Chapter 174: Mountain Estate

The estate, also called "shu" or "shushe," was a fashionable asset among the nobility of the time.

The prosperity of estates began in the Eastern Han, and during the chaos of the Five Barbarians and the southern migration of the aristocracy, a trend emerged of clearing land and building estates, seizing rivers and mountains—after which estates became increasingly popular.

Smaller ones featured irrigation channels and field paths; larger ones embraced mountains and waters, encompassing thousands of hectares!

The Le family's estate was built in the Green Forest Mountains, spanning twenty-five li in circumference and occupying over eighty hectares—small compared to the colossal estates of the wealthiest clans, yet still substantial. However, it was far from Jingzhou City; Wang Yang departed before dawn and only entered the mountains near noon.

The Green Forest Mountains were not a solitary peak but a vast mountain range stretching eastward, dense with forests and rich in terrain. Since Wang Mang's usurpation of the Han, bandits had risen here, hiding tens of thousands of soldiers. Banditry persisted thereafter. When the Wu state developed the south and northern aristocratic families migrated en masse, a wave of land-clearing and mountain-seizing swept through, and the mountain bandits had long been eradicated. Three major estates and two smaller ones now stood here, yet vast stretches of deep, uninhabited wilderness still remained.

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang had been waiting at the mountain pass with his men for a long time: "Brother! What happened yesterday? Why didn't you come earlier?!"

By Le family tradition, on the summer solstice, they sent out wide invitations to relatives and friends to escape the heat at the estate. Le's wife, to pave the way for her son, invited three noble youths to stay three days early. But Wang Yang was tied up with Xiao Baoyue's "elective course" and could only arrive a day late.

Wang Yang dismounted, handed the reins to Chen Chen Chen Qingshan, then walked forward: "Ah Le, you don't understand—I'm a man of the world, bound by circumstances!"

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang joked: "You didn't get held up by some girl, did you?"

Actually... in a certain sense... yes...

Wang Yang smiled bitterly.

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang's face twisted in shock: "You really did?! Then Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Xie Lady Xie Niangzi..."

"What about Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Xie Lady Xie Niangzi?"

"Look at you, still pretending with me..."

"Huh? Pretending what?" Wang Yang frowned.

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang lowered his voice: "Brother, I'll give you one piece of advice—Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie family isn't like others. Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Xie Lady Xie Niangzi's father is now the Minister of the Secretariat. Be discreet in every way, or you might stir up trouble."

???

Wang Yang felt this scene was eerily familiar—it was exactly how Yuyang Le Pang had acted the first time they met! Acting as if he knew everything, then giving earnest advice—yet you had no clue what he was talking about!

"Ah Le, what's gotten into you now?"

"If you keep pretending, it's pointless! I'm only looking out for you... If you're worried about damaging our brotherhood, don't be—I deeply admire Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Xie Lady Xie Niangzi, but it's pure admiration, no other hopes! Not just because our social standings don't match—I wouldn't even dare speak to her! So you can rest easy with me..."

"Rest easy? What the hell are you even talking about—"

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang glanced at Chen Chen Chen Qingshan and whispered: "Have you told Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Xie Lady Xie Niangzi you're taking a concubine?"

!!!!

"Wh-what the hell are you saying?!"

"You're the ghost! Quietly snatching one of the Three Beauties of the Imperial Capital—you're not a ghost?"

"I snatched what?!"

"Fine! You won't admit it, huh!"

If this spread, what chaos would follow?! Especially with the "Chu Yao Gate" precedent! Wang Yang grew wary: "Admit what? Where did you hear this rumor?!"

"Rumor? Did you go to the Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie residence?"

"I did! I visited the Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie residence as a guest—so what?!" Wang Yang replied firmly.

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang waved his hand, even more confidently: "Go ask around Jingzhou City—when has the Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie residence ever allowed men to visit?!"

At that moment, Le Zhan sent a sedan to fetch them—called a "jianyu," it came in sizes carried by two, four, eight, or even twenty men. Le Zhan's was a four-man bamboo-pole sedan, simply decorated but ideal for mountain paths.

Wang Yang boarded the sedan and could no longer argue with Le Le Yue Xiao Pang, but said seriously: "I only visited for a meal. I did nothing else. Don't guess wildly, and don't spread rumors."

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang also boarded, and as they were lifted together, he grinned slyly: "I understand, I understand—I'm the tightest-lipped man alive."

You understand nothing!

Green trees cast shade; wildflowers bloomed in competition. The deeper they entered the mountains, the cooler it became.

Wang Yang admired the scenery while Le Le Yue Xiao Pang described his family's estate. In those days, any respectable aristocratic estate combined recreation and production. A house built in the mountains with a thatched hut, or a few rice paddies and orchards—by the standards of the scholar-gentry, these didn't even qualify as estates.

Southern Dynasty estates prized "embracing mountains and waters" and "self-sufficiency in all things." The former demanded scenic beauty—mountains, rivers, streams, rocks, trees, and grasses, perfect for leisure and hospitality; the latter demanded practicality—grains, vegetables, fruits, mulberry trees, silkworms, wine, and medicine, sufficient for self-use and profitable for sale.

Though Le Le Yue Xiao Pang seemed scatterbrained, he spoke fluently about estate scenery and mountain flora. This grove produced honey in June; that field grew yingyu grapes for brewing mountain-clear wine; beyond this chestnut forest, seven li east lay the estate of the He family of Lujiang. They were Buddhist, so they built a meditation chamber and monks' quarters—visit in the morning, and you'd hear monks chanting sutras.

Continuing west for about two incense sticks' time, there was a waterfall, its cliffs towering over twenty zhang on either side. During the Great Ming dynasty, the court issued the "Mountain Seizure Edict," limiting how much land officials of each rank could claim. This waterfall nearly got confiscated! But Le's ancestor secretly built a stone dam upstream, stocked it with fish fry—because the edict had a clause: "Those who improve the land may retain it." Add to that his ancestor's friendship with the then Governor of Nanyun, and they slipped through the cracks, keeping the waterfall. But north of the dam lay uninhabited wilderness, rumored to be home to tigers, bears, wolves, and other beasts, extending into the outer mountain range...

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang spoke of these matters effortlessly—he'd heard and seen them since childhood, and had recounted them to guests countless times. It was "family tradition." As Wang Yang traveled, he saw vast stretches of forest and fields—all Le family's. Along the way, laborers, servants, gardeners, and fruit farmers bowed and greeted Le Le Yue Xiao Pang. It was as if a national-level 5A scenic reserve had been carved out and handed to a private family—he finally understood, truly and fully, what the scholar-gentry's wealth truly meant.

Seeing Wang Yang fascinated, Le Le Yue Xiao Pang asked curiously: "Don't you have a mountain estate?"

"No."

"Why not buy one?"

Wang Yang had told Le Le Yue Xiao Pang he was short on cash, but Le Le Yue Xiao Pang still couldn't grasp it. In Le Le Yue Xiao Pang's eyes, Wang Yang ran a massive silk business yet claimed poverty—what did "not poor" even look like? His family's wealth had to be extraordinary!

Wang Yang: Why not buy one? Because I don't like it? That stings...

"Actually, you do." Le Le Yue Xiao Pang wore an expression of knowing insight.

"I truly don't." Wang Yang said seriously.

"Really not?" Le Le Yue Xiao Pang sat up, craning his neck to study Wang Yang's face, as if checking whether he was joking.

Wang Yang stared blankly.

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang finally believed him, leaned back, and murmured: "But you still do..."

Wang Yang:???

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang grinned mischievously: "The Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie family has one, so..."

Wang Yang sighed deeply, thinking Le Le Yue Xiao Pang had a perverse sense of humor—always dragging him and Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Xing into things. The more you avoided it, the more he pushed. To break this tactic, you had to be even more outrageous.

Wang Yang grinned slyly: "So I'm planning to tell Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Xie Lady Xie Niangzi about that poem you meant to give her—what was it again? 'Wine half-drunk as wind rises...'"

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang jumped in fright, babbling: "No no no no! If you do that, we'll both die! Total, irreversible death! Even if we don't die right away, we'll be beaten to death!"

Wang Yang said coolly: "I'm the one who reported it—I get credit. Why would I die?"

"I'll die! I'll die myself! Fine! You're amazing! You still remember..."

Life always has moments that make you cringe until you feel shattered.

For Yuyang Le Pang, there were three: first, at twelve, when he fell into a manure pit while leading the kids, crawled out, and terrified the younger ones into crying; second, when he met his maternal grandfather at Fuyongli, and both froze with identical smiles; third, when he discovered the poem he'd carried for two months, recited endlessly, meant to impress Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Xie Lady Xie Niangzi and show he had the spirit of Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lingyun—was actually his mother's pornographic verse!!!

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang remembered that moment and wanted to bash his head against a wall.

No—he should've bashed Sun Duo's head first, then his own!

Sun Duo, that bastard, insulted a celestial maiden—he deserved to die! But I was completely tricked! If I'd actually submitted it...

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang shuddered, too terrified to imagine what would happen next.

The heavens would collapse!

Wang Yang watched Le Le Yue Xiao Pang's terrified face and smiled: "Speaking of that poem—"

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang covered his face: "Brother, I'm sorry! Please, don't mention it again!"

"So you won't say..."

"I won't! Not even at your wedding!"

Wang Yang narrowed his eyes: "Willow droops, willow sways!"

"Ahh!!!" Le Le Yue Xiao Pang screamed like a startled rabbit, clutching his ears and begging for mercy.

Wang Yang stopped pressing him, humming a tune as he admired the scenery.

After a while, Le Le Yue Xiao Pang, uneasy, asked: "Can you help me? I haven't met the other two of the Three Beauties of the Imperial Capital. I heard the daughter of the Marquis of Marquis Marquis Xichang is close to Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Xie Lady Xie Niangzi—can you ask her to introduce me?"

"You're really persistent about this star, aren't you?"

"What star? What does that mean?"

"It means you're very enthusiastic. Just ask Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Lady Xie Lady Lady Xie Lady Xie Niangzi yourself."

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang instantly wilted: "I'm too scared. Besides, she probably won't agree."

Le Le Yue Xiao Pang clasped his fists, earnestly pleading: "Ask her for me—you're the only one who can! She'll say yes! I just want to meet her once, send a letter—no more than that!"

"You want to send a letter?!" Wang Yang grew wary.

"Just to express my admiration! And you can write it for me—"

"Stop right there—I'm not doing this!"

Writing letters for others left a shadow in his soul.