Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The Yin Clan’s century-old scandal became the most appetizing gossip in every street and alley.

Confident in my fine handwriting, I tried to find work as a copyist.

But the bookshop owner would not even let me through the door.

I tried to take on embroidery work, but the steward saw me coming from a distance and hurriedly shut the gates.

The garrison commander did not dare offend the Yin Clan, so he made things difficult for Lu Qi both openly and in secret.

He docked his rations and pay, increased his patrol duties, and deliberately assigned him to guard the most miserable passes on rainy and snowy nights.

Before long, we could not even afford cornbread.

I heard that Father knelt in the ancestral hall for three days without food or water. When he emerged, he had to be supported by others, and more than half his hair had gone white.

In front of everyone, he announced that from that day forward, he would no longer involve himself in the clan’s mundane affairs.

Any disciple who had reached the age of fifteen and completed his studies could serve whomever he wished, and the Yin Clan would no longer interfere.

As for Father himself, for his failure in upbringing and the damage he had done to the Yin Clan’s reputation,

he would receive no guests from that day onward.

With that declaration, it was as good as handing over the talent the Yin Clan had spent a hundred years cultivating.

Luo Xiang moved the fastest. Not only did he recruit several of the most outstanding disciples from Mingli Study, he soon formally asked the Yin Clan for Yin Rui’s hand in marriage.

Zhou Sui followed close behind. After winning over a group of people, he immediately sent someone to seek Ah He’s hand.

Han Yan was a step slower, either hiring the clan’s disciples or inviting them to serve as advisers.

Even several of the instructors from Mingli Study were coaxed out of seclusion with heavy gifts and generous offers.

At the time, I was lying on a hard plank bed, my whole body feverish and burning.

Lu Qi moved the poor-quality charcoal closer to me.

“In the end, I have wronged Lord Yin.”

“I just don’t know whether such a grand display will seem fake to others.”

I forced a weak smile.

“Look at it the other way. With the Yin Clan’s hundred years of accumulated foundations, if they truly wanted to deceive the world, would they put on a show riddled with so many flaws?”

“Those people will certainly be suspicious, just as you are, and they will investigate every detail.”

“But after investigating again and again, they will find that I truly was removed from the genealogy, even the fields given to me were taken back, and every single matter leaves no room for reversal.”

“At that point, suspicion will turn into trust instead, because they will be certain that unless their hatred had reached the extreme, the Yin Clan would never gamble away its century-old reputation and tear down its own defenses.”

Lu Qi was silent for a moment. “This move is still far too dangerous.”

I said, “That is why the most crucial part of this game is whether Your Highness’s identity has been hidden deeply enough.”

Everyone in the world believed His Majesty was lost in the pursuit of alchemy and had no heir.

In Xianyang, the dragon throne passed from hand to hand. Today you kill me; tomorrow I poison you.

Yet the true scion of the imperial bloodline was currently hiding in Qishan, serving as an insignificant minor official who could not even afford cornbread.

Father had resigned too decisively and too openly.

Luo Xiang, Han Yan, Zhou Sui-which of them was not a cunning old fox who had fought his way out of a sea of blood?

If Father truly had some scheme, why would they be willing to pay such a steep price to win the Yin Clan over?

Unless they had investigated.

Investigated again and again, and found nothing at all.

With the imperial line cut off, the Yin Clan, that faction loyal to the throne, had naturally become ministers without a master.

This was precisely the perfect moment to win them over.

And Lu Qi, this young centurion born and raised in Qishan, had become the least conspicuous spare piece on the entire chessboard.

His Majesty had grown muddleheaded. Years ago, he executed the Eastern Palace on fabricated charges.

Only one kept woman, who had once shared a brief romance with the crown prince, escaped disaster because she was far away.

Father’s voice was low. “His Majesty knew his days were numbered. After secretly finding the Imperial Grandson, he entrusted him to several people, protecting and teaching him in secret while waiting for the right time.”

“Father, you were one of those entrusted?” I asked.

Father nodded.

“Then does Father know who the others are?”

Father was silent for a long time. “An emperor’s mind is unfathomable. I have guessed a few possibilities, but I dared not look too deeply into it.”

Father lifted his brush and wrote down several names.

“If you encounter these people in the future, you must be especially careful. If His Highness refuses to speak, you will have to judge for yourself.”

When I pushed open the door, Father asked me, “Are you afraid?”

I looked at the list turning into tongues of flame and slowly asked Father, “Then is Father not afraid of drawing the fire onto himself?”

We looked at each other in silence for a long while, then Father and I burst into laughter at the same time.

All the words left unsaid became the tacit understanding between father and daughter.

If the rightful line no longer existed and the world fell apart, even with the Yin Clan’s century-old foundation, how long could we cling to life?

Better to stake everything on one clean, decisive gamble.