In the Jingzhao Prefecture prison of the Great Feng Dynasty,
Ye Tian slowly woke up, smelling the damp, rotten odor in the air that caused a slight discomfort and a churning in his stomach.
What's with this overwhelming stench? Did the husky at home poop on the bed again... Judging by how bad it is, he probably did it right on my head...
Ye Tian had a dog at home, a husky, or "er-ha" as they're commonly called. After ten years of living alone in Beijing, a man gets lonely and a dog is a good way to find some companionship and diversion... not in a physical way.
He opened his eyes and looked around, and his mind went blank.
Walls built of stone blocks, three square windows the size of a bowl, and he lay on a cold, tattered straw mat. Sunlight streamed through the windows, casting a beam of light on his chest where motes of dust danced.
Where am I?
Ye Tian fell into a daze of existential confusion, and then he truly began to question his life.
I've time-traveled...
A torrent of memories surged in, giving him no time to react, forcefully inserting themselves into his brain and flowing rapidly.
Ye Tian, courtesy name Ning'an, a constable working for the Chang'an County yamen under the Jingzhao Prefecture of the Great Feng Dynasty. His monthly salary was two taels of silver and a picul of rice.
His father was an old soldier who died in the 'Mountain and Sea War' nineteen years ago. His mother passed away from illness soon after... Thinking of this, Ye Tian felt a little comforted.
As everyone knows, people who have lost both parents are never simple.
"I didn't expect to have a second chance at life, only to be stuck with the fate of being a cop?" Ye Tian felt a pang of annoyance. In his past life, he graduated from the police academy and successfully entered the system, securing a "golden rice bowl" job.
However, although Ye Tian followed the path his parents had chosen for him, his heart wasn't in the profession of a "people's servant."
He loved to be unrestrained and free, to live a life of decadence, and he loved a line from Ji Xianlin's diary:—
So he resolutely resigned and went into business.
"But why am I in prison?"
He struggled to digest the memories and quickly understood his current predicament.
Ye Tian was raised by his second uncle from a young age. Because he practiced martial arts year-round, he ate up more than a hundred taels of silver each year, which made his aunt dislike him.
After reaching the peak of essence refinement at age 18, his progress stalled. Due to his aunt's pressure, he moved out of the Ye manor to live alone.
Through his uncle's connections, he got a constable job at the yamen. His life was decent until...
Three days ago, his seventh-rank green-robed second uncle, Ye Hongtu, who served in the Imperial Blade Guard, was escorting a batch of tax silver to the Ministry of Revenue when an accident occurred and the silver was lost.
A total of one hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver.
The court was in an uproar. The Emperor was furious and personally ordered Ye Hongtu to be beheaded five days later. The punishment would extend to his three generations of relatives: the men would be exiled to the frontier, and the women would be sent to the Jiaofang Division (a government-run brothel).
As Ye Hongtu's biological nephew, he was stripped of his constable position and thrown into the Jingzhao Prefecture prison.
Two days!
In just two more days, he would be exiled to the desolate and bitter frontier to spend the rest of his life in servitude.
"A hell-mode start..." Ye Tian's back went cold, and his heart sank halfway.
This world was under a feudal dynasty's rule, where there were no human rights. What was the frontier like?
Desolate and with a harsh climate, most prisoners exiled to the border didn't live for more than ten years. And more people died on the way from various accidents and diseases before even reaching the frontier.
Thinking of this, Ye Tian's scalp tingled, and a shiver ran down his spine.
"System?"
After a moment of silence, Ye Tian's tentative voice echoed in the quiet prison cell.
The system ignored him.
"System... System daddy, come out." Ye Tian's voice was urgent.
Silence.
No system, there was actually no system!
This meant he had almost no way to change his situation. In two days, he would be shackled and sent to the frontier. With his physique, he probably wouldn't die on the way.
But this was no good thing. To be a human tool, to have his labor exploited until he finally died...
It was too terrifying, too terrifying!
Ye Tian's beautiful fantasy about time-traveling to ancient times shattered like a bubble, replaced by nothing but anxiety and fear.
"I must find a way to save myself. I can't just die like this."
Ye Tian paced back and forth in the narrow cell, like an ant on a hot pan or a beast caught in a trap, desperately thinking of a solution.
I'm at the peak of essence refinement; my physical fitness is incredibly strong... but in this world, I'm just a "silver rank." Escaping is impossible...
Rely on clan or friends?
The Ye family wasn't a large clan, and its members were scattered everywhere. And with a full one hundred and fifty thousand taels of tax silver stolen, who would dare to intercede at a time like this?
According to the laws of the Great Feng Dynasty, if a person atones for their crime with a meritorious deed, they can be spared the death penalty!
Unless the silver is recovered...
Ye Tian's eyes suddenly lit up, like a drowning man grasping a lifeline.
He was a bonafide police academy graduate, with rich theoretical knowledge, a clear logical mind, strong deduction skills, and he had read countless case files.
Perhaps he could try to solve the case, recover the silver, and atone for his crimes.
But then, the light in his eyes dimmed.
To solve the case, he first needed to see the case file and understand the details. Only then could he investigate and solve the case.
But now he was deep in a jail cell, with no one to call for help, and he would be sent to the frontier in two days!
It was unsolvable!
Ye Tian plopped down on the ground, his eyes lost in thought.
He got terribly drunk at a bar yesterday and woke up in prison. He probably died of alcohol poisoning and then time-traveled.
Did the heavens grant him the chance to travel through time, not to let him live again, but because they thought his death was too easy?
In ancient times, exile was a heavy punishment, second only to the death penalty.
In his previous life, although he was beaten down by society, at least he lived in a peaceful era. He thought, how great it would have been to be reborn! He'd take his parents' savings without a second thought and buy a house. Then, he'd work with his mom to break his dad's hands, so he couldn't play the stock market and become a "leek" (a term for an investor who loses money).
At that moment, the sound of chains clattering came from the end of the gloomy corridor. A door must have opened.
Then came the sound of footsteps.
A jailer led a handsome, haggard scholar to Ye Tian's cell door and stopped.
The jailer glanced at the scholar: "Half an incense stick's time."
The scholar bowed to the jailer and watched him leave, then turned to face Ye Tian.
The scholar wore a pale moon-white robe, and his dark hair was tied up with a jade hairpin. He was very handsome with sharp, sword-like eyebrows and thin lips.
Memories of this person appeared in Ye Tian's mind.
The second son of the Ye family, Ye Cijiu.
His second uncle's biological son, Ye Tian's younger cousin. He passed the imperial exams this autumn.
Ye Cijiu looked at him calmly: "The soldiers escorting you to the frontier accepted my three hundred taels. This is all the silver our family has left. You can rest assured; there will be no accidents on the way."
"What about you?" Ye Tian asked on an impulse. He remembered that the original owner didn't have a good relationship with this cousin.
Because of his aunt's dislike for him, no one in the Ye family besides his second uncle treated Ye Tian particularly well. At least his cousin and younger sister didn't act too close to him.
Besides, in the original owner's memories, this cousin was a "mouth cannon king" who was good at "spraying fragrant words."
Ye Cijiu said impatiently: "My scholarly rank has been stripped, but with my academy teachers protecting me, I don't need to be exiled. Just worry about yourself. When you get to the frontier, curb your temper and try to live one year at a time."
Ye Cijiu was studying at the famous White Deer Academy in the capital, where he was highly regarded and was a newly-promoted juren. Therefore, after his second uncle's incident, he was not thrown into jail, but he was not allowed to leave the capital and had been running around trying to help for days.
Ye Tian fell silent. He didn't think Ye Cijiu's fate would be better than his own. He would probably not only have his scholarly rank stripped but also be demoted to a low-caste status, where his descendants would never be able to take the imperial examinations or rise up.
Moreover, in two days, the women of the Ye family would be sent to the Jiaofang Division to be humiliated.
Ye Cijiu was a scholar. How could he have the face to continue living in the capital? Perhaps being exiled to the frontier would be a better choice.
A thought flashed in Ye Tian's mind. He lunged forward a few steps, his hands gripping the iron bars: "You want to commit suicide?!"
Uncontrollably, a wave of sadness welled up... I don't even know him.
Ye Cijiu expressionlessly flicked his sleeve: "What does that have to do with you?"
He paused, his eyes shifting down a few inches, not meeting his cousin's gaze, and his expression softened: "Live."
With that, he turned and walked away resolutely!
"Wait!" Ye Tian stretched his hand out of the bars and grabbed his sleeve.
Ye Cijiu stopped and looked at him in silence.
"Can you get me the case file? The case file for the lost tax silver."