Every year, large sums of copper coins were earned by Aunt May and then spent like flowing water through Henry Carter's hands. Henry Carter and Andrew Carter were truly thriving in Chang'an city. The only flaw was that he had never had the chance to enter officialdom. When Aunt May managed the family business, she used the connections left by her father to arrange many easy jobs for him. But he always slacked off and lost them all. Now that he was managing the household himself, he was even less motivated, with no intention of pursuing an official career. This left Aunt May chasing after him every day, nagging that she had failed to fulfill Henry Carter's father's wishes and felt ashamed before the ancestors of the Wang family.

Today, Henry Carter came home earlier than usual, and Aunt May, finally seizing an opportunity, was not about to let it slip by. She found a random excuse and eagerly came over to have dinner with Henry Carter. She had barely swallowed a few grains of rice before her mouth opened and never stopped. She started with how Henry Carter's father, Master Zizhi, had high hopes for his son when he was alive, and went on to how Henry Carter's great-grandfather, Master Xiangru, had struggled to build the family fortune. Fortunately, Henry Carter's great-grandfather Olivia Carter and Richard Carter came from extremely humble origins, and their lineage could only be traced back to his biological father, the hard-laboring porter Samuel Carter, and his grandfather, the farmer Jack Carter. Otherwise, this family history could have gone on until the middle of the night without end.

Henry Carter was already in a bad mood today. At first, he forced himself to listen to Aunt May's passionate recounting of the family history. Later, after finally reviewing the entire history of the Wang family, Aunt May still wouldn't let him go. She changed the topic and started talking about the eldest son of the Niu family next door, who had passed the imperial exam and was now a young and successful regional governor. At this, Henry Carter could no longer hold back. He yawned and said with a smile, "Is a government post really that easy to hold? I remember that Niu family's mansion used to belong to the Cheng family. Uncle Price was a great general, commanding a powerful army, but didn't the Empress just issue an imperial edict and have him beheaded? The Cheng family members were either imprisoned or fled, and such a large clan scattered overnight. If he had known it would end like this, why did he work so hard for the royal family back then?"

The Cheng and Wang families were once close friends. The first head of the Cheng family, Lord Victor, and the first head of the Wang family, Lord Richard, were sworn brothers, sharing both fortune and misfortune. But in the next generation, as one family prospered and the other became complacent, they drifted apart. In the end, the unambitious Wang family still lived in Chongren Ward, enjoying luxury, while Victor Price's family, because his son, General Robert Price, chose the wrong side, vanished without a trace during Empress Wu Zetian's reign.

This bloody fact, though somewhat distant in time, was something Aunt May could not deny. She hesitated, then forced a smile and argued, "Is it really that dangerous? The current Emperor is not like the Empress of those days; he has always been merciful. Since he ascended the throne, the country has been peaceful and prosperous..."

"That's because all those who needed to be killed have already been killed. If His Majesty were soft-hearted, he would have been chopped up by Princess Taiping long ago! Besides, even if the Emperor himself doesn't like killing, the current Secretary Lee is famous for being a three-eyed wasp. People say he has honey on his lips and a stinger in his belly. For those who offend him, dying quickly is the best outcome!"

Families living in Chongren Ward were well-informed. Aunt May often socialized with other women and inevitably heard stories about officialdom. Chancellor John Lee had monopolized power for over a decade, driving all his political enemies to despair. Because of his old age and poor eyesight, he had to hold up a crystal mirror to see things, earning him the nickname "three-eyed wasp." But the women only dared to use this nickname in private among close friends, never out loud, for fear that if it reached John Lee's ears, their own husbands would be ruined overnight!

"But, but you're only a viscount now. If you don't achieve some real merit, the next generation will only be a county baron. If the court suddenly investigates land holdings one day..."

"If the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up—when would it ever be my turn? Haven't you seen that even Old Lord Morgan, who once strongly advocated for land investigations, now owns over a thousand acres himself?" When he got serious, Henry Carter's tongue was far sharper than Aunt May's. He cited examples and left her speechless.

"Your father told me again and again to make sure I raised you into a capable man..." Unable to out-argue Henry Carter, Aunt May resorted to her trump card. Mentioning Henry Carter's father, who had passed away many years ago, she couldn't help but feel sad, her eyes reddening as a few tears fell.

Although she was not his biological mother, she had fulfilled a mother's role, raising him to adulthood. Henry Carter couldn't bear to see Aunt May upset, so he smiled and softened his tone, "Aren't I only seventeen this year? Even if I went out to work, who would really treat me as an adult? Besides, there are at least two or three thousand noble sons like me in the capital. Without real ability, how could I possibly stand out? If I wanted to join the military, I couldn't bear to leave home. But if I took the imperial exam, I'm not good at writing essays. So I can only take things one step at a time, and under your guidance, make the family business bigger first. Then I'll spend a lot of money to find a way into the Emperor's inner circle—even if it's just as a palace guard, hanging around under His Majesty's nose every day is still faster than climbing up from the bottom step by step!"