The moment he saw Song Zang, Ning Yan’s eyes lit up, and he discreetly winked at him.
Song Zang curved his lips and was about to walk over and speak with him, only for Tian Yue Xiang to grab his arm tightly.
Tian Yue Xiang glared at him irritably. “Wait first. Don’t foolishly crowd forward with everyone else. Be careful not to annoy the teacher.”
“It’s fine, Mother. The teacher said the school doors are always open to me.”
Song Zang lifted his chin and cheerfully shouted, “Xiu Zhu!”
The young pageboy who was maintaining order stopped in his tracks. His expression instantly stiffened, and he hurried through the crowd with his head lowered.
His attitude was excessively respectful. “Young Master Song, here is the key to the school’s side entrance. Please keep it. Madam Song, tea and refreshments have been prepared in the rear courtyard. Please follow me…”
“No, no, no. I’m not going inside.”
Tian Yue Xiang hurriedly interrupted, somewhat uncomfortable. She hung the basket of eggs over Song Zang’s arm and dug several copper coins from her pocket to stuff into his hand.
“Erlang, hold the eggs properly. Don’t drop them. If you get thirsty, buy yourself some sweet water, and remember your manners. Mother will wait for you at home. We’re eating fish tonight, so come back early.”
No matter what anyone said, she refused to enjoy treatment meant for an “important person.” After lecturing Song Zang a few more times, she urged him to hurry inside and stop wasting the xiucai master’s time.
Song Zang could only obey helplessly. Without drawing attention, he slipped the copper coins back into her pocket and followed Xiu Zhu into the school beneath Tian Yue Xiang’s worried gaze.
This was He Wen Bin’s first formal class, and he was charging no tuition. The spacious main hall quickly filled completely.
Of course, many parents shared Tian Yue Xiang’s thinking. They had prepared all kinds of additional tuition gifts in advance and sent them along with their children to curry favor with the teacher.
Before long, Scholar He’s desk was piled with all kinds of food: corn, eggs, cured pork, sausages, and freshly picked vegetables. The most extravagant household had even delivered half a bolt of silk.
He Wen Bin hesitantly glanced toward Yin Chen and only accepted everything after Yin Chen nodded.
Although he served the Eldest Princess, he still possessed the pride and ideals of a scholar. Since he had chosen to become a teacher, he had to take the work seriously and perform it responsibly. To figure out how best to teach these village-born boys, He Wen Bin had spent the entire night racking his brain and had practically pulled out several strands of hair.
Half the students had attended school before, memorized the Three Character Classic, and learned to read, but their actual academic levels were extremely mixed.
So at Yin Chen’s suggestion, He Wen Bin had written a test overnight. Every question properly imitated the county examination. It would allow him to judge the class’s average level while also inspecting the handwriting of the returning students.
He posted the questions at the front of the room and conducted an “open-book quiz,” telling the students to copy the questions and answer them independently on the spot.
The group who could not read at all were assigned tasks too. They would learn to grind ink and wash brushes, copy the Three Character Classic, test their patience, and wear down the boys’ restless tempers.
Yin Chen had practically no presence in front of the villagers, so he openly dragged Song Zang into the very back of the classroom and calmly drank tea with him.
Seeing this, Ning Yan insisted that he and Ning Ran sit in the back too. He arrogantly drove away several innocent NPCs and declared haughtily, “The back belongs to this young master. You poor bumpkins smell like dirt. Stay away from me!”
That was right. He was unbelievably domineering, yet not one of the honest village children dared argue back. At most their faces flushed and their eyes filled with anger. No one would casually offend a landlord’s son.
He Wen Bin did not intervene in the conflicts among the students at all. He quietly observed every word and gesture, calmly stroked his beard, and had Xiu Zhu distribute the paper.
Once the examination began, He Wen Bin even pretended to doze off. Sitting at the front, he lowered his head and half-closed his eyes, completely ignoring discipline.
The village children had never learned many rules to begin with. Seeing that the teacher had actually fallen asleep, they gradually became restless, whispers rising one after another.
Boys who already knew each other especially could not resist. They craned their necks, flipped randomly through books, and quietly discussed how to answer the questions.
Song Zang did not join them.
He patiently ground his ink, pushed up his sleeves, and seriously wrote his answers, while Yin Chen actually remained stuck beside him out of sheer boredom, pouring tea, replenishing water, feeding him snacks, playing with his hair… and even placing a fragrant pile of roasted sunflower seeds on his desk.
The sunflower seeds smelled far too good. Ning Yan grew hungrier the longer he smelled them and finally could not resist turning toward Yin Chen. “Boss, I want sunflower seeds too.”
Yin Chen glanced at him and smiled without warmth. “Pay me.”
“Sure! My brother and I have nothing if not money.”
Under Ning Ran’s speechless gaze, Ning Yan pulled one tael of silver from his pocket and cheerfully traded it to Yin Chen for a bag of roasted sunflower seeds.
He and Ning Ran ate enthusiastically, while Song Zang wrote just as enthusiastically.
Song Zang really had taken the imperial examinations inside an instance before. Worse, he had been thrown directly into a bloody palace examination where failing to finish the essay meant getting beheaded on the spot by an insane emperor boss…
After that terrifying experience, Song Zang had deliberately worked hard to learn eight-legged essays and policy essays, memorizing books like mad so his ignorance would never cause another tragedy.
These questions were child’s play to him, and Song Zang had no intention of deliberately hiding his abilities.
The more outstanding his academic performance, the more legitimately he could marry Yin Chen.
Village gossip always traveled quickly, and every household produced endless rumors, but Song Zang absolutely refused to hear anyone say that he and Yin Chen were mismatched!
Song Zang finished the test in one burst and personally carried the still-wet sheet of paper to the front, respectfully handing it to Scholar He.
Scholar He froze briefly, accepted the paper, and carefully read several lines. Immediately afterward, his eyes lit with genuine surprise and appreciation.
“Good. Very good! Song Erlang, I knew I hadn’t misjudged you.” Laughing, he set down the paper and stroked his beard thoughtfully. “Erlang, you have already reached adulthood. Has any teacher previously given you a courtesy name?”
“I don’t have one yet, Teacher.”
“In that case, how would you feel about your teacher giving you one?” He Wen Bin asked warmly, discreetly shooting him a look telling him to hurry up and agree.
Song Zang froze, then immediately answered, “Thank you, Teacher, for bestowing a courtesy name!”
The whispering in the classroom grew louder. Once these boys returned home and told their families what happened today, Song Zang’s fame around the nearby mountain villages would grow even greater.
First person in the school to finish the examination, heavily praised by the teacher, then personally granted a courtesy name… With this sequence of events, He Wen Bin would probably accept him as a personal disciple next.
It was practically the opening chapter of an imperial-examination power fantasy.
Everyone cast envious, complicated gazes at him. Ning Ran deliberately cooperated by scoffing with an expression of disdain, only to be hit on the head by Yin Chen’s ruler.
“No sarcastic snorting,” Yin Chen said, narrowing his eyes.
Ning Ran froze and rubbed his head. “I was only helping set the mood…”
“Give me back the sunflower seeds.”
“Boss, I was wrong.”
The previously unruly Ning Ran became obedient in an instant.
Mainly because the sunflower seeds were genuinely excellent. He had become slightly addicted.
After turning in his paper, Song Zang did not remain in class. After all, everyone else would probably need the entire morning to finish thinking.
Once He Wen Bin gave permission, Song Zang led the Ning brothers into the rear courtyard and had them examine Grandfather Song’s corpse as well, to see whether any overlooked clues remained.
After learning that Song Zang had killed Grandfather Song himself, Ning Yan’s smile became incredibly gratified. “I knew the special training would work on you. Keep it up, Song Song. Become a ruthless man. You can do it!”
Yin Chen shot him a cold glance. “Don’t corrupt him.”
“I was wrong!”
Ning Yan surrendered instantly and received a contemptuous look from his younger brother.
“Spineless bootlicker,” Ning Ran mocked sharply while eating sunflower seeds.
He was the classic cold-on-the-outside, warm-on-the-inside cool guy, sharp-tongued and quiet. Playing an arrogant young master came naturally to him.
After finishing the seeds, he pushed the lively Ning Yan away and seriously examined the livor mortis across Grandfather Song’s face. “Something abnormal happened in Tianjia Village last night too?”
“Too?” Yin Chen frowned.
“In Zhangjia Village right next door, two wild wolves entered the village. It caused a huge incident.”
Ning Ran and Ning Yan had only learned about it that morning and had specifically investigated what happened.
Apparently, a family in the neighboring village had recently welcomed a pair of twin boys.
The grandmother who ruled the household had been overjoyed. She forcibly sent her son to live in the thatched hut while she personally lived with her daughter-in-law, caring for the new mother and children day and night with extraordinary devotion.
When the twins reached one month old, she even paid for an enormous banquet for the entire village.
But no one expected wild wolves to enter the village last night. One wolf carried away one of the babies, while another gnawed away almost half of the second infant’s head.
The injured baby screamed miserably, waking one neighbor after another. Yet every member of his own household slept like the dead, completely unaware of the tragedy happening right beside them.
It was not until the next morning that the grandmother awoke with dried blood covering her face and looked down at the exposed white brain matter of the infant in her arms… Her eyes rolled back, and she died on the spot from a heart attack.
The son and daughter-in-law clutched the remaining half-dead infant while rolling across the ground, screaming and sobbing in unbearable grief. Villagers gathered to watch until they nearly caused a traffic jam. Ning Yan and Ning Ran had almost arrived late because of it.
“Wait. The baby whose head was bitten off is still alive?” Song Zang asked in astonishment.
“Yeah. Completely ridiculous.” Ning Yan nodded, looking slightly disgusted. “I checked this morning. The baby has been unconscious the whole time, but his body is still warm and he’s breathing. Anyway, it’s unbelievably strange.”
Yin Chen became thoughtful. “Take me there this afternoon.”
“Yes, Boss!” Ning Yan bootlicked with tremendous pride.
Ning Ran remained crouched in front of the corpse, staring thoughtfully at the mottled skin, while Ning Yan had never possessed any ability to keep his mouth shut. Before long, he had revealed both brothers’ entire role backgrounds to Yin Chen.
The two brothers originally lived in the county seat. Their main family came from a once-prominent clan that had been declining for many years.
Their father’s generation had gone into commerce. The Ning family no longer possessed any foundation in the imperial court and could now only be considered extremely wealthy commoners.
Although business had made them rich enough to swagger around and live without worry, Father Ning had never been satisfied. He wanted to enter government, dominate the political stage, and wield authority, but unfortunately possessed absolutely no qualifications to sit the imperial examinations.
So he placed his hopes on his children.
The moment he heard that He Wen Bin, who never accepted disciples, had suddenly gone into the countryside and inexplicably become a teacher, Father Ning, who desperately wanted connections with the Eldest Princess, immediately threw both sons into the village and ordered them not to return home until they passed the tongsheng examinations.
Their personal missions were different too.
Ning Yan was the legitimate son of the principal wife, while Ning Ran was a concubine-born son adopted and raised under the principal wife’s name.
So Ning Yan’s mission was relatively conventional. He needed to take control of the Ning family, drag the entire household up the social ladder, and preferably become related to the imperial family by marriage.
It was practically a personal mission designed in advance to support a future rebellion.
As for Ning Ran… he had to avenge his dead biological mother.
His mother had been his father’s concubine. She had suffered uncontrollable bleeding while giving birth to him and died on the spot. Supposedly, the circumstances had been extremely gruesome and contained many suspicious points.
Every Ghost Festival, the Ning residence became haunted. Someone would always hear the dead woman shrieking bitterly that she had been wronged, while sinister winds swept through the house and terrified everyone.
According to Ning Ran, he currently had at least ten suspects connected to his mother’s death and was investigating them one by one.
When the Ghost Festival arrived, he even planned to disguise himself as a female ghost, turn the Ning residence into a haunted house, and frighten every guilty person half to death.
The players had entered the instance during summer, and the Ghost Festival on the fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month was very close. This would definitely be a crucial plot point, and something strange was certain to happen.
Elio’s Notes: The Ghost Festival is commonly associated with the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, but the fourteenth is traditionally observed in some regions. The raw specifically says the fourteenth here, so I’ve preserved it rather than “correcting” the story.
Yin Chen committed the date to memory and began mentally reviewing the Eldest Princess’s private stores, considering precautions in advance.
Song Zang listened to the wealthy-family gossip with great interest and could not help laughing. “Yin Chen and I are playing an imperial-exam farming sim in the village, while you two got a supernatural household-intrigue script?”
Ning Yan complained bitterly, “Don’t mention it. My mother is terrifying. Yesterday she said a few vague things and got several maids and older servants killed. I didn’t even understand what she meant before my father grabbed a knife and rushed out to chop down two girls… Her eyes were genuinely terrifying. I’d rather fight wild wolves in the village than deal with household intrigue.”
“Just because you’re painfully straightforward doesn’t mean everyone else speaks too indirectly. Mother was clearly protecting you. Several of those maids had colluded with outsiders and were trying to lure us into fooling around, gambling, drinking, and visiting brothels so we’d never concentrate on studying.”
Ning Ran stood and mercilessly exposed the truth. “Your mother was preserving our dignity, so she didn’t say everything openly in front of the whole household. Father understood her hints and became furious. You alone sat there like an idiot and actually begged them to spare the maids.”
“…Huh? Seriously?”
“Seriously. Brother, from now on you should just handle the hitting and stop casually opening your mouth.” Ning Ran rubbed the bridge of his nose painfully. “Forget your mother wanting to chop you to death. Even I want to chop you to death, you deep-sea big-headed fish.”
“Dead shut-in, how long are you going to keep mocking me about the deep sea?!” Ning Yan widened his eyes.
Seeing another battle about to erupt, Song Zang expressionlessly tugged Yin Chen’s sleeve and told him to break it up.
The brothers had a good relationship, but whenever they argued, both became increasingly worked up. In reality, Chi Yan normally had to use violence to bring every dispute to an end.
Yin Chen understood immediately. He drew his blade and split apart the wooden chopping block holding the corpse, driving the tip deep into the hardwood.
His lips curved. “Stop arguing. If you keep going, I’ll chop all of you to death.”
The rear courtyard became silent in an instant. Xiu Zhu happened to arrive carrying a tea tray, witnessed the entire scene, and visibly trembled as he hid by the doorway.
The threat worked beautifully. Yin Chen put away his blade in satisfaction. “Ning Ran speaks first. You were staring at the corpse earlier. What did you notice?”
Ning Ran pressed his lips together, pulled a neatly folded sheet of paper from inside his robes, carefully unfolded it, and handed it to Yin Chen.
“The livor mortis on Grandfather Song’s face is identical to the marks on my mother after she died. Those decayed, netlike streaks across his chest are also exactly the same. This is the coroner’s record from her autopsy back then. I specifically snuck into the county office yesterday and stole it.”
Yin Chen studied the record for a moment, then turned toward Grandfather Song’s cold body and compared the details carefully.
The weather was hot. The corpse had remained outdoors all night, attracting plenty of flies and decomposing rapidly. A faint rotten stench had already begun spreading through the small courtyard.
The tongue protruded, the eyeballs bulged, and vague patches of greenish decomposition gradually appeared along the side of his face like pale clouds. Within another day or two, their color would deepen continuously until the flesh completely rotted.
Pulling open the collar revealed dark brown traces of decomposing veins across Grandfather Song’s gaunt chest. They intersected densely, forming something eerily similar to a spiderweb.
“You’re right. They really are identical. That’s very abnormal… What season did your mother die?”
“Autumn. Probably during one of the hottest late-autumn heat waves. It happened too long ago, so I don’t know the exact details.”
“Having the coroner’s notes is already excellent.” Yin Chen’s tone softened considerably as he refolded the paper. “The roles assigned to us generally have hidden connections. You did very well to find this clue on the second day. Keep it. It may be useful later.”
Ning Ran quietly answered “Mm” and carefully stored the paper away.
Song Zang hugged Yin Chen’s arm. “Then we can’t casually bury Grandfather Song’s corpse either. How should we preserve it?”
“Take it to town,” Ning Yan raised his hand. “My family has a cold-storage cellar specifically for preserving things. It can slow down the decomposition.”
“That works. Send him there tonight. You handle it.”
While speaking, Yin Chen slowly lifted the loose cuff of Song Zang’s robe and interlaced their fingers. “Come on. Let’s go to Zhangjia Village and inspect the baby.”
Song Zang froze and hurriedly leaned close to his ear to whisper his refusal. “Holding hands outside isn’t appropriate. My mother specifically warned me that people can’t catch us having illicit relations before the matchmaker comes. They’ll gossip terribly.”
“You really are a mama’s boy.” Yin Chen sneered and deliberately gripped his hand even tighter.
Song Zang: …
He was rendered speechless. The Ning brothers did not dare object either and silently followed behind while ordering the servants to bring the carriage around.
Ning Yan cautiously suggested, “Why don’t you two go inside the carriage and cling to each other? My brother and I can ride horses outside. Sound good?”
“Yes, yes! Thank you, Brother Ning.”
Song Zang breathed a sigh of relief and quickly dragged Yin Chen into the carriage, closing the curtains on both sides so no one could easily peek inside.
Yin Chen narrowed his phoenix eyes, watching him bustle around for quite some time. Only when Song Zang finally settled did he smile strangely. “Thank you, Brother Ning?”
“…You’re seriously jealous of a deep-sea big-headed fish?”
“He has a nickname. I don’t.” Yin Chen wrapped an arm around his waist. His soft lips pressed against the tip of Song Zang’s ear and slowly ground over it before biting. He complained darkly, “You’re biased.”
They had only just finished examining a decomposing corpse, yet Yin Chen’s inexplicable enthusiasm remained astonishingly strong.
Song Zang tensed, preventing himself from making any inappropriate sounds. Only after enduring for a while did he stiffly say, “Fine. Your nickname is Psychotic Murderer.”
“A very reasonable assessment.”
Yin Chen’s lips curved. At last he spared Song Zang’s fragile ear.
He let Song Zang remain seated on his lap, idly touching his wrist and rubbing his waist. He even tried pulling Song Zang’s hand into his own collar to leave it there.
His perversion was on full display.
Unfortunately, they were still inside someone else’s carriage and could not behave too outrageously. Once he retrieved the Eldest Princess’s personal carriage, Yin Chen absolutely intended to make Song Zang personally experience what a true pervert looked like.
Zhangjia Village was not far away. From the school, they left Tianjia Village by the main road, crossed one small hill, and arrived.
By the time they reached the village, the family that had suffered disaster after disaster had tightly locked its gate. Faint sounds of things smashing and people crying drifted from deep within the compound.
A woman dressed as a Daoist priest stood outside, doing an extremely poor job of disguising herself as a man. The 【Player】 marker above her head gave off a faint glow.
Hearing the carriage approach, the woman raised her peachwood sword warily and held it in front of her chest.
“Hello, fellow villager!” Ning Yan waved cheerfully and stopped his horse with a smile. “Are you here to look at the baby too?”
The woman relaxed slightly, but she continued gripping the peachwood sword. “I’m a Daoist priest hired by the village chief to perform an exorcism. The villagers say that infant has been possessed by an evil spirit and must be eliminated as soon as possible.”
Ning Ran dismounted and looked at her painfully obvious disguise as a man. He genuinely could not understand it. “Can’t the village chief tell you’re a woman? It’s incredibly obvious…”
“I know my figure is hot, but everyone in this world seems blind.” The woman blushed and coughed awkwardly. “As long as I put on men’s clothing, everyone treats me as a man and completely believes it.”
Hearing that, Yin Chen suddenly lifted the carriage curtain with interest. “What’s your name?”
“…Yin Wu Xue.” The woman seemed not to have expected Yin Chen to appear in this instance too. She stiffened and barely suppressed her shock.
“You’re a Yin too? I see. You’re the Imperial Noble Consort’s biological daughter. Calculating the generation, you should count as my niece.”
Yin Chen jumped down from the carriage while holding Song Zang, thoughtful.
Yin Wu Xue did not seem especially pleased. For some unknown reason, she looked incredibly guilty. She nearly crushed the peachwood sword in her hand and even stiffly bowed with extreme respect. “Greetings, Imperial Uncle!”
Ning Yan: “Huh, huh???”
Ning Ran did not speak, but the confusion in his eyes was equally deafening.
“Royal family scandal. We’ll discuss it another day. First, let’s inspect the baby.”
The truth behind the identity swap was far too complicated. Yin Chen could not be bothered explaining it to outsiders a second time.
Holding Song Zang’s hand, he walked directly over and kicked open the family’s tightly locked gate.
“W-who are you people?!”
Zhang Da Lang was sitting beneath the eaves in a daze, silently crying as he stared at his elderly mother’s corpse.
The sound of the door being kicked open startled him. He grabbed a carrying pole beside him and jumped to his feet, veins standing out across his arms and his expression furious.
But the instant he noticed Ning Yan’s luxurious clothing, all that anger immediately disappeared, replaced entirely by fear and awkwardness. The color vanished from his lips.
“Honored masters… what do you need? If there’s anything, just come to me. Please don’t disturb my wife and child. They truly can’t endure any more shocks. I beg you…”
The main room’s door remained tightly closed. A woman’s broken sobbing drifted faintly from inside, while the man futilely attempted to shield it with his own body.
As he spoke, he finally dropped to his knees. His voice became hoarse and despairing, as though he wanted to repeatedly smash his forehead against the ground.
This truly was an era defined by rigid class divisions and worship of power. The helplessness and tragedy of insignificant people could not have been displayed more clearly.
But regardless, that poor infant with only half a head absolutely could not simply remain hidden inside this family’s home.
Yin Wu Xue frowned slightly and stepped forward, forcibly pulling Zhang Da Lang upright as she calmly explained the facts. “Zhang Da Lang, I have to examine your son. If he truly is possessed, keeping him here will only harm your whole family and every villager around you.”
“Then let us die… Daoist Master, the village chief sent you to take my son too, didn’t he? Whatever he’s paying you, I’ll pay double! Please, Daoist Master. My son is really fine. He’s sleeping peacefully! He’s fine!”
Yin Wu Xue slapped him across the face, and the noise stopped instantly.
Blood seeped from the hysterical man’s lips. He blankly closed his mouth and collapsed weakly back onto the ground.
“Listen until I finish.” Yin Wu Xue’s voice remained calm. “If he’s simply injured and not possessed, I can repair the missing part of his head and restore him to a normal child. I won’t charge you a single coin.”
“…Daoist Master, are you telling the truth?”
“If you want me to save your son, open the door with your own hands and let me inside.”
Zhang Da Lang took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and forced himself back upright. His trembling hand rubbed across the door bar for nearly half a minute before he finally gave up resisting and pushed the door open.
A dense smell of blood abruptly struck everyone. Zhang Da Lang’s expression went completely blank, his wet eyes almost spilling tears of blood.
“Xiaomei… Xiaomei!!”
In only a few minutes, his wife had slit her own throat.
Using a rusty kitchen knife with a rolled edge, she had repeatedly ground the blade against the side of her neck until it cut deep into the artery.
Quietly, without anyone hearing even a single cry of pain.