“You can think it over first, young friend. If you decide you’d like to study in the county seat, come find me in town five days from now.” Old Master Zhang also pointed out where he was temporarily staying whenever he came to town.
Five… days? That soon? He Yi was still stunned and could not collect himself for quite a while.
Old Master Zhang added, “Oh, yes. You must bring your identity papers when we set out. Otherwise, it may be difficult to obtain the document required to enter the county seat.”
Hearing this, Xue Ci instinctively looked toward He Yi. He Yi might have appeared distracted, but he had been listening from beginning to end. Noticing Xue Ci’s gaze, he went over to the new wooden chests Zhou Qu had given them, unlocked one, and took out Xue Ci’s foreign-resident identity document.
He Yi hesitated, then handed the document to Old Master Zhang. “This is the only identity document he has. It’s for a foreign resident.”
For once, Old Master Zhang looked troubled. He stroked his slightly gray-white beard and did not speak for a while.
After considering it at length, Old Master Zhang finally said, “It should be all right.”
He Yi took the document back and told Xue Ci, “I’ll put this away for you. If you need it in the future, find the key and open the chest yourself.” He had already told Xue Ci once where the key was hidden.
Xue Ci nodded obediently. The realization that his identity papers would not stand in his way plainly surprised him, but it also filled him with delight. His almond-shaped eyes gleamed, and with nowhere else to put his hands, he gripped his own sleeves tighter and tighter.
They then discussed the academy’s rules and circumstances. He Yi learned that students were granted one rest day in ten, meaning they could take only one day off every ten days.
“That’s far too hard…” He Yi said, looking toward Xue Ci’s face and expecting the young man to be at least a little intimidated. Instead, Xue Ci listened to Old Master Zhang’s explanation without blinking, radiating eagerness and showing no sign of reluctance whatsoever. He probably did not think it was a problem at all.
“It is demanding, but there are also school holidays lasting twelve days, and when an ordinary rest day coincides with a major festival, they may get two or three days off.” Old Master Zhang’s grandson studied at an academy too, albeit in Jiangcheng rather than their own county. Most academies followed similar schedules, so he spoke with considerable confidence.
“…And where do the students stay?” He Yi scarcely realized that he had started asking about the academy’s accommodations on Xue Ci’s behalf. There was a rather wooden look in his eyes as he asked.
“The academy provides accommodation, although it is somewhat basic. There’s a communal sleeping platform, so the conditions aren’t particularly good.” But the chance to study was difficult enough to obtain that students hardly minded the state of the dormitories. Besides, judging by Xue Ci’s willingness to sleep on a mat in a woodshed, he was unlikely to be fussy.
Xue Ci truly did not mind at all. He Yi, standing beside him, nearly choked.
A communal sleeping platform meant Xue Ci would be sleeping right alongside other people, didn’t it? He Yi clenched his teeth in secret and swallowed repeatedly. Only with considerable effort did he suppress the impulse to answer Old Master Zhang with an outright refusal on Xue Ci’s behalf.
He Yi actually concealed his feelings quite well. Old Master Zhang had no idea that He Yi’s resentment had already spread to him too, merely by association. But Xue Ci, who was unusually sensitive to other people’s emotions, noticed.
The smile in Xue Ci’s eyes gradually faded. He looked at He Yi with puzzlement and concern and silently caught his sleeve.
Old Master Zhang considered the arrangement quite satisfactory. Xue Ci was clearly very interested in studying, but he could not press him too hard. He had fulfilled Young Master Xing’s request. What happened next depended entirely on Xue Ci’s decision.
He therefore said he would not disturb them further and prepared to return to town. Xue Ci, who had learned a good deal about human manners by now, took the initiative to escort him and the two young women who had been waiting quietly to the gate.
He Yi hesitated. Just as he was about to go out and see them off as well, Xue Ci had already sent them away and hurried back. For an instant, He Yi felt his chest overflowing with words he wanted to say, only to lose the courage to utter them. In the end, he said nothing, merely sitting down wearily on his sleeping mat.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Xue Ci wanted to speak. He did not want to hear an answer he dreaded hearing, however. Perhaps he was deceiving himself, but he felt he needed a little quiet.
Yet when he lay down, he discovered that the woodshed was still very bright.
Wait. It wasn’t even noon yet. Surely he couldn’t just lie there resting?
Perhaps he had grown so accustomed to laboring diligently every day that lying around in broad daylight without doing anything made him deeply uncomfortable. Forget it. Better get up and work. There was still a mountain of things to do.
He Yi sighed in resignation and rose from the mat. When he turned around, he came face-to-face with Xue Ci, whose brows were slightly drooping as he gazed at him.
“It’s time to work. Let’s go.” Avoiding Xue Ci’s eyes, He Yi walked outside alone.
Having been summoned so abruptly, Xue Ci had no choice but to follow.
Previously, He Yi had been torn between building the pigpen first and putting a roof over the east wing. Then the Li family learned that he was hiring a carpenter and offered to keep raising the piglets for him for a while longer.
That meant he could put the pigpen aside for now. Today he would first assemble the framework of the overhanging gable roof.
An overhanging gable roof had two sloping sides, with the eaves projecting slightly beyond the gable walls rather than ending flush with them. The projecting eaves protected the walls and reduced rainwater penetration and erosion. Because they lived in the rainy south, most buildings in the area used this kind of roof.
He Yi’s roof design consisted of three major sections. The left and right wings each had their own overhanging gable roof, meeting the central hall roof along one side and connecting to the front entrance corridor at the other, so that the sections formed a rectangular arrangement.
The layout was not much different from the ancestral He family residence. He Yi had merely removed the two side courtyards and kept one central courtyard. The remaining open space was large enough to count as a front courtyard in its own right.
The rear courtyard would lie behind the main hall, where the vegetable garden was located. He also planned to dig a well there. When buying the land, he had asked the village head about the site, and the man had said it was quite suitable. For the time being, however, He Yi lacked the money to hire someone to dig it, so the well would have to wait.
For now, he needed to erect the posts and beams of the east wing. He had already prepared all the timber, planing and smoothing it and carving out the tenons and mortises that would join the pieces. He had not hired a carpenter for this work because, unlike making fine furniture, it was within his own abilities. Every coin saved would help.
He Yi therefore handled the measurements, marking, and assembly, while Xue Ci transported the timber and helped put it together.
The sun was fierce. Before they started, He Yi’s mind had been unsettled, but once he got to work, his thoughts calmed and he became focused.
They did not speak much, but they worked together with remarkable understanding. A glance or a gesture was enough for each to grasp what the other needed, making their progress impressively efficient.
Some of the timber was still not quite precise enough, however, so it had to be sanded and adjusted again.
After four hours of work, interrupted by only half an hour of rest in short breaks, they finally finished erecting the east wing’s overhanging gable framework.
The beginning was always the hardest part. With the first frame complete, He Yi could follow the same pattern and assemble the remaining two much more quickly. First, though, he would need to put on the roof sheathing and tiles.
He Yi wiped away his sweat and glanced at the sky. It was shifting from red toward purple, and the sun was nearly setting. He would have to go to Cen Pu tomorrow to order timber, then continue the work after that.
It was evening mealtime again when He Yi sat opposite Xue Ci, holding his bowl. He did not want to take out his feelings on Xue Ci or let him notice how low he felt, so he made himself answer Xue Ci’s questions now and then.
Xue Ci was extremely curious about what the academy would be like and kept asking one question after another. He Yi’s feelings were a tangled mess. Dark impulses repeatedly tempted him to make everything sound as frightening as possible, listing only the bad aspects in the hope of scaring Xue Ci away.
Of course, he would never actually do that. Such thoughts went no further than his own mind. He answered properly instead. “An academy is a place where teachers teach books and scholarship. One teacher looks after a number of students. I don’t know exactly how many. There should be plenty of books there, and much of what they teach will probably be related to the imperial examinations and eight-legged essays.”
“What are imperial-examination eight-legged essays?”
“…” Oh no. He couldn’t explain. All he could manage was, “You’ll know when you get there.”
The moment he said it, he wanted to slap himself. Why did he make it sound as though Xue Ci had already decided to go…?
Yet he had to admit that the academy would certainly teach more professionally than he could. It was an institution that trained successful provincial and metropolitan examination candidates, perhaps the only means of rising in society open to many people. If those people could succeed academically, surely Xue Ci, who was so intelligent, could too.
Some of the subjects taught there might not be of practical use to Xue Ci, but it was probably the closest he could currently come to the important scholarship of this dynasty. In any case, it would help him live among ordinary people. Xue Ci longed so earnestly to learn that he should not be limited to He Yi’s make-believe level of elementary teaching. He deserved to go out into the world and receive systematic education.
How had he somehow ended up leaning more and more toward letting Xue Ci go? Had he lost his mind? The academy was in the county seat, a full day’s carriage ride from town… But after another moment’s thought, He Yi realized that he might have overlooked something even more important: regardless of what he himself wanted, perhaps he could not control Xue Ci’s wishes at all.
The more he thought, the more agitated and miserable he became. Feeling helpless, he abruptly took the empty bowl from Xue Ci’s hands and carried it outside to wash without a word.
Xue Ci remained frozen in the posture of someone whose bowl had just been taken away, staring somewhat blankly at He Yi’s retreating back, which seemed to radiate a faint resentment.