Taiwei didn’t know who the first person in Prince Zhao’s inner circle was, but he knew who Prince Zhao was, and he knew the Zhu family’s rules even better.

“Have you lost your mind?”

He grabbed Tianshi by the collar.

“If the master finds out, watch him flay you alive.”

“We’re just having some wine, entertaining ourselves with some male companions—we haven’t done anything else. Why are you sticking your nose in it? Mind your own business.”

After saying this, Tianshi collapsed in a heap, dead drunk.

He sent the man back home, but the more he thought about it after returning, the more alarmed he became. He didn’t sleep well all night.

The next day, he intercepted Tianshi halfway and advised him to have less contact with those eunuchs, not to get carried away and forget himself, lest he displease the master.

“Brother, I know what I’m doing. Put your heart back in your belly.”

Tianshi patted his shoulder and hurried off.

If he said he knew what he was doing, Taiwei naturally believed he knew what he was doing.

Over these years, Tianshi had been able to stand firmly by the master’s side precisely because of these four words: “knowing what he’s doing in everything.”

He turned around and advised Madam Huang a few words, telling her not to overthink things, then threw the matter to the back of his mind.

Who knew that three months later, one deep night, Tianshi appeared like a ghost, feeling his way into his room in the dark and shaking him awake.

He got a fright and asked what the matter was.

Tianshi said he’d had a quarrel with Madam Huang, had nowhere to go, and came here to sit and talk.

He smelled alcohol and scolded Tianshi that it served him right. If he were Madam Huang, he’d quarrel with him too. Drinking again, drinking every few days—why hadn’t he drunk himself to death outside?

Tianshi gave a hollow laugh. After drinking a cup of warm tea, he started chatting about the bad things they’d done in the past.

He quickly stopped him, saying such things must rot in their bellies—if the master heard about it, it would be disastrous.

At the mention of the master, Tianshi suddenly shut his mouth and began tearing at his own hair, looking very agitated.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“I…”

Tianshi lifted his head.

Only then did he notice the man’s eyes were full of red bloodshot vessels, with dark circles around them.

“Why does your face look so terrible?”

“From drinking. Recently too many people have been seeking the master’s help, and they all come to me to open doors for them.”

Tianshi wiped his face and suddenly let out a heavy sigh.

“Taiwei, what do we servants spend our whole lives pursuing? Isn’t it just a good master?

Why do we want a good master? Isn’t it just to fill our bellies?

Why fill our bellies? Just so this worthless life can keep going.”

These words made him feel uncomfortable. “What’s really wrong with you?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I just feel that living is quite difficult.”

Tianshi gave a cold laugh.

“In the past, I was a dog. When the master told me to bite someone, I bit them. Later, after establishing a family and career, when others called me ‘sir,’ I felt I’d become a person. But actually, I’m still a dog.

The master lets me bark, and only then can I bark. If the master doesn’t let me bark… the leash is still held in his hand.”

Tianshi didn’t continue. He braced himself against the bed and stood up, his bloodshot eyes looking at him.

“Taiwei, we dogs shouldn’t be too loyal either. We also need to guard against things.”

“Guard against whom?” He didn’t understand.

“Guard against your master.”

After Tianshi said this, he turned and left. By the time he reacted and chased after him, he only saw the half-open courtyard gate.

He lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to figure out why that fellow would say such things when everything was fine.

Speaking of masters, where in this world could there be a better master than their master?

Most likely the master had discovered his dealings with eunuchs and scolded him a few times.

He’d warned him long ago, but he refused to listen. Now look what happened—he’d angered the master and created trouble out of nothing.

Although the master was lenient about many things, for matters that violated ancestral family rules, no matter how good the master’s temper, he couldn’t tolerate it.

The next day, before he could figure out how to plead for Tianshi before the master, the master sent him to Guangdong and Guangxi to purchase a batch of fine rosewood.

The mansion was nearly finished with renovations and lacked some furniture and decorations. The mistress particularly favored rosewood, and in all of China, only Guangdong and Guangxi produced abundant rosewood.

This was a lucrative assignment.

He packed his things, took two subordinates with him, and set out that very day. Only after leaving the south city gate did he remember he’d forgotten to say goodbye to Tianshi.

The round trip to Guangdong and Guangxi would take three months.

Three months later, upon returning to the Zhu household, he first reported to the master. After completing his report, he took a pot of good wine and went to Tianshi’s courtyard.

Arriving at the courtyard gate, he found it locked. Upon inquiry, he learned that Tianshi had been caught stealing and selling the master’s talismans. After the mistress discovered it, all five members of his family had been expelled from the Zhu residence.

He immediately felt something was wrong.

Back when the master was still Fourth Master, he would often draw some ordinary talismans to reward them. They would take these talismans and secretly sell them outside.

One talisman could fetch two taels of silver for drinking money.

Now that Tianshi was the master’s most trusted person, why would he still need to engage in such dealings? Just by moving his lips, those who wanted to use his connections to seek the master’s help would obediently hand over silver.

He didn’t dare ask the master or mistress, so he could only secretly go to Tianshi’s outside residence to look for him.

With so many people giving money, Tianshi had purchased property outside—a small three-courtyard mansion by the moat.

He knocked on the door for a long time with no response.

The next day he went again, still no one opened the door.

The third day, still a closed door.

Only then did he realize something seemed wrong.

Both Tianshi and Madam Huang had been bought into the Zhu family from outside and had no relatives. After being expelled from the Zhu household, they only had this one residence to shelter them.

Where were they?

That night, he led a trusted servant to climb the wall into the residence.

The residence was completely empty, with nothing inside. The kitchen had no bowls or chopsticks, the beds had no bedding…

This meant that after Tianshi’s family was expelled from the Zhu residence, they never returned here at all.

Then where could they have gone?

Taiwei couldn’t figure it out no matter how he thought about it. He always felt the situation was suspicious.

Just then, a battalion commander surnamed Zhang from his hometown Xuanhua Prefecture found him.

Battalion Commander Zhang had one wife and three concubines who had borne him six girls, but not a single boy.

Battalion Commander Zhang felt his family residence had poor feng shui and asked him to help open connections, requesting the master to examine the feng shui at the Zhang residence.

Battalion Commander Zhang was quite generous—a full two thousand taels of silver.

He took the silver and patted his chest in agreement, pocketing five hundred taels himself and presenting the rest to the master, requesting the master take action.

Unexpectedly, the master flatly refused, saying he had too many affairs at the ministry lately and couldn’t spare time to go to Xuanhua Prefecture.

He had never expected the master would refuse. He was stunned on the spot. In the past, whenever he made a request, the master had always complied.

But he’d already boasted—how could he take back his words?

Besides, everyone back home knew that the second son of the Zhu family was doing extremely well in the capital and was a trusted person of the Director of the Imperial Observatory.

If he couldn’t even handle such a small matter, where would he put his face if word got out? How could his parents continue to hold their heads up?

There are moments when a person becomes possessed by confusion.

He gritted his teeth and returned to Xuanhua Prefecture himself, going to Battalion Commander Zhang’s residence for an on-site inspection.

Of course, his excuse to Battalion Commander Zhang was that the master was busy with official duties at the ministry, so he sent me to take a look first and report back to him later.

He examined things very carefully, even drawing several sketches. After returning and studying them for a long time, he felt uncertain, so he asked the master about it in a roundabout way.

The master said this matter was easy to handle—just use the Bed Positioning for Child Promotion method.