Transmigrating to the Ming Dynasty’s Imperial Examination Ch. 149

Chapter 149

In the past few months, Xie Ying had been busy with daily drills and had to arrange street patrols, often personally patrolling until the second or third watch of the night. Cui Xie did not want to interrupt his official duties, so after finishing his classes, he went home to change clothes and then took a carriage to Xie Residence to wait for him.

Cui Xie spent an entire evening in the guest hall before Xie Ying finally returned from outside, dismounting from the horse, dusty and tired. Without even changing his clothes, Xie Ying came directly to the guest hall to see him.

Cui Xian greeted him with a smile and a bow, “Xie da-ren, forgive my sudden visit. I am here today to ask for a few jars of fine wine.”

Xie Ying casually took off his hat and tossed it to a servant, then ordered the attendants to prepare tea and dinner, dismissing everyone from the room before walking over to Cui Xie and asking, “Why come to my residence so late at night? If you wanted wine, you could have sent a note. I would have had someone deliver it to you, why come in person?”

How would I get a chance to talk to you in person if I did not come myself?

Cui Xie tugged at Xie Ying’s sash, trying to pull the other down to sit on his lap to chat slowly.

Unfortunately, Xie Ying refused to sit, so Cui Xie stood up, wrapping his arms around Xie Ying’s waist, and as he felt around with his palms, he clicked his tongue, “You’ve gotten thinner. You must have been working too hard these days. Look at you, ‘losing your slender waist, diminishing your elegance,’ how can I not feel heartbroken?”

Studying with the Hanlin Academy scholars for a few days has really made you grow up, now you even know how to compose poems to flirt with people? Xie Ying laughed so hard his abdominal muscles were trembling. He pressed Cui Xie’s shoulders, pulling him away, and pinched his cheeks, “I thought you were quietly studying with the scholars, but it turns out you were thinking about this. Next time I see Academician Li outside the Hanlin Academy, I’ll tell him about this and have him discipline you properly, so you do not slack off and secretly compose erotic poems and lewd lyrics.”

Cui Xian grabbed his hand and started pulling him in, laughing, “These are not erotic poems, these are lines from Yang Tinghe’s loyal and filial, righteous and virtuous good play.”

Xie Ying leaned down and kissed Cui Xie on the nose but then suddenly noticed something. He let go of Cui Xie’s face, raised his eyes to meet his, and said in surprise, “You’ve grown this tall already? I remember the last time I saw you outside the Imperial College, you were still a bit shorter than me. How did you grow to be almost my height in just a few days of not seeing each other?”

Cui Xie smiled proudly, took off his headscarf, and compared their heights, “Almost. I grow fast, maybe I’ll be taller than you in a few days.”

Xie Ying took two steps back, looking Cui Xie over from head to toe. Seeing that his body had grown taller, but his shoulders and back were still not fully filled out, making him look even thinner than before, he felt a pang of concern, “It’s already this late. Stay and have dinner with me before you go. Do not worry about the night curfew, I’ll personally escort you home.”

Cui Xie held the hem of his clothes and swung them back and forth in front of Xie Ying for a little longer.  Having flaunted enough, he sat back in the chair, took off his boots, and smiled, “Actually, it’s not that I’ve suddenly grown taller. The secret is in the soles of my shoes… No need to stand so far away, I put talcum powder in them, so there’s no odor.”

The talcum powder was made of talc and menthol and other spices. It was sprinkled into the shoes to absorb sweat and odor. The mixture was unlike the common smelly, flesh-colored talcum powder mixed with silver-colored cinnabar sold outside. He had custom-made insoles to increase his height, which he did not dare to wear publicly for fear of being laughed at by his classmates. This time, he wore them to appear taller in front of Xie Ying.

The insoles were carved from wood to fit his feet, padded with cotton, and covered with leather, making them soft and breathable. Xie Ying, not minding at all, took the insoles, examined them closely over and over again, and even compared them to his own feet, laughing, “Why did you make such insoles? Walking on them feels like tiptoeing. They look uncomfortable, you should just get taller shoes.”

Tall shoes would not work because they would make it obvious that you were wearing a platform and make your legs look short.

Showing off his boots to Xie Ying, Cui Xian said proudly, “Look at the toes of these boots—they look flat and thin, like ordinary thin-soled boots, but they are subtly raised at the heel inside. Others can’t tell and will think you are naturally tall, handsome, and imposing!”

Xie Ying shook his head with a smile, put the insoles back, and helped Cui Xie put his boots back on, “You are not that short now and have yet to fully grow up. With your frame, you will be as tall as me by eighteen or nineteen. You won’t need these shoes to look tall and handsome.”

Cui Xie, sitting in the chair with one leg crossed over the other, energetically said, “These shoes do not really matter to me. They were specially made for Colonel Xie.”

Xie Ying glanced at the soles of his shoes and pursed his lips slightly. Cui Xie raised his eyebrows and boasted, “These are not for Xie-xiong, they’re for another Colonel Xie—who said there is only one Colonel Xie leading the Jinyiwei to sweep away the villains and maintain peace and stability in the capital of our great Ming dynasty?”

At first, Xie Ying really believed that Cui Xie had made something for someone else when he heard ‘another Colonel Xie’. But after hearing the string of compliments, he relaxed and leaned against the armrest with a smile, asking, “Which Colonel Xie is this? How come I’ve never heard of him?”

Cui Xie replied, “Is it not the brilliant and wise Colonel Xie who leads the Jinyiwei to capture the Black-clothed Thief at night?”

As the Xie family servants brought in tea, they overheard him mention the ‘Black-clothed Thief’ and smiled, “Young Master Cui, has also heard about the Black-clothed Thief case too? It is a famous one. Even the storytellers outside are talking about it. That Wang San, who was caught along with the thief, gave up her trade and got married after being shocked and embarrassed. But I think the Liu Ying headless head case, where our Colonel found the missing head in a pond after draining it, is even more thrilling. In the end, it turned out the family’s cook was the culprit.”

Cui Xian sighed, “There is no helping it. People love to hear about beautiful women. When they hear that a beauty is involved, they focus on her and ignore the hard work of solving the case.”

Cui Xie had conveniently forgotten how he had added as many scenes as possible for the female lead when writing the outline, nearly turning the thief into a background character with only a few lines.

The servant also sighed, “That’s right. The tales of love and scandal spread quickly, while the serious stories of hard work do not in the capital. Besides the Black-clothed Thief case, the scandal of Young Master Liu getting drunk with a courtesan in Peony Pavilion is also popular. A musician even turned it into a song, which is becoming so detailed, it could be a play soon.”

What! Someone dares to overshadow Colonel Xie? How can a scandal involving a courtesan compare to their Colonel Xie, who patrols day and night, catches thieves, and even officiates weddings for his subordinates and the heroine!

Cui Xie’s expression darkened slightly, and he scoffed, “Such plays, even if written, are just vulgar. Which respectable family would watch them? People should watch stories like our Colonel Xie’s, which is positive and upbeat, promoting loyalty, integrity and righteousness.”

The servant nodded repeatedly, “Young Master Cui is absolutely right. It’s a pity there’s no one to recognize our hero and write a few plays about our Colonel’s cases. Those would certainly rival Bailiff Bao’s!”

Who says there’s no one to recognize a hero? Isn’t there one sitting right here?

After the servants left, Cui Xie ate a few bites with Xie Ying, then casually tapped the tips of his chopsticks on the plate, saying nonchalantly, “There are always people who recognize heroes. So what if Young Master Liu is having an affair with a courtesan and has a few songs written about him? The real recognition comes from having a Hanlin scholar like Yang Tinghe write an official play about our righteous Colonel Xie, with revisions by the esteemed Wang and Xie Zhuangyuan, all supervised by my Master, Academician Li…”

The food between Xie Ying’s chopsticks fell from his hand. He stared at Cui Xian, dumbfounded, “What… an official play? You, you said before…”

No wonder Cui Xie said the insoles weren’t for him and kept hinting about another Colonel Xie…Could it be that he asked his teachers to write a play about himself? And those boots were for his character to wear in the play?

Xie Ying simply threw his chopsticks aside, grabbing Cui Xie’s hands, “What’s going on? How could those noble and esteemed scholars be willing to write about the Jinyiwei? Did you beg them? Won’t your teachers look down on you for using personal relationships to glorify the Jinyiwei for the sake of our friendship?”

Those esteemed scholars might not like writing about the Jinyiwei, but they did love writing about loyal husbands and virtuous wives.

Cui Xian smiled, “What is Xie da-ren saying? Why would I write a play to glorify you out of personal favor?” He suddenly leaned in and kissed Xie Ying on the lips, whispering, “This is not personal favor, it’s personal affection, isn’t it?”

Xie Ying could feel Cui Xie’s breath, his heartbeat quickening as he returned the kiss, moistening their dry lips. He rubbed Cui Xie’s hands and said, “You know it’s personal affection, yet you make something like this, risking people guessing our relationship?”

“Then consider it not personal affection, but my public duty to praise the current positive trends of the court.” Cui Xian laughed, “That play wasn’t written by me, it was written by Yang Tinghe, impartially reviewed by the entire Hanlin Academy. It is a righteous work. There is nothing to worry about Xie-xiong. At worst, even if people found it, there is no one in the world who was not allowed to take the Imperial examinations because…because they were fond of men.”

Xie Ying frowned slightly, and Cui Xie reached out to smooth the furrowed tense muscles in his brow, confidently saying, “Yang da-ren wrote about loyalty, filial piety and righteousness. My personal feelings are not evident at all. They even planned to watch the play at my Master’s house once rehearsed and publish the Hanlin Academy’s version to be sold in every corner of the country. Such a dignified and upright script—what’s there to fear? Xie-xiong need not worry about the play. Just see if you have enough wine and get a cart ready for me to take back home to prepare for my Master’s guests.”

Cui Xie wished he could invite the future bigwigs to his own home to view the play, but unfortunately, his status was not high enough. No group of Hanlin scholars would go over to the residence of an exiled official in Yunnan to show their support. Having a bunch of Hanlin officials attend at Li Dongyang’s house was more appropriate.

Xie Ying called for the wine and personally escorted the cart to Cui Xie’s residence. Once returning home, Xie Ying calmed his worries and reconsidered everything calmly.

After a quiet moment, his concerns dissipated.

Cui Xie was always smart, and his Master and the Hanlin officials were all upright, talented individuals who were called potential ministers . How could they write anything that would be criticized? It was only his own anxiety and concerns that Cui Xie’s reputation would be tarnished by him that caused his worries.

Since things had come this far, he decided to embrace it. He would treat the play as a genuine recognition of their recent good deeds, openly inform his subordinates, and ask his subordinates who had worked hard these days to have fun, let everyone enjoy the praise and listen to the good play.

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Xie Ying was busy preparing for entertaining guests at home, while Cui Xie had already arranged for strong wine to be delivered to Li Dongyang’s house. He also had Shopkeeper Ji contact a troupe to start rehearsals for the new play.

The new version of《The Story of the Pipa》was still to be performed by the same troupe they had collaborated with previously, the Fortune and Longevity Troupe. After studying movies all night, Cui Xie personally drew a guide for the makeup techniques for the three main characters and sent the prepared costumes, accessories, and makeup along with the script, all which had been prepared long ago, to the troupe.

Although ordinary people could not transform into Rosamund Kwan or Anita Mui just by putting on makeup, the promotional portraits were in the style of comic book illustrations and were not particularly realistic. As long as the actors had long eyebrows, sharp eyes, and snow-white skin with red lips, they would resemble the characters in the illustrations.

Since the play was written by Hanlin scholars, the lyrics and dialogues were fresh and not as easy to learn as those cliché-filled plays with large sections of overlapping words and sentences. Some of the tunes were not commonly used and needed the musicians to learn from scratch. When performing, you cannot just stand on the stage and sing, the performance also required new choreography, so it took the Fortune and Longevity Troupe a full month to rehearse and finally perform the four-act play completely.

Cui Xie took advantage of the holiday on the first of August, bringing people to Li Dongyang’s house to start setting up the stage. Lu juren, in the role of artistic director, also went along, finally meeting the revered literary master Li Dongyang in person, whom he had admired for a long time, but had no chance to get close to,

Seeing Li Dongyang made him so nervous that his facial muscles stiffened, and he repeatedly said, “Junior Lu Boshan is honored to meet Li da-ren! The two bamboo branch poems you revised for me are so beautiful and touching, uncovering its true feelings. This junior remembered them after reading just once…” He almost sang the poems to Li Dongyang. However, having heard Cui Xie sing poems before, Li Dongyang was not confident in the former tutor’s singing skills and quickly dissuaded him, turning the conversation to poetry.

Meanwhile, Cui Xie supervised the unloading of the props in the courtyard. Their artificial furniture, trees, and rocks were not very sturdy, so they were packed in bamboo crates with shredded straw and hemp padding to prevent damage. After unloading, they were cleaned and arranged, regaining their original splendor. Cui Liangdong led people to set up the stage on the west side of the main courtyard, with a frame for hanging curtains behind the stage and a shed for storing props.

Li Zhaoxian ran around the stage, looking at the intricate artificial mountains and trees that were more exquisite than the lantern mountain during the Lantern Festival. He was so amazed that he could not close his mouth and from time to time, he would reach out to touch them. After setting up the first scene of Wang Yao’s inner chamber, even Li Dongyang could not help but look back at the lifelike setup on the stage, which was decorated to look like something else entirely, sighing, “So much manpower and resources for one play, it’s quite extravagant…”

He had never seen such good stage scenery before, only hearing that the Imperial Palace had such realistic scene setups. Cui’s family must have heard about this from Xie Ying at the palace and decided to make the stage as detailed as possible?

Li Dongyang asked Teacher Lu, “Did setting this up take a lot of effort?”

Lu juren, somewhat proudly, replied, “Dare not say it was too much effort. We just had craftsmen weave together bamboo frames and cover them with oiled paper or straw, then paint them. Since this junior has studied painting since childhood and has seen real landscapes, what was made is slightly more lifelike than what the craftsmen could create.”

Oh…Li Dongyang thought these things were carefully made and packed with straw and hemp for protection, having been baked, but it turns out the shine was from oil and wax.

No wonder the Imperial palace’s new play setups were so fine this year without any requisitions from the treasury from the Imperial eunuchs and attendants who set it up.. Whoever thought of this was really ingenious and economical.

He could not help but touch the props, feeling the soft, slightly elastic texture, and smiled with satisfaction, ” Zikuan has worked hard. Our student sent over a lot of good wine. Come over on the fifth evening of the month to enjoy the wine and watch the play?”

Li Dongyang wrote many invitations that night, and the next day, he sent them in a serious manner, inviting his colleagues who were free to visit his residence to enjoy the new play.

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TN: Have a good rest of your week everyone and enjoy the chapter! Its been such good weather where I’m living, the flowers are blooming ~

I just realized that I have no idea who Zikuan is referring to in this chapter…it might be a servant or steward because there was no mention of who this is before. It can’t be Teacher Lu since his courtesy name is something else…

Update 12/23/24: I just updated it so that all my advance chapters for TMD are up on patreon (and will be continually updated)! Sorry for being so lazy with it and apologies for taking so long to do so. I had to organize a lot of my random documents after a long hiatus last year.

Announcement: We have set up a kofi and patreon account! If you would like to support us or get early access to advance chapters for Blood-Sucking Empress OR TMD, those options are available for you (in support us page)! I have just added a patreon tier for Transmigrating to the Ming Dynasty’s Imperial Examinations in which patreons can have access to a google document with ALL of my advanced translated chapters for the novel. Since I am a grad student, there should usually be at least 10 advance chapters in the document at a time, but depending on my schedules, there may be fewer or more. I’m currently extremely busy, but I have translated out some new chapters for you all! But, I will still post each week with the same schedule. Thanks!

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