Yun Ye walked alone out of the Court of Judicial Review. Old Zhuang was still waiting at the palace gates for his marquis to appear.

He had no mind to deal with these trivial matters. His head was a complete mess. A group of guys who hadn’t learned to walk yet had started running! No wonder they were so united. A few days ago they were still brawling endlessly, but now they’d twisted into one rope to demand from the court positions matching their talents.

Ma Zhou used this reason to convince all the academy’s senior students? Step by step, using bonds of affection to lead his masters and fellow students into the trap he’d long set.

He didn’t even feel remorse for his actions. Right now he was probably still immersed in the joy of success.

Using any means to achieve one’s goals—it seemed he himself had never taught him to do this. Li Gang wouldn’t have either. The other masters at the academy even less so.

In his heart, for the interests of the vast poor common people, using people like Yun Ye and Li Gang as stepping stones was nothing improper, right?

The “Essay on Land Tax” would become a classic. Whether the court used it or not, it would become a classic. Yun Ye firmly believed Li Er would keep this memorial as basis for thinking about land reform in the future.

A person stood at the Court of Judicial Review entrance. His blue robe was extremely neat, his hair glossy enough to reflect images. He wore no hat on his head, just a thorn hairpin securing his hair. Seeing Yun Ye emerge, he bowed respectfully, saying nothing.

“What official position did His Majesty give you?”

“This disciple has been ordered to enter the Central Secretariat as an attending official.”

“Not bad. This doesn’t waste your painstaking efforts. When the day comes that you achieve your soaring ambitions, remember—don’t act so hastily in doing things. Rejecting all human relationships will make you ultimately become a solitary minister. This way, you’ll be destined to fight alone all your life. This teacher has nothing to give you, so let me give you a hug. This may be the closest you’ll ever come to another person’s heart.”

Yun Ye spread his arms. Ma Zhou embraced Yun Ye with choking sobs, crying out in grief.

Yun Ye patted his back and said in his ear: “Being a teacher means always being prepared to be someone’s stepping stone. I don’t mind being a stepping stone, but please tell me first, all right?”

Having spoken, he released Ma Zhou, smiled and waved at him, then turned toward the palace gate.

From far away he heard Ma Zhou cry out miserably once, “Master!” Then there was silence.

Wangcai had come together with Ma Zhou. He was very clever, knowing that bringing Wangcai would improve Yun Ye’s mood considerably.

Perhaps sensing Yun Ye’s poor mood, Wangcai stuck out his tongue and licked Yun Ye’s hair into disarray. If he’d done this before, Yun Ye would have messed up Wangcai’s coat too.

Today he wasn’t in the mood. Stroking Wangcai’s long face, he said softly: “I won’t play with you today. I’ve been hurt by someone—no mood for it. Wangcai, sometimes I really want to run back to the wilderness, just us two brothers, casting off all the world’s troubles, free and easy. How about it?”

Whatever Yun Ye said, Wangcai snorted in agreement. The four-year-old stallion had long grown taller than Yun Ye, yet he still liked to rest his head on Yun Ye’s shoulder just as when he was small. One man and one horse walked out of Chang’an city while the setting sun still remained.

He didn’t plan to ride Wangcai. Just walking home step by step like this. Around him, people somehow multiplied. A brocade-robed young master waving a folding fan in the dead of winter walked forward, cupping his hands in salute.

“Brother Yun, after years apart, has my brother been well since we parted?”

Old Zhuang waited at the palace gates for a long time but didn’t see Yun Ye. Seeing the sky about to darken and the palace gates about to close, he became anxious. Since the Crown Prince married, the Marquis never stayed overnight in the palace. What was happening today?

After the students attending the Imperial Garden gathering had eaten and drunk their fill, they walked out through the side gate. Old Zhuang hurriedly grabbed a student and asked: “Has my family’s marquis come out?”

“Master was sent by His Majesty to the Court of Judicial Review. It’s said he’s discussing matters with the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review. He went directly from the Central Secretariat. You should go look at the Court of Judicial Review.” Old Zhuang mounted his horse and galloped quickly toward the Court of Judicial Review, the guards behind him following closely.

Arriving at the Court of Judicial Review, after asking around, he learned Yun Ye had left long ago. The last person to see him was talking with Ma Zhou.

When he found Ma Zhou, he was limping out of a shop specializing in treating bruises and injuries, his legs full of bloodstains.

“Ma Zhou, where is my family’s marquis?”

“After Master parted with me, he took Wangcai and left the city. Oh, my leg injury—I inflicted it myself.”

Old Zhuang had no mood to care where his injury came from. Taking his men, he galloped toward the city gate again. Fortunately, the city gate wasn’t yet closed tight. Tossing a packet of copper coins to the soldiers closing the gate, he immediately spurred his horse out of the city.

All the way back to the Yun household, he still hadn’t seen the Marquis. The old matriarch strictly ordered the entire household to mobilize and search along the road. Mountains and fields were full of torches.

Thousands of people crisscrossed the less-than-fifty-li main road three times, but still no trace of Yun Ye.

Old Zhuang’s hoarse shouting already carried a crying tone. He wouldn’t believe even if beaten to death that there were any wild beasts on this road.

When dawn arrived, there was still no result. The Emperor learned of it and flew into a rage, ordering Guanzhong sealed off. The Empress learned of it, furious beyond measure. The Crown Prince learned of it and immediately took several hundred guards out of Chang’an city.

Cheng Chumo and Niu Jianhu searched frantically over mountains and fields. Na Rimu rode the big blue horse, singing repeatedly from mountaintops. She only hoped her elder brother had lazily fallen asleep, lying in a grass nest, preparing to give her a big scare.

Ma Zhou knelt long before the Yun mansion gates. As long as the Yun family nodded, he would immediately commit suicide. He thought Yun Ye’s disappearance was related to himself.

The fifty-li-long road was almost full of people standing. Searching along both sides of the road, they finally made a discovery.

At a place less than ten li from the city, there was a strip of cloth. Old Zhuang recognized it as Yun Ye’s at a glance. A piece of bark had been scraped from that tree. On the white exposed surface was written a line: “I have an elder who came from ten thousand li away. I wish to serve them for a period. No need to search for me. First month, eighteenth day.”

When everyone collectively breathed a sigh of relief, the faces of the Bai Qi Si secret agents turned black as coal. Without a word, they galloped into Chang’an on fast horses.

“How can this child Ye Zi still do things so rashly? When elders from his sect came, he didn’t know to welcome them home. What kind of thing is wandering around everywhere?”

Xinyue said with a forced smile: “You also know that my husband’s sect members are all immortal-like figures. Not meeting us common folk is reasonable.”

Na Rimu pouted, saying dissatisfiedly: “They’re not all good people either. Last time in that exquisite camel city, some fellows wanted to knock off my skull to make a wine cup. Fortunately, my husband heard my cries and saved me. I also heard that to welcome my husband, they died several hundred people. A strange person who hung himself on an iron ring found my husband to drink. Later my husband and I fell asleep. They say we slept four days. If Big Brother Cheng hadn’t found us, we would have slept to death.”

These words frightened both the old matriarch’s and Xinyue’s faces white. No one had thought that the people dealing with Yun Ye were such people, clearly viewing human lives as grass—too dangerous! These matters, Yun Ye had never mentioned.

Seeing Grandmother very worried, Xinyue changed the subject, saying: “The child hasn’t even completed a month, doesn’t even have a name, and he’s flinging his sleeves and wandering the world—not a bit of fatherly appearance.”

Just preparing to nag a few more sentences, she discovered the child humming and moving randomly. She had to stop talking, opened the swaddling clothes—sure enough, the child had soiled again. Xinyue, who always had a cleanliness obsession, showed not a bit of disgust. She personally changed the child’s diaper, even checking whether the color of the child’s stool was normal.

She didn’t mind, but Na Rimu reacted violently, crouching over a spittoon retching continuously. Nothing came out, all clear water.

Xinyue was about to scold when the old matriarch stopped her and ordered maids to fetch the doctor.

Sure enough, as the old matriarch predicted, Na Rimu was pregnant. Hearing this news, Xinyue felt quite indignant. She’d used such a long time to conceive. How could those two seductive foxes conceive so easily? Xinyue brooded over this matter.

The tree trunk with stripped bark was transported home. The old matriarch and Xinyue recognized at a glance that this was indeed Yun Ye’s handwriting. The suspended hearts finally relaxed.

Then the tree trunk was sent to the palace. Li Er didn’t look at that line of text but looked at the date written vertically below.

He asked in a deep voice the Wu She behind him: “First page, tenth horizontal, eighth character—what character is it?”

“Replying to Your Majesty, in the original Yinfu Classic, this character is ‘dou,’ the character for beans.”

Li Er drew in a long breath of cold air. His complexion became somewhat ashen. He waved his hand, having Wu She withdraw.

Empress Zhangsun walked out from behind the curtain and asked: “Second Brother, what did Yun Ye say?”

“He was abducted by Dou Yanshan.”

Li Er’s fist smashed on the table. He said hatefully: “This fellow set fires in Chang’an, ambushed me at Yun estate, and now actually dares to sneak back to Chang’an. What are those Bai Qi Si agents doing? Didn’t they say Dou Yanshan had already been driven by them into desolate mountains and remote regions, impossible to appear again in this lifetime? False military reports—the crime deserves death!”

When the Son of Heaven rages, a million corpses fall, blood flows for a thousand li. Though these words were somewhat exaggerated, that very afternoon, the head of the Bai Qi Si’s chief was severed and hung on the Bai Qi Si’s central gate for public display. The Emperor previously killed people with some discussion, but this time was extremely decisive, not listening to his explanations at all.

At the same time, an imperial envoy arrived at the Yun household, enfeoffing Yun Ye’s eldest son Yun Shou as Captain Yun. The name was also given by the Emperor—named Shou (longevity) in hope this child would live a hundred years. This was an extremely grand reward.

Li Chengqian didn’t believe Yun Ye would go serve his elders without even greeting him. He didn’t believe this statement at all. With Yun Ye’s personality, not enshrining his own elders at the academy would be strange. How could he possibly be tricked away by elders? This was impossible.

He recalled the Bai Qi Si people’s expressions that day. He wanted to ask but didn’t dare, because the Bai Qi Si was personally controlled by Father. Except for him himself, no one—whoever they were—had the authority to inquire about their affairs. Not even the Crown Prince.

When he learned about the head hanging on the Bai Qi Si’s central gate, his heart ached like being cut with a knife. Yun Ye must have encountered big trouble. Imperial Father knew, but he wouldn’t tell others. He’d only pretend Yun Ye had indeed followed his elders away.

The moon rose to mid-heaven. Though only a waning moon, Li Chengqian in his life…