Lu Song arrived quickly and departed just as swiftly.
When he left, Xi Yin was reluctant to see him go, yet could do nothing to stop him. He could only sigh over how Lu Song revered his master and honored the Dao, finishing his bowl of rice porridge before seeing him off in person... And then, where was there any need for Liu Cheng to ask Xi Chao for money? Xi Linhai himself eagerly presented a handsome pile of goods and wealth, terrified that the man might not return.
Yet this did not mean Liu Cheng remained in the dark about news from the north. Quite the contrary: through several letters and notes from Liu Jili forwarded by Tall Liu, as well as a crookedly penned situation report written by Liu Huzi, an event that had unfolded in Jingkou during the twelfth lunar month was clearly laid bare before him.
It was an affair truly filled with ups and downs—one reaching upward into the court's main political vein, and downward touching Liu Cheng's only true fallback at present: the living conditions of Liu Ren Gong's refugee camp in Jingkou.
Cai Mo had made his move.
Only now did Liu Cheng learn that Cai Mo was actually the man Xi Jian had entrusted the Northern Garrison to upon his death. Though he had held the post for only three or four years, looking back, he had been deeply involved in suppressing the rebellion of Su Jun, and looking forward, he had entered the central court to assist in governance. During his tenure, he had even been the actual creator of the so-called eleven garrison towns and thirty-three beacon towers, wielding immense influence over both the Northern Garrison and Jingkou.
Upon hearing Liu Jili's report, Cai Mo had immediately trudged through the snow to inspect the Jingkou Road in person, then rushed back to Jiankang to address the court. He accused Yin Hao and Xun Xian of vying for power, causing corpses of refugees to pile upon one another and wiping out the sole achievement of Chu Pou's Northern Expedition.
What was more, he had gone through public channels, ensuring the whole of Jiankang knew of it.
This struck Yin Hao right where it hurt most.
What this "Sleeping Dragon Yin" feared above all was that Chu Pou's despair unto death would be pinned on his head; that would truly be something he could never wash clean, even if he jumped into the Yellow River. In truth, to say nothing of Yin Hao, even the Prince of Kuaiji, Sima Yu, above him found the whole affair a thorny mess, dreading accusations that he was bullying the Empress Dowager and the child emperor to ignite another War of the Eight Princes.
And as luck would have it, not long after the commanderies and counties around Jingkou scrambled to open their granaries for relief, Chu Pou actually died!
At this juncture, though the Xie clan mediated, and the Empress Dowager presumably understood her own father's temperament—and Chu Pou, being who he was, had surely left instructions for her—so neither side intended to force a lose-lose clash, the red-eyed Yin Hao could not help harboring murderous intent toward Cai Mo.
One had to realize this was not the first time Cai Mo had targeted Yin Hao. Yin of Yangzhou wanted to play Zhuge Liang and lead a northern expedition, but Minister over the Masses Cai simply thought the fellow was a useless good-for-nothing doomed to fail. That was not all. In the midst of things, Sleeping Dragon Yin's father had suddenly died, forcing him to return home for ten months of mourning. Considering Old Man Cai's prestige in Yangzhou, the authorities insisted that Old Man Cai—who looked down on Yin—fill in as Governor of Yangzhou for those ten months. This had utterly disgusted the old man, who responded with complete uncooperativeness and constant sour faces throughout his tenure.
Every day he would tell people: "I am only filling in for Yin of Yangzhou for a few months. The court thinks nothing of an old codger like me anyway, so I will not be appointing any subordinate staff. Do as you please." Once Yin Hao returned, the court tried to keep him on as Minister over the Masses, but he outright refused to serve, leaving the post vacant to this day.
In other words, the two harbored genuine public rivalries and private grudges alike, opposed across the board—from state policy to Confucian versus Xuanxue philosophy, down to their personal character.
This time, that fellow Yin Hao truly wanted Cai Mo dead.
Thus, over the following days, the ruling faction at court launched an all-out assault on Cai Mo. Rather than mentioning the current issue, they seized upon a single point: previously, the state had summoned Cai Mo to serve as Minister over the Masses multiple times, yet Cai Mo had repeatedly refused, even leaving the child emperor nodding off in court as he waited. In every sense, this constituted Cai Mo showing contempt for the emperor and flouting the institutions of state.
What was more, right out of the gate they came down hard on the son-in-law of Cai Mo's good friend—Jiang Bin, who had served as Xi Jian's military advisor and held the post of Palace Censor. They drove him straight home, on the grounds that when Cai Mo was being summoned, Jiang Bin had been the Minister of Personnel and had failed in his duty.
This was an outright dismissal of the court leader favoring Cai Mo's faction.
Immediately afterward, the court resumed debate on Cai Mo's crimes. This time, no one spoke up, and someone finally called for his execution.
However, Old Man Cai had been forged in fire and water himself. Upon hearing the news, he promptly did something that filled Liu Jili with boundless admiration: this veteran minister of state, the last of the Three Luminaries of the Restoration, led all his disciples and retainers, including Liu Jili, straight to the palace gates to kneel and bid farewell. Then, clad in convict robes, he marched over to the Court of the Commandant of Justice, sat down, and refused to budge.
*Come! My neck is bared; chop it off! The disciples and followers at the door are still following me now, clearly proving they are my diehards—implicate them if you wish! But do not drag anyone else into this!*
Reading up to this point, Liu Cheng, as an outsider looking in, immediately realized that the matter would end right there.
The rulers above had made their choice... In truth, they had no option but to back Yin Hao and continue supporting the Northern Expedition; that was state righteousness and the collective will of court and populace. Correspondingly, purging Cai Mo's faction from the court marked the extreme limit of this political struggle; if Yin Hao continued crying for blood and executions, he would only be courting his own disgrace.
Old Man Cai's final gesture was less about fear of implicating more distant kin and friends, or fear itself, than it was about having nothing to fear—digging his heels in and pushing the fight to the bitter end.
Sure enough, reading further, a peculiar rescuer appeared. Just as Yin Hao was preparing to execute Cai Mo, Xun Xian—who controlled yet had not officially taken over the Northern Garrison, and who could even be seen as the third most powerful figure in Sima Yu's ruling group—"coincidentally" arrived in Jiankang. He dissuaded them, warning that if they insisted on killing Lord Cai, morale in the Northern Garrison would be shaken, and people might even rise in revolt to rescue him.
Yin Hao relented. Cai Mo was demoted to commoner status and returned home to continue teaching.
Never mind that the very pretext for clamoring to kill Cai Mo in the first place had been his refusal to hold office and his insistence on teaching at home; the real question was how Xun Xian's words had spread so widely throughout Jingkou, leaving everyone in the Northern Garrison profoundly grateful to him.
In short, a political farce concluded with Yin Hao's faction stumbling along, yet ultimately purging the opposition from the court.
Yet throughout this ordeal, despite holding all the initiative, supreme prestige, righteous justification, and court resources, Yin Hao's performance had been, to put it mildly, embarrassing.
Having finished the letter, Liu Cheng even entertained a reckless speculation: could it be that Old Man Cai had grown tired of it all and deliberately escalated the conflict to rein in his faction's power? After all, there was a glaringly simple logic here: if Cai Mo truly and firmly believed the Northern Expedition was doomed to fail, then his kin and allies withdrawing from court right now actually served his own interests, and perhaps even the public good.
*Since failure is inevitable, make your ruckus first. When you run things into the ground, the country will still need us to clean up the mess. In the meantime, I'll take this chance to groom a crop of reserve cadres to wait for you.*
Beyond this, because Liu Jili had steadfastly stood by Cai Mo throughout, he had firmly secured his footing. After this ordeal, the fellow had solidified his standing as the master's last personal disciple... Liu Jili even proposed in his letter that Liu Cheng return to Jiankang to join him, so that a few years later, when the Northern Expedition ended, he could surely rise in prominence alongside Lord Cai's disciples and followers.
To this, Liu Cheng was indeed somewhat tempted, for he had already noticed a glaring shortcoming in himself: he lacked effective, systematic classical education for this era.
Going to Cai Mo would effectively patch this gap.
The trouble was, he had far too many shortcomings!
Here in Kuaiji, a place where practically everyone was a Legalist, he could still practice calligraphy—nowadays, if he wrote large characters, they looked quite respectable to his own eyes.
Moreover, riding his pony, he could already manage a trot.
More importantly, staying here in Kuaiji could swiftly boost his most vital survival metric in this era: recognition from the great clans. If Wang Xizhi, Xie An, and Xi Yin all acknowledged him, his standing as a member of the gentry would be completely solid, and his status as a famed gentleman would be secure.
Future historians writing scholarship would use this very evidence to identify him as hailing from the lower ranks of the gentry.
With Cai Mo shutting his doors to teach for three or four years, who could afford to wait?
Compared to the excitement on Liu Jili's end, the news from Liu Ren Gong and Liu Huzi was far drier... It boiled down to just two things: first, the court had genuinely begun relief efforts, so Liu Cheng need not worry; second, after Liu Huzi delivered the tiger pelt, he had indeed been enrolled into the military command. He was not an official military officer since he was still young, but he had been granted reserve status, permitted to draw state grain and basic equipment to recruit men and conduct training in Jingkou—which also reassured Liu Cheng.
This, at least, was within expectations.
And so, after staying two more days at the Xi estate, with just two days left before the New Year, Liu Cheng suddenly came to bid farewell to Xi Chao.
"What are you up to now?" Xi Chao was noticeably wary. "Are you worried that Lu Song might stumble in a panic again, so you're running off early to scheme with him?"
"Jiabin, what kind of person do you take me for?" Liu Cheng was utterly speechless. "Isn't the New Year upon us? I realized long ago that even though members of your family have differing faiths—some Buddhist, some Daoist—between yourselves, you share a rare domestic harmony: benevolent parents, filial children, loving maternal care, affectionate brothers, and even your honorable parents share deep devotion as husband and wife. When you celebrate the New Year, you will enjoy the warmth of family. If I remain here, wouldn't I be intruding? Especially as you grow older, Jiabin—who knows when you might take up an official post, after which gathering with your parents and brothers will be difficult, so you ought to cherish this even more. As it happens, my family has a generational friend from the north, an Uncle Gao Rou, style Shiyuan, who is also in Kuaiji. I hear he is in the vicinity of Qiuting in Shangyu. I shall go spend the New Year at his home and return after the holidays."
At first, hearing words like benevolent parents and filial children, Xi Chao felt a touch abashed. But as he heard the rest, his gaze turned peculiar, and he only sighed: "I had no idea Gao Shiyuan was a generational friend of your family. Though he is of the generation that crossed south, he arrived early. A decade ago, when my grandfather was still alive, he is said to have served as my grandfather's military advisor... Very well, I shall prepare some gifts for you, and off you go!"
Though Liu Cheng found the boy's later expression odd, hearing that there were free gifts to be had, he was naturally delighted.
Soon enough, when he set out that afternoon, Liu Cheng noticed something amiss: the standard of the gifts was rather high, and their quantity far exceeded expectations.
They had actually filled an entire boat.
Of course, whatever the Xi family brought out was mere routine for them, but the issue was that there was simply no need for so much... Liu Cheng was merely a guest-retainer, and Gao Rou had only been an aide to Xi Jian after crossing south, being a typical lower-rank gentryman. Why would he need so many things?
"Jiabin, isn't this a bit much?" Liu Cheng pointed toward the boat behind him.
"Brother A Cheng." Xi Chao rarely acknowledged that Liu Cheng was about half a year or a year older than him, and even took the initiative to clasp his hands in salute. "Truly, I am ashamed. Though you have been at my home for only half a month, the two of us hit it off like old friends from the start, talking of everything under the sun, so I knew your origins early on. Yet only today did I suddenly realize: your past experiences may seem brushed off lightly, but in truth, you have endured every bitterness of wind and frost... Whereas I, who usually pride myself on cleverness and understanding all things, only just had my eyes opened today. Some things, if one has not lived through them in person as you have, are just as you said: 'viewing flowers through mist, scooping the moon from water.'"
Saying this, he gave a slight pout toward the boat: "They are merely worldly trifles, provided so Brother A Cheng will not appear destitute before your family's generational friend and uncle, stirring up sorrow."
Liu Cheng finally understood what was going on with him.
It turned out that this fellow Xi Chao had been too clever for his own good. Hearing Liu Cheng praise the harmonious warmth of the Xi household and urge him to spend time with his parents before traveling for official postings made reunions difficult, Xi Chao had instinctively thought of the guest-retainer saying those words—namely, Liu Cheng himself... Coming south alone, his family must have met total disaster, so much so that upon reaching the south, he had to rely on distant kin, destitute without proper clothes, begging before Lu Song. Now, having come to Kuaiji, he still remembered a rare generational acquaintance and insisted on spending the New Year there. It must be that seeing the scene at the Xi manor reminded him of his own lost parents, prompting him to slip away to avoid the grief.
Hence this reaction.
At this thought, Liu Cheng could not help finding it humorous, but on second thought, he felt genuine gratitude toward the boy. After all, Xi Chao truly cared for him from his perspective. And when Liu Cheng turned his thoughts inward, thinking of being severed across two lifetimes, a genuine daze stole over him.
In the end, he did not seize the moment to act clever. Instead, he returned the salute earnestly, patted Xi Chao on the wrist, and boarded the boat with Tall Liu.
Behind him, seeing Liu Cheng's genuine emotion surface yet still being forcibly suppressed, Xi Chao naturally felt all the more moved.
From here to Qiuting, it was simply sailing north with the current down the Cao'e River, without even needing to turn into Mirror Lake, taking merely a single night...
Aboard the boat, Liu Cheng had made arrangements early on. After inquiring among the accompanying bondservants and learning that many had families, he opened the gifts before everyone. There was no actual coin among them, but bolts of cloth that could serve as currency were plentiful. He unpacked them directly: whether they were the blade-and-axe retainers acting as guards, the boatmen poling the vessel, or ordinary field hands carrying luggage, everyone received a share. He told them that once they delivered him tomorrow, they could take the empty boat straight back to celebrate the New Year with their families, and return to fetch him only after the holidays once their wives had sewn them new clothes.
He did not even forget to give two extra bolts to one of the stewards, asking the man's wife to make a new set of spring clothes for Tall Liu.
Now, the Xi family maintained strict household discipline, and Liu Cheng was already on close terms with Xi Chao, the actual steward of the estate, accompanying him everywhere. These retainers had already been eager to curry favor with him; now, receiving these goods and being allowed to return home for the New Year, the entire boat of bondservants was overjoyed, naturally singing his praises.
The next day, upon reaching their destination and pulling up against the wharf, Liu Cheng had not even woken up when the energetic blade-and-axe retainers of the Xi family eagerly ran off to find Gao Rou's home. Who knew whether they had frightened ordinary folk along the road, forcing people to cower behind trees.
By the time he woke, Gao Rou's family had already arrived and were helping move the cargo. Stumbling off the boat, Liu Cheng felt completely unsettled inside—because among the crowd standing all over the ground, he had no idea which of the men wearing long robes and headwraps was his "generational uncle," Gao Rou, Gao Shiyuan.
Did the man even come? Should he have come? Were these people just onlookers, or travelers waiting to use the ferry?
But if he really had come, when they met, was he supposed to weep?
Chapter 45