◎When the great wind topples the parasol tree, bystanders will naturally judge◎

“Who did this!”

“Who broke the flower vase!”

“Stand forward!”

Nanny Qian stood with hands on hips, glaring at the young couple.

This was the imitation “Tea Mountain Lady’s Early Spring Mountain Calling Painting” she had bought for ten wen! And it was Yuezhou porcelain!

She said resentfully: “Ten wen! That could buy twenty meat buns!”

Lan Shanjun had just been fearless of life and death, but now was silenced by twenty meat buns, offering an ingratiating smile: “It was…”

Yu Qingwu hurriedly said: “It was me who smashed it.”

Unfortunately, Judge Qian was perceptive. She carefully examined the vase fragments, then looked suspiciously at Yu Qingwu: “You’re so stingy—would you be willing to deliberately smash a vase? Young Master Yu, if you were willing to spend silver, would I have only bought an imitation vase?”

Then she told Lan Shanjun: “Don’t let there be a next time!”

This old lady treated everyone equally! She would spare no one!

The young couple nodded and nodded again, not daring to say another word.

Nanny Qian set down the food box and had someone come clean up the fragments before leaving satisfied.

The young couple looked at each other, smiled at one another, and sat down to eat again.

Lan Shanjun arranged the dishes and said curiously: “Lately Nanny Qian hasn’t been making stir-fried eggs.”

Yu Qingwu, who had been forbidden from eating more eggs due to excessive consumption, felt guilty for a moment and said: “She must not like eating eggs these days.”

Lan Shanjun nodded. The old lady’s tastes did change easily.

She didn’t pay it much mind and returned to discussing Wu Qingchuan’s matter: “You understand him, you know why he had Imperial Academy students make trouble. Correspondingly, he should also understand you. When he spoke those four characters ‘Duke Zhenguo’s residence’ to you, he must have felt that given your nature, you would do something.”

Rather than calling this a conspiracy or trap, it was better to say this was Wu Qingchuan’s overt scheme.

She said: “He definitely knows you’re secretly investigating soldiers in various places, and also knows…”

She paused and pressed her lips without speaking.

—Also knows you love me deeply, and from love arises fear.

Lan Shanjun’s gaze grew tender.

But Yu Qingwu didn’t notice. He only looked up at her and said hesitantly: “You know I’m investigating?”

Lan Shanjun smiled in surprise: “You’ve never guarded against me. Though you didn’t say it explicitly, the court gazettes and regional documents you read at home all relate to the character for ‘soldiers.’ How could I not know?”

Yu Qingwu smiled: “I knew it—you’ve never asked me why I went to the Court of the Imperial Stud.”

Then while eating he suddenly said: “Shanjun, without you in my past life, being frightened by Wu Qingchuan’s riddle-like words at this moment—how terrified I must have been.”

Lan Shanjun had just scooped herself a spoonful of corn with a silver spoon. Hearing this, she also scooped a spoonful for him and said gently: “No need to praise me so—if I weren’t here, you’d have no connection to Duke Zhenguo’s residence and wouldn’t be so frightened.”

And if she weren’t here…

She said: “Wu Qingchuan probably wouldn’t use Duke Zhenguo’s residence to restrain you either.”

Calculating it this way, she had implicated him too.

But somehow, she no longer felt extremely indebted to him. She was beginning to believe their lives were bound together—no matter what happened, neither needed to feel guilty.

Lan Shanjun served him a bowl of soup and passed it over: “Yu Qingwu, don’t be afraid.”

“I’ve thought it through carefully. Since it’s an overt scheme, we’ll walk the open road.”

She said: “Wu Qingchuan only knows I’m Duke Zhenguo’s daughter and wants to use this to trap you, but… he doesn’t know I was raised by the old monk.”

“He wants to use me to create a trap to lure you in, but conversely, I can also use my identity to ask the Crown Prince and others to create a trap to lure him in.”

She smiled: “We’ll walk the broad road and leave the single-log bridge to Wu Qingchuan—he seems to enjoy walking it.”

…

At the end of June in the fiftieth year of Yuanshao, the Emperor suppressed the third petition for pardon that the Grand Secretariat had jointly submitted for Ni Tao and the arrested Imperial Academy students. With a dark face, he threw this memorial heavily on the ground. He was about to step on it when upon raising his foot he lost his balance, felt somewhat dizzy, and hurriedly supported himself on the table, but still fell to the ground.

Old Eunuch Liu Guan rushed over in panic to help, but after the Emperor stood up, he was kicked in the chest: “Dog slave, now even you dare disrespect Us!”

Liu Guan didn’t dare cry out in pain and only continuously kowtowed: “Your Majesty, please, let this slave check if you’re injured.”

Only then did the Emperor seem to come to his senses: “Get up. We just vented our anger on you.”

He sat down. Liu Guan knelt and rubbed his legs, carefully saying: “Your Majesty, you must ease your mind—you absolutely cannot harm the dragon body.”

The Emperor sneered: “They dare to force Us like this, and We cannot get angry?”

Liu Guan: “This slave doesn’t understand these matters, only fears for your health.”

The Emperor’s eyes narrowed: “These people in the Grand Secretariat, apart from Wu Qingchuan who only returned a few years ago, the others have been there over ten years, haven’t they?”

Liu Guan: “Yes.”

The Emperor: “They’ve truly been pampered too much by Us. Obviously a whole room full of reputation seekers, yet they still want to step on Us to seek fame—We have treated them too favorably.”

But only now did he discover that over these years, because he had turned a blind eye, many matters were held in these people’s hands. When they united against him, he was actually somewhat restrained.

He closed his eyes and suddenly said: “We recall that Vice Minister Zhu of the Ministry of Justice handles cases quite well. Have him come see Us.”

He truly needed to cultivate some new claws and fangs.

—

On the other side, Lan Shanjun was in the Eastern Palace telling the Crown Princess about Wu Qingchuan’s words. She said softly: “Yu Qingwu and I don’t understand what he meant by saying this. But having said it, we inevitably feel uneasy, not knowing if he harbors ill intent.”

The Crown Princess’s gaze flickered: “Duke Zhenguo’s residence…”

She looked at Lan Shanjun: “In these two or three years since you’ve returned, have you heard anything?”

Lan Shanjun shook her head: “Never.”

Even in the past life, she hadn’t discovered anything wrong. Duke Zhenguo and his son had also died of natural causes.

Could their deaths back then also have been problematic?

Lan Shanjun’s brow was furrowed with worry: “Once caught in the torrent, these conspiracies and schemes never stop for a moment.”

The Crown Princess smiled and said: “A’Hu said the same thing before. Because there were too many matters in his heart, he couldn’t eat.”

Now he ate much more.

He ate her portion along with his own.

The Crown Princess’s eyes darkened, then she said: “Shanjun, when A’Hu returns, I’ll tell him about this matter.”

Lan Shanjun nodded and rose to take her leave.

Upon leaving the palace, she saw Yu Qingwu standing in the sun waiting for her. She hurried over: “Why aren’t you holding an umbrella?”

Yu Qingwu: “I’m just a bit too fair-skinned.”

He looked at her: “I heard… women don’t like men who are too fair.”

Lan Shanjun glanced at him and walked straight toward the carriage. Just as she was about to board, she asked: “Who told you that?”

Yu Qingwu said uneasily: “Gong Lin.”

Lan Shanjun: “That’s because he’s not fair to begin with.”

Yu Qingwu laughed aloud.

When they returned, he asked Nanny Qian to apply ointment for him: “Shanjun does like fair skin.”

Nanny Qian said proudly: “Could what I say be wrong?”

As she went to get the ointment, she spoke earnestly to Yu Qingwu: “This is right. Though the outside world is chaotic and the road difficult, as long as you treat today well, this moment well, and be more cheerful, even if you don’t live long, it’s worthwhile.”

Yu Qingwu was startled: “Was I not cheerful before?”

Nanny Qian said in surprise: “Oh my, little bitter gourd! A few days ago you cried so much, locked yourself in your room, and even when you came back the day before yesterday, your brow was furrowed—”

“You call that cheerful?”

She imparted her experience: “Don’t always look worried in front of Shanjun. Who wants to see a bitter gourd face all day?”

Yu Qingwu went to the study with the ointment applied to deduce the Duke Zhenguo residence matter with Lan Shanjun.

Then he showed her a smiling face.

Lan Shanjun: “…”

She hesitated for a moment, then also smiled at him.

Yu Qingwu felt this was rather foolish of himself. But if Shanjun could smile, it was worth it.

Not daring to push his luck, he took out old court gazettes and pointed to one place: “In the spring of the twenty-ninth year of Yuanshao, five cities in Shuzhou—Lingcheng, Shangyong, Qingcheng, Luocheng, and Tianshui—rebelled together with approximately thirty thousand troops.”

Yu Qingwu: “That same year, the court began discussing which general should suppress the rebellion.”

He looked at Lan Shanjun: “At that time, the loudest voice was for General Zhennan, Duan Boyan.”

Lan Shanjun couldn’t help but hold up the lamp and look down at the characters on the document, but didn’t see the three characters Duan Boyan.

She said softly: “Only the victorious can be written on this paper, right?”

Yu Qingwu nodded: “Yes. Although General Duan had the loudest support, His Majesty didn’t allow it.”

Lan Shanjun hadn’t carefully explored that period.

She only knew the general outline.

The lamp shadow in her hand fell on the paper, covering the three characters Duke Zhenguo.

She said: “I know that at that time the Late Crown Prince was rectifying official governance with the old monk, which had already caused His Majesty’s displeasure, so he wasn’t allowed to lead troops.”

This was something one could learn by asking around.

Yu Qingwu had also heard Wu Qingchuan say this.

He said: “When I was young, Wu Qingchuan told me about this past event. He said that Duke Zhenguo at that time, your grandfather General Lan Huaiyin, though not as famous as General Duan, had also fought many battles and was quite trusted by His Majesty.”

“Your eldest uncle and second uncle had also experienced a small rebellion. That time going with Duke Zhenguo should have been foolproof.”

Who knew it would be so tragic.

He took out a topographical map and pointed to one place: “One hundred thousand troops naturally wouldn’t be brought from Luoyang, but were transferred from three places.”

“Guizhou, Nanzhou, and Anzhou bordering Shuzhou each provided twenty thousand troops. The forces Duke Zhenguo personally brought were only forty thousand.”

Actually for Shuzhou’s thirty thousand troops, just these forty thousand would have been enough. But Shuzhou rebelled again and again, causing other provinces to become restless. Therefore, the Emperor decided to send troops to exterminate the Shuzhou rebels, leaving none alive.

Lan Shanjun held up the lamp and continued looking at the document, seeing it read: “In winter of the twenty-ninth year of Yuanshao, Duke Zhenguo Lan Huaiyin was defeated at Shangyong, thirty thousand troops killed.”

Before so many lives, the deaths of Duke Zhenguo’s two sons were not recorded.

Lan Shanjun’s scalp tingled. She continued holding the lamp to read: “In the thirtieth year of Yuanshao, Duke Zhenguo’s third son Lan Fengqin brought ten thousand troops to aid the battle, achieving great victory in July of the thirty-first year of Yuanshao.”

Yu Qingwu’s finger pointed at the three characters Lan Huaiyin as he said gravely: “When the great wind topples the parasol tree, bystanders will naturally judge.”

“Back then, when such an absurd matter occurred, it must have been discussed. But everyone said Duke Zhenguo was careless, thought having troops meant he could advance recklessly, which led to this tragedy.”

“I previously guessed that among these one hundred thousand troops, some might be fake—but troops marching leave traces. If too fake, it wouldn’t have been covered up so silently. Even if some were fake, at most ten or twenty thousand. I estimate there were still eighty thousand troops who went to Shuzhou.”

Precisely because of this, though he had speculations, he didn’t dare touch it.

He said seriously: “Shanjun, the more detailed the past, if there’s fraud, the more shocking and tragic it becomes.”