For twenty years in the Ming court, Chief Councilor Shen Yanqing submitted seven memorials to abolish imperial estates, all of which were jointly suppressed by the young emperor and the powerful eunuch Wei. On this day, before all the court civil and military officials, he slammed his seal onto the golden bricks, a mud-stained rice seed slipped from his sleeve, and hanging up his seal and resigning from office, he took his wife Su Wantang to live in seclusion in Qingshi Village in Jiangnan, going barefoot into the fields to learn rice planting. Village bully Qian Mancang saw that this outsider couple was isolated and weak, forcibly bought their well-watered land for ten taels per mu, and sent handymen to break into the courtyard at night, only to have his wrist pierced by Su Wantang's loom shuttle. As Shen Yanqing clicked away on his abacus settling accounts in the front hall, Wei's secret agents had already sneaked into the village along the waterway. He had originally wanted to guard his wife and daughter and plant clean rice for a lifetime, but the trees desire tranquility yet the wind will not stop.