Chapter 89

Jiao San praises Fang Yuan’s performance and recites the clan’s rules for its Gu Masters: each must complete at least one clan mission a month, missions come from the internal affairs hall or the external affair hall and only one may be accepted at a time until finished, abandoning a mission under special conditions drags an evaluation down and is a right only rank two Gu Masters hold, once a year, and a Gu Master’s evaluation shapes their whole future in the clan. Fang Yuan notes to himself that Jiao San has told him nothing false but has left out much, then thanks him coolly when Jiao San assigns the group’s next task, a low-danger wild deer hunt suited for practice. ^{ch. 89}

Kong Jing and the two female Gu Masters press Fang Yuan to properly thank the group leader, perhaps by treating him to lunch; one female Gu Master credits him with a hundred primeval stones as his reward for placing first in the year end exam and says she envies such a sum, while the group warns that the group leader’s portion of his evaluation can make or break him. Jiao San waves off the pressure with feigned generosity, promising to look after Fang Yuan’s evaluation as a newcomer, but Fang Yuan, knowing the group leader’s share of an evaluation is only a small part decided mostly by the internal affairs hall and caring nothing for a standing in a clan he means to leave once he reaches rank three, cuts the scene short and says he must go. ^{ch. 89}

The four Gu Masters react with shock at being brushed off, and Jiao San hurries after Fang Yuan, offering to help him find rental housing through his own connections. Landlord after landlord quotes him a price along the way: fifteen primeval stones a month with no bargaining, another refusing an offer of eight, a twenty-five percent deposit demanded on top of rent elsewhere, and a spacious second floor across from the clan leader’s pavilion at twenty-five primeval stones a month, which the group urges as affordable since his exam reward alone could cover four months there. Fang Yuan turns down every option as too costly, and when Kong Jing suggests a cheaper underground apartment instead, Fang Yuan silently notes the malice in it, since the village’s damp, cold winter would make such a room a health risk. ^{ch. 89}

By nightfall Fang Yuan has found no house, and while the group presses him for being too picky, Mother Shen arrives to say the academy can no longer be stayed at and that his uncle and aunt have prepared a banquet and sent her to bring him home instead. Fang Yuan recognizes the timing as no coincidence, understanding that his uncle and aunt are the true masterminds and that Jiao San has been the chain built to bind him to their will, and he lets his silence read as hesitation while Jiao San urges him, with feigned concern, to save his primeval stones and stay with his aunt and uncle rather than rent. ^{ch. 89}