Chapter 292: Identity Completely Erased

With nothing to do, Chen Guanlou stepped into the deepest part of the Grade A prison for the first time in many years. A prisoner who had been locked up for a full thirty-plus years was held here.

There were no files, no registers; it was said they were lost.

Every day, only the oldest handyman would go deep into the darkest, pitch-black depths to clean and deliver food.

The torch in his hand crackled and burned.

Chen Guanlou followed the firelight and looked into the depths.

The sudden firelight stimulated the imprisoned official inside the cell, who covered his eyes with his arms.

Black!

White!

This was Chen Guanlou's first impression of the other man.

Black, because his entire body was as black as ink; the prisoner's uniform had long since lost its original color.

White, because his hair and beard were all white. The exposed skin was also the grayish-white of someone who hadn't seen the sun for years.

"I am the newly appointed prison clerk; may I ask how I should address you, sir?"

"Sir?" The other man's pronunciation was very normal; perhaps the handyman would talk to him on weekdays, or perhaps he talked to himself. In any case, his language ability was well-maintained.

"You address me as sir?"

"Shouldn't I address you that way?" Chen Guanlou asked back.

"Of course you shouldn't. I am a prisoner, and you are a prison clerk; how can you address a prisoner as sir?"

Chen Guanlou frowned slightly. "May I ask your name, and how I should address you?"

"What year is it this year?" The other man remained leaning in the corner, refusing to come out. He seemed to fear the light, or perhaps he feared change.

"Don't you know? This year is the forty-ninth year of Taixing."

"Has it already been forty-nine years? So, he has been Emperor for almost fifty years."

"Yes, quite a long time."

"Heh heh..."

"Who exactly are you? Why were you locked in the Heavenly Prison for thirty-plus years?"

"Who am I? Haha, who am I! Hahaha..." The other man laughed loudly.

Chen Guanlou watched the other man's behavior with cold eyes.

"I'm afraid the world has already forgotten me. You young people definitely haven't heard of me. Hahaha, who am I? Who exactly am I?"

"Could it be that you have forgotten your own identity?"

"No, no, no, of course I remember."

"Then why don't you say it?"

The other man suddenly fell silent.

Chen Guanlou was somewhat dissatisfied. "Although you are still alive, in the eyes of the world, you are already dead. People experience two stages of death: one is the death of the physical body, and the other is being forgotten by everyone. Your physical body is still here, but you are already dead. Tell me your identity, and you can come back to life."

As the words fell, the other man's breathing became noticeably heavy; one could feel he was overwhelmed, his heart suffering torment.

"Do you really want to know who I am?"

"Yes! As a prison clerk, I must be clear about the situation of every imprisoned official in the Grade A prison, and you are no exception. If possible, I can even have you transferred to a cell outside with better conditions, where you can at least see the sun every day."

"The sun!?" The other man muttered to himself. "Who am I? I am the consort of Princess Luyang of the current dynasty, Provincial Military Commander of the Five Cities, First-Rank General Wang Qiren."

Chen Guanlou:...

His heart had no fluctuations.

Because it was too unfamiliar; there was no such figure as Princess Luyang in the court, and he had never even heard of her.

He frowned and thought for a moment. "I don't remember there being a Princess Luyang. Don't be spouting nonsense."

"Hahaha... as expected. He is capable of doing this. He fundamentally erased our existence. Just as you said, being forgotten by the world, even if the physical body doesn't die, the person is already dead. Woo woo..."

"Are you really the consort of Princess Luyang?"

"Authentic?"

"How did you fall to this point? Killing someone is just a matter of a head falling."

"Is killing someone difficult for him?" Wang Qiren suddenly rushed to the cell door, appearing incredibly excited and indignant. "In this world, for him, killing is the simplest little thing. Just by frowning, saying 'hmm,' or a single sentence, countless people would die physically because of it. How could he let us off so easily? He wants us to live a life worse than death, living like bedbugs. The more miserable we live, the more satisfied he is. He is a madman. The world says he is wise and martial—bah, he is clearly a tyrant."

Chen Guanlou coughed lightly. "If the 'he' you are referring to is the old Emperor, his reputation has already changed. He is no longer wise and martial; court officials all curse him as a muddled ruler."

"I'm not surprised at all; this is his true face. Hahaha..."

Wang Qiren seemed normal, yet very mad.

Anyone locked in the dark depths of the Heavenly Prison would go mad. That he could still maintain active thinking and that his language function hadn't regressed was already very rare.

Chen Guanlou silently left the depths of the Heavenly Prison, the other man's crazy laughter seemingly echoing in his ears.

The Heavenly Prison's files didn't have this person at all.

For matters from thirty-plus years ago, he could only ask the Hou Fu. Perhaps Master Du had heard of it.

Before figuring out the ins and outs of the matter, he wouldn't rashly transfer him to another cell. He had to first determine if anyone in this world still remembered this fellow Wang Qiren.

He called over Qian Fugui. "Are there any great clans surnamed Wang in the capital?"

"Surnamed Wang, not Wang (King), it seems there aren't any." Qian Fugui wasn't very certain.

Chen Guanlou patted his own head; he had asked the wrong person. He should have asked Lu Datou, not Qian Fugui.

Lu Datou associated with people from all walks of life; he knew all the great households in the capital. He knew exactly which direction their gates opened and could recite their details like a family heirloom.

Lu Datou was a living know-it-all of the capital, a local, an indigenous person; there was nothing he didn't know.

Lu Datou had sent Lu Mingchuan into the palace and had a moment of glory; on the way, he even met a few soldiers from the Divine Artifact Battalion, chatted nonsense with them for half an hour, and had already started calling each other brothers, agreeing to go to the gambling den to gamble another day. Xiao Jin was secretly impressed; with Lu Datou's social skills, if he were thrown into a pile of scum, he would definitely be like a fish in water.

Afterward, Chen Guanlou gave this group of prison guards a reward.

Lu Datou rarely had some savings, but he couldn't go to the gambling den to gamble; the atmosphere in the Heavenly Prison was tense right now, and only small bets were allowed for fun. The money in his pocket was temporarily saved.

He figured that once the Heavenly Prison gates opened, his first thing to do would be to rush into the gambling den and gamble for three days and nights.

Go home?

It didn't exist!

Where could home be more important than gambling?

He was truly hopeless.

Chen Guanlou called him to the office to drink tea and asked casually: "Are there any great households surnamed Wang in the capital?"

"How great?"

"Hmm, about as great as the Hou Fu."

"Then no." Lu Datou said definitely.

"Are there any smaller ones?"

"None either. The richest family surnamed Wang that I know of only has a dozen shops and one or two hundred qing of land. In the capital, that's just an ordinary rich household." Lu Datou ate peanuts without wine, which was slightly less than perfect.

"Are you sure?"

"Heh! There's nothing in this capital I don't know. If you don't believe me, go to the Ministry of Revenue tomorrow and ask around to see if I'm wrong. If you're asking about the private affairs of a great household, I definitely wouldn't know. But if you're asking where a great household lives and roughly how much property they have, I tell you, I know it clearly."

"Then tell me, how much property does the Hou Fu have?"

"That's hard to say. Many of the Hou Fu's properties are registered under the names of various aunts and uncles; there is no account book, and I suspect even the masters of the Hou Fu don't know clearly." ===== CHAPTER 293 =====