Yun Ye had walked past his daughter three times already…

When he was about to make a fourth pass, Yun Mu put her head on the table and groaned painfully, “Just ask! Your daughter will tell you everything.”

Yun Ye quickly sat down across from his daughter, asking with a smile, “What’s this? Have you really fallen for that Yan family boy?”

“He’s alright. Daughters always have to marry. Right now all of Chang’an is saying I’m an old maid. If I don’t marry soon, it will bring shame to the family. You find it awkward too. Maoshi is a decent person—at least he possesses diligence and moral integrity. As for learning, our family is full of learned people. Even Yun Jiu gets praised when he goes out, people say he has grandmaster bearing. So I won’t worry about that criterion.”

“He has several pockmarks on his face!” After pondering for a long time, Yun Ye finally found a flaw that wasn’t really a flaw.

“Those aren’t pockmarks—they’re small scars from childhood chickenpox. You can’t even see them if you don’t pay attention. Father, did you examine his face up close?” Yun Mu stood up in surprise.

“Not that close—they were very clear through the telescope!” Yun Ye produced a newly made telescope from behind him with high magnification. Since glass was developed, the craftsmanship had made great strides these years, and the telescopes produced were increasingly refined.

“Give it to me, Father!” Yun Mu cried out joyfully and hugged her father’s arm, forcibly wresting the telescope away. Getting it in hand, she opened the cover and looked randomly around.

“Father, Maoshi doesn’t like being a historian. He prefers geography and the sky, so these years he’s been drawing maps at the Ministry of Works. You may not know—Master Zhao Yanling only allows fewer than five young people on his observatory platform, and he’s one of them.”

Yun Ye asked with a dark expression, “That’s where you two met? I remember you always liked pestering Master Zhao to use his telescope to look at the starry sky. Do you count as one of those five people?”

“Of course not! The observatory was built with our family’s money. Why would I need that bad-tempered old man’s permission to look at our own things? But every time I looked, the old man would get angry, saying I was moving things randomly and always messing up the positions he’d set. Later he assigned Maoshi to come teach me how to identify star charts and return the telescope to its proper position after viewing.”

Hearing his daughter’s words, an image had already formed in Yun Ye’s mind—on a moonless night, the sky full of stars, a young man in green clothes teaching a beautiful young woman to look at the stars, voice gentle, softly singing, surrounded by the murmuring sounds of crickets. In such an environment, it would be strange if love didn’t develop…

“Father! Father!” Yun Mu waved her hand four or five times before her dazed father’s eyes before calling him back from his stupor.

“Oh, it’s already late. You should rest. Father needs to go rest too. Tomorrow there’s still official business to handle.” Yun Ye dejectedly descended from his daughter’s pavilion. Seeing Na Rimu wrapped in fox fur and smiling at him, he said irritably, “Our daughter is about to no longer be part of our family, and you can still smile!”

Na Rimu didn’t know how to respond and just grinned foolishly. Xinyue, returning from a post-meal walk, picked up the conversation: “The child is grown. Marriage between men and women is natural order. Do you really plan to keep your daughter until she’s old? Go out and ask around—whose daughter is still living with her parents at nineteen? Even the court’s unreasonable law only stipulates girls can’t marry before eighteen, and that’s counting by lunar years. Xiao Mu is a full nineteen this year. Good families were actually all delayed by you—otherwise she would have married out long ago.”

Yun Ye understood the logic perfectly well without Xinyue repeating it. He just couldn’t accept someone taking away the daughter he’d worked so hard to raise. This feeling was truly indescribable.

When going to bed that night, under Xinyue’s wide-eyed stare, the furtive Na Rimu actually quietly crept in, diving headfirst into her husband’s quilt, refusing to leave despite Xinyue’s punching and kicking.

“Good heavens! We’re already grandparents, and if word got out about sharing a bed together, could we still show our faces?”

“Enough. If she wants to come in, she has something to say. Who would spread our bedroom matters? Settle down—the more you shout, the more people will know.” Yun Ye helped Na Rimu fend off attacks while scolding Xinyue.

“Don’t touch me!” Xinyue lost her temper. Rolling herself up in the quilt, she tumbled to the inner part of the bed to face the wall.

Na Rimu poked her head out from the quilt and carefully glanced at Xinyue before sighing and clinging to Yun Ye’s body, saying softly, “Husband, what kind of display do you think Xiao Mu’s wedding will be? This is our eldest daughter—it won’t do if it’s too ordinary. Could it possibly exceed the spectacle of the Cheng family marrying off Huahua?”

Before Yun Ye could answer, Xinyue said through gritted teeth from inside, “Dream on! Xiao Huan’s wedding was deliberately arranged that way by both families. Rather than a wedding, it was more like a political alliance. Xiao Mu’s marriage won’t have such an opportunity. Besides, the Yan family is terribly poor. Their household probably has nothing but books. How much betrothal gifts do you expect them to provide?”

Na Rimu burrowed further into her husband’s embrace and countered Xinyue: “What does that matter? It would be even better if the Yan family used books as betrothal gifts. Our family doesn’t lack those useless gold, pearls, and jewels. Even without using our family’s resources, little sister—I’ve accumulated quite a bit over these years. Just taking out a tiny portion would be enough for the young couple to use their entire lives.”

That one statement ignited Xinyue’s explosive temper. She threw off the quilt and sat up in her undergarments, dragging Na Rimu out by her feet. Eye to eye, she demanded, “I was wondering why the family’s returns haven’t grown these past few years. Speak! Did you take it?”

On this matter, Na Rimu wasn’t the least bit timid. She counted on her fingers to calculate for Xinyue exactly where her money came from. The current Na Rimu was no longer that Na Rimu who traded a sheep’s head for a bag of grain.

“Elder Sister, you don’t know—though this concubine followed Husband to eat sand in the desert, I didn’t earn any less money. Yun Jiu is very capable. Besides the money for the family, this concubine still has plenty left over. In a few days, when He Shao returns from Jiucheng Palace, I can settle another sum. What a pity—this will be the last one.”

“I don’t care—it goes into the public account!” The frantic Xinyue once again rolled herself into the quilt. Who knows what madness had seized this woman.

Yun Ye couldn’t interfere in these matters. Exchanging a glance with Na Rimu and making a helpless expression, he let her burrow into the quilt to sleep. Na Rimu muttered to her husband inside the quilt for most of the night, all about Yun Mu’s wedding matters.

Having lived together as husband and wives for many years, they had long reached perfect harmony. Some habits couldn’t be changed by losing one’s temper. The next day upon opening his eyes, both wives were burrowed in his quilt sleeping sweetly.

Looking up at the window, he discovered it was still dark outside—the stars hadn’t set yet. He wanted to get up but was tightly entangled by them. Forget it—rarely wanting to sleep in, with the Emperor away, skipping work once today wouldn’t matter much. As he closed his eyes to re-enter dreamland, Yun Ye was still mocking his own willpower…

He’d planned to sleep only half a shichen more. When he opened his eyes again, the sun had climbed high. Xinyue and Na Rimu were both gone—only Lingdang sat at the bedside doing embroidery, looking like she’d been there for a while.

Early morning was generally when a man’s blood and qi were abundant. After a full night’s sleep, how could he withstand seeing a beauty? Moreover, Lingdang’s rounded hips were right before his eyes. So, after Lingdang let out a cry of alarm, the room filled with spring colors…

During the meal, Xinyue glanced strangely at her husband, then at the flushed Lingdang. With a disdainful snort, she drained the rice congee before her. Na Rimu whispered something in Lingdang’s ear, making the embarrassed Lingdang want to find a crack in the ground to crawl into. Only Xiao Miao, stroking her big belly, ate the milk skin in her bowl with satisfaction—this was specially prepared for her by Yun Mu.

Only in the afternoon did he take a carriage with Wang Cai to work at the imperial city. The weather outside was very cold, but the sun shone brightly. The extreme northern cold wind howled, dry and biting.

Wang Cai wore his floral jacket—this was specially made for Wang Cai by the family. Only his horse head, rear, and four legs showed. Ever since contracting heat rash disease, Wang Cai feared cold very much. Though cured, he remained very accustomed to wearing his clothes. Even when the weather wasn’t cold, he wouldn’t leave home without wearing clothes.

Wang Cai ran alongside the carriage. Yun Ye opened the window, talking to Wang Cai about the four women at home while encouraging him to run more. As a horse, when the day came that he couldn’t run anymore, death would be near. From his heart, Yun Ye hoped Wang Cai could accompany him a few more years—best if he never died.

The household guards stayed in the public office outside the imperial city. Yun Ye brought Wang Cai into the imperial city. Reaching the gate, he felt something was wrong. Today’s guard was extremely tight. Even Wang Cai’s belly wrap was searched twice, making Wang Cai very unhappy. He kicked his hooves in the air twice as warning to those strange people.

What had happened? Had the Emperor returned to the capital? That was impossible—there was no reason the Emperor would return without him knowing.

“The Sixteen Princes defied the prohibition and entered the pass on their own!” Hearing his subordinate’s words, Yun Ye learned what had happened. Having overslept half a day, such an interesting thing had occurred.

From the documents, he learned that the Sixteen Princes, bringing wives, children, and attendants, had insisted on entering the pass. The Sixteen Princes placed swords at their own throats to force Xue Rengui to open the border prohibition. They had now reached Lanzhou. According to the documents, their current condition was unbearable to witness.

The fault lay with Xue Rengui! Yun Ye sighed and put down the documents. These must be superficial appearances. Though the Sixteen Princes lived difficult lives in the Western Regions, to say they were in rags and starving was truly too exaggerated. Not to mention anything else, just the money obtained from He Shao was enough for them to live prosperously.

Though the Western Regions had few people, the products there were very abundant. That was precisely what the Sixteen Princes valued back then, thinking they could expand territory and establish themselves as kings. Who knew that great changes had occurred in the Western Regions these years.

The Kingdom of Shache was ultimately broken by the Arabs. The Arabs were absolutely ruthless—in order to prevent their territory from bordering Great Tang, they actually forced the population of Transoxiana to retreat five hundred li. Behind Talas was five hundred li of no-man’s-land.

The Tocharians built five fortresses on the border in a chain, firmly guarding their territory. After suffering one disastrous defeat, the Sixteen Princes were never again able to campaign westward. The population of Greater Bolu was abducted by Han Zhe, and the population of Lesser Bolu was also divided up by Xi Tong. The current Talas was a land where no hope could be seen.

Despair—that was the reason they disregarded everything to return!