Chapter 46

Chapter 46: Can’t Rent a House?

In Capital, if you wanted the best gossip, you went to Fu Quan—teahouses and taverns alike.

The proprietor of Fu Quan Teahouse tasted the profits gossip could bring and decided to dig even deeper into this path.

He smiled like a mouse that had fallen into a rice jar. “I told you. Keep your eyes on the ten sworn brothers—especially Su Xuan Ming—and we’ll never run short of gossip.”

“Wise as always, Proprietor!”

With fresh, steaming news in hand, the storyteller launched into a vivid tale.

“The peerless beauty, the Marchioness of Yong Chang, learned her own eldest son had no books to read! In fury, she slapped down one thousand taels and decided to build an academy herself!”

To the storyteller’s surprise, the crowd erupted in boos.

“Stop making things up! You think an academy is something she can open just because she feels like it?”

“Exactly! If she paid a high price to hire a tutor, sure. But open an academy? No way. Absolutely no way!”

A scholar-looking middle-aged man shook his head and spoke smugly. “Does she have a location? Has she hired a tutor? Can she recruit students? And even if she has all that, where would her academy rank among Capital’s Hundred Schools?”

The storyteller slapped the clapper block and waited until the teahouse quieted. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. The peerless beauty’s abilities are known to all. If you doubt it, go ask around.”

“The Su family’s eldest son and second son are searching for a suitable courtyard. Their academy is called the Hundred Rivers Academy!”

The scholar-like man flicked his sleeve and left with a snort. “A woman’s passing whim. An insult to scholarship. I won’t be a tutor at an academy, and my sons won’t go either!”

Gossip wasn’t afraid of argument. It was afraid of calm.

The news spread fast—so fast that even gambling houses opened bets on whether the Hundred Rivers Academy could truly be established.

Wu Fa Tian carried the rumor home and made a tremendous fuss. “Uncle, Gu Nan Xi and Su Xuan Ming clearly don’t take you seriously! They’re challenging us!”

The Wu family’s younger daughter set down her needlework and spoke gently. “Father, better to settle grudges than deepen them. Su Xuan Ming already quit Mount Song Academy. Why keep chasing him?”

Headmaster Wu shot her a hard glare. “Where did your lessons in proper womanly speech and needlework go? Don’t copy Gu Nan Xi’s style! She can’t even hold a young master’s heart! Go inside!”

Only after driving his daughter away did Headmaster Wu soften toward his precious only child. “Don’t be anxious. This isn’t as simple as it looks. I can’t tell you much—but trust me. She’s a grasshopper after autumn. She won’t jump for many more days.”

After soothing his beloved, Headmaster Wu changed clothes and went out.

Capital’s walls nested within walls. The Bian River entered through West Water Gate and cut across the city. On the water, boats jostled and raced.

Willows drooped along both banks. In spring and summer, Capital commoners would fill the shade beneath the trees, escaping the heat.

Headmaster Wu found a ferry crossing and boarded a flower boat.

Inside, a man in flowing robes sat with a cup in hand, a favored courtesan leaning against him. Water mist, mixed with powdered fragrance, drifted across the air.

Headmaster Wu took a lower seat and waited until the courtesans withdrew. Only then did he speak. “About Gu Nan Xi deciding to build an academy—My Lord, have you heard?”

The man drank deeply, pleasantly tipsy. “I have. But she’s just a woman. What waves can she stir?”

“But she is General Gu’s daughter.”

The man loosened his robe and glanced at Headmaster Wu sideways. “And? Back then her father lost to us. She’s only a woman—does she think she can defy heaven and change her fate?”

“If you think she’s a threat, go warn her. And show that little brat on the throne who the true heaven is.”

Headmaster Wu’s gaze drifted to the river’s surface, where a faint, fragile shimmer quivered over floating water grass.

A small crucian carp lay hidden beneath the stems, spitting up a tiny bubble now and then.

Not far away on the bank, an old fisherman in a bamboo hat crouched with a long-handled net, poised to strike.

Who was prey—and who was the hunter?

Either way, Headmaster Wu refused to be the water grass.

…

For a full week, Su Xuan Ming and Su Yun Ting left early and returned late.

They went out bright-eyed each morning and came back dusty and defeated each night.

Gu Nan Xi wanted to ask how her one thousand taels were being spent, but Kind Mother System sneered. “Didn’t you say you wanted to lie flat? Why do you care?”

Gu Nan Xi shot back, “Give me a vault of gold, and you’ll see whether I ask!”

She wanted to lie flat, not starve.

Money mattered.

That night, with the moon perched high, the two brothers came back listless, their faces screaming “failure.”

“What happened?” Gu Nan Xi yawned as she appeared before them.

“Mother…”

Su Yun Ting slumped against Gu Nan Xi like an eggplant struck by frost, rubbing his fluffy head against her shoulder.

“Mother, why is it so hard just to do something?”

His grievances had nowhere else to go. “We went to a property broker to find a place. I didn’t know the rent would be so expensive!”

Su Xuan Ming sat down and rubbed his aching calves. “The late emperor issued an edict to reduce rents, but rent is still sky-high.”

Su Yun Yan spoke from the side, unhurried and certain. “Half the people in Capital rent. The edict says private rents should be cut in half, but the landlords formed a housing guild. They doubled the rent first, then ‘cut it in half.’ In the end, rent didn’t change at all.”

Su Xuan Ming stared at her. “Little Sister, how do you know all this?”

Su Yun Yan’s eyes darted away. “I just do. If you want to open an academy, look in the Capital Outskirts. If you insist on Capital, go ask at the Office of Estates.”

The Office of Estates was the official agency in charge of property. It held a large number of low-rent houses.

“Ninth Brother already asked,” Su Xuan Ming said, shivering as if remembering a chill. “He used connections and got us a long list of low-rent homes, but the conditions were awful.”

“Every household dumped sewage onto the open ground. It rained yesterday, and water pooled everywhere. The sewage mixed with the rain and flooded into the rooms—stink for days!”

Su Yun Ting went pale just thinking about it and gagged.

Su Yun Yan patted his back, helpless. “You want cheap and you want clean—where do you get that? Fine. I’ll help. Shu Yao’s family is preparing to rent out shops and houses. I’ll go ask for you.”

“Good Sister!” Su Yun Ting brightened at once. “You really are my Sister!”

He threw his arms around her, trying to lift her up and spin her, but he couldn’t budge her.

Su Xuan Ming stood nearby, scratching his head and grinning like a fool.

Gu Nan Xi watched the three siblings tangle together, brother and sister a lively mess, and she laughed softly.

They were getting more and more capable. She could stay home even more at ease.