Fang Qin hadn’t expected him to refuse. Not taking the pouch, he frowned. “What are you doing?”
Zhao Baozhu looked anxious, a bit of sweat seeping from his forehead, forcefully pushing the pouch toward Fang Qin’s chest. “I really can’t accept it!”
Seeing his flustered expression, Fang Qin realized he truly didn’t want to take it and felt somewhat surprised. But if he returned the silver untouched, Ye Jinghua would surely deduct another three months of his wages. Thinking this, Fang Qin bent down, placed the pouch back into Zhao Baozhu’s hands, and gently persuaded him: “You don’t need to be afraid. In the front courtyard, everyone serving is treated the same, you have what others have. The young master only gave you a bit extra because you’ve just arrived in the capital and are unfamiliar with things. Just keep it.”
He paused, then added, “You may be from outside, but now you’re also one of the people in this courtyard. The young master won’t treat you unfairly. If you insist on returning the silver, wouldn’t that hurt the young master’s face?”
Even after this long explanation, Zhao Baozhu still refused: “Th-this won’t do… how can it be like this? I can’t accept it!”
Seeing him so stubborn, Fang Qin had no choice. He raised his brows and put on a stern expression to frighten him: “You dare not accept it? If you don’t, I’ll report back to Steward Li and have him deny you food tomorrow.”
Zhao Baozhu feared nothing more than having no food to eat. Hearing this, he froze, his cat-like eyes filling with a trace of moisture from anxiety as he looked blankly at Fang Qin.
Seeing him like this, Fang Qin’s heart softened. He reached out and touched Zhao Baozhu’s fair, tender cheek. “Be obedient. Do your work well, and this money won’t count as unearned.”
After speaking, he placed the pouch into Zhao Baozhu’s hand, folded his fingers over it, and turned to leave. At the doorway, he tilted his head and said, “Later I’ll have someone bring you a thicker quilt. Change your clothes and rest early.”
Zhao Baozhu sat on the bed holding the pouch, staring blankly as Fang Qin turned his head and closed the door.
***
The next day, Zhao Baozhu went early to report to Ye Jinghua. At that time, Ye Jinghua had just risen, dressed in a light blue thin robe, sitting by the table as a maid attended him while he ate breakfast. The early spring weather was still cool, and a charcoal brazier burned in the room. A pot of tea was warming on the grate, its faint fragrance drifting through the air.
Zhao Baozhu stood behind Steward Li, but his face was somewhat pale, with faint dark circles under his eyes. The previous night, thinking about those ten taels of silver, he had tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep no matter what.
Ye Jinghua was holding a cup of tea and drinking. Catching sight of the expression on Zhao Baozhu’s face from the corner of his eye, he frowned slightly and set the teacup down: “Baozhu.”
Zhao Baozhu was lost in a daze and didn’t hear him. Seeing no reaction, Ye Jinghua’s brows furrowed a little deeper. Fang Qin, standing nearby, quickly gave Zhao Baozhu a push from behind: “Baozhu! The young master is calling you.”
Only then did Zhao Baozhu come back to his senses. He hurried forward and walked to Ye Jinghua’s side, saying softly, “Young master.”
Ye Jinghua leaned halfway against the back of his chair, raised his star-like eyes, and let his gaze sweep over Zhao Baozhu’s face. “What’s wrong? Why does your complexion look so poor?”
Standing before him, Zhao Baozhu saw Ye Jinghua’s elegant bearing and thought again of the pouch of silver. He wanted to speak and return the money, but when he glanced aside and saw the room full of maids, he feared embarrassing Ye Jinghua in public and closed his mouth again.
Seeing this, Steward Li stepped forward and carefully examined Zhao Baozhu’s complexion, letting out an “oh” as he said, “His complexion really isn’t good. The nights have been quite cold these past few days, did you catch a chill?”
Hearing this, the lines between Ye Jinghua’s brows deepened slightly. He raised his hand and naturally touched Zhao Baozhu’s forehead. “Did you catch a cold?”
Zhao Baozhu froze for a moment, his face heating up again. He quickly replied, “No. Yesterday Qin Gege had someone bring me an extra quilt, I wasn’t cold at all.”
Hearing this, the tension between Ye Jinghua’s brows eased a little. Seeing that he truly didn’t look ill, he said, “That’s good,” and didn’t ask further.
After breakfast, the maids cleared away the bowls and dishes, drifting out in a line like the wind. Ye Jinghua stood up from the table and said to Zhao Baozhu, “Baozhu, come with me.” With that, he turned and walked toward the study.
Zhao Baozhu responded and followed him in. He saw Ye Jinghua seated behind the desk, idly playing with a paperweight shaped like a qilin in his right hand, raising his eyes to look at him.
“Speak,” he said softly. “Just now you didn’t want to say it in front of others, why does your complexion look so poor?”
Zhao Baozhu hadn’t expected him to notice and was immediately stunned. Raising his eyes, he saw Ye Jinghua’s gaze as clear as glass, quietly fixed on him. Though he appeared calm and composed, there was an inexplicable certainty about him, as if not answering was not an option.
Zhao Baozhu pressed his lips together, stepped forward, and took out the small cloth pouch hidden in his sleeve, saying softly, “Young master, you should take the money back.”
Ye Jinghua glanced down at the pouch. His expression relaxed, and he looked up at him with a hint of amusement. “All this… just for this?”
Zhao Baozhu looked distressed and said pitifully, “This is no small matter, it’s such a large sum of money. I feel uneasy holding it. I tossed and turned all night and couldn’t sleep.”
Seeing his drooping brows and eyes, the smile at the corner of Ye Jinghua’s lips deepened. He said softly, “Why uneasy? You work here for me, shouldn’t I pay you?”
Zhao Baozhu opened his eyes a little wider. “B-but what work have I done?” He had only fed the chickens and ducks and swept the courtyard, work so light it hardly counted. Yesterday he had even used a stack of their paper and good ink, how could that be considered working?
Ye Jinghua glanced at him and used the back of his hand to push the pouch back. “Put it away.” Then he took out an inkstone from beneath the table and tilted his chin toward Zhao Baozhu. “Grind ink for me, I’ll write a few characters.”
Seeing that he refused to take it back, Zhao Baozhu had no choice but to put the pouch away and took up the inkstone to grind ink for him. Looking at Ye Jinghua’s jade-like profile, he thought that if nothing else, he could just keep the money for now and return it together once he retrieved his name card.
Standing at the desk, Ye Jinghua lowered the brush tip onto the xuan paper. Before he even began writing, Zhao Baozhu inwardly sighed that even the way he held the brush was refined and otherworldly. After he had written more than half a page, Zhao Baozhu glanced over and realized that he was writing a preface for a travelogue.
Curious, Zhao Baozhu asked, “Young master, did someone ask you to write a preface?”
Ye Jinghua lowered his eyes. “A friend went traveling and, upon returning, wrote a travel account.” As he spoke, he tilted his head and glanced at the inkstone. “The ink is enough. If you’re interested, take it and read. It’s the second book from the left in the third compartment on the right.”
Zhao Baozhu’s hand paused. Looking down, the ink was indeed enough. But having just taken Ye Jinghua’s money, he felt uneasy not doing something, and lingered awkwardly, unwilling to leave.
Ye Jinghua paused, glanced at him, and immediately understood what he was thinking. “If you don’t want to read, then go take down The Great Learning and write an annotated passage.”
Zhao Baozhu froze, feeling even more embarrassed. “Th-this… how can I use the young master’s paper and ink to learn like this?”
Ye Jinghua turned his gaze back and continued writing the preface. “It’s not entirely for teaching you. Ye Miao and Ye Ning are at the stage of beginning their studies, if you write well, it can be given to them to read.”
Hearing this, Zhao Baozhu understood. Since it could help Ye Jinghua, he was willing to do it. He walked to the bookshelf, took down The Great Learning, and went to the small desk to begin writing.
Ye Jinghua’s copy of The Great Learning was far better than Zhao Baozhu’s own worn and nearly falling-apart copy. It was almost brand new, the ink characters clear, without a single stain. Zhao Baozhu opened it with great fondness, selected a passage to copy, and then added his own explanation beneath it.
Once he began reading, he could hear nothing around him. He didn’t even notice when Ye Jinghua finished writing the preface, sealed it, and had it sent out. Seeing how focused he was, Ye Jinghua quietly walked behind him without making a sound, simply watching him write.
Only when Zhao Baozhu finished the final stroke and was about to check for mistakes did Ye Jinghua speak: “In the third column from the right, the character ‘can’ is written incorrectly.”
Zhao Baozhu was startled badly, his whole body trembling, nearly lunging forward onto the table. Turning his head and seeing it was Ye Jinghua, he complained, “Young master, you startled me again.”
Last time could be blamed on himself being careless, but this time Zhao Baozhu knew Ye Jinghua had deliberately softened his steps to stand behind him.
Ye Jinghua lowered his eyes, his gaze falling on Zhao Baozhu’s widened, cat-like eyes. The corners of his lips curved silently, as if acknowledging it. Walking to Zhao Baozhu’s side, he pointed at the incorrect character on the paper. “Why aren’t you correcting it yet?”
Zhao Baozhu was immediately drawn back to the task. Turning his head to follow Ye Jinghua’s finger, he saw that there was indeed an extra dot, and quickly crossed it out and corrected it. After fixing it, he lifted the sheet of paper and gently blew on the ink to dry it, then said to Ye Jinghua, “Young master, take a look, how is my writing?”
Ye Jinghua nodded, took it, and read through it at a glance. His brow moved almost imperceptibly. In truth, he had already seen most of what Zhao Baozhu had written while standing behind him. After a moment, Ye Jinghua raised his eyes and looked at Zhao Baozhu. “Well written.”
Zhao Baozhu’s lips curved slightly at the praise. He was quite confident in his own learning. If it came to poetry and prose, he might not compare to candidates from scholarly families, but as for the Four Books and Five Classics, he had long since memorized them thoroughly, after all, for a long time, those had been the only books he had to read.
But in the next moment, Ye Jinghua said, “Your annotations are good, but it is precisely this ‘good’ that limits you.” He placed the paper back on the table, picked up a brush, dipped it in vermilion ink, and wrote several additional lines beside Zhao Baozhu’s annotations. “This passage, your explanation isn’t wrong, but it’s not the full meaning. If you shift the perspective, it can also be interpreted as—”
Ye Jinghua’s voice was calm as he wrote several hundred small characters. Zhao Baozhu read through them one by one, his eyes growing brighter and brighter. After marking several places, Ye Jinghua set down the brush, tilted his head, and asked, “These places all have other possible interpretations. But when citing them, you must grasp the intended meaning. Is there anything you don’t understand?”
Zhao Baozhu was utterly absorbed, his eyes almost glued to the paper. Hearing this, he lifted his head and said excitedly, “Young master, you’re amazing!”
Ye Jinghua happened to meet his gemstone-bright eyes and paused for a moment, the expression in his brows softening further. Zhao Baozhu clutched the paper as if it were a treasure, muttering, “I didn’t know before that young master had such learning, I truly was blind! Compared to you, those instructors in the county school are like blocks of wood.”
Hearing this, Ye Jinghua’s brow lifted slightly. “Instructors? You attended lessons at the county school?”
County schools were usually established by local magistrates, and only those who had passed the preliminary examinations and become xiucais could enroll. Zhao Baozhu was immersed in his excitement and didn’t notice the hidden doubt in Ye Jinghua’s words. He replied casually, “I only snuck in to listen a few times. Those instructors were too rigid, so I didn’t keep going.”
After he had passed the preliminary exam and become a xiucai, he had received a letter from the county as well. But the cost of attending the county school was too high, tuition aside, living expenses there were unavoidable. Moreover, he still had to help with farm work at home, and simply had no time.
On the other side, hearing this, the slight furrow in Ye Jinghua’s brows relaxed.
Zhao Baozhu read through the vermilion annotations three times over, finding Ye Jinghua’s explanations truly exquisite. Just a few lines managed to achieve a great effect with little effort, making him feel his understanding had greatly improved. Deeply impressed, his desire to study surged even higher. Setting the paper down, he pleaded with Ye Jinghua: “Good young master, not just this passage, could you teach me the rest as well?”
