The situation at home was very strange. Whenever Grandmother looked at Yun Ye, she would lower her head and chuckle twice. His aunts and sisters-in-law endlessly made clothes for him, always pondering how to dress him up even more handsomely.

Every day he went to herd pigs. On the grassland, things that hopped around gradually appeared—from tiny black specks to gradually turning yellow. A few of them could actually fly a few steps. Yun Ye’s mood grew worse and worse.

It had been a long time since he’d received military reports from the Left Militant Guard. He didn’t know whether Cheng Chumo and the others were well or not. Had they encountered combat after arriving there? Had they been injured? Yun Ye didn’t know!

How exactly did Li Jing plan to use three thousand men to raid Jieli? It was already May—was he waiting for winter to arrive? Yun Ye didn’t know!

Where were the potatoes planted? Who was cultivating them? Who was Li’er using the locust plague to strike back at? Who was the precise target? Yun Ye didn’t know!

He’d been marginalized! This was the most accurate answer Yun Ye gave himself in his heart.

A person couldn’t be too outstanding. Being too outstanding would distance you from the group. Everyone would subconsciously keep their distance from you. There was a famous saying from later generations: a person who steps half a pace ahead of the masses is generally called a genius; one who steps a full pace ahead is called a god; one who steps two paces ahead can only be a madman.

Yun Ye felt he was now being isolated as a madman.

Old Cheng hadn’t sent any letters for a long time. Old Niu was the same. They no longer came to Yun Ye with difficult problems.

Yun Ye could imagine Li’er’s hands pointing east and west, manipulating all of this. From Li Chengqian’s hesitant expression last time, he knew all these changes came from the highest center of power.

I’m a fool—this was Yun Ye’s self-positioning. The fellows in the court hoped Yun Ye was a fool; this was the result they were striving to achieve. Yun Ye must be a fool—this was Li’er’s inner verdict.

Since he was already a fool, he must do things only a fool would do.

So Yun Ye, in order to eat pork, had all the tenant farmers on the estate raise pigs. Because he liked egg custard, he had all the estate’s farmers raise chickens. His love of pigs reached such an extreme that he personally went to herd them.

This way everyone was happy. No one impeached Yun Ye for losing dignity, and no one came to dissuade him from this perverse conduct. They all smiled cheerfully, waiting for Yun Ye to make a fool of himself, waiting for him to produce the most ridiculous joke.

Standing at the peak of Yushan, Yun Ye faced the wind, tore open his clothing, and let the fierce mountain wind blow against his chest. Using all his strength, he shouted loudly toward Chang’an: “You’re all a bunch of idiots! Waiting to see this master’s joke? Wait another thousand years!”

After dressing properly and descending the mountain, he resumed his smiling, amiable appearance, constantly greeting the tenant farmers, talking about their household poultry and livestock.

The tenant farmers discovered that raising pigs this way wasn’t so bad after all—they just worked a bit harder. Those chickens kept laying eggs. Every day the children herded the chickens, ducks, and geese while carrying small baskets. Ducks had the bad habit of laying eggs anywhere, so they had to be careful. When they’d collected a full basket, they’d go pay rent at the Yun household. By wheat harvest time, chicken and duck eggs alone would offset this year’s rent, leaving them with the whole year’s grain—something they wouldn’t have dared dream of before. Their families even occasionally had chicken or duck eggs to eat. The children had looked forward to this for so many years.

Watching the tenant farmers laboring in the fields day and night, Yun Ye really wanted to tell them: this is useless work. When those locusts hopping and jumping in the fields grow up, you won’t have your anticipated harvest. Everything you’re doing is futile.

He heard that several princes’ households had purchased much grain. The Zhangsun family, Fang family, and Du family had also bought quite a bit. In past years at this time, merchants would release large amounts of stored grain to clear out warehouses for new grain.

This year was strange—they didn’t release old grain but instead raised grain prices.

Except for the common people, everyone was waiting for the locusts’ arrival to achieve their various different purposes.

The Yun household had long made preparations. The residents of Zhaoguo Ward had gradually bought enough grain from grain merchants before the new year—three hundred jin here, five hundred jin there—without attracting attention. Because they’d prepared over a long period, it hadn’t aroused anyone’s suspicion. Everyone said those poor wretches of Zhaoguo Ward, having gotten a bit of money, bought grain because they’d truly been starved before. The Cheng and Niu families had also prepared—they simply hadn’t sold last year’s grain.

The Emperor and the noble lords had gotten their way.

A swift horse carrying a messenger with a red flag on his back brought them the long-awaited news: locust plague at Tongguan, blocking out the sky and sun. Wherever they passed, crops and vegetation were completely consumed.

“Catch and kill locusts! The court will purchase them in large quantities—one coin per three jin! The court is opening granaries to aid the people!”

The court remained calm as still water. Wei Zheng found it somewhat strange—the court’s high efficiency, especially how several important ministers seemed to breathe a sigh of relief with pleased expressions on their faces. Unable to understand, he thought the court hall was full of experts who remained calm in the face of change.

Swift horses arrived in the capital one after another. On the map, Tongguan, Fufeng, Hua County, Fengxiang, Jingyang, Sanyuan all the way to Qishan, Zhouzhi, then to Chencang—the entire Guanzhong was filled with yellow disaster flags. No one could smile anymore. Li’er couldn’t smile either.

The disaster was too great, far exceeding Li’er’s psychological defenses. Not making a response at the very beginning was his greatest mistake. Yun Ye had said it would be a very large disaster, but he hadn’t paid attention. Last year’s locust plague only appeared in two provinces. This year he’d made psychological preparations for five provinces to be affected.

Now it was twenty-seven provinces!

“Summon Yun Ye to the capital!” Li’er slammed his fist on the dragon throne’s armrest. Blood seeped out. A palace attendant was about to cry out but was silenced by Li’er’s wolf-like eyes forcing the words back into his belly.

“Your Majesty, Marquis Yun has taken leave, saying he’s following Sun Simiao deep into the Qinling Mountains to gather medicinal herbs. His current whereabouts are unknown.” The Minister of Personnel stepped forward to report.

“Find him! Even if you must dig three feet into the ground, find him for me!” Li’er flew into a towering rage.

Deep in the Qinling Mountains, ancient trees loomed darkly. Unknown vines wound around aged pines, blocking the sky tightly. Squirrels jumped about in the trees foraging. From time to time they ran to the ground, picking up last year’s pine cones to carefully examine whether any nuts remained. A clear voice broke the forest’s silence. The little squirrel quickly climbed up the trunk and hid in a tree hollow, listening to this strange sound.

“You’ve always been lazy, lad. That you’re actually following this old Taoist into the mountains to gather herbs this time—I’m afraid there’s something to it. What are you hiding from?” A middle-aged man wearing Taoist robes appeared beneath the pine tree.

“I thought the Taoist Master wouldn’t ask. I didn’t expect that after five days, you ultimately couldn’t resist.” Yun Ye wore the same clothing, with a bow and quiver of arrows on his back, a horizontal blade at his waist, and a wooden staff in his hand constantly parting the grass.

Zhuang Santing, Liu Jinbao, and three other guards wore leather armor, held bows, and were fully armed. Each time they stopped, they protected Sun Simiao and Yun Ye in the center.

“What exactly is the matter? This time it was you who urged this old Taoist into the mountains. Don’t use me as a cover. Speak clearly so my heart won’t be in turmoil.” Sun Simiao took down his water flask for a drink, then continued asking.

“This lad lit a fire. Originally it was meant to warn everyone, to make everyone careful of the fire so they wouldn’t get burned. But things went contrary to expectations. Someone thought fire was a good thing and piled lots of firewood on it. Now the fire has grown large. This lad is powerless to extinguish it, so he could only flee.”

“What fire?”

“The locust plague—a very large locust plague. I can speak of it now. It’s been suffocating me. The Emperor wouldn’t let it be spoken of everywhere. Now there’s no problem. The locusts are flying all over the world now. Even if you wanted to hide it, you couldn’t.”

“There are locusts everywhere outside the forest now?”

“That’s right—blocking out the sky and sun, filling valleys and covering hills. All of Guanzhong is full of those things. Just think—when locusts fly up like a sandstorm, how magnificent it is! Let the locusts come even more fiercely! I gave warning. Everyone wanted to profit from it, everyone waited to get rich, everyone waited for benefits. Go to hell! I don’t care anymore! I’ve prepared fifteen thousand strings of cash to buy locusts—one coin per three jin. I can buy forty-five million jin. I’m waiting for you to catch that many insects. As long as you can catch them, I’ll buy them even if I have to sell my pants!” As Yun Ye spoke, he gradually became incoherent, tears streaming down his face.