Zhenyuan three hundred and twelve years, winter.
The peace of the Central Plains has been maintained for 312 years. It has a price: 3,000 living people every year, divided among nine towns, drawn by lot, registered, and publicly notarized. Each of the nine guardians pressed a seal, and once they pressed it, there would be a mark on their body that could not be washed away.
Shen Yan was pressed for six years.
In the twelfth lunar month of this year, after one more person was added to the list, he calculated the matter from scratch for the first time. He calculated very slowly and accurately. After doing the math, he understood one thing:
All accounts in this world are fair.
Only people are not.
