Emperor Yunqi:…
This absurd wedding was grand in scale but concluded with remarkable swiftness.
The coming and going guests gazed at the wedding hall, their eyes ultimately filled with nothing but the sorrow of seeing their own kind suffer—this was not the first time Emperor Yunqi had recklessly arranged marriages while afflicted with Madness Disorder. The emperor had previously, in his fits of madness, often paired individuals of the same gender in marriage. Thus, what made this wedding particularly noteworthy was not the genders of the couple but their identities.
Captain Gu was the descendant of heroic martyrs. His parents had been granted the special privilege of attending court by Emperor Yunqi for their meritorious service in protecting the emperor. However, his parents were not military personnel but… members of the State Preceptor’s Mansion, which belonged to the Third Prince’s faction.
This preposterous wedding resembled less a joke and more a political event—because the Minister of War had said nothing about it, offering no opinion whatsoever.
Having no stance was a stance in itself.
It meant he tacitly acknowledged an alliance with the Third Prince’s faction.
The guests fanned themselves as they mingled. Jinling City was full of clever people. The only minister among the Six Ministries who had remained unaligned, Jun He, the Minister of Personnel, was already dead. Chen Su, the Minister of Revenue, and Bai Gong, the Minister of Works, belonged to the Crown Prince’s faction. The State Preceptor, who also served as the Minister of Rites, was part of the Third Prince’s faction. The Ministry of Justice had been completely hollowed out by the Black Dragon Guards, with the minister holding less power than Commander Xiao San.
…And now, the only remaining unaligned minister, the Minister of War, had also chosen the Third Prince’s faction. This meant… all high-ranking officials in Jinling City now had their own clear allegiances.
What comes after taking a stance?
Eliminating all those with opposing stances.
This was something everyone understood implicitly—factional strife was about to intensify. Even the Celestial Screen seemed less significant compared to the signals revealed by this wedding.
After the wedding, which felt like a joke, Zheng Wang handed a letter to Gu Yue.
Nothing was said between the two. They simply bowed in farewell and returned to their respective posts.
Gu Yue’s duty as a captain was patrolling Jinling City. Though called patrolling, it essentially required no real work. The members of the Military and Horse Command Department merely clocked in before heading arm-in-arm to the taverns, and this had become the norm.
No one oversaw them. The only ones aware, the Black Dragon Guards, did not care. They were only concerned with identifying who could serve as “fat sheep” to be slaughtered and offered to Emperor Yunqi.
Sitting at his workstation, Gu Yue stared at the utterly useless reports, his frown deepening.
“Little Gu, Gu Yue, hey hey hey, can you hear me?”
A chattering voice rang out. Gu Yue looked up. The window in front of his desk was wide open, revealing an exquisitely framed view outside—a shimmering pond beneath graceful willow branches.
A vibrant green kingfisher hopped in through the open window, tilting its head to look at him. When it opened its beak, human speech emerged.
A bird speaking human words, yet Gu Yue showed no surprise. He knew this was another trick of State Preceptor Dian Cui. His senior colleague had come to find him again.
“Hey hey hey! Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me—”
Dian Cui, transformed into a kingfisher, seemed to have truly become a bird, chattering incessantly as if she would keep calling out until Gu Yue responded.
Helpless, Gu Yue could only reply, “I can hear you, State Preceptor… Please calm down a little.”
Dian Cui acted completely at home, hopping twice before landing on Gu Yue’s shoulder. “Ah, ah, you’re still the best, Little Gu. If it were Lao Jun, he would’ve just tossed me out again.”
Gu Yue: “…Then, Senior, please don’t do things that would make the Prime Minister throw you out, alright?”
Dian Cui shook her head and swayed for a while, amusing herself until she finally remembered the serious matter. She leaned close to Gu Yue’s ear: “Xiao Jingchuan has volunteered to become the Jiangnan Inspector and is preparing to take charge of that mess!”
Gu Yue nodded. He had also heard this news. Unlike the uproar among officials at all levels, he knew this was an invitation from Xiao Jingchuan.
Come, my Three Excellencies, my brothers, my pillars of support. Just like in the Early Qian Period, come to my side. Let us continue together to create a great undertaking that will be recorded in the Historical Records.
Gu Yue almost wanted to laugh. He could almost imagine Xiao Jingchuan saying these words with smug satisfaction—or as the Prime Minister would put it, just being chuunibyou.
Seeing the beautiful curve of a slow smile quickly spread across Gu Yue’s face, Dian Cui really couldn’t hold back anymore: “Hey, hey, just mentioning Xiao Jingchuan makes you this happy? Am I invisible?”
Instantly, Gu Yue turned serious: “No, Your Excellency the State Preceptor. I am equally looking forward to your method of attending the banquet.”
Dian Cui snorted proudly: “Now, this Ancestor Master has successfully infiltrated as the new disciple of that old man at the State Preceptor’s Mansion—the Witchcraft Path is truly good, valuing pure talent over social niceties. Jiangnan is a mess, but it’s also a mess dripping with fat. No one would believe there’s no profit to be had there. As a member of the Third Prince’s faction, the State Preceptor is sure to insert his own people—”
Gu Yue understood instantly: “So he chose you?”
Dian Cui nodded: “A new disciple, no emotional ties, decent talent—isn’t that the most suitable candidate? Succeed, and you gain a new blade; fail, and you can sever the tail to survive without regret.”
Gu Yue sighed: “Me too.”
He handed over the letter from Zheng Wang, unfolding it for Dian Cui, who was still in her bird form.
[Regarding the Jiangnan matter, I have submitted your name as you wished. The factions there are complex and intertwined. Please do not forget your original intent.]
It was a letter without a signature, but Gu Yue knew where it came from—the letter paper was the Xiangfei letter paper he knew best.
Paper made from the mottled bamboo by the Yunmeng Marsh, where the goddess of the Xiang River, Lady Xiang, shed her tears, bearing distinct bamboo marks.
Dian Cui tilted her head: “The Minister of War?”
Gu Yue nodded.
Dian Cui was stunned: “Sending you, I understand—you probably went and begged for it yourself. It’s just so strange; why does it seem this Minister is very familiar with the original consciousness of your current body?”
Gu Yue took a deep look at the letter paper, which could only be produced in his homeland, the Chu region’s Yunmeng Marsh, but did not dwell on the dense, hidden web behind it.
“Who knows?”
Right now, the most important thing was to hurry and join His Majesty. As for those undercurrents, “when soldiers come, we block them; when water comes, we cover it with earth”—this was the military strategy he was most adept at.
**
On the day Xiao Jingchuan set out, no one came to see him off.
Nor was there anything worth seeing off about. Emperor Yunqi had haphazardly assembled an inspector’s team for him that seemed almost laughable, tasked with investigating the pile of mysteries left behind by Xu Lang. Not only did they have to figure out where the embezzled money had gone and why the figures submitted by the Black Dragon Guards differed so greatly from the actual amounts, but they were also required to incidentally manage the long-standing problem of coastal bandits.
These demands were far from simple for the Six Ministers, yet Emperor Yunqi dared to propose them, and that fool Xiao Jingchuan dared to accept.
For a time, Jinling City was filled with mockery and sarcasm. Everyone believed Xiao Jingchuan was truly finished this time. It seemed Emperor Yunqi had finally grown tired of this disgraceful prince and was preparing to eliminate him through indirect means, thereby righteously ridding himself of this stain.
Yet Xiao Jingchuan, at the center of the storm, felt no anxiety. Facing the troublesome assistants meticulously selected from various factions and assembled by Emperor Yunqi, he was even pleased.
After all…
“So, Lao Jun, how did you manage to come? These past few days, while following that cheap father’s grandson, I heard from the Black Dragon Guards that you had gone missing.”
Xiao Jingchuan stroked his chin, sitting in the Yanshu carriage heading to Lin’an, and asked curiously.
Jun Youcheng’s identity was special. Even Chen Su, the Minister of Revenue, couldn’t openly bring the son of the official Emperor Yunqi currently despised most into the light. To give Jun Youcheng a new identity, they had likely employed numerous methods.
“Chen Su used my disappearance to placate Emperor Yunqi and fabricated the identity of a minor ninth-rank clerk in the Ministry of Revenue for me. I haven’t been in contact with everyone these days because I was handling this matter.”
Jun Youcheng rubbed his temples. He had been rubbing them since he came back to life—in his first life, born in the four provinces of mountains and rivers, he had constantly studied for exams; in his second and third lives, he was unfortunate enough to live through turbulent times, and his headaches had never ceased.
“It’s good that you’re safe. If anything happened to you, my dear minister, my heart would ache to death.”
Xiao Jingchuan’s casual remark was the kind of charming, demonic language that could make someone devoted until death. Even Jun Youcheng, who prided himself on having a heart as hard as iron, couldn’t escape its effect.
Have all founding emperors throughout history been such demons? Jun Youcheng wondered. This five-thousand-year tradition was truly terrifying.
“Alright, now, let’s all be open and honest.”
As soon as the four overachievers met, without even exchanging pleasantries, they dove headfirst into their work.
Xiao Jingchuan clapped his hands, and the surface of the Bone-Reflecting Mirror flickered, activating a soundproof barrier.
This team was a mixed bag—members from the Six Ministries, two factions, and the Black Dragon Guards had all come to muddy the waters. With no one trustworthy among them, it was best to isolate everyone.
“The Third Prince’s sole objective is money.”
Gu Yue started with a bombshell, and Dian Cui, who had to transform into a kingfisher again to attend the meeting due to traveling in a different carriage, nodded in agreement.
Jun Youcheng and Xiao Jingchuan were both surprised that the Third Prince was so straightforward.
“Money? The Ministry of Revenue is already under his control. Is he that desperate for money? Greed is one thing, but I’ve never seen anyone so urgently greedy before.”
Xiao Jingchuan was somewhat speechless. He hadn’t expected the goal of this seemingly more composed and profound Third Prince, who appeared even more scheming than the Crown Prince, to be so… simple and direct.
“You might not believe it, but the only task Xiao Gu and I received was this: obtain money at all costs. No matter what, as long as we can bring the money back, nothing else matters.”
Dian Cui shook her head, her voice tinged with a sigh. “If he loves money so much, why doesn’t he just print more and spread it over his bed at home? They’re not even at war—Northern Qian is fighting all the battles. Why is he in such a hurry for money?”
Xiao Jingchuan was momentarily baffled. Exchanging a glance with Jun Youcheng, he sighed, “It seems our missions are the same. Both Emperor Yunqi and the Crown Prince want to uncover what exactly happened in Lin’an. For them, the most crucial question is how Xu Lang, a mere Jiangnan Inspector, managed to deceive the entire court—and for so many years.”
Xiao Jingchuan crossed his arms, his silver eyes glinting with a golden light. “As it happens, I’m also quite curious…”
How could a single inspector conceal the truth from all of Nan Qian? And where did the staggering amounts of silver that passed through his hands go? What were they used for?
The Crown Prince’s Faction and the Third Prince’s Faction now pretended to be upright and incorruptible, but they were certainly not innocent in this matter. Perhaps clues could be found to bring down both of them at once.
Xiao Jingchuan’s thoughts were optimistic, but reality changed faster than he could keep up.
Before they had even left the vicinity of Jinling, a chorus of startled exclamations erupted outside.
“Wait—what is that? Is it the Divine Wood Envoy of the Junior Fate Master?”
“The Divine Wood Envoy has appeared again?!”
Without waiting for the attendants to inquire, Xiao Jingchuan and Gu Yue, the two most alert martial artists, had already lifted the carriage curtain.
Above the Celestial Screen, that familiar, otherworldly scene from the future had reappeared.
The sole variable descended in an unstoppable manner, unaffected by any noble or authority, playing out images that were powerful enough to stir up a storm capable of shaking an entire era.
Author’s Note:
Good luck to everyone taking the national civil service exam! May you succeed and secure your positions!