Chapter 1023: One Shock After Another

"His preferences? Heh heh! I'm afraid his preferences are something Prison Clerk Chen can't afford." Hu the Prison Clerk's expression was half-smile, half-not, clearly eager to watch the show.

Chen Chen Guanlou was immediately displeased.

He refused to believe that, with his own net worth, there was anything he couldn't afford.

"Whatever the preference may be, please enlighten me, Brother Hu. Your younger brother would be most grateful."

Hu the Prison Clerk finished a cigarette, took a sip of tea, and said unhurriedly, "His preference, you ask — he likes to torment young children, boys or girls, doesn't matter. Can you afford that?"

Damn!

Chen Chen Guanlou immediately felt like cursing someone out.

His face darkened, his fury barely contained.

Hu the Prison Clerk beamed. "I told you you couldn't afford it, didn't lie, did I? You have a bottom line, you work by principles. The people of Jiafeng Dao don't work by principles — they'll use any filthy trick in the book. The Chu Wang household is lucky to still have a status to shield them. Otherwise, heh heh..."

The implication was self-evident.

What horrors someone without a status to shield them would suffer upon entering that place was beyond imagination.

Chen Chen Guanlou took a deep breath, suppressing the fury in his heart. Of course, that fury wasn't directed at Hu the Prison Clerk, but at that so-called Prison Clerk Zhang. What a piece of work!

"Brother Hu, the way you put it, I feel this road is a dead end."

"Indeed a dead end. But compared to the route through the Junior Minister's Prison Clerk, it's far easier. As long as you have no bottom line!"

"Hahaha... we're normal people, not like them."

The implication being: he had a bottom line, he was no pervert.

"Can't we just grease the way with money?"

"You think those people are short on cash? They're not short on money — they're short on amusement. Spending years in that kind of environment, they get their kicks from other people. The more others suffer, the more excited they get."

Chen Chen Guanlou grabbed a fistful of his hair. "Is there really no other way?"

Infuriating, truly!

If killing could solve the problem, he'd already have charged into Jiafeng Dao to do the deed.

Hu the Prison Clerk beckoned, gesturing for him to lean closer.

Chen Chen Guanlou didn't understand, but he leaned closer anyway. "Brother Hu has something to say."

Hu the Prison Clerk's expression turned sinister. "There is one way — you can spend the money and get the job done. Depends on whether you dare."

"What way, out with it! Just don't dig a pit for me."

Hu the Prison Clerk gave a cold laugh. "Even if I were digging a pit for you, would you not still want to hear my plan?"

"Of course I want to hear it."

"You're a ninth-rank martial artist, killing people is child's play. I'll give you an idea — go kill the one surnamed Zhang."

Chen Chen Guanlou immediately frowned. He'd just been thinking about killing, and he hadn't expected that surnamed Hu would actually feed him a rotten scheme to do exactly that. Could this count as minds thinking alike?

Damn it, disgusting!

He countered, "Would killing even work?"

"Under Prison Clerk Zhang, there's a Nanny Li. Don't be fooled by her being a woman — her background is no small matter. In her younger days, when her looks were at their peak, she once paired up with Qiu Qiu Defu for a sham marriage!"

This time Chen Chen Guanlou was truly shocked.

Twist after twist, and somehow it dragged in Qiu Qiu Defu, the most trusted great eunuch of the late Emperor.

"Tell me the details."

Hu the Prison Clerk kept his voice low. "Nanny Li, by all rights, having paired up with Qiu Qiu Defu, should have had a lifetime of wealth and honor without worry. But she was restless — after too many good days, ambition sprouted. She grew disgusted that Qiu Qiu Defu couldn't perform as a man, so she secretly kept a young stud. Word is she even got pregnant — that's how she was found out."

"And then? Qiu Qiu Defu didn't kill her?"

"No! That's where we ordinary folk differ from Eunuch Qiu — Eunuch Qiu has grand vision. Eunuch Qiu told Nanny Li to carry the baby in peace, and once she gave birth, he'd adopt the child as a godson and raise him by his side. The boy turned five, and he had him castrated!"

Ah!

Chen Chen Guanlou was shocked once more — the scheming of these eunuchs...

"Eunuch Qiu is ruthless indeed!"

"Who says he isn't!" Hu the Prison Clerk chuckled. "Compared to killing Nanny Li with one slash, castrating her son — how about that method?"

"Ruthless enough! Visionary enough!"

An ordinary person simply wouldn't have that patience, nor think that far ahead. Qiu Qiu Defu truly lived up to his name as a great eunuch — his methods of torment were precision-crafted. He knew all too well that for palace people, death meant release. Living was the true purgatory!

Every eunuch in the palace who'd risen to the top was no simple character. All of them, damn it, were vicious and ruthless, doing things so vile they'd make a man childless.

"What happened later? Nanny Li didn't get revenge?"

"What could she use for revenge? If she didn't want to die, she still had to rely on Qiu Qiu Defu. Besides, her son was only castrated, not killed. For her son's sake, she wouldn't seek revenge, nor would she kill herself. Later, the woman surnamed Li got pregnant twice more — luckily both were girls, who grew up safely and married off smoothly. What exactly happened in between, our household isn't clear on either. By the time we heard news of Nanny Li again, she was already serving at Jiafeng Dao, and she'd been there for a decade or two. Time spares no one!"

Hu the Prison Clerk ended with a sigh. Chasing memories of the past — there was nostalgia, there was resentment, but mostly, a wistful lament.

Chen Chen Guanlou had a new question. "The late Emperor is gone — is Qiu Qiu Defu still alive?"

"Should still be alive. Word is he's guarding the imperial tomb."

"Qiu Qiu Defu's lost his power, yet Nanny Li can still hold her post at Jiafeng Dao, even replace Prison Clerk Zhang? Brother Hu, you're not pulling my leg, are you?"

Chen Chen Guanlou felt the whole thing was unreliable.

He suspected the other man was digging a pit for him to fall into.

Hu the Prison Clerk's expression was half-smile, half-not — the look of someone calculating. That face of his truly made him unpopular; anyone who saw it felt uneasy and was instantly on full guard.

He said, "Prison Clerk Chen, since you've called me brother, I won't play games with you. You think Jiafeng Dao is some sweet plum pie, that everyone wants to go there?

Not at all! Any person of sound mind doesn't want to go to Jiafeng Dao. Even someone like Prison Clerk Zhang, at first, wasn't keen on serving there.

For the likes of us, serving at Jiafeng Dao is tantamount to exile to Xizhou — no pardon, ever! Miserable!

That place doesn't nurture people. For Nanny Li to have lasted a decade or two inside, she's absolutely a veteran. Below her, no one has more seniority. If Prison Clerk Zhang dies, given the Junior Minister's Prison Clerk's usual ways, Nanny Li just needs to grease a few palms, and replacing the surnamed Zhang's position is a cinch.

Jiafeng Dao isn't like other places — a woman serving as a prison clerk doesn't stand out, perfectly normal.

And compared to the surnamed Zhang, currying favor with Nanny Li is far simpler — just spend money, look after her two married daughters, look after her son serving in the palace, and she'll sell her life to you. So, isn't this route far simpler than going through Prison Clerk Zhang?"

Chen Chen Guanlou mulled over the risks and costs involved.

Setting aside the possibility that Warden Hu was using someone else's knife to kill, or digging a pit for him to jump into—if things were truly as the other party said, going through Nanny Li's route was indeed much simpler than going through Warden Zhang's route.

The premise was that Warden Hu hadn't been making things up out of thin air.

"On this matter, I need to mull it over some more!"

Warden Hu smiled, seeing through it at a glance. "You can have someone ask around to check whether what I said is true. Once you've made up your mind, I can step in on your behalf to reach out and liaise with Nanny Li."

"Fine! Give me three days to think it over!"