Ji Weiqiu's guilty eyes darted about; even his hands hidden in his sleeves couldn't help but pick at the seams. He just didn't dare to meet his elder brother's gaze.

He wasn't an idiot. His elder brother had him look at memorials from over a hundred years ago and taught him to analyze them step by step. It definitely wasn't to warn him, and besides, he hadn't done anything that warranted such a warning from his elder brother.

He knew his elder brother. When his elder brother warned someone, he never went to such trouble. He would just drop a sentence and let the person go back and figure it out on their own, or he wouldn't say a word at all. Those who couldn't understand deserved to die. There were plenty of people who wanted to be the Emperor's close attendant; this one wouldn't be missed.

"Look up." Ji Su snorted coldly. Ji Weiqiu's body moved faster than his mind, and his head shot up. Being stared at by Ji Su sent a chill through his entire body. Seeing his appearance, Ji Su said coldly, "Come here!"

Ji Weiqiu's scalp tingled, but he could only walk step by step to the side of the imperial throne. With a crisp clang of gold and jade, the imperial brush was slammed onto the desk by that fair, slender hand. Ji Su's anger was self-evident, yet he remained composed. He said slowly, "The Prince of Rui is precious, how would I dare to take him so easily?"

Ji Weiqiu was terrified by this sarcastic tone and subconsciously said, "No matter how precious, he is not as precious as Imperial Elder Brother. My life was given to me by Imperial Elder Brother, so Imperial Elder Brother can take it whenever he wants."

"Silence," Ji Su said frigidly. "If I hear such words again, you will never leave the palace in this lifetime."

'That would be fine too,' Ji Weiqiu thought. 'I could just live in Changchen Palace... uh, no, that's the Eastern Palace, reserved for the future crown prince. Never mind. Anyway, there are no consorts in the palace, so there's almost no need to avoid suspicion. I can live anywhere. When it's time to eat, I'll go to my old mother's palace for free food and drinks. After eating, I'll wipe my mouth, take a couple of laps in the Imperial Garden to digest, find some old palace staff for a few rounds of cards, and then go back to sleep. Whoopee! How wonderful!'

Ji Weiqiu dared to think this in his heart, but he didn't dare say it out loud. He could only say, "It was a slip of the tongue. Imperial Elder Brother, please don't be offended."

Seeing that he was being relatively obedient, Ji Su let it go. He said, "In the Li Yunxiu case, you only look at Li Yunxiu, but you don't look at Emperor Shizu. That is your shortcoming."

Ji Weiqiu paused, "Hmm?"

Ji Su took his brush and drew a small circle on Emperor Shizu's vermilion-inked comment. He asked, "Why did Emperor Shizu send Li Yunxiu to Liaoyuan to be the prefect?"

Ji Weiqiu had answered this question before, so he replied without hesitation, "Li Yunxiu was Emperor Shizu's study companion. When Emperor Shizu ascended the throne, he naturally needed to cultivate his own confidants. Liaoyuan Prefecture is close to Yanjing, so if a war were to break out, it would be a strategic fortress. Sending Li Yunxiu there served three purposes: one, he would be close by, making it convenient for Emperor Shizu to look after him; two, he could keep this place in the hands of his own people; and three, it would allow Li Yunxiu to accumulate some experience."

"Correct." Ji Su's gaze was cold as he tapped the vermilion comment again. "If you were Emperor Shizu, was what Li Yunxiu did what you needed?"

"Probably not, right?" Ji Weiqiu's eyes fell on the crimson vermilion comment. He unconsciously leaned half his body against the armrest of the throne to save some energy. He murmured, "A total crop failure, chaos in Liaoyuan, and the disaster victims would surely flood into Yanjing. I can't think of anything good coming from that..."

Unless there were other memorials from that year to use as a reference, based on the current information, there was no benefit to Emperor Shizu. Moreover, Emperor Shizu had just ascended the throne at that time. With this incident, it probably wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he was overwhelmed with troubles.

"If that's the case, why did Emperor Shizu order Li Yunxiu to go to the border?" Ji Su asked.

"He must have grown tired of him, right?" Ji Weiqiu answered.

Then he received a cold glance from his elder brother. Ji Weiqiu shrank his neck and could only lean against the armrest and continue flipping through the memorials while racking his brain.

Ji Weiqiu was leaning on Ji Su's arm. He looked up and saw the boy thinking so intently that he didn't disturb him. While flipping through the memorials, Ji Weiqiu couldn't help but ask, "Imperial Elder Brother, could you give me a few other case files from that year?"

Ji Su said, "These are sufficient."

Ji Weiqiu had no choice but to continue looking. But if he hadn't seen anything before, how could he magically conjure a flower out of it now? Ji Weiqiu glanced sideways at Ji Su and saw that he had already picked up a new memorial to read, so he didn't dare to disturb him any further. But try as he might, the only thing he could think of was that Emperor Shizu had grown tired of Li Yunxiu!

Think about it. The man was thrown into a place full of old foxes, a bitter place with no perks, and he had to start as a clerk. How was that not being tired of him? One must know that unless there were special circumstances, a clerk would likely never set foot on a battlefield to face an enemy with a sword. He could only be promoted based on the victories and defeats of the army he was with.

Seeing the boy looking over with a troubled expression, staring at him without daring to utter a sound, Ji Su offered a light reminder, "Prime Minister Gu."

Ji Weiqiu was stunned for a moment, then it dawned on him. That's right. It would be more accurate to say Li Yunxiu was similar to Prime Minister Gu than to himself. Although Prime Minister Gu was not his elder brother's study companion, he was his confidant. The first thing his brother did after ascending the throne was to send Prime Minister Gu to Jiangnan. How important was that place? But he remembered that while Prime Minister Gu's first assignment wasn't a complete disaster, it could only be said that he barely managed to get it done.

Of course, in the eyes of outsiders, it was a resounding success, beautifully executed.

It wasn't that Prime Minister Gu wasn't intelligent enough, but that Jiangnan had nurtured countless aristocratic families and wealthy merchants. The waters there ran incredibly deep, with countless powerful figures entangled in its affairs. Prime Minister Gu was undermined there, and in the end, it was his elder brother who helped Prime Minister Gu smooth things over from behind the scenes, making the outcome flawless so that no one in the court could find any fault, giving Prime Minister Gu a brilliant political achievement.

In fact, it wasn't that no one knew Prime Minister Gu had nearly botched the job, but his elder brother had made it clear he was protecting him. Since there were no apparent mistakes, who would dare to nitpick?

Looking at it this way, wasn't it exactly the same as Li Yunxiu and Emperor Shizu? Both made mistakes, and both times the reigning emperor stepped in to protect them. But now, Prime Minister Gu was the head of the Grand Secretariat, a pillar of the state, while Li Yunxiu, at this age, had died with the crime of assassinating Emperor Shizu, the grass on his grave already ten feet high.

Oh, wait, he probably didn't even have a grave. According to national law, assassination was treated as treason. The perpetrator would be executed on the spot, his entire clan implicated. The culprit's body would be hung on the city gate as a warning to the world, left there until it rotted into a pile of bones before being thrown into a mass grave.

Ji Weiqiu decided to praise his elder brother's trusted general. This could be considered a form of ruler-minister harmony, right? "Imperial Elder Brother, Prime Minister Gu is reserved and steady. How could Li Yunxiu possibly compare to him?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Ji Su's expression remained unchanged, but the coldness in his eyes deepened. Ji Weiqiu felt goosebumps rise on his back... Wait, what did his elder brother mean by that? Did he actually dislike Prime Minister Gu and had been looking for a legitimate reason to kill him all this time? So when he praised Prime Minister Gu, his elder brother got upset?

Or was it like the court secrets whispered about, that his elder brother and Prime Minister Gu were a couple? It was only due to imperial dignity that they could only be together in secret, so when he praised Prime Minister Gu, his elder brother got jealous?

No way! He hadn't noticed at all! Unless they had only gotten together in the last two years, otherwise, there was no reason he wouldn't know!

Ji Weiqiu stared at Ji Su's profile in a daze. It seemed... it seemed it wasn't entirely impossible? After all, Prime Minister Gu was the only person who could freely enter and leave Qingning Hall! Wow, did he just accidentally stumble upon the truth? Mind-blowing!

Then he was shot a glance by Ji Su and guiltily came back to his senses... Ahem, what nonsense was he thinking? If his elder brother knew he was making up such stories about him, he'd have him dragged out and beaten to death on the spot.

Ji Weiqiu tried to read the memorials to find more information, but he had already read these few. He might not be able to recite them backward, but he remembered them well and truly couldn't find anything new. But his elder brother was still staring at him, so he could only make some wild guesses, "Emperor Shizu was probably heartbroken? After all, his study companion was brainless. Letting him out would be a danger to the world, but not letting him out was unbearable... Or perhaps Emperor Shizu felt disappointed? And felt betrayed?"

Ji Su sighed and placed a hand on the memorial. Following his movement, Ji Weiqiu stopped searching and listened attentively. Ji Su said calmly, "Ten years as a study companion, a bond no less than that of brothers. Emperor Shizu used Li Yunxiu, but he could not make up for his shortcomings. Li Yunxiu was arrogant, repeatedly overstepping his bounds and breaking the rules, disrupting the laws of the land, yet Emperor Shizu tolerated it again and again. Their bond was exhausted, leading to their falling out after Li Yunxiu returned to the capital."

Ji Weiqiu hadn't thought of it from this angle. He listened intently, and without realizing it, he had sat down on the footstool of the imperial throne. Just as he was waiting for his elder brother to continue his analysis, he suddenly saw the imperial brush in his brother's hand move and come toward him.

Ji Weiqiu instinctively closed his eyes and felt a cool touch on his brow.

"No one wishes for the friendships of their youth to be anything but perfect."

The imperial brush left a dot of vermilion between Ji Weiqiu's eyebrows, like a blood-red mole, or like the cinnabar mark a child would have to pray for peace and good fortune. Ji Su gazed at that dot and said calmly, "However, those in the world who follow it are governed; those who do not are in chaos. Those who follow it are safe; those who do not are in danger. Those who follow it survive; those who do not perish. ①"

"Li Yunxiu was a friend, but also a subject. Emperor Shizu treated his subject as a friend, which led the subject to not serve his lord with the rites of a lord. Do you understand?"

His elder brother meant that precisely because Emperor Shizu saw Li Yunxiu as a friend, he turned a blind eye to Li Yunxiu's transgressions. This also made Li Yunxiu see Emperor Shizu as a friend rather than a monarch, causing his actions to become increasingly outrageous. If Emperor Shizu had been able to distinguish between public and private matters from the beginning, treating Li Yunxiu as a subject rather than a friend, making Li Yunxiu aware of the proper boundaries, and keeping the distinction between ruler and subject clear in his heart, he naturally would not have been so arrogant. In the future, the ruler and subject would not have become estranged, and such a tragedy would not have occurred.

'No one wishes for the friendships of their youth to be anything but perfect.' His brother said this, was he hoping that if I encountered such a situation, I wouldn't be left with the same regret?

Or perhaps... he was teaching him the art of managing people?

Or maybe both?

Ji Weiqiu felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He stared blankly at Ji Su, trying to read something from his eyes. Those eyes looked down at him, as if no emotion could hide from them. He didn't know how long he stared before he lowered his head in embarrassment and said sheepishly, "Imperial Elder Brother, why are you telling me all this?"

Given his status, it would be best if he never had to touch these matters in his life.

Suddenly, fair, slender fingers grasped his chin and lifted it. Ji Weiqiu was caught off guard and crashed into Ji Su's gaze.

Ji Su held a handkerchief and calmly and gently wiped the vermilion from his brow. "You are older now, you can no longer be as muddle-headed as you were in the past."

"Auspicious and weighty, a vessel for the Emperor's use." Ji Su released him. The handkerchief, stained with vermilion, floated down from his fingers and landed on Ji Weiqiu's lap. Ji Weiqiu clutched the handkerchief and looked up at him.

These two sentences were from the Imperial Edict that had enfeoffed him as the Prince of Rui.

With a crackle, the candlelight flared, casting their figures in flickering light and shadow, their shadows dancing chaotically on the floor for a moment. Palace staff hurried in to tend to the candles, their skirts swaying. In this flickering light, Ji Su gently stroked his hair. "A long journey starts from what is near; rouse yourself and strive forward, do not fail... the Prince of Rui."

The author has something to say:

①: Those in the world who follow it are governed; those who do not are in chaos. Those who follow it are safe; those who do not are in danger. Those who follow it survive; those who do not perish. — From Xunzi - On the Rites