Chapter 43

Chapter 43: When the Great Roc Rises on the Wind, It Soars Ninety Thousand Li

The tea patrons perked up the instant they heard Madam Marquis Yong Chang was present. Eyes slid toward the young gentlemen like iron drawn to a magnet.

Even the second-floor private rooms opened their windows, one after another, as if the entire building had grown ears.

“Sigh. That Su Xuan Ming is a walking disaster,” someone murmured. “The Song Shan Academy mess just settled, and he’s stirring trouble again.”

“Li Shao Yan already took a beating. Why won’t Su Xuan Ming let it go? Can’t he just avoid him?”

“This is humiliating! His grades are that bad, and he still dares to talk big. How is Madam Marquis Yong Chang supposed to save face?”

“Even money-hungry private schools won’t take him. That tells you how dull he is. Forget Top Scholar—even a Licentiate would be hard enough.”

Su Xuan Ming’s face flushed red like a boiled shrimp. For a moment, he didn’t know what to do with his hands or where to look.

Back then, he’d sworn he didn’t want to study. Now he’d changed his mind.

Would Mother think he was nothing but a burden?

Would he drag her into disgrace?

The onlookers made a path for Gu Nan Xi without being told, their bodies shifting aside in a smooth wave.

Gu Nan Xi smiled and nodded in thanks as she passed. Calm. Composed. Her every movement crisp and unhurried.

The noisy hall quieted as if someone had covered it with a lid. Even the waiters carrying trays softened their steps.

“How do I see it?” Gu Nan Xi said lightly, her gaze sweeping the room.

Li Shao Yan met her with open provocation, lips curled in mockery.

Wu Fa Tian glared, anger simmering—but he didn’t dare step forward.

Su Xuan Ming couldn’t even lift his eyes. He huddled in on himself like a quail.

Li Ming De and the others looked as if they wanted to speak, then swallowed it down, faces hot.

Gu Nan Xi drew a steady breath and raised her voice. “I have a poem. I’ll give it to everyone here.”

Then she recited, clear as a bell:

“One day the Great Roc rose on the wind,

soaring straight up ninety thousand li.

Even if the wind died and it descended,

it could still overturn the sea.”

She tipped her chin toward Su Xuan Ming, Li Ming De, and the others—an unspoken command to follow.

Su Xuan Ming, Li Ming De, Chen Yi Xuan, and Jiang Guang Hai clasped hands tightly and recited in unison, voices ringing:

“The world sees my tune as ever strange;

hearing my bold words, they laugh coldly.

Even Confucius could fear the youth to come—

no man should look down on the young!”

At that moment, more young gentlemen squeezed in from the doorway—Ten Sworn Brothers gathering in full.

Ten throats, hoarse with shouting, cried out together:

“Even Confucius could fear the youth to come—

no man should look down on the young!”

Again—louder:

“Even Confucius could fear the youth to come—

no man should look down on the young!”

Each shout hit the air like a drumbeat. With every chant, courage swelled in their chests until it felt endless, until every obstacle in front of them shrank down to a grain of sand beside a sea.

Even the onlookers joined in. After shouting a few times, their eyes brightened, their blood warming with a reckless, soaring feeling—as if the sky was wide enough for birds to fly and the sea broad enough for fish to leap, and nothing in this world was truly impossible.

In a second-floor private room, Nation-Guarding General Madam Niu wiped at tearful eyes. “People say Former Dynasty wasn’t as good as today, but in my view… at least in poetry, Former Dynasty had grander scale.”

Layman Li’s “To Li Yong”—how stirring it was.

Young Madam Cheng stared as if spellbound. “No wonder you treat Madam Marquis Yong Chang like a guiding light. Her heart is that broad, her ambition that high. We can’t compare.”

“What does it have to do with Gu Nan Xi?” the Young Madam of Duke Ji’s Residence sniffed. “It’s only because Layman Li is talented.”

Yet even as she spoke, her mind drifted to days ago.

Her son had argued with someone at the academy. She and her mother-in-law had ached for him, but the other side was powerful, so they told him to endure.

Her son had looked at her and asked, voice shaking with hurt, “Why can’t Mother protect me the way Madam Marquis Yong Chang does?”

Those words had lodged in her chest and never left.

Her hand clenched beneath her sleeve, nails biting into flesh, but it hurt less than her son’s question.

How could she be like Gu Nan Xi?

Gu Nan Xi had nothing to lose. But Duke Ji’s Residence had a bright future.

“So what if they shout until their voices break?” she sneered, sipping goat’s milk. “Unless he leaves Capital, Su Xuan Ming won’t have anywhere to study. Gu Nan Xi’s little performance is nothing but a joke.”

Madam Niu shot her a cold look and laughed once, sharply. “Madam Marquis Yong Chang always looks ten steps ahead. If she dared to stand up, she thought it through. Everyone who mocked her has already gotten their face slapped swollen.”

The Young Madam of Duke Ji’s Residence rose, sleeve snapping. “Then you don’t know. Headmaster Wu of Song Shan Academy and the Imperial Academy Director have already spoken. They’ll never allow Su Xuan Ming to enroll. What private school in Capital would dare offend those two pillars by taking him?”

Even at the doorway, she couldn’t resist twisting the knife. “When Gu Nan Xi hits a dead end, don’t come crying to me!”

Madam Niu slammed her cup down so hard it rattled. “Don’t worry. In this lifetime, Madam Marquis Yong Chang will never hit a dead end. When she shows her true power, someone had better not be stubborn as a dead duck!”

Lady Ji Nan and Madam Niu locked eyes, sparks crackling between them.

They parted in anger.

Downstairs, Gu Nan Xi had no idea that two close noblewomen had nearly severed their friendship because of her.

“Godmother!” Li Ming De pressed close, half a step ahead of Gu Nan Xi, clearing a path through the crowd. “So you’d prepared this all along! I wondered why you gave us Three Hundred Tang Poems—who knew it would be this useful!”

Chen Yi Xuan had already packed up a bowl of seven-treasure pounded tea and hurried after them. “Godmother, you haven’t even had a sip—you must be thirsty. This is best in winter.”

The young gentlemen bubbled with excitement.

“Did you see their faces? They recited until they were red and their eyes were glowing!”

“Li Shao Yan and Wu Fa Tian are ignorant to begin with. A poem like that—of course they choked. The way they went speechless was hilarious!”

Their voices piled up, overlapping, a flock of noisy birds.

Gu Nan Xi’s head rang as if eight hundred ducks were quacking in her ears.

Only after who knew how long did the boys finally quiet down.

Chen Yi Xuan peeked at her expression and asked carefully, “Godmother… are you angry?”

Gu Nan Xi let out a slow breath. “No.”

She wasn’t angry. She was simply trapped in the middle of them—trapped enough that she hadn’t even been able to buy volume two of Madam Gu and the Men Behind Her.

Earlier, their servant boy had panicked when he saw trouble and ran back to protect them, abandoning his place in line. Now the queue at Gentleman Bookshop had thinned.

Had it sold out already?

Su Xuan Ming watched her, face tightening. He stepped forward and confessed, head bowed. “Mother… I started this. I deliberately blocked Li Shao Yan. I even sent Ninth Brother to call the others.”

He didn’t dare meet her eyes.

“Mother—hit me or scold me, anything. Just… don’t be disappointed in me.”