Who knows if Li Er had truly done something that provoked both Heaven and man’s wrath—even Heaven wasn’t helping him. After the great sacrifice, the sky became frighteningly overcast. Pitch-black dark clouds hung overhead like an upturned iron cauldron. Li Er’s expression was even more frightening than the sky. What was even more eerie was that there wasn’t even a trace of wind in the air.
The koi in the imperial garden all stuck their mouths out of the water, opening and closing them.
Yun Ye had already caught over a dozen koi. Li Chengqian was still leaning against a tree in waves of nausea. Using a net, he scooped up four more fish and poured them into the basin with a clear conscience. Speaking of which, Xiao Ya had long been pestering him to raise goldfish. How rare were koi from the imperial gardens!
“Ye’zi, do you always fish with a net?” Li Chengqian really couldn’t watch anymore.
“That’s right. Sometimes I even fish with fishing nets. What about it?”
“Never mind then. You continue fishing. I’ll go vomit for a while.” Thinking of the locusts in his stomach, Li Chengqian dry heaved again.
Li Er and the ministers had been deliberating in the Taiji Palace up ahead for three shichen already. Regarding whether locusts were divine favorites, whether they could be killed and eaten, whether they could be bought and sold—supposedly the debate was extremely heated.
From the tyranny and destruction of the Shang Dynasty under King Zhou, to the eighteen rebel kings of the late Sui uprising, from the correspondence between Heaven and man to the emperor’s loss of virtue, and finally to Li Er forcibly taking his brothers’ wives and concubines—one could imagine how terrible Li Er’s mood was. He had half barbarian blood. Brothers taking brothers’ wives was a barbarian tradition—a form of charity, not immorality. On the great grasslands, women without husbands couldn’t survive more than a few days facing the harsh natural environment. When barbarian men took another wife, they gained another burden and another pressure in life. Taking a brother’s woman meant also raising the brother’s children—how could this be explained away simply as greed and lust?
He was the Emperor of the Han people. He had no life pressures. There was no question of being able or unable to support them. All people saw was that he had seized his sister-in-law and violated his younger brother’s wife. His lustful heart was comparable to the tyrants Jie and Zhou. One by one, they stood on the moral high ground to condemn him, to criticize him. This made the proud Li Er fume with rage from all seven orifices, yet he had no words to respond.
The great clans of Shandong had begun their verbal and written denunciations. They took pride in their noble surnames and were indignant that the Emperor had demoted many prestigious families. Their strong conviction that family was above all else made them yield not an inch before the Emperor’s authority. They had no retreat—this was a desperate last stand.
The fishing Yun Ye knew that historically, Li Er had only been half successful. He had demoted many prestigious families such as the Cui, Lu, Pei, Wang, and Zheng—traditional great clans—to third rank. Due to the entanglement with the locust disaster, he hadn’t fully succeeded. It wasn’t until that heaven-defying woman Wu Mei appeared that the Five Surname great clans were thoroughly swept into the garbage heap.
Heaven sent down disaster, and it was the kind recorded in various classics as calamity invited by the Emperor’s lack of the Way, failure to practice benevolent government, and perverse actions. If the Shandong great clans didn’t take advantage of this, they would really be letting themselves down. They didn’t care how many people would starve to death—they only cared whether their families’ positions could be preserved. Never mind how times changed—their families would stand for ten thousand years.
Zhangsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui—these devoted followers of Li Er took turns refuting point by point, sentence by sentence, yet the results were minimal.
Lu Shou and Lu Zi’an’s pockmarked faces were stimulated by hot blood until each mark shone. He pointed at the dark clouds outside the great hall and shouted loudly: “Heaven bear witness! My Lu family has passed down poetry and propriety through generations without evil deeds. Farmers, woodcutters, fishermen, and scholars all peacefully accept Heaven’s mandate. Why must we suffer this great humiliation? I beg Heaven to send down divine thunder to strike me to ashes. I cannot bear to see the noblest lives in the human world trampled into mud and ranked with insects and ants.”
Having finished speaking, he stood outside the great hall, climbed atop the artificial mountain, and raised both arms high, waiting to be struck by lightning. This old fellow had long studied this—this place had been struck by lightning year after year, which was why this artificial mountain had been built, hoping to subdue demons and suppress evil. Who would have thought that after the mountain was built, the lightning strikes became even fiercer.
Today the dark clouds hung low. The learned scholars in his family had long predicted lightning strikes would occur. In the great hall, the Five Surname great clans already had hope of victory. If Lu Shou was then struck dead by lightning, it would completely establish their winning position. As long as the family lineage continued, individual life and death were truly not worth discussing.
Li Er and the ministers followed outside the hall. Seeing the scene before them, their expressions all changed dramatically. Just as he was about to order guards to bring Lu Shou down, he was blocked by Lu Jiang and Lu Bo’an. Old Lu’s face showed pleasure as he smiled and said: “Your Majesty need not do this. Zi’an seeks benevolence and obtains benevolence. Being able to die under Heaven’s punishment is what he dreams of. Why block him? If this old man were not old and weak, unable to climb that artificial mountain, how would this glory fall to him?”
These fellows weren’t court officials—they were recommended by local people through ten-thousand-person petitions. Each was elderly and virtuous. Imperial power had almost no restraining force on these old fellows who weren’t afraid of death. Their families long had countless connections with the court. If Li Er made a move, in an instant it would be seas of blood and heads rolling.
With the great disaster at hand, this really wasn’t a good idea. If handled poorly, it could lead to uprisings everywhere. Hesitating to act for fear of consequences, they actually had no way to deal with a few old scoundrels. This made Li Er’s heart alternately burn with rage and grow cold with despair.
Wind rose from level ground and the summer heat suddenly departed. What should have been welcomed by all as pleasant coolness was in the ministers’ eyes undoubtedly Lu Shou’s death knell. Looking at Lu Shou and Lu Zi’an dancing with joy on the artificial mountain facing the approaching death, everyone felt cold throughout their bodies.
“Hey! Lu family gatekeeper, what are you climbing so high for? Aren’t you afraid of being struck by lightning?” A voice came from atop the great hall.
Everyone was greatly surprised. They saw Yun Ye standing on the roof of Taiji Palace carrying some slender iron rods, asking Lu Shou.
Lu Shou, seeing someone even more reckless with their life than himself, was somewhat dazed. But in just an instant he regained clarity. “Insolent boy! This old man is Lu Shou and Lu Zi’an, the brother of the Lu family head. When did I become a gatekeeper?”
“Stop pretending! You’re just a gatekeeper. I heard Zhao Yanling mention you. He said you’re the Lu family’s most learned gatekeeper and told me to consult you about the Gan-Shi Star Classic when I have the chance. He also said your attainments in astronomy are extraordinary. Are you interested in becoming a professor at my Yushan Academy?” As Yun Ye spoke, he connected iron rods one by one and bound them to the highest point of the hall roof, then threw down the excess iron rods to hang to the ground—they had already been connected in advance.
On the ground, the Li Chengqian and Li Tai brothers held hoes and dug at the earth, quickly burying the iron rods in the soil and tamping them down with their feet.
“Boy, what are you climbing on the roof for? Thunder is coming—get down!” Qin Qiong was getting anxious.
Fang Xuanling was about to scold him but was stopped by Li Er, whose face showed excitement: “Let’s watch first. This boy fears death most of all. He wouldn’t do something without confidence.”
“Uncle Qin, it’s fine. I have His Majesty’s iron spear to protect me. Lightning won’t find me.”
Yun Ye’s eyes carefully watched the sky. He raised Li Er’s twelve-foot-long spear and inserted it into the iron ring to fix it firmly. Only then did his heart relax. Damn it, this master risked being struck by lightning to install a lightning rod—he must demand benefits from Li Er later. Nothing light would do.
Now it was done. Within a radius of thirty meters, there would be no danger.
Lu Shou looked at Yun Ye furiously. This boy had stolen his tragic martyrdom’s spotlight. The martyr emotions he had just cultivated were disrupted seventy or eighty percent.
“Old Lu, with such fine learning, why be a gatekeeper for others? Come to the academy. I’ll ask His Majesty to grant you a seventh-rank Librarian position. Manage books at the academy and sweep floors on the side. Wouldn’t it be easy to bring glory to your ancestors?”
“You ignorant wretch! Would this old man, a master of his generation, go teach at your third-rate place? Dream on!”
“You gate-watching old slave, don’t think that just because you defeated Zhao Yanling you can boast wildly. Little Zhao now stays at the academy stoking fires. When the water didn’t boil yesterday, I even whipped him twice. He recommended you to me, saying you’re good at boiling water. I’m giving you face and you don’t want it? A mere servant roaring at a dignified marquis—is this how lacking in hierarchy your Lu family customs are?” Yun Ye became even more arrogant.
“Marquis Yun, calm your anger. This is indeed the Lu family’s second master, not a gatekeeper. Did Marquis Yun perhaps remember incorrectly?” Zhangsun Wuji, his face full of wicked smiles, fanned the flames from the side. Just now, the old fellow had cursed him bloody. Getting this opportunity, how could he not get revenge?
“Really? But when he competed with Master Yang from Shu, he said he was a gatekeeper. More than one or two people witnessed it.”
“Oh? This happened too? No wonder Marquis Yun mistook him. Even this old man would have difficulty avoiding such a mistake! Ha ha ha ha!”
High in the sky, thunder rumbled faintly.
“Come down quickly! Thunder is coming!” Qin Qiong was greatly alarmed.
“Uncle Qin, I told you I have His Majesty’s iron spear for protection—nothing will happen. His Majesty is a person of great fortune. Your nephew borrows a bit and benefits endlessly. What are mere thunder and lightning?”
“Ignorant child, just wait on the roof to die! Come! Heaven, please send down divine thunder to take me and this ignorant boy together!”
“Old man, don’t shout. What if I’m struck by lightning and don’t die? How about we make a bet!”
As soon as the words came out, the expressions of the Great Tang ruler and ministers at the hall entrance became strange. Together they looked toward the several old men of the Shandong great clans.
Lu Jiang and several old men exchanged glances. He stepped forward and said: “We don’t know what bet Marquis Yun wants to make, or how to bet?”
“I’ll bet that sitting on the rooftop with His Majesty’s iron spear for protection, I won’t be struck dead by lightning, and Lu Shou will also be fine. The stakes are ten thousand strings of cash.”
Before Lu Jiang could speak, Lu Shou laughed madly: “Ha ha, bet accepted! When clouds scatter, boy, you’ll become ashes. Still want money? Ha ha ha…”
Accompanying the laughter, dense lightning shot down from the cloud layer—like snakes, like dragons, like forks. First appearing distantly at the horizon, immediately followed by muffled thunder. Li Chengqian nervously grabbed Li Tai and squeezed hard, completely ignoring his screams.
Li Er closed his eyes, unable to bear watching. The ministers helplessly lowered their heads. Tears glistened in Old Qin’s eyes.
The family heads of those great clans had bloodthirsty cold glints in their eyes.
Only Yun Ye sat astride the beast head of the hall’s flying eaves, curiously studying ancient architecture.
The thunder grew closer and closer. The wind also blew stronger and stronger. Bright lightning finally appeared overhead. Lu Shou stood on the artificial mountain like a devout martyr.
Yun Ye inwardly cursed the brainless previous dynasty emperors who built the palace on a slope surrounded by mountains on three sides, making it easy to be struck by lightning. Wasn’t this looking for trouble when full?
Under everyone’s personal witness, a lightning bolt heading for Yun Ye turned a corner above his head and struck the iron spear. Electric light scattered in all directions, as if divine spirits were truly protecting him. Even Li Er began to doubt whether his iron spear might truly be a divine artifact.
Lu Shou jumped until he had no strength left, yet not a single lightning bolt sought him out. Today’s lightning seemed to have targeted the iron spear exclusively. Lightning within a radius of ten zhang was all absorbed by the iron spear.
Lu Jiang knelt sitting on the ground. His earlier high spirits disappeared without a trace. His energy and spirit seemed to have slipped away with them. In an instant, the ambitious family head had become a decrepit old man.
Li Tai had long forgotten about the Crown Prince squeezing him. He only saw Yun Ye’s leisurely and content appearance amid the lightning. This was the power of a god. This was the power of a god.