The low-key prince summons trainees from the Imperial Household Department at the start of the game.

A young man dressed in a royal blue brocade robe barged in.

A long sword inlaid with gold and jade hung at his waist, the gems on the scabbard glittering in the candlelight.

His face was flushed, clearly he had just returned from a banquet, and his clothes still had wine stains on them.

This young man was none other than Duan Xi's only son, Duan Yukun, who was a notorious playboy in Nanchang Prefecture.

He was neither good at academics nor martial arts, yet he relied on his father's power to act arrogantly and domineeringly on the streets.

He was surrounded by a group of equally idle sons of officials, who spent their days either playing drinking games in restaurants or listening to music in brothels.

"Father! I've heard everything!" Duan Yukun strode to the table, grabbed the wine pot, poured himself a cup of wine, tilted his head back, and drank it all in one gulp. He wiped his mouth and shouted, "That Xu fellow dares to touch our Duan family? I think he's tired of living!"

"It's just a minor official of the fourth rank, Father. Don't worry about it, leave it to me!"

"I know the young leader of the Green Dragon Gang. We were drinking together at the Green Red Pavilion the day before yesterday. If I ask, he'll give me five hundred taels of silver."

"They'll keep it all clean, nobody can trace it back to us! It's just killing an official..."

Before he could finish speaking, Duan Xi suddenly stood up.

He took a step forward and raised his hand, delivering a resounding slap to Duan Yukun's face.

The force of the palm strike was immense, sending Duan Yukun spinning halfway around.

He stumbled and crashed into the table behind him, shattering the cups, plates, and bowls on the floor.

Duan Yukun covered his face and collapsed to the ground, mostly sober now, staring blankly at his father.

Duan Xi pointed at his son, his finger trembling slightly with anger, his eyes bloodshot: "Say that again?"

"Father, I..." Duan Yukun was stunned by the slap and covered his face, too afraid to move.

Duan Xi grabbed his collar and pulled him up from the ground.

The force was so great that his feet almost left the ground.

Their noses were almost touching, and his voice was extremely low, each word seemingly squeezed out from between his teeth: "When you said you'd have the Green Dragon Gang take action, did you know what you were saying?"

"Do you know that Emperor Taizu erected an iron stele in the Imperial Ancestral Temple? It has twenty characters engraved on it."

"Killing an official is like killing my own son; harming an official is like injuring my own arm. Those who commit this offense will be executed along with their entire family; those who conceal it will be punished equally."

"Exterminate the entire clan! It's not just killing you, it's wiping out the entire Duan family!"

"Your father, your mother, your sister, your uncles, cousins, even that lame old Liu who guards the manor—none of them will escape!"

"Do you want to die right now? If you do, I'll beat you to death right now, so you won't bring shame upon the entire Duan family!"

Duan Yukun trembled with fear at the murderous intent in his father's eyes.

He was pampered by his mother from childhood to adulthood, and although his father was strict, he never laid a hand on him.

Not to mention such a brutal slap in the face.

His lips trembled, and his legs buckled as he knelt on the ground.

Tears and snot streamed down his face as he shook his head repeatedly, saying, "Dad, that's not what I meant."

"Then tell me what you mean?" Duan Xi loosened his collar and slammed him to the ground, looking down at his son curled up in a ball. "What do you think the Green Dragon Gang is? Your drinking buddies at the Green Red Pavilion? They're江湖人 (jianghu people)!"

"They kill for you, then turn around and sell you out! The patrol guards will drag you out of bed before you even have time to put your pants on! Kill an official?"

"Do you know what it means to kill an official? Do you know what happened to the last person who killed an official?"

"The entire Sun family of Ningzhou, all adult male members, have been beheaded!"

"The Wu family of Nankang, over a hundred people, were either killed or exiled! The Martial Arts Gang, several hundred people, not a single one was spared!"

"You want our Duan family on this list too?"

Duan Yukun knelt on the ground, trembling all over, unable to utter a single word.

He always thought his father was a powerful figure in Jiangxi, and there was nothing he couldn't handle.

He was uneducated and illiterate, barely able to read any characters, and had read no more than three books in total.

He usually hung out with several sons of officials, relying on his father's power to act arrogantly in Nanchang, feeling that he was invincible.

Until this moment, he looked into his father's bloodshot eyes.

Only then did he realize that the power he usually relied on was nothing in the face of true imperial power.

Ma Wencai, Qian Bojun, and Sun Zhiyuan sat to one side, none of them speaking.

They know these spoiled brats all too well.

They are ignorant and incompetent, lazy and abusive, and they act arrogantly and domineeringly because of their fathers' power, thinking that there is nothing in the world that their fathers cannot handle.

This is not just a problem with the Duan family's upbringing; their own nephews and nieces are just like that.

Ma Wencai suddenly spoke up: "Lord Duan, although your son's words just now were drunken ramblings, they did remind me."

"Among the nephews and nieces of our families, I'm afraid more than one has had this thought."

"These people are used to living in luxury and have no idea of ​​the immensity of heaven and earth, let alone the laws of the imperial court."

"They feel that with us around, they can do whatever they want."

"But this is a path to disaster. What your son said at the dinner table today may have been overheard by someone with ulterior motives."

"If anyone were to spread these words to the capital, it would be too late for us to kneel and kowtow before the Imperial Ancestral Temple."

There was a long silence in the side hall.

Qian Bojun picked up his wine glass, tilted his head back, and drank it all in one gulp. When he put the glass down, his voice was even lower than before: "Killing an official is a heinous crime that implicates nine generations of one's family. We old folks understand that, but our unworthy descendants don't."

"Prefect Ma is right. Today it was Young Master Duan who spoke carelessly while drunk, but tomorrow it might be my good-for-nothing son."

"We need to figure out a way to keep a closer eye on the people in our family."

Duan Xi bent down and helped his son up from the ground.

Duan Yukun was still trembling, half of his face was swollen, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, staining his sapphire blue brocade robe red.

He wiped the blood from his son's mouth with the back of his hand and straightened his rumpled collar.

His movements were surprisingly gentle, but his voice was as cold as the winter wind, as he said, word by word, "You're twenty-two this year, neither good at academics nor martial arts, but I don't blame you."

"It's my fault that I didn't discipline you properly when you were young."

"But from today onwards, I will no longer let you get away with this. This slap just now is to remind you of it."

"In this Great Zhou Dynasty, there are certain lines that cannot be crossed. If you cross them, the entire Duan family will be buried with you."

"Starting tomorrow, you, Young Master Qian, and Young Master Ma will study at home together. Get up at dawn every day and copy the Great Zhou Code ten times. When you have memorized the entire code, come and talk to me."

He turned to look at Qian Bojun and Ma Wencai, "My lords, you have both witnessed what happened today."

"I may not care about my reputation, but I still have to say this: the descendants of our families are all pretty much the same."

"Today I slapped my son, tomorrow you might be the ones slapping your grandson."

"We've spent our whole lives fighting in the officialdom; we can't let ourselves be defeated by our own sons in the end."

Qian Bojun and Ma Wencai exchanged a glance and nodded simultaneously.

Qian Bojun said that when he got back, he would lock those good-for-nothing kids in the study.

Don't even think about leaving the house until you've finished copying the "Great Zhou Code".

Sun Zhiyuan also sighed, saying that he would have to keep an eye on his family when he got back.

Especially his good-for-nothing nephew, who hangs out with the Green Dragon Gang all day long.

If left unchecked, who knows when they might cause a huge mess.

Duan Xi put the prayer beads back in his hand and sat back down in the main seat.

His son's outburst actually calmed him down.

He looked at his three old friends and slowly said, "I served as the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner in Jiangxi for more than ten years and offended many people, but I have never felt so uneasy as I do today."

"Xu Jie and Lu Zhi's actions this time are by no means accidental; they must have someone backing them up."

"They dare to be so brazen because they know we won't dare to touch them."

"Not only do we dare not touch them, we don't even dare to touch the people around them."

"They have the Imperial Guards, the ironclad laws of the court, and the iron tablet of the founding emperor. If we touch them, we will be digging our own graves."

"Since they want to use the law against us, we will use the law to fight them back."

"A memorial of impeachment was sent to the capital, accusing them of overstepping their authority and seeking personal revenge."

"Let some rumors spread in Nanchang and Yangzhou that Xu Jie accepted money from someone when he was an imperial censor in Jiangxi, and that Lu Zhi helped someone get justice when he was a county magistrate in Jiangdu."

"These rumors are unsubstantiated, but they are enough to distract them."

Qian Bojun nodded and added, "We also need to hurry up in Yangzhou."

"Sun Nian is Lord Duan's man. Although Cao Wenzhong is not on our side, if Lu Zhi really investigates the canal transport case thoroughly, his position as prefect will be in jeopardy."

"Let him go find Cao Wenzhong and explain this to him clearly."

"Also, everyone must keep a close eye on their own children and nephews after you go back."

"Anyone who dares to cause trouble during this period will be disallowing us people to survive, especially those from the underworld."

"No matter what gang or faction you belong to, you are not allowed to associate with them. If you have any prior contact with them, cut it off completely."

Everyone present nodded in agreement.

The four old men sat in the side hall until late at night, until the candles on the candlesticks burned out and were replaced three times, before they finally dispersed.

A few days later, Qian Bojun, the Provincial Administration Commissioner, indeed sent a memorial of impeachment to the capital.

Rumors about Xu Jie and Lu Zhi began to circulate in the streets and alleys of Nanchang and Yangzhou.

It is said that Xu Jie accepted money from someone when he was an imperial censor, and that Lu Zhi resolved a wrongful case for someone when he was the magistrate of Jiangdu.

These rumors, though unsubstantiated, spread far and wide in teahouses and restaurants.

Inside the Duan family's ancestral hall, Duan Yukun rubbed his still-swollen right cheek and shakily turned to the first page of the "Great Zhou Code".

He had been copying for several days in a row, and every day at dawn he was dragged out of bed by the old servant.

I could only rest after copying until late at night.

He bit the pen and looked out the window at the swallows flying freely, suddenly feeling that the previous twenty-two years of his life had been wasted.

Meanwhile, in the Qian, Ma, and Sun mansions on the other side of Nanchang City, the young masters of Qian, Ma, and Sun were experiencing the same torment.

They gritted their teeth in the ancestral hall, yet dared not disobey their fathers' orders, and could only continue to bury themselves in copying.