But in just ten days, Su Jian's life underwent a series of earth-shaking changes.

His father was thrown into prison for corruption and will be executed soon. The Su family was also raided, and now they can only live in their mother's family home. Their mother is seriously ill, and their grandparents passed away one after another due to this blow. The whole Su family is in turmoil and in danger.

Overnight, Su Jian went from being a high-ranking young master to the son of a traitor who was hated by everyone.

For the first time, Su Jian experienced the feeling of having no one to turn to.

He firmly believed that his father was innocent and that his father would never do such a thing! He went to visit his father's old friends, hoping to ask them to help him clear his name, but he was rejected countless times:

"I'm sorry, my master is not here."

"Master Su, please go back."

"Our master is out."

Su Jian spent three days knocking on the doors of every household he could think of, but each time he received a cold rejection.

For the first time, he understood the fickleness of human nature and the coldness of people's hearts.

Just when he was filled with despair, his brain, which had long been a mess due to the series of blows, suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and he thought of the boy who had told his fortune in the antique street before.

When the boy said that he would be broken off in ten days, he scoffed at it. But now thinking about it, it seems not impossible?

He ran quickly towards the antique street like a drowning man grabbing at the last straw.

Fate disappointed him once again.

The boy disappeared from the Antique Street. He asked many people, and they all said that the boy had left the Antique Street two days ago and his whereabouts were unknown.

Su Jian walked home in a daze, and the whispers of passers-by on the street drifted around his ears: "Isn't this Mr. Su? Why is he so embarrassed?"

"Oh, you don't know? He is no longer a young master. Magistrate Su is a corrupt official who will be beheaded by the emperor soon. The Su family is finished!"

"Hahaha, he used to look down on others because he was a young master. Now he's getting his comeuppance, right? Let's see how arrogant he will be in the future!"

"I heard that Magistrate Su embezzled several million taels of silver!"

"Oh, so many! This corrupt official should be torn into pieces by five horses and executed by slow slicing!"

Su Jian's face became paler and paler. He wanted to tell these people that his father was a good official. There must be some misunderstanding! He wanted to explain, but he didn't know where to start, and he didn't know what the point of saying this was now.

He returned home depressed.

He walked home in a daze, and then received another bad news.

The fiancée's family sent someone to cancel the engagement.

At first he just laughed at the boy's words, thinking it was just a child's nonsense and could not be taken seriously. But he did not expect that his words would come true.

Su Jian was quite self-aware. He knew that without the Su family, he would be a young master who had accomplished nothing, and it was expected that his fiancée's family would cancel the engagement.

What made him angry was that his uncle had been friends with his father for decades, but when his father got into trouble, he didn't even want to see him. He just asked his servants to pass him a letter of breaking off the engagement and a silver note of five hundred taels.

Looking at the servant's face full of gloating, at that moment, he really had the urge to laugh out loud.

"Uncle, you underestimated me. I don't even care about a mere five hundred taels of silver!" He threw the letter and the banknote back and laughed, "Go back and tell uncle to rest assured that even if I, Su Jian, am down and out, I still have some nerves. From now on, he will go his way and I will go mine. Our two families will break off completely!"

The servant complained, "Your family is ruined, and you are still acting like a spoiled brat. Who do you think you are? Why don't you take a piss and look at yourself?"

Su Jian laughed out loud, tears streaming down his face: "Yeah, who am I..."

He lived for sixteen years before realizing that the past was all an illusion. In the end, without his father, he was nothing.

Su Jian laughed so hard that he couldn't breathe, and his tears were almost dried up.

Suddenly, there was a heart-wrenching cough from the inner bedroom. Su Jian was startled and quickly wiped his tears. He pushed open the door and saw his mother's face flushed and she was coughing desperately, as if she was going to cough out all her internal organs.

Su Jian's heart tightened, and he quickly ran over to help his mother up, carefully patting her back: "Mom, are you okay?" When his hand touched her back, it was burning hot. Su Jian was startled and quickly reached out to touch his mother's forehead, which was also incredibly hot.

"Mom, you have a fever! I'll go find a doctor!"

Mother Su barely stopped coughing and said in a hoarse voice, "No, no, I'll just lie down for a while, don't spend money..."

Su Jian's breathing stagnated and he stopped walking.

All the family property was confiscated. If their uncle's family had not lent them a house, they would have had to live on the streets. In the past few days, their grandparents also passed away one after another, and the money for the coffins was raised by selling their mother's jewelry. Now the family really has no spare money.

Just now... because of his so-called self-esteem, he threw the five hundred taels of silver back...

He gritted his teeth, turned around and gave Mother Su a reassuring smile, "Mom, don't worry, we still have money, five hundred taels, I'll get a doctor for you right away!"

Su Jian didn't get the money after all.

Although he caught up with the servant who delivered the money, the servant said that he had just given the money to Su Jian, and Su Jian was trying to extort money again. Later, the servant was annoyed by Su Jian's pestering and beat him up severely.

Su Jian had been spoiled since childhood, so he was no match for the strong and burly man. He was beaten black and blue and lay on the ground, unable to get up.

The servant spat a mouthful of thick phlegm on him, "Bah, you are nothing but a piece of shit, you are looking for trouble with me, who do you think you are?"

Su Jian was lying on the ground, feeling the ridicule coming from all directions. He felt dizzy and for a moment he even felt that he had lost the courage to get up.

He had never been so embarrassed in his life.

Someone squatted down beside him and asked softly, "Are you okay?"

Su Jian blinked slowly, his eyeballs moved slowly, and after a few seconds he finally regained his focus and saw the person clearly.

The thin cheeks and the pair of shining eyes were particularly eye-catching. He closed his eyes and said tiredly, "It's you." How strange. He had wanted to find him before, but now that the boy appeared in front of him, he didn't want to see him anymore.

He covered his face and curled up slightly.

"It's me." The boy asked, "Can you still get up?"

Su Jian was silent for a moment, put down his hand covering his face, endured the pain all over his body, and slowly got up from the ground. He replied softly: "I have to get up, my mother is sick."

He stumbled forward.

The boy's clear and calm voice sounded from behind him: "Do you know why your father was imprisoned?"

Su Jian's steps froze. He turned around abruptly and looked at Le Jing with eyes that were red and almost bleeding. He threw himself in front of the boy, grabbed the boy's arms tightly, and roared, "Why? What do you know? Tell me now!"

The boy winked at him, "Are you sure you want to say this here?"

Su Jian slowly regained his senses and realized that this was a busy street and there were already many people around them watching the fun.

He wiped his face and said in a hoarse voice, "Let's talk at my house."

…

Almost as soon as the door was closed, Su Jian couldn't wait to ask: "What do you know, tell me!"

Le Jing looked at the pale and disheveled young man in front of him. There was a desperate and ruthless fire burning in his eyes. He was a lone wolf with nowhere else to go.

Le Jing's gaze once again swept across the jade pendant on the boy's waist.

He did not deny that he had a deep interest in Su Jian.

So after Su's father was imprisoned, he used some tricks to convince the jailer and went to the prison to take a look at him from a distance.

With just that one glance, he determined some very important things and gained some inspiration for his own future goals.

"Your father was indeed imprisoned for corruption. The evidence is irrefutable."

"What?" Su Jian was shocked and angry, and fiercely retorted: "My father would never embezzle! He is a good man and a good official! Although my family has some money, it is all the dowry my mother brought as a dowry! Although my family is rich, we are not super rich! How can we have millions of taels of silver! This time, all our family's belongings added up to only 400,000 or 500,000 taels of silver!"

The boy's mouth curled up, and his smile was inexplicably mysterious: "Yes, so who got the millions of taels of silver your father embezzled?"

Something seemed to flash through Su Jian's mind, but he didn't catch it. He frowned and said, "I've already said that my father is not greedy... Even if he is greedy, he is not greedy that much!"

The boy shook his head, his eyes showing an obscure emotion. He nodded at him and said, "Fool, your father didn't collect the money for himself, but to give it to others!"

Su Jian was not a fool, and he immediately reacted, "You mean my father gave the money to Shangguan as a tribute? Shangguan forced my father to embezzle it?"

Le Jing smiled, "A poet once wrote a poem like this: Raise chickens and let them eat, and cook them when they are fat. The master's plan is good, but the chickens should not know it."

The boy raised his eyes, and they suddenly became sharp and intimidating, and his smile became more sarcastic for no reason. "Tell me, who is the owner of this fat chicken that killed your father?"

Su Jian was confused at first, then he slowly opened his eyes, his pupils shrank into a dot, his face was as white as paper, and he silently made the shape of his mouth, as if he was afraid of disturbing someone, "... Your Majesty?"

Le Jing nodded approvingly, he was not too stupid.

"No! This is impossible! The emperor... he is so wise and powerful, he can't do such a thing!"

The boy's eyes were penetrating, and his voice was particularly rational and sober: "Why can't he do this? This way, he can get money without having to bear the blame. When the time is right, he can chop off the heads of a group of corrupt officials. Not only can he use their wealth to fill his private and national coffers, but he can also appease the people's grievances and gain their loyalty. This is a good idea that kills many birds with one stone. Why not do it?"

Su Jian's mind was blank. He seemed to be thinking about many things at once, but also thinking about nothing. His whole body was stiff and cold, as if he was soaked in ice water.

The fall of a dynasty must be caused by the interaction of internal and external factors. Foreign invasion is the direct cause, but not the root cause.

Le Jing has now touched upon the root cause.

Realizing that Su Jian might not be able to digest this for a while, Le Jing said directly: "Think about it carefully, I'm leaving first."

The boy turned around and squinted at him. "If you want to learn the art of dragon slaying, you can come to Tongfu Inn to find me. I will only wait for you for two days at most."

The author has something to say:

Yuan Mei, "Chicken" (Qing Dynasty): Raise chickens and let them eat, cook them when they are fat. The master's plan is good, but the chickens should not know.

The Cao family, where Cao Xueqin lived, is the chicken.

And I was just kidding about Tongfu Inn, hahahaha, when it comes to inns, it should be Tongfu Inn 23333