William Thompson felt like he was truly living out that saying: “When misfortune knocks, it’s your own mother opening the door—bad luck has come home.”

After finally managing to transmigrate, he ended up as Samuel Thompson’s grandson. Next year, Samuel Thompson’s entire family would be executed, and as the grandson, there was no way he’d escape the blade. This made him want to look up at the sky and roar, “You damned heavens, are you messing with me?”

“Cousin, what month is it now?” After a long while, William Thompson finally asked weakly. The facts couldn’t be changed, so now he could only hope the heavens would grant him more time to find a way to survive.

“It’s already the eleventh lunar month. In a few days, it’ll be the twelfth.” Edward Clark didn’t know why William Thompson was asking, but still answered truthfully.

Hearing this, William Thompson almost burst into tears. He remembered that Samuel Thompson’s family was executed in the fifth month of the twenty-third year of Hongwu. Now it was almost December, which meant, at most, he had half a year left.

“What’s wrong, cousin?” Noticing William Thompson’s odd expression, Edward Clark asked worriedly. He was really afraid William Thompson’s old illness would relapse—if he went mad again, it would be a big problem.

“I’m fine, cousin, just let me be for a bit!” William Thompson covered his face with both hands and rubbed hard, trying to calm himself down.

Edward Clark didn’t dare agitate William Thompson further, so he patiently sat to the side and waited.

At first, William Thompson’s mind was in complete chaos, unable to think calmly. But in the end, he forced himself to settle down and carefully analyzed the current situation, finally coming to a conclusion.

There were only two paths before William Thompson. The first was to accept his fate: with half a year left, eat all the good food, drink all the good wine, play all the fun games, and then, half a year later, the whole family would be marched to the execution ground, and with a single “chop,” their heads would roll. It was said that if the blade was sharp enough, you wouldn’t die instantly when your head was cut off—maybe he could experience that for himself.

As for the second path, it was for William Thompson to use his advantage as a transmigrator and, within these six months, defy fate and escape death at the hands of Zhu Yuanzhang, that skinning demon.

William Thompson carefully considered both options and ultimately felt that the first path seemed more appealing. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to live, but the second path was just too difficult.

According to the history books, Samuel Thompson was executed because of the Hu Weiyong case, but in reality, when Samuel Thompson was killed, the Hu Weiyong case had already been over for ten years.

Moreover, when the Hu Weiyong case broke out, Samuel Thompson’s younger brother Charles Thompson was Hu Weiyong’s in-law and even participated in the case. Yet, even so, Zhu Yuanzhang didn’t kill Charles Thompson, nor did he blame Samuel Thompson. It wasn’t until ten years later that Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly turned on him, accusing Samuel Thompson of participating in Hu Weiyong’s rebellion and ordering the extermination of the entire Li family. It just didn’t make sense.

In other words, the real reason Samuel Thompson was killed was actually due to some power struggles at court, and these struggles had already aroused Zhu Yuanzhang’s dissatisfaction, leading him to murderous intent. That was the main reason disaster befell Samuel Thompson.

As for the court’s power struggles, William Thompson had no way to intervene—not even as Samuel Thompson’s grandson. Besides, the opponent was Zhu Yuanzhang, a ruthless man who fought his way up from the very bottom of society to become emperor. Trying to change the mind of someone like that was harder than climbing to the sky.

Of course, surviving Zhu Yuanzhang wasn’t entirely hopeless. For example, in Samuel Thompson’s family, although the whole clan was executed, one of Samuel Thompson’s sons survived because he had married a princess. Zhu Yuanzhang, ruthless as he was, was still very kind to his own children. So if William Thompson wanted to survive, there was actually a ready-made path.

“Cousin, is it easy to marry a princess?” William Thompson finally looked up and asked Edward Clark seriously.

“Why are you asking that? Do you have your eye on a princess?” Edward Clark asked in confusion, unable to keep up with William Thompson’s train of thought.

“I do have some thoughts. After all, I’m the grandson of the prime minister. Isn’t it reasonable to marry a princess?” William Thompson probed.

“You don’t ‘marry’ a princess, you ‘become a consort’ to a princess. There’s no such thing as marrying a princess.” Edward Clark corrected him.

“Fine, is it easy to become a consort to a princess?” William Thompson went along, though the phrasing still sounded a bit off.

“Cousin, you’re overthinking it. His Majesty has quite a few princesses, but there are even more families wanting to become consorts. Your fifth uncle has already become a consort to a princess, so it’s basically impossible for the Li family to have a second one. Besides, you’re not even the eldest legitimate grandson, but a branch from a concubine…”

With Edward Clark’s explanation, William Thompson finally understood: his father, Richard Thompson, wasn’t Samuel Thompson’s legitimate son, but a son born to a concubine. In the Ming dynasty, sons born to concubines had low status in the family, so Richard Thompson was never favored by Samuel Thompson.

As for William Thompson wanting to marry a princess, that was even more out of the question. The gap in status was just too great. Not only him—even his father Richard Thompson wasn’t qualified. Only his legitimate fifth uncle was.

“No wonder I was so seriously ill, and my grandfather never came. He probably doesn’t even remember he has a grandson like me,” William Thompson muttered to himself after a moment’s thought.