When Yun Ye saw the stubbly-bearded Li Tai, his eyes immediately reddened. The characteristic of intelligent people was that when an event first showed signs, they already roughly knew the general outcome. Li Tai, who had been manufacturing weapons beneath Wude Hall with his head buried in work, came up from underground and immediately heard about Big Brother’s statement about wanting to shoulder more responsibility. This struck him like five thunderbolts from the sky.

Previously, he hadn’t understood why Mother Empress would climb a snowy mountain in the dead of winter, nor had he figured out why Yun Ye would throw down everything he’d half-finished and flee with his entire family overnight.

Although Wei Zheng was rigid, he wasn’t an invincible person. Although Fang Xuanling was opportunistic, he also wasn’t so powerful as to be undefeatable. How could Yun Ye possibly admit defeat at this time and take his entire family on an escape that most people didn’t understand?

After hearing Big Brother’s statement, everything became clear. All of Yun Ye’s bizarre behaviors had an explanation. It wasn’t that Yun Ye couldn’t fight against Wei Zheng, nor was it that Yun Ye feared failure—it was because Big Brother was about to clash directly with Father Emperor.

After thinking it over from every angle, Li Tai discovered that Yun Ye’s previous predicament had now fallen upon him. Caught between two great powers was difficult for the small—moreover, his own position was extremely awkward. No matter what he did, it would be wrong.

Ignoring all affairs and hiding underground to conduct research would be seen as waiting for an opportunity. Participating too much would be considered having ulterior motives. Returning to his fiefdom was even less advisable—others would consider him a dormant dragon. After laughing bitterly, he discovered that Yun Ye’s choice was the best. Going to Lingnan to be a pirate was truly the only path he could take.

He left a message for Mother. As for Father and Big Brother, there was no need to say hello—they were all perceptive people, how could they not see through things? Taking his guards, he ran. He too would go be a pirate. So he rushed all the way to Lingnan.

“Have you eaten?”

“No!”

“Whistle noodles then! I haven’t eaten either.”

After Yun Ye instructed the cook to prepare food, he found a chair and sat opposite Li Tai, also preparing to drink a couple cups from that vessel.

“I know your difficulties. You were right not to tell me when you fled. If you had told me, you would have become a treacherous minister. Others would say you were sowing discord between us brothers—that’s a capital offense you couldn’t bear.” Li Tai drank a large mouthful of wine and tossed the cup onto the table, irritably rubbing his face.

“It’s good that you came. In any case, I’m going to be a pirate. In the next few days, the manpower will be complete. We brothers won’t stay on land—we’ll go straight out to sea. Life and death are destiny, wealth and honor are in Heaven’s hands. If something happens, don’t blame me.”

“As a pirate, can we kill people?”

“Absolutely!”

“That’s good then. Load more eight-ox crossbows onto my ship. I’ll start mixing gunpowder these next few days. As long as your ships don’t fall apart once they’re at sea, no one will be our match.”

Neither of them had any desire to talk. Each man in a reclining chair, both looking as if their spines had been pulled out, lying limply in the chairs.

“I always thought that as long as I didn’t compete, my big brother would peacefully wait until after Father Emperor’s hundred years to take over the throne. Who knew that the happy days would only last a few years? Isn’t this too fast?”

“Not fast, not fast at all. Actually, from the moment His Majesty established the Crown Prince, the struggle should have appeared. That Chengqian has endured until now—honestly, we two brothers have been holding him back. Your declaration of intent gave Chengqian a heart free from anxiety, allowing him to calmly await the day of his own enthronement. But unfortunately, Qing Que, interests always need representatives.”

“So my big brother became that representative? Is Father Emperor not good to them?”

“Not good! Not good at all. His Majesty’s威 authority extends throughout the realm, with the gaze of a tiger and bearing of an eagle, wanting to achieve accomplishments unprecedented by our predecessors. So his steps are inevitably too large, his temperament inevitably too impatient. Since His Majesty’s enthronement, after resolving external threats, His Majesty has thrown all his attention into internal governance.”

“He eliminated the old aristocratic families, controlled the newly emerging ones, and suppressed those of the future. The ‘Clan Records’ and the enfeoffment of regional inspectors—these two measures made even someone as loyal to His Majesty as your uncle feel threatened, so voicing opposition became inevitable.”

“Your uncle can’t represent those forces, nor does he dare to. He had no choice but to find a suitable person to represent them, to cry out for them and fight for their last power. If this person wasn’t you, it would definitely be your big brother. You shut yourself in Wude Hall where ordinary people can’t see you, so Chengqian became their only choice.”

“Do you know? His Majesty actually welcomes this phenomenon. No matter who loses or wins, the final victor is always the Li family. Even if you got involved, His Majesty wouldn’t mind—he might even be happier.”

“But as long as an outsider’s shadow dares to appear, hehe, he’ll definitely be torn to shreds by your father and your big brother. So small fries like me must immediately run far away. Running so far that everyone forgets me is the best method.”

“According to what you’re saying, even if my big brother fails, nothing will happen to him?” For the first time, Li Tai raised his head to look at Yun Ye. He also felt this possibility was very high.

“Of course there won’t be a problem. As long as your attitude of not being Crown Prince is firm enough, your big brother is His Majesty’s only choice. Think about it—in a family, the most capable are the eldest and second sons, and the other sons aren’t very accomplished. The eldest wants to seize power while the father is still alive and gets thoroughly beaten by the father as a result.”

“At this time, the father is old and needs to transfer power. But the clever second son would rather die than become the family head. Tell me, with your Father Emperor’s temperament, who would he hand the country to?”

“It must be Big Brother, that’s certain. No matter how much conflict they have, at this time Father Emperor absolutely won’t be ambiguous.” Li Tai gradually became interested in the conversation.

“Right! Better to have sons like wolves than sons like sheep—this is the rule of imperial families. You watch, within the next few days an edict will chase after you, definitely ordering you back to the capital. Will you go back?” Yun Ye handed one of the large bowls the cook brought over to Li Tai and picked up one himself.

Li Tai held his chopsticks, picking at the noodles in the large bowl while laughing, “Since I’ve already run out, and run so far, why would I go back before I’ve had my fill of fun? Go back to be squeezed between them? If those two like to fight, then let them fight. We’ll happily go be pirates.” He took a large, satisfying bite of noodles, smacked his lips, and only then discovered the garlic cloves. He rubbed them with his hand, peeled several, and ate very contentedly—a mouthful of noodles, a mouthful of garlic.

Yun Ye’s actions were much the same. In fact, both Li Tai and Li Chengqian ate noodles this way—a bad habit learned from Yun Ye. Now eating noodles without two cloves of garlic felt uncomfortable.

After finishing a large bowl of noodles, Li Tai’s soul seemed to have returned. Pulling Yun Ye along, the two went to the seaside. They kicked off their shoes and stepped barefoot on the soft sandy beach. This was a new experience for Li Tai. The beach had many seashells washed ashore by the waves, some very beautiful. The locals were accustomed to seeing them, but Li Tai picked up the pretty ones and gathered them in his robe. Very confused, he asked Yun Ye, “These things are so beautiful—how come I don’t see you sending some to my house?”

“Who says I didn’t send any? I gave Lan Ling a huge shell as a box—very pretty. Your wife took a whole peck of pearls from my house. She’s the one who didn’t want shells.”

“That foolish woman, so petty. When I get back I’ll divorce her. How can a peck of pearls compare to a peck of the most beautiful shells? Do you know, in ancient times, people’s currency was shells?”

Previously, Yun Ye had also thought “buying the casket and returning the pearl” was a story mocking stupidity. After spending a long time with great personages, he discovered that the person who did that was definitely an elegant and refined noble. Money was simply too laughable in their eyes. If they liked the box, they’d buy it. As for the pearls inside, they were truly negligible—returning them to the seller was no big deal. If this situation were placed on Yun Ye now, he could probably do the same thing.

The waves playfully licked at their toes, tickling them. Looking at the fishermen catching fish in the distance, Yun Ye took off his robe and handed it to Liu Jinbao. Li Tai also removed his clothes. With such blue seas and skies, if they didn’t swim, it would truly be letting themselves down. Seeing both the Prince and the Marquis about to enter the water, those landlubber guards gritted their teeth and undressed. Finally, a large group of men in underpants rushed into the ocean with various strange cries.

Di Renjie also laughed and jumped into the ocean, but he quickly crawled back onto the beach, frantically shaking his underpants. A copper-coin-sized crab fell out. Judging by his terrified expression, that crab had struck hard.

Li Tai was just about to mock him when he felt his own toe also viciously pinched by something. He too shrieked and got ashore. Sure enough, a crab was hanging from his toe. Not only him—everyone who had entered the water had been attacked. Old Iron came running from the distance, shouting and urging everyone to leave quickly.

“Oh, my Lord Marquis! How dare you swim in Crab Bay? Now that it’s September, the crabs are making their great migration. Countless crabs are about to walk from this end of the bay to that end. Right now the water is full of crabs. Leave quickly—the sun is about to set, and the crabs will also be coming out of the sea!”

Liu Jinbao helped Yun Ye remove the crab from his calf. Looking at His Lordship’s calf again, it was bleeding. The one on Li Tai’s toe was also removed by the guard captain. As for the two on his own waist, there was still no time to deal with them.

When the group had dressed and stood on a high platform looking down, all their body hair stood on end. The beach four or five li wide was densely packed, layer upon layer crawling with crabs—there was simply no way to count how many there were.

Seagulls and fish hawks circled happily over the beach. With one swoop, they’d snatch away a crab, but the crabs seemed heedless, marching mightily toward the forest at the beach’s edge like a well-ordered army.

No matter how many birds in the sky carried off, no matter how many land animals ate, the crab army forged ahead unstoppably, marching mightily forward. When encountering deep ditches, the crabs in front would be squeezed into the pit, and the crabs behind would continue to follow until the pit was filled with crabs, and the army continued its advance.

Li Tai didn’t appreciate Yun Ye’s action of using a bamboo pole to select plump crabs. Instead, he stared blankly at the boundless expanse of crabs. Old Iron said this was the crabs’ destiny. Li Tai very much wanted to know what his own destiny was.