Chapter 1230: A Mouth Smeared with Arsenic

Wu She never imagined that the moment he arrived at the Heaven Prison, he'd be greeted with a torrent of abuse right out of the gate.

Seeing the uniform the other man wore, he guessed his identity — must be the Heaven Jiang Jiang Yucheng's Deputy.

Clearly, before he came, someone had told him that the Heaven Jiang Jiang Yucheng's Deputy was the Marquis's own nephew by the same clan, and would surely look after them. At this moment, he felt no care at all — only a profound malice, contempt, and disgust.

He, Wu She, was an upright, hot-blooded man. When had He Ceng ever had a finger jabbed at his nose and been screamed at as an idiot?

Where was he stupid?

His face was full of defiance.

Chen Chen Guanlou let out a snort of laughter. Still daring to be defiant — have you no shame?

He mocked, "So-called bravery that only gets in the way. If it were me, robbing a government office — something so simple — even if the Brocade Guards came after me, they wouldn't be able to trace it back to me. Do you believe it?

I read through your Juan Sect file. Three days after the incident, the authorities showed up at your door with witnesses in tow. Aren't you something. Three whole days, and you didn't do a single bit of cleanup? And there were witnesses too — don't you know that in this world, only the dead can keep a secret?"

"You're full of it! If you don't understand, then stop talking nonsense!"

"Am I talking nonsense?" Chen Chen Guanlou's lips curved in a half-smile.

Wu She was furious. He was clumsy with words and didn't know how to explain himself. He hollered and screamed, wishing he could burst out of the cell and slaughter the man.

Chen Chen Guanlou tossed out one line: "The helpless fury of the incompetent!"

It nearly choked the man until he toppled backward, almost fainting from rage.

"Deputy Warden Chen, things are not what they appear on the surface." The pale-faced scholar in the neighboring cell finally couldn't hold back and spoke up, sharing some of the pressure off Wu She.

Chen Chen Guanlou stepped forward two paces, stopping before the scholar's cell door. "If I remember right, your surname is Bai, and you're called Bai Yushu. A rather refined name, and a refined-looking man to match. What high opinion do you have? I'm all ears."

Bai Yushu first let out a sigh, then began, "General Wu She was ordered to garrison at Li Jiacao. The grain supplies were to be transported by the local government office. However, the local officials repeatedly held back the grain, passed off inferior stuff as good, and the quantities were grossly short — every time they were asked, the answer was 'spoilage.' On top of that, they were reselling the military grain on the black market.

We have evidence for all of this — both witness testimony and physical proof, complete on every count. This time, they really went too far. The grain delivered wasn't even a third of what the ledger showed, and it was heavily mixed with sand and pebbles.

Every time they cooked a meal, it took a huge amount of manpower and time to pick out the stones. You could say that every single one of General Wu She's three thousand men has chipped a tooth on a stone in their food and bled like a fountain. It seriously undermined the army's cohesion and fighting strength. The soldiers' grievances reached the heavens — they complained day in and day out about never getting enough to eat, and still having to drill!"

"We tried negotiating with the local officials, but they just kept stonewalling us — every time we demanded grain, they said 'spoilage.' We also reported it to the Marquis. The Marquis got into a long, drawn-out war of words with the local officials, and nothing came of it. Besides, the local officials transporting the grain is a rule set by the court — no one can do anything about it. It was only because the men below were making such a terrible fuss that General Wu She finally decided to take the risk."

"And so that 'risk' landed you straight in the Heaven Prison. Aren't you all something!" Chen Chen Guanlou's lips curved in a half-smile, his naked contempt plain on his face. "You must be the military advisor, right? Could it be that your brain only works for fighting battles? Dealing with a few corrupt local officials and getting your grain — how could that possibly be hard? If the open road is blocked, take the dark one.

Speaking of the dark road, all kinds of preparation work is essential. Tell me, Mr. Bai — what preparations did you actually make? Why is it that three days after the incident, they showed up at your door, caught you red-handed with the goods, and the whole thing made its way to Jingcheng?"

Bai Yushu's face flushed red with shame. Clearly, he had done some soul-searching afterward.

He wiped his face with one hand. "Deputy Warden Chen is right to scold me. I failed to do the preparation work."

"Where was he right? Lao Bai, don't listen to him." Wu She in the next cell started hollering again, his face full of defiance.

Chen Chen Guanlou craned his neck to glance at the next cell. "Shut your mouth! This is none of your business, you brute!" Calling him a brute was being polite — in his own mind, the man was a complete idiot! Can't even pull off a robbery — all those years as a soldier wasted, nothing but rotten wood!

"We actually concealed our identities, but we never expected someone to call them out during the operation. The two sides had dealt with each other for years, so being recognized isn't strange." Bai Yushu muttered.

Chen Chen Guanlou made a slitting-throat gesture. "Don't you know to silence them by killing them?"

"The man was a minor clerk with a heavy family burden. If we killed him, his whole family would be done for. We only wanted the grain — how could we slaughter the innocent?"

"No wonder the old saying goes that the merciful cannot command troops, and the righteous cannot handle wealth. You lot falling to this state is no injustice. Not killing to silence them — I can still understand that. But why didn't you, afterward, bribe him, or simply drag him down with you? In short, find some way to shut his mouth. Surely you can manage that too?"

Chen Chen Guanlou was genuinely curious.

Robbing grain — and grain that was originally theirs to begin with — and they ended up delivering themselves to the Heaven Prison to await execution. Have these people been fighting battles until they turned into Bai Chi? Everyone says all's fair in war — so why is it that in these few men, he couldn't see a single trace of cunning, only 'naïve little sweethearts'!

Bai Yushu opened his mouth several times, and several times closed it again.

Apparently unable to refute, deeply ashamed.

Finally, he spoke at last. "I thought he wouldn't talk." From the look of it, he had done the clerk a kindness, and assumed the man was the type to repay a debt of gratitude.

Chen Chen Guanlou, hearing this, burst into laughter — pure mockery. "You thought? Ha… A blade at his neck — what good is your 'thought'? The grain was gone — either the clerk dies, or you die. Any normal person would choose for you to die. What on earth gave you the right to 'think'?

On a matter of life and death, you dared to assume, 'I thought'! With your level of skill, you still dare to play military advisor? Go home and farm the fields, and do it soon. A real military advisor commands the board with a wave of his hand, kills without a drop of blood being seen. And look at you — you don't even dare to kill a single man, and you've sent your own employer straight into the Heaven Prison. Aren't you something."

Bai Yushu was scolded into such shame he could barely stand it, head bowed, unable to face anyone.

"Lao Bai, don't listen to him. We were just unlucky — bad luck, nothing to do with you. It was I who failed to handle the cleanup!"

Wu She couldn't help but pop up again to remind everyone he existed.

"Luck?" Chen Chen Guanlou seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world. "You, as the commanding general, pin the success of a robbery on luck — not on a thorough plan, not on proper cleanup measures. Could it be that when you fight battles, you also rely on luck instead of real strength? With your level of skill, you can actually serve as a general and command three thousand men. What kind of eye does the Marquis have, to actually promote you!"

Chen Chen Guanlou scolded people without a single swear word, yet every word cut to the bone, every word a blade — slashing Wu She's face until it turned pitch-black.

"This general was promoted by the Marquis on the strength of his bravery. What gives you the right to look down on me?"

"All you've got left is that word 'bravery.'" Chen Chen Guanlou's mouth was as if smeared with arsenic — the moment he opened it, he could poison a man to death. He asked Bai Yushu again, curiously, "In this day and age, to be a general, do you not need a brain? Is bravery alone enough?"

Bai Yushu was both ashamed and angry. "Deputy Warden Chen, please show some mercy with your tongue! Since General Wu took up his post at Li Jiacao, he has been diligent and conscientious, never daring to slacken in the slightest. He is competent. He is a qualified general. He has lived up to the Marquis's promotion!"