My father, during the Jiajing era, ensured that every household was clean and tidy.

Yang Jisheng could see that Prince Jing employed people based on the principle of trusting those he employed and not employing those he didn't trust. Since he had decided to use him, he wouldn't press for details about what he said or how he believed it. He didn't ask any more questions.

but.

Yang Jisheng wanted to explain something; he had something to say in his heart. There was a reason why he answered "avoid Yan Song" so easily.

Nearly a month after being imprisoned, Yang Jisheng is no longer the same person he once was.

He is no longer naive.

They would no longer believe that the emperor was misled by Yan Song and his faction and knew nothing about the matter, nor would they blindly believe that they could bring down the current chief minister with just a memorial, a person, and a mouth.

The Ministry of War investigated the matter of Yan Shifan's son falsely claiming military merits. Zhou Mian, the director of the Military Selection Department of the Ministry of War, submitted a memorial stating that the matter was indeed true and the evidence was conclusive. He also revealed that Yan Shifan had actually written a draft himself and ordered him to copy it and submit it to the court, thus making a false report to deceive the court!

This is a terrible crime.

But what about Yan Shifan? He was completely unharmed.

What happened to Zhou Mian, who exposed the matter? He was imprisoned by the Emperor in the Imperial Guard prison, tortured, and dismissed from his post.

A blatant distortion of the truth.

Not a single person in the court dared to speak out. As the leader of the Qingliu faction and a member of the cabinet, was Master Xu completely blind to this?

No.

Master Xu must have seen it.

He simply pretended not to see it...

Compared to Prince Yu's reluctance to discuss his imprisonment and Xu Shi's inability to save him, it was the indifference to the reversal of right and wrong that truly chilled Yang Jisheng's heart, as if his mind had collapsed in an instant!

While huddled in the dark, smelly death cell, Yang Jisheng was terrified. He was not afraid of dying, but he was afraid that he would suddenly be unable to distinguish between the clear and the turbid, the good and the evil, the black and the white. They were no longer so clearly defined in his eyes!

After being released from prison.

Yang Jisheng changed.

He still can't tell the difference, just like a patient with an eye disease, seeing everything blurry.

Fortunately, he was only blind.

My heart still burns hot.

He couldn't see clearly with his two eyes, so he tried to see with his heart. Then, on the night he was released from prison, on the night he sat alone in the inn, which was last night, Yang Jisheng suddenly saw many things, many things that he couldn't see or understand before.

For example, he was ordered to be imprisoned and flogged a hundred times. The Imperial Guards beat him a full hundred times, yet they didn't kill him.

For example.

Around February 7th or 8th, Yang Jisheng had a dream in his death row cell. In the dream, someone fed him medicine. After waking up that day, he finally had the strength to get up, cut off his rotten flesh, drain the pus and blood, and heal himself. At the time, he thought it was a divine intervention...

There is another matter, which is the most puzzling.

If you really wanted to die, why was the charge of hanging pending trial instead of immediate execution?

unless.

The emperor did not want to die.

The only person who could influence the Embroidered Uniform Guard controlled by Lu Bing and convict him is the Emperor.

Having figured this out, Yang Jisheng then understood even more: the Emperor neither killed him nor released him because he wanted to use him to put Yan Song in a bad light!

Yes.

The emperor protected Yan Song.

It also served as a warning to Yan Song.

Yang Jisheng, having come to the realization of this, was in great pain. Had he studied the classics so diligently just to climb into the imperial court and witness such despicable acts? These petty schemers!

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Yang Jisheng was no longer naive. He saw through these petty schemes and fell silent.

He understood Teacher Xu.

But some things, once lost, are lost forever, and can never be recovered. Yang Jisheng will no longer go to Xu Shi.

He's going to go his own way.

At the end of that road, there was no longer Yan Song, but...

emperor.

It was destined to be bumpy, destined to be long.

So when King Jing both showed him kindness and extended an olive branch, Yang Jisheng did not hesitate. He was both repaying the kindness and looking for a guiding light, silently following along without making a sound or being naive.

No rush, take your time.

Walk slowly...

February 13th, the thirty-second year of the Jiajing reign (1553): Sunny with a breeze.

A limping man staggered to the Ministry of Justice and waited outside until his shift ended. When he saw the figure he was looking for, he went up and presented him with a packet of tea from his hometown. The prison official, Liu Shishou, a native of Jingyang, Shaanxi, had once given Yang Jisheng a pot of tea when Yang was being beaten and suffering unbearable pain.

The lame man then went to Fengcheng Hutong, found a family, and gave them two taels of silver.

This was something Yang Jisheng had promised—the prison guard Lu Shijing had once delivered a letter home for him.

There was also Sun Ru, a prison guard, who had held up rubble for Yang Jisheng when he cut off his own flesh to bleed him…

Many people have shown kindness to us.

Yang Jisheng remembered everything. He wasn't in a hurry; he would take his time and repay the debt slowly.

He was no longer in a hurry...

Thanks to his limp and slow pace, the handsome young man following behind him could keep up with ease.

Wu Ang was quite free. He should have been at the Prince's residence giving lessons to the Prince right now, but Prince Jing insisted on saying, "Lessons are important matters and should be started on an auspicious day. It's already past noon, what's the point of having lessons then? Let's start tomorrow!"

Considering that the prince had just done something admirable, Wu Ang agreed. There was no need to be surprised; when it came to studies, Wu Ang was the teacher and therefore the boss, and the sixteen-year-old prince had to listen to him.

of course.

That's irrelevant to the current situation. Getting back to the point, Wu Ang, who has a lot of free time, is monitoring Yang Jisheng.

A prince can be magnanimous and can readily trust you with a wave of his hand, but a subject must be meticulous and suspicious!

This is Wu Ang's creed.

He thought it and he did it.

Having followed Yang Jisheng all the way from east to west, from south to north, Wu Ang was not interested in who Yang Jisheng thanked or what touching stories lay behind them. Wu Ang was only interested in whether Yang Jisheng had met with Prince Jing before meeting Xu Jie!

Fortunately, he did not disappoint the prince.

It's definitely not a problem.

Wu Ang, accompanied by his servants, leisurely returned home. He said he would come again tomorrow if he had time.

Ok.

I'll come right after I finish teaching the prince.

Speaking of which, when I left the Prince's residence earlier, it seemed that the Prince had also left, dressed in plain clothes and acting suspiciously. What was he up to...?

At the same time.

Not far from Fengcheng Hutong, in front of a courtyard gate of a small courtyard, Zhu Zaizhen, the Prince of Jing of the Ming Dynasty, dressed in plain clothes and traveling incognito, was saying to a young boy: "You don't need to ask any questions. Just go and inform them that a friend has come to visit. Your master will definitely recognize you."

The servant scratched his head, looked him up and down for a moment, and said, "Young master, it's not that I'm unwilling to report, but you can't even tell me my master's official title. How am I supposed to report?"

Hey.

Zhu Zaizhen was somewhat annoyed.

He retorted angrily, "I may have mispronounced your master's official title, but I did get his name right. His surname is Zhang, and his given name is Juzheng, isn't that right? Enough with the nonsense, go and report it now."

The servant pouted.

Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Juzheng!

If Master Zhang says there's no such friend, I'll never forgive you!