Chapter 19: Entering the Estate

It turned out that when Qin Yuan said ‘wait’, Tang Jie would end up waiting for several months.

It was the sixth month when Steward Qin finally came with the good news: there was a vacancy.

A few days ago, the fellow responsible for caring for the gardens of the Wei Clan had come down with a sudden illness and died, and this vacancy needed to be filled. When the news got out, the stewards of the Wei Clan all recommended candidates. Steward Qin had recommended Tang Jie.

The next morning, Steward Qin brought Tang Jie to the Wei Estate.

As one of the five great clans of Canglong Prefecture, the Wei Clan’s estate was extraordinary.

The estate on its own took up more than half of Azure Cloud Street. It had more than four hundred rooms and six gardens, and it served as the residence for nearly three hundred people.

The ones in the Wei Clan with the greatest seniority were naturally Venerable Master Wei and his wife, Venerable Lady Wei.

This couple had produced two sons and two daughters, all of whom were already married.

The eldest son, Wei Danbai, was the current patriarch of the Wei Clan. He had one wife and two concubines. His principal wife, Wei Shufeng, née Zheng, had given birth to two sons and a daughter. Her eldest son, Wei Tianzhi, was currently attending Basking Moon Academy. The secondborn, her daughter Wei Qing’er, had gone to Illusory Heart Academy of the Thousand Passions Sect. Her youngest son was Wei Tianchong. There was also one son and one daughter who were born from concubines. They had no right of inheritance and no chance at entering an academy. In some aspects, they were worse off than the servants.

The names ‘Tianzhi’ (Aspiring to Heaven) and ‘Tianchong’ (Charging at Heaven) indicated the Wei Clan’s aspirations: ascending to the heavens.

When Wei Danbai had his first son, the Wei Clan was flourishing in Canglong Prefecture, so he had stopped thinking about how to make money and instead thought about how to cultivate and attain the Dao.

Alas, their foundations were still shallow, and the clan still could not claim to have a cultivator that was truly its own, only Spirit Masters it had employed at heavy price—far inferior to the Jins, Zhangs, and Gus. So long as the Wei Clan could produce a Spirit Master, its prosperity would be ensured for a hundred years. If it produced a Celestial Heart Realm expert, then the Wei Clan would no longer be ‘the Canglong Prefecture Weis’, but ‘the Ling Province Weis’.

As for the kingdom-level clans, that required many Celestial Heart Realm experts, and the clan would need its own legacy that could be passed down.

Putting aside Wei Danbai, the Venerable Master’s second son, Wei Qingsong, also had a son and daughter. The elder son was called ‘Wei Ming’, and the younger daughter was called ‘Wei Die’.

Wei Ming had entered the academy last year, but just like Wei Tianzhi, he had a low aptitude, having opened few gates, and cultivation was proving difficult. Wei Qingsong could not afford to give as many resources to his son as Wei Danbai could to his, so the Venerable Master had not had much hope in that line. Thus, the Wei Clan’s hopes primarily rested on Wei Tianchong.

The Wei Clan valued men over women, and there was little drive to have its daughters cultivate—after all, there was no reason to waste precious resources on another clan’s daughter-in-law.

This was also why there were few women in the cultivation world. It wasn’t that they lacked aptitude, but their clans were far more willing to support the boys. It was said that Wei Qing’er had possessed incredible talent and had been picked out by the Thousand Passions Sect. Otherwise, she probably would have still been in the clan, waiting to be married off.

The Wei household consisted of several hundred people, and one could say that all of them were there to serve at the behest of the Wei Clan’s members. The gardener position that Tang Jie was applying for managed the Meditation Garden, which was where the younger son, Wei Tianchong, resided.

It was for this reason that the competition for this position was particularly fierce.

was a reliable person? While this Tang Jie’s background is somewhat unclear, he has a sincere nature and a good temperament. In my view, he’s even more reliable than those with their roots here.”

“Then don’t we have to pay him three strings of cash a month?” the other maid grumbled.

The lady rolled her eyes and jabbed the maid’s forehead with a sharp fingernail. “Look at how petty you are! What’s a few strings of cash? The master can pay out one million taels of silver to get a Spirit Master for the Wei Clan! You truly lack experience. Besides, that Wu Xing is studying with Tianzhi. If he finds out that we chose the boy from his family over all the other boys, he will think that we are taking care of his family ahead of time, right? So, it’s decided then. I choose Tang Jie!”

“My lady is wise!” Steward Qin bowed until his head touched the floor.