Living leisurely in Tang Dynasty

After submitting his internship report, Yuanying sat with his friends to discuss their experience.

Ain’t those who enroll in the Imperial Academy the best among his peers? This seemingly child’s play “internship” gave them all some enlightenment. It was not their lack of skills and capability that stopped them but rather the lack of opportunity. When they first arrive at Hu County, whether people welcomed them with a smile or treated them coldly, they had the same attitude: the group can play whatever they wanted, but they would not be given the opportunity to get involve in the serious affairs.

How to find work becomes the first problem for these interns. Those who have connections or are from good backgrounds are fine, but those who can’t speak well or are not good at finding opportunities can only watch others while they sit idly on the bench!

Even so, the students saw lots of deceiving superiors and abusing of power. They also met ordinary people and heard many grassroots disputes that they had never heard of before. After returning to school, everyone seemed more matured. Those from poorer background were doing fine but people like Tang Guan who came from official families is seeing the real world for the first time!

This is still a rich county nearby the capital city, what is it like further outside!

Listening to Li Yuanying’s group talk about the incidences at Hu County, the students listened with envy. Being the Emperor’s younger brother, Li Yuanying was given the position of acting county magistrate!

Zhang Jianzhi had not joined the Imperial College for long yet. When Li Yuanying and his group went out for internship, he didn’t qualify to follow but he got himself a position in the Student Association. He shared some news: the Student Association has completed the first term and the old committee can now opt to retire. However, the freshmen are all looking forward to their return!

Li Yuanying, Tang Guan and Tang Xuan discussed and held a small lecture to emphasize the practicality and importance of internships to the freshmen, and strongly encouraged them to sign up.

In fact, they didn’t have to promote much. Many students saw the differences in those who went for practical training vs those who did not. The former was extremely active and can strike up conversations wherever they went. Whilst the latter found that they couldn’t utter a word at all!

When the results of their monthly exam were release, people were dumbfounded. It was initially speculated that those who spent time away for practical training would be worse off in exams because of the wasted time but in reality they ranked among the top! Their articles were constantly picked out by teachers as model essays, saying that they were written in detail and with evidence!

More importantly, whenever the teachers needed help, they would think of those with experience. Even when the Imperial Court needed help, they would recruit those with experience!

Now the benefits of internship is apparent but there is no room for regret. Yuanying’s request for 2^nd internship at Taiyuan was rejected, as only one internship can be held within a year.

Unknowingly, it was already Qixi Festival ^[1]Chinese Valentines Day and there was no night curfew that night. Yuanying and Wei Shu made arrangements to go out for a date together much earlier, but His Majesty thinks it was a good day to hang the portraits of the 24 heroes. He held a banquet at Lingyan Pavilion and everyone would go there to appreciate the portraits.

It’s rare that the teachers asked the students to solve their problem of being single and gave everyone a day off without any curfew, but this happened!

Li Yuanying  grumbled to Wei Shu: “What does it have to do with me!”

Wei Shu said: “Didn’t you paint the portrait for the Duke of Wei?”

Li Yuanying nodded but still felt that it was unreasonable. The affairs of the court had nothing to do with him. He analyzed seriously: “I think he is jealous of me, thinking that I can go out and play but he can’t!”

Wei Shu looked unconvinced.

Yuanying whispered to her: “When I was younger, father told me that brother was also very naughty. He didn’t like to walk on good roads but loved to climb over windows and walls to seek excitement. He didn’t like good food but loved going up mountains and down to the seas to look for exotic things. So, brother must be jealous of my comfortable life and that I have such a good princess like you. He is deliberately disrupting my good life!”

Wei Shu stood up for His Majesty: “Didn’t His Majesty arrange our marriage?”

Li Yuanying thought about it, yes, for this reason he will not say bad things about his brother.

But of course, he still stubbornly replied: “He must think you are very smart and that it would be a big loss for you to marry someone else, so he arranged us.”

After complaining,Yuanying said goodbye and went back to change into ceremonial clothes for the palace banquet.

Lady Liu has been feeling uneasy lately as she couldn’t understand His Majesty’s attitude towards Li Yuanying. She inquired about the treatment of all the other princes but none had treatment like Li Yuanying.

Lady Liu helped her son get dressed and said, “Don’t utter nonsense at the banquet. Many are watching. You’re not a kid anymore, so you can’t be willful.”

Yuanying nodded  and promised to not cause trouble.

Lingyan Pavilion was originally an inconspicuous building. After renovation, it looked quite decent but Yuanying found it a little too crowded with too many people for his liking.  

The seating for such banquets were often arranged in advance. Yuanying followed the palace servant to his seat. Looking to the side, the crown prince Li Chengqian.

Seeing his eldest nephew, Yuanying became interested and turned to ask: “Chengqian, what are you doing recently? Are you busy?”

Hearing that question, Chengqian had a complicated look. Is he busy? Of course he is. And the things he is busy with had some relations to his young uncle. The Emperor thought that Li Yuanying’s templates were pretty good and told the Crown Prince to take on the discussion with the Ministry of Revenue on whether any improvements were needed.

His Majesty also instructed casually that if he thinks that no changes is needed then they should print a batch for the prefectures and counties so that they can submit future reports according to this template. By the way, the Crown Prince should also take out various records currently available in the Ministry of Revenue for practice.

His Majesty uttered a sentence and made Li Chengqian fall into an endless loop of tedious affairs. Although he didn’t have to things himself, the final decision is on him whenever they encountered problems. After all the Emperor personally appointed him.

Faced with Li Yuanying’s question, Chengqian could only say: “I’m a little busy.”

Li Yuanying expressed his opinion: “It’s good to be busy. I feel uncomfortable when I’m idle!”

It made sense to Chenqian. He has been busy but his mood is better than when he is idle. Even if some affairs are difficult, he would happily work with the people around him to find a solution.

When Li Er came over, he saw the pair of uncle and nephew whispering. He glanced at Li Yuanying but  said nothing. He then gave a leadership speech at the palace banquet as usual.

It was not Yuanying’s first time attending a palace banquet and he found the inspiring words of the Emperor a bit old-fashioned. Only the praise for the 24 heroes is a little interesting. He secretly moved his seat nearer to Chengqian and continued whispering: “I still think Lingyan Pavilion is too small. If there are more meritorious officials in the future, how would they fit?”

Although Chengqian did not look away, his attention shifted to Li Yuanying’s whisper. He sat upright and responded in a low voice: “This is to commend the 24 officials for their contributions in the founding of the country. If there are more in the future, they will not be featured in Lingyan Pavilion.”

When Li Yuanying heard this, he nodded. His brother understood the saying that scarcity creates value. If everyone can be featured in the future,it will not be rare!

Li Yuanying sighed: “My brother is still so cunning!”

Li Chengqian: “…”

Li Chengqian did not reply because His Majesty’s eyes were sweeping towards them.

Li Yuanying was unaware and reached out to pull Chengqian.

“How long more will my brother talk? I want to eat. I didn’t eat anything in the afternoon. I’m so hungry.”

Li Er realized that he couldn’t stop his younger brother’s lawless behavior with his glare and lost it.

“Li Yuanying, move your seat back!”

Everyone looked at Li Yuanying in unison.

He obediently moved back to his original seat. Brother really is unpredictable; suddenly exploding and scolding people! Originally, no one noticed his whispering but now everyone is aware! This Emperor really don’t give his brother and son any face!

After screaming at his naughty brother, the Emperor’s speech came to an end. He signaled everyone to use their chopsticks and then song and dance that had been prepared earlier officially began.

Others went around toasting and cheering with one another while Li Yuanying  took advantage of his young age to sit and fill his stomach.

After eating, Yuanying discussed the performances with Chengqian saying that they were  bit outdated and not as lively as in FengThai Restaurant. He also praised Chengxin saying that she is really talented and the whole music group was impressive.

Li Chengqian had no impression of Chengxin anymore. When Li Yuanying mentioned her, he briefly remembered allocate someone to his young uncle.

“It’s good if she is of help to you”

Yuanying thought this nephew is really generous.

After three rounds of wine, everyone had eaten and drank to their heart’s content. The Emperor led them to the tower to see the Heroes. Yuanying was interested and even ran to Yan Liben and asked, “I heard that my brother asked you to repaint. How is it? I think you painted well before!”

It would have been better if Li Yuanying didn’t ask. Yan Liben got angry. He has been working day and night for the past few months and his eyes were almost blinded by all the work. After handing in the portraits, he went back and warned all his sons: Don’t learn to paint in the future, don’t ever touch art!

These people are real bullies, always proposing to add or change things at the last minute! Why are people like this? Is it that easy to paint a portrait?!

Li Yuanying saw that Yan Liben looked unhappy and was ignoring him so he slipped back next to Chengqian to appreciate the new paintings. Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked back he found a familiar person standing not far away: Hou Junji.

Hou Junji also saw Li Yuanying.

Ever since Li Yuanying went to the prison and spoke to him the last time, Hou Junji’s impression of him complicated.

The main reason is because Li Yuanying’s usual behavior and the words he spoke to him was contradicting like it was from two different people. It was hard to imagine that Li Yuanying came up with those words himself. But after careful thought, Hou Junji found it naive: Even if His Majesty had a heart of gold, what did it have to do with him? Although he was listed among the 24 heroes, he is now deprived of his military power and had been given idle jobs in recent years.

Did he have to give up everything like Li Jing and Yuchi Jingde just as he reached middle age? Never to lead troops or to realize his ambitions again?

Hou Junji is unwilling!

He quickly withdrew his gaze from Li Yuanying.

Yuanying felt his gaze strange but didn’t think much. He led Chengqian to view the portraits with great interest. Going up the tower, the version repainted by Yan Liben is indeed very different from the original ones, fully reflecting the most vigorous side of each meritorious official.

Li Yuanying ran around, looking at them one by one, and went to His Majesty: “Little Yan’s painting is so good, it shows that my painting skills are far behind. Why don’t you ask him to repaint old Li as well?”

His Majesty was too lazy to give him any attention.

Li Yuanying didn’t need anyone’s attention anyway. He then praise Chu Suiliang next to him about his handwriting. As he spoke, he even approached him to ask if he had any unwanted manuscripts recently. Since he didn’t want them, why not give them to him? He and his princess liked them so much!

Chu Suiliang could only agree helplessly: “Your Highness, I’ll just ask someone to get them.”

Notes from the Author:

Little Prince: It’s impossible for me to be content, I can just do this and that!

References

↑1Chinese Valentines Day