Chapter 89: My Son Has the Bearing of an Emperor

The realm descended into utter chaos when the son of the Duke of Chu from the Si family, the very man who had once vigorously supported the Daishun emperor’s ascent and whom the emperor had respectfully called Uncle, openly raised the banner of rebellion against Daishun.

His reason for rebelling was that the emperor had driven his own father to death.

The Daishun emperor had always been deranged, and not only deranged but suspicious to the extreme; forcing a meritorious minister to death seemed, on reflection, hardly out of character.

Yet after the Duke of Chu’s son inherited his father’s ducal title, he had in fact been remarkably restrained, all the while presenting himself as a man of no hidden schemes.

Then, without warning, he drove a knife straight into Daishun’s side.

And it was a devastating blow.

The emperor, who had previously dismissed rumors of bandits and even bristled at any mention of them, turning his wrath on whoever spoke the word, went pale upon learning that the Duke of Chu had rebelled. It was clear he regarded the duke as a mortal threat.

Cui Ge received a desperate appointment and was sent out to suppress the rebellion.

Yet scarcely had Cui Ge led the army out of the capital when a band of rebels, no one knew from where, suddenly surged forth and attacked the capital itself.

What was even more fatal was that they actually took it.

The Daishun emperor, together with a host of officials, fled the capital in panic with their families in tow, terrified that if they were a moment too late, the rebels would trap them inside the city and hack them to pieces.

From that moment on, rebel powers sprang up one after another, and war smoke rose everywhere beneath the heavens.

The Xu family was among those fleeing, and strangely enough, Xu Yinglan and Wen Baiyu were with them as well. Wen Baiyu had only just been recommended for office and was preparing to go take up his post when the upheaval arrived first.

Xu Yinglan was the one most deeply shaken. Before her rebirth, the world had not fallen apart this quickly.

What was more, she had heard her father mention the names of the Qin brothers.

She knew these two men were the greatest contributors to Wen Baiyu’s eventual conquest of the realm, perfect ministers who, after rendering unparalleled service, voluntarily died so as not to outlive their usefulness.

When the Qin brothers died, they had only just come of age. By present reckoning, they should only be fourteen or fifteen, yet their names already rang across the world, and they were even serving under the Daishun emperor.

But this was wrong. The Qin brothers should have followed their uncle... that’s right, their uncle Cui Ge ought already to have been transferred out of the capital.

Yet he had remained in the capital all this time, still a favorite of the emperor.

In her previous life, the emperor had trusted only three people above all others. In this life, there was a fourth.

What on earth had gone wrong?

Xu Yinglan was somewhat panicked.

She knew the Qin brothers were Wen Baiyu’s white moonlight, those great ministers of merit. Whenever Wen Baiyu encountered trouble, whenever his subordinates suffered defeat and handed him a difficult mess, he would bring up the Qin brothers.

In war, mention Qin Teng: if Qin Teng were still alive, those Xs would be mere chickens and dogs, and so on.

In governance, mention Qin Man: if Qin Man were still alive, even the whole world could be administered with effortless order, and so on.

What was more, the two of them had originally been able to proclaim themselves kings. It was only that they had a father who dragged them down.

Under the condemnation of scholars throughout the realm, and with the tacit cooperation of all sides to encircle and suppress them, the two had no choice but to abandon the idea of independent kingship and instead submit to Wen Baiyu.

Without their allegiance, whether Wen Baiyu could have laughed in the end was far from certain.

In his early years, Wen Baiyu had nothing at all, while others were continually sending capable talents to him of their own accord; Wen Baiyu had no such luck.

This was because the main Wen clan refused to recognize Wen Baiyu, since he would not follow the Wen family’s arrangements and allow himself to become their puppet.

In those early days, he had to take the field in person for everything, because there was no one to share the burden.

Xu Yinglan firmly believed that Wen Baiyu would be the final victor, yet the more she learned, the less confidence she felt.

Take the fall of the capital, for instance: nothing like that had happened in her previous life.

The Daishun emperor had also not been chased by rebels like a stray dog. Even before his death, he was still in the throes of madness, ordering the slaughter of all the great families in the capital.

All because those families, in private, had actually been flirting with the rebel powers.

But the one now fleeing the capital in utter panic like a hound cast from its home was indeed the Daishun emperor.

Xu Yinglan could hardly avoid being frightened.

Most absurd of all, after probing the matter, she discovered that Wen Baiyu had no intention whatsoever of rebelling.

Wait, you were the ultimate winner among the rebel powers in my previous life.

And now you tell me that you wish only to serve the state, ease the sovereign’s burdens, and devote your slender strength to the common people of the world?

Xu Yinglan cried out.

No, that was wrong. Everything was wrong. Very wrong.

Whether she screamed or not, it hardly mattered.

No one cared. Everyone was scrambling for their lives. Who had time to worry about anyone else? In fact, many even secretly hoped that those fleeing with them would be delayed and fall behind, so they could block the rebel forces that might come chasing after them.

The entire court and the emperor all fled, yet Qin Ye did not run.

He was out in the streets as usual, wandering idly about with Dahei.

Unlike other rebels, this band that had breached the capital had very clear targets. They went straight for the wealthy households and did not even glance at ordinary commoners.

They were nothing like the bandits who, after storming a city, would still rummage through even the poorest homes, stripping away anything they could find, down to a patched coat.

Indeed, they were different, because the one directing them from behind the scenes was Qin Man.

Qin Teng had decided to become the enemy of the world, to set all under heaven against him, to slaughter every noble and aristocratic house that occupied the upper reaches of society, and to cut a path of blood so deep that his infamy would echo through the ages.

Qin Man clearly disagreed. After all, if the goal could be achieved, why choose the most laborious method?

Qin Ye probably, perhaps, maybe knew a little about the two of them, but not much, because he was not the kind of hidden master who appeared to be a wastrel and an old fool on the surface while actually concealing astonishing power.

His script was not that complicated.

After all, both children were reborn.

In the previous life, without rebirth, and with even a shred of protagonist’s luck, the two would already have unified the realm long ago, had their original father not dragged them down.

Now that they were both reborn, many of the pits they had stepped into before would not be stepped into again this time.

What had originally not been a difficult instance, once restarted, had indeed become harder because they themselves had actively raised the difficulty; but for them, even so, it was still only that level.

Under such circumstances, Qin Ye only needed to make sure he was not the one viciously pulling the two of them backward, and his task would be considered complete.

After all, they were all grown men now. No matter how dissatisfied they were with this original father of theirs, in the end he was still their father. They could say they wanted to cut him down with their mouths.

But in truth, unless Qin Ye continued to court death as the original host had done, these two children would never truly lay hands on him themselves.

When a carefree life had already been prepared for you, why refuse to be a salted fish and insist on trying to rise above it? What for?

Qin Ye was very content being a salted fish.

Then the rebels discovered him, and he and Dahei were both captured.

But even after being captured, he was given the best food and drink.

The explanation was simple: the rebel band greatly admired those two youthful prodigies.

And as widely known as the names of the two youthful prodigies themselves was their useless, profligate father.

Qin Ye and Dahei were safely delivered to the Qin family stronghold.

The Qin family had long since moved into the territory under Li Bing’s control. The Cui clan and the children Qin Ye had previously brought to the capital were all living and thriving there; only Qin Ye remained adrift outside.

As for the women of the household, not even Aunt Xing, let alone the Cui clan, much wanted to see Old Master Qin anymore.

As for Madam Qin Liu, she had been ill for years and, despite repeated torment, had stubbornly refused to die.

Yet in this period of turmoil, with the world in chaos, Madam Qin Liu’s illness worsened and she died.

Cui Ge had been sent out personally by the Daishun emperor to deal with the Duke of Chu. The emperor did not immediately issue an edict summoning him back to protect the throne; instead, he chose to recall Qin Teng.

Qin Teng was highly specialized in his field and exceptionally skilled at dealing with rebels. The Daishun emperor trusted him greatly.

When Qin Liu died at this time, the Cui matriarch personally went to audience with the Daishun emperor, speaking of how well her mother-in-law had treated her and the children, and how now that the elder had passed on to immortality, she begged the emperor to allow the two children to return and keep mourning for their grandmother.

In Daishun, as in every other dynasty, filial piety came first; the realm was governed through filial piety.

If the Daishun emperor refused to let them go and forcibly kept them behind to protect himself, setting aside whether his dignity could withstand it, there was still the fact that he himself was a man who had seized the throne by murdering his father.

He had also carried on an affair with his father’s concubine, putting a great green cap on his own sire’s head.

And yet he personally extolled filial piety above all else; if anyone were unfilial, that truly touched his forbidden line.

Starting from the principle of filial duty, the emperor had no choice but to let them leave.

Once he let them go, he never again had the chance to summon them back.

For the Daishun emperor was cut down by the previously unremarkable Prince of Qi, now the crown prince.

The crown prince led troops to force the palace, and it succeeded. Daishun changed emperors, but sadly, changing emperors could not save Daishun.

A few more years passed, and Daishun finally announced its complete collapse, entering an age in which the various princes contended for supremacy.

Qin Ye spent his days at home walking the dog, raising chickens, and tending pigs.

After all, they were not letting him go out and wander.

First, because the realm was in chaos and it was unsafe; second, because they feared he might go mad again and pull some outrageous stunt that would harm his sons.

Qin Teng and Qin Man, in their second run through the game of contending for the realm, advanced with complete smoothness.

To outsiders, the two seemed favored by the heavens.

Most important of all, Qin Man, who had once suffered bitterly from public opinion, now held the throat of public discourse in his own hands from very early on.

A war of opinion?

Qin Man rolled up his sleeves. He already had one experience behind him and now brimmed with confidence, needing only an enemy to test himself against.

And just then, the Zheng family ran straight into his path.

The Zheng family had previously married a daughter to one of Daishun’s dukes. Though the man held a noble rank, he still bowed and scraped before the Zheng family, all to seek a match for his son with a Zheng daughter.

That had swelled the Zheng family’s pride to the heavens.

But now the realm was in turmoil.

With Qin Teng riding high on the crest of success, the Zheng family came calling, taking the initiative to propose an alliance by marriage.

Qin Teng had no interest in beauty and loved only his wife. In that age and under those constraints, if the Zheng family had recognized their proper place, Qin Teng might well have accepted.

But the Zheng family had no such self-awareness.

They looked down at him through their noses and, from the outset, demanded that Qin Teng’s lawfully wed wife step aside and make way, to clear the position and give it to a Zheng daughter.

As for Li Zhao Xue, that was another matter. Qin Teng exploded first.

And after Qin Teng exploded, Li Bing exploded right along with him.

What, did this old general, who held military power in his hands, have so little presence that the Zheng family did not even place him in their eyes and dared so humiliatingly to insult his daughter?

The Zheng family was truly on the decline this time. Their ancestral lands had been destroyed, their clansmen had suffered heavy losses, and only one or two direct sons had escaped.

But then someone from a collateral branch had seized the identity of the Zheng direct line, while the true direct descendants had instead been cast into the collateral branch.

The family had torn itself apart in internal struggle and had no energy to care about anything else.

In the end, it was Qin Teng, the man who had won the game of unifying the realm, who stepped in and called a halt, and only then did the Zheng family’s infighting cease.