One
The dream of every scholar was to pass the higher civil service examination and take up an official post. Whether establishing oneself and bringing honor to one’s name through worldly success, or determining the rise and fall of an entire clan, everything hinged on whether one obtained a government position.
But the Great Examination was held only once every few years, and the number of successful candidates was limited. Even if tens of thousands of scholars devoted their entire lives to study and took the exam, passing it was truly as difficult as plucking a star from the sky.
Thus, academies came into being. Academies were places where deeply learned scholars or retired literati helped students with their studies.
There were countless academies in the world, yet scholars sought to enter only Qingyun Academy. It was so renowned that, once admitted, passing the Great Examination was considered a foregone conclusion.
Perhaps that was why. Lately, scholars had studied even harder to enter Qingyun Academy.
This year as well, thousands of scholars had flocked to Qingyun Academy. Yet, only a mere hundred had passed. While the households of those who passed celebrated a grand occasion, those who had failed could only hang their heads and pin their hopes on the next attempt.
But passing the Qingyun Academy entrance exam did not mean everything was over. Passing was merely the beginning. They were classmates, yet also fierce rivals. If one could not defeat the others, one would inevitably be left behind.
Only a select few would be granted the qualifications to take the civil service examination.
In other words, among the child prodigies who could enter Qingyun Academy, the examinees qualified for the civil service examination were the greatest of geniuses.
The students of Qingyun Academy studied like madmen to earn that qualification. Cutting back on meal times was a given; some reduced their sleep or even bathed only once every few days, begrudging the time spent washing. Even so, it was a place where only prodigies gathered. Simply studying during the same hours as everyone else would not allow one to survive.
There was an age limit for new students. Between seventeen and nineteen. Those over nineteen could absolutely not enter Qingyun Academy.
“Didn’t distinguished scholars apply again this year?”
“Yue Pengfei of the Yue family head was known as a prodigy since childhood, yet he failed. That says it all.”
“As expected, Qingyun Academy’s prestige is remarkable.”
“Do you gentlemen happen to know who was admitted as the top scorer among this year’s new students?”
“Well… I’m curious too, but the results haven’t been announced yet. I think it might be Zhao Zheji of the Shandong Zhao Clan, or Chu Ping of the Prime Minister’s household? Weren’t they prodigies who memorized the Thousand Character Classic at age three and began studying the Four Books and Five Classics?”
“If you say that, then what about Li Jianxue of the Gu Family of Solitary Reading?”
“I believe it is Min Xiuji, the third son of the Hanlin Academy Grand Scholar. Didn’t the Grand Scholar personally tutor Min Xiuji for the past two years so that he could enter Qingyun Academy as the top scorer?”
Among the people, Qingyun Academy was always the center of conversation. One such topic was whoever had been admitted as the top scorer. When only geniuses gathered, some appeared ordinary, while others appeared even more extraordinary.
Being admitted as the top scorer meant being the most outstanding among geniuses. It was only natural that people would debate over who the top scorer was.
The top scorer’s tuition was fully waived. The waiver itself might not seem like a grand matter.
However, entering Qingyun Academy as the top scorer was the dream of every scholar. It meant that one was more special than everyone else.
Zhao Zheji of the Shandong Zhao Clan.
His face was now twisted with shame and humiliation.
‘Ugh, of all people, I had to pay tuition to enter. This is unbelievable. The idea that anyone but me could enter as the top scorer is unimaginable.’
So it was.
He was currently seething with anger over his failure to enter as the top scorer. He strongly denied reality.
But the more he did so, the more wretched he himself became.
And it was understandable. Zhao Zheji had grown up hearing nothing but that he was a genius, a prodigy. Having studied the Four Books and Five Classics since the age of three, his precociousness was truly astounding. The elders of the Shandong Zhao Clan held special expectations for him.
‘Is it Chu Ping of the Prime Minister’s household? Or Li Jianxue of the Gu Family of Solitary Reading? Or perhaps Min Xiuji?’
Several likely candidates for top scorer came to mind.
They had been his benchmarks since childhood. Accordingly, Chu Ping, Li Jianxue, and Min Xiuji were all famous as prodigies from a young age.
But Zhao Zheji could not accept that someone had surpassed him to take the top spot. The pride of having been called a genius since childhood would not allow it.
Yet the same thoughts plagued Chu Ping, Li Jianxue, and Min Xiuji. They were all burning with the same indignation as Zhao Zheji. Like him, they had paid tuition to enter, and they too felt unbearably insulted.
‘Don’t rejoice over being the top scorer at entrance. I will definitely take the top spot at graduation.’
Funnily enough, they suspected one another. And they vowed again and again to repay today’s humiliation.
However, none of them knew that not a single one of them had entered as the top scorer.
‘I will definitely become the greatest genius who overturns Qingyun Academy.’
Overturning Qingyun Academy meant rewriting its history. The start of that was entering as the top scorer.
Skipping ahead to the Intermediate Class in one’s first year after entering as a new student, then graduating as the top scorer the following year and passing the civil service examination with highest honors—such a thing had never happened once in Qingyun Academy’s seventy-year history.
Perhaps such a thing was impossible from the start. There had been roughly thirty people who skipped to the Intermediate Class. Among them, about two had graduated as the top scorer.
But those achievements had all taken several years. No one had skipped to the Intermediate Class in their very first year, and no one had graduated as the top scorer the very next year.
Qingyun Academy had a six-year curriculum: two years in the Elementary Class, two years in the Intermediate Class, and finally two years in the Advanced Class.
This was the six-year course.
At an ordinary academy, one might graduate several years early from the six-year course.
However, Qingyun Academy only admitted people with terrifying potential. Rewriting Qingyun Academy’s history through scholarly achievement may have been impossible from the very beginning.
Perhaps that was why.
At some point, the ambition to rewrite Qingyun Academy’s history had spread like wildfire among the scholars. This year as well, the new students had entered with such ambition.
But the ambition to rewrite history met with frustration from the very start.
Two
A drowsy afternoon in late spring.
Today was the day of the orientation and roll call, where the new students’ classes were assigned and attendance was checked. Once the orientation ended, classes would officially begin tomorrow.
“So this is the Xue Er Class!”
Swish!
Gao Jin opened the door and entered the classroom. About a dozen new students were already seated inside. They would be his classmates for the coming year.
They looked at him with nervous expressions before quickly averting their eyes. No doubt they had mistaken him for the teacher in charge of the Xue Er Class, only to be disappointed upon realizing he was a fellow new student.
Gao Jin sat in an empty seat in the corner. Beyond the left window, bamboo displayed an antique elegance, while the right wall was adorned with famous sayings written in magnificent calligraphy. It was a quiet, pleasant environment. There could be no better place for studying.
‘Sigh, I’ve been admitted, but the real problem starts now! I didn’t know rent would be so expensive. And no matter how much I save, food costs won’t be trivial either.’
Gao Jin let out a long sigh. His tuition had fortunately been resolved somehow, but food and lodging remained unsolved. His family circumstances were not well-off, making it difficult to focus solely on his studies.
‘I need to look for a job starting tomorrow. I will definitely succeed and make my mother and younger siblings happy.’
The rent was three taels per month, and living expenses were two taels. No matter how frugal he was, he needed five taels a month. Yet five taels was the monthly living expense of an ordinary commoner family.
Gao Jin had never imagined Beijing’s prices would be so high. At first, he had been speechless with disbelief.
The prices were simply too high. In his current situation, it seemed difficult enough just to work and earn money, let alone study.
It was then.
Swish!
The door opened, and Li Jianxue strode in. He surveyed the classroom and sat in the front row with an arrogant expression.
Instantly, murmurs arose here and there.
“D-don’t tell me Li Jianxue is also in the Xue Er Class?”
“The Li Jianxue of the Gu Family of Solitary Reading?”
“Hmm… with this, taking first place won’t be easy? Damn, it’s going badly from the very first day.”
Li Jianxue of the Gu Family of Solitary Reading.
He was counted among the brightest stars of this year’s new students.
But before the commotion could settle, the door opened again, and someone entered with a haughty expression. The new students cried out in shock.
“Huh? It’s Zhao Zheji of the Shandong Zhao Clan!”
“I-it can’t be. You mean Li Jianxue and Zhao Zheji were both assigned to the Xue Er Class?”
“This can’t be. How can two of the five people who absolutely shouldn’t be in the same class end up in the Xue Er Class?”
The students’ eyes turned desperate.
Unless one could surpass Li Jianxue and Zhao Zheji, dreaming of first place in the Xue Er Class was impossible. Yet that did not look easy at all.
Li Jianxue and Zhao Zheji’s eyes met briefly in the air.
But only for a moment. They soon turned their heads away, ignoring each other.
Beyond their indifferent expressions, a fierce determination and competitive spirit to defeat the other flared.
‘I will be number one in the Xue Er Class.’
Through the crowd’s reaction, Gao Jin realized that Li Jianxue and Zhao Zheji were celebrated prodigies among the new students.
‘Come to think of it, I’ve heard of them. If they started studying the Four Books and Five Classics at age three, they must be incredible prodigies.’
Even for prodigies, studying the Four Books and Five Classics at age three was no easy feat.
Perhaps that was why the other new students were wary of them; it was not unreasonable.
But Gao Jin soon threw his gaze out the window.
His mind was currently filled with worries about rent and living expenses; he had no room for other thoughts.
About an hour later.
The teacher who would oversee the Xue Er Class for the year came in, gave a brief introduction, and after everyone introduced themselves, the orientation ended.
Three
Gao Jin was lodging near Qingyun Academy. The academy had a dormitory. It would have been a better place for studying.
However, the dormitory fees were more expensive than expected, and restrictions were strict so he could not work to earn money. He absolutely had to work. The reason he lodged outside instead of entering the dormitory was entirely money.
But he lied to his mother, saying he was living comfortably in the dormitory. Otherwise, she would not have a single day of peace.
The boarding house was old and worn, but it was a place that specialized in lodging. Thus, only lodgers lived there, and above all, the rent was the cheapest in Beijing.
Even that was a burden for Gao Jin. The world was not structured to let poor people study. The poor remained poor no matter how hard they worked, while study was the privilege of the wealthy.
Therefore, the poor had to live poor lives, as would their sons and grandsons, while the rich could only live as rich descendants. Gao Jin had made it this far thanks to his devoted mother.
When Gao Jin returned to the boarding house after the orientation, the landlady called him over.
“Young master! Is there anything inconvenient about your stay?”
“None at all, Grandmother!”
“That’s a relief. You haven’t forgotten that rent is due at the beginning of each month?”
“I haven’t forgotten that it’s three taels.”
“Meals are provided only for supper, and you must come on time to eat. If you miss it, it’s your loss, so don’t forget.”
“I understand, Grandmother!”
Gao Jin answered politely but smiled bitterly inside.
In the end, it was about money. He was already worried about rent and living expenses. Still, having supper included in the three taels rent was a small mercy.
“By the way, young master, you don’t seem to be from around here. What brings you here?”
“This humble student…”
Just as Gao Jin was about to answer, the landlady cut him off.
“Tsk, tsk, you don’t have to answer if it’s inconvenient. In fact, there are quite a few young scholars like you here. They are all students studying to enter Qingyun Academy. But is Qingyun Academy so easy to enter? It is courtesy here not to ask what others are doing.”
The old woman clicked her tongue. She was misunderstanding Gao Jin. In fact, there were many prep academies and schools near Qingyun Academy. Many students attended these academies early to prepare for Qingyun Academy’s entrance exam.
Qingyun Academy was itself a prep school for the civil service examination, yet there were prep schools for prep schools. This was truly an absurd farce.
This was the absurd reality people had created in their pursuit of success.
Gao Jin had suddenly transformed into an exam prep student for Qingyun Academy.
But he was rather more comfortable with the landlady’s misunderstanding. If he failed to pay rent, it wouldn’t end with merely being thrown into the street. Qingyun Academy valued honor and dignity above all, so he might even face disciplinary action.
‘Anyway, I need to find a job quickly!’
The landlady seemed stricter than expected. She was the type to mercilessly throw someone into the street for being even a day late on rent.
Gao Jin’s room was less than two pyeong. The boarding room only had space for a few books, a desk for studying, and barely enough room for one person to lie down if a blanket was spread.
Yet Gao Jin was not the least uncomfortable with such conditions. Because his family was poor, he had been familiar with cramped rooms since childhood.
On one wall of the room hung an old, rusted bow.
It was the bow that Nan Yuzhen had dropped. Gao Jin had brought it all the way to Beijing to return it to her when they met.
However, it was uncertain whether he would ever see her again.
The bow looked extremely old and shabby on the outside, but holding it somehow cleared his mind. Keeping it nearby while studying made his head clearer and improved his concentration. It was like the finest divine artifact for a student.
He had originally brought it to return to Nan Yuzhen, but lately he had grown accustomed to keeping it by his side while studying.
“Shall I study?”
Habitually, Gao Jin took the bow down from the wall and placed it on his desk.
Just then, his hand slipped and he dropped the bow.
Thud!
The bow crashed heavily to the floor.
“Huh? What’s this?”
Gao Jin, in the middle of picking it up, suddenly stared wide-eyed. As the rust flaked off the inner end of the bow, tiny characters had appeared.
He was shocked to see the characters written on the bow.
“Wh-what kind of script is this?”
At a glance, it looked like ancient pictographic script modeled after animal shapes.
But Gao Jin knew ancient script, and this was definitely not it.
“Then could it be… Bronze Inscriptions?”
Bronze Inscriptions were a script used by the Dongyi people before the creation of Han characters. Dongyi was a name given because they were skilled archers. It was never meant to be a derogatory term for barbarians.
“How strange. A script that disappeared over two thousand years ago, inscribed on a rusted bow…”
Then it was unimaginable when this bow had been made.
He had thought it was no ordinary item from the start, but now its archaeological value was beyond measure.
He was curious about what was written. It was highly likely a precious relic that could illuminate ancient history. For a scholar, there was no greater honor than discovering a relic. An unexpected stroke of luck had befallen Gao Jin.
However, he couldn’t read it even if he wanted to. There were almost no people in the Central Plains who could decipher Bronze Inscriptions. Gao Jin was no exception.
To decipher Bronze Inscriptions, one first had to learn them. It was not a subject even taught at Qingyun Academy. Nor was it an easy enough field to self-study.
“Hmm…”
Gao Jin furrowed his brow.
The small mercy was that he recognized a few characters.
“These look like the characters for Jing, Qi, and Shen…?”
Gao Jin tilted his head in confusion. If his interpretation was correct, it made no sense. The term Qi had not been used academically until much later, at the end of the Spring and Autumn Warring States period after the Dao De Jing appeared and the Yin-Yang Five Elements theory spread. Chronologically, this was a massive anachronism.
That was not the only strange thing.
“Hmm… Jing, Qi, and Shen are mutually opposing concepts, so they are rarely used together in academic circles.”
Gao Jin temporarily pushed the questions from his mind.
“Anyway, it’s fine. If I slowly decipher it, I’ll figure out why there’s a chronological error.”
Gao Jin made a firm resolution. It felt like a major academic discovery was at hand.
But he never dreamed that the terms Jing, Qi, and Shen were used not in academics, but in martial arts.
Four
- Wanted: Waiter at Manbok Inn. Experienced workers preferred. Those willing to work diligently for over one year are warmly welcomed.
- Wanted: Official carriage driver at Jeoktoma Stable.
- Wanted: Escorts to work like family at Jingcheng Escort Agency.
- Wanted: Full-time employee at Geumhwa Money Exchange.
“Hmm… What a mess.”
Gao Jin looked at the places where job postings were hung with a troubled expression.
He was currently wandering the city looking for work.
It felt like he had been walking for over two sichen.
But even with eyes washed clean, there was no suitable job.
He had to work in his spare time while studying. However, most places were looking for full-time employees, or the job required martial arts skills.
“These are all far beyond me!”
It was an incomparably difficult situation.
If he couldn’t find a job quickly, he would be kicked out for not paying the meager three taels monthly rent. Moreover, his prospects for future meals were equally dark.
At first, he had looked for work at bookstores. He had worked at a bookstore back home and had experience, so bookstores seemed preferable.
He had thought Beijing was larger than Hualong County so there would be more jobs.
But that was a gross miscalculation. It was true that Beijing was larger than Hualong County with more jobs. However, proportionally, there were many academies, and the decent jobs were all taken by students.
Bookstores were among the most preferred jobs for scholars. Naturally, finding a job that students could do now that the semester had started was harder than plucking a star from the heavens.
‘If I had known this, I should have come earlier! I thought wrong!’
He regretted it too late; the time had already passed.
Finding a job in an unfamiliar area was harder than expected. Gao Jin had wandered around Beijing for several days but could not find a suitable job to do while studying.
The rent due date was approaching, but he had no money… His heart grew increasingly anxious for nothing.
‘I didn’t know finding a job would give me such a headache!’
Gao Jin thought that if he had known, rather than only going to the Western Regions with a merchant caravan, he should have traveled throughout the Central Plains to broaden his horizons.
The biggest difference between Beijing and Hualong County was the large number of studying scholars, many of whom worked to earn tuition due to poor circumstances.
Before coming to Beijing, he had never imagined such a reality.
“Hm?”
Suddenly noticing that the surroundings had grown noisy, he looked over to see a procession from an escort agency marching down the street.
There were over fifty people setting out on an escort mission.
Gao Jin wondered if he was seeing things at first.
It was a scale unimaginable in tiny Hualong County.
Jingcheng Escort Agency
The splendid, majestic flag of the escort agency captivated onlookers.
People stepped aside to let the procession pass.
“In these hard times, being an escort isn’t a bad job.”
“Of course. The pay is decent, and they even give special bonuses quarterly.”
“You think that’s all? Escorts never get laid off.”
“Is that true? Actually, I was laid off three months ago. Maybe I should try being an escort?”
“Tsk, tsk, you don’t know a thing. Without martial arts, you can’t become an escort. And since you might die on a mission, it’s a dangerous job.”
“I-is that so? Then it seems rather tough?”
“Escorts are tough, but porters only carry goods, so look into being a porter.”
“Hey, is that something to say right now? I have pride as a former clerk at the Daewon Merchant Guild. How could I work as a porter?”
“Haha! Are you looking down on porters these days? It’s a world where academy graduates apply to be porters because they can’t find jobs. Haven’t you heard that a hundred people applied for two porter positions at Jingcheng Escort Agency?”
“Gasp!”
“I-is that true?”
“Tsk, a porter may carry goods and do menial labor, but where else can you find a job with a steady monthly salary and no need to think too hard?”
“Now that you mention it, that makes sense.”
Gulp!
Gao Jin swallowed dryly upon hearing their conversation.
To him, who needed money more than anyone, the mention of a steady monthly salary was enviable above all else.
‘Sigh, they said the recession in Beijing has been severe lately, and it seems to be true!’
It was not someone else’s problem. With things like this, finding a job might become even harder.
Then, a job posting suddenly caught his eye.
- Wanted: Day laborer at Jingcheng Laundry. Wage is one tael with meals provided.
“Wh-what’s that…?”
Gao Jin’s eyes widened.
It was definitely Beijing. There were no laundries in tiny Hualong County, but looking at the posting, he could roughly guess what it was.
“If I work at the laundry for just three or four days, I can easily cover the boarding house fee and have money left over!”
Heaven was helping him.
Laundry was women’s work?
That was a fact known to the world and to him.
But in his current situation, he could not afford to be choosy.
Moreover, the conditions were nothing short of fantastic. One tael for a day’s work was an incredible deal. He doubted he could find such conditions anywhere else. And with meals provided on top of that? This was something he absolutely had to take.
“It’s a good deal, but… I’ve never done laundry before?”
It was undoubtedly a dilemma.
But his worries lasted only a moment.
How hard could laundry be? All he knew was to soak clothes in water and scrub vigorously with both hands to remove stains.
“Great.”
Gao Jin ran straight to the laundry.