Chapter 9: Scholar Pei

A young man walked in from outside—perhaps just past twenty, plain green robes, handsome regular features, a frame slightly frail, yet the open bearing of a gentleman. He entered and praised her: "Well said. Love in every heart has dignity. It isn't fodder for mockery. Guangwen Hall teaches lessons—but character must be practiced too."
The students fell silent.
Shen Miao stared hard at the youth.
Pei Lang—master of reckoning and accounts at Guangwen Hall. Virtue and learning both rare; the only teacher here who held no degree higher than licentiate. Gentle and patient, unlike the stern masters, he was deeply respected. Even a tail-ender like Shen Miao had never been scolded—only explained again and again.
If that were all, he would be an excellent teacher. Talent and morals both top of ten thousand. Unfortunately, Shen Miao knew his other face.
Fu Xiuyi's most trusted adviser. After the enthronement, ennobled as Grand Preceptor. Preceptor Pei, riding the spring wind, second only to one, above ten thousand.
As preceptor he had done his work well. Shen Miao had once thought Pei Lang clever and upright—yet when the crown prince was deposed, he said nothing.
Their private tie had been decent enough. The proposal that Shen Miao go to Qin as hostage had come from Pei Lang himself. He said: All for Ming Qi's realm. If Your Majesty's going can ease His Majesty's urgent need, later the land for ten thousand li will lie under Your Majesty's blessing; the world will thank Your Majesty's grace.
In fact, when she returned five years later, Lady Mei was already in the inner palace—and the men who had once revered her under Pei Lang now watched her with guard.
When the crown prince was deposed, Shen Miao had even knelt to Pei Lang. He was Fu Xiuyi's intimate; if Pei spoke, Fu Xiuyi would listen. Pei only helped her up and said, "Your Majesty, what His Majesty has decided—this servant cannot move."
"Pei Lang! You would watch the crown prince deposed? You know it must not be done!" Rage made her press him step by step.
"This is already the tide, Your Majesty. Accept fate." Pei sighed.
Accept fate.
How could a person accept fate? If one lived again and still accepted—too sad, too hateful.
Shen Miao's gaze weighed on the youth ahead. Upright in the light. He would not save a dying man. Gentle in temper—and pitiless. As a subject, all for the realm, Pei Lang was loyal.
But—so long as he stood on Fu Xiuyi's side, this life they were fated enemies.
At this hour Fu Xiuyi should not yet have won Pei over. Before that—cut the bond and draw the scholar to her side? Or simply… strangle him in the cradle.
Pei set down his scroll. He felt a gaze and looked up into Shen Miao's unreadable eyes.
She sat far back. Even so she watched him stubbornly, straight in her seat. Strange—Pei thought—that look held scrutiny and judgment, as if weighing gain and loss. Stretch it further and it was almost a picky look from above.
He paused, wanting a clearer read of her face. The girl picked up her brush and bent her head. Pei smiled inwardly and shook his head. How could a little girl wear that lofty air? Judgment and scrutiny were impossible—Shen Miao was Guangwen Hall's stupidest, most timid pupil.
He straightened his materials and began today's lesson.
The whole second year was drowsy.
Reckoning and accounts bore easily on the mind. However finely Pei taught, these were boys and girls of fourteen or fifteen—restless years. Who could listen? Autumn sky, crisp air—heads nodded everywhere.
Another master would have the ruler out, scolding. Pei was the gentlest; he never punished. His class was where courage ran highest. Only Shen Qing, who often topped reckoning, listened hard. The rest amused themselves as they pleased.
Today Shen Miao was different.
She didn't blink, watching Pei, sitting straight as if utterly absorbed. Incredible—she usually hated study; reckoning bored her most. Not sleeping was already a miracle. Now she listened?
Her desk-mate was a pretty girl in a thin jacket embroidered with chrysanthemums, face proud. She shot Shen Miao startled glances, again and again turning to see this earnest listening.
Shen Miao had no mind for that. Last life she disliked reckoning; as empress, roots unsettled, even the inner palace had to count every coin. She cut her own expenses. After doing the books herself, reckoning didn't seem so hard. From grand ritual costs down to a consort's cup and cakes—the accounts were many and tangled; she had seen them all. What were these textbook sums?
She only wanted to see clearly what kind of man Scholar Pei was.
Only then could she know what method suited him.
That focus, in the girl beside her, looked deeply strange. When reckoning ended and Pei left, Shen Miao finally looked away.
The girl nudged her, surprise in her voice. "Shen Miao, are you possessed?"
"Why do you say that?" Shen Miao asked. The girl was Feng Anning, legitimate daughter of the Chamberlain for Ceremonial Feng family.
The Fengs had been noble ministers in the capital. Feng Anning was raised proud. In her last life Feng's father chose the wrong side; after the new reign he was stripped of office. To save the daughter the family married her early to a distant cousin. The Feng house fell. Feng Anning's marriage brought no peace—the cousin was gold outside, rot within. Within a year he kept a mistress with a son and called Feng Anning baggage the Fengs had dumped on him. She couldn't swallow insult. She took shears and died with the mistress.
Past lives—smoke now. Who could see this proud girl's later ruin?
Shen Miao looked at Guangwen Hall's youths like children Fu Ming's and Wanyu's age. Hard to take real offense. Except mouth-twisted villains like Shen Qing and Shen Yue, most were only spoiled children. In a decade or so they would taste fate's cruelty.
Her silence annoyed Feng Anning. "Are you ignoring me on purpose? Shen Miao, studying this hard today—for the review next month? Your sister says you want to shine at the review so… someone will notice you."
Still children. After Pei's words she didn't say "Prince Ding" aloud.
"Review?" Shen Miao raised a brow.