Waiting Quietly for Heaven's Timing

Life returned to what it had been.

Home, Heavenly Prison, Spring Breeze Pavilion.

A year passed in a daze. No one doubted Zhou Yi's origins anymore; the fellow was as carefree and unrestrained as his master.

He was indifferent to all affairs and would not budge unless ordered.

Prisoners came and went, either reincarnating into new lives or soaring to great heights, yet Cell B-6 remained unchanged.

As time passed.

Zhou Yi grew quite familiar with him and learned why Yu Su had been imprisoned: he had submitted a memorial urging Emperor Jinglong to rectify official conduct and implement the rule of law.

His words had been somewhat fierce, and some said they alluded to the Zhang Family and the Brocade Guard.

Neither of Fengyang Kingdom's two great powers could afford to make the first move. Though Yu Su still enjoyed the Emperor's favor, he still had to take a trip through Heavenly Prison. After investigating for a long time, the Brocade Guard had failed to find any evidence of Yu Su committing a crime—not even a tael of silver had he embezzled.

Left with no choice, the court censors submitted a memorial and pinned on him the crime of being unfilial to his elders.

After learning the whole story, Zhou Yi first gave him extra thick porridge, then brought him meat, and now carried in a jug of wine every day.

"I hear the wine and meat in Heavenly Prison cost more than gold. I have no money to pay you, and I won't have any in the future either." Yu Su wiped his plate clean, yet spoke with an air of righteous dignity.

"No payment needed."

Zhou Yi smiled. "Quite a few honest officials have been locked up here, but I've never met one like you, Old Yu."

Yu Su raised a brow. "What sort of man am I?"

Yu Su had passed the imperial examination at thirty-two, spent ten years in the Hanlin Academy and as a censor, and one year in Heavenly Prison. He was now forty-three, so before Zhou Yi, he truly could call himself an old man.

Zhou Yi said, "Upright, yet not rigid. Otherwise, you wouldn't eat the wine and meat brought by a petty clerk."

"Those people are all rotten pedants."

Yu Su said, "One studies to understand reason, not to cling to stale rules and ancient regulations. I still have great things to do. I must eat meat and keep my body strong so that I can wait for my chance."

Just as he said, after eating and drinking his fill, he began strengthening his body.

After doing two sets of radio calisthenics, Yu Su had loosened up his muscles and bones, then practiced several sets of Tai Chi Fist.

Yu Su praised him. "Boy Zhou, this method you taught me is quite good. I've squatted in prison for a year, yet my body is sturdier than it was when I was studying."

"Old Yu, there are plenty of rumors outside saying that you only put on a clean and honest face, while actually being a great corrupt official. They say you secretly beat people to death, and that even your three consecutive first-place examination honors back then were bought by bribing the chief examiner..."

Zhou Yi told him about the rumors he had heard on the streets. Clearly, the Zhang Family and the Brocade Guard did not intend to let Yu Su off.

First they splashed him with filth, then pinned some fabricated charge on him, and finally dragged him to the Execution Grounds to be beheaded.

Yu Su was not frightened by this; instead, he was delighted. "That only proves they can do nothing to me and can only spread rumors and slander. Otherwise, have too few honest officials died in the Imperial Prison?"

"That seems to make some sense."

Zhou Yi asked doubtfully, "But locked in Heavenly Prison, you cannot even speak out to refute them. How can you fight them?"

Yu Su nodded slightly. "A little reputation is not worth fighting over. A person's life is short. One need only seize a few critical points to determine victory or defeat."

"How do you seize those critical points?"

"Wait!"

"Wait?"

"One who wishes to accomplish great things must wait quietly for heaven's timing!"

Another year passed in the blink of an eye.

Zhou Yi's standing in Heavenly Prison had become nearly what it once was, and some prison guards had begun calling him "Master Zhou" again.

He relied on more than interrogation methods. At the right moments, he revealed his martial cultivation. A bone-forging expert in his twenties would certainly advance to organ-refining in the future.

In the end, it was still force that won people over!

Prisoners came in wave after wave, but Yu Su alone ate and drank well, even putting on more than ten jin.

The court and Emperor Jinglong seemed to have forgotten him. They neither sentenced him according to the law nor released him from Heavenly Prison.

Zhou Yi could not help asking, "Old Yu, can we still wait for heaven's timing?"

"Timing cannot be forced to arrive, and matters cannot be forced to succeed."

Yu Su said calmly, "Before the opportunity arrives, do not act rashly. You would only waste your strength and torment yourself. Some things cannot be rushed. Human effort can scarcely contend against fate, but one may wait until heaven and earth both lend their strength!"

Zhou Yi frowned slightly at those words.

His return to Heavenly Prison as a guard had not been solely for safety and familiarity; he had other plans as well.

He had originally waited two years without finding a suitable opportunity and had begun considering whether to create one himself. Yu Su's words gave him some insight.

Those who laid out great schemes were skilled at quietly waiting for heaven's timing. With fortune's assistance, all things became possible!

And idle pieces on the board were the hardest to break; unintentional acts were the hardest to detect.

Seeing him deep in thought, Yu Su assumed Zhou Yi did not understand and said smugly, "This principle is far too profound. By the time you're sixty, boy, you'll more or less understand it!"

"What if I still don't understand by then?"

Zhou Yi was fifty-eight this year. The year after next, he would reach sixty.

Yu Su curled his lip. "Then you're simply too stupid, boy."

This fellow had not planted a flag after all!

Zhou Yi failed to secretly win back a round and asked curiously, "Old Yu, I've always wondered—why did they accuse you of being unfilial?"

"This matter truly was not a false accusation..."

Yu Su recalled, "When I had just come of age, I met an old daoist who cast a divination and said my clansmen would bring me great harm. At the time, I was obsessed with abstruse Daoist learning and had a fierce temperament, so I directly divided the household from my clan and even relocated my father's and grandfather's graves."

To cut oneself off from one's clan—put severely, it was defiance and unfilial conduct, an extremely grave crime in that era.

Zhou Yi laughed at him. "Old Yu, you were actually fooled by a Daoist, yet you still have the nerve to boast about how clever you were in your youth."

"What the old Daoist said was not entirely wrong. My courtesy name, Shouzhuo, came from him."

Yu Su said, "Guard simplicity and embrace the uncarved block; be cautious in speech and diligent in action. The old Daoist said I would one day suffer disaster because of my tongue, so I must always remember to speak less."

"That old daoist seemed literate. Why would he advise you to split from your clan and move your ancestors' graves?"

"Perhaps he calculated wrong!"

The fourteenth year of Jinglong.

The Brocade Guard grew ever more rampant, and its commander Feng Zhong was faintly known as the "Inner Chancellor."

Imperial Bodyguard scouts and agents watched over the realm. Many were convicted for their words; in light cases, they were sent to Heavenly Prison to reflect, while in grave cases, they took a trip through the Imperial Prison.

The common people communicated only with their eyes on the roads, and no one dared discuss affairs of state.

Emperor Jinglong remained benevolent and compassionate. The hundred officials called him a sage ruler, and under his policy of inaction, all under heaven was greatly governed.

The current Chief Minister of the Grand Secretariat was surnamed Du, not Zhang, yet he was Chancellor Zhang's direct disciple. More than half the ministers of the Six Departments had ties to the Zhang Family, and after court they would go together to the Zhang residence to discuss state affairs.

The Zhang Family's power faintly surpassed even that of Chancellor Long in his day. Strangely, Shenjing remained calm and peaceful, as though no one had noticed.

Zhou Yi was puzzled and asked Yu Su about it.

"There is an expert advising the Zhang Family from behind the scenes!"

Yu Su explained, "The Zhang Family will not rebel now, nor will they rebel in the future. Instead, they will hollow out His Majesty's authority within and beyond the court, then support the Crown Prince's ascension. Precisely because they will not rebel, they can win the support of the hundred officials and meritorious nobles. Even the imperial clan will not object."

"After the Crown Prince ascends the throne, the Zhang Family can gradually return its power and smoothly pass through the calamity of family extermination!"

Yu Su sighed in admiration. "Such a method of lifting heavy weights as though they were light could only come from Lord Wenzhong. I will never be capable of it in this lifetime."

Zhou Yi mocked, "No matter how brilliant Zhang Wenzhong's methods are, he is still a great corrupt official and a traitor who sells out his country!"

"That is why I do not learn from him!"

Yu Su normally held Chancellor Zhang in great contempt as well. "Lord Wenzhong's arrangements are excellent, yet once power is in hand, who would be willing to return it? After all, Duke Who Pacifies the Nation has already set the precedent."

Li Wu voluntarily surrendered his military authority and even took poison to kill himself in prison, only to receive the disaster of family extermination in return.

The Zhao imperial clan's credibility had already been utterly ruined!

Even if the Crown Prince shared blood ties with the Zhang Family, once he sat in that position, the words "familial affection" would no longer exist in his heart.

Zhou Yi asked doubtfully, "Old Yu, you see all this so clearly. Why do you still oppose the Zhang Family?"

Yu Su shook his head and let out a sigh.

"In Emperor Zhongzong's later years, he deliberately indulged them. Official conduct and military preparedness have decayed to the point where they must change. If things continue rotting like this, I fear a great disaster will arise!"

This chapter was added at the last minute. Writing it made my head feel like it was exploding. Consider it an explanation for some of the readers' doubts.

--Flicking my sleeves, I depart, quietly waiting for heaven's timing.

This absolutely is not talking back. It is simply some reflections from the life of a professional contrarian—perhaps right, perhaps wrong. Everyone, just listen, read, and have a laugh.

When reading novels, it is all for a bit of fun!

May the fathers and elders of this land tolerate me, and not make me earn sinful money in this world.

This little contrarian author salutes those who provide my food and clothing. My esteemed readers, you have spent too much.