They say that the higher one’s wisdom, the less joy one experiences. This is exactly Yun Ye’s situation now. Wisdom, when you think about it, is simply a matter of how far one can see ahead. Yun Ye doesn’t need particularly high wisdom to see much farther than ordinary people.

“With great ability comes great responsibility” is truly no empty phrase. For instance, right now, while everyone else is drinking and celebrating wildly, Yun Ye’s heart is as bitter as if he had just swallowed a mouthful of coptis root.

The Emperor eats grilled skewers no differently from common people, and when he brags, it’s equally boundless. Just looking at Zhangsun’s embarrassed face reveals the truth. At this moment, the Emperor must be boasting about his past exploits of defeating ten thousand enemies with a hundred cavalry. It’s just that the rank of the enemy general keeps getting higher and higher. He completely disregards the fact that Cheng Yaojin had already surrendered at that time, insisting that he knocked him off his horse with a single lance strike, and if he hadn’t surrendered quickly, his head would have had an extra hole in it long ago.

When Li’er gets drunk, he most enjoys talking about Cheng Yaojin, making him out to be someone who surrendered eight hundred times and rebelled eight hundred times. In any case, if you want to know the historical truth from his mouth, you first have to mentally remove this fellow Cheng Yaojin.

The crescent moon hangs like a hook but cannot stir anyone’s poetic inspiration. The reflections on the Red Cliff are chaotic, the water surface noisy. Li’er roars out orders for the Great Emperor to attack that section of reddish-brown river cliff. Duan Hong, holding the command token, steps onto the cable and boards the Great Emperor.

Thus, streams of fire shoot straight at the river cliff. The power of gunpowder appears even more formidable at night. The beautiful sparks from the gunpowder explosions entrance everyone. Silver serpents, one after another, shriek as they crash into the river cliff, blooming into the most beautiful flowers—a brilliance never before seen in the human world.

Yun Ye helplessly picks up a corn cob and takes a bite. He understands that fireworks are about to emerge. Dongyu shouts wildly as he unties the Great Emperor’s moorings and quickly pilots the flat-bottomed boat away. While everyone else is admiring the brilliant fireworks, Dongyu discovers that the cliff face has collapsed.

Boulders larger than houses continuously crash into the Yangtze River, raising towering waves. Li Tai desperately protects his father. Yun Ye shouts loudly for everyone to hold on tight to avoid being swept away by the waves.

Dongyu truly lives up to his reputation as someone who makes his living on water. As the massive wave approaches, he has already turned the bow to face it head-on. Such huge waves naturally pose no problem for the Great Emperor, but for the small boat, it’s nearly a catastrophic disaster.

After the river surface calms down, Dongyu is already drenched in sweat. If there weren’t so many noble personages on the boat, he would have laughed while facing such a crisis. It’s precisely because of the presence of these nobles that he has been so cautious.

Zhangsun respectfully invites Li’er to board the Great Emperor, and she herself follows along. If Li’er continues playing like this, this boat will fall apart sooner or later. Li’er’s willfulness can inadvertently put everyone in dangerous situations.

“How can a small grasshopper boat withstand a dragon’s play? I merely wanted to see the might of our military weapons, but didn’t expect to nearly meet disaster. Hahaha, my dear ministers, let us go feast on the Great Emperor—now that’s a proper ship!”

In a flash, Li’er takes everyone in bamboo baskets up to the Great Emperor, leaving the small boat to Yun Ye and his wife. Xinyue was terrified just moments ago, and even now her face still bears traces of tears.

Yun Ye instructs Dongyu to leave the Great Emperor and drift toward the depths of starlight. Such a beautiful night would be too much of a waste to return now. Xinyue forcibly suppresses her fear of darkness and accompanies her husband forward into the unknown terror.

The three servants brought on board quickly clean up the chaotic deck. Yun Ye supports Xinyue, letting her recline on the brocade couch, while he himself stands at the bow with arms outstretched, wanting to embrace the sky full of stars.

How long has it been since he’s seen such a pure starry sky? When he had the mood, there was no opportunity; when there was opportunity, he often lacked the mood. Thank you, Li’er! He took away the restlessness and clamor, leaving behind such a pure expanse of stars.

The starlight visible now—who knows how many years ago the stars emitted it? This theory is strangely similar to himself. Perhaps this gentle starlight is his ultimate destination.

Tears stream down his face, yet he doesn’t know how to express it. Though he beats the railing repeatedly, there is no kindred spirit in the world.

To be buried in starlight must be the most beautiful dream!

Xinyue trembles with fear. Just a moment ago, she felt her husband was about to merge with the starlight, about to leave her. She stumbles forward and grasps Yun Ye’s sleeve, saying loudly: “I won’t let you leave!”

“Where could I run to? I can’t go anywhere. I must always stay by your side.” Yun Ye pulls Xinyue into his embrace and murmurs softly.

“Husband, let’s go back. I’m so scared!”

“Scared of what? This is an ancient battlefield—there are people everywhere, what’s there to fear? A hundred boats racing, fighting everywhere, fire crows flying across the sky, arrows like urgent rain. Do you hear the dying wails of those soldiers? Do you see the incomplete limbs swaying in pools of blood?”

Xinyue becomes even more frightened, hugging Yun Ye tightly as if wanting to burrow into his body. Yun Ye pats her shoulder and says: “Don’t be afraid. Your husband is the Grand General of the Navy. They are merely my subordinates and should salute you when they see you.”

“Return to the ship!” Xinyue orders Dongyu with a fierce expression on her face. She’s discovered that her husband is very wrong—as if possessed by evil spirits.

“Ha! Corpses pile up on the great river’s banks, fresh blood fills the caves of the Great Wall. Whether noble or lowly, all become withered bones. The drum sounds weaken as soldiers exhaust their strength, arrows are spent and bowstrings break. White blades clash and precious swords shatter, the two armies engage in hand-to-hand combat where life and death are decided. Birds fall silent and mountain ranges grow still. Through the endless long night, the mournful wind whistles. Ghostly souls congeal and the sky grows dark, spirits gather and dark clouds thicken heavily. Sunlight falls bleakly upon the short grass, moonlight spreads miserably over white frost. This is the Red Cliff I see.”

Xinyue sees her husband’s madness growing worse and continuously urges Dongyu to return quickly. She doesn’t know which demon has invaded her husband—he needs to return early for treatment.

Yun Ye exhales a long breath, then inhales greedily like a drowning man. After doing this several times, his taut muscles finally relax. He smiles at Xinyue and says: “I’m fine. My heart was just unhappy. Suppressed for too long, I vented randomly. No need to worry—the lonely ghosts and wild spirits of the battlefield dare not do anything to me.”

He then instructs Dongyu not to rush back, to just return slowly. He lifts Xinyue horizontally and whispers something in her ear, causing Xinyue to repeatedly pound him with her fists, though her body gradually grows hot.

On the Great Emperor, drums and gongs still sound loudly. This feast won’t stop until tomorrow’s daylight. But Yun Ye needs to return early to sleep—the beauty in his arms with seductive eyes is already pinching him with her nails…

Yun Ye rises very late the next day. Even so, the water fortress remains quiet, with only patrolling warships continuously shuttling across the water surface. The Great Emperor doesn’t move, so the other ships won’t move either. The itinerary is all personally arranged by the Emperor himself.

“Husband, when will we reach Yuezhou? We’re now less than two days away from Yuezhou. Why has His Majesty stopped? I wanted to go see our family’s properties in Yuezhou. If they’re still doing well, we should check on them every few years. Without our family’s people watching over them, I always feel uneasy.”

Yun Ye carelessly inserts a hairpin into Xinyue’s hair. Ever since his fit of madness last night, Xinyue hasn’t allowed Yun Ye to leave her sight. She’s also given last night’s wildness a rather mythical coloring.

“Husband wants to ascend to heaven like our ancestor master?” Na Rimu’s jaw nearly drops. She examines her husband’s head for a moment, then giggles and says: “No way! Husband loves me so much—if he ascends to heaven, he’ll definitely take me with him.”

Xinyue irritably pinches Na Rimu and says: “Other women are very careful not to eat too much, but you—you stuff food in your mouth all day long. You’re almost turning into a pig! Look at these two lumps of flesh, and your buttocks—which woman grows to look like you?”

“As long as husband likes it, that’s enough. Huan Niang said that women only need to please their husbands. Right, husband?” Na Rimu arrogantly presses Yun Ye’s hand against her bulging chest, showing off to Xinyue.

“Take you to heaven? Even if husband could ascend to heaven, you’d pull him back down. Go watch the children quickly. This is a ship, not home. If even one is missing, I’ll hold you accountable with your life.”

When Xinyue and Na Rimu quarrel, Yun Ye generally doesn’t make a sound. There’s no way to make a sound. As for last night—whether he wanted to ascend to heaven or not, he knows very clearly. It was just a nervous breakdown. He doesn’t even know what he said from his mouth—purely meaningless delirious talk. This was his brain protesting. Running Pentium processors on the most primitive hardware leads to this outcome.

Now it’s better. After the brain has been reinstalled, it can run smoothly for another period. Yuezhou! The greatest purpose of Li’er’s journey is to come see the results of the Two Lakes development. The Great Emperor is merely a big toy for him.

With three years of taxes exempted, the people should have accumulated a large amount of wealth. Li’er camps here waiting for his intelligence system to deliver the latest intelligence about Yuezhou. Only after reading this intelligence, which can’t be seen on the surface, will Li’er inspect Yuezhou with clear purpose. As the largest construction project since his ascension to the throne, the success or failure of Yuezhou has great instructive significance. He must ensure that what he sees is all real. Hoping for the best while preparing for the worst—all great figures have this virtue.

The Yun family’s steward in Yuezhou, Old Jiang, comes out to greet them from afar. The master family has already reached Red Cliff and stopped there, which makes Old Jiang very nervous. He arrives early together with the stewards of the Cheng, Niu, and Qin families, wanting to hear what dissatisfaction the master family has with the management of Yuezhou’s properties.

Yun Ye puts down the account books and says: “There’s nothing inappropriate. You’re an old hand of our family—I still have that much trust in you. The main issue is His Majesty. If he doesn’t move, none of us can move. He’s simply waiting for news from Yuezhou. Only after His Majesty has gained some written understanding of Yuezhou will he continue forward.”

“Even if there are mistakes, they have nothing to do with our family. I resigned from my position as Yuezhou Administrator three years ago. If there are errors, Guan Tinglong and the others will bear them—it has nothing to do with our family. What the Yun family wants now is precisely this inconspicuous, quiet existence.”