Seeing Chu Qiguang insist on leaving, Hao Xiangtong—who was completely enthralled by the tale and unable to talk him into staying—grew frantic. With a sharp crack, she lashed out with a hand to bar Chu Qiguang's way. "Young Master Chu! Brother Chu! Can't you just finish this story before you go?"
Chu Qiguang's eyes narrowed slightly as he watched her strike release an airburst. He thought to himself, *For a young girl, Hao Xiangtong has at least reached the first stage of martial arts. The Hao family truly is a prominent clan in this county.*
Observing her conduct, mannerisms, and speech, Chu Qiguang was once again reminded that because women could also cultivate martial arts and Daoist arts, their status in the Great Han Dynasty, while still inferior to men, was nowhere near as low as in certain feudal dynasties back on Earth.
Listening to Hao Xiangtong's pleading, Chu Qiguang glanced at the hand blocking him and chuckled. "Miss, are you holding me up for money or for my virtue?"
Hao Xiangtong snatched her hand back, a blush flitting across her tender cheeks. She waved her hands in flustered denial. "No, of course not... How about I give you silver?"
She pondered for a moment and held up a single finger. "I'll give you a hundred taels of silver. Could you please stay tonight? Don't leave it on a cliffhanger!"
*A hundred taels just to tell a story?*
Hao Xiangtong spoke like a true spendthrift, making Chu Qiguang's brow twitch. He immediately wanted to bark, *A hundred taels of silver? For a hundred taels of silver, I'll give you half an hour more at most!*
That was what Chu Qiguang intended to say, but...
*I really have too much integrity.*
He sighed inwardly. Noting the smug look in Hao Xiangtong's eyes, he knew that if he agreed today, they would never interact as equals or friends again.
*I didn't come here to be a jester or an entertainer for the Hao family. There's no need to demean myself for a mere hundred taels.*
Suppressing the urge to take the money, he silently cursed her for a filthy rich heiress before refusing. "No amount of silver can sway my mind." Cupping his hands toward her, he added calmly, "Miss Hao, not everyone can be brought to their knees by silver."
Watching Chu Qiguang's hurried departure, Hao Xiangtong was taken aback. *He... turned down silver?*
Aside from the young lords and ladies of the grand clans, Chu Qiguang was the first person in Qingyang County she had ever met who refused money.
Hao Xiangtong shook her head, unable to comprehend why he would decline. *The clothes on his back aren't even worth five taels combined. He's dirt-poor, yet he turns down silver?*
She sat down in the library and picked up a miscellaneous book at random, but her mind was filled with the story of Wu Zetian and the sound of Chu Qiguang's voice. She could not settle down to read.
Unable to help herself, she summoned a maid and instructed her to ask Chu Qiguang when he would come next.
***
Another night passed. The next day, Chu Qiguang did not return to the Hao family's library. Instead, he went to the Qingyang County archives, his face showing quiet satisfaction as he surveyed row upon row of grain and tax ledgers.
Beside him, Reckoner Li of the Revenue Office asked curiously, "Young Master Chu, what made you want to look at these things?"
The grain and tax registers were packed with dense numbers and names. This data was critically important, yet excruciatingly dull.
Moreover, with martial arts and Daoist arts flourishing across the Great Han Dynasty, most nobles and dignitaries looked down on arithmetic. Except for reckoners who specialized in calculating grain and funds, hardly anyone ever consulted these dusty records. They were shelved away year after year, largely ignored by the martial artists who held real power.
Yet in Chu Qiguang's eyes, hidden within this vast, sprawling sea of figures lay the secret to the rise and fall of the entire dynasty.
*Without investigation, there is no right to speak. Let me see for myself just how sick the Great Han Dynasty and Qingyang County truly are.*
Faced with Reckoner Li's query, Chu Qiguang offered a casual excuse. "Lately, I've felt that my talent for martial arts is lacking, so I thought I'd practice my arithmetic. In the future, I might become a reckoner in the Revenue Office to help Master Wang, so I came to practice on these ledgers."
Hearing this, Reckoner Li assumed the Wang family intended to groom Chu Qiguang into a new reckoner for the county yamen's six offices. He nodded and left him there to read.
Chu Qiguang picked up a grain and tax ledger and began to peruse it. Although the Great Han Dynasty's tax structure was extraordinarily convoluted, involving all manner of conversions between physical goods and silver, his sharp sense for numbers and bookkeeping allowed him to understand it swiftly.
And the more he read... the more chilling it became.
"Even if only thirty percent of the counties across the realm are like Qingyang County, it's truly a miracle that the Great Han Dynasty can still hold out for another forty-odd years. I suppose it can only be credited to the existence of martial arts and Daoist arts."
***
The following day, as Chu Qiguang accompanied Hao Yongtai home once more, he could clearly sense that the young man was distracted, his brow weighed down with worry.
Chu Qiguang inquired about it, but Hao Yongtai refused to explain.
When Chu Qiguang arrived at the library, he found Hao Xiangtong already waiting eagerly, her eyes fixed on the entrance.
The moment she saw him, she shouted, "Why didn't you come yesterday? Didn't we agree you'd tell a few chapters every day?!"
"I had business yesterday, but aren't I here today?" Seeing her agitated state, Chu Qiguang asked, "Do you want to listen or not?"
Hao Xiangtong nodded vigorously. Chu Qiguang said, "Then sit down properly."
Hao Xiangtong immediately sat down obediently, gazing at Chu Qiguang with rapt anticipation as she waited for the rest of the tale.
Chu Qiguang began, "As it turned out, Wu Zetian stormed Mount Helan..."
Listening to Wu Zetian violently thrash the man who had broken off the engagement and his mistress, and then proceed to furiously beat the man's parents, Hao Xiangtong's eyes shone brighter and brighter. All the frustration built up over two days of waiting vanished without a trace.
As Chu Qiguang went on, she felt as though she had become the Wu Zetian of the Tang Empire, sweeping across the realm invincible, grabbing holy maidens, demonic maidens, witch maidens, and imperial princesses by the hair and slamming them to the ground one by one.
Later, Wu Zetian even rose to become Senior Grand Secretary of the Tang Empire's Grand Secretariat, setting out to reform the ills of the world...
Before long, an hour had slipped away, and Chu Qiguang came to a halt. "That's all for today."
Hao Xiangtong looked thoroughly unsatisfied. Licking her lips, she pleaded, "Brother Chu, dear brother, won't you tell just one more section?" She pinched her thumb and forefinger together. "Just a tiny bit more!"
Chu Qiguang put on a troubled expression before finally saying, "It's not entirely out of the question, but you must promise me one thing first."
Seeing his solemn demeanor, Hao Xiangtong's heart gave a sudden jolt. *Looking at him like this... could he have designs on me?*
She instantly recalled the young men in Qingyang County who had pursued her; they always wore that exact earnest, conflicted expression before her.
*What if he asks me out? How do I politely yet firmly turn him down... while still getting him to tell me stories? Dammit, why wouldn't he take my silver? If only I could just bury him in silver!*
While Hao Xiangtong's imagination ran wild, Chu Qiguang spoke with an air of concern. "I noticed Yongtai seemed in low spirits these past two days. Did something happen to him?"
At Chu Qiguang's words, an embarrassed blush flushed Hao Xiangtong's cheeks.
Quickly suppressing her wild thoughts, she replied, "Oh, you mean Eldest Brother? He's just vexed over the matter of land restitution. Over the past two days, Magistrate He ordered a complaint board set up outside the county yamen, inviting commoners whose fields or lands were seized to submit formal grievances."
"Because of that, many of the tenant farmers under our Hao family, the Wu family, and the Ding family have started raising an uproar. They're all rushing to the yamen to file complaints, trying to take back their land while they have the chance."
Hao Xiangtong shook her head. "Eldest Brother is probably losing sleep over that."
Chapter 65