Li Yifu sang beauty songs with his feet propped up high, his body swaying everywhere with the jolting of the horse carriage. Before he knew it, he had already arrived at the West Market. After paying the carriage fare, Li Yifu’s pockets were completely empty, but it didn’t matter—Old Cui would certainly invite him to dinner and incidentally call a carriage to send him back to Yushan.

Old Cui’s expression was very strange. His eyes, which used to always be wide open, were now squinted together. No cold gleam shot out from them. The sinister look piled onto the merchant’s fat face appeared even more comical.

“Old Cui, I came today without bringing money. How about settling the account later? Right now, twenty pigs, fifteen sheep—and if you have any cattle that accidentally fell to their deaths here, also send two head to the academy.”

After Li Yifu finished speaking, he waited for Old Cui to flatter him, then arrange a carriage for him to return to Yushan. The city gates would close soon—if he didn’t leave now, it would be too late. After waiting a while, he discovered there was no sound behind him. He turned his head to look at Old Cui and said loudly: “Old Cui, hurry up! I don’t have time to waste words with you. I’m still waiting to return to Yushan.”

“The goods are available, but where’s the money? The academy has never owed merchants half a coin—this is a virtue. You absolutely must not ruin it here at this old one’s establishment.” Old Cui muttered this sentence in his mouth for quite a while before saying it out loud.

Li Yifu was stunned for a moment, as if he didn’t recognize Old Cui. He circled around him, sizing him up for a long time before raising his head to ask Old Cui: “What’s going on? What’s the matter? Are you Old Cui?”

Li Yifu seemed unaware that he was already facing great calamity and continued to question Old Cui. Old Cui’s reaction was truly too far beyond his expectations. No matter from the perspective of human sentiment or propriety, Old Cui had no reason to say such words. Now that he had said them, there was only one possibility—something unexpected had happened, something went wrong.

As a person of exceptionally outstanding intelligence, Li Yifu understood in an instant that he had fallen into a vicious trap. If there was any danger, it must be related to the money he had paid out today. Who wants to harm me?

Old Cui had already shut the shop’s large door with a clang. Li Yifu called out twice, but although Old Cui was right inside the door, he turned a deaf ear. At this time, solving the problem was the priority. Li Yifu had no mood to exchange feelings through the door with such a petty person. Getting his money back from Yanlai Tower was what really mattered—he had already smelled the scent of danger.

From a very young age, he had understood a principle: blessings never come in pairs, but misfortunes never come alone. If spring had frost that harmed all the seedlings, then that summer would certainly be unbearably hot, autumn would certainly be rainy, and winter would mean going hungry. He had experienced this before and didn’t want to try it a second time.

To get things back on the right track, there was only one method—that was to solve the frost disaster in spring. As long as the frost was resolved, the seedlings could withstand drought and flood disasters, and one wouldn’t go hungry in winter. The method to resolve frost was very simple—just light fires in the fields and smoke them out, letting smoke and fog blanket the fields.

Walking hurriedly through the marketplace, Li Yifu was thinking about where exactly his smoke screen was. Too many things happening in one day meant things were taking a sharp turn for the worse. Poor him—he didn’t even know who his enemy was. Although he didn’t know the enemy’s name, Li Yifu knew that the source of his misfortune was those one hundred and forty silver coins. This was a great frost on his life’s path.

When the madam heard that Li Yifu was preparing to take back his one hundred and forty silver coins, her flower-like smiling face immediately transformed into a fierce and menacing expression. She stretched her throat and wailed to the patrons in Yanlai Tower’s great hall, asking everyone to judge the matter fairly—to have the face to take back money already given to a girl as tips was truly shameless! To commit such a heartless and unrighteous ugly deed was actually a scholarly gentleman!

Before the madam could continue, Li Yifu fled in panic. He saw Miss Yan Zi quietly escape back to her room, and he also saw how Yan Zi had just been writhing in a fat man’s embrace. He himself was not a heartless and unrighteous person—Yan Zi should know this. However, looking at it now, she seemed not to know. Li Yifu was already very certain that what he encountered today was a thorough and complete conspiracy. This was also a kind of gain. Now he just needed to find out the reason for his misfortune.

The curfew drum had already begun to sound. Li Yifu hurried toward the city outskirts. If he couldn’t get out of the city, he would be trapped in Chang’an. As long as daylight broke, his misfortune would certainly arrive as scheduled.

The moment he walked out the city gate, Li Yifu felt as if he had lost something important. He involuntarily stopped in his tracks. Looking at those gate-guarding soldiers who were staring at him, he gritted his teeth and walked back through the city gate again. He didn’t know that right outside the city gate, a servant in blue clothes stood with arms folded, watching him pace back and forth within the gate.

When the curfew drum sounded, it was precisely the time when weary birds returned to their nests. The ward gates also slowly closed with the last drum beat. Those military patrols spread into the streets like hyenas from dark corners—Chang’an’s night had always been their world.

Li Yifu asked himself over and over again why he had returned to Chang’an, what exactly had he lost? If his violation of the curfew was reported to the academy by the military patrols, what awaited him would certainly be the punishment of carrying water. Although it wasn’t considered heavy, it wasn’t too light either.

Thinking of the academy’s punishment, Li Yifu stopped in his tracks and leaned against a wall, carefully recalling once again all the events that had occurred today. Clearly it was just a small matter of not being able to buy pork—why would he feel so uneasy?

The last time he had this feeling was before he was bitten by a dog. He hadn’t taken that warning seriously, and as a result, there were still two huge tooth marks on his buttocks to this day. If his older brother hadn’t grabbed the dog’s tail and forcibly dragged it away, the wound on his buttocks wouldn’t have been so large.

Li Yifu walked close to the wall base, constantly dodging those wandering military patrols. He resentfully pounded his thigh twice with his fists. Damn it, I’m a student of the academy, the Great Tang’s future high official and nobleman—why am I now acting like a stray dog?

Two or three times he wanted to rush out and reveal his identity. Slinking along the wall base like a thief really wasn’t Li Yifu’s intention—it was too humiliating. But that feeling that made his heart palpitate still wouldn’t leave. He had no choice but to lower his head and continue playing hide-and-seek with the military patrols.

From ten thousand household lights, he hid until pitch darkness. His two legs felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead. Resting for a while in a wall corner, his sweat-soaked clothes were blown by early spring’s cold wind, making his entire body feel chilled. To avoid getting sick, Li Yifu had no choice but to stand up and continue walking.

The bone-chilling cold wind gradually cleared his confused mind. He suddenly remembered an interesting rumor—a rumor about Ma Zhou. It said this person used the moral sensibilities of academy students to hijack the entire academy, making them advocate for his “Theory of Land Annexation” and successfully gaining the Emperor’s appreciation. Although he was now a high official, his life was incomparably difficult. It was said that when his old mother celebrated her birthday, few people went to congratulate her. What pleasure was there in being such an official?

Speaking of morality, Li Yifu’s whole body shuddered. What the academy despised most was not behavior like Ma Zhou’s—at least some people thought Ma Zhou was crying out on behalf of the common people. What everyone despised most was embezzlement. Things like the fat of the people and cream of the land could not be misappropriated—once misappropriated, one would be despised to death by others.

The first skill the academy taught students was how to survive, how to earn enough money from the marketplace to support an entire family. The academy had sent out over a thousand students in these years. There were said to be those who abused their authority, those who practiced favoritism and fraud, harsh officials, and mediocre officials, but uniquely there had never been corrupt officials—truly not a single one.

Li Yifu’s upper and lower teeth began to chatter—not because of the cold wind, but because a chill rose from his heart. If at this time he still didn’t know who was scheming against him, Li Yifu’s political studies would have been for nothing.

“Pang Yuhai!” He squeezed out these three characters from between his teeth. Thinking of how these past days he had accepted gifts and various banquet invitations from those merchants with peace of mind, he regretted it so much he wanted to bang his head against the wall.

Yan Zi’s smile was very beautiful, and when serving him she was as gentle as a small beast, but that kind of tender gaze between lovers—not once had there been any. Yan Zi was feeling guilty! He had long heard that Yan Zi was Pang Yuhai’s lover. This was just a legend, and he himself had also thought it was just a legend. Looking at it now, it was indeed true.

Those one hundred and forty silver coins were the first time he had used the academy’s money to handle his private affairs. Pang Yuhai would certainly start auditing the accounts tonight. If pigs and sheep didn’t arrive at the academy tomorrow, his reputation for embezzlement would be firmly established.

The academy’s money and grain disbursements should always have been done by two people—one responsible for bookkeeping, one responsible for handling the money and grain. Both were mutually accountable to each other. He alone not only had to manage the accounts but also be responsible for monetary transactions—this was too abnormal. From the very beginning, he had stepped with one foot into Pang Yuhai’s trap.

With matters now clear, Li Yifu was no longer worried. If he didn’t know about these schemes, tomorrow would certainly be the time of his ruination and disgrace. Now that he understood, things were very easy to handle—it was just a matter of a hundred-some silver coins.

Damn it, what a ruthless Pang Yuhai! He had forced me to the point of seeking help from nobles, being held by the scruff by others for a lifetime, unable to move! Li Yifu was so angry he was about to go mad. He punched the wall, preparing to curse two more times, when his vision suddenly went dark. A burlap sack covered his head, and two rope loops appeared on his body, binding him tightly. To avoid receiving a club blow to the head, Li Yifu decisively stopped struggling and allowed himself to be carried away by two people…

Xiao Wu hadn’t gone to sleep even though it was very late. Only after a maidservant brought her a slip of paper did she prepare to undress for bed. Maidservant Huantou pulled her hair out from her nightclothes and muttered: “You just refuse to sleep early. Just now when I went to fetch water for you, the Marquis was still asking why the light was still on in your small building.”

“Master also hasn’t slept?” Xiao Wu asked Huantou while leaning against the quilt.

“The Marquis is currently reviewing official documents. According to Liu Jinbao, it’s quite a large stack—he estimates it won’t be finished until the fourth watch.”

Xiao Wu sighed and said: “Master always refuses to let me help him review official documents. Actually, what’s so difficult about those things!”