Chapter 54

As the students leave class with their newly awarded primeval stones, ordinary students bow and greet the elated Gu Yue Mo Bei as chairman, while Gu Yue Chi Cheng, made vice chairman for placing third, walks behind him out of reluctance to offer the same greeting himself, and privately begins to want the chairmanship for himself despite enjoying his own new rank. ^{ch. 54}

At the academy gate, Fang Yuan stops Gu Yue Fang Zheng and demands the usual toll, but when Fang Zheng protests that he is now vice chairman, Fang Yuan tells him the vice chairman’s allowance of five primeval stones each time means he should hand over three instead. When Gu Yue Mo Bei arrives with a crowd of students and orders Fang Yuan to bow to him as chairman, Fang Yuan answers with his fists, knocking Mo Bei unconscious while the gate guards, warned off by what happened to Wang Da and Wu Er, look away. ^{ch. 54}

Fang Yuan then deals with Fang Zheng and Chi Cheng the same way and announces new terms: one primeval stone from an ordinary student, three from a vice chairman, and eight from the class chairman. The students realize he refused the chairmanship only to keep extorting them freely, calculating that his usual take of about fifty-nine primeval stones has now risen to about sixty-eight. ^{ch. 54}

The academy elder, furious that Fang Yuan’s refusal and continued extortion openly weaken the standing of the chairman and vice chairman posts, recognizes he cannot move against Fang Yuan without provoking the clan head, Gu Yue Chi Lian, and Gu Yue Mo Chen, who each have hopes riding on their own grandsons’ futures at the academy. Turning to three investigation reports on his desk covering Fang Yuan’s family background, his early life, and his recent habits, including his fondness for green bamboo wine and the tens of pots of it kept under his hostel bed, the elder still finds no clue to the secret behind his advancement before a guard interrupts to summon him: Jia Fu has returned, and his brother Jia Jin Sheng has gone missing. ^{ch. 54}