#983 - Summer is coming to an end

In the days that followed, Wei Changtian was busy dealing with some aftermath "chores".

Of course, he was too lazy to participate in most things, and Su Qi and Li Zimu basically made the decisions.

But even so, there were still many "major events" that required his approval. In addition, the Tiangou Army also needed to rest, and there were still some resisting forces in various prefectures and counties of Daqian, so it was delayed for a few days.

In this way, time quickly came to June 25th, Great Heat.

When will the scorching sun pass? Where can the breeze be found?

Confucian classics serve as pillows, while melons and plums float and sink.

As the last solar term of summer, the days around the Great Heat should be the hottest time of the year.

The scorching sun hung high in the sky, and the sunlight felt like countless fine needles pricking the skin, causing a stinging pain. The cicadas chirped so loudly on the trees that it was annoying and unsettling.

If there were a thermometer, the temperature in the city at this moment would be around 45 degrees Celsius. There were not many pedestrians on the street. Occasionally, sparsely dressed men carried goods on shoulder poles, walking in the shade of the trees, their bodies covered in sweat.

Having to come out and work hard at this time, these men were mostly poor people who could not afford to miss a day of work.

After all, in such hot weather, a little carelessness can lead to heatstroke and fainting. At that time, not only will they suffer, but they will also have to spend money on medicine.

Many people can't stand the heat even sitting at home, let alone going out to work.

Of course, all of the above are just the situation of ordinary people.

For wealthy families, even without air conditioners and electric fans, there are always ways to cool down.

For example, "cool rooms" built underground or in shady places, or ice cubes paired with large fans can play some role in cooling down.

As for a "big shot" like Wei Changtian, that's even less of a problem.

In the Daqian Palace, his "temporary office" was entirely enveloped by a formation called "Cooling Array", which continuously provided cool air to the room like a central air conditioner, keeping the indoor temperature at around twenty degrees Celsius.

This formation is not a novel thing, and it also reflects some of the fun of the world of cultivation.

When Wei Changtian first experienced this formation in the Wei Mansion, he curiously studied it for a while, but now he is no longer surprised.

"Knock, knock, knock."

"Young Master Wei, Lord Su and Miss Li request to see you."

Along with a knock on the door, the guard's voice sounded outside.

"Let them in."

Wei Changtian responded and closed an ancient book that he had just found from the Daqian Royal Library.

"Young Master."

"Young Master."

The door opened, and Su Qi and Li Zimu entered the room one after the other, each greeting him.

"Sit down."

Wei Changtian nodded, and a palace maid served tea to the two of them, and then tactfully withdrew.

After the palace maid left, Li Zimu did not wait for Wei Changtian to ask, and directly reported:

"Young Master, the three members of the Jing family have been found."

"Is that so?"

Wei Changtian's expression did not change much: "Are they dead?"

"Two were killed, and there was an expert guarding the other, so we failed to kill him."

Li Zimu replied truthfully: "However, we have found the whereabouts of this person again, and we will definitely not fail again this time."

"Hmm."

Li Zimu replied softly: "According to your instructions, Young Master, all those who are disobedient to Lord Su have been killed, about a dozen people."

"Also, those who pretended to surrender but actually had other plans in their hearts have also been killed, also about a dozen people."

"So, almost half have been killed?"

Wei Changtian asked casually: "Are the remaining half willing to assist Lord Su?"

"Yes."

Li Zimu nodded: "Although it may not be from the bottom of their hearts, at least they will not cause trouble in the future."

"Okay, that's enough."

Wei Changtian took a sip of tea and turned to look at Su Qi, who was sitting on the other side.

Since the two of them came in, Li Zimu had been talking all the time, completely ignoring him.

Although Su Qi is indeed just a puppet emperor, he should at least be given some face.

"Lord Su, I wonder if you have anything to ask me for this visit?"

Wei Changtian asked Su Qi with a smile, thinking that he should give the latter a chance to speak.

After hearing this, Su Qi actually looked at Li Zimu first. Seeing the latter nodded, he hurriedly took out a long booklet from his sleeve.

"Young Master, this booklet is a list of all the wealthy families in the various prefectures and counties of Daqian. Those marked with red boxes are aristocratic families related to the Jing family, and those marked with red circles are aristocratic families with extremely close relationships."

"Please take a look, Young Master."

As he spoke, he got up and placed the list in front of Wei Changtian.

Su Qi just stood aside with his hands down, waiting, while Wei Changtian first glanced at Li Zimu with a smile, and then picked up the list and flipped through it casually.

Obviously, Su Qi wanted to ask how to deal with these marked families by showing himself this booklet.

After all, although the Jing family is finished, there are still families connected to the Jing family, or even related to them, all over Daqian.

These wealthy families may become unstable factors in the new dynasty in the future, and none of them should be let go.

But it is undoubtedly unrealistic to kill them all, so they must be handled properly.

Of course, there is no standard "handling process" for this kind of thing. Every dynasty has different handling methods when it changes.

So Wei Changtian was too lazy to care about these things. After looking at it a few times, he casually said:

"Lord Su, I don't know much about the situation in Daqian. You and Zimu can take care of this matter."

"Oh, right, there is a He family in Lean Prefecture that runs pawnshops and money houses. A junior in their family is acquainted with me, so pay attention to it then."

He family of Lean Prefecture.

Without a doubt, Wei Changtian was referring to He Jing and his family.

Although Wei Changtian felt that the scale of the He family should not be on this list, he still mentioned it in passing.

Hearing him specifically mention this He family, the expressions of Li Zimu and Su Qi couldn't help but pause slightly.

Neither of them knew when Wei Changtian had met such a person named He, but of course they would not ask, and just kept "He family of Lean Prefecture" in their hearts.

"Yes, Young Master, I understand."

Nodding and putting away the booklet, Su Qi returned to his seat and sat down.

At this time, Wei Changtian seemed to have remembered something again, and suddenly asked:

"By the way, Lord Su, it's already the end of June. What are your plans for the imperial examination in August?"

"This"

Su Qi was stunned, not knowing why Wei Changtian suddenly talked about the imperial examination.

Although this year is indeed the year of the imperial examination, it happened to be the change of dynasty, so the imperial examination naturally could not be held smoothly.

Su Qi didn't understand Wei Changtian's meaning for a while, so he had to answer truthfully:

"Returning to Young Master, there is only a month left until August, and the new dynasty has not been established. I think this year's imperial examination may have to be temporarily cancelled and postponed until three years later."

"There is no need to cancel it."

Wei Changtian shook his head and said with a smile: "Now is the time when the new dynasty needs people. I think it is a good opportunity to select some young talents for the new dynasty."

"Uh"

Looking up at Wei Changtian with a blank expression, Su Qi thought to himself how many of the people selected now would be willing to serve the new dynasty.

But Wei Changtian had already said so, and he couldn't refuse, so he could only lower his head and respond:

“Yes, this humble servant will order the Ministry of Personnel to supervise this matter and will definitely not delay this year's imperial examination.”

“...”

In this way, Wei Changtian conveniently helped He Jing with two more favors.

After that, the three chatted in the room for a while, and then Su Qi and Li Zimu wanted to say goodbye and leave.

However, Wei Changtian kept Li Zimu behind.

“It seems you are managing him quite strictly.”

Standing by the window, watching Su Qi, who had already walked far away along the path, Wei Changtian smiled at Li Zimu: “He is, after all, the future emperor of the new dynasty, you should give him some face.”

“Otherwise, after you leave, it won't be easy for him to govern the country.”

“Young Master, this servant only wants him not to forget his identity.”

Standing beside Wei Changtian, Li Zimu's tone was very serious: “Su Qi is different from Gongsun Yan. He has deep feelings for Daqian. This servant is afraid that after a long time, he will do things that are detrimental to Young Master.”

“Alright, whatever you want.”

Waving his hand, Wei Changtian didn't take Li Zimu's “PUA” of Su Qi to heart, but suddenly asked a somewhat irrelevant question.

“How is that matter going?”

“Reporting to Young Master, everything has been arranged properly.”

His expression turned serious in an instant, and Li Zimu lowered his voice and replied: “There should be results before we leave Daqian.”

“Good.”

Narrowing his eyes, a hint of cold killing intent appeared in his eyes.

After Wei Changtian said the last word, he didn't speak any further, so it was temporarily impossible to know what he had planned beforehand.

However, this is not too difficult to guess.

After all, now that the goal of destroying Daqian has been achieved, then what he has to do next, or rather, who he has to deal with, is only that mysterious person who has never appeared.

About a quarter of an hour later.

Still in Wei Changtian's “temporary office”, unexpectedly, before Li Zimu could leave, Su Qi, who had just left not long ago, returned, saying that he had just found the Jing family's private treasury.

The so-called private treasury is the place where the Jing family stored their treasures. Previously, because all the Jing family members were dead, it had not been found.

But now, after several days of hard searching, it was finally found.

Unlike the national treasury where money is stored, the private treasury must contain many natural treasures and magical weapons.

Even if there is nothing particularly good, it would be nice to find a few treasures similar to the Pure Jade Pendant.

At the very least, they couldn't return empty-handed after running all this way.

In this way, Wei Changtian immediately took Li Zimu and rushed to “treasure hunt” excitedly.

At the same time, on the other side, Yang Liushi and Zhang San had just finished their “treasure hunt” in the capital of Daqian, and were now walking along the alley where the small courtyard was located with large and small packages.

Because they were too lazy to move, Wei Changtian and Yang Liushi still lived in the previous small courtyard, while Duan Fangping and the other four had already moved out.

Furthermore, because Wei Changtian had been staying in the palace for the past few days, Yang Liushi would go out for a walk every day when she was bored to see the local customs of Daqian.

Of course, as a woman, she would definitely buy things when she went out.

So Zhang San became a “porter”, responsible for following Yang Liushi and “carrying bags” every day.

This had made him suffer greatly these past few days.

After all, it's not good to take a carriage when shopping, and most of the time he has to personally carry all kinds of strange objects through the streets and alleys.

The day before yesterday, it was two large porcelain vases made with unique craftsmanship from Daqian.

Yesterday, it was a screen.

Today is even more amazing. Yang Liushi didn't know what she was thinking, but she actually bought a wooden cabinet, saying that she wanted to take it back to Shuzhou.

Considering that Wei Changtian's residence could not be easily revealed, Zhang San was too embarrassed to let the store “deliver it to his door”, so he had to carry the large wooden cabinet all the way back to the alley.

In addition, the weather was hot, so even a middle third-rank martial artist was inevitably sweating profusely.

“M-Madam, are you still shopping tomorrow?”

Carrying the wooden cabinet, following behind Yang Liushi, whose hands were empty, Zhang San asked somewhat timidly: “If you still want to shop, can I find someone else to accompany you?”

“Tomorrow I'm still thinking of going to the north of the city for a walk.”

Yang Liushi was already very familiar with Zhang San, and had never treated the latter as a servant, so she spoke very casually at the moment: “What? You don't want to follow me anymore?”

“That's not it, the key is what Madam wants to buy...”

Zhang San muttered in a low voice: “Yesterday you bought a screen, today you bought a wooden cabinet, I'm really afraid that tomorrow you will buy an even bigger object...”

“Hehehe, so that's why.”

Yang Liushi looked back at Zhang San, covered her mouth and smiled: “Don't worry, I definitely won't buy such a big thing tomorrow.”

“That's good... Huh?”

Her voice paused, and under Yang Liushi's strange gaze, Zhang San's gaze suddenly fixed in one direction.

He saw that the latter's originally depressed expression suddenly became stunned, and he subconsciously muttered.

“Miss You?”

“...”

Frowning, Yang Liushi immediately turned her head and looked in the direction of Zhang San's gaze after hearing this, and her expression changed instantly.

Because she also saw the woman who looked very much like You Jia.

At this time, the woman was also staring at them blankly.

“Creak~”

The next moment, lowering her head and quickly retreating behind the courtyard door, Cui'er reached out and tried to close the courtyard door.

Ever since she saw so many rebels come to find Wei Changtian that night, she had deliberately avoided the latter and no longer went out when she had nothing to do.

Therefore, Yang Liushi and Zhang San had naturally not seen her these past few days.

Just now, Cui'er originally wanted to take advantage of the few people at noon to go out and buy some vegetables, but she didn't expect to run into the two people who had just returned from outside.

Her heart was pounding violently. Through these days of “secret observation”, she already knew that this man and woman should be Wei Changtian's servant and wife respectively.

So, in her opinion, Yang Liushi and Zhang San were naturally inseparable from the rebels, and at this moment, she couldn't help but panic, only thinking about avoiding them quickly.

But before the courtyard door could be half closed, she suddenly heard the voice of the extremely beautiful woman from outside the door.

“Wait!”

“...”

Her small hand trembled in fright, and the courtyard door failed to close.

Seeing that the other party had already discovered her, Cui'er was afraid of angering “the wife of some big shot among the rebels”, so she had to grit her teeth and walk out again, asking in a trembling voice:

“M-Madam, are, are you calling me?”

“Yes.”

At this moment, Yang Liushi had already walked to the opposite side of Cui'er, carefully looking up and down at the latter.

Like Wei Changtian, she quickly discovered some of the differences between Cui'er and You Jia.

But because the two looked so similar, Yang Liushi thought for a while and still tentatively asked softly:

“Miss You, is that you?”