Gu Xiaodeng slept a full, restful sleep. The next day, following his biological clock, he woke again at the hour of Mao quarter. Only when he stood up did he feel a bit dizzy. Shaking his head to clear it, he recalled that it was likely from drinking the night before.
Feng’en had risen early and was waiting off to the side. Gu Xiaodeng hurriedly got out of bed and went over. “Feng’en, did you come to pick me up last night?”
“Young Master Ge escorted you back,” Feng’en said with a smile. “Young Master Guan also came along.”
Gu Xiaodeng bent over to wash up, surprised by what he heard. “Really? They’re pretty good people then.”
Feng’en smiled faintly, not mentioning that Ge Dongchen had carried him back on his back, while Guan Yunji had stalked alongside them with eyes blazing and claws unsheathed. The atmosphere had been profoundly strange—it would not be an overstatement to call it a hair-trigger standoff. Only Gu Xiaodeng, draped comfortably over Ge Dongchen’s back and swinging his feet, had slept soundly and at ease.
Utterly unaware of this, Gu Xiaodeng finished freshening up with practiced efficiency and brought up the matter of being ganged up on the day before. “When you tidied me up yesterday, did you see a black cloth sack on me? They used that thing to ambush me.”
Feng’en shook his head. “Last night, Young Master Ge informed us of the matter. He took the black sack himself, saying he would see justice done for you.”
Gu Xiaodeng was taken aback for a moment. “That’s far too much trouble for him. I wanted to resolve it myself.”
“And how do you suppose you could resolve it?”
“Catch them out, question them right in the hall about their reasons for hitting me, and ask the Academy’s sir to judge the matter.” Gu Xiaodeng rubbed the back of his neck and, with a smooth motion, swept up his hair—which reached the middle of his back—into a bundle. “Previously, their tricks against me were all in the Academy or the martial field. If it really came down to it, those could be dismissed as conflicts over coursework. Last night, I was walking peacefully on the path. They bullied me for no reason—utterly without justification!”
Feng’en stepped over to attend him, sighing with a smile. “You’ve been here three months now. Have you still not discovered the rules at play here?”
“What rules?”
“Where people gather, the honored are raised higher still, and the lowly are trampled lower still. The one sitting in the very last seat of the Academy is you. Regardless of which side has reason, as long as you remain the one in the lowest position, there is no end to this life of being bullied.”
Gu Xiaodeng suddenly recalled the conversation he’d had with Zhang Dengqing not long after first entering the Gu family. Back then, Zhang had also spoken to him about these same hierarchical rules.
Zhang Dengqing had told him to look after himself. How had he replied at the time?
Adapt to the situation, but don’t change without cause. Don’t offend those who are more honored. Don’t seek amusement from those who are more lowly. Don’t bow and scrape before the higher, and don’t abuse the weak using strength.
Gu Xiaodeng looked up at Feng’en. “What do you think I should do then?”
Feng’en bent down to put new ear beads on him. “You have two options. The first: in the back row of the Academy, find someone whose temperament is more timid than yours and find a way to make him replace you as that lowest-positioned weakling. The second: in the front row of the Academy, find a noble person you’re confident you can attach yourself to, and find a way to have his power and influence envelop you.”
Once the ear beads were on, Gu Xiaodeng remained silent. Feng’en brought over the new student robes. “Your time in the academy is still very long. You cannot remain outside of it all. Last night was only a small escalation in the pattern of bullying. Young Master Ge was able to rescue you once, but that does not mean he will continue to extend his aid in the future.”
Feng’en watched as he stubbornly put on his own outer garment and tied his own sash, and smiled. “The words Feng’en speaks are not to the young master’s liking. But I have now finished speaking them. Please don’t sulk at yourself, young master. Should you feel any displeasure at all, you may punish me for it.”
Gu Xiaodeng shook his head. He raised his eyes to look at him for a long moment, his heart growing increasingly distressed. “Feng’en, the methods you spoke of—are those lessons from your own experience?”
Feng’en’s eyelids trembled. His smile held, and bending down so his gaze was level with Gu Xiaodeng’s, he said softly, “Yes. The young master knows as well, Feng Huan and I ‘lived’ in the Pleasure Quarter. That is the place in Changluo where the rules of hierarchy and status are enforced most deeply. Some had unyielding pride and thus died untimely deaths. Others had the faces and bones of slaves and were thus cast aside like weeds.”
“To climb upward by attaching to power, or to slide downward into ruin—the measure must be exquisitely fine. Feng Huan and I navigated our way through. As the months and years passed, the people around us slowly either died or went mad. In the end, only the two of us remained, waiting until the Princess Consort came to take us away.”
“Cousin, a school and a brothel are not so different as you might imagine. The world inside the academy and the world outside it—the differences are not as great as you suppose, either.”
Feng’en looked at his face, which grew more pleasing to the eye with each passing day, and said gently, “You can lose some things, and then gain some things. As long as you are willing, most of what you desire can be yours for the taking.”
Gu Xiaodeng stared at him blankly for a moment, not responding to this speech. Instead, he turned away to look for something. “I just remembered, Jinyu gave me a hairpin yesterday. Where is it?”
Feng’en sighed with a smile and straightened up. “I’ve put that hairpin away for you. That is no ordinary hairpin; it’s one the Fourth Young Master has used on major occasions. It is far too conspicuous and not suitable for you to wear.”
“I just wanted to look at it. I wasn’t planning on using it.”
Feng’en went to retrieve the brocade box for him, answering silently in his heart: You couldn’t use it anyway.
This black jade hairpin was an imperial reward Gu Jinyu had received. The meaning behind giving it to Gu Xiaodeng was both subtle and clear: he simply wanted Gu Xiaodeng to pin it on, borrow his influence, and walk the academy with fewer obstacles.
But if that were the case, why would An Ruoyi bother sending Gu Xiaodeng into private academy at all? It would have been enough to just keep him directly under the Gu family’s power and raise him into a lazy fool who lived on handouts.
She had let him enter precisely so he would learn to be shrewd.
Gu Xiaodeng took the hairpin from the brocade box. He examined it earnestly for a long while, let out an “ah,” and carefully placed it back inside. “A precious item. I won’t have any use for it. There was no time to give him a gift yesterday either, and I don’t know when I’ll get to see him again.”
As for what Feng’en had said earlier, he still offered no response.
After breakfast, as Gu Xiaodeng was about to head to the academy with his page boy, Feng’en called him to a stop. He tied a Restraint Pendant to his sash, remarking that he had lacked decorum yesterday and it was time to once again wear the pendant to regulate his comportment.
Gu Xiaodeng wrinkled his nose and had to control his walking posture and the sound of his movements to prevent the pendant at his waist from clattering too wildly.
Upon arriving at the academy, Gu Xiaodeng reached his seat and immediately saw several letters lying on his desk. Picking them up to look, he found that each one was a sincere, earnest apology letter written by the people who had attacked him the night before.
He stared wide-eyed toward the front and saw that several students in the second and third rows had their heads wrapped in bandages, as though they had taken a solid fist to the face.
Just then, Ge Dongchen and Guan Yunji came in through the front door. The former entered with his usual faint smile and greeted the others in the first row. Guan Yunji, on the other hand, had a poor complexion and slightly greenish eyes—clearly, he had stayed up all night.
Both of them cast glances his way, as if by design and yet not.
Gu Xiaodeng found the situation overwhelmingly complicated and troublesome. Pinching his Restraint Pendant, he sat down and waved a bold hand in his mind: Who cares! Studies come first. The Sir is coming to teach soon; studying is the true and proper path!
He tossed the messy, unspoken rules to the back of his mind. He tore those apology letters into small pieces and dropped them into the wastepaper basket—who could blame him when his seat was right in front of the trash can, after all.
Before long, the day’s instructor arrived. Those who came to teach at the academy, aside from Great Confucian Scholars, also included retired Remnant Elders of the court invited by the Gu family. Today’s teacher was one such spirited, lean elder. As soon as he entered, rather than lecture from a text, he declared bluntly: “Students, today we have both the time and a living example. Let us discuss in detail the Four Decrees that have persisted in our Jin Kingdom for a hundred years.”
This was the first time Gu Xiaodeng heard of this, and he hurriedly opened his little notebook in full battle readiness.
“First, let us discuss the promulgators of the Four Decrees. They were jointly issued by Emperor Xuguang and the Lionheart Empress a century ago. For those with a passing knowledge of the history texts, are you familiar with the deeds of this imperial couple?”
Gu Xiaodeng perked up at this. In his past days among the common folk, listening to storytellers and reading popular novels, many legendary tales drew their source material from this very imperial couple. A century ago, Emperor Xuguang, Gao Li, on the seventh day of the seventh month, established the first-ever Male Empress in history—namely, the Lionheart Empress Xie Qi. The title was one the Emperor had devised himself.
It was said to be an imperial couple of extraordinarily profound affection, unprecedented.
Gu Xiaodeng firmly believed in this affection. After all, if Emperor Xuguang hadn’t loved him deeply, the Male Empress Xie Qi wouldn’t have been willing to accept the title “Lionheart”[T/N: Kuangshi]… Who would willingly accept an imperial title that was a homophone for “lost heart, gone mad”?![Kuangshi] Such an utterly absurd title would follow him forever in the annals of history, earning eternal fame!
Thinking about such a stoically hilarious piece of history tickled Gu Xiaodeng’s funny bone.
He covered his mouth, trying not to laugh. At that moment, a person soundlessly appeared behind him through the academy’s back door. Striding over without a whisper of sound, the newcomer lightly tapped the shoulder of Gu Xiaodeng’s page boy. The page boy, possessing a formidable psyche, made absolutely no noise. He bowed with utter deference and withdrew through the back door, yielding his spot to the arrival.
The arrival was Gu Jinyu.
