Dongyang, Xuanzhu County, the old residence of Jing Zhengwei.

Recently, the weather has been cooling down, so despite Qing Lan maintaining her habit of reading before bed, she mostly curls up under the blanket to read. There are many downsides to reading this way, such as being too close to the pages and putting strain on her neck, but the warmth outweighs all the drawbacks.

However, reading like this makes it easy to drift off to sleep, so Qing Lan chooses to read the books Jing Zhengwei previously bought. Except for a few passionate novels like "The Legend of the Fire God," the rest are the "Domination Helmet" series, "Time Stop" series, and "Invisible Man" series. You'll never fall asleep reading these because, aside from the exciting plots, every few pages you are guaranteed a real spat by a troll...

Originally, Qing Lan just wanted to understand more about the young master's preferences, but after looking at them critically, she found them quite useful and occasionally puts them to use.

"I'm so mad, I'm so mad!"

A fuming Mu Qingmei pushed the door open, slammed it shut, kicked off her slippers, took off her coat, and immediately crawled into bed, hugging Qing Lan. "Sister Qing Lan, you'll never guess what I saw!" she said through clenched teeth.

"Let me guess— the second-in-command is still with the Patriot Army, Wen Hong is attending to Wanghai Palace with the troops, and no one in the newspaper office would dare to provoke you, so it's Jing Zhengfeng causing trouble again?"

Qing Lan's deduction wasn't without merit. Currently, the second-in-command Yin Minghong was serving as Commander of the Patriot Army in Dongyang, reclaiming the entire territory of Dongyang—after White Night took over Xuanzhu County, they found they lacked management talent. Besides seeking help from other branches, other local meritorious figures were urgently promoted, and someone like Yin Minghong, who had once served as the lackey for the president of the Silver Blood Association, was considered one of the top talents among all members and was directly made the new army's Commander, once again becoming the second-in-command.

But this time, he was to be Dongyang's second-in-command.

Although it felt a bit like "When Shu lacks a general, Liao Hua becomes a vanguard," Yin Minghong proved himself after taking over the new army. In last month's campaign, he commanded the newly trained army and victoriously reclaimed several rebellious counties in Dongyang, showing he indeed possessed some leadership talent.

After all, reality isn't a game; nobody starts as a "Commander 90" general. As the saying goes, a prime minister must emerge from the provinces, and fierce generals must arise from among the soldiers.

The new army, called the 'Patriot Army', naturally retained its name because White Night didn't raise the rebel flag but instead, "acted on behalf of Wanghai Palace to command the disobedient," meaning they were nominally still the army of Huiguang.

White Night wasn't foolish. Unless the class contradictions were as severe as in Skyrim, where life and death were at stake, most civilians wouldn't want to become bandits. With the presence of Wanghai Palace and Huyan Siluo as a nominal authority, everyone found it easier to surrender—"Fellow countrymen, we are also the Emperor's army, open the door!"

With the mountains of the Silver Blood Association, the Governor's office, and the Heyang Army gone, Xuanzhu County was now in a state of revitalization, and the people had hope in their work. In this situation, only Jing Zhengfeng's old faction could still anger Mu Qingmei.

When Xuanzhu County was first recovered, due to a lack of manpower, White Night chose to cooperate with the Qinghong Gang, promising to make them the Patrol and Punishment Department, in exchange for the restoration of order in Xuanzhu County.

Afterwards, White Night naturally couldn't keep letting gang members control the Patrol and Punishment Department, but they didn't go back on their words either. They simply reformed the Patrol and Punishment Department: grievance movements, cultivation of active members, re-education… after several modifications, the Qinghong Gang turned into the Qinghong Study Group.

However, the Qinghong Gang's second-in-command and Patrol and Punishment Department captain Jing Zhengfeng seemed unwilling to accept this. He rallied a group of Xuanzhu elders to form the Xuanzhu Revival Society, aiming to gain more power. It could be said, the Revival Society is now the largest internal contradiction among the people.

But White Night's attitude towards the Revival Society was very intriguing, and according to the young master's previous descriptions, Jing Zhengfeng wasn't a power-obsessed fool—there were no fools in the Jing family. Qing Lan suspected that the Revival Society might be a scheme jointly orchestrated by Jing Zhengfeng and White Night.

"Hmph, Jing Zhengfeng is nowhere near his brothers; there's no way he'd be worth my anger!"

Mu Qingmei disdainfully said, "But he does live up to his surname—his ambitions are sickening."

As Mu Qingmei spoke, Qing Lan listened while reading. Just now, she had turned to a page filled with a troll spewing out feisty content, causing her cheeks to involuntarily flush—a sensation more thrilling than the book's description by openly reading such content in front of Mu Qingmei.

After all, Qing Lan was usually busy with work, and this was her only bit of fun. She had even written to the young master asking if her hobby was normal, to which the young master replied, "One's preferences are free," which only encouraged Qing Lan's unrestrained indulgence.

"What upset me was this!"

Mu Qingmei pulled out a newspaper and shoved it at Qing Lan. As Qing Lan fixed her gaze, she saw it was "The Qin Le Yin School - Mid-December Issue".

As one of the few Silver Blood businessmen to successfully flee Xuanzhu County, they naturally paid considerable attention to the Qin and Shi families. And with Qin Le Yin causing quite a stir in Yanjing, it was impossible for them not to notice.

Especially Qin Le Yin's proposal of the "Eight Wonders of Silver Blood," which became so popular in Dongyang that it sparked much debate.

Compared to the Yanjing students who only showed superficial interest, Dongyang people were more serious about the Eight Wonders of Silver Blood. Every week, the "Xuanzhu Daily" and the "Youth Daily" had extensive discussions on the Eight Wonders of Silver Blood, with refutations of Qin Le Yin's claims being commonplace—"Qin Le Yin knows nothing about the Eight Wonders of Silver Blood."

But the merchants' blood runs through the veins of almost every Dongyang individual, and some spotted a business opportunity, trading in knowledge by printing Qin Le Yin's classroom talks into newspapers for sale, named "The Qin Le Yin School," with every issue selling out quickly.

Most intriguingly, the merchants promoted with a slogan:

"The knowledge Qin Le Yin strenuously summarized, now doesn't require ninety-nine; it's only nine coins! We secretly pirate Qin Le Yin's knowledge; every purchase is equivalent to robbing Qin Le Yin once!"

Everyone thought it made a bit of sense; after all, the money wasn't going to Qin Le Yin, which essentially meant getting Qin Le Yin's knowledge for free. Rarer still was the chance to snatch money from capitalists, so everyone eagerly purchased, and now even storytellers discussed Qin Le Yin's lessons, creating a cross-regional teaching phenomenon.

Qing Lan also regularly read "The Qin Le Yin School," especially the previous issue's "Four of the Eight Wonders - Yin Minghong," which made her laugh out loud. Others might suspect if Yin Minghong was genuinely evil disguised as loyal, but since she always stood by the young master's side, she knew the second-in-command was an honest man completely led astray by the young master.

However, seeing this issue's title, Qing Lan couldn't help but feel a mix of surprise, amusement, and pride.

"Five of the Eight Wonders - Qing Lan."

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