Chapter 1022: The Timid All Died

Hu the Warden's a difficult man to deal with — that's an acknowledged fact throughout the Ministry of Justice.

The officials at the Ministry of Justice all disliked dealing with Hu the Warden, and they didn't like going to the female prisoners' ward either — too much trouble! Too easy to get a bad reputation.

They much preferred the Heaven Prison. Sure, Chen the Warden-Assistant had his quirks — this rule, that rule, everything had to be done by the book. But he was straightforward, and very good at making money. As long as you didn't make trouble for him, he wouldn't go out of his way to make trouble for anyone.

Hu the Warden was different — moody and unpredictable, always giving people the feeling that he was digging pits and scheming against them at any moment.

Chen Chen Guanlou had dealt with Hu the Warden a few times, and overall it had gone smoothly. He'd also summed up the pattern: the man only cared about money, not people.

He had come in person, made his intentions clear — he wanted to get to know the Junior Palace Warden-Assistant and look after a few prisoners in the Jiafeng Ward. No ulterior motive, purely taking money to do a job, earning a bit of hard cash.

Hu the Warden was smoking a hand-rolled cigarette.

At some point, hand-rolled cigarettes had become fashionable among officials in Jingcheng. Those with the means kept a servant whose sole job was to cut tobacco and roll cigarettes. Those without the means went to the shops to buy them.

The cigarette sellers were also fiercely competitive.

Tobacco, rolling paper. The cigarette paper kept getting softer, more upscale — some even carried a floral scent.

Once tobacco and paper had been pushed to their limits, they started rolling smoking accessories. From ordinary materials to ones inlaid with gold and gems — nothing you couldn't imagine, nothing they couldn't make.

The cigarette Hu the Warden was smoking had been hand-rolled by his own servant, with a tiny character "Hu" on the paper as a mark.

"You want to get to know the Junior Palace Warden-Assistant, heh!" Hu the Warden chuckled lightly, with an unmistakable mocking tone.

Chen Chen Guanlou caught the implication. "Could it be that this Junior Palace Warden-Assistant is someone one shouldn't offend?"

"Do you know why he became Warden-Assistant? Because he's black-hearted and ruthless, his methods extremely cruel. Back when he was on duty in the palace, the young eunuchs and palace maids he tortured to death — there were no fewer than a hundred, maybe five hundred, and none of them could rest in peace, not even an intact corpse left behind."

"That brutal?" Chen Chen Guanlou was quite surprised. "Someone like him, logically, must have offended a lot of people. How did he still get promoted and rich, and become the Junior Palace Warden-Assistant?"

"What else — catering to his superiors' tastes, plus money! The man has ability, has methods, and a soft spine. A man of several dozen years kowtowed to a twenty-something-year-old as his god-grandfather. Could you do that?"

Chen Chen Guanlou laughed heartily — no need to spell it out, he definitely couldn't. He was cheap, but not that cheap! He still had some principles and a bottom line.

"See, none of us could do it. Serves him right that he got promoted and rich and became the Junior Palace Warden-Assistant. From then on, he strutted about. Imperial relatives all had to go through his connections, show him a pleasant face, and send money to his residence."

"From what you're saying, he's universally hated — how can he still hold the Junior Palace Warden-Assistant position steady?" Chen Chen Guanlou was curious and simply started digging for gossip. He had plenty of time — chatting was chatting either way; chatting about something everyone loved to hear would draw them closer.

Hu the Warden blew out a smoke ring and said slowly, "Lucky, that's all — picked the right connection. The man has always made enemies, but every time he managed to turn danger into safety, the worst into the best. Can't be jealous of that!"

"Can I ask — whose connection did he use?"

"No harm telling you. Back then, he went through the Donggong's connection. Get it now?"

Chen Chen Guanlou had a sudden realization.

No wonder Hu the Warden's tone was sour — truly couldn't be envied.

Who would have thought that someone so vicious had taken the most legitimate route — and taken it successfully. The key was that the former Donggong hadn't been put off by his reputation and had taken him in.

Tch!

This matter seemed best not thought about too deeply. Think it through and you'd realize there were plenty of dirty dealings inside. The former Donggong wasn't clean! Which meant Emperor Jian Shi wasn't clean either.

"You mean he got through the Donggong's connection back then and became the Junior Palace Warden-Assistant?"

Hu the Warden smiled and nodded — exactly so.

"If it weren't for the fact that since ancient times the Junior Palace Household Steward has always been held by imperial clansmen, this kid might really have had a chance to climb even higher."

Chen Chen Guanlou sucked in a cold breath. A eunuch, daring to covet the position of Junior Palace Household Steward — truly bold in thought and deed! The Emperor's most trusted Wang Defa, the Grand Eunuch of the palace, probably wouldn't dare dream of that position.

"The Chu royal household members are locked up in the Jiafeng Ward prison. From your experience, Brother Hu, is it the palace's intention, or the Junior Palace Warden-Assistant acting on his own?" He'd asked casually, not expecting to actually get an answer.

"I dare to guess — it should be him acting on his own."

"The Junior Palace Warden-Assistant acting on his own? What nerve."

"Back then he climbed up precisely because he had the nerve. The timid ones — all of them died." Hu the Warden laughed self-deprecatingly. "I was lucky too, to be able to leave the palace and hide here living a leisurely life."

"Brother Hu, was the competition among you back then really that brutal?"

Hu the Warden was stirred into distant memories. After a moment of silence, he said with a touch of feeling, "The years I entered the palace — a few years before and after — every year brought natural disasters and man-made calamities. Too many people couldn't survive, too many sold their sons and daughters.

Many people wanted to enter the palace just to get a meal, and further down the line, a future. The competition was unprecedentedly fierce! There were even people who, unable to find a way in, castrated themselves at home and then ran to the palace gates to offer themselves."

Chen Chen Guanlou's face was full of surprise — he had never imagined that being a eunuch was a position you had to compete for, scrambling to get. It had quite the air of scholars fighting across a single-log bridge in the imperial examinations.

In these times, no path was easy!

No one had it easy!

"At least Brother Hu, you've made it out." He said so.

"Compared to the Junior Palace Warden-Assistant, I'm far behind! He eats and drinks well in the Junior Palace, his word is law. Here at my place, I can only shut the door and live a small life."

"A small life has its own small charms! No need to envy others. So you're saying the Junior Palace Warden-Assistant's route won't work, and there's no way to bribe anyone in Jiafeng Ward — money can't be spent even if you have it."

"When has there ever been a case of money that couldn't be spent? If you want to bribe people in Jiafeng Ward, you don't need to go through the Junior Palace Warden-Assistant. You can go through the people below."

"Oh?! Please enlighten me, Brother Hu!"

Hu the Warden grinned. "Jiafeng Ward is a place everyone despises. No one knows why the Junior Palace built a prison there back in the day. There's a rumor that the Emperor of that time deeply hated a certain person, and locking them in prison wasn't enough — he felt the environment wasn't harsh enough. And so the Jiafeng Ward prison came to be!

The people on duty there naturally couldn't be any sort of decent folk. If you want to bribe people inside, going to others is useless. Go find Zhang the Warden inside — he's also a eunuch. But he doesn't like being called Eunuch Zhang. His seniority is far greater than the Junior Palace Warden-Assistant's. All these years no one has dared touch him — that tells you he's got some background. But he's a difficult man to deal with, his temperament even stranger than mine."

"Does this Zhang the Warden have any particular preferences?" Saying so, Chen Chen Guanlou pushed a banknote over.

Hu the Warden glanced at it — his movements extremely practiced — and with a light sweep across the table, the banknote vanished.