After that day, "Shen Gengxu" never again attempted to confront Xie Yu face to face.
Xie Yu felt much more at ease. As usual, every few days she would check the notice board and debate with "Shen Gengxu," and she continued putting fish into the pool each day.
Her fishing skills improved steadily. At first, the fish she released were ones she bought from passing fisherwomen. Later, they were fish she had caught herself.
Both women were fully aware of each other's existence. Though they did not meet, a silent understanding grew between them.
On the reeds by the pool, a slip of paper tied with fishing line fluttered in the wind, conspicuous among the dense green.
Slender fingers gently untied the line and removed the note.
Shen Changyin held the fish basket in one hand and the note in the other. It read:
"Three chi and two cun. For your information."
She looked into the pool. A silver carp nearly as long as her arm swam quietly in the water.
Had she caught this herself?
Her skills had improved.
Unlike before, when the pool had been full of tiny miscellaneous fish no longer than a palm and thinner than chopsticks.
She smiled faintly, carefully tucked the note away, and hauled up the carp.
Such a large fish required considerable effort to land. Fine beads of sweat formed on her forehead before she finally lifted the now heavy basket again.
The prefectural examination was about to begin. Once she passed, she would be recognized as a licentiate. Each month she would receive a grain stipend from the court and could also teach at a children's academy for additional income.
In short, once she passed, she would never have to endure hunger as she had before.
So lately she had been focusing on her studies, and the frequency of her debates with the straw-hatted woman had decreased to once a week.
By now, their debate had shifted from broad ideological differences to finer points and practical methods.
Though their tone in essays was never friendly—each fiercely attacking the other's logical flaws while praising her own rigor—
For Shen Changyin, writing these essays with the straw-hatted woman was no longer a burden. It had become a form of relaxation.
Sometimes, when she was driven into exasperation by a sharp rebuttal, the two of them would scribble tiny personal insults unrelated to the debate on the back of the essay paper.
The straw-hat woman said she was so frail, without the strength to truss a chicken, so what right did she have to discuss matters of the battlefield?
She replied, "Since you are so well-developed in your limbs, why is it that the fish you catch are only as long and wide as a finger?"
After receiving this evaluation, the straw-hat woman was deeply discouraged. On the back of her next reply, she wrote: "You're a bad person."
Thinking of this, Shen Changyin smiled. The sturdy silver carp in her grass basket thrashed its tail forcefully, and she had to use both hands to hold it steady.
Behind her, on a bright green reed, a new slip of paper had been tied with fishing line. In neat, elegant regular script, it read: "The provincial exam approaches. Our battle of words shall pause."
Two days later, when she returned, there were still new fish in the puddle, and another fresh slip of paper on the reed. It was concise and to the point:
"Very well. I wish you success."
The reed seemed bent by the weight of something. Shen Changyin lifted the thin fishing line and found a lump of deep black ink hanging from it.
She sniffed it. A faint fragrance wafted from the ink—it was high-quality pine soot ink. One touch was enough to know it was expensive.
If this ink had been given by someone else, she would probably have refused it in anger. But this time, Shen Changyin smiled and tossed the pine soot ink lightly in her palm.
Giving ink to a scholar about to take the imperial examination could not be more fitting. She accepted this blessing from the strange straw-hat fisherwoman.
She wondered whether the other woman would also be taking the imperial examination.
With that thought, she returned to the city and began reviewing her studies. Until the exams were over, she did not go outside the city again.
Some time earlier, she had sold the fish given to her by the straw-hat fisherwoman and earned some money, buying basic rice and grain to store at home. So she had no worries about her livelihood and focused entirely on studying.
On the day she left the examination compound, without even putting down the things in her hands, she rushed straight to the teahouse, borrowed paper and brush from the proprietress, and calmly sat in the central spot on the first floor—the seat the straw-hat fisherwoman liked most. In a sweeping, unrestrained manner, she wrote two full pages of policy argument and posted them on the notice board.
She stepped back and scrutinized her handwriting with a critical eye. Then her thoughts began to wander without restraint.
She wondered what that straw-hat woman had been doing lately.
—
Xie Yu was thinking about Shen Changyin.
She lay on the bed in the princess residence, bored, and turned over.
This dream was really long. She was starting to miss Shen Changyin.
She had tried several times to suddenly fall backward, attempting to use the sensation of weightlessness to startle herself awake and escape the dream. The only result, however, was smashing heavily into her pillow—nothing more.
Perhaps her body had not yet woken up, so she could not wake either.
She yawned while lying in bed.
Through the open door, she looked at a massive water vat in her sitting room. Inside were three or four large fish she had personally caught, along with a wild koi that had undergone a genetic mutation and was brilliantly colored.
Her divine fishing skills had reached perfection.
How empty and lonely it was to be invincible.
From making her own bait, to crafting her own fishing rods, to improving fishing lines, to designing stylish floats—she could do everything herself now. Her skill was approaching that of a master.
There was truly nothing left to play with. Unless she opened up a new route for sea fishing in the future, she had already lost interest in freshwater fishing.
Turning over again, she thought: she wondered whether that Shen had finished her exams. Their verbal sparring had actually been quite interesting.
Her confidence returned. She felt that this time in the dream she had greatly trained her eloquence. Once she woke up, she certainly would not be so often left speechless by Shen Changyin as before.
That very afternoon she went to the teahouse to take a look. Sure enough, the other woman had finished the exams and had posted a new policy essay.
After reading it, Xie Yu prepared to go home and write a response.
On the way back, the streets were bustling. A child bumped into her, and the child's mother hurried over to apologize.
She waved her hand. "It's fine."
But the mother still urged the child to apologize personally.
The child pouted. "But today is my birthday! I—"
Seeing tears welling in the child's eyes, Xie Yu quickly said, "It's really fine. Happy birthday."
Then she hurried off, her steps growing lighter and lighter.
She knew what she should do next in this dream.
Shen Changyin's birthday was only a month away. She could experiment in the dream—bake the cake that had failed last time, and figure out how to make cream as well.
For the next stretch of time, she passed her days baking cakes while debating with that young woman surnamed Shen. She still occasionally went fishing by the river and each time left fish in the puddle, though now at a much lower frequency—once every seven days.
Gradually, she and "Shen Gengxu" reached a unified understanding.
"Shen Gengxu" began to acknowledge that torture was not as effective as claimed and could bring more negative consequences—for example, causing psychological torment to the torturer herself, or making criminals on the battlefield less willing to surrender, and so on.
At the same time, she had to admit that in ancient times, without technologies such as surveillance, DNA, or the internet, solving cases and gathering intelligence was inherently difficult. Physical punishment for prisoners and captives could not be removed from the historical stage overnight; at best, one could try to prevent it from devolving into excessively inhumane methods of pure torment.
Their mutual compromise greatly dissatisfied the onlookers who had been following the "serial" updates at the notice board. They had been waiting for the two women to determine a decisive victor—how could they reconcile?
Boring. I want to see blood flow like a river.jpg.
But regardless of what the crowd thought, the two women gradually came to understand each other and even began discussing how to create a just, effective, and gradually improvable penal system.
"Shen Gengxu" proposed establishing a professional interrogator system, providing specialized training for these interrogators, and, in important prisoner-of-war interrogations, adopting a system of bringing in interrogators from other regions.
In other words, if interrogating foreign enemies from the northwest, interrogators should be transferred from the inland regions. Local interrogators in the northwest would have deep blood feuds with those enemies; interrogations could easily turn into personal emotional venting for revenge rather than necessary means to obtain intelligence.
Xie Yu agreed and added that training for these interrogators should include substantial psychological knowledge, teaching them to combine firmness and flexibility and to identify prisoners' psychological weaknesses. She even cited many examples similar to the "Prisoner's Dilemma."
In the end, the two women reached agreement.
Shen Changyin borrowed paper and brush from the teahouse proprietress and wrote a detailed and comprehensive policy essay, but instead of posting it, she left it on the counter.
The next day, Xie Yu took the essay and made the revisions she deemed necessary.
On the third day, Shen Changyin recopied the integrated essence of their combined views and posted it on the notice board under the title "On Punishment."
As soon as it appeared, the essay drew tremendous attention. With logic that was nearly impossible to attack and detailed, rigorous argumentation, it persuaded everyone and essentially unified the views of both the pro-torture and anti-torture factions.
For a time, onlookers rushed to read it, crowding the teahouse to the point of being impenetrable. It even gave rise to a temporary profession of copying "On Punishment"—impoverished scholars would transcribe the essay and sell copies, and people scrambled to buy them.
Even many academy teachers purchased the essay to use as teaching material for their students.
For a while, it truly seemed as though paper in the capital had become expensive.
A problem that had lasted for months was finally resolved to everyone's satisfaction. People felt that until a new debate topic emerged, these two would no longer post arguments on the notice board.
Some even expressed regret that they would no longer see such intense and tightly structured debates.
Yet to their surprise, the next day several familiar little slips of paper appeared again on the board.
The onlookers: "?"
Didn't you two already reach a conclusion? What are you still writing about?
Looking closer, they realized the two women were using the place as an information exchange center, not discussing serious matters at all—one being straightforward and confident, the other tactful and subtle, engaging in mutual commercial-style praise.
Shen wrote that the straw-hat fisherwoman must take the imperial examination, or the state would lose an important talent—this would be the government's loss and also a personal moral failing on her part.
It sounded as if she were accusing the straw-hat fisherwoman of lacking virtue and unwilling to serve the country. But as people read on, they gradually understood.
Wasn't this praising the other woman's unparalleled talent?
The straw-hat fisherwoman replied that although they had ultimately reached agreement, she still felt Shen cited the classics too frequently, likely making it hard for ordinary people to understand.
As everyone read, they fell silent.
One scholar boldly spoke up: "Is she saying that this Shen is so formidable that we ordinary people simply cannot comprehend her level?"
The crowd nodded. The crowd grew angry.
The next day, when Xie Yu arrived at the notice board, she discovered that beside the original large board, a smaller one had appeared.
In large, furious characters it read: "If you want to talk about romance, come here."
Fearing the two women might lack self-awareness, smaller characters below even listed their nicknames.
"Shen Gengxu." "Straw-Hat Fisherwoman."
Apparently, everyone now believed the two had become emotionally connected and mutually enamored.
At first, Xie Yu only found it amusing and laughed for a while.
But suddenly, the back of her head tingled.
Her expression changed. She hurried back to the princess residence, asked for a bowl of ice water, and shut herself in at her desk.
How could anyone think she and that "Shen Gengxu" were romantically involved?
Had others misunderstood, or had she herself crossed a boundary?
She looked at the several ovens in the courtyard prepared for baking Shen Changyin's cake and felt distinctly uneasy.
Her desire to see Shen Changyin reached its peak.
She let out a breath and decided first that, before this dream ended, she would no longer communicate with that "Shen Gengxu."
Then she resolved that no matter what method she used, she had to wake up from the dream first.
She wanted to hug Shen Changyin.
She spread bedding on the floor, sat on a chair, and leaned her center of gravity backward.
She fell heavily backward.
The sensation of weightlessness instantly hung in her chest.
—
On the other side of the capital, in front of the teahouse, Shen Changyin—known as "Shen Gengxu"—also saw that notice board.
The corner of her lips lifted. She did not feel displeased at all; instead, she found the onlookers of the capital rather interesting.
Seeing no message from the straw-hat fisherwoman on the board, she did not intend to stay long. Before leaving, she picked up her brush, drew a fish on a small slip of paper, and posted it on the even smaller board.
The next day was the day the provincial exam results were released. It was also the tacitly agreed-upon "fishing" and "collecting fish" day between her and the straw-hat fisherwoman.
She rose early and waited at the entrance of the examination compound for the results to be posted.
Her face was calm and undisturbed. Among the anxious examinees who were nearly sweating from nerves, she appeared especially serene and composed. She wore a blue robe washed so often it had grown whiter and softer with each laundering, yet it made her temperament stand out all the more.
A teacher who had brought students to view the results even pointed at her, using her as an example to lecture her students about bearing and mindset.
Shen Changyin heard it but said nothing.
The instant the results were posted, she squeezed to the very front of the crowd.
Her eyes immediately sought the first row of the list.
The name "Shen Yu" stood at the very top.
The corner of her lips curved upward uncontrollably. She tried to suppress it, managed for only a breath, and then the smile burst out across her face again.
She pushed her way out of the crowd, her steps still unhurried. Only after turning into a deserted alley did she joyfully run two laps.
Her body was frail; she did not run fast and usually avoided such energy-consuming movements as much as possible.
But now, with the wind rushing past her ears, she felt overwhelming joy.
She looked up at the bright sky above the alley, at that pale blue found only in nature. It felt as though a great hole had opened in her heart—not pain, but exhilaration.
It was as if the wind passed straight through her chest to her back, blowing away all the darkness buried in her heart.
From today onward, she was a recognized scholar.
She was no longer that poor, despised bastard others could bully at will.
From this starting point, she would only climb higher.
She had never been so happy.
She thought: I have a friend, a confidante, and someone kind to me—and they happen to be the same person. I have achievement, a future, and a solid foundation—all on this very day.
She could not imagine how her life could possibly turn bad now.
After finishing her two laps, she stood in place, breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling violently. Then she suddenly straightened.
I have to tell her!
She broke into a light run, racing toward the riverbank outside the city.
The broad river looked like a vast silk cloth painted across the sky, rolling forward smoothly.
The shadows of mountains reflected on the water's surface, disturbed by swimming waterfowl. Fish occasionally leapt out, strong tails flashing briefly.
Everything along the embankment seemed dyed with pigment—so green, so even.
The closer she drew to the riverbank, the faster young Shen Changyin's steps became, until she could not help but run.
She dashed down the slope from the top of the embankment, nearly losing control of her speed. Several times she had to sway her body to regain balance to avoid tumbling down.
She had to tell her! She had to tell her in person!
She ran to the riverbank and looked around but did not see the figure of the straw-hat fisherwoman angling quietly.
She did not mind much. The old woman had said the fisherwoman usually came in the morning, but quite late.
She found a clean stone by the riverbank, wiped it with her handkerchief, and sat down.
The river water slapped against the rocks again and again. The tiny splashes could not even dampen her shoes and socks before falling back into the water and merging once more with the surface.
Shen Changyin waited quietly, narrowing her eyes and feeling the bright sunlight pouring down from above.
She could wait. She could wait a long time.
Because she knew the other woman would come today.
—
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