Chapter 25: The Trouble Begins

The scene shifts, and the two arrive at a private room in a teahouse, sitting opposite each other.

Once seated, Xu Jue said impatiently, "Fifth Young Master, my master is truly at his wit's end this time. I beg you to maneuver as much as you can to save the life of my master's nephew."

"What happened to Feng Bangning?" Zhang Yunxiu asked.

Because Feng Bao had no sons, and his brother only had this one.

Therefore, Feng Bao treated this nephew as if he were his own son, even getting him the position of Vice Thousand-Household in the Embroidered Uniform Guard despite him being a hoodlum.

Hearing Zhang Yunxiu's question, Xu Jue dared not hide anything and began to recount the ins and outs of the matter: It is said that after the land survey was pushed forward across the country, all the nobles and powerful gentry began to wail incessantly.

Feng Bao had three thousand mu of fertile land in Wanping on the outskirts of the capital, which also needed to be resurveyed, and the trouble lay in this land.

Half a month ago, Wanping County Assistant Zhao Lin surveyed the Feng family's land.

Although it pained Feng Bao, out of consideration for Zhang Juzheng's face, he could only grit his teeth and agree. But that Feng Bangning was a man who would turn somersaults in a money pit.

Upon hearing this, he took some men and headed straight for the outskirts of Wanping County.

As soon as he arrived at the edge of the fields, he saw a middle-aged man wandering around his land with several Lictors.

Feng Bangning stepped forward in two strides, called Zhao Lin aside with a grin, and asked, "Do you know whose land this is?"

Zhao Lin did not change his expression and replied, "It belongs to Eunuch Feng Bao."

"Good that you know." Feng Bangning looked smug and added, "I won't make things difficult for you. I've already measured this land; it's one thousand five hundred mu in total. You can just go back and report that."

"That won't do." Zhao Lin took one look and saw the land was at least two thousand five hundred mu or more, so he firmly refused.

Feng Bangning smiled and ordered someone to bring over a small gift box.

Zhao Lin took it, opened it, and saw it was actually five silver notes.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"Five hundred taels," Feng Bangning pointed at the silver notes and laughed, "That's not a small amount. How much is your annual salary as a County Assistant? Why do something that harms others and doesn't benefit yourself? Who can your son, daughter, or wife support on that little salary of yours?"

Zhao Lin realized then that Feng Bangning was trying to bribe him. His eyes widened in anger, and he shouted, "Although my salary as Zhao Lin is low, it is all rightfully mine, and I spend it with peace of mind."

"I absolutely do not want your dirty money."

"Six hundred taels." The flesh on Feng Bangning's face twitched.

Zhao Lin slammed the silver notes onto Feng Bangning's face and cursed, "This official is loyal to the Emperor. You powerful nobles are already rich enough to drip oil, yet you still think about gouging the court's foundations—you are scum, and this official will never tolerate it!"

At this, Feng Bangning was completely enraged.

A tiny Eighth-Rank County Assistant had actually defied his wishes time and again.

A fire of anger surged up; he grabbed Zhao Lin by the collar, pointed at his own chest, and demanded, "Look, what am I wearing? A tiny Eighth-Rank official like you, a sesame-sized piece of trash, is also fit to talk to me like this?"

"Hmph, although my official rank is small, it was earned step by step through my own learning!" Zhao Lin tilted his neck and retorted, "I just don't know how many characters you can recognize, Thousand-Household Feng, and who you relied on?"

"Screw your mother."

Feng Bangning slapped him across the face.

Only a "crack" was heard, and five blood-red fingers appeared on Zhao Lin's oily cheek.

He was stunned, his eyes wide, and his lips trembled as he said, "You... you dare hit me?"

"I hit you, you blind soldier, just to let you know how many eyes the King of Hell has!"

After saying this, Feng Bangning raised his hand and slapped him again.

The Lictors on the side knew he had a powerful background, so how could they dare to step forward? They could only shrink their necks and stand to the side.

Poor Zhao Lin, though full of rage, was ultimately a scholar and could not struggle free. Before long, he was beaten until he bled.

But he didn't make a sound, staring dead at Feng Bangning. Seeing that this was a tough nut to crack and fearing that something might go wrong, Feng Bangning let go of Zhao Lin.

Without support, Zhao Lin fell to the ground. Feng Bangning spat on him and cursed, "Damn it, how unlucky. Forget it, consider it my bad luck to have stepped in a pile of dog shit."

After listening, Zhang Yunxiu's expression turned ugly.

This Feng Bangning had openly defied the court and beaten a court official; these were all grave crimes.

But while these crimes might mean death for others, for him, it would at most be exile.

He looked at Xu Jue with suspicion.

Xu Jue gave a sheepish smile, hung his head, and muttered, "I won't hide it from you, Young Master Zhang, that Zhao Lin is dead."

"What?!" Zhang Yunxiu felt as if he had been stung by a hornet; he stood up abruptly and demanded, "Feng Bangning beat the man to death?"

"No, no, he died by himself last night." Xu Jue waved his hands repeatedly.

Died by himself?

A perfectly healthy, living person could just die on their own? Only then did Zhang Yunxiu realize this matter was thorny.

That Zhao Lin was originally surveying land and dared to face the powerful directly to push forward his father's New Policy; if the troublemaker wasn't severely punished, it wouldn't be justifiable.

Furthermore, the man was now dead.

Resisting taxes and beating an official wouldn't necessarily lead to death.

But killing a court official, even if only Eighth-Rank, was a massive affair.

If Zhang Juzheng dared to show favoritism, not to mention the nobles not agreeing, even his own comrades in the trenches wouldn't agree.

And yet, the man was Feng Bao's nephew; Zhang Juzheng was now caught in a dilemma.

Seeing Zhang Yunxiu become silent, Xu Jue hurriedly continued, "Young Master Zhang, my master only has this one nephew. I beg you to help him; my master will surely reward you heavily Higo."

Zhang Yunxiu originally wanted to refuse, but thinking of how Feng Bao had helped him several times, he had to grit his teeth and offer a suggestion that wasn't really a suggestion: "One word: 'drag'!"

"Drag?"

"That's right." Zhang Yunxiu nodded and continued, "There was a full half-month between Zhao Lin being beaten and his sudden death. No one can prove if it was caused by the injuries from that beating."

"There is another point: as long as we drag it out long enough, once everyone forgets about this, Feng Bangning will be saved."

This has always been a tactic in lawsuits.

The Feng family is wealthy and powerful; they can afford to drag it out. How could the small, humble Zhao family afford to? In the end, spending a little more money to settle it hastily would count as an explanation.

Although this was shameless, Zhang Yunxiu had no other choice.

Emotion told him that Feng Bangning deserved to die.

But reason told him that now was not the time to fall out with Feng Bao, at least not yet.

As soon as Xu Jue heard this method, he slapped his thigh and laughed in approval, saying, "This method is great! Since our young master is still a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, this case doesn't need to be handed over to the Ministry of Justice; it can fall directly into the hands of the Fourth Young Master."

"The most important thing right now is to appease the widow of the Zhao family; spend more silver, and don't let them cause a scene," Zhang Yunxiu advised.

"I understand that; my master has already sent someone to deliver one thousand taels of silver over there," Xu Jue said, looking pleased with himself. "A young maiden is worth at most fifty taels of silver; one thousand taels is enough for her family to spend for a lifetime."

"No amount of silver can buy back a human life," Zhang Yunxiu said coldly.

Stung by this remark, Xu Jue could not keep his composure; he offered a word of "thanks" and strode away.

(End of this chapter)