“This joke isn’t funny at all. It only makes me feel terrified. According to your theory, we could face catastrophic disaster at any moment. A great sphere floating in the darkness of night—catastrophic disaster could strike anywhere, anytime. Our lives truly are like morning dew. Ah, Ye Zi, please don’t say such frightening things in the future.”

Yun Ye despised Li Chengqian’s ignorance in his heart but said no more. It wasn’t easy for the brothers to gather together. Listening to their words, each one of them lived a life worse than death. Want to act freely and follow one’s nature? That hope was still too distant to touch.

Many unfortunate incidents were concocted when one was bored out of one’s mind, especially now when there were seven top-tier wastrels about to grow moldy here. People who could spend two hours standing under a persimmon tree waiting for persimmons to fall on their heads—nothing that happened should be too surprising.

Zhangsun Chong was obsessed with the incident of seizing the jade tablets last time. Only afterward did he realize he’d been led around in circles like a dog. Three of his household guards had died, and in the end, he’d gained nothing. He said he wanted to see what the jade tablets actually looked like.

Being able to speak about it openly was progress for him. The Zhangsun family only played underhanded games—this couldn’t be criticized too harshly. Every family had its own characteristics. This was determined by his father’s personality and had nothing to do with him.

Gnawing on old corn cooked by Huang Shu, the seven people came to the Bewildering Forest. The elm leaves had mostly fallen. When Li Ke saw the dense spider webs hanging from the branches, he still vomited.

However, his obsession with cleanliness was one thing—it had no relation to courage. Huozhu applied some medicinal water to each person, then let them enter the Bewildering Forest. This was originally a toy Yun Ye had casually tinkered with on a whim, but now it had become a deadly place in the mouths of Chang’an people. The description wasn’t wrong—those giant spiders even ate birds that accidentally landed in the trees, so naturally it deserved to be called a deadly place.

“Look, once winter comes, the venomous creatures here all move sluggishly. After a while, they’ll completely enter hibernation. Ye Zi, aren’t you afraid someone will come steal all these treasures you’ve stored here?”

“Bug, if you’re bored and have nothing to do, you can send your household guards to steal. No problem—if they succeed in stealing anything, it’s yours. As brothers, I’m responsible for your safety. You shouldn’t come in. If something happens, I’d still have to attend your funeral and listen to your three sons cry. Very annoying.”

Yun Ye warned Zhangsun Chong irritably. The ants here didn’t hibernate in winter. On the contrary, this was their busiest time. They relied on cleaning up those venomous insects that couldn’t survive the winter. Working in winter made everyone uncomfortable—ants were the same. Winter was when they were most ferocious.

“Opening the cabinet like this, aren’t you afraid the code will be leaked?” Li Ke now managed the palace’s wealth and was very sensitive to such things as codes.

“The cabinet has a rack bar. Each rotating wheel is a lock. There’s a notch on the wheel. Only when the notch aligns with the rack bar and the two don’t touch can the cabinet be opened. Nine numbers—the probability of guessing correctly is too low. The person who last stored things only needs to remember the final numbers they set. You see, the code he used to open it is useless—next time it won’t be this combination of numbers.” Li Tai was quite proud of this intricate design. He and Gongshu Mu had designed it based on the principle of the Luban lock. As long as the method was correct, the code could be changed.

The jade tablets were taken out. Zhangsun Chong was very surprised to discover that Yun Ye actually had three jade tablets. With his keen eye, he could tell at a glance that these three jade pendants were made from the same piece of jade. In other words, all three jade tablets were genuine.

Like dogs staring at stars—the seven of them turned the jade pendants over and over, looking at them. Apart from discovering the jade pendants were quite nice, they couldn’t see any other differences. Only Li Tai seemed to notice something. He discovered the lines on the jade pendants were arranged very regularly. He picked up a small wooden stick and measured the longest line on the three jade pendants. He found that the lengths of these line segments were all the same—the longest matched the longest, the shortest matched the shortest. These line segments must represent some kind of meaning.

“This is the writing method of the ‘Yin Fu Classic.’ Back then, Jiang Taigong used wooden sticks of varying lengths to represent different meanings. These line segments should be the same. But which of us knows what the first line segment means? Without a beginning, there can be no end.”

“I decided long ago to make this a research project at the academy. Research is already underway. Perhaps this thing represents wealth or longevity in other people’s eyes, but in the eyes of academy people, it represents wisdom and information left behind from ancient times. Master Jin Zhu has already begun researching it.” Zhangsun Chong never would have imagined that Yun Ye would take this thing out for large-scale research. Shouldn’t such a thing be hidden in a secret chamber to be admired alone in the dead of night?

“Don’t take it too seriously. If we can research it, that’s certainly good. If we can’t research it, there’s no loss. The Great Tang should focus on the future, not the past. As I see it, there’s no free lunch in this world. Wanting longevity will certainly require paying an equivalent price, just like day and night, winter versus summer. Very likely this price is one we cannot afford.”

Li Chengqian only played with the jade pendant for a while before tossing it back to Yun Ye, showing no trace of reluctance. Yun Ye smiled and put the jade pendant back in the cabinet, casually turned the wheel, memorized the numbers, closed the door, scrambled the numbers again, and led everyone out of the Bewildering Forest.

Yun Ye had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. A secret known by one person is a secret. Known by seven people, it can only be considered insider information. A secret known by seventy people is no secret at all—that’s called news.

Bai Yujing had been spread from his mouth to the imperial court. Since its appearance, it had attracted countless speculations. Before, he had thought about enjoying this secret alone, but later discovered this was an extremely foolish act. Curiosity is human nature. When everyone wants to know a secret your family alone possesses, that family is not far from ruin.

Yun Ye had no particular concept of Bai Yujing to begin with. Why should the Yun family be buried along with this worthless secret? The Li family, the Zhangsun family—who knew how many people were secretly interested in this secret?

Ever since discovering that Xinyue and Li Anlan were pregnant again, Yun Ye had put opening up this insider information about Bai Yujing on his agenda. He really couldn’t afford to gamble. Compared to his wives and children, Bai Yujing was worth less than nothing. Since everyone was here today, there was nothing wrong with completely releasing it.

“You did this on purpose, definitely on purpose. Carrying this secret yourself was too hard, so you’re using your brothers as scapegoats. You’re not a good person. From now on, people will say that punk Zhangsun Chong also knows the secret of Bai Yujing—should we arrest him and interrogate him? If something happens to me in the future, eighty percent it’ll be because of this thing. Actually, I still don’t know anything—I just know the line segments represent a language of the ‘Yin Fu Classic.’ What a loss!”

Cheng Chumo said contemptuously, “Did you really not want to look? No one forced you.”

“Of course I want to look. I’d be angry if you didn’t let me look. Knowing some secrets others don’t know—do you understand how much joy there is in that? So even knowing it’s a pit, I still jump in without hesitation.”

After leaving the Bewildering Forest, the seven people went directly to the academy’s dining hall. Today, several of them had eaten many persimmons on empty stomachs. They knew this wasn’t good, but under the temptation of that kind of unrestrained joy, who cared about such things?

There were far fewer people idly wandering around the academy. The senior students had graduated, and new students hadn’t been recruited yet. This would have to wait until spring. Without the senior scoundrels, the lower-grade students seemed even happier. No one competed with them for the ball courts, no one made them do those dirty jobs like cleaning pig pens. When they went to the library, they could swagger and sit in chairs they wouldn’t have dared occupy before, and they could openly erase those threatening messages from the tables. Otherwise, who had the heart to study while constantly facing nonsense like “whoever dares occupy this old man’s seat will have their whole family killed”?

Each of them eagerly anticipated the arrival of new junior students with incomparable fervor. Tormenting those obedient little boys who were like quails was undoubtedly their greatest pleasure. Perhaps this year would be different—there was already a boy who had been thoroughly injured by a group of girls and who, filled with hatred, was preparing to enter the academy to completely open his heart and begin his journey of revenge.

No helping it—he couldn’t beat Shishi, didn’t have Xiao Wu’s cunning, didn’t have Xiao Ya’s willfulness. Xiao Dong always wanted to marry him, Xiao Nan always made him eat newly prepared dishes, Xiao Xi was very interested in his monthly allowance. Only Xiao Bei was somewhat normal, but whenever games were needed, he was always in the minority. Was it interesting for a big boy to play jump rope and cat’s cradle? Di Renjie would never tell anyone that he actually knew how to embroider.

Although Li Chengqian very much wanted to stay at the academy like Li Tai, Li Ke, Zhangsun Chong, and Li Huairen—he heard the several of them planned to eat hot pot tonight and finish the card game they hadn’t completed during the day, what kind of joy would that be?—but thinking of tomorrow morning’s court session, he could only reluctantly return to the Eastern Palace.

Yun Ye and Cheng Chumo were newlyweds, so naturally they had no interest in staying up all night playing cards with them. After accepting the malicious curses from Zhangsun Chong and Li Huairen about dying from exhaustion, they each returned to their new chambers to accompany their wives.

Little Lingdang was very shy. She blushed when washing Yun Ye’s feet, blushed when helping Yun Ye change clothes, and even blushed at the sight of that large bed. Little Lingdang hadn’t been like this before. Ever since accepting Li Anlan’s savage premarital education, she had become like this.

“It’s the second watch—let’s sleep.” Yun Ye casually said this sentence. Just this casual sentence made Little Lingdang panic so much she dropped the copper basin in her hands.

Watching her frantically clean up the water on the floor, Yun Ye smiled and picked her up horizontally, placed her on the bed, kissed the beads of sweat on the tip of her nose, and immediately felt Little Lingdang go limp on the bed.

Her eyes were tightly closed, her breathing rapid. Yun Ye undid her garments and discovered that this easily embarrassed woman’s chest and neck displayed an enticing rose color.