“Young Master didn't go to school today.”
“Oh? Skipping class again?”
“Yes… since that outing organized by Prince Wen Cheng, Young Master has been a changed person. He’s… strange.”
“Oh dear, oh dear. If Master knew, he’d be furious. Young Master is the direct heir of the Mo family. How can he let himself fall so low?”
“When has Young Master ever gotten up early…?”
“Hey! You two over there! Did you sweep the yard?! You’re just loitering around!”
The butler, dressed in blue, roared from the entrance of the courtyard, and the two servants holding brooms shrank their heads, returning to their posts to continue sweeping up the fallen leaves.
The brown, dry leaves fluttered as the brooms swept back and forth. Bright, but not glaring, sunlight illuminated the entire courtyard. Tall, sturdy phoenix trees stood in the courtyard, their leaves drifting down with the wind.
Autumn had arrived again. From the top of a hill, the view was a sea of golden yellow. Farmers with smiles on their faces picked up their sickles and entered the fields of ripe wheat. The Da Yi Dynasty had once again entered a joyous harvest season.
But on this day of national celebration, one person was an exception.
Mo Yi wasn't happy. He was currently wishing he was dead.
Today marked his first month here. After transmigrating to this world, his worldview had been completely overturned. After observing for a while, Mo Yi discovered that the world was in a state of war. Civilization was at the level of the Ming and Qing dynasties in his previous life. The entire continent was ablaze with war. He was in the powerful Yi Dynasty. The founding emperor of the Yi Dynasty was incredibly wise. He saw the folly of using precious metals like silver and gold as currency. Therefore, he set a precedent and advocated for the use of credit money… oh, the paper money of Mo Yi's previous life.
Inspired by the founding emperor of the Yi Dynasty, every country on the continent began circulating this new type of currency and built banks. Suddenly, money houses, financing cooperatives, loan shops… and a whole slew of similar things sprouted up like bamboo shoots after rain.
Not only that, the Yi Dynasty royal family seemed to be blessed by some passing immortal. After the founding emperor died, an even wiser emperor, Yi Tai Huang, implemented an unprecedented policy: universal education for all citizens.
Yi Tai Huang believed that for a nation to produce talented individuals, knowledge must be widespread, and the teaching of knowledge must not be archaic! The Confucianism advocated by the founding emperor was relegated to a supplementary course, while arithmetic, agriculture, writing, and strategy were written into the curriculum of all students. Suddenly, talented individuals emerged from the Yi Dynasty like bamboo shoots after rain, producing countless wise statesmen! There were also countless students carrying textbooks who were reading “Spring Sleep Doesn’t Know Dawn” while cursing Yi Tai Huang’s ancestors eighteen generations back.
After Yi Tai Huang, Wu Yi, who revered martial arts, took the throne. On his first day, he drafted a bill for universal education in the Yi Dynasty and, despite the strong opposition of his ministers, went ahead and issued the bill!
For a while, the ministers thought their emperor was mad. Had he been sitting on the Dragon Throne uncomfortably and gotten a crick in his butt, so he wanted to abdicate?
In the era of feudal monarchy, officials wished for their subjects to be like pigs, only knowing how to farm and grow grain for the imperial power. If even a few intellectuals dared to sing the praises of freedom and rights, they would make those officials grit their teeth in hatred. They were afraid that, by accident, they would produce some ambitious commoners who would attempt to overthrow the dynasty.
Now, the emperor’s implementation of universal education instantly gave the Yi Dynasty hundreds of thousands of intellectuals. The thinking of the serfs was liberated. Farmers who tilled the land could now recite a few lines about farming for the rise of the Yi Dynasty. Within ten years, the Yi Dynasty had suddenly become the most powerful and domineering nation among its neighbors.
The Yi Dynasty surpassed neighboring nations in terms of military, livelihood, and ideology. Children had access to education, intellectuals had a way to serve their country, and soldiers would even sacrifice their lives for such a nation.
Every citizen of the Yi Dynasty was proud to be a citizen. Even beggars looked down on foreigners. Mo Yi felt that this was a replica of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Could this emperor have also transmigrated like himself? He was so clear about how the grassroots determined everything, that a strong people meant a strong country?
But in truth, these things were just minor issues. Mo Yi initially thought that he could choose whether or not to go to the ancient school, that he could sleep even if the master gave a grand speech, and that the Yi Dynasty’s demise or survival had nothing to do with him. But recently, he encountered something that was important enough to make him skip school, even at the risk of being beaten up by his cheap dad.
—
The Mo Family Mansion, the center of the direct lineage courtyard.
This was a spacious courtyard. The courtyard was empty, only containing a senile phoenix tree and piles of fallen leaves that had just been swept up. This mundane courtyard in the Mo Family, which was currently at the pinnacle of power, was an absurd sight.
Even more absurd was the fact that this courtyard was built in the center of the direct lineage courtyard of the Mo Family! This was the place where the direct blood relatives of the current head of the Mo Family resided! Every room in the mansion here should have been paved with gold bricks, decorated with jewels. At the very least, the courtyard should have a fountain comparable to the Summer Palace.
But there was nothing here, only a dying phoenix tree and the eldest son of the Mo Family, who was full of worry.
In the room of the courtyard, Mo Yi listlessly spread out a scroll on the table. It contained a list of the Mo Family’s retainers. The author of this damned thing had a good hand at cursive script, making Mo Yi want to burn the scroll with a flaming magic talisman. But he forced himself to take a deep breath and calm down. He had a reason for doing this. This incident had to be traced back three days ago.
Three days ago, three seemingly insignificant things happened in the Mo Family, but in Mo Yi's eyes, these were three earth-shattering events!
These three things corresponded to three people.
A scion of a declining noble family who proposed to the eldest daughter of the Mo Family and was rejected, a horse-grooming boy who offended the head steward and was kicked out of the Mo Family, and a noble second son who was beaten to a vegetative state by Mo Yi in his previous life.
This sort of thing was commonplace in the vast Mo Family. But in Mo Yi's eyes… the Mo Family was in trouble.
“Damn it, how can this be?” Mo Yi groaned, pounding the table in frustration. “I just transmigrated and was thinking of using my background to experience some brothels. Now, I’m immediately faced with this mess. Heaven wants to destroy me!”
In Mo Yi’s previous life, the three people corresponding to these three incidents were the standard underdog protagonists. Oh, you haven’t heard of them? Then have you heard the most famous line in the online literature world: "Thirty years in the East River, thirty years in the West River, don’t underestimate the poor youth."?
Mo Yi was now facing this kind of crisis. If he continued to let this situation continue, without exception, the Mo Family would be waiting to be demolished by these three guys with the halo of protagonists over their heads.
Mo Yi pressed his temples, threw the scroll behind him. Mountains of scrolls were piled up behind him. He had been skipping school for three days and now he was forced to hide himself in this dilapidated courtyard. Otherwise, his father would tear him to shreds.
Mo Yi spread out a piece of white paper. He picked up the lead pencil that he had ordered his subordinate carpenters to craft. After pondering for a while, Mo Yi wrote a few large characters on the top of the paper: “General Plan for the Future, Whether I Live or Die, Become a Gifted Prodigy or a Salty Fish”.
Looking at the long string of tortoise-like characters, Mo Yi paused for a moment, then tore the paper and crumpled it into a ball, tossing it behind him. Then, he spread out another clean, white piece of paper.
“How to Survive Against Three Crazy People, Online, Urgent.”
Looking at the new title, Mo Yi silently nodded, then leaned on the table and started scribbling on the paper.
A few leaves fell from the phoenix tree outside the window, blown by the cold wind from the west. This autumn was still very long.
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ps: The new book is out. I’m a guy with a setting outline. Please feel free to collect and contribute flowers (laugh).
ps: The first chapter might seem a little bland. It gets more exciting later.