Chapter Ninety-One: The Mysterious New Magistrate

Although the visit had been said to be only a few days away, Madam Fang did not truly bring the many young ladies to the Hidden Dragon Valley until the eighteenth day of the first month, after the Lantern Festival had already passed. Every young lady from the various families understood the purpose of this outing, and each one dressed herself as splendidly as could be, competing in charm and beauty.

Looking at these girls, Madam Fang was quite satisfied. Ye Chang had turned her down several times, but now he could no longer evade the matter; he would have to properly choose one of them. By then the snow had just cleared, and the girls came stepping over the white drifts, their bright voices and soft laughter drifting along the road.

When they reached the valley entrance, the first thing they noticed was the couplet set there. One of the literate girls read aloud, "Firecrackers usher out the old year; spring breeze brings warmth to the wine of renewal."

"This must be Young Lord Ye's clever handiwork. I hear he even writes poetry, and his verses once stirred the whole capital!"

"Indeed, worthy of Young Lord Ye. Firecrackers and the wine of renewal both find their way into his lines!"

"I wonder just what manner of man Young Lord Ye truly is..."

Whispers rose all around, and Madam Fang could not help smiling. After all, these were girls from a small place; once they took an interest in something, they could not help showing it. Though she found such displays somewhat childish, she did not dislike them.

Ye Chang stood waiting with his companions in a small pavilion. The customs of the great Tang were open and unrestrained, and no one found such a public meeting strange. Yet the young ladies who had just been chirping away so eagerly before Madam Fang now all fell shy and silent.

From time to time they stole glances at the young man who had lately become famous in Xiuwu County, their hearts fluttering, their cheeks flushed with red.

He was quite tall, and though somewhat slender, he looked sturdy enough. His eyes were bright and clear, even more limpid than a girl's; his skin was a little dark, the result of often being out and about.

Every gesture he made carried a composure far beyond his years. His movements were steady and measured, yet when he smiled, the expression he revealed was vibrant and sunlit.

"Eleventh Young Master, we must trouble you today to guide us," Madam Fang said with a smile.

"It would be my pleasure." Ye Chang was inwardly full of reluctance, but he could not show it too plainly. So he wore a sincere expression, while secretly wondering why the arrangement he had made had still not appeared.

As he was musing, Cui Xiujing came running up. "Young Master, the Minister of the Privy Treasury, Lord Yuan, requests your presence."

Cui Xiujing had shouted from far away, so Madam Fang and the other girls all heard him. Her delicate brows immediately drew together, and displeasure showed plainly on her face.

The other girls, too, wore looks of embarrassment and disappointment. This was a rare chance to be in Ye Chang's company, and yet who could have imagined that the unsentimental old minister of the privy treasury would come out to spoil it!

Madam Fang shot Ye Chang a sidelong glance, then suddenly stepped forward to block Cui Xiujing. "Cui Xiujing, who told you that the Minister of the Privy Treasury is summoning your young master?"

Cui Xiujing was instantly dumbfounded. He blinked helplessly, looking at Ye Chang with a pained expression.

How could he know why the minister wanted Ye Chang? He had only followed Ye Chang's instructions: once these young ladies entered the valley, he was to rush out and say those words!

Ye Chang immediately felt sweat creeping onto his forehead. He gave a dry laugh. "Sister-in-law..."

"If there's nothing important, make the Minister of the Privy Treasury wait. First see to these young ladies properly," Madam Fang said with great authority.

She shot him another glance. Ye Chang knew at once that his little trick had probably already been seen through, and he grew all the more awkward. He tried to say something, but when he opened his mouth, he had no idea how to explain.

He gave Cui Xiujing a look. Cui Xiujing wore a miserable face, racking his brains for some lie to invent.

"Cui Xiujing, if what you are saying is false, you'd best watch yourself. I'll have someone slap you soundly!" Madam Fang warned when she saw he was still about to speak.

Cui Xiujing immediately shrank back, giving Ye Chang a look that said he was truly unable to help.

Ye Chang coughed twice and was just about to explain when Madam Fang turned back to him and said with a half-smile, "Eleventh Young Master, do you have anything else to say?"

"This, no, no..."

Ye Chang said helplessly. If it had been anyone else, he would never have cared, but his sister-in-law had gone to the trouble of bringing so many young ladies here, all of them people of some standing in Xiuwu County, and all for his sake. However stubborn he might be, he could not fail to appreciate good intentions.

It seemed that today he really would have to accompany these girls all day.

Accompanying them for a day was a small matter; the real difficulty would come afterward, when his sister-in-law pressed him to choose one of them as his wife.

As Ye Chang considered the matter, he thought that pretending to be foolish and the like would only wound his sister-in-law's feelings. Better to choose another tactic: for instance, devise some problems to stump these girls.

Just then, one of the bolder young ladies said, "Earlier, at Lady Fang's place, I saw that the little servant boy under your guidance was doing arithmetic. I heard that was taught by Young Lord Ye?"

"There is such a thing. On the first day of the first month, I gave Rannu a problem: how to sum from one to one hundred in the shortest possible time. If any of you ladies are interested, you might try it yourselves," Ye Chang said, having decided to set them a difficult question.

This question had not stumped Rannu on the first day of the year, but Rannu, though clever, was not a monster like Gauss. It had taken him nearly half an hour to arrive at the result of five thousand and fifty. After that, Ye Chang had guided him to think about how to obtain the answer in the shortest possible time.

When the girls heard this, they all covered their mouths and laughed. Then they fell silent, clearly each calculating in secret.

Madam Fang looked half amused, half exasperated, and gave Ye Chang a fierce glare.

At last enjoying some peace and quiet, Ye Chang was just about to invite everyone inside when suddenly a horse came galloping up from outside. The rider cried out, "Young Lord Ye, Young Lord Ye, Minister Yuan requests that you come at once!"

Madam Fang's expression changed at once. How could they pull this trick again and again?

Ye Chang, too, was taken aback. He had only arranged for Cui Xiujing, not for a second person. Repeating the same ploy after it had failed was not his style.

But very quickly he recognized the rider. "It's Clerk Zhong!"

The one arriving on horseback was Zhong Wei. From far away he saw Ye Chang and called out loudly.

Ye Chang stopped in his tracks. Madam Fang also recognized Zhong Wei and, full of suspicion, led the girls a little aside. Zhong Wei, sweating profusely, reached Ye Chang's side, dismounted, and said with a bow, "The new Minister of the Privy Treasury has arrived in Xiuwu and is now handling the transfer of office. Minister Yuan is hosting a banquet for him tonight and asks Young Lord Ye to go meet him!"

This was Yuan Gonglu expressing his gratitude to Ye Chang for helping him recover his official seal and for introducing him to the newly appointed county magistrate. It was meant both to acquaint him with the new official and to hint to the newcomer that this man has a most unusual connection to me; if you can look after him, then do so.

What surprised Ye Chang was that the new county magistrate had come so quickly.

Though there was always a deadline for a new official to take office, it was only the eighteenth day of the first month now, which meant the New Year had only just passed. And yet this new minister of the privy treasury had hurried all the way from the capital without delay; he was truly eager to assume his post.

"Clerk Zhong, are you saying the new minister has already come to take office?"

Madam Fang, who had also heard, was clever enough to sense that something was off. She immediately shot Ye Chang another half-amused, half-suspicious glance.

"Exactly. This new minister was truly impatient. I hear that as soon as the first day of the year had passed, he rushed here to take up his duties."

Zhong Wei cupped his hands toward Madam Fang. Hearing this answer, she gave Ye Chang yet another sidelong look. In her mind, this was surely still some scheme arranged by Ye Chang. To make it look real, he had even summoned this clerk Zhong to assist him.

Madam Fang found this rather strange. Ye Chang was clearly at the age when he ought to be thinking about taking a wife, so why was he still so lacking in ambition, scheming at every turn to dodge the matter? She did not believe for a moment that Ye Chang would truly be interested in some poor little girl with nothing to her name. The more she thought about it, the more she felt the boy must be hiding something in his heart.

That made sense. During his journey to the capital, he must have gone through many things. And he was the sort who liked to keep matters hidden; unless forced, he would not speak of many things.

Perhaps in the capital he had truly taken a fancy to some young lady of a noble household, yet refused to say so.

However much she suspected Ye Chang, with so many people present Madam Fang could not expose him. She only said in a low voice, "I'll settle accounts with you when I get back!"

Ye Chang had no way to explain himself, so he could only bow in apology and then follow Zhong Wei toward the county seat.

By now he had two horses at home, and riding into town was much faster than walking. A journey that would have taken over an hour by foot was covered in half that time.

Over the past half year, Ye Chang had brought many changes to Xiuwu County.

Paper, once expensive, was now cheap, and toilet paper in particular had become a staple for wealthy households in the county seat. The briquette stove had long since spread after the first snowfall, and even the New Year's prints and door guardians Ye Chang had recently introduced were being copied by many families.

Even where these things brought no profit to Ye Chang, they brought him enough renown. One might say that in Xiuwu, from the county seat to the remotest village, most people knew his name.

There were also merchants from other places, who came specifically to buy these new goods, enlivening the streets of Xiuwu and adding to the bustle.

Zhong Wei led Ye Chang straight to the yamen of the county magistrate. After asking around, they learned that the transfer of office had already been completed. Yuan Gonglu had already packed his things and left the yamen, taking temporary lodging at the city inn, where he would remain until setting out to leave office at dawn the next day.

Since that was the case, the place where Yuan Gonglu would host the newly arrived magistrate would not be the yamen. Besides, the fire from earlier in the year had made the magistrate's office difficult to inhabit, and it was said that the new magistrate was likewise seeking lodgings outside and did not intend to move into the yamen.

"Young Master, since that is so, let us go to the inn. Minister Yuan... no, rather, Former Minister Yuan should already be waiting for you there," Zhong Wei said to Ye Chang, sensing that something was slightly amiss, though he did not think too deeply about it.

Ye Chang nodded and followed him to the inn.

To reach the inn, they had to pass through the market. The market in Xiuwu was lively at the moment, with many merchants from afar hoping to sell local specialties there. Many people in the market recognized Ye Chang and came forward to greet him; Ye Chang returned each greeting in turn.

"Who is this man, that everyone should salute him?"

In the middle of the market stood a woman in plain dress, her willow brows drawn up slightly as she looked at Ye Chang and asked the person beside her.

"Reporting to you, my lady: this man's family name is Ye, his given name Chang, and he is called Eleventh. He is quite an extraordinary person in Xiuwu County..."

"So he is Ye Chang!" At the mention of his name, the woman drew in a breath and fixed her gaze on him.

"Indeed. It seems my lady has also heard of Ye the Eleventh. He is a man granted gold by the Son of Heaven to return home, and he has had encounters with immortals..."

The one at the woman's side was a constable who was fairly familiar with Ye Chang, and he proceeded at length to recount Ye Chang's deeds. The woman listened in silence, and only after he had finished did she give a soft "Mm," and no one knew whether it was praise or something more subtle.

Just then, Ye Chang happened to turn his face and meet her eyes. The woman's bearing was graceful and dignified, not at all like the delicate charms of the young ladies of Xiuwu, and her features were quite striking. When Ye Chang met her gaze, she not only failed to look away in embarrassment, but instead widened her eyes and glared back at him fiercely.

This made Ye Chang pause. He did not know this woman, and from the style of her clothes it seemed she was not from Xiuwu.

There was a strong note of provocation in her stare. She was quite beautiful, the only flaw being her brows.

They rose like sharp blades, slanting straight up toward her temples.

"A strange woman." From those brows alone, Ye Chang could tell that she had a strong temperament and would be no easy person to deal with. Thinking of the cluster of blooming flowers waiting in his Hidden Dragon Valley, he felt it best to keep his distance from such a woman.

Watching Ye Chang turn away and leave with a clerk, the woman frowned again, and the hatred in her eyes no longer concealed itself.

"Who is the clerk who is leading Ye Chang? Ye Chang is nothing more than an ordinary man; by what right does he command a clerk as though he were a servant?"

At these words, the constable who had just been speaking so eagerly about Ye Chang's deeds instantly fell silent, fear creeping into his eyes.

"That is, that is Clerk Zhong Wei from the county office; he has always been on good terms with Ye Chang," the constable stammered under the woman's pressure.

Ye Chang knew nothing of what had happened behind him. He had not gone far before he reached the inn.

A number of people were staying there now, and as soon as he reached the door he saw someone peering out suspiciously, a member of Yuan Gonglu's household. When he saw Ye Chang arrive, he stepped forward and saluted. "My lord has been waiting for a long time. There is no need to announce your arrival; please go straight inside."

Ye Chang went in and soon saw Yuan Gonglu, holding a scroll of poetry and bobbing his head to and fro. When he saw Ye Chang, Yuan Gonglu's face showed reluctance. "Eleventh Young Master, I had thought I could spend a few more days with you in Xiuwu, but who would have guessed the court would send my replacement so quickly!"

"I offer my congratulations, Lord Minister, on your promotion." Ye Chang bowed. "Where will Lord Minister be going?"

Though Yuan Gonglu tried with some restraint not to smile, the joy in his brows and eyes could not be contained. "Bochang County in the Bohai Commandery."

"Bohai is prosperous. Qi once ruled the realm through the advantage of fish and salt; it is a good destination!" Ye Chang's heart stirred slightly. This was actually good news. He now had a rough impression of the map of the Tang. Bohai Commandery was in the Qingzhou region of the Shandong Peninsula, and if he truly wanted to push forward the development of maritime trade in China, that would be an excellent base.

"Heh, let us not discuss that for now. Today I asked you here because I wish to introduce you to the magistrate who has now taken office." After inviting Ye Chang to sit, Yuan Gonglu turned to business. "I have already sent someone to invite him. He should be arriving very soon."

He was still speaking when someone came to report, "The new Minister of the Privy Treasury has arrived."

Yuan Gonglu rose to greet him, and Ye Chang followed him out.

But when the new minister appeared before Ye Chang, even with all his preparations, Ye Chang could not help but jump in shock. "You?"

The new minister grinned, though his smile was chilling. "It is indeed me!"