The tea’s warmth made his nose itch a bit. He raised his other hand, using the back of it to gently press his nose bridge.
Not on duty at the Inner Study Hall today, he wore plain blue everyday clothes, with sleeves rolled up to reveal two or three nearly healed old wounds on his arms.
“Your injuries haven’t fully healed?”
With the atmosphere more relaxed, people dared to speak up.
Deng Ying looked at his arm and nodded: “They’re almost better.”
He turned sideways, tightening the rain curtain behind him, then continued: “I… haven’t thought too much about it. Although I’m no longer in the Ministry of Works, what we’re doing together now is the same as before. If you’re willing, from now on you can call me by my name.”
“How could we dare?”
Others echoed the sentiment.
The man who had spoken earlier turned to the crowd and said: “I think we should call him Teacher as we did outside the palace before.”
Deng Ying smiled and agreed without demurring.
Thunder suddenly sounded outside the tent, and everyone crowded to the entrance.
Blue lightning flashed dimly in the sky, clouds pressing lower and lower, with rain showing no signs of stopping.
Deng Ying looked up at the glazed tiles, only half-completed in the rain, and stood with his hands behind his back, silent.
“Teacher.”
“Yes.”
“This year’s rains are unusually heavy.”
Deng Ying nodded: “Indeed. With no snow at the start of the year, heavy spring rains were hard to avoid. Coming here earlier, I saw half the nanmu timber has been ruined by rain.”
“Yes.”
The craftsmen looked worried. “We need to report this to the ministry. The southern bracket sets are already made, but we haven’t seen the materials ordered from the glazed tile factory. If the rain continues like this, the main beam’s mortises will need to be reworked again.”
Just then, Xu Qi returned from a meeting at the Ministry of Works, drenched and looking rather disheveled with an unpleasant expression.
The craftsmen moved aside and bowed.
Xu Qi glanced at them, poured himself a cup of tea, and waved his hand saying, “Continue your rest.”
Deng Ying put down his teacup and walked before Xu Qi to bow.
“We were just discussing the glazed tile factory, sir…”
Xu Qi cut him off. “No need to rush, the funds will be available in a day or two anyway.”
He took a sip of tea, found it too rough, and being already irritated, simply put down the cup, using it as an excuse to vent: “The tea is like this, people are like this too – all leaving a sour taste you can’t spit out.”
Deng Ying stood quietly beside him. Xu Qi grew more agitated as he spoke, and began to curse.
“Those who get beheaded eat imperial grain, those who behead others eat imperial grain too. Deng Ying,”
Deng Ying was still thinking about the tile factory and didn’t respond immediately.
“Still not used to being called by name?”
Xu Qi’s displeasure led to mockery.
“No.”
He cupped his hands again. “Please continue, sir.”
Xu Qi put down his teacup and asked: “How did you handle things with the Cabinet when you were in the Ministry of Works before?”
Deng Ying replied evenly: “For the new year’s settlements and budgets between the Cabinet and Six Ministries, we actually shouldn’t be too involved.”
Xu Qi looked up. “What do you mean?”
“After my father’s execution, the Shandong estates are still being inventoried. The Imperial Household Department and the other five ministries are all waiting for the final accounts. Salt administration and maritime trade haven’t been good these two years, so regardless of how this year’s allocations are calculated, we must wait for the Shandong Provincial Inspector’s report to reach the capital. Only then, when we submit the actual needs for rebuilding the three great halls, can we gauge the Ministry of Revenue’s bottom line and the inner court’s true intentions. Saying too much now has little meaning.”
The speech was rather long, and after finishing, he couldn’t help but lower his head and cough once or twice.
Xu Qi hadn’t expected him to bring up the inventory of Deng Yi’s estates himself. Somewhat surprised, he asked: “Did you know nothing before about your Deng family’s dominance in Shandong?”
“Yes.”
Deng Ying replied calmly, “Haven’t visited in ten years.”
Haven’t visited in ten years.
Was this neglect of flesh and blood, or keeping oneself pure from corruption?
Xu Qi suddenly felt compelled to make a more concrete judgment about the person before him.
“You…”
He had just begun to speak when the inner court servants at the Gate of Supreme Harmony called out the time for locking up.
Xu Qi had to stop, quickly finishing the materials list with the craftsmen before leaving.
Seeing the rain showed no signs of stopping, Deng Ying told the craftsmen to rest.
He walked alone with an umbrella across the Gate of Supreme Harmony plaza, returning to his quarters.
That day was the fifth of the second month when the Cabinet and Six Offices’ Supervising Secretaries had their meeting. The lights still burned warm in the Southern Three Offices’ duty room. Today wasn’t just for casual discussion – they had touched on issues of several capital officials’ conduct. Vice Grand Secretary Zhang Cong was displeased with the Six Offices impeaching his student, and both sides had argued past their allotted time.
When Deng Ying reached the door of the Southern Three Offices, Grand Secretary Bai Huan was also just leaving the meeting room.
The rain was too heavy, and Deng Ying had no lantern, so Bai Huan didn’t immediately recognize his features.
The year Deng Ying passed the imperial examination, Bai Huan was the chief examiner.
Among that year’s successful candidates, although there had been members of the Bai family, Bai Huan had most liked these two young men, Deng Ying and Yang Lun. Yang Lun was promoted by his hand, but Deng Ying caught Zhang Zhanchun’s eye in his second year as a Hanlin Academy compiler. Zhang Zhanchun had privately mentioned to him many times afterward that even though Deng Ying wasn’t on an official path, he still didn’t want to sever the master-disciple bond with Bai Huan. He wasn’t someone meant to spend his life among earth and stone – after the three great halls were completed, he was to be returned.
Unexpectedly, before he could be returned, Zhang Zhanchun had suffered a stroke.
Then the Deng faction, rampant for many years, finally collapsed completely under Zhang Cong’s scheming and his wave-pushing.
In his twilight years, he witnessed heaven’s light.
And his favorite student, just like that, could never be retrieved.