Chapter 256

The Grand Tutor could not be moved out of the Heavenly Prison; Chen Guanlou was very disappointed.

He had even fantasized about using the Grand Tutor's illness to shake off this hot potato.

Sun Daoning and His Highness the Crown Prince are too useless. They could have mobilized the civil and military officials to form public opinion pressure. The old Emperor would still care, more or less, about the criticism in the court.

With the Grand Tutor sick, the cook changed the menu, and the diet focused on being light. The Grand Tutor did not agree.

"I am a person of several decades; I have enjoyed everything I should have enjoyed. What does it matter if I live a few years less?"

"The Grand Tutor does not know, if you don't control your diet, once complications break out, it is truly worse than death. Blindness and rotting legs are just the basics; in short, it is all kinds of suffering. If the Grand Tutor doesn't think for himself, he should think for His Highness the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince is currently in his most difficult time. The Grand Tutor must take care of his health."

Chen Guanlou spoke to persuade him. Even if the Grand Tutor really goes blind or has rotting legs one day, it must be after he gets out of prison. He must not have complications in the Heavenly Prison; the Heavenly Prison cannot bear this responsibility.

The Crown Prince's anger alone would be enough for everyone in the Heavenly Prison to suffer. If the old Emperor goes crazy and plans to set up a persona of caring for his subjects, one word could make everyone in the Heavenly Prison vanish into dust.

The Grand Tutor sighed along with him.

"If it weren't for His Highness the Crown Prince, I wouldn't have ended up like this."

Seeing the Grand Tutor compromise, Chen Guanlou secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

It's good that he listens to advice!

Guard Cui teased him, "You actually have a way; you were surprisingly able to persuade the Grand Tutor."

"I don't have the ability to persuade the Grand Tutor; it is the Grand Tutor who misses His Highness the Crown Prince and wants to share the worries for the Crown Prince, so he took the initiative to cooperate in recuperating his body."

"Say whatever you want! The Crown Prince hopes the Grand Tutor can sunbathe and move around a bit every day. This is the advice given by the Imperial Physician."

Chen Guanlou frowned deeply. Letting the Grand Tutor go out for fresh air every day would really add trouble for him. In all these years in the Heavenly Prison, no one has ever been able to enjoy the treatment of daily fresh air.

But since the Donggong had spoken, he could only pinch his nose and accept it.

"Fine, I will arrange it. There is a courtyard behind the Heavenly Prison; I will have people clean it up."

"That would be excellent!"

"Then, the Grand Tutor's safety is left to you all."

"Rest assured, with me here, the Grand Tutor will be safe and sound." Guard Cui was full of arrogance. He is a Fifth-Rank martial artist; he indeed has the capital to be arrogant.

Chen Guanlou glanced at him, laughing in his heart.

Also being a Fifth-Rank, Xiao Jincheng was clearly stronger than Guard Cui, and he still lost at his hands. And that was already a matter from last year.

This year, he has already cultivated to the fourth chapter of the "Ascension Record" and is even stronger.

Merely a Fifth-Rank, what is there to be smug about!

He returned to the duty room to drink tea, glanced at the duty roster, and asked: "Why haven't I seen Liu She? Where is he?"

"Reporting to Chen Tou, Liu She has asked for leave."

"Did he say what the reason was?"

Once the question was asked, several people remained silent.

Chen Guanlou sensed something was wrong; he pointed at Xiao Jin, "You tell me, what exactly is going on?"

"It's nothing major. It's just that last night, Liu She bumped into a guard from the Donggong. Who would have thought that just such a bump would cause internal injuries. Those Donggong guards are all martial artists, and we are just ordinary people; no one expected the other party's force to be so great."

Chen Guanlou frowned, "How did you bump into each other?"

"The corridor is narrow; we had already yielded the way, who knew the other party would still bump into us."

"It was clearly intentional," Chen Quan muttered in a low voice.

Chen Guanlou raised an eyebrow, "Is Liu She's injury serious?"

"The medical official prescribed medicine and let him rest for a period of time; I think it shouldn't be a big problem."

"Two ribs were broken," Chen Quan muttered again. Xiao Jin glared at him fiercely; they had discussed beforehand that it was best to downplay this matter. Falling out with the Donggong guards would bring them no benefits and would only invite a whole lot of trouble.

Chen Quan was unconvinced, "I just can't stand that bunch of people."

"Even if you can't stand them, you have to endure it. They are guards of the Donggong; everyone's background is either from a noble family or they have noble people in the military to promote them. Who do we think we are? Fighting them—can we win?" Xiao Jin scolded Chen Quan for purely looking for trouble on purpose.

Chen Guanlou ignored their dispute and only said one thing, "Give me the list of the Donggong guards on duty last night."

"Chen Tou, Liu She already said he wouldn't pursue this matter. My meaning is, let's all pool some money to help him recover from his injuries."

"Chen Tou, it's not worth falling out with the Donggong guards."

"Who said I was going to fall out with them? Rest assured, I have a sense of proportion."

Chen Guanlou indeed had a sense of proportion. He remained silent for two days and specifically went to visit Liu She; the injuries were far more serious than what Xiao Jin and the others had said. He left twenty taels of silver and urged him to recover well, not to worry about his position.

Afterward, he took the initiative to invite Guard Cui and the Donggong guards to drink, the full set at Zui Xiang Lou.

Guard Cui saw that he was quite sensible and gladly accepted the invitation.

At the wine table, both sides went back and forth, very happily. It could be called a gathering where both host and guest were pleased, and all previous grudges were released.

Afterward, the two sides indeed got along much more harmoniously.

Just when the two sides were as thick as thieves, four Donggong guards were ambushed. They didn't die, nor did they have broken hands or feet, but they all suffered internal injuries—internal injuries that required them to lie in bed for a month.

"Who is it? Who exactly is so bold as to dare to ambush the Donggong guards?" Guard Cui was furious, his gaze sweeping over the face of every prison guard. As soon as the incident happened, he suspected it was done by this bunch of prison guards in the Heavenly Prison.

Chen Guanlou stood out, "Old Cui, even if your eyes aren't working well, is your brain not working well either? Those four people are all martial artists. Look at the prison guards present; which one of them could fight your people and come out unscathed? Let alone fight, all of us added together wouldn't be enough for those four people to fight."

Guard Cui's gaze was suspicious; they hadn't offended anyone recently. If they really had to talk about grudges or mutual dislike, it would be the prison guards of the Heavenly Prison.

"Not to mention anything else, how have we been getting along recently? It's been quite harmonious, right? How much money have my subordinates lost just from gambling, all won by your people. With our relationship at this point, who would stab someone in the back? It's not like it's our first day at the gambling table. It must have been done by people from the outside."

Guard Cui gave a cold hum: "People from the outside don't have the guts to provoke the Donggong guards."

"If people from the outside don't have the guts, then we prison guards have even less guts. You don't really think it was us, do you? You think too highly of us prison guards. We are too busy trying to please you; where would we get the guts to ambush the Donggong guards? They are all martial artists. Do you know how much weight martial artists carry in the minds of us ordinary people?"

What Chen Guanlou said could be described as reasonable in every word, and one couldn't find a single flaw in it.

However, Guard Cui firmly believed in his intuition. His intuition told him that this bunch of prison guards definitely couldn't be uninvolved.

He knew very clearly that this bunch of prison guards were all people who weren't short of money; their income was even higher than that of their Donggong guards, which was truly infuriating. You despise them for their low status, yet they are making a fortune in silence. Especially Chen Guanlou, who has quite a bit of financial power and even monopolizes the trade of antiques and calligraphy/paintings from disgraced officials.

This bunch of prison guards indeed didn't have the ability to ambush martial artists, but they had the money to hire people!

"I will definitely get to the bottom of this matter."

"A must. We must find out the truth; I will cooperate fully!" Chen Guanlou said righteously, his whole body seemingly shining with a layer of light.