Countless dead leaves were piled up on the moat.
Yang Lun followed Deng Ying to the riverside. When the river breeze blew, he couldn't help coughing again. Deng Ying heard the sound behind him, stopped walking, turned around and said to Yang Lun: "Your body..."
"Don't ask these questions."
Yang Lun interrupted him angrily.
Deng Ying nodded angrily, "Ask me whatever you want to ask me."
Yang Lun restrained his expression and asked, "When did the output of the school fields of Chushan Academy and Hudan Academy become your private property?"
Deng Ying replied: "Before you go to Hangzhou."
"Who gave you those fields?"
Deng Ying remained silent.
"Speak!"
Yang Lun took a few steps forward and said, "If you don't tell the truth, I will be upset!"
Deng Ying raised her head and asked, "Why are you upset?"
"Heh..."
Yang Lun sneered and pointed at Deng Ying's nose, saying, "Do you think I didn't clear the school land because I was afraid of bringing disaster to the students? Director Deng, Chushan Academy and Hudan Academy have more than 7,000 acres of school land in total. However, since the fourth year of Zhenning, they have been relying on a few Donglin people who returned home for support. In such a tight situation, it doesn't matter whether there are these fields or not! I have already written the memorial to impeach you, but I still want to ask you in person, why is it!"
Deng Ying quietly accepted Yang Lun's emotional words and asked, "Are you going to write a memorial to impeach me?"
"… "
Yang Lun is aphasic.
Deng Ying turned his back to the river wind and bowed deeply to Yang Lun, "Thank you, Zixi, for saving my life."
Yang Lun looked at his bent back and clenched his fists, wishing he could hit the man on the back.
He really saved Deng Ying, and even made up a lie to argue with Bai Yuyang on the spot. He also knew that after knowing each other for more than ten years, Deng Ying might not be able to see what he was doing. To put it bluntly, this was just an ordinary game between cabinet ministers and eunuchs in the political dispute. However, the scene of Deng Ying calling him Zi Xi and thanking him for saving her life made Yang Lun feel as if he had gone back in time and looked back on the years.
However, he could not return the favor as he did in the past. Once he returned the favor, he would have to associate with this person.
"Since you won't tell me, I'll let Bai Yuyang take over the trial of Fu Bai Nian. I don't have anything good to say to you."
He turned and walked away, and a voice behind him said, "Zi Xi, let me live a few more years."
Yang Lun turned around and said, "I am from an official school, so I know the difficulties of private education. How many people can really give lectures for the sake of students? After giving lectures, most of those who can keep the academy clean have emptied themselves out. If I tolerate corruption in the academic administration, would I still dare to have my own academic reputation?"
He was so excited that he almost clenched his fists.
Deng Ying did not respond to him immediately. She waited until he calmed down a little before asking, "If you don't give up your academic reputation, what about your own life?"
Yang Lun choked.
Deng Ying's tone was still calm. "Someone in Hangzhou has already tried to kill you. Do you know who pressed down this hand?"
"who?"
Yang Lun felt a chill rising from his shoulders and back.
"He Yixian."
Yang Lun was stunned. He connected Deng Ying's previous and subsequent words and suddenly understood something.
"What did you just say? When did the crops from the school fields become yours?"
"Early June."
Yang Lun then asked:
"Whose name were these under before? He Yixian?"
"You first..."
"So you took over those seven acres of private land for him?"
Yang Lun didn't let him finish. He interrupted Deng Ying and grabbed his collar. "Who would cherish their lives if they went to the south to do such a thing? Even those teenage students in the Imperial College dared to write a life-or-death petition. In your eyes, Deng Ying, I, Yang Lun, am such a coward. Do you need to bear the infamy to save me?"
Deng Ying held his wrist and said, "Let go."
Yang Lun was so angry that he didn't even listen to his words. He pushed Deng Ying to the weeping willow in a few steps. Deng Ying supported the tree trunk with her backhand and looked up at Yang Lun with a gaze that was almost flaming.
"Yang Zixi, what exactly do you want? I'm already worried!"
Yang Lun punched the tree trunk.
Deng Ying was forced to close her eyes by the wind from the fist, with countless leaves falling on her head.
He simply couldn't stand Yang Lun, so he suppressed his emotions and said, "I have read your "Plan for Clearing the Land" more than ten times, word by word. You wrote about returning the land to the people, and it was not just an empty theory. There were also specific measurement methods and a deadline for clearing the land. You tried to actually eliminate the malpractices and curb the annexation of land by royal relatives and aristocratic families. You wrote so well that I feel ashamed when I read it. Yang Zixi, if I were still a person, I could also write a life and death statement and fight for my life with the current court, but I am no longer a person. I am not qualified to do what you can do. The only thing I can do is to prevent you and those who went south with you from writing a life and death statement. Zixi... I beg you, give me this road to go."
After hearing these words, Yang Lun shuddered.
What he could not bear more than humbly thanking him for the favor was the debt he owed to this man. And it was not just his debt to Deng Ying, but the debt that the entire noisy and unconscious political arena, the turbid officialdom full of factionalism and constant infighting, owed to this eunuch.
This kind of "debt" cannot be put on the table, no one will admit it, even Yang Lun himself, can't say the word "thank you".
"Do you trust me so much that I'll let you live a few more years?"
"I… "
"He doesn't believe you."
Yang Wan's voice came from behind, and then a cold hand grabbed Yang Lun's palm and pinched it unceremoniously. Yang Lun felt pain and immediately let go of Deng Ying.
Yang Wan extended a hand toward Deng Ying, "Come here."
Deng Ying glanced at Yang Lun and hesitated. Yang Wan simply grabbed his hand and pulled him behind her.
"You go first, I have something to say to my brother."
**
Yang Lun had to suppress his arrogance in front of Yang Wan.
As early as when he was in Zhejiang, he had heard that Zhang Luo had tortured Yang Wan in the imperial prison. Now, looking at her standing in front of him with a pale face, he was filled with guilt and resentment. He adjusted his tone and tried to make his voice calmer.
"Are you...healing?"
"It's healed a long time ago. It wasn't serious to begin with."
Yang Wan's voice was calm, and her temperament seemed a lot calmer as well.
After bringing her back from Nanhaizi, Yang Lun felt that she had become a different person, cold and hard. However, after not seeing her for several months, she seemed to have regained a layer of the fragility of her childhood.
"I am no longer a female official of the Shangyi Bureau. I am a palace maid beside the young prince. It will be more difficult to see you in the future. So, I want to tell you something today."
Yang Lun nodded, "You talk, brother is listening."
"Thank you for saving Deng Ying."
Yang Lun smiled bitterly when he heard this. "Is that what you want to say? Do you know that what I don't want to hear the most is you saying this to me?"
"I know."
Yang Wan raised her hand to hold down her hair that was about to be blown away by the river breeze. "I don't know how much you have heard about the Heju case, but I don't want to talk about it anymore. My sister is now alone in Jiaoyuan, and Yi Lang lives alone in Chengqian Palace. My sister and I almost risked our lives to save your students. As for Deng Ying, he has become notorious in order to save you. I hope you can take care of yourself, don't abandon Yi Lang, and don't let us down."
Talking about Concubine Ning, Yang Lun couldn't help choking up.
"My lady...are you okay?"
"I don't know. I can't go see her, and neither can Yi Lang. Maybe you can ask her by submitting a memorial. I know you won't."
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
Yang Wan smiled and said, "Brother, only now do I slowly understand what kind of person you are."
She wanted to make a final judgment on Yang Lun.
Before he said the following words, Yang Lun was actually a little nervous.
"Before my sister became the imperial concubine, you treated her as your younger sister, but after she became the imperial concubine, you treated her as an outsider. By the same token, if Zhang Luo had attacked me outside the imperial prison, I believe you would have rushed up to fight him, but if he had tortured me in the imperial prison, you would have been unable to do anything. You take laws and principles very seriously, and you keep yourself clean and never get involved in personal feelings or personal gains, but you risked your life for the suffering of the people. You deserve to be remembered in history, but the rest of us..."
Her tone suddenly changed, and she even choked up a little, "We're not bad, are we?"
As she spoke, she took a few steps toward the river bank. "I asked Chen Hua privately. Deng Ying borrowed money from him to buy the courtyard next to Guangji Temple. A supervisor of the East Factory, a eunuch in charge of the Imperial Household Department, and as you just said, he still has a thousand acres of good land. How could he not afford a courtyard? Do you know where his money went?"
Yang Lun remained silent.
Yang Wan pursed her lips, "You can ask Qin Wende. This year, he did not collect a single grain from the output of the two academies in Hangzhou. He returned all of it to the academies and even added his own annual salary. Brother, if you want academic reputation, just put him in jail and stand trial, and you will be the one who cleared the turbid and promoted the good for the southern education. But he was also a scholar. He has no academic reputation now, and those who benefited from him don't know who he is. After a few hundred years, you will be praised by thousands of people, but he will still be on the list of criminals, enduring generation after generation of people cutting his name into pieces... By then I will be dead too, who can save him?"
Yang Lun coughed, "Why didn't he tell me about this."
Yang Wan asked, "If he says so, how will you behave in front of him?"
Yang Lun was speechless again.
Yang Wan hit the nail on the head that he was unwilling to face.
How to deal with yourself in front of Deng Ying
Yang Lun had been thinking about it for almost two years, but still couldn't figure it out.
Yang Wan looked at Yang Lun and continued, "In the eyes of many people, the East Factory is a scary place. I have heard His Highness say this more than once when I was with him. His teachers taught him that in order to eliminate the terror in the political arena, the emperor and father should be cautious in using the prisons outside the three departments. But now, the East Factory has the power to torture and is even allowed to build an inner prison like the Northern Pacification Department. From your and Your Highness's political perspective, can Deng Ying have a good end?"
Yang Lun said lightly: "He can retreat. It's not too late now."
"He told me that if he retreats again, you and the little prince will suffer even greater persecution."
"… "
Yang Lun was speechless.
Yang Wan chased, "The new policy was difficult, but you have taken the first step in the south. All the credit goes to you. Sister, Deng Ying, and I are all happy for you and for the suffering people in the south. As for the political clarity you are looking forward to, it is not impossible to have it when there is a wise ruler. For a better era, even if I am an unknown person, I will do my best to protect the child you value. Like Deng Ying, I will never retreat again."
Yang Lun sighed, "Wan'er, I just hope you can marry into a good family. I don't want you to get involved."
"But I've already come in. If I don't save myself, I'll be one of the three hundred palace servants who will be beaten to death."
Yang Lun felt a sharp pain in his throat, "I'm sorry, Wan'er, brother..."
Yang Wan interrupted him, "You don't have to say sorry."
As he spoke, he raised his neck unconsciously, "I am the only one left in Chengqian Palace, and I am Yi Lang's relative. Fortunately, there is still Deng Ying in the imperial city. Deng Ying is willing to get involved in the party struggle, so I am not afraid of being involved in the inner court struggle."
"Wan'er..."
"I do this not only for Deng Ying, but also for myself. I want to be a brave girl and live here seriously. I want to see everything that happened during the Zhenning years. Remember, if you are unwilling to leave a word for us, then I will write and say it myself."