Chapter 371 — Drunk

Half an hour later, only Song Yan and Ji Yong in the flower hall were still sober.

Ma Youming still had a shred of clarity left in his head. He caught hold of a maid who had come in to change their cups and whispered, "Go and tell your mistress, quick." He shut her cry of fright back down her throat, and she fled out in a flurry.

Presently the master of ceremonies came in and said with a smile, "The folk escorting the bride will be here any moment. Would the gentlemen be so good as to take a few cups of tea in the tea room, and talk over how you mean to drink with the groom later?"

Ji Yong stared at Song Yan, immovable as a mountain.

"Lord Ji, the groom is the great man today. Another day we might go drink a few cups in good earnest at Zhao Zishu's over at the Northern Zen Temple." Song Yan rose, nodded to him with meaning in it, turned, and left the flower hall.

Ji Yong's face went livid.

Ma Youming watched Song Yan go, blearily; he staggered up and followed after him. "Heir, where are you going?"

Song Yan steadied Ma Youming and told Chen He, "Lord Ma has had a little too much. Go tell the steward to find him a place to rest."

Chen He answered respectfully and went to support Ma Youming.

But Ma Youming suddenly grew agitated; he flung his arms about and nearly struck Chen He in the face.

"I am fine, I am fine!" He tried to catch hold of Song Yan's arm, but could not see the man before him clearly, and missed by a hair's breadth again and again. "Heir... I came out looking for you, in truth... only there was never a chance. You do not know it, but these days I have been living a life no man should live... Heir, I know you are a clever man; you go in and out of the palace as if it were your own house. I want only one word from you... I am not clever, but I know enough to follow a clever man... through fire and water, I will follow you..."

He pounded his chest, boom, boom.

At the words "you go in and out of the palace as if it were your own house," Song Yan saw Ji Yong and the master of ceremonies come out. He had no time to weigh Ma Youming's words; he snapped at Chen He under his breath, "Get Lord Ma somewhere suitable," and turned on his heel and left.

Chen He dragged and hauled Ma Youming away.

Ji Yong's gaze turned faintly cold.

The master of ceremonies, however, with no sense of life or death, said enviously, "A man like that, to have risen to be Heir to the Duke of Ying, cannot be said to have lived his life in vain. Look at that Lord Ma, a military officer of the third rank, and still he must pound his breast and swear his loyalty before the Heir... They say the Heir is only seventeen this year; look at others of his age, and who knows where they are, hanging their heads over their books, goading themselves on, hoping to win a degree? And even if one of them should pass at such a young age, to be like the Heir, I fear he might toil a lifetime and still not get his wish!" By the end there was a sigh in his voice.

Ji Yong said nothing; gazing toward where Song Yan had gone, his eyes grew colder still.

The Wenhua Daxun had won the Emperor's praise, and Yu Li did not take the credit to himself. Before the Emperor he praised each of the men who had compiled the book with him, and especially the youngest of them, Ji Yong, who had both the name of tanhua and an alert eye; Yu Li judged his prospects boundless and wished to make a good connection with him, and so praised him above all the rest.

The Emperor was pleased, and summoned Ji Yong into the hall for a few words of idle talk.

Ji Yong supposed the matter was finished and done with.

Who would have guessed that a few days ago the Emperor had issued an edict ordering the Hanlin Academy to compile the Consolidated Explication of the Rites of Zhou, and had specially commanded him to take part in the revision.

His great-grandfather was overjoyed at the news, and reminded him: "This is an opportunity — a chance to leave your name in the annals. You must seize it well."

His uncle and his father were equally beside themselves with delight. The one could scarcely keep from hauling out every fine thing in the house and laying it before him, begging him to take his pick; the other crept about afraid that even the sound of his own footsteps might disturb him. It wearied him past bearing. He longed for someone to talk to, yet everyone about him sang the same praises in one voice: "Young as you are, you have not only won the title of tanhua, third in the palace examination, but twice been given a share in compiling collections to which His Majesty himself wrote the preface. In the literary world of this dynasty, your name is certain to be set down in bold, brilliant strokes."

The implication being that even if he spent his whole life in the Hanlin Academy as a compiler, it would still be a thing to be proud of.

Today Yu Li had called him in and gone over the same old ground yet again, leaving him in the blackest of moods. He thought to himself that if he were to be shut up in the Hanlin Academy day after day, year after year, compiling books, he might as well be dead.

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Sisters and brothers, here is today's extra update for you.

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The second update will be around eleven tonight.

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