Serving pen and ink was considered an easy task, not requiring much effort. The next afternoon, Xiao Shao saw Qi Yan in the study.

He lifted his robe and knelt down, bowing and saying, "Your Highness."

Qi Yan's figure was already thin, and now after a bout of illness, he appeared even more frail. The servant's clothes wrapped around his body seemed somewhat loose on him.

Looking at his attire, Xiao Shao felt it was inexplicably an eyesore.

He had actually seen Qi Yan before. Before his downfall, Qi Yan did not look like this.

At that time, Qi Yan had just become the Tanhua, right at the moment when 'the spring breeze was intoxicating, and the horse's hooves were swift'. Wearing an imperially bestowed palace flower on his head, he rode his horse through the long street to attend the Qujiang Banquet. The streets and alleys were crowded with men, women, young, and old hoping to rub off some good luck. Girls threw flowers at the newly appointed scholars. Qi Yan was the best-looking, so the most flowers were thrown at him. Before long, his sleeves were gathered full of peonies and herbaceous peonies.

At that time, Xiao Shao was sitting in a private booth on the second floor of the Xiangyun Pavilion. He was listening to a girl singing when suddenly there was an uproar downstairs. He pushed open the window to look outside and saw Qi Yan on horseback at first glance.

The young man had clear and bright features, exuding literary elegance. Xiao Shao raised an eyebrow and fanned himself, saying, "This year's little Tanhua is this pretty? How truly endearing."

Xie Guanghong shook his head, "That's Imperial Censor Xie's son. Don't go coveting him. Be careful, or his father will submit a memorial to the Emperor, and His Majesty will smash you with the jade seal."

At this moment, Qi Yan happened to look up, and their eyes met. Xiao Shao folded his fan and mouthed with a smile, "Beauty."

Qi Yan had obviously never seen anyone like him. He froze for a moment, then looked away, frowned, and cursed inwardly. By the shape of his mouth, he was cursing: "Frivolous rake."

As he spoke, he pulled the reins, and the horse trotted past the pavilion. But as Xiao Shao looked at his back, he saw that his ears were clearly red.

At the time, Xiao Shao thought, 'Scholars cursing people is really interesting. Such a light and harmless sentence could make his own ears turn red.'

Then, after so many years, things had changed, and people had changed. When they met again, Qi Yan had already reached the pinnacle of officialdom and become the Lord who was below one and above ten thousand.

Thinking of past events, Xiao Shao spaced out for a moment. Qi Yan could no longer hold his kneeling posture; he slightly closed his eyes and reached out to support himself on the ground.

Xiao Shao raised his hand, "Get up and grind ink for me."

He didn't actually have anything to write, and even if he did, he wouldn't write it in front of Qi Yan. He simply wanted to keep the person under his nose and find various ways to torment him.

Thus, Qi Yan ground it once, and Xiao Shao said, "Too light."

He ground it a second time, and Xiao Shao said, "Too dark."

When the ink was finally ground perfectly, he ordered Qi Yan to pour tea. The first time he said it was too hot, the second time he said it was too cold. In short, he lay in his chair like a lord, ordering Qi Yan around in circles, while taking the opportunity to observe his reaction.

Qi Yan had no reaction.

He submissively ground the ink and submissively poured the tea. When Xiao Shao picked on him, he would regrind the ink and repour the tea, like a soulless puppet.

Tormenting a puppet was truly uninteresting.

Xiao Shao slightly narrowed his eyes, "Hey, Qi Yan. In a couple of days, I'm going to the Imperial Study to study, and I plan to take you with me."

"..."

Qi Yan's pouring motion did not stop. "Understood."

Xiao Shao leaned forward, "Grand Tutor Song of the Imperial Study used to be your teacher too, right?"

"Yes."

Born into an official family, Qi Yan had interacted with noble and upright scholars since childhood. He was one of Grand Tutor Song's favorite students.

But now, this student's official career had been cut short, and there was no longer any possibility of him making a name for himself.

The upright scholars and the eunuchs were two completely different systems. Upright scholars could stand tall and proud, leave their mark in history, and carry forward what they had learned. Countless scholars followed one another, all just to have the good reputation of a 'pure minister' when mentioned by future generations.

But eunuchs were different.

They were naturally at the bottom of the chain of disdain. They were lapdogs, petty individuals, sycophants, and the targets of verbal and written condemnation by civil officials. Suddenly falling to such a state, it was impossible for Qi Yan not to be in pain.

Yet Qi Yan still had no expression on his face as he leaned over to pour water, as if the nearly twenty years of studying and the thoughts of being clean, honest, and becoming an official had nothing to do with him anymore.

Xiao Shao: "You don't care?"

Qi Yan lowered his head to grind ink, a section of his neck drooping submissively. "If you want me to care, I can care."

"..."

Xiao Shao felt he had asked for a snub and stopped bringing it up.

He kept Qi Yan by his side just to torment him for fun, but with Qi Yan acting so impenetrable, tormenting him was no fun at all.

The next day, Xiao Shao really took him to the Imperial Study.

Yuan Yu and Xie Guanghong had arrived early. As a prince, Xiao Shao sat at the very front, right under Grand Tutor Song's nose. He sat boldly at his desk and started passing notes back and forth with Yuan Yu.

Qi Yan knelt half-upright by his side, lifting his sleeve to grind ink for him.

Grand Tutor Song glared at them and began his lecture, shaking his head and spitting flying everywhere. Listening to him made Xiao Shao drowsy. Finally, Grand Tutor Song slammed his ferule on the desk, making Xiao Shao jolt awake.

During the class, Grand Tutor Song repeatedly looked at Qi Yan, while Qi Yan simply kept his head down and remained silent.

Grand Tutor Song sighed softly, "Since none of you are in the mood to listen to the lecture, I'll leave you an assignment. Hand it in tomorrow."

The students had no heart to learn, and the teacher couldn't muster any enthusiasm either. Yuan Yu and the others were true playboys who couldn't understand, while Xiao Shao was playing the fool to avoid trouble. Often, Grand Tutor Song would be unable to continue halfway through his lecture and would just throw a topic at them to write about.

These topics were often of a very high level, being issues frequently debated in the imperial court. Grand Tutor Song didn't expect them to write anything substantial; it was purely to kill time.

With a stroke of his brush, he wrote: "Corruption runs rampant, the country is impoverished, the people are poor, the three taxes on top and bottom are levied, and various abuses arise. What is the solution?"

The hand Xiao Shao used to pinch the note paused, and he slightly narrowed his eyes.

This question was also the greatest root of disaster facing the Daqian Dynasty today. The court had been arguing about it for ten to twenty years, from the Grand Secretariat to the Six Ministries, and it remained unresolved even when Xiao Shao ascended the throne.

In the middle and late stages of every dynasty, corruption was a major issue. The Daqian Dynasty inherited the traditions of the previous dynasty, where the people paid their taxes in goods: those who farmed handed over grain, and those who wove handed over silk. Since it was difficult for the imperial court to monitor the yield per person and per mu of land, it was very hard to define the tax revenue.

At the time, there was a practice known as 'kicking the hu'. It was stipulated that one hu of rice should be handed over. When the tax officials received the measuring container, they would kick it one by one. The spilled grain would not be counted and would become the private property of the tax officials, requiring the commoners to refill it. After layer upon layer of exploitation, the amount was staggering.

In fact, before he ascended the throne, his imperial brother had also tried to tackle this issue, but the effort died mid-way and achieved no results.

Xiao Shao narrowed his eyes slightly, pushed the paper and pen to Qi Yan, and smiled. "Little Tanhua, write this assignment for me. Show me what you're made of."

In his previous life, Grand Tutor Song always praised Qi Yan as a rare talent, but it was a pity that Xiao Shao never saw it before Qi Yan became the Lord universally condemned by the world.

Qi Yan lowered his eyebrows. "...I wouldn't dare."

Xiao Shao forcefully shoved the pen into his hand. "Write when you're told to write."

Qi Yan paused, then accepted it. He hesitated for a moment, lifted the brush, and suspended his wrist.

Xiao Shao didn't look at him, turning around to have a cricket fight with Yuan Yu. When he returned, Qi Yan had already blown dry the ink on the paper.

He placed the draft on Xiao Shao's desk, lowered his eyes, and returned to his kneeling position.

Xiao Shao picked it up and saw that the brushstrokes were rushed, the handwriting was scribbled, and the content was completely mediocre—just bullshit singing praises and extolling virtues. If this piece of trash were submitted, let alone Tanhua, it wouldn't even make the bottom of the third tier of scholars.

This shouldn't be Qi Yan's level.

Xiao Shao let out a laugh and suddenly flipped open a book.

On each of their desks were piled seventy or eighty books—the classics, histories, philosophy, and literature collections needed for class. Xiao Shao never opened them, but Grand Tutor Song was very pedantic; he required them to be organized properly after every class before he would leave with his hands behind his back.

Qi Yan's breath hitched, visibly tensing up.

His body was tight, and he didn't dare to look up at Xiao Shao. The fingers gripping the desk, however, tightened more and more, with a few blue veins bulging on the back of his hand. Eventually, even his lips lost their color.

Xiao Shao found it amusing and deliberately flipped through the books slowly, one by one. Qi Yan grew more and more tense until finally, from inside the very bottom book, Xiao Shao found another piece of paper.

It was also an answer to the assignment.

Given Qi Yan's writing speed, it shouldn't have been so scribbled. Moreover, Grand Tutor Song wouldn't have left such a difficult question for a bunch of blockheads like them. Sure enough, Grand Tutor Song wasn't asking Xiao Shao and the others at all; he was borrowing Xiao Shao's brush to ask his prized student, Qi Yan.

Xiao Shao shook out the Xuan paper and casually glanced at it. He saw written on it: "To summarize the taxes and corvée of a prefecture or county, measure the land and count the population..."

He raised an eyebrow.

The reforms his imperial brother had implemented in his previous life were actually eighty or ninety percent similar to what was written on this paper.

Since handing over grain was inconvenient to calculate and prone to layer-upon-layer exploitation, it would be changed to silver taels. The key points and necessities were also listed one by one within an extremely short space. It was no exaggeration to say that the essence of his imperial brother's policy was entirely condensed here. Even some omissions that hadn't been considered before were mostly made up for, only that due to tight time, many details weren't mentioned.

At that time, Xiao Shao was still in his fief, but he had also heard about the affairs in the imperial city. As the national treasury grew increasingly empty and the conflict between officials and the public intensified, reform was imminent. After the court had been clamoring for many days, his imperial brother suddenly brought out a policy essay and asked the Grand Secretariat to discuss it.

The author and origin of this policy essay were unknown. When ministers asked, his imperial brother simply said he was inspired by heaven, dreaming of a deity who taught him.

Xiao Shao had sneered at this.

Looking at it now, could it be that the author of that policy essay...

Thinking of this, he looked up and cast a glance at Qi Yan.

Qi Yan still kept his eyes lowered, not uttering half a word.

Having become a eunuch, he couldn't submit policy essays. His belly full of literary talent and ambitions had nowhere to be displayed. As it happened, his imperial brother, who loved to claim credit for great achievements, conveniently took the credit, monopolizing the policy essay to act as a brilliant ruler praised for all eternity. As for Qi Yan, a filthy thing with an incomplete body, what use did he have for a reputation?

Now that Grand Tutor Song had asked, Qi Yan had written it. Even if the policy essay was destined to never bear his name, as long as what he thought and learned could slightly benefit the state, that was good enough.

As for who the author was, it didn't matter.

The more Xiao Shao thought about it, the more he felt it was possible. His gaze sizing up Qi Yan now carried a measure of scrutiny. He casually toyed with the book and, looking down from his high vantage point, inexplicably revealed the imperial majesty of his previous life.

Qi Yan slightly closed his eyes, took a step back, lifted his robe, and knelt down. "This servant is guilty."

Xiao Shao withdrew his gaze. "What crime are you guilty of?"

Qi Yan gritted his teeth. He was fully aware of Xiao Shao's attitude over the past two days. The master didn't get along with him, so naturally, he would pick faults both openly and secretly. He didn't dare to be negligent and could only speak of severe offenses: "Recklessly discussing state affairs, deceiving the master..."

Black and white on paper, it was recklessly discussing state affairs. Writing two assignments but only giving one was deceiving the master. Every single charge was undeniable.

Xiao Shao looked at him deeply. "According to you, how should this crime be punished?"

"..."

Qi Yan tightly gripped the hem of his clothes, yet his tone remained flat. "Twenty strokes of the cane."

Xiao Shao scoffed.

He sized up Qi Yan with great interest, looking him up and down, from the tear mole at the corner of his eye to his pale neck, and then to his face that had not yet recovered from a severe illness. "Twenty strokes—can you endure that?"

"..."

The imperial court's caning was no laughing matter. One strike would damage flesh and skin, two strikes would draw blood, and cases of people being beaten to death by twenty strokes were everywhere.

Xiao Shao crumpled the paper into a ball and stuffed it back into the book. "Get up. What kind of nonsense did you write? I can't even understand it when I read it. Completely baffling. Let old man Song deal with it."

Saying so, he knocked on the desk behind him and called out to his companions, "Yuan Yu, let's go. Come catch ducks with this young master."