Early the next morning, Changmei brought Li Diudiu to wait outside Zhou Huaili’s gate. All along the way he had repeated instructions — countless reminders and warnings — that when they met the illustrious Master Gao, Li Diudiu must not embarrass himself, must rein in all his nonsense, must not be insolent.
Li Diudiu’s expression was not particularly agreeable. He did not want to go to any Four Pages Academy. He wanted only to stay with his master.
“Is Master truly throwing me away?”
“Away, away — I am.”
Changmei waved a hand dismissively: “A rare opportunity, and I finally get to be rid of you.”
Li Diudiu asked: “Will Master leave Jizhou after this?”
“That… no, actually.”
Changmei thought it through and shook his head: “There is a monastery in Jizhou — the Wuwei Monastery. The abbot there is also an old acquaintance of mine. Once I’ve sent you to the academy, I’ll go register at the monastery. You live your fine life; I’ll live mine.”
“Oh…”
Li Diudiu hung his head. After a long moment, he forced a smile: “Master, you still need me around, you know — who else will boil your water and wash your feet? You’ll be lost without me.”
“At a monastery they naturally have people to see to such things. My seniority is high enough.”
“Master, I can help you read people’s faces! Look at how well we worked together before — perfectly seamless.”
“Deception is not a sustainable trade. I will no longer deceive anyone. Nor should you.”
“Oh…”
“Master, I…”
“Not another word!”
Changmei’s tone suddenly grew firm. He fixed Li Diudiu with a steady gaze and spoke each word deliberately: “Can you not show some ambition? If you complete your studies and make something of yourself, wouldn’t that mean you could look after me?”
“Ah?”
Previously his master had said he didn’t want him anymore, but now he had suddenly mentioned having Li Diudiu take care of him when he was accomplished — and something in Li Diudiu stirred.
“If you finish at the Four Pages Academy, you really will have good prospects?”
“Of course. Master Gao of the Four Pages Academy is considered the foremost scholar in all of Great Chu. His students are a gallery of exceptional talents — the Military Governor of Jizhou, Governor Zeng, is one of his students. As for you: I do not expect you to become a military governor. I only want you to have a proper standing in the world.”
Changmei softened his tone: “Master hopes you can become a person of integrity and dignity.”
“All right.”
Li Diudiu nodded vigorously: “A person of integrity and dignity.”
An hour later — the Four Pages Academy.
The moment Li Diudiu stepped through the gate with Zhou Huaili, his eyes didn’t know where to look first. The academy was vast: pavilions, towers, corridors, and gardens everywhere he turned, all of it beautiful. Most striking were the students themselves — every one of them appeared so clean, so refined, dressed in moon-white academy robes, some walking in pairs and groups, others reading beneath the trees. Compared to the fields full of displaced refugees outside the city walls, this place seemed like a realm from another world — Li Diudiu almost had the sensation that he was no longer on earth at all.
“In a moment, remember: do not lose your composure. Answer Master Gao’s questions directly, and do not babble nonsense. Master Gao does not like people without manners.”
Zhou Huaili spoke as he walked: “The others you will meet today are: one is the grandson of the Jizhou military affairs vice commissioner, surnamed Sun; one is the son of the Jizhou prefecture co-administrator, surnamed Liu; and one is the grandson of the Jizhou water administration director, surnamed Zhang. Those three…”
Zhou Huaili looked at Li Diudiu and sighed: “Never mind. Do your best.”
After a few more steps he asked: “What has your master taught you?”
“Reading and writing, the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams, character reading and fortune telling…”
“Stop, stop, that’s enough.”
Zhou Huaili looked to the heavens with a long exhale: “What a waste of that *Ascending Sparrow Tower* piece.”
Little Li Diudiu muttered under his breath: “And medicine, acupuncture, swordsmanship… Master is truly remarkable.”
“However remarkable your master is, he still has to send you to the Four Pages Academy, doesn’t he?”
Li Diudiu didn’t like this man called Zhou Huaili, but his master had told him: when someone is doing you a kindness, you don’t show them a sour face. Still, hearing him disparage his master was not something he could just let slide.
“What if my master had Master Gao’s station in life?”
He asked Zhou Huaili: “Would my master then need to beg anyone for anything? My master may well be no less capable than Gao Shaowei — only one’s origins are not of one’s own choosing.”
Zhou Huaili stopped walking. He turned, face stern: “Are you addressing me? Do you know what your own position is?”
Li Diudiu opened his mouth — and swallowed it back down.
Zhou Huaili raised a hand toward the main gate of the Four Pages Academy: “If it were not for a favor your master once did for me, do you think I would be here putting my own face on the line to arrange this for you? If you are dissatisfied, turn around and leave. Otherwise, be quiet.”
Li Diudiu chose to be quiet. In his ten-year-old heart, he told himself: someday, if he made something of himself, he would give his master a moment to hold his head high.
He followed Zhou Huaili deeper into the academy grounds, all the way to a small, separate courtyard — it was here that Gao Shaowei, known throughout the realm as a great Confucian, lived and worked. Zhou Huaili told Li Diudiu to wait outside while he went in alone, his voice when he spoke to Li Diudiu flat and clipped, as though he might strike someone.
Once inside the study, Zhou Huaili was relieved to see the others had not yet arrived. He smiled and bowed: “Master, I have brought the child.”
“Wait a moment — once everyone has assembled, I will assess them together.”
Gao Shaowei rose: “Come, sit first and let us talk.”
Zhou Huaili did not sit down but remained bent at the waist in a posture of humble deference: “Master, this child is an orphan, with an untamed nature, and his words lack any proper measure or restraint. But he is clever and has learned a great many things. If he is at all impertinent or presumptuous before you today, I beg Master to make allowances.”
Gao Shaowei glanced at him: “He is truly a child of your old friend?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
Zhou Huaili continued: “The year I was transferred from Yongqing County to a post here in Jizhou, my wife fell seriously ill on the road. It was this child’s master who saved her life and escorted us safely all the way to Jizhou. The child is an orphan whom my old friend took in, and that friend has raised him as his own son.”