Chapter 95
Ever since a few exemplary essays had been posted and thoroughly analyzed, Cui Xie became somewhat famous on campus, turning him into a minor celebrity. Many people, having read his articles, sought him out just to see what someone capable of writing such pieces looked like.
These days, he left late and returned early, heading straight to the teaching assistant’s office after class ended. Walking on the college grounds, he often fought the urge to cover his face with his sleeves. However, in this school that emphasized classical studies, one must walk with proper deportment, or else risk being disciplined in the Disciplinary Hall. Being exceptionally handsome, Cui Xie stood out among the juren and jiansheng and was frequently cornered1.
The older scholars, believing they could throw around their weight as his elder, enjoyed teasing him, “Young Master Cui, can you elaborate your thoughts about ‘Advancing in Rituals and Music’ for us?
“Brother Hezhong, do you think the articles written by you or Brother Zichong are better?
“After reading your masterpiece, we feel the younger generation is indeed formidable. Unfortunately only the article about ‘Advancing in Rituals and Music’ is posted. Could you recite the one about ‘The Emperor’s Role’ for us as well?”
When Cui Xie had been studying in Qian’an, Teacher Lin was just a scholar and the local scholars were like his teachers, pointing out and circling parts to be improved or changed. Who would have thought that upon entering the Imperial College, these pseudo teacher-like upperclassmen would not only not correct his essays, but sincerely praise them, wishing they could memorize or even imitate his structure and ideas?
The bittersweet sensation washing over him was indescribable.
Luckily, the essays would be taken down after three days and this too would eventually come to pass. Comforted and supported by this thought, after going home every day, Cui Xie would draw beauties to adjust his mood and psyche, gradually adapting to his newfound popularity.
However, his worries as a popular figure did not merely end there.
Those who asked about his essays eventually left satisfied, while those who borrowed notes merely exchanged pleasantries when taking the notebook. The real trouble came from those interested in him personally.
These individuals acted like affectionate elders, asking about everything from his reading habits to his family circumstances, from his grandparents to his siblings, to life in the capital, even about his life back in Qian’an as well as the people beside him. They subtly inquired, “Worthy little brother, you’re not yet married right? Do you have an engagement?”
Their eyes sparkled luminously with eagerness. Cui Xie felt that if he replied with a ‘No’, they would immediately dress him in red robes and carry him to a bridal chamber.
“This….my family…” Cui Xie hesitated, wondering whether to fabricate a story of a childhood betrothal or claim that his eight characters birthday was ill-suited for early marriage. Just then, Hall Chief Zhang unexpectedly came to his rescue, scolding the crowd, “Worthy Little Brother Cui’s marital matters are for his parents to decide. At his age, can he really arrange such things in school? Even if he did, could it be taken seriously? You are all educated and proper individuals, how can you force marriage talks in such an environment?”
Their faces flushed red with shame and they dispersed.
Cui Xie was immensely grateful. After they left, he bowed deeply to Hall Chief Zhang, thanking the man for his intervention. Hall Chief Zhang smiled and helped him up, waving a hand to say, “No need for thanks. But I must ask a favor on their behalf. Please do not take offense to today’s incident. They are all just concerned parents, trying to find matches for their children or nieces and nephews.”
The elder sighed and said with a wry smile, “My own daughter is also reaching marriageable age. I understand their anxiety and painstaking efforts.”
Girls were typically married off around fifteen to seventeen years old, and by twenty, it became difficult to do so. Parents usually begin to worry around this age.
Cui Xie empathized and responded, “Indeed, my younger sister is twelve this year. I was planning on hiring a female teacher for her before she gets married. Do you know of any good teachers you could recommend?”
Hall Chief Zhang observed him earnestly and replied, “My daughter also only reads a few books at home. Good female teachers are hard to find, but I can help you look around. However, it might take a few months, but do not worry too much.”
Beaming, Cui Xie said, “There is no rush. My sister is still young and I’d like to keep her with the family for a few more years. If I can achieve scholarly success, I can ensure her a grand engagement.”
Looking at his junior, Hall Chief Zhang’s lips turned up, “Indeed, being a juren’s or jinshi’s sister is much more prestigious than being the sister of a jiansheng2. I see you write well at a young age and perhaps you will achieve great success in the examinations. When that moment comes, there will be others who will help you manage such affairs.”
Cui Xie smiled and shook his head, casually stating,”For now, I only want to raise my siblings well and secure their futures. The rest can wait.”
Three days later, the essays were removed, and the visitors eager to see him decreased. Cui Xie shamelessly borrowed other posted essays and reluctantly listened to the critiques, which included comments on his own work, his mind becoming numb after listening to them too much —
After several analyses by different seniors, he felt detached from his essay, as if it had been written by someone else. The essay was full of foreshadowing and metaphors, causing him to feel a sense of strangeness and the interpretations by his classmates provided new ideas and insights.
Such brainwashing was too powerful.
Cui Xie memorized all those articles, and drew a tree diagram to summarize their structures and themes, and rewrote them from different perspectives to expand his thinking.
His teacher had claimed his strength was in argumentation, momentum and grandeur, which he needed to maintain and refine.With thorough reasoning and refined literary skills, his essays could reach new heights; Otherwise, if he could not maintain his strengths, he would definitely be unable to compete with those Ming scholars proficient in literary flair and grace.
Having already been recognized on the public roll of successful examinees once and greeted by almost everyone in the College at one point, he could not afford to fall behind.
Although being publicly critiqued, compared against others and scrutinized was embarrassing and humiliating……failing to make the list of successful examinees in the future again and again would be much worse. When people mentioned him, wouldn’t they think that his first essay had been plagiarized or written by someone else? Even if they did not think that way, they might think he had become complacent after his initial successes.
Sighing deeply, Cui Xie closed his eyes and pulled up 《A Collection of Conversations of Master Zhu》for intensive reading, digging and rediscovering the deep meanings of the Four Books. When he was tired, he stood up and paced around, opening his eyes to look at the pair of beauties hanging on his wall.
The two paintings had been pieced together: one of Xiao Qiao donned in white, tilting right, holding a sword sheath in both hands and handing it to the front; the other of Lady Sun, donned in red, drawing a sword as if about to dance. Naturally, Xiao Qiao was painted after Actress He Qing’s depiction while his impression of Lady Sun was a little blurrier. He only remembered that she was a bright and majestic beauty, modeled after actress Zhao Mingming.
Now dressed in a red dancing outfit, she appeared even more stunning, complementing He Qing’s depiction of Xiao Qiao as red and white roses, thrillingly beautiful, enough to captivate readers for years.
The sixty first chapter of Three Kingdoms was about when Zhao Yun crossed the river to rescue A’ Dou. Hanging Lady Sun for a few days would advertise the new twelve-volume book.
Seeing these paintings, one gentle as water while the other was strikingly beautiful, Cui Xie seemed to have imagined the excitement of customers in Beijing, the picture of customers vying to buy the illustrated novels, just like how the customers had at the old bookstore in Qian’an. His eyes no longer tired and heavy, his mind cleared, he felt invigorated. He practiced swordsmanship in the courtyard, then returned to his study to review until midnight.
==================================================================
The Cui family’s Southern Goods Shop closed its doors, exactly ten days after the inventory had been cleared. Neighbors and customers watched in both amazement and helplessness as the shop plaque was taken down and the doors and windows were boarded up, as if they were really about to close its doors, which left them wondering if the owner really could bear to close such a thriving business. In surprise, they asked, “You Shopkeepers are really willing to shut it down? The store has been selling off its old inventory, aren’t there increasingly more sales every day? Would it not be better to keep it open like this?”
Cui Liangdong stood outside and sighed, “We did not want to close it, but our Young Master values his word. He said ten days, so it will be ten days and not a day more. The rest of the goods will be donated to an almshouse. Starting tomorrow, this store belongs to someone else. Thank you all for your support over the years. Here is a little something as a token of our gratitude for all your care.”
The shopkeeper handed out boxes packaged with vinegar, soy sauce, dried and fresh fruits, snacks and other miscellaneous dry goods to the neighbors as a small token of gratitude. Neighbors and local customers praised the Cui family’s kindness and generosity, “This owner is truly a benevolent person, even their raised servant is a righteous person.”
Although there would be no cheap goods to buy in the future, these last two days had been quite lively with all the activity at the shop. It had been a pleasing sight to behold. Moreover, the owner’s final act of distributing goods to them truly showcased a sense of community and neighborliness.
Clerks from the Cui family pulled out two carts of about eighty catties of food and condiments, they circled half the capital before slowly heading to the almshouse located in the south of the city. Neighbors and locals followed from behind, spreading the word about the Cui family’s donation to curious onlookers on the road.
The more people who followed along the way, the news began spreading far and wide and soon half the city learned that the Southern Goods Shop was closing. The owner of the unsold goods refused to set up stalls to sell them again, instead sending them directly to almshouses outside the city.
There were many people who regretted not buying more from this shop; Others criticized the owner’s poor business sense, lamenting the waste of good products that they would rather give away than sell to those who would be willing to pay for them at a lower price. When the scholars and elders heard this news, however, birthed from political correctness, they praised the family’s charitable spirit and high mindedness for helping the poor and deficient.
The closure of the Cui family’s Southern Goods Shop spread like wildfire for the next two days and the whole city started buzzing which suddenly burned its old stock and donated to the orphaned and elderly just before closing, bursting into brief, fiery glory like fireworks. Many people lingered outside the closed doors, curious to see who would take over the store, what business the new owner would conduct, and whether they would possess the same benevolence and character as the young master of the Cui family.
Two days later, the city finally saw a caravan approaching from outside the city.
Two middle-aged men, dressed in cocoon silk garments and looking inconspicuous, quietly knocked on the side door and met with a young clerk guarding the shop.
These men, like servants strictly trained by a noble family, were extremely reticent. When the onlookers asked questions, they simply replied, “You will know soon.”
The idlers, unwilling to wait and seeing that the servants would not peep a word, they peered through the side gates. However, it was too far from where the goods were being unloaded. All they could see were the assistants unloading from the trucks, carrying strange, angled shelves into the shop, followed by several people carrying in boxes sealed with yellow paper.
They could not see what was inside the boxes, only that the shop assistants laid down long planks and rolled logs on the ground to heave the heavy boxes through the back door of the shop.
After several large carriages were emptied, the young clerk closed the side gate from the inside, leaving the onlookers with nothing more to see and no way to ask, they had no choice but to return to the front gates.
The front gates and windows were now flung open, revealing an empty, spacious hall. The crowd in front of the shop was so dense that there was no room for them to stand. They desperately pushed forward, and anxiously said, “Fellows, please make way. We were here first, but we were just delayed for a while at the side gates of the residence. Let us take a look at what exactly is being sold there!”
The people in the front only cared about squeezing toward the entrance of the store, no one willing to give in.
They had no choice but to squeeze forward, while jostling and cursing the people in front for their lack of sophistication, squeezing through just for a glimpse of something. It was so crowded that one lost hats and dirtied shoes in the process, and many small accessories from their clothing were lost. Finally, they managed to get close to the door and, through the gaps between heads and hats, they caught sight of the paintings hung on the wall.
Just a brief glimpse of those incomplete images made all the jostling and pushing endured the way there worthwhile.
The beauties in the paintings were Xiao Qiao and Lady Sun, whom they had seen countless times in the 《The Six Talents and their Commentaries on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms》and had even bought smaller prints to admire them in detail. But now, they were painted life-sized and hung on the wall, looking like two real beauties standing behind a counter.
Their faces were not heavily made-up as in the books, with yellow powder on the forehead and wine-colored rouge on the apple of the cheeks. Instead, they were lightly adorned with only light sandalwood makeup and white powder on their foreheads, their natural, stunning beauty shining through the understated elegance and plainness, exuding a blend of sorrowful grace and poignant allure. A person who had a clear view exclaimed, “The one in white is Xiao Qiao and the one in red is Lady Sun, they look as real as living people, making one’s heart break and move just to behold! Born in a chaotic era, floating along like duckweed, evoking pity for these pair of peerless beauties of the Wu Kingdom!”
- Jiansheng: University student having passed the provincial examination
Juren: successful candidate in the imperial provincial examinations ↩︎ - Jinshi (進士, lit. “advanced scholar”), a scholar who passed the triennial palace examination. ↩︎
TN: Hope everyone is doing well, long time no see!! I am finally back from hiatus and planning on resuming my normal schedule of posting once a week on Sundays for TMD. I’m sorry it took me so long to come back, I’ve been super busy with grad school applications and my senior year, but I am glad to be back 🙂
Huge 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 college 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!
Twin Dragons Translations 
It’s about to start!
Thank You for the new chapter (∩˃o˂∩)♡
LikeLiked by 1 person