Free Web NovelChapter 1020: Chapter 741: If You Are Willing, Follow the Example of Empress Du
For a long time after that, the three of them did not say a word.
Yet that seemingly somewhat strange atmosphere did not make any of them feel that something was wrong. Yu Wenye even rose to his feet, walked alone in silence to another window, pushed it open and leaned on the railing, and the remaining two merely watched him without saying anything more.
In fact, they all understood in their hearts that it was an unspoken—envy.
The three of them were all born into an official family; even if their fathers’ ranks differed in height, their status in importance, they had never gone hungry from childhood to now, much less treated grain as a matter of life and death like the countless common folk beneath their feet.
But, to be born in a time of chaos—how could one not understand this?
Even if they had never lacked grain since childhood, by this point in their lives they too understood how important grain was to people. It was because the commoners had nothing to eat that they raised their banners in revolt; and the forces carving up territory in this chaotic world were mostly killing each other over grain and land, fighting to the death. All the conflicts under heaven, no matter how lofty the declared goal, in the end, come down to a single mouthful of food.
Yet suddenly someone tells them that one day in the future, grain yield per mu could suddenly multiply several times over; in that case, the common people would no longer go hungry.
For the realm to know decades of peace—this is the very foundation!
It wasn’t just Yu Wenye who envied it. Only now did Shang Ruyi understand why even someone as even-tempered as Shen Wuzheng would, in these past days, drift off now and then, just as he had done while waiting for them earlier. It was because these things truly made them envious—so envious that their bones ached.
Yet they could not...
First, from what Shen Wuzheng had just said, it was already clear: even Yu Mingyue herself could not explain why, in their world, so many things did not require everyone to do them. Second, that Lord Yuan was a man from several hundred years later, and as for the rice he bestowed upon the world, it was obvious that Yu Mingyue had not brought any with her. Otherwise, with her temperament, she would not have hidden her talent; she would have taken it out early to flaunt and show off, and all the more to win the people’s hearts for Yu Wenqian.
If that were the case, their side would already be doomed to lose.
And as things stand now, Yu Wenqian had only secured the Crown Prince position after the fierce battle at Taiyuan. Clearly, when it comes to those two things that can change the world, Yu Mingyue can only talk about them; she has absolutely no way to produce them, nor can she achieve that level.
Thinking of this, Shang Ruyi suddenly recalled how, the first time they met, Yu Mingyue had teased them as "uncivilized savages." Thinking back on it now, she really didn’t know where that sense of superiority came from—this situation was like a person sitting in a carriage laughing at the people walking beside it for being slow, when the carriage was not built by her, nor driven by her. If you dragged her down from the carriage, she would be limping along worse than an ordinary person.
So it was nothing more than the world she lived in having given her those conveniences. Apart from enjoying them, she herself had contributed nothing to them. Once removed from that world, away from those conveniences, she was no different from the "savages" she spoke of—in other words, from them.
She might not even be as good as they were.
With that thought, Shang Ruyi felt all the more that she did not need to fear this "all-knowing yet unwise" person, and she felt ashamed that she had once been afraid of her existence.
Once she figured it out, her heart felt much lighter. She turned to look at Yu Wenye standing by the other window. Clearly, he was still calming his emotions. Under such circumstances, there was no need to disturb him. Shang Ruyi then turned to Shen Wuzheng, whose brows still showed a few hanging-needle creases, evidently not smoothed out in all these days.
She said, "These days, Brother, you must have been constantly thinking about how to reach that state Yu Mingyue spoke of, haven’t you?"
Shen Wuzheng silently nodded.
But clearly, he had not been able to come up with an answer, which was why he kept drifting off. Shang Ruyi said gently, "Brother, more haste, less speed. If there are things that simply must take several hundred years to appear, it is because only several hundred years later will the conditions exist for them to appear. If you insist on forcing it, I fear it will be of no use to the times."
"..."
Shen Wuzheng’s gaze flickered slightly. When he looked at her again, the confusion in his eyes had gradually faded, replaced by a trace of helplessness and, afterward, a few parts joy.
He smiled and said, "It’s you, little sister, who sees things more clearly than I do."
Shang Ruyi shook her head with a wry smile. "I don’t see clearly at all. Earlier, I was completely bluffed by that Yu Mingyue."
"Oh?"
Hearing this, Shen Wuzheng pressed his lips into a smile and asked softly, "What did she say that could bluff even you?"
So Shang Ruyi told him one by one what Yu Mingyue had said to her, but she naturally concealed the matter of "one lifetime, one pair" and Yu Wenye’s reaction to it. That was, after all, something between husband and wife, not something she should bring out and talk about carelessly.
After listening to her, Shen Wuzheng gradually grew serious. He pondered for a long time before slowly saying, "Actually, when I heard her say that women could sit for the imperial examinations, I was also very shocked. But there are too many things in that world that astonish people. All these things that we find inconceivable are woven together, and they instead form a kind of normal state. But I think, in the end, women still need to read more books."
"..."
"Only by reading and understanding principle does one have the qualification to govern the state and bring peace to the realm. Those who do not read think only every day about how to win a man’s affection, how to make their husbands dote on them more, and how to contend with the women of the inner quarters for men’s favor... Even if you placed such a person in office at court, what could that brain of hers ever accomplish?"
"..."
"I know you are not that sort of person. The world in your heart has never been small. And in this world, there ought to be more women like you."
"..."
"If you have the heart for it, you might as well emulate Empress Du."
Shang Ruyi had been nodding all along as she listened, but when she heard this last sentence, she was so startled that her eyes flew wide open. She waved her hands again and again. "Brother, what are you saying!"
Up to now I’m nothing more than Princess Qin, and Yu Wenye hasn’t even secured the Crown Prince yet. Talking about emulating the Empress—that’s far too distant. If someone heard that, even if they didn’t accuse me of overstepping my station, they’d still laugh at me for being delusional.
Shen Wuzheng only smiled and said, "Do you truly think you are... very far from it?"
"..."
Hearing this, Shang Ruyi’s hand, which had been swinging idly, suddenly stilled.
She looked again at Shen Wuzheng, whose eyes had already calmed completely, the usual clarity restored, with a glimmer of wisdom shining within. Shang Ruyi didn’t even need to ponder; at the first instinctive thought, she let out a soft sigh. "I—"
Shen Wuzheng laughed and said, "There are some matters that anyone who knows Yu Mingyue’s origins can more or less guess."
"..."
"Some things are indeed still unsettled, and still a ways off from us. But you can be mentally prepared. After all, if you only start preparing when that day actually comes, it’ll be far too late."
"..."
Shang Ruyi silently looked at him for a long time, then finally nodded lightly. "I understand."
After speaking, the two of them fell silent again and each took a sip of tea. With the tea moistening her throat, Shang Ruyi’s thoughts also grew clearer. She asked casually, "Right, Brother, did you ask what books that Yu Mingyue usually reads?"
At this, a faint frown creased the space between Shen Wuzheng’s brows.
Shang Ruyi asked, "What’s wrong?"
Shen Wuzheng said, "I did make a point of asking, but that drunkard went on for half the day and still couldn’t make it clear. I asked her if she’d read the Great Learning or Doctrine of the Mean, and she said she’d never studied them. She didn’t know a thing about treatises on military strategy or Mohist works either. I asked what books she had read, and she said something like, after finishing her ’pen ye’ she stopped reading altogether."
"’Pen ye’?"
Yet another term they didn’t understand.
Shen Wuzheng went on, "I pressed her on it for a long time, and she finally said the last book she finished was called something... Palace..."
"Palace? Taiji Palace? Or—"
"Neither,"
Shen Wuzheng frowned, trying hard to recall. "It seemed to be something like Cold Palace, and something concubine."
Shang Ruyi’s eyes widened in surprise. "Cold Palace? Concubine? What kind of book is that?"
Shen Wuzheng gave a wry shake of his head. "Who knows. I’ve only ever heard that Sima Changqing wrote the ’Changmen Fu’ for the deposed Empress Chen. As for any other books about Cold Palace or imperial consorts, I’ve never heard of them."
As he spoke, he said lightly, "I’d wager it’s not any sort of good book."
While they were talking, Yu Wenye came back. His mood had clearly settled; even his gaze had returned to its usual cold sharpness. As he sat down, he caught their words and asked, "What book?"
Shang Ruyi said decisively, "Not a good one."
Yu Wenye glanced at the two of them. "If it’s not a good book, you can still talk about it for so long."
However, he obviously had no real interest in what book they were discussing. After he sat, he didn’t ask further. Instead, after taking a sip of tea, he asked about Lu Xiao’s current situation. Shen Wuzheng told him that after Lu Xiao arrived at the Shen Mansion, she had indeed caused Mr. and Mrs. Shen a bit of displeasure at first, but once they heard that she had helped Shang Ruyi during the Xingluo Granary battle and at Jiangdu Palace, their attitude toward her immediately changed.
Shen Wuzheng said, "It’s actually she herself who insisted on asking me for the most remote room to live in, and she rarely comes out to see anyone. Every day a little maid brings her meals in. She eats and drinks as usual; you don’t need to worry."
Yu Wenye nodded.
Speaking of Lu Xiao, Shang Ruyi suddenly recalled what Yu Wenye had said earlier—that if she could stay in Dasheng, it would be best for her.
Could it be that he thought it would actually be bad for Lu Xiao to return to Xiao Yuansui’s side?
This matter had in fact been lodged in her heart all along, but she hadn’t asked Yu Wenye again. She vaguely seemed to know the answer, yet was unwilling to think too deeply on it. For a chivalrous woman like Lu Xiao, with loyalty and righteousness in her heart and a clear sense of gratitude and resentment, she naturally hoped Lu Xiao could have a good ending.
But what exactly would that "good ending" look like?
Just then, Yu Wenye took another sip of tea, lifted his head to glance at the sky outside the window, and said, "It’s about time. Let’s go to the Pei Family and take a look, see what’s really going on with Xing Yuan." freēwebnovel.com
At the mention of Pei Xingyuan, a flicker passed through Shen Wuzheng’s gaze as well. "Yes, his injuries..."
As they spoke, the three of them rose and went downstairs. In no time, their carriage rolled away from the Divine Tired Pavilion and headed toward the Pei Mansion.
