Da Ming: The system granted me immortality; I clock in every day.

In the first year of Chengping, the political landscape of the Ming Dynasty reached the zenith of Pei Yuan's career as a powerful minister.

The new emperor, Zhu Youzhen, held this Grand Tutor, who had single-handedly trained him to become a capable man, in the highest esteem.

He was not only granted the title of Grand Tutor, Grand Preceptor, and Grand Protector, the head of the three highest ranks of the imperial family.

Furthermore, he was granted special privileges, including the right to praise and worship without using his name, to enter the court without having to bow, and to wear a sword and shoes in the palace.

Pei Yuan's Grand Tutor's Mansion became the true hub of the world.

Merchants in Jiangnan, trade markets along the nine borders, and governors and viceroys in various regions.

Whenever there was an important matter, a memorial would first be sent to the Grand Tutor's residence, and then a formal document would be submitted to the Office of Transmission.

All the civil and military officials trembled with fear and walked on thin ice when they saw him.

Even those promising new officials who were promoted through the special examinations in the past, and who now hold high positions, still have to treat him with the respect due to a disciple.

However, standing at the absolute pinnacle of power, Pei Yuan felt that life was becoming increasingly tasteless.

This is so boring.

The entire court was either terrified of him or so obsequious and sycophantic as to the point of being nauseating.

Although the new emperor Zhu Youzhen respected him.

But as imperial power became increasingly consolidated, a trace of the emperor's instinctive fear and awe quietly crept into that respect.

Pei Yuan was an immortal being who treated the world as his stage.

But if all the actors on the stage recite their lines meticulously, even trembling with fear, according to the script he has written, it would be a different story.

He couldn't even find a single pedantic scholar who dared to challenge him.

What's the point of watching this show?

Late autumn of the second year of Chengping.

The inner courtyard of the Grand Tutor's Mansion.

Pei Yuan leaned back in his recliner, watching the yellow leaves fluttering in the air.

"This suit has been worn for too long; it's time for a change."

He murmured to himself.

The Ming Dynasty's maritime hegemony was already solidified, and the new emperor was a pragmatic and shrewd ruler.

The wheels of history he tried to turn back have already rolled forward and can never be turned back.

If he continues to remain in this position, it will only increase suspicion and hinder the new emperor's progress in ruling.

"Someone come here."

Pei Yuan sat up.

Lu Zheng, now the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, strode into the courtyard and respectfully clasped his hands in greeting.

"What are your orders, Grand Tutor?"

"Go and fetch paper and pen. I need to submit a memorial requesting to retire."

Pei Yuan spoke in a flat tone.

Lu Zheng suddenly raised his head, his face full of shock.

"Grand Tutor! You are in the prime of your life, and the Emperor cannot do without you. Why do you suddenly want to resign?"

Pei Yuan chuckled softly, then covered his mouth and coughed violently a few times.

She even used her internal energy to force out a trace of blood, staining the snow-white silk handkerchief at the corner of her mouth red.

He casually tossed the blood-stained handkerchief onto the table, feigning exhaustion and despair.

"The prime of life? In recent years, I have worked day and night for the foundation of the Ming Dynasty. I offended so many people in Jiangnan in my early years and suffered so many assassination attempts. The lingering poison in my body has already taken effect."

"He's been coughing up blood every night for the past few days; I'm afraid his time is near."

Lu Zheng looked at the blood-stained silk handkerchief, his eyes instantly reddened, and he knelt down with a thud.

"Grand Tutor! This humble servant will immediately fetch the imperial physicians! They will surely be able to restore your health!"

"No need. I know my own body best."

Pei Yuan waved his hand.

"Prepare the ink. I only wish to return to the water towns of Jiangnan and spend my last days in peace."

When Pei Yuan's petition requesting retirement was submitted to the palace, Emperor Chengping, Zhu Youzhen, was greatly alarmed.

He led all the judges of the Imperial Medical Academy to the Grand Tutor's residence overnight.

To see the once imposing and arrogant Grand Tutor now lying weakly on his bed, his face as pale as paper.

When he coughed up "black blood" every now and then, the young emperor couldn't help but shed tears.

"Grand Tutor! You cannot leave! The Ming Dynasty still needs you to steer it!"

Zhu Youzhen held Pei Yuan's hand, speaking earnestly.

Pei Yuan shook his head weakly and grasped Zhu Youzhen's hand in return.

"Your Majesty... this old minister's frail body cannot hold on any longer. Your Majesty has now assumed personal rule, and your methods and strategies far surpass those of this old minister. This empire belongs to Your Majesty."

"As long as this old minister is in court, those ministers will only know the Grand Tutor and not the Emperor. Only when this old minister is gone can the Emperor truly have the authority to issue orders as firm as mountains."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Youzhen was deeply saddened.

Even at this level, the Grand Tutor was still thinking about consolidating his imperial power.

"Throughout my life, I have been greedy and domineering, and have been infamous for it. I have made a list of all my family property, estates, and shares in overseas shops, and donated them all to the imperial treasury and the navy's military expenses."

Pei Yuan, panting heavily, handed a thick booklet to Zhu Youzhen.

"I only beg Your Majesty to allow this old minister to return to Jiangnan, to return to his roots."

Faced with such a loyal and devoted minister who was willing to die for his country, Zhu Youzhen could not bear to refuse him, no matter how much he wanted to keep him.

October of the second year of Chengping.

A government ship bearing the banner of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, amidst the complex gazes of the court officials, slowly sailed away from the capital's dock along the canal.

The ship carried Grand Tutor Pei Yuan, who had retired to his hometown.

However, the ship failed to reach Jiangnan.

Half a month later, devastating news came from the Xuzhou section of the river.

In the middle of the night, the Grand Tutor's ship suddenly caught fire.

Because the fire was too fierce, Grand Tutor Pei Yuan was too ill to escape, and he and several of his personal servants perished in the flames, their bodies never to be found.

When the news reached the capital, Emperor Chengping suspended court for three days, dressed in mourning clothes and weeping bitterly.

He issued an edict to suspend court proceedings, posthumously conferred upon Pei Yuan the title of "Prince Zhenhai," and granted him the honor of being enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

The scale of his funeral even exceeded that of a prince.

Those civil officials who had been suppressed by Pei Yuan in the court for more than a decade, upon learning that this living Yama had finally vanished, all locked themselves in their residences and secretly drank three large cups of wine.

Thankfully, the bright sky of the Ming Dynasty has finally returned.

The legendary period of the Ming Dynasty, when the treacherous Pei Yuan held absolute power, amassed wealth through madness while simultaneously expanding the country's territory.

This marked the end of the story.

……

Three years later.

It was late spring of the fifth year of Chengping.

In a quiet alley near Xuanwu Gate in the outer city of Beijing.

Inside an inconspicuous courtyard house, a tall jujube tree is sprouting tender green buds.

The morning sunlight slanted across the rough porcelain water vat in the yard, which was covered in moss.

The carved wooden door of the east wing creaked open.

A young official, dressed in a blue robe and cloth shoes with thick soles, walked out yawning and stretching.

The young man was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with a handsome face and a scholarly air about him.

If you look closely, his handsome features bear a striking resemblance to the powerful Grand Tutor Pei of yesteryear.

However, he no longer possessed that chilling sharpness and arrogance.

Instead, there is a kind of laziness and easygoingness that runs deep in one's bones.

The young man walked to the water vat in the yard, picked up a gourd ladle, scooped up some water, and haphazardly splashed it on his face, considering that he had finished washing up.

This person was none other than Pei Yuan, who had nominally perished in the fire.

The canal fire that year was, of course, a scheme he orchestrated to escape unscathed.

For an immortal being, faking death and escaping right under the noses of a group of mortals is an incredibly easy task.

As for his new identity, it was something he had secretly arranged with the Embroidered Uniform Guard years ago, who tampered with the household registers and the list of students at the Imperial Academy.

Li Changqing.

He was a poor scholar from Songjiang Prefecture in Jiangnan, whose family had fallen on hard times.

In the special imperial examination of the fourth year of Chengping, his essay was mediocre and unremarkable, barely making him a third-class Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination).

Now, in the bureaucratic system of the Ming Dynasty, he holds a sinecure of the lowest rank, a seventh-grade official position.

Compiler of the Hanlin Academy.