There is a psychological theory called the pessimism extension theory. Scientists have also proven that when you cut down one tree, the other trees feel fear. Now Li Er was near death, Liu Fang was near death, and Wu She believed he too was about to die. What was most alarming was that Wang Cai was also behaving very abnormally. Last night, he had only eaten one black flour bun mixed with wheat bran, and wouldn’t even glance at the chopped fruit placed before him—something that used to be his favorite treat, which he could never get enough of.

Yun Ye had become entangled by death. The people and animals around him all seemed to be dying. After Master Yushan suffered a stroke, his mouth became crooked. Now he couldn’t speak, and his drool needed to be wiped repeatedly by maidservants. Master Yuanzhang caught a slight cold and had been bedridden for a full two weeks. This was only thanks to Sun Simiao being nearby—if it had been anyone else, he would have long since lost his life.

What he feared most were people with white cloth wrapped around their heads coming to the Yun residence to announce deaths. Each time Yun Ye saw one, he flew into a rage. He had already flown into three such rages this month.

Everyone knew the principle that great anger harms the liver, so the Yun household stopped informing Yun Ye of such news entirely. Everything was handed over to Yun Shou, who had returned to the capital, to handle. Yun Ye hid in the rear residence like a mouse, staying put except for his daily inspection of the city defenses.

Na Rimu tried every method to cheer up her husband. When no one was around, she even stuffed her full breasts into her husband’s mouth. Yun Ye naturally liked this trick very much, but after enjoying it, his expression remained gloomy.

Previously, he hadn’t understood Li Er and the others’ pursuit of immortality, but now he understood—thoroughly understood. What death truly brings to people is not fear, but loneliness…

One person achieving immortality would be meaningless; a group of people achieving immortality together would be interesting—this was Yun Ye’s view.

Patting Na Rimu’s plump buttocks, he said softly, “Get up quickly. If you don’t get up soon, you’ll crush me to death even if I’m not already dying.”

“You used to love holding your concubine like this,” Na Rimu said somewhat aggrieved.

“Nonsense! Back then I was twenty years old. Now I’m nearly fifty—how can it be the same?”

“But you said just yesterday that holding something soft and fleshy was comfortable!”

Before Yun Ye could respond, Xin Yue, who was doing embroidery on the side, took her embroidery needle and viciously jabbed it into Na Rimu’s buttocks. Na Rimu shrieked and jumped up clutching her rear, tears streaming from her eyes.

Xin Yue glanced coldly at Na Rimu, snorted, and continued with her work.

“Are you crazy? How can you jab people with needles? That’s something only a landlady would do!” Yun Ye scolded Xin Yue, then pulled away Na Rimu’s hand from her buttocks. He discovered that blood was seeping through her thin silk pants—this woman hadn’t held back at all.

“Spoil her! Keep on spoiling her! A woman in her forties, and you’ve spoiled her into acting like a little girl, living carefree and pretending to be a young maiden. Look at that millstone-sized rear of hers pressing on your legs for half an hour without moving—how could you possibly be comfortable? Even if you were young, you couldn’t withstand being crushed like that. Walk around quickly—poor blood circulation could make you fall! “

Xin Yue had completely become a landlady, sharp-tongued and harsh.

Ignoring the landlady, how he chose to be affectionate with his own wife was his own business. He draped a cloak over the wronged Na Rimu and decided to take her to pick persimmons.

“Wait for me!” Xin Yue bit through the silk thread with her teeth, fastened the embroidery needle to the embroidery frame, hurriedly got down from the soft couch, grabbed a fur coat, and followed Yun Ye and Na Rimu out of the room.

Na Rimu limped along hanging on Yun Ye’s arm, resting her head on his shoulder. From a distance, the two of them looked like a perfect couple strolling through the thin layer of early snow. Xin Yue, with her face buried in fox fur, was undoubtedly the incarnation of the evil woman from novels.

It was a disgusting scene, but Na Rimu liked it. As the pain in her buttocks gradually lessened, her sense of superiority immediately gained the upper hand. She kept pointing at persimmons on the persimmon tree in a coquettish voice, commenting on them. What she hated most now was Xin Yue saying she had a millstone-sized rear.

“Husband, look at that persimmon—so plump and fat, with a rear big enough, much bigger than your concubine’s!”

Yun Ye’s hand trembled, and as a result, that persimmon was knocked down by the pole. Instead of falling into the cloth pocket on the pole, it fell to the ground. The early winter weather wasn’t too cold yet, and the persimmon fell and burst into a puddle of yellow mud—disgusting to look at.

Yun Ye put away the pole and said helplessly to Na Rimu, “You’re someone who never learns from a beating. Every time you bicker with Xin Yue, you’re the one who suffers. She’s the primary wife—with that status, she can beat you for nothing. Stop provoking her.”

After saying a couple of sentences, he put down the pole and went to the front hall. Zhangsun Chong had arrived, and Yun Shou couldn’t receive him. He had thought the Zhangsun family could completely disregard Li Chengqian’s actions, but they had endured until now and still couldn’t endure any longer.

Zhangsun Chong sat in the great hall drinking tea. Although he and Yun Ye had fallen out, it had nothing to do with Yun Shou, so Yun Shou stood to the side attending to him, not daring to be negligent in the slightest. The two exchanged sporadic conversation, and the atmosphere seemed fairly harmonious.

When Yun Ye entered, Zhangsun Chong didn’t rise to greet him. He pointed to the chair beside him as casually as if he were in his own home.

“What plan do you have? If you have one, speak it. If it’s suitable, the Zhangsun family will follow along. If this continues, sooner or later both our families will end up isolated and alone.”

After bowing to Zhangsun Chong, Yun Shou withdrew. Yun Ye carelessly took a sip of tea and said, “What else can be done? The Emperor wants to consolidate power, we hope for power to be dispersed—that’s all it is. In this world, it’s impossible for the imperial family to seize all power completely. They’ll still need us to share the burden. The consequences of Chengqian doing this will soon appear.”

Zhangsun Chong waved his hand and said, “Wait until when? The Emperor now examines even the criminal cases of individual prefectures and circuits. Though this was the practice of ancient sage rulers, look at how vast the Great Tang is—how small were those ancient states?”

“The mobilization of over five hundred soldiers also requires the Emperor’s approval. Look at how many soldiers the Great Tang has—sixty-five thousand on the Ministry of War’s rolls. Excluding the Sixteen Guards, the rest are scattered along the long border. When there’s trouble in the South Seas requiring three thousand troops to suppress a rebellion, must that also be reported? One round trip takes half a year. By then, it won’t be something three thousand troops can quell—it might need ten thousand men. There’s no benefit to holding such complete power.”

Yun Ye put down his teacup and asked Zhangsun Chong seriously, “Tell the truth—has the Emperor touched on your pain point?”

Zhangsun Chong spread his hands helplessly and said, “The Liaodong Military Commissioner has been replaced, the Zhuozhou Prefect has been replaced, the Jinyang Guardian has been replaced, Zhang Liang has retired to his hometown due to old age and infirmity, three ships from the northern fleet have returned—the Emperor took control of them, and the Zhangsun family knows nothing about it.”

“That makes sense then. Otherwise, you still wouldn’t have come. But I’m telling you, there’s no solution. I don’t want to have a falling out with Chengqian. The Retired Emperor’s health is very poor now. As soon as the Retired Emperor passes away, I’ll immediately return to Yuezhou to retire. I won’t even stop in Chang’an. You can also return to your Zhaozhou hometown!”

Zhangsun Chong nodded and said, “Indeed so. The Emperor now possesses all the advantages of favorable timing and geography. Though he’s somewhat lacking in popular support, he’s still impeccable. Those trusted ministers of his are still very capable. We have no opportunity to exploit. You’re right—return to our hometowns and wait for favorable timing to turn toward us again. Favorable timing, geography, and popular support will change with the passage of time.”

Having finished speaking, Zhangsun Chong fell silent. After waiting for quite a while, he said, “I don’t want to rebel!”

Yun Ye said with his eyes closed, “If you rebel, I’ll go campaign against you!”

Zhangsun Chong let out a long sigh, slapped the table, clasped his fists toward Yun Ye, and left—very decisively. Yun Ye didn’t see him off either. He knew Zhangsun Chong had come to discuss the division of power with him—this was a precursor to rebellion. Yun Ye hadn’t given him this pretext, choosing instead to yield, to yield endlessly. This made Zhangsun Chong feel desperate. Rebelling alone had no future for him. Only by rebelling together with Yun Ye could they divide their spheres of influence using the Yangtze River as the boundary. If Yun Ye didn’t rebel, he had no chance at all.

Li Chengqian’s power consolidation had already become unbearable for others. The meritorious nobles now had begun to resent Li Chengqian. Although Li Xiang remained behind closed doors in Hengshan, rumors that Li Xiang was a virtuous prince had already appeared.

What are meritorious nobles? Meritorious nobles are people ready at any time to overthrow the emperor and become emperor themselves. In the eyes of meritorious nobles, the emperor is also a meritorious noble—just the most formidable one. Once the emperor-noble begins making life difficult for all the meritorious nobles, everyone prepares to replace him with a new emperor. This happens frequently. Throughout history, except for Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang, imperial power has basically been passed back and forth among meritorious nobles. Whoever has the biggest fist has the say.

Thinking about this, Yun Ye felt it was all meaningless. He said to Yun Shou, “Shou’er, tomorrow you will submit a memorial impeaching Zhou Xing and Suo Yuanli. The Emperor’s power consolidation should end here. He cannot be too greedy.”

Yun Shou nodded and went to prepare his memorial. Zhou Xing and Suo Yuanli had ravaged the Great Tang for a full three years. It was indeed time for it to end. If others impeached Zhou Xing and Suo Yuanli, their fate would certainly be miserable. But if he impeached them, it would be entirely different. These two fellows deserved to die anyway. Yun Shou had two good friends who, after being brought into the Court of Judicial Review, had never come out again.

In the winter of the fifth year of Taixing, Yun Shou, Silver Seal and Blue Ribbon Official and Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, submitted a memorial bitterly denouncing Ministry of Justice Vice Minister Zhou Xing for seventeen categories and sixty-seven major crimes, and Court of Judicial Review Director Suo Yuanli for interrogation by torture, implicating others through false accusations, and treating human lives as worthless—a total of eighty-six major crimes.

The Emperor was extremely shocked and asked the assembled officials if such things had occurred. The full court of civil and military officials wept and prostrated themselves, swearing to heaven and earth with ironclad evidence, exposing on the spot the crimes of Zhou Xing and Suo Yuanli. Their evil deeds were too numerous to record even on all the bamboo slips in existence.

The Emperor shed tears, comforted the officials, and ordered Ministry of Justice Minister Li Yifu, Court of Judicial Review Director Han Du, and Ministry of War Vice Minister Yun Shou to thoroughly investigate this matter and return to the empire’s officials and subjects a clear and bright sky.

When Yun Shou entered the Court of Judicial Review, the miserable conditions before his eyes in the prison were unbearable to behold. Men were treated like pigs and dogs, women like birds and beasts, children had severed limbs and broken arms, human skin decorated the walls. When the imprisoned clans saw Yun Shou, they begged bitterly only for a swift death. Nothing could compare to it except hell itself.

Yun Shou flew into a rage. Wielding his sword, he furiously beheaded sixteen jailers from the Court of Judicial Review, shouting loudly: “If I don’t kill all these Liao bandits, I swear I am not human!”