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Feng Miaojun was unaware of his thoughts as she ate her noodles earnestly, one mouthful at a time.
Her culinary skills were originally mediocre, but having once served a master with a picky palate who frequently tested her abilities, she could now prepare these simple home dishes with excellent aroma and flavor.
Yun Ya would often clamor for noodles, and afterward, he would eat while praising her cooking.
Ah, why did she think of him again?
During these few months of displacement and hardship, when she had free moments at night besides meditation and cultivation, she would think of Yun Ya.
She wondered how his heart ailment was progressing, and whether the injuries he sustained during the battle with An Ruzhen, the State Preceptor of He Kingdom, had healed.
Hmm, was he still angry with her, or had he simply forgotten about her completely?
After all, their encounter had been shallow, lasting merely a few short months, like duckweed briefly gathering on the river before each flowed its separate way.
After the midnight snack, Fu Lingchuan, showing good judgment, washed the pots and bowls, not allowing a sovereign to busy herself with such tasks. When he returned to the hall after drying his hands, Feng Miaojun had already claimed the room and closed the door tightly, where inside was the only bed in the entire house.
Fu Lingchuan didn’t mind. He cleaned the floor, sat cross-legged facing the moon, and slowly entered a meditative state.
This was what a cultivator should be doing. Why did his Queen prefer to sleep so soundly?
Before dawn the next day, the front door was pounded vigorously.
Feng Miaojun, rubbing her eyes, went to open the courtyard gate to find several burly military men standing outside:
“Step aside, we’re searching the entire city for criminals!”
“These criminals must be formidable to mobilize so many people to capture them,” she obediently moved aside, yawning as she watched the city defense forces thoroughly search her home.
The house was truly too small, just a few steps in any direction would reveal everything inside and out. These men were quite thorough, even emptying the water from the large vat in the corner of the room to check if anyone was hiding inside.
There was no one.
They quickly left to search for other homes.
Feng Miaojun slowly rearranged the household items that had been disturbed, then fetched water to wash up and cooked a fragrant pot of millet porridge.
The Yan people acted quickly; one could imagine that all dozen or more gates of Taiping City had probably been closed. However, she wasn’t in a hurry to leave. This was the world’s premier trading hub; the impact of locking down the city was too significant. Taiping City would eventually be unable to withstand such pressure.
Before then, she would contentedly stay here, treating it as a small vacation.
Where was Fu Lingchuan at this moment?
He was still in the room, but he had used the Mustard Seed Formation technique to shrink his body to the size of a sesame seed. Those soldiers were looking for a full-sized person; how would they notice the small earthen jar placed in the corner of the room?
Feng Miaojun spent seven or eight days leisurely in this small courtyard.
There were several surprise searches during this time, but her place was always beyond reproach. Once, it even happened during lunchtime.
For safety’s sake, from the day after the fire at Songlanzhai Manor, Fu Lingchuan had not shared meals with her to avoid the suspicion that might arise from two sets of bowls and chopsticks on the table.
Events proved his caution was necessary.
Staying in the common quarters of the city, she didn’t seek news from the royal palace, but she could vaguely sense the tense atmosphere that enveloped Taiping City.
The Yan King must have been very angry, for during these few days, many people were beheaded at the execution ground, with dozens of heads displayed on high poles. When passing by during her vegetable shopping, she recognized several familiar faces among them—the black-clothed men who had broken into Songlanzhai Manor at night.
If the Queen of New Xia were still in Taiping City, this would be the explanation offered by the Yan Kingdom.
Then came Frost Descent. On this day, the city gates that had been tightly closed for many days finally opened. The queues to enter and exit the gates stretched at least ten li long.
Feng Miaojun was in no hurry to leave the city. Instead, she bought a fat female duck and stewed a pot of rich soup with four medicinal herbs. Fu Lingchuan was forcibly given an enormous duck leg because the Queen smiled sweetly and said: “Rather than nourishing yourself throughout the year, it’s better to nourish on Frost Descent.”
Even his discerning palate had to admit—it was delicious, truly delicious.
After another half month, the Beginning of Winter arrived.
On this day, Feng Miaojun went out as usual, but with an additional scarf. Not long after, Fu Lingchuan also emerged, wearing a coarse cotton jacket and sporting a thick beard cultivated over more than a month. Who would connect him with the elegant and handsome Young Master Fu?
By now, nearly a month had passed since the fire at Songlanzhai Manor. The Yan King’s attention had long since shifted elsewhere, and security at the city gates had relaxed, with inspections becoming less strict.
Both of them successfully slipped out of the city without incident. In the suburbs, they summoned a crane spirit and flew northward.
From this moment on, the sky was high and birds could fly freely.
Three months later, the aftermath of the Liu Dali incident also reached the Wei Kingdom.
Xiao Yan had already been crowned king. Upon receiving the intelligence, he immediately summoned Yun Ya and laughed: “This is what they call dogs biting dogs—all bite but no substance.”
Yun Ya took the jade slip, immersed his divine sense, and scanned the intelligence once. He then curled his lip: “Not surprising. Yan’s bureaucracy is bloated, and corruption is rampant.”
Xiao Yan sighed: “My royal father once said that peace breeds corruption—indeed, how prophetic. This business of selling official positions was first pioneered by the Yan court.”
The intelligence reported that County Magistrate Zhou of Yuping County, implicated in the Liu Dali incident, had purchased his position for 120,000 taels of silver. Anyone who spent such a sum would feel the pain acutely, so shortly after taking office, he began trading power for money, hoping to recoup his investment quickly. He was indeed talented, coming up with the scheme of collecting “redemption silver” that allowed the wealthy to pay to reduce or exempt their punishments.
If this continued, it would inevitably lead to unbearable suffering for the common people.
The ones who sold him this official position were members of the Gao family. With Gao Zhixing in power for ten years, his clan had risen to prominence alongside him, and some began engaging in the business of selling official positions. For people like County Magistrate Zhou, after paying the money, specialists would help fabricate false credentials. Then the prefect would recommend them to the royal court, and the Gao family would use their influence to smooth the way. By the time the documents reached the Yan King’s hands, they were embellished to suggest that failing to appoint such a person would be a disservice to the country.
Moreover, the Yan King was one of the world’s most powerful cultivators, needing to devote considerable time to his practice. The appointment and dismissal of these lower-level officials were often handled by his subordinates, with him merely giving a final glance. Thus, the success rate for those who bought positions naturally greatly increased.
These sold positions were all insignificant, but they brought in real silver snowflakes in return.
Selling official positions, while seemingly shocking, was not without precedent in Yan.
The first to engage in selling official positions and titles was the Yan court itself!
When the Yan Kingdom was first established, the treasury was empty, and strong enemies surrounded them, preventing them from focusing on production. So the royal court put various official positions up for sale. The act of buying positions even had a pleasant name called “donating for rank.” The large amounts of money collected were deposited in the treasury to supplement finances and strengthen military power.
But this behavior was like draining a pond to catch fish—it could only be a temporary measure. Therefore, as the national power of Yan gradually developed, the royal court sought to clear out these useless officials who had donated for rank, and once again select the virtuous and capable.
However, once the seeds of corruption are sown, they grow stronger alongside the kingdom, making eradication virtually impossible. As the saying goes, the righteous path in the human world is filled with vicissitudes; for the past hundred years, the Yan Kingdom has been troubled by this issue.
What further enraged the Yan King was that this exposed case of buying official positions involved nearly 60 million taels of silver, yet not a single copper coin had entered the national treasury.