Chapter 82: Trusting a Man Is as Likely as a Pig Climbing a Tree

When he arrived at the county office, Yang Xuan still couldn't forget Zhao Sanfu's look of astonishment.

"Planting chives?"

At the morning meeting, Huang Wenzun was clearly distracted.

Losing a county constable was no big deal, but losing a confidant truly wounded him.

Suddenly, Huang Wenzun smiled. "I've heard that in recent days, Wannian County has become a place where people no longer lock their doors at night. It seems, Young Magistrate Yang, you've put your heart into your work."

Vermilion Bird cursed, "A weasel wishing the chickens a happy New Year—never with good intentions. Little Xuan, fire back at him!"

Yang Xuan smiled. "You flatter me, Prefect. Without your tireless guidance, I would not be where I am today."

"You're too kind."

"Every word I say is true."

"Heh."

"My words are from the heart."

"Heh... that's enough, meeting adjourned."

In his ear, Vermilion Bird said, "You've successfully disgusted him."

"He wants to win me over," Yang Xuan found it both ridiculous and expected.

"Little Xuan, there are no eternal enemies in officialdom." Today, Vermilion Bird seemed to have awakened the soul of a philosopher.

Yang Xuan asked, "I've always been curious, why do you call me 'Little Xuan'?"

The green light stayed on...

"It's just a nickname."

Returning to his office, Cao Ying was already sorting through the day's affairs.

He delegated tasks with impressive orderliness, reminding Yang Xuan of an old saying: "If there's work, let the secretary handle it."

"Young Magistrate Yang, someone seeks an audience."

The petty official wore a constipated expression.

"Speak your mind." Yang Xuan stood up, wondering who could make a clerk look like this.

"It's a woman," the clerk said, barely restraining himself from adding "beautiful."

Outside the county office.

Zhou Ning pushed up her tortoiseshell glasses with slender fingers and stepped aside. Behind her, a young man appeared with a smile.

The young man was rather handsome, with a composed bearing. He bowed, "Zhang Hong."

Yang Xuan nodded. "What brings you here?"

A faint look of disdain appeared in Zhang Hong's eyes, but Yang Xuan caught it and looked toward Zhou Ning.

Zhou Ning said, "You've established yourself in Wannian County, and your reputation is excellent. The academy thought it would be good for its students to learn from you. Zhang Hong is about to report to Chang'an County, so the Dean asked me to bring him to you for some advice."

Zhang Hong gave a forced cough, his discomfort obvious.

Zhou Ning frowned slightly, worried Yang Xuan would treat him coldly.

"Show him you're famous for good reason!" Vermilion Bird urged.

Yang Xuan, of course, would not hold it against such a person. "There's not much to say. Observe more, work diligently at your own affairs, speak less, and if you suffer a setback, swallow it. If you can recover, do so yourself. If you can't, just endure it."

Zhang Hong bowed. "Thank you for your instruction."

He soon took his leave to report to Chang'an County.

Zhou Ning watched his departing figure. "He's rather proud."

"I don't mind," Yang Xuan smiled.

"You..." Zhou Ning wondered, was he just enduring it?

"Assistant Instructor, I really don't mind."

To Yang Xuan, Zhang Hong was just a passerby. Why should he care?

"Sorry for troubling you." Zhou Ning's manner grew even warmer.

Yang Xuan sighed. "With you here, Assistant Instructor, I can endure any trouble."

"Are you trying to be a sweetheart?" Vermilion Bird shouted.

Zhou Ning turned away, feeling a warmth in her heart.

Yang Xuan could see Zhou Ning had been moved, so he changed the subject. "Assistant Instructor, what is the academy busy with these days?"

Zhou Ning pushed up her glasses. "They're trying to fly."

"Oh?" Yang Xuan wanted to see, so he asked, "Where are you heading?"

"Back to the Imperial Academy," Zhou Ning replied.

"I'll walk you out."

Yang Xuan waved his hand behind his back.

The old rogue who'd been following saw this and muttered, "The young lord has gone out to patrol the streets."

At the Imperial Academy, Yang Xuan immediately sensed the lively atmosphere.

"Over here."

Zhou Ning led him to a wooden building and pointed upward. "They want to fly."

Zhong Hui stood on the railing, with feather dusters tied to his arms, flapping them vigorously before leaping off.

Thud!

Yang Xuan turned his head aside.

Zhou Ning did the same.

The two exchanged glances.

Pfft!

Suddenly, Zhou Ning burst out laughing.

In that instant, it was as if a fairy had descended to the mortal world.

Yang Xuan was momentarily dazed.

"You've been struck by lightning!" Vermilion Bird cackled. "Your heart is racing."

Zhou Ning turned away, the tips of her ears tinged red.

"Yang Xuan!"

A group of professors came down from the building. On seeing Yang Xuan, they waved.

Huang Jingyu laughed, "Zhong Hui said he wanted to ascend to the heavens in broad daylight, to see the sky, to touch the clouds. I told him he was a fool, but the idiot took it seriously. Oh, ha ha ha!"

Zhong Hui flapped the feather duster a few times and sneered, "What do you know? The sages wrote of ascension in daylight in the classics: 'Floating lightly, almost immortal...'"

Zhou Ning asked softly, "Do you think it's possible?"

"There is one possibility."

Zhou Ning thought, does he really have a way?

"What possibility?" she asked hopefully.

"Sleepwalking," Yang Xuan said seriously.

Zhou Ning quickly pushed up her glasses to stifle her laughter.

She glanced at Yang Xuan, wondering how he could make her want to laugh without even trying.

Zhong Hui took off the feather duster, looking puzzled.

"They said you could ascend, so why not?"

"Professor," Yang Xuan recalled something he'd seen before. "The feather duster is too small."

Zhong Hui gave it a few shakes. "Then what should we use?"

Yang Xuan said, "Professor, think: why can birds fly?"

"Birds can fly by nature," Huang Jingyu said sternly. "Yang Xuan, you've not been reading enough lately. Come to me later, I'll teach you."

Zhong Hui was stunned, a thought forming in his mind, faint but persistent.

Yang Xuan asked, "Assistant Instructor, do you have any paper?"

Zhou Ning produced a folded sheet.

Yang Xuan saw it was a prescription and couldn't help but smile.

This girl was so focused, it was touching.

He spread out the paper, let it go, and the sheet floated gently to the ground.

"What do you mean?" Huang Jingyu was puzzled.

"Professor Huang, may I borrow your feather duster?"

Yang Xuan took Huang Jingyu's feather duster and let it drop.

Thud!

It fell straight to the ground.

"Now it's dirty," Huang Jingyu, a bit of a neat freak, picked it up, ready to complain.

Then he paused.

Zhong Hui froze as well.

"Flat, open things can float. Birds... I must go!"

Zhong Hui darted into the nearby grove.

Birds shrieked and scattered in confusion!

Zhong Hui grabbed a bird, spreading its wings.

"So that's how it is!"

In Chang'an, wealthy men liked the air of immortality, keeping more than a dozen cranes at home.

At dawn, one such man, hearing the cranes' pitiful cries, went to check.

A dozen or so wild cranes, most of their feathers plucked, strutted in the morning breeze, their exposed skin flushed, looking just like the chickens in his coop.

Meanwhile, at the Imperial Academy—

That morning, An Ziryu, as usual, carried a ruler for inspection.

"Here I come!"

A figure flew in from the right.

Graceful and unrestrained, like a great bird.

Fast, too.

An Ziryu reflexively hurled the ruler.

Thud!

The great bird was struck down.

A head struggled up from the ground, full of grief and indignation. "Dean!"

"Zhong Hui?"

An Ziryu looked at the feathers tied to Zhong Hui's arms and was left speechless.

"Behold my glimpse of a startled swan!"

Another figure came flying, hands flapping.

His posture was the height of elegance!

With inner energy circulating and feathers for support, he really floated.

That night, another feather thief struck in Chang'an.

The next day, Zhou Ning walked through the Imperial Academy, watching several professors leap off the second floor and roll her eyes.

At An Ziryu's office, she heard the sound of a ruler tapping the desk before she even entered.

"Dean."

"Come in."

An Ziryu's expression softened slightly. "Ah, Zhou Ning! You're just in time. The other day you took Zhang Hong to take up his post at Chang'an County. Today, it's best if you go check on him again."

Zhou Ning asked in surprise, "What happened?"

An Ziryu sighed, "It's a long story. Yesterday, he returned complaining that the officials at Chang'an County were ostracizing him. Unable to bear it, he rebuked them. Alas!"

Zhou Ning frowned, "It won't help if I go."

An Ziryu smiled kindly, "Maybe not, but Yang Xuan can help. You spend all day buried in your medical studies here at the Academy—it must be stifling. When I was your age, I ran all over the mountains. Go on, go on."

Even when she reached the county office in Wannian, Zhou Ning couldn't forget An Ziryu's motherly, benevolent smile.

"Assistant Instructor?"

Yang Xuan came out of the office.

Zhou Ning said, "I have something to trouble you with. If you..."

Yang Xuan interrupted her without hesitation. "Don't be so formal, Assistant Instructor. Just say what you need."

"Men are only reliable if pigs can climb trees," Vermilion Bird cackled.

Zhou Ning said, "Zhang Hong claims he was wronged in Chang'an County. The Dean asks if you could go and at least figure out whose fault it was."

But such things are never about right or wrong!

"I'll go take a look."

Zhou Ning had always been good to him—especially when she covered up that the outbreak at the Wang Mining Company wasn't an epidemic, letting him quietly reap a crop of chives.

"I always repay kindness," Yang Xuan said earnestly.

"Repay her by carrying her to bed," Vermilion Bird quipped.

Outside the Chang'an County office, Yang Xuan turned and kindly advised, "Please wait here, Assistant Instructor."

Zhou Ning frowned, "Why?"

She felt it had little to do with Yang Xuan; they should face it together.

"It's dirty," Yang Xuan strode forward.

He wore his official robes!

But Wannian County had no jurisdiction over Chang'an.

The bailiff eyed him sidelong. "What is your business?"

Yang Xuan smiled, "I'd like to see Chief Constable Qu Dong and Zhang Hong. It's urgent."

The bailiff dawdled, but Yang Xuan did not rush him.

After a while, a burly man appeared, Zhang Hong following three steps behind.

"Young Magistrate Yang, what's the matter?" Qu Dong asked coldly.

By custom, Zhang Hong had been assigned to the constables after arriving in Chang'an County, with Qu Dong as his superior.

Seeing Yang Xuan and Zhou Ning, Zhang Hong wished he could crawl into a hole.

Yang Xuan asked, "Zhang Hong, why did he give you a hard time?"

Zhang Hong hesitated. "He said I fuss like a woman and should go serve those who like young men."

A barefaced insult!

It was Qu Dong's way of asserting dominance, trying to drive Zhang Hong out.

"Utter nonsense," Qu Dong said calmly, arms folded.

Zhang Hong flushed. "I swear what I say is true. If not, may my inner energy go awry during cultivation!"

To have one's energy go awry was to fall into madness.

Such an oath was severe.

Zhang Hong's anger was clear.

Qu Dong stood with folded arms, utterly unafraid. "This is Chang'an County business..."

Yang Xuan really shouldn't meddle!

Zhou Ning sighed inwardly.

Then she saw Yang Xuan step forward and swing his fist.

Thud!

Blood spattered from a nose.

Zhou Ning was startled.

So that's why he asked me to wait—he didn't want blood to splatter on me.