He would've brought a book if he'd known this was gonna happen. You Miao is in the middle of being bored out of his mind when he suddenly spots Li Zhifeng coming back. He gets up quizzically only to see that Li Zhifeng had brought someone along—it's Qiao Jue.

"Whatcha doing in the city?" Qiao Jue asks with a smile.

You Miao smiles back. "You came at just the right time."

Li Zhifeng says, "I'll go hire a boat."

Qiao Jue has two servant boys with him. He says, "Don't worry about the cart, xiao-jiu will have a cart sent from home tomorrow to help you carry the stuff to the dock. You can leave the boat matter to Li Zhifeng. C'mon, let's go look around the at market."

The servant boys go to keep watch over the piles of iron, and You Miao is just about to say don't go to so much trouble when Qiao Jue adds, "You don't know this, but Yangzhou city is super busy at the start of the year with all the people here to do business. It's impossible to hire a boat for same day, you have to book it a day in advance, so you'll have to wait til tomorrow to go back. Don't worry about it though, I know someone at the docks that Li Zhifeng can go to."

Li Zhifeng leaves again with a note in hand, and You Miao gets into a carriage with Qiao Jue headed for the market. Qiao Jue says, "Come spend the night at home. I'll go back with you tomorrow morning, check out the land over there on the way."

You Miao asks, "How's it going with the tea seedlings?"

Qiao Jue replies, "Heh, like he'd dare object if I want the tea seedlings."

You Miao nods, and the two of them get off outside the Yangzhou market. It's just after the New Year, and the breeze feels warm and indolent. The Yangzhou market is set up by the river, with merchant stalls big and small lining both banks. The caress of the spring breeze is pleasant, and willow branches dip gently into the water, leaving ripples in their wake. It's a bustling scene of a flourishing city, with people coming and going, and the lively sounds of commerce.

Qiao Jue and You Miao stroll the market hand in hand, drawing the attention of all the pretty girls there. You Miao pauses at a stall selling knickknacks, and Qiao Jue buys him a girdle ornament before pulling him along.

Qiao Jue's looks are the exact standard of handsomeness in the Jiangnan area, with a pair of thick, inky brows just like You Miao's grandfather had when he was young. Both of them have pearly white teeth and vibrantly red lips, their fingers hooked together and swinging to and fro as they walk. You Miao tells him about the money You Han'ge gave him, and Qiao Jue sighs, "He's not a bad guy."

"Mhm," You Miao agrees. "Well, since he gave it, I went ahead and used it, didn't really think about it too much. So what's tasty around here?"

Qiao Jue brings You Miao to a place by the river and orders a plate of fried shrimp and a bowl of fish dumplings. It's been a long time since You Miao's had any Yangzhou dishes, and adds fish skin noodles to the order. The fish skin noodles are smooth and delicious, and the spring prawn fresh from the river is crispy and savory. You Miao says, "Looks like they also have crispy fried fish, I'll get some to bring back for Li Zhifeng."

"Mn," Qiao Jue says. "I'll take you to the east market later, you'll love it there."

"The east market?" You Miao asks."

"Mhm." Qiao Jue pays for the meal after they've eaten, then takes You Miao across the bridge. The girls under the bridge look up at them from beneath their umbrellas, coy smiles at their lips.

You Miao doesn't know why, but he feels nothing for those gentle-looking girls, snacking on his bag of fried soybeans as he looks back expressionlessly.

Qiao Jue says with a smile, "It's about time to find you a wife, you know. Your dad's blithe about it, but I can go see if there are any suitable families…"

"Oi oi," You Miao hastily cuts him off. "Forget it, I can't afford a wife, nor do I wanna get nagged at by one."

Qiao Jue pinches You Miao's cheeks and teases, "Fess up, did you run around with the wrong crowd in the Capital and turn into a little gay?"

You Miao turns bright red immediately and snaps back, "Like you're one to speak, it's all your influence."

Qiao Jue says seriously, "You have to get married when the time comes, don't let yourself miss the chance."

You Miao mn's, and Qiao Jue leads him by the hand down the bridge, the two of them stopping and going intermittently. Springtime at Yangzhou really is delightful, with little kids running about and playing. The charming scenery makes You Miao feel all lazy and reluctant to walk any further.

--- These are 2 lines from the poem Shen Garden, composed by Lu You mourning for his deceased wife. Credit for the verse translations go to Ginafraser on Steemit.

Lu You's wife.

沈园 [Shen Garden], currently named 沈氏园 [Shenshi Garden], "garden of the Shen clan", named after the family name of its first, original owners. It was once the residence of Lu You, one of four major poets of the Song Dynasty; he believed fervently in the reclamation of the north. The actual location is by Hangzhou Bay by the sea, but in this text, it's probably much closer to the Yangtze and further inland (GXR takes several geographical liberties).

A string of maces (copper penny) is ~1000 coins, which weighs exactly 1 catty.

A red inkpad for seals.

Tang Wan is said to be beautiful and intelligent, a writer in her own right, but her marriage of love to Lu You was forcibly ended by Lu You's mother. Anguish diminished her health and she passed away due to depression.

Imperial State Exams are held every three years, but sometimes under special circumstances the Emperor would call for exams outside the regular scheduled ones, and given the extra opportunity, those are thus called Grace Exams.

Mozi (470-391 BC) is an ancient Chinese philosopher that came after Confucius, both philosophical schools were seen as rivals during the warring era. Mohists have developed the sciences of fortification, statecraft, and wrote treatises on government. Mohists were often hired by warring states as advisors of the state.

Qimin Yaoshu is the most completely preserved of ancient Chinese agricultural texts, written by the Northern Wei Dynasty official Jia Sixie.

Tiangong Kaiwu is a technical encyclopedia, albeit compiled in the 1600s in actual history.

Mengxi Bitan is written by the Song Dynasty statesman Shen Kuo who compiled this elaborate work while in his own lavish garden estate in Jiangsu.

God of Agriculture, Shennong is credited for teaching the Chinese how to farm, how to recognize and use herbs, and the invention of a number of tools.

Ye Lao is one of the oldest books on agriculture in China.

Siheyuan (courtyard house) visuals: [1] [2] [3]

1000 coins, worth 1 silver

Li Zhifeng just monkeybars it across the fucking Yangtze River like its nbd

Big Liang and Small Liang

Lu Ban, also known as Gongshu Ban, is a structural engineer, carpenter and inventor from Zhou Dynasty. He is revered as the god of builders and contractors. "Treatise of Gongshu" is a compilation of his work.

Name of the tea.

-shi suffix for Master/Teacher.

A fable telling of a man who believed he could move a mountain if he dug hard and long enough. In the end he succeeded, and the moral of the story is "one who is determined can accomplish anything". Though obviously You Miao is referring to the story literally in this context.

An infamous rice wine. It used to be flower spirits but gradually it changed into rice wine as time went on. When a boy is born, the family would bury a jug of wine underground to ferment, and in the hopes the boy would grow up to become a champion, it's called Champion Red. If the baby is a girl, it's called Maiden's Red. The jug of wine is unearthed on the day of the child's wedding.

Hebei means North of the River; this river is the Yellow River.

Before Song Dynasty, there was a long conflict with the northern border, and as a result, military ruled supreme and started to form their own factions, which was why in order to suppress the military's control, the newly established government began to place more emphasis on civil service rather than military service once peace returned to the border.

Xiucai is a student who has graduated elementary and is preparing for the Imperial State Exam.

"Lyrics to the Melody of Divining Numbers (Ode to the Plum Blossoms)" by Lu You -- Plum blossom only flowers in the winter, shunned by all the other flowers, but it does not care for them, and continues to stand unwithering against the odds.

Little brother You

The Chinese here is Baifuzhang, or a Centurion, a commander of a troop of one hundred men.

"Eight Beats of Ganzhou Song" by Su Shi, 1091 AD. The full poem will be presented in Book 5 at the end.

Song Dynasty Tea Ceremony:

Three Criteria: Good tea, fresh spring water, clean instruments; good weather; merry and elegant, good guests of similar taste and temperament. Three Non-Criteria are the opposite.

Thirteen Properties: Free time and free of spirit, good company, sitting by oneself, reciting poetry, writing, while in captivation, when rising from sleep, rousing consciousness, purity of offering, exquisite setting, inspiration and reflection, appreciation, have a companion attendant for boiling water and serving tea

Seven Taboos: poor techniques; poor instruments; disharmony between host and guest; poor use for socializing; mixing flavours by eating meat; busyness, poor setting.

Ruyao, or Ru kiln factory produced Ru-ware, a famous and extremely rare type of Chinese pottery from the Song Dynasty.

The Classic of Tea is the first known monograph on tea in the world, written by Lu Yu from Tang Dynasty.

Fifteenth of the Lunar month is the last day of New Years, also called Yuan Xiao or Lantern Festival.

One of the top ten tea of China

Tea name

9000 亩 [mu] = 600 hectares

The dates are all in Lunar/farmer's calendar

石 [dan] dry measure for grain equal to 10 pecks

舅 [jiu] uncle; xiao-jiu = little uncle

Er-jiu = second uncle

四书五经 the Four Books (Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Analects of Confucius, and Mencius) and Five Classics (Book of Songs, Book of History, Classic of Rites, Book of Changes, Spring and Autumn Annals) are the authoritative books on Confucianism

表姐 [biao-jie] older female cousin on mother's side

Buddhist story; Buddha once held up a flower in front of a group of people without saying anything, only Kassapa smiled in understanding because he's become enlightened, the smile a show of joy from within.