Echoes of My Heart Throughout the Court

Xu Yanmiao shook his head and sighed. “He fainted way too early.”

Princess Xiangyang laughed. “You call this early?”

Xu Yanmiao remained silent.

Princess Xiangyang immediately sensed that something big was about to happen.

Before she could figure out what Xu Yanmiao had seen, she heard Xu Lang’s voice in her mind, shaking his head like an old scholar while sighing dramatically. But in reality, he was gloating:

[At least wait until you see the Crown Prince come to trouble you before fainting—no rush!]

Xu Yanmiao was startled. “Elder Quan? Elder Quan, what’s wrong?”

Quan—one of the current Grand Tutors of the Crown Prince—YiZhang, pressed a hand to his forehead. “It’s nothing. I must have been standing for too long. Feeling a bit dizzy.”

Yizhang added, “Help me over there to sit for a while.”

[Later, bring Gao Xiang along to take a look! The one the Crown Prince is troubling happens to be from that old pedant’s family—what a coincidence!]

[Now that the head of the family has fainted, with no one to take charge, they must be at a complete loss on what to do!]

[Tsk, tsk!]

Those last two sounds fully revealed Xu Lang’s schadenfreude.

Yizhang’s beard trembled as he coughed lightly. “I’m not that dizzy anymore. You seem to have things to do—once I’m seated, go ahead and take care of them.”

[Eh? That obvious?]

Xu Yanmiao helped the elder onto a long wooden bench in front of the teahouse. After observing him for a moment and confirming that his complexion was rosy and his breathing steady, she cupped her hands in salute. “I do indeed have matters to attend to. Please excuse me for now.”

Xu Yanmiao and Princess Xiangyang sneaked forward stealthily.

Yizhang and his disciples of the Ancient Literature School followed just as sneakily behind.

Their furtive movements dazzled the eyes of a student of the Tongxin Scholar.

The student coughed and tentatively asked, “Teacher, shouldn’t we follow and see what’s going on?”

Tongxin replied, “Stay true to your heart. If you wish to go, then go.”

“And you, Teacher…?”

The Tongxin Scholar stroked his newly installed threshold, then spoke words he would later regret: “Oh, I’m not that interested. What can you possibly see following that old stick-in-the-mud, Xiangpu?”

The disciple thought for a moment but remained curious. So, cautiously, he followed along. Before leaving, he even dragged a few equally curious fellow disciples with him.

Meanwhile, the Tongxin Scholar carefully examined his doorstep. After taking two steps back to admire it, he pondered seriously:

Should I install a pair of stone lions at the entrance?

Might be useful for sun-drying heavy quilts.

“Let me tell you, I went through great lengths to get this information!”

Xu Yanmiao whispered mysteriously, “Gao Xiang, do you know about the Treading Artisan Guild Hall?”

Princess Xiangyang shook her head. “What’s Treading Artisan? And what’s a Guild Hall?”

Xu Yanmiao began explaining.

After cotton fabric is dyed, workers must step on a concave stone, rolling it back and forth to make the fabric thinner, tighter, and shinier. This process is called treading fabric. The foremen who recruited artisans to live and work together in specialized districts for this process were known as treading artisans, and the districts became known as Treading Workshops.

“The recruited workers were called Treading Artisans.”

“What does that have to do with my brother?”

Princess Xiangyang scoffed. “With his legs? You think he can tread fabric?”

Xu Yanmiao lowered her voice, sounding even more mysterious. “He may be lame and unable to tread fabric, but he can do something else!”

Princess Xiangyang: “What?”

The two continued their conversation as they walked.

Before long, they arrived at Xu Yanmiao’s intended destination.

“Look down there!”

They had climbed onto a small earthen mound, and below them, a dense crowd had gathered. They stood just outside of it.

Princess Xiangyang, excited to see some drama unfold, exclaimed, “What are you showing me? Why are all these young, able-bodied men gathered here?”

Not far from the mound stood an ordinary household. Its entrance was piled high with jars of pickled vegetables.

Yizhang and the scholars of the Ancient Literature School were crouched behind the jars, peeking out cautiously.

“This… thousands of people gathered together—what are they doing?”

Yizhang’s tone was grave. “Are they… staging an uprising?”

Oops. He had gotten used to saying that back during the fall of the previous dynasty.

Yizhang coughed. “I mean… are they planning a rebellion?”

After all, three to four thousand young, strong men, all with furious expressions—it really did look the part.

—Fortunately, this wasn’t in Suzhou, where the Treading Artisans numbered over ten thousand.

A low-ranking official from the Ancient Literature School murmured, “Probably not. Little Baize values his life too much.”

If this were an actual rebellion, Xu Yanmiao wouldn’t have brought the princess to watch—he would have run as far away as possible.

Yizhang nodded in agreement but then glanced around in confusion. “Speaking of which… where is the Crown Prince?”

Wasn’t the Crown Prince supposed to be the one troubling that old pedant? Why were there three to four thousand young men instead?

Just then, a thunderous voice erupted—

“Rip your clothes into banners! Sharpen your poles into spears!”

“Demand our wages! Foremen, return our hard-earned money!”

The Treading Artisans echoed the cry behind them:

“Foreman, return our hard-earned money!”

“Return our hard-earned money!”

“Return our hard-earned money!”

Princess Xiangyang was utterly dumbfounded.

The Treading Artisans sprang into action, each carrying a wooden pole, charging straight toward the grand estate ahead—the home of the foreman.

The estate consisted of seven or eight buildings, with numerous servants, all well-fed and broad-shouldered. Two of them standing at the main entrance alone could ward off evil spirits.

But no matter how strong a person was, they couldn’t withstand the force of three to four thousand enraged young men storming the gates. The household hurriedly moved nearly half their tables and chairs to barricade the entrance, but many workers simply stepped onto their companions’ shoulders and climbed over the walls.

Inside the courtyard, chaos erupted.

Of course, the loudest cries were still:

“Foreman, return our hard-earned money!”

Accompanied by the sounds of smashing and destruction.

The estate instantly fell into utter disorder. As the tide of Treading Artisans surged forward, something was gradually revealed in the retreating waves—

A Crown Prince.

Princess Xiangyang nearly swallowed her own tongue, her face twisted in sheer horror.

“What the hell are you doing, brother?!”

That person, mixed among the Treading Artisans, nodding his head so eagerly it resembled a pecking chicken, raising his arm to shout along with them, “Foreman, return our hard-earned money!”—

Who else could it be but her foolish brother, the Crown Prince of the Great Xia Dynasty?!

The shouting and chaos below the mound were overwhelming, drowning out Princess Xiangyang’s shriek.

However—

Xu Yanmiao’s inner thoughts rang out loud and clear in the minds of everyone who could hear them.

[HAHAHAHAHAHA!]

[I knew Gao Xiang would lose her mind over this! I reacted the same way when I first saw it! The dignified Crown Prince actually joined the Treading Artisan Guild Hall and went along with them to demand unpaid wages! HAHAHAHA!]

The Crown Prince: “?!”

His shouting momentarily faltered.

Xu Yanmiao, could you at least give me a heads-up before suddenly showing up?!

And why the hell did you bring my sister here?!

Sure, I have thick skin—I’m shameless—but that doesn’t mean I’m not afraid of getting beaten!

My dad actually hits people!

Next to him, a Treading Artisan noticed his sudden slump and patted him on the shoulder.

“First time demanding wages?”

The Crown Prince forced a stiff smile.

The Treading Artisan nodded knowingly.

“Don’t be scared. It’s my first time too. But if the other guilds can do it, so can we! These foremen are ruthless—they pay us by the piece, but always find excuses! This one isn’t properly pressed!That one has flaws! They shortchange us! And when they can’t find a problem, they delay and withhold wages! If we protest, they just kick us out of the workshop!”

His eyes burned with fury, a spark flaring up within—dark red and smoldering.

The Crown Prince cursed loudly, presumably at the heartless foreman.

“No sense of justice at all! He’ll get what’s coming to him!”

The Treading Artisan shoved the pole in his hands deeper into his grip.

“Exactly! Let him pay for his crimes!”

The Crown Prince suddenly had a realization—

The first person to suffer might just be me… my secret is completely exposed.

[And it’s not just one guild I joined!]

[The Ninth Emperor Guild of carpenters, the Flame Emperor Guild of salt workers, the Four Gods Guild of well diggers, the Blessed Waters Guild of water carriers, the Old Master Guild of blacksmiths…]

[Unbelievable! These guilds were established by workers themselves to protect their rights. If anyone dares to withhold wages, the guild leader immediately gathers people to demand payment in person.]

[But, Your Highness the Crown Prince, what does this have to do with you?! You’re not even a worker—why are you showing up in every

[And why, in some of these guilds, did you even sneak in just to eat the chicken and donkey they slaughtered before the protest?!]

The Crown Prince gripped his bamboo pole indignantly. What’s the big deal?! I show up, I participate—what’s wrong with having a bite to eat?!

Sure, I have a limp and can’t charge forward as fast, but if things go south, my presence ensures the authorities side with the workers! Given that, isn’t a chicken leg the least I deserve?!

[And when two guilds happened to schedule their protests on the same day, you actively persuaded one to go in the morning and the other in the afternoon—so you could catch both events, didn’t you?!]

The Crown Prince fiercely defended himself in his mind: That’s… that’s because I was worried about the workers being bullied if I wasn’t there! And let’s not forget—I was a general once!

Behind a jar of pickled vegetables, Grand Tutor Quan used every ounce of his formidable self-restraint to stop himself from storming out, grabbing the Crown Prince by the collar, and dragging him back.

To a scholar like him, the Crown Prince’s actions were simply outrageous.

What happened to etiquette and moral principles?!

A Crown Prince getting involved in a workers’ wage protest—what kind of nonsense is this?!

Princess Xiangyang watched her brother charge into someone else’s inner residence with a war cry. Her eyelid twitched.

“…Does Father know about this?”

Xu Yanmiao replied, “I’m not sure. Maybe the Jinyiwei already reported it?”

Princess Xiangyang let out an awkward, dry laugh. “Well… at least my brother is doing a good thing, right?”

Xu Yanmiao tactfully responded, “If this were the final years of the previous dynasty, then yes.”

But now… the one sitting on the Dragon Throne might be relatively sympathetic to the common people, but he’s still sitting on the Dragon Throne.

Inside the palace.

The old emperor, draped in memorials, suddenly recalled something and called for the commander of the Jinyiwei.

“The matter of those guilds using violence to demand wages—how has it been handled? Have the necessary arrests been made?”

In the emperor’s view, even if workers were owed wages, they should go through official channels, not storm the foreman’s home and start burning and smashing things.

The commander spoke in a low voice.

“Your Majesty, these guilds have an excellent reputation among the common people. Every time the authorities attempt to arrest someone, people warn them in advance. Even the elderly stand in front of their doors to block the officials, and the constables don’t dare lay a hand on them.”

The emperor: “?”

The emperor: “A good reputation?”

The commander explained, “That’s the strange part. It wasn’t always like this. Previously, though workers had guilds, they were constantly suppressed by the merchant guilds and the authorities.”

—After all, if the workers gained power, merchants would make less profit. And for the government, the priority was maintaining stability.

The emperor frowned. “And now?”

The commander hesitated, then replied, “In the past two years, it seems someone has been secretly advising them. These workers have opened charity hospitals and orphanages, winning over the common people.

“They’ve also established strike funds, which have made them much more confident. They once went on strike for a full year, and in the end, the foremen had no choice but to compromise and renegotiate their wages.”

The old emperor nodded. “If they continue striking without resorting to violence, I won’t make a fuss over it.”

Then he frowned. “But I wonder who it is that’s needlessly making things difficult for the government.”

The Crown Prince puffed out his chest.

That’s right—it’s me.

The old emperor mused, “Still, this person is quite capable, though far too unruly. If I could bring them under my command, I’d first send them to Sichuan, Yunnan-Guizhou, or Liaodong to temper their character. Once the Crown Prince ascends the throne, we could summon them back.”

The Crown Prince… quickly deflated and shrank back.

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