The saying "In the jianghu, one is not in control of their fate" might be used as self-mockery by outsiders, but only those truly in the jianghu understand its helplessness.
Que Long, having risen from obscurity to his current position, naturally understood the meaning behind it. Ban Lian, who had served Immortal Lady Wen for half her life, understood even better. She smiled bitterly, "The Dragon-Breaking Sect has expanded too quickly in recent years, which already made her unable to tolerate it. This incident has given her the perfect reason to take action."
Que Long turned to look at her, "It's not your fault."
"You and I know best whether it is or not," Ban Lian lowered her head and held his hand, "But as long as I can be alive and with you, I don't care what others say about me."
Que Long gripped her hand tightly in return. He had always been a man of few words, but every word counted. If he said it wasn't her fault, then it wasn't.
"It's not that scary. Immortal Lady Wen probably only has her Falling Flower Valley people to use right now," Zhu Changle said, meeting their confused looks with an innocent smile. "The people from the other three sects have all had their legs broken, you know."
Neither of them needed to guess who she was referring to; it could only be the person before them. Que Long once again cupped his hands in gratitude to her. Without those three sects to act as Immortal Lady Wen's muscle, it wouldn't be so easy for her to swallow up the Dragon-Breaking Sect. Immortal Lady Wen would surely take this into account.
"But this will only buy some time. The problem still remains, unless you go and submit to her," Zhu Changle very thoughtfully tried to come up with ideas for them. "How about going to kowtow and admit your mistakes? Or incorporate the Dragon-Breaking Sect into Falling Flower Valley? Or maybe..."
"Will you shut up?" Dingding gave the person spouting bad ideas a whack with his 'dog-beating stick'. "It's one thing for Ban Lian to go back and kowtow, but can Que Long kneel to her? If we're being honest, the Dragon-Breaking Sect isn't weaker than Falling Flower Valley, right? Even if he agreed, would the brothers under him agree?"
"I'm just offering suggestions, not telling them what to do," Zhu Changle kicked him back, and the two exchanged a glance before continuing their nonsensical conversation. "Unless you have a better idea?"
Qiuli glanced between the two and lowered his head with a smile. If there was any possibility of Que Long being swayed by Ban Lian's pillow talk before, it was gone now. Ban Lian would surely not want him to sacrifice his dignity for her sake, and Que Long wouldn't make the rash decision to gamble away the Dragon-Breaking Sect.
With such tacit understanding between these two, what mischievous plan were they cooking up now?
"I don't have any ideas, but that's still better than your nonsense suggestions," Dingding retorted.
"How are they nonsense? I'm about to come up with a good idea," Zhu Changle defended herself.
"Like what?"
Zhu Changle stroked her chin thoughtfully, "Temporarily avoid the sharp edge?"
"Hide from Immortal Lady Wen? How? Such a large sect with so many people, where could they hide?" Dingding scoffed, "Zhu Changle, how did you become so stupid right under my nose?"
"Who said anything about hiding? My idea is called... 'preserving the green hills, fearing not the lack of firewood'," Zhu Changle actually did have an idea forming, but she hadn't thought it through yet. She needed to borrow someone's brain to use.
"Sect Leader Que, trust me, my idea is definitely good. But I need to consult an expert first, just wait a bit." Throwing out these words, Zhu Changle ran towards the carriage. She had originally thought she was just saying goodbye, as the Zhu family members hadn't gotten out of the carriage.
As she got closer, she heard a baby's small cry. Zhu Changle called out, "Second brother, second sister-in-law, bring the baby out for some fresh air. We're going to rest here for a while."
Without waiting for their response, Zhu Changle jumped onto her eldest brother's carriage. "Big brother, is Yunbei County big?"
Zhu Changwang had been listening to their conversation earlier. If he hadn't known what she was up to before, he immediately understood after hearing this question. He quickly ran through the situation there in his mind, considering the feasibility of this possibility, while answering her, "It's big, and it can be even bigger. It's by the sea, but it's also very poor. Extremely poor. After the pirates plunder, the rovers come to rob. The people there can barely survive."
Zhu Changle's eyes widened, "Big brother, how did you manage to pick such a place with such keen insight?"
"None of these issues are problems for me," Zhu Changwang smiled, extremely confident. "As long as I can open up the waterways, I can revitalize that place, allow the people there to survive."
"What about the pirates and rovers? Oh, right, you have me!" After answering her own question, Zhu Changle thought of another issue, "Isn't there any defensive fortification or anything like that? Master and I have been to the border, and Dingding and I have also secretly been to important border towns. They all have defensive walls and such."
Zhu Changwang patiently explained to her, "That place used to have defensive fortifications, with all the corresponding configurations. But it's different from the border. The border needs to prevent foreign invasion, so even if there's embezzlement, they will still provide the necessary support. But Yunbei has no foreign enemies, and the local area is poor. Those pirates and rovers, although they come every year, are very skillful in controlling the extent of their actions. They get what they want, but those things are not worth a major conflict. Add to that the fact that every official who goes there strips away another layer, year after year, until the foundation of the place has been completely stripped bare. Later on, officials found all sorts of excuses not to take up the post, and it became even more neglected. The so-called defensive fortifications now probably don't even count as decorations."
"So no one cares if the people there live or die?"
"Abandonment is what we are best at."
Zhu Changle leaned on her brother's shoulder, "Not big brother, not father either. You guys would make choices too, but you wouldn't let people who should be alive die, or let people who should have full stomachs go hungry."
Zhu Changwang patted her head and smiled, changing the subject, "What mischief are you planning?"
"How is it mischief? I'm clearly helping others solve their problems. I'm a good child," Zhu Changle stretched lazily. "For the other questions, I need to ask someone else. Big brother, give me some paper and a brush."
Zhu Changwang promptly gave her what she asked for. He watched as his little sister jumped down from the carriage and bounced over to Qiuli, saying something to him. Qiuli suddenly looked over and met his gaze. He smiled and nodded, then lowered the carriage curtain.
This person... he couldn't quite figure him out.
Over there, Zhu Changle was still chattering away, "Are you familiar with Yunbei County? That's where we're going."
Qiuli made a small gesture with his little finger.
"I believe that what you call a little bit is definitely enough for me," Zhu Changle put the paper in his hand and pulled him to sit down, saying, "My big brother says it's very big and very poor, but he can solve the poverty problem, so we can cross that off. Are there any other sects surviving in a place that's not poor and very big?"
Qiuli shook his head, then wrote on the paper, 'Too poor, can't survive.'
Zhu Changle clapped her hands together, "So, you're saying that in a place with a large territory, where poverty can be solved, there are no sects controlling it?"
Qiuli followed her train of thought and nodded to indicate that was correct.
Zhu Changle looked at Que Long with sparkling eyes, "Sect Leader Que, hearing all this, don't you have any thoughts?"
Que Long neither nodded nor shook his head. This idea seemed a bit too far-fetched.
"I'm really just throwing out an idea, you can just listen casually and think about it casually," Zhu Changle crossed her legs, resting her chin on her hand as she continued, "As long as Immortal Lady Wen is in Wanzhong, your Dragon-Breaking Sect will be suppressed by her. Forget about expanding your territory, suppressing the Dragon-Breaking Sect is absolute. By dealing with you, she's also warning those three sects, and then she can divide your territory among them. Wow, how many birds with one stone is that? I can't even count!"
