Lu Song stared coldly at the youth before him, remaining silent for a long time.
His expression was as though the person standing in front of him were no nodding acquaintance—a low-ranking refugee aristocrat who had crossed south—but rather a mortal enemy.
Liu Cheng naturally noticed the odd behavior as well. Exchanging a glance with Liu Jili to confirm he was not mistaken, far from growing anxious, he continued to speak with a smile, acting as if he had not seen the man's expression at all:
"Brother Song, to tell the truth, had you not come, I would have paid you a visit myself. Now that you are here, all the better. You see for yourself that our people here are utterly destitute and without support. Midwinter is approaching, and without relief, ruin will surely follow, with corpses strewn for ten li. I have long heard of the Way of the Celestial Masters' noble resolve to bring salvation to the realm, and having seen you in person, I know you have always been one to help those in distress. What is more, our two households were originally neighbors, and as the saying goes, a close neighbor is better than a distant relative..."
"Say no more. Even if you could speak flowers into bloom today, you will get no relief from me." Lu Song seemed to finally snap out of it, abruptly raising a hand to cut him off. "Liu Cheng, our Way of the Celestial Masters naturally saves people, but five pecks of rice are five pecks of rice. Nowhere under heaven do food and cloth fall from the sky. We save only those who can save themselves, and the threshold for saving oneself is five pecks of rice. Otherwise, it would drag down those in our order who were meant to be saved. If you people have five pecks of rice, I will sit right here today and confer register ordinations upon each and every one of you. If not, forgive our poverty, for we too must count our grains of rice to get through the winter."
Liu Cheng nodded repeatedly, but his gaze drifted, as if his mind was already turning over something else.
"Besides, I did not come today in my capacity as an ordained libationer of the Way of the Celestial Masters," Lu Song continued. "I came as the commandery's Director of the Civil Affairs Section. The commandery forwarded a dispatch stating that a fatal incident occurred here when bandits raided by night. But neither the bandits nor those among you who killed or wounded them possess household registers, making it impossible to file the case. I was ordered to come and verify your registers."
Liu Jili hesitated, visibly wanting to ask something, but sensing the tense atmosphere, he held his tongue for the moment.
It was Liu Cheng who threw caution to the wind, asking with apparent delight, "Does that mean the commandery intends to provide us with winter relief? I knew Brother Song would never stand by and watch people die—you were taking the official route all along..."
"There is no official route either," Lu Song said sternly. "Liu Cheng, stop dreaming. Since you chose to stay behind, you must bear your own burden. I came today solely to grant white registers to the men who killed that bandit and to the bandits you captured. To open the granaries requires the Personnel Section to act, and the Personnel Section would never open them on its own authority when no other commandery or principality has done so. Especially now, while the Grand Commander is ill—if Langya alone were to open its granaries to relieve the commoners, people would surely suspect that our Administrator Yuan is currying public favor and harbors ulterior motives. Others might not understand this principle, Liu Cheng, but how could you not?"
Having his own words thrown back at him, Liu Cheng could only force a wry smile in resignation. Still, he bowed respectfully with clasped hands. "I have made a fool of myself before Brother Song. Truth is, we were simply at our wits' end..."
With that, he actually recounted the story of how he had failed to sell any firewood over the past few days.
Lu Song kept a stiff face, listening coldly as though everyone here owed him a debt. And to be fair, they practically did. At the very least, the weapons used to kill the bandit a few days ago had been "borrowed" from his people, and the decent clothes worn by the two refugee camp stewards had been gifted directly by him. On top of that, the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice had absorbed a large number of refugees who had nowhere else to go. Thus, whether it was Liu Cheng, Liu Jili, or the camp as a whole, they truly did owe Libationer-cum-Director Lu.
And so, after listening to the youth's tale of selling firewood, Lu Song seemed to finally lose his patience. He waved his hand dismissively. "Who are the ones involved in the case? Come forward and establish your registers. I will record the details and enter them onto the white registers once I return to the commandery office today."
From the sound of it, he could not even be bothered to register the rest of the camp in passing, only registering the specific individuals involved in the case, nor did he care to venture further inside.
The two Lius had nothing to say to this. They could only summon the squad handling chores and patrols. For the seven or eight men remaining in the camp today, Lu Song recorded their names, ages, sex, height and appearance, family relations, and ancestral homes, and then it was over. Liu Cheng stood on tiptoe beside him, watching for a long time, yet he still could not tell what this place where they had settled was officially called.
By tradition, if this camp managed to survive and reached a scale of several thousand people, it should have been newly designated as a li.
As for aristocratic status—tracing ancestral genealogies, acquiring noble titles, being officially recorded, and being placed on the evaluation rolls of the Nine-Rank system—that was an entirely different matter. Not only was it separate from the white registers, but more importantly, Director Lu showed no intention whatsoever of registering Liu Cheng onto the white registers either.
Of course, just as commoners ultimately proved their identities through recognition by neighbors and neighboring communities, true aristocratic status was, as Liu Jili had said last time, essentially a matter of how many aristocrats recognized your father and you. If Huan the Western Campaigner summoned you to serve as a subordinate official, you were an aristocrat; if the Xie clan gave their daughter to you in marriage, you were undeniably an aristocrat. Any document could be drawn up after the fact, and no one could dispute it.
Otherwise, even if your register claimed you were of a great clan, it was at most useful for dodging taxes.
This was no joke. Liu Cheng had already heard since arriving here that because the yellow registers required the recording of gentry or commoner status, landholdings, wealth, and the like, many wealthy patrons and landlords secretly bribed local Civil Affairs Sections to obtain aristocratic household registration and fabricate a genealogy—a routine occurrence.
Yet this sort of "aristocrat" could never hold office, nor could they marry into established clans, for those elites had their own circle and did not recognize you at all.
Thinking of this, Liu Cheng felt a stir in his heart, though he kept quiet.
It was not until Lu Song, with a sullen face, finished writing out an entire sheet of paper by hand and prepared to leave with several crimson-turbanned attendants—who were either members of the Way of the Celestial Masters from the manor, subordinate clerks from the commandery Civil Affairs Section, or perhaps both—that Liu Cheng caught up once more. At the valley entrance, he called out softly to stop him:
"Brother Song, are the commandery clerks using this matter to ostracize you?"
Lu Song froze. His instinctive reaction was to refute it, but recalling that he had praised the youth's intelligence earlier, a flat denial would only make him look ridiculous, leaving him in an awkward bind.
"Brother Song," Liu Cheng sighed, bowing with clasped hands and speaking with earnest sincerity. "We truly had no idea this matter would drag you into trouble. I asked Brother Jili to report the crime only because we were at the end of our rope, hoping to remind the commandery office that our people are freezing and starving to death so they would hurry to provide relief. How could I have known that you had become the Director of the Civil Affairs Section for Langya Commandery? Even if we had known, from our humble perspective, we would only have rejoiced for you. How could we have imagined that someone with your pedigree and Master Du's backing would still be ostracized just serving as a Director of the Civil Affairs Section?
"I am truly sorry for causing you grievance, Brother Song."
Lu Song looked at the youth before him, momentarily at a loss for words. He could only nod perfunctorily, turning to leave.
Yet after a few paces, he turned back, finally voicing the thought burning in his chest: "Liu Cheng, I simply do not understand. A person as clever as you—why would you do something so foolish?"
Liu Cheng bowed his head without answering, merely offering bow after bow.
Lu Song departed in a hurry, having wasted the better part of a day of the two Lius' precious time. Seeing that heading out now would leave no time to do any market research today, they decided to stay behind and sort firewood.
Before they even reached the central grounds, Liu Jili began showing signs of despondency. Once they arrived, he slumped down, and before even starting to sort, he pointed at the firewood before him, speaking in dejected tones:
"Cheng, wouldn't you say we're running into walls at every turn? Your plan to sell firewood in sorted tiers hasn't worked, and our attempt to prod the authorities into opening the granaries to relieve the people failed too. On top of that, we get mocked for overreaching and doing foolish things."
"What does this amount to?" Liu Cheng said beside him, completely exasperated. "Of course there are setbacks. But you're so young—if you fall apart at every little setback, how can you ever achieve anything great?"
Liu Jili was at a bit of a loss for words himself. What did he mean, "so young"?
Yet he truly could not conceal his gloom, only able to sigh. "Cheng, it's not that I can't take setbacks. It's just that my last few years were completely wasted, and I'm honestly terrified."
"Then let me speak frankly," Liu Cheng said, already sorting firewood. "Things have hit a setback, but didn't we know from the very beginning that this was eighty or ninety percent likely to fail? Besides that, haven't you noticed that the reputation we sought has actually shown clear results? Truth be told, even I didn't expect such good and swift results."
"From whom did you see our reputation rising?" Liu Jili shook his head, clearly sensing something was off. "Since Ren Gong left, isn't this the only aristocrat we've had contact with? And in front of him, we used to have some face, but now all that's left is cold mockery."
"Think again, Brother Jili. Has that fellow's attitude toward us truly gotten worse?" Liu Cheng kept his head down, retorting without hesitation.
Liu Jili froze, seemingly grasping at something, yet unable to untangle his thoughts right away. After a long while, he sat there with folded arms and spoke slowly: "Are you saying that earlier, Lu Song and Preceptor Xu never looked up to us at all? That it was only because we were cloaked in the reflected glory of Ren Gong, Garrison Commander Gao, and even the Grand Commander that they humored us and gave us clothes, essentially treating us like beggars?"
"That's part of it, but there's more," Liu Cheng replied earnestly, snapping twigs off the firewood in his hands. "If Lu Song looked down on us completely before and now looks down on us only half as much, I still wouldn't say our reputation has risen. Brother Jili, let me ask you something, and give me an honest answer. From the moment you saw Lu Song today, you didn't initiate a word with him, and you've been this despondent all the way until now. Are you jealous of him?"
Liu Jili looked slightly embarrassed. But the relationship between the two Lius was solid after all, and a matter of face like this was not something he couldn't admit. Glancing at the women and children curiously watching them nearby, he lowered his voice and finally confessed the truth: "How could I not be jealous? We're all exiled aristocrats, all from the north, all on our own. We're so poor we don't even have clothes to wear, and we can't even sell firewood in the dead of winter. Yet he, merely by virtue of his family's Daoist heritage, immediately gained a patron like Master Du. Not only does he have plenty to eat and drink, but he was also given such a massive fortified manor, and in the blink of an eye, he became the commandery's Director of the Civil Affairs Section. Becoming the Director means his aristocratic register is secure, and he can directly attach himself to a figure like Yuan Zhi, opening up a bright future for himself. How could I not be jealous? Even if you say he's being ostracized, that's just his colleagues being jealous of him."
"Then if I told you he was jealous of us just now, would you believe me?" Liu Cheng nodded repeatedly, and once Liu Jili finished, he squeezed a piece of split wood and asked in return.
"Are you kidding?" Having vented his frustration, Liu Jili was about to lower his head to work, but now he laughed in exasperation. "Cheng, even if you want to comfort me, you shouldn't talk nonsense. How could he possibly be jealous of us?"
"If he isn't jealous of us, why did he show such anger and change his countenance toward us?" Liu Cheng answered with a faint smile. "Brother Jili, think about it. Was his anger earlier merely directed at those commandery clerks who were ostracizing him? It was plainly aimed at us. But what deep enmity exists between him and us? If it were just displaced anger, would it go that far?"
Recalling Lu Song's parting words before he left, Liu Jili felt a sudden jolt and believed him thirty percent, but he was still perplexed. "He was indeed angry at us the entire time... but if you say it's jealousy, what could he possibly be jealous of?"
"Jealous that we can act on our own accord and dare to pursue our own course," Liu Cheng said, giving the answer directly without keeping him in suspense. "Brother Jili, we are naturally jealous that he has such a grand fortified manor to rely on, and that he could so easily become a commandery clerk—a clerk with real authority like the Director of the Civil Affairs Section, no less. But let me ask you: is he truly content with his current situation?"
"Why wouldn't he be content?" Liu Jili snapped, flustered and exasperated. "If he's like this and still not content, then what are we?"
"Indeed," Liu Cheng sighed, shaking his head. "If it were me, I would naturally be content. But I still think he probably isn't. Let me put it another way, Brother Jili: you've been in Jingkou for two or three years and know how things work here. Tell me, why was he put in charge of such a large fortified manor the moment he arrived in Jingkou, and how did he become the commandery's Director of the Civil Affairs Section so quickly?"
"Perhaps that fellow held high status in the northern Daoist sects..."
"No matter how high his status was in the northern Daoist sects, what does that matter once in the south? His clansman Lu Gu held status comparable to Yuan Zhi in the north, yet why did that carry no weight here? Why did he have to rely on this younger clansman to sponge off Master Du's fortified manor?"
"Then... perhaps Master Du genuinely cares for Lu Song..." Liu Jili finally reined in his emotions, beginning to catch on. "No, wait! If Master Du genuinely cared for Lu Song and had his future in mind, he shouldn't have made him oversee mundane affairs in the manor, nor should he have had him become a commandery clerk so quickly. Instead, he should have brought him to Kuaiji to meet those famed gentlemen of pure conversation! He should have branded him with a reputation for profound ancestral Daoist learning from the north, letting him engage in pure conversation to cultivate his renown, and then worked hard to arrange a good marriage for him—that's how one becomes a high official."
"When I first went to that fortified manor with you, Brother Jili, I was amazed. Such a massive estate, such prime property, right beside Jurong Road and Jingkou Road. Even after two or three years in Jingkou, when you thought of buying good equipment, that was the first place that came to mind. It's clear that even among Master Du's holdings, such a manor is rare," Liu Cheng sighed. "And as you said yourself, Master Du travels constantly across Jiangzuo, spending his days hobnobbing with high officials and nobles in Jiankang, with no time to stay at the manor and keep order. Furthermore, just as you said before, no matter how wealthy these Celestial Masters people are, at their root they are no different from us—low-ranking aristocrats without official posts. With renown as great as Master Du's, we haven't seen the Prince of Kuaiji grant him a high office, so what hope is there for anyone else?"
"I see what you mean!" Liu Jili slapped his thigh hard and sighed toward the sky. "I understand what you mean, Cheng! I arrived two or three years before you and understand these truths, yet a mere commandery clerk's post blinded me like a leaf before my eyes! Master Du never regarded Lu Song highly at all; he merely treats him as a watchdog!
"Making him Director of the Civil Affairs Section was intended to have him protect and shield the fortified manor, not to advance his future. If we think about it further, if Lu Song's family truly held high standing in the northern Daoist sects, Master Du might even be wary of him, using the clerkship and the manor's daily chores to tie him down."
Having reached this point, Liu Jili shook his head repeatedly. "Lu Song truly was jealous of us! He knows that although our lives are hard, we are walking the authentic path of an aristocratic clan! What is more, we broke free of protection on our own, choosing to forge our own path even if it meant being destitute and desperate. That only makes him feel more ashamed! His attitude toward us today was nothing but anger born of humiliation!"
Liu Cheng kept his head down, sorting the wood, and let out a long sigh of relief in his heart.
Half of this breath was indeed out of pity and lamentation for Lu Song; he had not deliberately misled Liu Jili, for matters were in all likelihood just as they had analyzed. The other half was relief that Liu Jili had managed to shake off his dejection. Lu Song might well be infuriated by humiliation, but the two Lius' own predicament had reached a critical juncture. Liu Jili was his sole partner and the one who knew the ropes here in Jiangzuo; without his assistance, Liu Cheng's enterprise could not move forward.
So the matter had to come full circle: they had to quickly find a way to sell the firewood at a high price.
Tomorrow, they would have to head to Jiankang.
***
When Taizu was wandering in Jiangzuo, it happened to be the depths of winter. The authorities provided no relief, and the able-bodied men of the clan had all fled. Only Lang remained with him in the camp, personally carrying firewood to support the orphans and widows. Yet the two possessed little strength, and their efforts often fell short. Taizu also grew disheartened at times, relying much on Lang's greater age to comfort and guide him.
— New Book of Qi, Volume Three, Biographies
Chapter 27