Three days later.
Shichahai.
The goose-feather sabers of five hundred city defense guards blocked the outer streets and alleys. The bluestone roads were completely sealed off. Red sandalwood carriages stood right next to golden nanmu sedans, and the armed guards of various mansions blocked the intersections. Not even a stray cat could slip through.
The rules of the Daqian Dynasty were laid out plainly at this Dao-discussion assembly.
The noble families wanted grandeur, and the powerful officials wanted face. Whoever brought the most guards and had the widest carriage would speak the loudest in this capital city.
At the outer waterside pavilion.
Hundreds of students from the Imperial Academy and failed examinees crowded by the pier. The hot wind made people feel stifled, and the anger in the crowd could not be suppressed.
Zhao Xuan, a student of the Imperial Academy, stepped onto the stone steps of the waterside pavilion, tapping the stone railing loudly with his gold-flecked folding fan.
"That house-raiding vicious dog will definitely come today!"
Zhao Xuan raised his voice, afraid that the people around him wouldn't hear.
"Just watch! Within half an hour, the Xu family will definitely mobilize the capital's mounted guards and come crashing into the threshold of Shichahai with swords and spears! Besides raiding houses and killing people, what do they know about the sages' writings!"
The surrounding scholars immediately exploded.
"Merchants reeking of copper, do they deserve to discuss the Dao?"
"That old thief Xu Youde even sold the koi in the Qi family's backyard by the pound. If such a person steps into Shichahai, it will sully the pure reputation of our literati!"
"If he dares to bring troops, we dare to remonstrate to the death! At worst, blood will splatter this waterside pavilion!"
The crowd was indignant.
Everyone was certain that the Xu family, who had amassed wealth through house raids and was elevated to the status of Earl of Chengyi within ten days, would definitely bring a murderous aura and hundreds of mounted guards to forcefully smash this venue.
Behind the waterside pavilion, Shichahai Tower.
In a private room on the second floor.
The Third Prince, Xiao Jingyan, sat in a red sandalwood armchair, his thumb slowly turning a red jade archer's ring.
The door was pushed open. A spy dressed in short clothes walked in quickly and knelt on one knee.
"Your Highness, there is no movement from the direction of Chongwen Gate and the Earl of Chengyi's mansion."
Xiao Jingyan's movement of turning the ring stopped.
"No movement?"
"To reply to Your Highness, the Xu family didn't even send out a single guard. The mounted guards of the capital garrison are all standing by in the camp."
Xiao Jingyan frowned.
In the next room.
Xie Yunwan held a cup of Mingqian Longjing tea, the lid gently scraping the foam.
Several disciples of Xu Jie sat below, talking in low voices.
"If the Xu family forcibly enters with troops today, the memorials from the Censorate will drown them tomorrow."
"What if they don't dare to come?"
"If they don't dare to come, it means they have admitted defeat in front of the whole capital. Once the bones of this solitary official soften, the Emperor's knife will be blunted."
Xie Yunwan didn't reply. She lowered her eyelids, looking at the tea leaves standing upright in the tea soup.
A sound came from the direction of the waterway.
Creak—creak—
The sound of a wooden scull paddling water.
The scholars by the pier all turned their heads.
There was no three-story painted pleasure boat on the water, nor an official boat flying the emblems of various mansions.
There was only a small wooden boat without even an awning, drifting slowly towards the pier with the current.
The voices of the entire scene instantly cut off.
A person stood at the bow of the small boat.
Xu Qinghuan wore a plain moon-white long shirt with a crossed collar. She had no golden hairpins or jade ornaments on her head, only a common wooden hairpin holding up her hair.
At the stern, Xu Zijin, wearing a washed-out blue cloth long shirt, held the wooden scull with both hands, rowing stroke by stroke.
On the entire boat, there was not a single armed guard, nor a servant to serve tea and pour water.
Extremely simple.
Extremely plain.
It formed a sharp contrast with the luxurious carriages and horses blocking the streets and alleys on the shore, and the hundreds of fully armed city defense guards.
The breeze blew by, Xu Qinghuan's clothes fluttered, and her expression was as cold as water.
Looking at the group of scholars facing a formidable enemy in front of her, a trace of speechlessness flashed in Xu Qinghuan's eyes.
Actually, last night at the Earl of Chengyi's mansion, she had already prepared for "stocking up".
At midnight last night, the system's notification sound appeared in her mind after a long time.
[Ding! Detected a large-scale face-slapping scene at tomorrow's Shichahai Dao-discussion.]
[It is suggested that the host reserve hundreds of thousands of taels of silver as special funds.]
At that time, Xu Qinghuan gritted her teeth and cursed the system eight hundred times in her heart for being heartless, but finally held her nose and accepted it.
Her thoughts pulled back, and the small boat had already docked.
Zhao Xuan was stunned.
He had prepared a bellyful of words to curse the mounted guards for forcibly entering, but at this moment they were all stuck in his throat.
The Xu family didn't bring troops.
Xu Qinghuan just stood at the bow cleanly and coldly, not even bringing a maid.
The small boat docked.
The bow hit the wooden pile of the pier, making a muffled sound.
Zhao Xuan suddenly came back to his senses. He would never allow the Xu family to step onto this territory.
"Stop her!"
Zhao Xuan roared, leading dozens of Imperial Academy students directly onto the pier, blocking the docking port tightly.
"The Wicked Xu Woman! How dare you set foot in the pure cultivation place of the literati!"
The folding fan in Zhao Xuan's hand pointed straight at Xu Qinghuan's nose.
"Your Xu family raided the six noble families of Jiangnan, forcing people to death, with hands full of blood! This Shichahai Dao-discussion is a grand event for scholars in the world, and it cannot tolerate the desecration of the family members of a cruel official like you! Go back!"
Hundreds of scholars surged forward.
"Go back!"
"Get out of Shichahai!"
The sound waves shook the sky.
Xu Zijin stopped the wooden scull in his hand. He straightened up and patted the water droplets on his blue cloth long shirt.
"Daqian Law Volume 4, Article 7."
Xu Zijin spoke. His voice was not loud, but his enunciation was heavy, piercing through the surrounding noise.
"Any commoner, Imperial Academy student, or provincial graduate who hinders or clashes with a royal relative with an official rank bestowed by the Emperor without reason shall be deemed as overstepping their authority."
He raised his head and looked straight at Zhao Xuan.
"The light punishment is eighty strokes of the cane. The heavy punishment is exile for three thousand miles."
Xu Zijin took a step forward and stood beside Xu Qinghuan.
"Princess Xu is the Commandery Princess Ci'an personally titled by His Majesty, with a fief of three hundred households. You mere Imperial Academy students gather to block a current princess. Do you want to try the laws of Daqian, or the cane of the Capital Mayor?"
Legal suppression.
Zhao Xuan's face flushed red. He didn't expect this sour scholar who rowed the boat to open his mouth with the laws of Daqian.
But he couldn't retreat. Behind him were hundreds of pairs of eyes from his classmates, and upstairs there were various powerful officials watching.
"Stop using the law to suppress people!"
The veins on Zhao Xuan's neck bulged.
"This is Shichahai! This is the literati circle! The literati circle in the capital has its rules!"
He swung his sleeve fiercely.
"We don't recognize the empty title your Xu family got from raiding houses! We only recognize the judgment of the Imperial Academy, and the invitation cards of the great scholars! Without an invitation card, even if you are the King of Heaven, don't even think about stepping half a step onto this pier today!"
"Right! We don't recognize it!"
"Hand over the invitation card! Otherwise go back!"
The scholars pushed forward again. The people at the very front had even stepped onto the bow of the small boat.
The water rippled.
Xu Qinghuan hadn't spoken all along.
She looked at Zhao Xuan, who was baring his fangs and brandishing his claws, and at those scholars who considered themselves aloof from worldly affairs.
She raised her right hand.
The wide moon-white cuff slipped down, revealing a section of her wrist.
Between her index and middle fingers, she held a piece of stiff paper.
Dark red.
The gold-stamped small regular script reflected the sunlight.
A very faint scent of aloeswood floated on the pier along with the water breeze.
Zhao Xuan's cursing stopped abruptly.
His gaze was glued to the dark red paper, and his Adam's apple rolled violently.
Several older officials around also clearly saw what it was.
The sound of gasping for breath exploded in the crowd.
"That is..."
"The personal signature of the Great Libationer..."
Personally signed by the Grand Chancellor of the Imperial Academy.
Limited to fifty copies.
Holders of this invitation required no announcement; they could directly enter the core waterside pavilion and take a seat of honor.
This was the highest-level pass for the entire Shichahai Discourse. Its authority far exceeded that of these academy students who were only qualified to listen from the periphery.
Zhao Xuan's legs turned to jelly.
Just moments ago, he had been loudly proclaiming that he only recognized the judgment of the Imperial Academy and the invitations of great scholars.
Now, the invitation from the helmsman of the Great Qian Dynasty's highest academic institution was pinched casually between Xu Qinghuan's fingers.
Everything he had said before instantly became a joke.
"Scholar Zhao."
Xu Qinghuan finally spoke. Her voice was cold and flat, utterly devoid of emotion.
"Is this the rule of your literati circles?"
Zhao Xuan opened his mouth, but he could not force out a single word.
Xu Qinghuan relaxed her two fingers slightly.
That dark red, gold-stamped invitation—the very item that every powerful elite in the capital desperately fought to obtain, the symbol of the highest recognition among the scholars—dropped straight down.
Plop.
The invitation fell into the water beneath the pier.
Ripples spread across the surface as the dark red paper was rapidly soaked. The gold-stamped characters twisted on the water before sinking into the depths.
The entire crowd fell dead silent.
Even the wind seemed to stop.
Hundreds of scholars stared with wide eyes, watching that priceless invitation sink to the bottom.
She had thrown it away.
Right in front of everyone, she had casually tossed the pride of the Imperial Academy's Grand Chancellor and the highest level of scholarly recognition into the water.
Xu Qinghuan did not even glance at the surface.
She lifted her foot and stepped onto the wooden planks of the pier.
"Xu Zijin, moor the boat."
Leaving those words behind, Xu Qinghuan walked straight ahead.
Zhao Xuan subconsciously took a step back.
Dozens of academy students who had been blocking the way involuntarily parted to the sides, clearing a path for her.
Dressed in plain, elegant clothes, Xu Qinghuan walked through the crowd.
She brought no royal guards, no swords, and no spears.
Yet her presence was more suffocating than if she had arrived with an army of thousands.
