Starting as pearl divers, they have endless jobs.

Chapter 215 His building is about to collapse!

Li Chengfeng was stunned. "What are you writing?"

Chen Ye ignored him and continued writing.

Li Chengfeng leaned close to the railing, trying to see what Chen Ye was writing, but he was too far away and could only see a blurry mess of characters.

This feeling of being completely ignored filled him with unprecedented humiliation and anger.

He is the Minister of Rites, second only to the emperor, when has he ever suffered such humiliation?

"Are you deaf?! I'm asking you what you're writing!" Li Chengfeng roared.

After Chen Ye finished writing the last stroke, he put the notebook and pen back into his pocket, then looked up at him.

His gaze was calm, as calm as if he were looking at a dead person.

Li Chengfeng's heart sank.

Because he understood Chen Ye's meaning from those eyes.

That means that whatever you say or do is meaningless to me.

Realizing this, Li Chengfeng dejectedly let go of his hand, took two steps back, and sat down on the ground with a thud.

As night deepened, the prison grew increasingly quiet.

The jailer who was delivering food arrived and stopped outside the cell carrying a food box.

"Lord Chen, the meal is here."

Chen Ye got up, took the food box, opened the lid, and found two dishes, a soup, and a bowl of white rice inside. The food was not bad.

He picked up his chopsticks, took a little of each dish, smelled them carefully, and then tested them with a silver needle.

Only after confirming that it was non-toxic did they pass the food box through the small door under the railing.

"Eat up." That was the first thing Chen Ye said to him.

Li Chengfeng sat on the ground, not even glancing at the food box.

"I will not eat."

"If you don't eat, you'll go hungry." Chen Ye pushed the food box further inside and then sat back down in his chair.

Li Chengfeng sneered, "Trying to torture me this way? You underestimate me, Li."

Chen Ye ignored him and closed his eyes to rest.

Time passed by minute by minute.

Li Chengfeng's stomach started growling in his cell.

He hadn't eaten or drunk anything all day and was starving.

So, smelling the aroma of the food, his Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily.

But he endured it, because Li Chengfeng felt that this was Chen Ye's scheme to break his will by starving him.

He would deliberately prevent the other party from getting their way.

Another hour passed, and Li Chengfeng felt dizzy from hunger.

He glanced at Chen Ye and found that the other man was still sitting there motionless, as if he were asleep.

His resolve began to waver.

To eat, or not to eat?

Eating it means admitting defeat.

If we don't eat, are we really going to starve to death here?

In the end, hunger triumphed over dignity.

He moved to the food box, hesitated for a moment, then picked up the bowl and wolfed down his food.

After devouring the food, he placed the empty bowls and chopsticks on the ground.

"I'm done eating."

Chen Ye opened his eyes, took back the food box, and put it aside, intending to take it away when the jailer brought food next time.

Li Chengfeng looked at Chen Ye, his heart filled with mixed feelings.

He felt like a child throwing a tantrum, while the other person was an unmoving adult.

All his methods seemed so ridiculous and childish in front of the other party.

"Whose side are you on?" Li Chengfeng couldn't help but ask again.

“You are not one of Shen Lian’s men. Shen Lian doesn’t have someone like you under his command.”

"Are you working for Grand Tutor Wu Daofu? Or for the Prince of Wuyang's residence?"

"Or perhaps... someone sent by His Majesty?"

He asked several questions in a row, trying to glean something from Chen Ye's reaction.

However, Chen Ye's expression remained unchanged.

Li Chengfeng was completely at a loss.

He found that his cunning and scheming, which he was so proud of, were completely ineffective in the face of this young man.

The opponent broke through all his defenses in the simplest way.

That is ignoring.

"Hehe...hehehehe..." Li Chengfeng suddenly laughed, his laughter filled with sorrow and self-mockery.

"I, Li Chengfeng, have spent half my life navigating the officialdom, but I never imagined that I would be defeated by a mere brat like you at the very end."

"Never mind, never mind." He shook his head, sat back down in the corner, and said no more.

Chen Ye glanced at him, then ignored him.

Silent all night.

The next morning, the jailer brought two breakfasts, one for Chen Ye and one for Li Chengfeng.

Chen Ye checked it again and then handed it in.

This time, Li Chengfeng didn't throw a tantrum and started eating as soon as he got the food.

After finishing his meal, he looked at Chen Ye outside the cell, his expression becoming complicated.

"Chen Ye, how about we make a deal?" Li Chengfeng said.

Chen Ye didn't even lift his eyelids.

"I know many secrets, about the imperial court, about the academy, and even about that person in the palace."

"Any one of these secrets would be worth a fortune if it got out."

"If you let me out, or help me send a message outside, I can tell you all these secrets."

"You are still young. With these secrets, you can rise rapidly in your career, and it's not impossible for you to even be promoted to a high-ranking official position."

He patiently and persuasively offered a huge temptation.

Chen Ye finally reacted. He looked up at Li Chengfeng and a smile appeared on his lips.

"Finished?"

Li Chengfeng was stunned.

"If you've finished speaking, then stay here." Chen Ye's tone was very calm.

"You..." Li Chengfeng was so angry he couldn't speak.

He didn't expect that even with such a large offer, the other party wouldn't be tempted at all.

"Aren't you interested in power? Aren't you interested in being ennobled and appointed as a high-ranking official?" Li Chengfeng asked unwillingly.

"I'm only interested in my own life," Chen Ye replied calmly.

Li Chengfeng's face instantly turned a deep purplish-red, and then he suddenly lost control of his emotions, rushed to the cell door, grabbed the bars, and roared ferociously.

"You're interested in your own life, and so am I? To tell you the truth, I just don't want to grow old; I want to live forever! What's wrong with that?"

"Life is but a hundred years, passing by in a flash. In the end, we're just a handful of dust. What's the point?"

"I've studied hard for twenty years and navigated the ups and downs of officialdom for thirty years. I've finally climbed to this position, and I don't want to die of old age or illness like this!"

"Is it wrong for me to want to live, to keep living?"

His voice echoed in the empty dungeon, sounding particularly sharp and insane.

Chen Ye looked at him quietly, his eyes showing neither sympathy nor contempt, only indifference.

Li Chengfeng gripped the iron bars tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Chen Ye.

"I went to the teachers at the academy! I knelt before Master Yan's door and begged him to show me the path to immortality!"

"But what did he say?"

Li Chengfeng revealed a twisted smile, mimicking Yan Fuzi's tone.

He said, "Lord Li, everyone has their own destiny. The cycle of life and death is the way of Heaven, and it cannot be forced."

He also said that cultivating one's mind and character, establishing virtue and words, is the right path for a Confucian scholar.

"Bullshit!" Li Chengfeng spat a mouthful of phlegm onto the ground.

“They themselves are all highly skilled and have long lifespans, yet they talk to me about the cycle of heaven and earth!”

"They sit high above us, watching us mere mortals struggle on the brink of life and death, while putting on a hypocritical face of compassion!"

"Why? Why can they transcend life and death, while we have to accept our fate?"

His voice grew louder and louder, and his emotions became increasingly agitated. Chen Ye remained silent, simply listening quietly.

"If the academy won't give me a way to survive, then I'll have to find my own way!"

Li Chengfeng was panting heavily, his eyes filled with even more madness.

"It just so happens that those powerful figures outside... those adults with unparalleled abilities can give me this opportunity!"

"They are the true immortals! They possess the true secret to immortality!"

"Those teachers in the academy are nothing but a bunch of stubborn fools in front of them!"

"I risked my life for them, and they granted me immortality. It's a perfectly fair exchange!"

Tell me, what did I do wrong?

Li Chengfeng looked at Chen Ye again, his eyes filled with obsession and questioning.

Chen Ye remained silent, and Li Chengfeng finally couldn't take it anymore.

In fact, he had already foreseen his fate from the moment he was arrested, but at the time he thought he could face it bravely, which is why he so calmly said he wanted to change his clothes.

But after being imprisoned in the dungeon, the expected interrogation did not come, and even the people sent to monitor him were completely unresponsive.

As time went by, Li Chengfeng finally couldn't take it anymore, because he realized that he wasn't as brave as he thought.

That's true. If he could truly face life and death with equanimity, he wouldn't have groveled before those demonic sects and sorcerers in his pursuit of immortality.

Now, he felt increasingly fearful and uneasy, which is why he almost hysterically screamed at Chen Ye, hoping that the other party would give him some response, but to no avail.

This young man, who looked even younger than her son, was so calm and experienced. No matter how she provoked him, he showed no sign of anger. Instead, he looked at her with an indifferent gaze that bordered on pity.

And this is precisely what Li Chengfeng finds most unbearable at this moment.

He slumped back into the haystack and suddenly began to sob. At first, his sobs were soft, but they gradually grew louder and eventually turned into loud wailing.

That's right.

The Minister of Rites, a high-ranking official among the Nine Ministers, was now crying like a child.

Chen Ye neither urged nor disturbed him, but listened coldly, and even changed to a more comfortable sitting position.

Finally, Li Chengfeng's crying gradually subsided, turning into intermittent sobs.

He looked up, his old face streaked with tears, his eyes vacant.

“I wasn’t like this from the beginning…” he murmured, as if speaking to Chen Ye, or perhaps to himself.

"I once wanted to be a good official..."

“My family was very poor. My ancestors were farmers for three generations. It was my parents who saved every penny to send me to a private school for a few years.”

Li Chengfeng's thoughts seemed to drift back to many years ago, to his impoverished childhood.

"I remember that when I was a child, I was most afraid of rainy days because the roof of my house was thatched and it would leak when it rained."

“It was raining heavily outside and drizzling inside, so my mother took basins and buckets and went around the house to collect water.”

“I sat on the bed with my legs tucked in, watching my mother’s busy figure, and vowed in my heart that I would make something of myself in the future and let my parents live in a big house that doesn’t leak.”

He spoke slowly, his voice hoarse, but every word conveyed a sense of truth.

“I studied very hard, and everyone in the village said I was a reincarnation of the God of Literature. My teacher also said that I would surely achieve great things in the future.”

"When I was fifteen, I passed the imperial examination and became a scholar. Our whole village was in an uproar. My father was so happy that he didn't sleep for three days. He killed his old hen that he had raised for three years and invited the whole village to a meal. That was the most delicious chicken meal I had ever eaten in my life."

As Li Chengfeng spoke, a nostalgic smile appeared on his face, but that smile was tinged with endless bitterness.

"Later, I passed the provincial examination and became a Juren. I continued my studies in Yunzhou City, and I ranked first in both the metropolitan examination and the palace examination."

"His Majesty personally appointed me as the top scholar, and I was paraded through the streets in accolades. On that day, I felt like the most glorious person in the whole world."

His eyes still shone with the brilliance of yesteryear.

"When I first entered officialdom, I was assigned to the Ministry of Justice. At that time, I was really full of vigor and felt that there was no case in the world that I couldn't solve and no injustice that I couldn't right."

"I hear cases during the day and review files at night. I sleep in the yamen for about twenty days a month."

"The first major case I handled was to exonerate a peddler who had been wrongly convicted of murder. The real culprit was the son of a local tycoon. Due to collusion among officials, the case dragged on for half a year without any results."

“I didn’t believe in superstition, so I went to the scene of the crime incognito and found the evidence. In the end, the wealthy man’s son was sentenced to beheading, and the peddler was released without charge.”

"He kowtowed three times to me, crying and saying that I was a just and upright official."

Li Chengfeng's voice choked up as he spoke.

"At that moment, I really felt that all the books I had read in my life had not been in vain, and that I had not served as an official for nothing. That feeling was even happier than if I had become the top scholar in the imperial examination."

Chen Ye looked at Li Chengfeng and could sense that he was sincere when he recounted this past event.

At that time, he was indeed a good official with the world in his heart and a heart full of passion.

But what made him become like this?

At this moment, Li Chengfeng seemed to remember something, and the light in his eyes quickly dimmed.

"Later, my official rank rose higher and higher, from Principal Clerk of the Ministry of Justice to Director, and then to Vice Minister..."

"I started to come into contact with more and more people, and higher and higher officials, and then I realized that having passion alone is useless."

"If you want to get something done, it's not enough to just have a reason; you need connections and powerful backers."

"So I started learning how to socialize, how to give gifts, and how to say things against my conscience."

"I told myself that this was to do things better, and to realize my ambition to serve the country and its people."

"This is only a temporary compromise, a stopgap measure."

A look of pain appeared on Li Chengfeng's face.

"But once you compromise, there will be a second time, a third time... So slowly, I found myself changing."

"I no longer care whether the case itself is fair, but rather who this case will offend and who it will implicate."

"I no longer stay up all night for the injustice done to an ordinary citizen, but instead rack my brains to curry favor with a superior."

“I moved into a big house, and my parents are living a good life, but I am becoming more and more unhappy.”

"Then I started to be afraid, afraid of losing all of this."

“I began to envy those nobles and aristocrats, envying that they were born with everything and did not have to struggle like I did.”

Chen Ye understood.

As a person gains more and more, he or she becomes increasingly afraid of losing it.

This fear will slowly devour his soul like poison.

“When my parents passed away, I was drinking with a member of the royal family. By the time I received the news and rushed home, they had already passed away.”

"I knelt before their spirit tablets, unable to shed a single tear. At that moment, I looked at myself in the mirror, dressed in magnificent official robes, with a haggard face and unfamiliar eyes."

"I asked myself at the time, is this still the same Li Chengfeng who vowed to give his parents a better life?"

At this point, Li Chengfeng suddenly clutched his head and groaned in pain.

Chen Ye looked at him, his heart unmoved.

There's always a reason why someone is pitiful; he chose this path himself, so he can't blame anyone else.

"I was depressed for a while after my parents passed away," Li Chengfeng's voice rang out again, filled with exhaustion.

"But that's how it is in officialdom. If you don't climb up, you'll be trampled down. In order to keep everything I have, I have no choice but to keep climbing."

"So I became even more unscrupulous than before. I started forming cliques and suppressing dissent."

"I regarded everyone who stood in my way as an enemy."

“In those years, I handled many cases and offended many people, but my official position rose all the way up. At the age of thirty-five, I became the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice.”

"At the age of forty, I was transferred to the Ministry of Personnel, in charge of the promotion and reassignment of officials throughout the country. Later, I was transferred to the Ministry of Revenue, and eventually became the Minister of Rites."

A complex expression appeared on Li Chengfeng's face, a mixture of pride and fear.

"This was the most glorious period of my life. Every day, countless officials came to pay their respects and give me gifts."

"Gold and silver jewelry, antiques and calligraphy, beautiful women and their mansions, you name it, we have it all."

“I began to indulge in pleasure. I built a luxurious mansion and took more than a dozen concubines. I gradually forgot who I was and forgot my former ambitions.”

"All I know is that I like the feeling of being looked up to and having control over other people's lives and deaths."

Upon hearing this, Chen Ye couldn't help but sneer inwardly, for this was his true feeling.

His so-called service to the country and the people is nothing more than a fig leaf he uses to cover up his corruption and depravity.

“But the higher the position, the more afraid one becomes.” Li Chengfeng’s voice trembled.

"I'm starting to fear getting old and dying."

“I saw some of my colleagues who were drinking with me yesterday, and today they are dying in bed.”

"When I saw the wrinkles around my eyes and the gray hair on my head in the mirror, I felt waves of panic."

"I have so much, I don't want to lose it all."

"I don't want to die."

Li Chengfeng's eyes revealed an extreme fear of death.

"So I began to search for the way to immortality. During that time I read through countless books and visited many so-called masters."

"I tried everything – alchemy, medicine, everything – but nothing worked. In fact, my health was deteriorating day by day. Just when I was about to despair, I met them." As he said this, Li Chengfeng's breathing became rapid, and his eyes filled with longing.

"They... are a group of truly extraordinary people!"

(End of this chapter)