Old Madam Shen didn’t expect the conversation to go this way, so she didn’t keep it private. News of their discussion about Ruojin’s dowry spread.

When Shen Ruojin heard this, she almost collapsed.

The family’s financial situation had gotten worse in recent years. Shen Yu’s attempts to find a job had failed, and if the dowry followed family rules, Ruojin might not receive much more than her half-sister, Shen Ruolin.

Although Old Madam Shen raised her, Ruojin knew that her grandmother’s love was conditional. Her grandmother wanted her to bring honor to the family. Raising her, sending her to be a companion to the princess, and arranging her marriage was seen as a big favor. Her grandmother wouldn’t dip into her personal savings for Ruojin’s dowry.

Ruojin’s mother, Luo Xin, had always been distant, especially now that she favored Tao Sheng. Luo Xin, influenced by her father, Old Master Luo, was willing to offer a dowry almost equal to her grandmother’s.

But Ruojin was marrying into the Duke’s family, where many generations lived together. If her dowry was too small, people might look down on her.

Her friends thought she was pampered, loved by her grandmother and parents, and experienced from being a companion to the princess. If they found out her dowry was smaller than that of concubines, they would gossip, and she might become a laughing stock.

Ruojin felt cold all over, as if she had fallen into an ice cellar.

What should she do?

_

While the Shen family struggled to gather enough dowry money for Ruojin, Tao Sheng had the opposite problem—too many people were offering her money.

Just yesterday, General Lu invited her again to teach his children to play the zither. 

At first, Tao Sheng didn’t want to go, but this was the fifth invitation. Even Zhuge Liang ^[1]refers to famous wise man from history. was only visited three times by Liu Bei. Tao Sheng felt guilty for not responding after so many invitations.

Since she had no big responsibilities, she couldn’t find a good excuse not to go. So she agreed.

After going, Tao Sheng found that the Lu family paid fairly, but the students had no basic knowledge. The family also kept adding more students—from three to eight.

When Tao Sheng returned, she was exhausted.

Her true talent was composing music, not teaching zither. But it was hard to find a job that fit her skills in this era.

Before she could relax, the King of Chu entered the room, sighing.

Since their families became close, the King of Chu visited every few days, becoming more familiar with the place than his concubine’s quarters.

Usually, the King of Chu was cheerful when visiting. He brought his own food, ate first, then fed the chickens. Sometimes, he would drink with Ji Yanming and enjoy his time.

Most people have dogs or cats, but the King of Chu’s recent dream was to stroke the feathers of a phoenix. However, being old and slow, he had not succeeded.

Two days ago, Ji Yanming was sent to Jinzhou by the Ministry of Justice.There was a cheating scandal in the local exam, and several students had reported it to the capital.

Hearing this, the Ministry of Justice thought Ji Yanming, who had ranked in the top six during his exams, could help with the case. They believed his deep knowledge of the rules could be useful in solving the exam fraud case, so they requested him from the Hanlin Academy.

Tao Sheng found it strange that they thought Ji Yanming could help simply because of his exam success, but it made sense if it was for his intelligence.

Tao Sheng thought that with Ji Yanming gone, the King of Chu might visit less often. However, two days after Ji Yanming left, the King of Chu visited again.

This time, when the King of Chu came over, he didn’t look good, and he wasn’t in the mood to tease Xiao Feng. Instead, he came directly to find Tao Sheng.

Tao Sheng stood up and greeted the angry King of Chu: “What’s wrong with you, Your Highness?”

“I had a quarrel with someone.”

“Quarrel?” Tao Sheng found it strange. The King of Chu never had a good temper, and when he got mad, he wouldn’t care about anyone’s status. Who would dare to fight with him?

“Who did Your Highness quarrel with?”

“It was that old fool Shi Guan again!” the King of Chu said angrily.

Tao Sheng had heard of Shi Guan, a well-known figure in the music world and an important official sitting in the third chair of the Taiyue Bureau.

A few years ago, the emperor wanted to promote ritual music. The Taiyue Bureau became more important and was summoned to the Xuanzheng Hall frequently.

On this day, Lord Shi went to Xuanzheng Hall, where the King of Chu was playing chess with the emperor.

During their conversation, Lord Shi mentioned he had found a rare book from a famous scholar of the Wei and Jin Dynasties. It contained four pieces of music. He and his team had been working on revising it because it was old and damaged.

The other pieces were easy to fix, but the last one was too hard. The score was a unique copy, and it was difficult to restore.

The King of Chu had a long-standing grudge against Shi Guan and felt like he was exaggerating. So, he interrupted and said that his zither teacher in the mansion was an expert in this field. He boasted that Tao Sheng was only sixteen but was great at composing and revising music. If Shi Guan was struggling, he could give the music to Tao Sheng, and she might surprise everyone.

“Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!” Lord Shi was shocked. “I’ve been working with the Imperial Music Bureau for two weeks, and we have no clue. How could a young girl fix this?”

The King of Chu felt insulted and mocked Lord Shi, saying he was just bad at his job. Shi Guan, angry, said, “Fine! Take the score back. If she’s that skilled, give me results in three months.”

The King of Chu, full of confidence, replied, “Why three months? I’ll give you results in ten days!”

Tao Sheng: …

Why should she pay for his boasting?

She had just come home tired from work and didn’t expect to be given more tasks by the King of Chu.

She knew from Mr. Wei ^[2]refers to Tao Sheng’s mentor. that he had clashed with Shi Guan before. In the past, when Shi Guan struggled to compose music, it was Mr. Wei’s student who finished it, helping Wei gain respect.

Tao Sheng took the music score from the King of Chu and sighed, “I’ll give it a try.”

After the argument, the King of Chu regretted his boast. He should have agreed to the three months. Now, the deadline was just ten days, and he worried that Tao Sheng wasn’t up for it.

Seeing Tao Sheng looked exhausted, the King of Chu asked, “What if you can’t finish it?”

Tao Sheng said helplessly, “You’re the one who boasted in front of the emperor. If I can’t do it, we’ll have to make something up to fool people.”

The score was in the style of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, mostly played with overtones ^[3]refers to musical notes higher than the normal range., and had a strong style of that time. Tao Sheng had heard similar pieces before and could revise it. If she couldn’t, she’d just adjust it slightly.

After all, this song was rare, and few people had heard it. As long as it followed the general style of the original, adding some personal touches wouldn’t be noticed.

The King of Chu, however, became more anxious. “Can we really fool them like this?”

Tao Sheng replied, “Do you have a better idea?”

The King of Chu had gathered all the zither players and teachers in the palace to look at the score. After seeing it, no one dared to say they could fix it.

The King of Chu shook his head. “No.”

“Then let’s go ahead with my plan,” Tao Sheng said. “Your Highness, please return to your mansion. Stay calm, and I’ll have an answer for you in a few days.”

Since delivering the score, the King of Chu visited Ji’s house daily, checking if Tao Sheng needed help.

Tao Sheng wanted to say that his constant visits were distracting her, but seeing his hopeful look, she held back her words.

Luckily, the original music wasn’t too complicated. On the fourth day, Tao Sheng had a clear idea of the piece, and by the tenth day, she had completed the revisions.

Tao Sheng always took music seriously, but this was the first time she had “winged it” with such an important piece.

After giving the score to the King of Chu, she was nervous, fearing it might ruin her teacher’s reputation.

A few days later, Tao Sheng didn’t receive feedback on the music score. Instead, she got a letter of appointment from the Imperial Music Bureau.

***

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