My lord, spare his life!

Zhang Yang wanted to accept it.

Unfortunately, the target ran away.

Du Guan's thinking was optimistic: "Since he's a junior's friend and deliberately provided such valuable information, even if he's not on our side, he's not on the other side either. The most urgent thing is to figure out his true intentions. Junior, what do you think..."

She wanted Fan You to step in and negotiate.

If she were that "friend," she certainly wouldn't have entered the city rashly if she didn't want to have any direct contact with Fan You.

After entering the city, he left traces for people to track down, which means that this action itself implies that he tacitly allowed Fan You to take the initiative to come to him.

According to what Fan You revealed, this junior came to Tianyue because of a friend. But instead of looking for him in Tianyue, he followed the prefect all over the place, holding a treacherous banquet to eliminate local evil forces, making a fortune in the Dongfan Mountains, and rebuilding and changing the county seat when he returned to Weiyin County... The refugees' cheeks had become rounder from eating, but Fan You still hadn't remembered his friend.

In the end, my friend had to come over on his own.

My friend was quite polite; he even brought a gift when he came to visit.

Putting herself in her friend's shoes, she felt indignant on his behalf.

Fan You hesitated for a moment: "No rush."

Du Guan: "Are we going to wait until they run away before we get anxious?"

Puyang Kui: "If he is truly a great talent, he should be treated with utmost respect."

They keep delaying, showing neither attitude nor sincerity.

Fan You: "..."

He glanced at Zhang Yang, then looked away a second later.

His eyes held a hint of despair.

Zhang Yang only knows one rigid trick to win people over: get close to the other person, hold their hand, gently stroke the back of their hand, and then say, "For me, having XX is like a fish having water." She doesn't even change the tone of her lines. People who don't know her would be furious.

Fan You almost adopted a "what's the use" attitude.

"Okay, if it really is him, I'll go and meet him."

Villages outside the city.

This village was located near the Jiang family manor. Most of the villagers were tenant farmers and serfs under the Jiang family's name, barely surviving by tilling the land and selling their cheap labor for the Jiang family. After the chaotic seasons, more than half of the villagers perished. With the Jiang family's land confiscated, the surviving tenant farmers and serfs were re-registered.

Some were allocated their own land, some were recruited into Zhang Yang's retinue, and others became laborers serving corvée labor in the city. Strangely, the village did not fall into disrepair as a result; instead, many new faces appeared. The dilapidated mud houses that were on the verge of collapse were all demolished and replaced with brand-new mud-brick houses, with rubble as the foundation, blue bricks as the foundation, and all the corners sealed tightly.

Upon inquiry, it was discovered that most of the villagers were refugees who had fled to the area.

"These houses were all built for us by the Prefect, who provided the money, materials, and manpower. The Lord even sent someone to ask how we were doing a couple of days ago. Sigh, I never thought I would live in such a luxurious house in my lifetime."

The villagers who said this couldn't help but sigh with emotion. This new house was so much better than the dilapidated house they used to live in; just the fact that it didn't leak wind or rain was something they never dared to dream of before.

Did I charge you any money?

"Don't say that. Even if you weighed and sold all three generations of our family, our flesh wouldn't be worth half the value of this house." The older villager immediately showed his displeasure. If these two young people who were passing by and asking for lodging hadn't seemed troublesome, the old man would have kicked them out. "What could the Prefect possibly want from us?"

While some mocked Zhang Yang for having too much money and letting them receive it for free, many more were grateful. Because they knew they were penniless, they understood that Zhang Yang would not receive any benefit from them beyond verbal thanks.

She was different from the officials of the past.

"This Lady Zhang hasn't been here long, but everyone's on her side." The burly man added new charcoal to the brazier, and handed it to the young man in black robes when the temperature was right. "It's really strange that these villagers can't stand hearing a single bad word about her."

The young man in black robes sat on the earthen bed and accepted the hand warmer.

His dark eyes remained fixed on the fat, muscular man's lips.

After a while, the young man in black robes spoke with some difficulty: "The people that Uncle Fan chooses can't be too bad-hearted."

But it's quite rare to find someone with such a kind heart.

The burly man glanced at the warm earthen bed, hesitated, and decided against sitting down. It wasn't that the young man in black robes was unwilling, but he worried that his size would cause the host's precious bed to collapse; he certainly didn't know how to repair such a thing. Sleeping next to the bed was about the same, much warmer than anywhere else. The burly man had even specifically asked the villagers how the bed was built.

I've heard that this kind of earthen bed is quite rare.

Even in places where earthen beds were common, only wealthy families could afford them; for the poor, having a reed mat to get through the winter was considered a blessing. Countless poor people froze to death throughout the winter. This magistrate was incredibly generous, not only rebuilding houses for the refugees and poor but also conveniently constructing warm earthen beds for them, and providing firewood for each household to keep warm.

The burly man said, "I thought we would light a fire directly under the earthen bed, but I never expected there to be a winding chimney underneath."

The young man in black robes, holding a hand warmer in one hand and an ancient book rolled up in the other, stared at his companion and said calmly, "If you light a fire directly under the kang (heated brick bed) and sleep on it, what's the difference between that and being tortured with burning alive?"

The burly man chuckled.

"We're from a water town, we don't know these things."

The young man in the black robe felt his throat was a little dry, and he coughed with his fist against his lips. The fat, burly man quickly got up to pour him some warm water.

Seeing that the former's lips were dry and pale, and his fingers sticking out of his sleeve were bluish-white, he couldn't help but worry: "Is He starting to cause trouble again?"

The young man in black robes had his eyes lowered, so we couldn't see what he was saying.

He sighed from an angle the other person wasn't looking at.

The moment the black-robed youth turned his gaze towards him, the fat, burly man's worry vanished: "Master, is Young Master Fan really coming?"

I learned that Fan You was in Tianyue because of an unexpected piece of information.

His parents, however, said that Fan You came here specifically to target them.

The burly man was highly skeptical.

If he really came for the family, why hasn't Fan Shuyan been seen for a month or two? He's doing quite well managing his small territory in Weiyin County. Further inquiries revealed that Fan You hadn't declared himself independent, but rather had a woman named Zhang Yang as his lord.

Zhang Yang?

There are no particularly illustrious people with this surname.

Zhang Yang was also an unknown figure.

How could someone like Fan You serve him as his master?

Upon further investigation, the burly man realized he had misjudged her. Zhang Yang was indeed unknown, but her wealth was astonishing, and she was also well-versed in the art of robbing the rich to help the poor and the art of robbery; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to afford such extravagance.

These weren't the main reasons the two had come to investigate. The main reason was that his parents suspected Zhang Yang's wealth was related to the fact that the Eastern Barbarian bandits had almost fallen into poverty overnight. Their reasoning was quite logical.

Even if those wealthy families in Weiyin County were to scrape the land three feet off the ground, could they possibly amass enough wealth for her to squander like this?

Zhang Yang's work was not just about building new houses and repairing earthen beds for poor families. She also "bribed" the counties of Tianyue outside of Weiyin County with grain and fodder, recruited soldiers and horses in their territories, and engaged in paid labor. She accepted all the refugees who came to her, regardless of their age or gender.

Could a few large households afford the money and grain expenses incurred during this period?

If killing a few families could solve this situation?

Haha, some people have already taken the risk.

For example, wealthy and influential families might collude to put forward several scapegoats, using other people's money to win over the hearts and minds of the people.

Zhang Yangfa's windfall must have only accounted for a small portion.

The real source of the bulk of the profits is unknown.

Quite coincidentally, the Eastern Bandits suffered another large loss of money.

The timing of the two events is too coincidental, making one suspicious.

The young man in black robes said, "He will come."

The burly man: "What if you're not coming?"

The young man in black robes said in a hoarse voice, "Since he's not coming, some things have to be dealt with openly. Don't blame me."

It's not like he didn't give Fan You a chance.

The young man in the black robe watched for a while longer before preparing to blow out the lamp and rest.

The only oil lamp went out, plunging the room into darkness. Just as the young man in black robes was about to lie down fully clothed, a sudden, loud knocking sounded at the door. The burly man sprang to his feet, a ferocious, demonic expression on his face. Sensing malice, the man outside stopped.

The young man in black robes stood up: "Light the lamps and welcome the guests."

He couldn't hear the knocking, but he could sense his companion suddenly getting up beside the earthen bed. He knew from the commotion that a guest had arrived.

"Parents, I'm going out to check."

The house belonged to a hard-of-hearing couple, and the knocking went unnoticed. The burly man had no choice but to put on his clothes and open the door, while the young man in black robes stood up, lost in thought. Just a few moments later, the closed door was opened again. The burly man pushed in a wooden wheelchair, and sitting in the wheelchair was none other than Fan Shuyan.

Suddenly, the black-robed youth's calm pupils trembled violently.

His gaze was fixed on Fan You's legs.

The two looked at each other across the distance, remaining silent for a long time.

Even the fat, burly man didn't know when he left the general's residence.

Fan You: "It's been many years. How have you been, Youzheng?"

In the end, it was Fan You who broke the silence.

The wheelchair moved closer to the earthen bed, and Fan You lit a few more lamps to brighten the room. The black-robed youth, whom he called Youzheng, watched his movements silently for a long time before asking in a hoarse voice, "...Your leg...what happened?"

"Legs? I broke them myself." Realizing the young man in black robes couldn't see him, he turned to look at him and repeated himself.

"Did you break it yourself?"

"The stars are descending in fury, and I have no desire to degenerate into a slave to lust. Rather than rotting and stinking like this, I'd rather end it all while I'm still clear-headed." Fan You placed the last oil lamp on the low table on the earthen bed. "I'm a lustful demon, and compared to you... I seem less fortunate..."

The young man in the black robe moved his lips, but remained silent for a long time.

"But you..." The aura he sensed from Fan You was very pure, without any of the decadent and turbid nature of a lustful ghost.

He then realized that the master Fan You served happened to be a woman.

Such a monarch-minister relationship is often ambiguous.

Fan You: "It's a stroke of good fortune amidst misfortune."

The young man in the black robe lowered his eyelids.

Whether it was the dim candlelight or something else, his face was extremely ashen, exuding a cold and deathly aura. Fan You looked at him and felt a pang of pity. He thought that the other man was living in seclusion in Tianyue, and even if he couldn't live a life of great wealth and honor, he could still be content with a modest life, which was in line with the other man's early dream of a pastoral life by the eastern fence.

It seems that things aren't going well either.

"Why can't I see through your wrathful display of stars?"

The young man in black robes said, "Seven levels, of course you can't see through it."

Fan You's fingers trembled, and his eyes widened suddenly.

"Youzheng!"

Sevenfold?

Are the stars descending in fury?

Are you sure it was a celestial descent and not something else?

The young man in the black robe had pale, bluish lips and a weary expression on his face: "It's incredible that I'm still alive."

Fan You was so shocked that he couldn't speak.

The young man in black robes closed his eyes: "Now, whenever I close my eyes, I can clearly hear something gnawing at my flesh. I don't even know if I can still be considered alive..."

Fan You felt a lump in his throat, unable to utter a single word. After an unknown amount of time, he heard the black-robed youth ask him, "Never mind that, you and your lord caused quite a stir, almost turning the Eastern Frontier upside down."

Fan You denied it: "What do you mean by 'turning the world upside down'?"

The young man in the black robe was not surprised by this answer.

"That band of thieves who established their own army in the Eastern Fan Mountains recently suffered enormous losses and are now suspicious of each other, causing chaos." The black-robed youth, who lived in seclusion at the foot of the Eastern Fan Mountains, had initially only had casual dealings with them, but later their business dealings developed. This time, he was almost implicated. "Are you sure you didn't do it?"

Fan You replied decisively, "No!"

This matter cannot be attributed to him.

He was just an innocent human accessory who couldn't stray too far from Zhang Yang and had to follow him everywhere.

The real mastermind was none other than the ruler, Zhang Yang.

The young man in black robes stared at him and said, "You're lying."

Fan You: "If you don't believe me, then..."

The black-robed youth's next words left him speechless.

He said, "The ghost inside you has betrayed you."

Seeing Fan You's suddenly stiff face, his hoarse voice softened a bit: "He said that you colluded with your lord to steal a huge fortune, and then squandered it all in a very short time."

Fan You: "Where's the evidence?"

Based on the words of a ghost that no one can hear?

The young man in black robes added, "He also said that He was too hungry."

To be precise, it was starving to death. The black-robed youth had never seen the Lustful Demon of the Second Rank of Stars so weak, as if it had been tortured and abused by a villain. If this Lustful Demon hadn't actually been a part of Fan You, it probably would have tried to escape.

Fan You: "...Say what you want."

The young man in black robes smiled weakly: "No need to be wary of me."

His willingness to appear before Fan You was, in itself, a gesture of goodwill.

"Uncle Yan came to Tianyue, didn't he come to see me?"

Fan You: "..."

"Your ghost is more honest than you." The young man in black robes stroked the hand warmer, his tone resentful. "You come to find me, yet you forget me time and time again. It seems your sincerity is nothing more than this."

Fan You: "..."

The young man in black robes couldn't help but chuckle.

"Oh, so you think your lord is making a fool of himself because of his shallow knowledge?"

Fan You didn't speak, but the tightly closed door opened a crack, and a head popped in. The young man's peach blossom eyes accused him with utter resentment: "What do you mean I'm ignorant and made a fool of myself? Uncle Fan, are you the boss who's always gossiping about you behind your back?"

"No!"

The young man in black robes couldn't hear Zhang Yang's movements, but he could tell from Fan You's reaction that someone was at the door. He looked over with a weak yet gentle smile, only to unexpectedly meet bright, captivating eyes.

A chilling wind, swirling around his ears and mingling with the mournful cries of ghosts—

Stopped.

??|??w?`)

Sigh, my parents and brother went to the hospital, and there's no one at home to look after the child. He keeps bouncing into my study more than ten times an hour, refusing to sit anywhere else, only wanting to sit on my lap, and even trying to type on my keyboard like a pro—just a bunch of gibberish. Sigh, I really can't update. _(:3」∠)_