Chapter 57

Chapter 57: Shunned Like the Plague

Night was black and the wind was sharp.

A tall, straight-backed figure slipped into Marquis Yong Chang Manor through the back gate and went straight to the inner courtyard.

Gu Nan Xi dressed in a rush and hurried to the reception hall. “Censor Jiang visits at this hour—what happened?”

Her heart lurched uneasily. For a man as careful about propriety as Censor Jiang to knock in the dead of night, something had to be wrong.

Censor Jiang tore off his cloak and paced the hall, his voice edged with anger. “That day, Marchioness, you told me to be cautious. How is it that when it comes to you, you’re this reckless?!”

Gu Nan Xi blinked. “Huh?”

Today she’d gone to the academy, said a few words, eaten hotpot… she hadn’t done anything outrageous. Had she?

Censor Jiang dropped into a chair, brows knotting into a hard line. “I wrote to my old classmates, inviting them to teach at Hundred Rivers Academy. But your eldest son’s speech…” His jaw tightened. “It read like a proclamation. It forced people to choose sides.”

He rubbed his brow, weary. “They won’t come now. If it comes to it, I’ll teach myself. I do have some understanding of law.”

Gu Nan Xi exhaled slowly.

So her dear son had gone and gotten carried away again—and somehow managed to drag her into the blast radius.

She poured Censor Jiang a cup of bean water and lowered her voice. “Thank you for thinking of us. But you’re already walking on thin ice at court. Why involve yourself in academy matters? You hold the post of censor. You have heavier burdens.”

“But this academy—”

Gu Nan Xi’s expression remained calm, her gaze cool and distant, as if she were already watching trouble arrive from far away. “Whose calamity it is, is whose to bear. Others cannot suffer it in their place.”

The corner of her mouth curved in something that wasn’t quite a smile.

Su Xuan Ming had dodged Jing Niang, the merchant girl. He’d avoided his romantic rival Yan Fu Song. Yet somehow, he’d still provoked a bigger enemy.

It was as if fate wouldn’t loosen its grip unless he met a miserable end.

Censor Jiang misread her expression. He thought she had planned all this, and his shoulders eased a fraction. “Still—be careful. Don’t walk a dangerous edge.”

“Thank you,” Gu Nan Xi said softly.

That night, more than one great household stayed lit until dawn.

Chen Yi Xuan was locked at home. No matter how his mother and grandmother cried and begged, Assistant Minister Chen remained stone-faced and lashed him several times.

“Chen Yi Xuan, I’m warning you—don’t associate with Su Xuan Ming anymore! Starting today, you stay home!”

Chen Yi Xuan howled. The moment he heard he’d been confined, he exploded. “Father, why can’t I go out?”

Assistant Minister Chen’s belly shook as he spoke through clenched teeth. “You still have the nerve to ask? If you want to run an academy, then run it quietly! Everyone would treat it like children playing around. Why did you have to pick a fight in public with Tong—Director?”

“They already dislike Su Xuan Ming. They trip him up in every way they can,” he snapped. “Aren’t you handing them a weapon?”

Chen Yi Xuan felt wronged to the marrow. “You’re Vice Director of the Court of Imperial Banquets. You and the Director have nothing to do with each other. Why are you afraid of them?”

Assistant Minister Chen couldn’t say the truth out loud. His face darkened instead. “Enough. Do what I tell you.”

At Young Lord Li’s residence in Da Li Court, the mood was no gentler.

A square table and a round stool blocked the front gate like a barricade.

On the table sat a slender white porcelain wine pot and two cups.

Li Ming De stood with his fists clenched, anger rising and falling with his breath.

Young Lord Li poured himself a cup slowly and took a small sip. “At fifteen, I passed the licentiate. At eighteen, I tested for provincial graduate. At twenty-one, I placed jin shi. I entered Da Li Court and worked thirteen years without missing a single day. I did not dare slack.”

“I’ve handled 504 cases,” he continued evenly. “Every one of them, I reviewed again and again.”

“I came from poverty and climbed to where I am. And behind me—forget your mother’s clan—behind me is my Li clan: 312 people. We share honor and disgrace.”

He set the cup down with a soft click. “This academy business is immortals fighting. Su Xuan Ming has his mother’s golden protective shirt. You don’t. Neither do I.”

“I’m sitting here today for my career—and for my Li family’s three hundred mouths.” He nodded toward the gate. “I won’t stop you. If you want to leave, the door isn’t locked. If you decide to stay, then sit. We’ll drink a cup together as father and son.”

Li Ming De lunged to the gate and shoved. It opened.

He stood there.

Time passed.

He did not step out.

And he did not sit down to drink that cup either.

The next morning, dawn arrived like any other—and like none other.

Su Xuan Ming couldn’t say what was different. His skin crawled with a vague unease until he reached Hundred Rivers Academy and Li Da Niu’s question finally put words to it.

“Why don’t I see the other young masters?”

Su Xuan Ming’s stomach sank.

They’d been meeting at the morning market these past days, eating together even when their destinations differed. Only at the crossroads did they part ways.

Today, not a single shadow appeared.

“Maybe they had something to do,” Su Xuan Ming said, forcing it out.

He handed out flyers as usual, calling after passersby, trying to recruit students. Alone.

Three days became four.

Even someone as slow as Su Xuan Ming couldn’t pretend anymore.

He was being avoided. Shunned like the plague.

Wu Fa Tian blocked his path, grinning. “Su Xuan Ming, see that? Your sworn brotherhood was a joke. You probably don’t even know this, but plenty of your sworn brothers still attend school normally—yet they’d rather take a detour than see you.”

He waited for rage. For humiliation. For a crack in Su Xuan Ming’s face.

Su Xuan Ming said nothing. He simply went around him and walked on.

Behind him, Wu Fa Tian’s voice sharpened into spikes. “Why won’t they keep playing with you, Su Xuan Ming? Have you reflected? It’s because you’re not worth it! You’re a useless piece of trash!”

Su Xuan Ming made it all the way back to his courtyard before he broke.

He threw himself onto the bed and dragged the quilt over his head as if it could block out the world.

Was he really that unbearable?

Jing Niang had left him. His brothers had done the same.

What had he done wrong?

Gu Nan Xi arrived in a hurry, dismissed everyone with a gesture, and sat down at the bedside.

“Xuan Ming.”

Her voice was gentle—too gentle, and that somehow made it worse.

“There are many things I haven’t told you,” she said. “His Majesty has long been dissatisfied with the Imperial Academy and Song Shan Academy. He wants reform, but he has no opening.”

“In everyone’s eyes, whether I caused trouble at Song Shan Academy or prepared Hundred Rivers Academy, His Majesty is the one standing behind it. That is why Headmaster Wu and the Director target us like this.”

“And that day,” she continued softly, “your bold words were a direct declaration of war. When the situation is unclear, no one will publicly pick a side.”

Su Xuan Ming’s voice came muffled, raw. “Mother… did I do wrong?”

“You didn’t do wrong,” Gu Nan Xi said. “What’s wrong is this world.”

A boy spoke of his ideals. That was all.

What crime was there in that?

She patted the quilt, once, lightly. “Xuan Ming. Do you still want to run this academy?”

“Run it,” Su Xuan Ming said, the answer like a blade. “No matter what.”