When a person’s thinking begins to disconnect from society as a whole, trouble will follow one after another. Those who lag behind society are generally considered fools, while those who lead ahead of society—we generally call them sages, or madmen.

Yun Ye didn’t consider himself qualified to be regarded as a sage by everyone. Of course, being regarded as a madman wasn’t an interesting matter either. So over these years he’d been working hard to expand his circle of thinking. Only when a large group of people’s wisdom was clearly higher than others would it not be strange for an outlier like himself to appear among them.

His favorite thing to do was set a fire, then turn and run, finally hiding in the crowd to discuss with everyone how big the fire was, and perhaps even discuss how to extinguish it. Those who exposed themselves in broad daylight and arrogantly announced they’d set the fire—such people generally didn’t meet good ends. For instance, Shang Yang, or Chao Cuo—one was torn apart by chariots, the other cut in half at the waist, implicating their entire families in misfortune. Among fire-setters who managed to die natural deaths, there seemed to be only Wang Anshi. Of course, there was also Zhang Juzheng, but after his death, his entire family, young and old, met with disaster—even his elderly mother was starved to death.

So Yun Ye was determined to only set fires and not care about the results. Judging from the effects of recent years, it seemed quite good. The Great Tang people’s ability to absorb and integrate was so astonishing—the music of Kucha, I like it; desert songs and dances, I like them. As long as something was good, Great Tang people liked it. After changing the outer skin, it became their own. Anyone who dared say otherwise had their head chopped off by Li Er.

Yun Ye loved this era of unparalleled dominance, so he welcomed Li Er’s rule with open arms. Whether it was obedience or flattery, this was his heartfelt respect for a strong person. Not everyone was suited to be strong—Yun Ye himself absolutely couldn’t do it. In his previous life, what he’d envied most were the second-generation officials, but his father died early and he couldn’t fulfill that wish. Coming to the Great Tang and somehow becoming a first-generation official, he only wanted the family line to continue. He didn’t mind at all if the owners of this land fifteen hundred years later still bore the surname Li.

From childhood to adulthood, he’d never understood what politics was. He only saw people on the podium replaced batch after batch, naively thinking politics was just the transfer of power. As for how the transfer occurred, he had no idea. He just watched them all beaming with smiles on stage and kindly assumed they were all very happy.

He Tianshang now had nothing to do but liked coming to the Yun residence to ask for tea. Although Yun Ye had given him enough tea leaves to drink for a year, he hadn’t changed this habit. It seemed that after the last encounter, he considered himself Yun Ye’s friend. When asking for tea, he didn’t come empty-handed—each time he brought small gifts, either a package of inexpensive pastries or a wild rabbit whose neck had just been wrung. Yun Ye considered this a good habit that must be promoted—unlike the Bearded Stranger who always clamored for wine when he came to the house. After drinking, he’d say inexplicable things, and finally the Yun family’s carriage would need to send him back to Li Jing’s residence.

“Last time, hearing what Marquis Yun said about the domino principle, this humble one went back and pondered it for a long time, discovering it makes great sense. What triggers incidents are always some minor small matters, but to cover up these small matters, we must do even bigger things to attract others’ attention. The problem is that small incidents always exist—we’ll always have times when we can’t cover them up. So murder and crime emerge in endless succession. I wonder if Marquis Yun has a good strategy to resolve these small incidents in their infancy?”

“It’s impossible. Whitewashing peace and glossing over mistakes is our nature. We always think small matters can be covered up, but who knew we’d always fail? The smarter people are, the more they want to take shortcuts, demonstrating their foolishness to heaven again and again. This is the reason we’re called human, and the reason we must worship ancestors, or Buddha, or deities.”

“I’ve been enlightened. However, regarding your jade pendant, over fifty people have lost their lives because of it so far. I wonder how Marquis Yun views this?” He Tianshang clasped his hands in inquiry.

“Thieving bones wanting to steal things—who can do anything about it? This should be blamed on you, the constable maintaining local order. Not eliminating the incident at the start is your dereliction of duty.”

After saying this, both men looked at each other and laughed heartily. He Tianshang said with a smile: “Why does this humble official always have the feeling that Marquis Yun is watching a comedy? Your household—from the initial anxiety to after finding Dan Ying, your home immediately returned to peaceful, undisturbed life. Everyone must praise Marquis Yun’s lofty demeanor of not being obstructed by external things. Perhaps this humble official is overthinking it.”

“You’re not overthinking—your observation is accurate. I’m watching monkey theater. All the noble households throughout Chang’an are performing for me—why wouldn’t I watch? The jade pendant was in my hands the longest, but I didn’t have the wisdom to unlock it. Perhaps others have methods. If the mystery inside can’t be unlocked, that jade pendant is just a jade tablet to me. Although my household is small and humble, we truly don’t take a jade pendant seriously. So I can sit on the city tower and watch the scenery. A person without desires is strong. I don’t hope for immortality—I only wish to pass this lifetime comfortably. Let others pursue the dream of eternal life.”

He Tianshang nodded heavily and extended his thumb to praise Yun Ye’s broad-mindedness. The Bearded Stranger beside them slightly pursed his lips—he’d just given Yun Ye another jade tablet, and yet he didn’t see him being indifferent to fame and fortune enough to refuse it.

“Although Ding Yanping was formidable, missing one leg greatly discounted his skills. Under the pursuit and interception of over a hundred skilled fighters, he stubbornly brought the jade pendant to Hebei. Do you know how he died?” He Tianshang asked Yun Ye in a deliberately mysterious low voice.

“How else could he die? At worst, dismemberment into ten thousand pieces—what else?” Yun Ye knew Ding Yanping was doomed from the moment he obtained the jade pendant, so he didn’t bother inquiring.

“When facing death, Ding Yanping forcibly swallowed the jade pendant into his stomach. That jade pendant was a full half-palm in size—I don’t know how he swallowed it. But what good was swallowing it? Others still split open his belly and retrieved the jade pendant from his stomach. His corpse was left in the wilderness to feed wild beasts. Pitiful—a generation’s hero, harboring momentary greed, ended up dead without a burial place. Now this jade pendant has fallen into the hands of a group of bandits in Hebei. In this humble one’s view, this group of bandits’ final days have arrived.”

He Tianshang leaned his body against the chair back, drank some tea, ate a piece of cake, moaned comfortably, then said to Yun Ye: “I’ve never seen this kind of pastry before. I wonder if Marquis Yun could favor me with some to take home for my elderly mother and young son to taste?”

“Utterly shameless! You’ve already taken three batches, and now you’re asking again. If I say no, would you not take them? Always using your elderly mother and child as an excuse—despicable.”

He Tianshang calmly and carefully placed the cakes on the table into the food box he’d brought, then also poured in a plate of Lanling’s special milk candy before closing the lid and saying to Yun Ye: “This humble official has never had the habit of taking things from others, lest someday when they make a request, it’s hard to refuse. Your household is different—even if I take more, it doesn’t matter. When the time comes to refuse, I’ll still refuse without any guilty conscience. My mother has poor digestion and eats very little at each meal. Only such pastries suit her appetite best—why wouldn’t I take them?”

“Oh? Since the honored mother isn’t well, naturally you should take more. These have gone cold—I’ll have the kitchen make some fresh ones. The elderly need good care for their health.”

Hearing Yun Ye mention his mother, He Tianshang stood up and thanked him respectfully, then said to the Bearded Stranger who was drinking with his head down: “Monk, I heard you understand foreign languages—is that true or not?”

The Bearded Stranger chuckled and muttered a few sentences of strange words no one could understand, then laughed loudly himself, appearing quite pleased.

“This fellow is cursing you,” Yun Ye said to He Tianshang while lying on the table.

“How do you know? Do you also understand these words?” He Tianshang was puzzled.

“I don’t, but when I was with my master, some foreigners were annoying, so I’d curse them in Great Tang speech while smiling. The expression looked very similar to this monk’s.”

He Tianshang shook his head and said: “Being cursed by him once or twice doesn’t matter, as long as he truly understands. The Fire-Worshipping religion is one thing—these people are still devout believers. The Manichaean religion is different. These people always want to break the old order and establish a new order. Continuing like this will sooner or later be detrimental to the Great Tang’s stability, so they need to be eliminated in their infancy. What I asked you earlier meant exactly this. I hold His Majesty’s command arrow—how can I tolerate these thugs committing evil in our country?”

Yun Ye greatly appreciated people like He Tianshang who were loyal to their duties yet knew how to be flexible. He extended his thumb in praise, and the two of them looked at the monk with bleary drunken eyes together.

“It’s just going to kill people—would I be afraid? I’ll go right now. Yun kid, that poem you recited the other day was good: ‘Leave by the western gate at dawn, return with severed heads at dusk.’ Good lines—much better to hear than those pedantic scholars’ poetry. Let’s go kill to our hearts’ content.”

The Bearded Stranger remaining in Chang’an had ambitions he couldn’t fulfill. Whatever he did, he was timid and hesitant, fearing bringing trouble to Li Jing. Through these days of understanding, he was very clear about Li Jing’s situation. He wanted to leave, but Li Jing rarely saw him and adamantly disagreed. Hong Funü was having an episode at this time, so he could only remain in Chang’an, coming to the Yun residence daily to seek drunkenness—like a fierce tiger lying in barren hills. Now hearing He Tianshang invite him to kill together, how could he not agree?

After seeing off the two people going to kill, Yun Ye returned to the back courtyard and saw Hypatia and Xinyue sitting under the eaves drinking tea. Regarding the beverage of tea, Hypatia was extremely fond of it, especially the kind of tea leaves Yun Ye added jasmine flowers to. Who knew how much she’d wheedled from Xinyue?

Seeing Yun Ye approach, she raised her teacup as a greeting. Today she’d accepted Xinyue’s invitation to go to Chang’an together to see the latest drama—she was just whiling away the leisure time of the afternoon now.

No time to bother with this woman. Yun Ye glanced at Daya’s embroidery tower and decided to go discipline Dan Ying. That bastard had been holed up in Daya’s embroidery tower for three days without coming out.