Chapter 356: A bunch of waste

At first, Chen Guanlou felt very angry about Wang Qiren's disappearance, feeling that he had been played by Zhang Daohe. He also had to spend effort and money to find the body to clean up the mess, and it almost leaked out.

He had also thought about strictly investigating the insiders.

But later, he abandoned this idea.

Insiders?!

From top to bottom in the Heavenly Prison, everyone is an insider.

Privately, almost every prison guard has secretly taken money from prisoners, secretly helped prisoners pass messages inside and outside, or run errands to do other things. This is called extra income!

A prison guard who hasn't earned extra income is definitely not a qualified prison guard.

The status of Heavenly Prison guards is lowly; they are greedy for money and addicted to gambling, which can be called "five poisons complete," yet they are the gambling dens' favorite high-quality customers. They have a fixed monthly income and considerable extra income, so there is no need to worry about bad debts. Long-term and stable, the gambling dens love these Heavenly Prison guards to death.

The prison guards in the neighboring Imperial Prison are not as popular.

After all, the Imperial Prison is backed by the Brocade Uniform Guard, and the gambling dens are most afraid of dealing with people from the Brocade Uniform Guard. Consequently, they are cautious when dealing with Imperial Prison guards, fearing that saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing will reach the ears of the Brocade Uniform Guard and become a handle.

Heavenly Prison guards don't have the habit of secretly reporting to the Six Sects; money comes fast, and they are very willing to spend money when gambling. If they lose money gambling, at most they just take two more extra jobs to earn back the money they lost.

Under such circumstances, investigating insiders means being prepared to turn the Jia-sized prison upside down, which is neither conducive to internal stability nor to work.

He is a prison clerk, not a prison warden, let alone a chief official; why should he worry about this?

Besides, the Ministry of Justice knows the situation of the Heavenly Prison like the back of their hand, but they have never investigated the matter of insiders, so why should he do something unnecessary and break the rules?

Cutting off someone's path to wealth is like killing their parents.

He doesn't want to have to guard against someone poisoning his food or water while eating or drinking. Even if no one poisons it, spitting in the water is enough to make people feel disgusted. He even less hopes that when he returns home in the middle of the night, there will suddenly be a female corpse in his bed.

The prison guards' desire for revenge is very strong, and they have enough means to retaliate against people.

"You are good, I am good, everyone is good," people lifting each other up—this is the attitude one should have when eating from the public pot.

He is not a hot-blooded reformist like Zhao Mingqiao, let alone an ambitious person like Yu Zhaoan.

Xiao Jin confirmed that Chen Guanlou didn't want to investigate the insiders, and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief secretly.

Chen Guanlou glanced at the other person; maybe Xiao Jin was also someone's insider, privately taking other people's money and doing errands to help people pass messages.

Why delve into it?

He laughed, waved his hand, and dismissed Xiao Jin.

When he had nothing to do, he went down to the Heavenly Prison, came to Xie Changling's cell door, and told him, "Yu Zhaoan, newly appointed as Prime Minister, did his first earth-shattering thing, which was to impeach the Prince of Zhong during the small court meeting discussing how to quell the Prince of Chu. What are your thoughts, Lord Xie?"

Xie Changling:...

His expression looked a bit dazed, as if he was still immersed in books and hadn't come back to his senses.

After a pause, he slowly said: "As Prime Minister, it is his freedom to impeach whoever he wants; even Prime Minister Li can't control him, so what can I do? As for the Prince of Zhong, he is at least still free, and he doesn't lack strategists around him, so it's not my turn to worry."

Eh?

This attitude is truly surprising.

"You seem not surprised at all about Prime Minister Yu impeaching the Prince of Zhong. Could it be that you already knew about this?" Chen Guanlou guessed.

Previously, Xie Changling wanted to correspond with Yu Zhaoan and entrusted him to help deliver it, but he didn't agree. He didn't pay attention afterward either. Now it seems that the two of them must have had some collusion privately.

"Could it be that you asked Yu Zhaoan to impeach the Prince of Zhong?" Chen Guanlou guessed boldly, opening his brain hole wide. For these clever people, for their style of doing things, one must let the brain hole fly. If one guesses with the style of ordinary people, one will definitely be wrong. A brain hole that has been let fly might be able to catch up with the deep thoughts of these clever people.

Xie Changling raised his eyebrows and sneered, "What virtue or ability do I have to make Prime Minister Yu listen to me? Prison Clerk Chen, you have dealt with Prime Minister Yu; you should know very well what kind of person he is. Do you think I have the qualification to make him listen to me?"

This, um, makes sense.

A person as conceited as Yu Zhaoan would never be swayed by others.

But...

Everything is afraid of the "but."

"If you want to persuade Prime Minister Yu to listen to you, it's not that there is no way. As long as it fits his interests, he has no reason to refuse you."

Chen Guanlou said so.

Xie Changling spread his hands, "I am empty-handed and can barely protect myself; what do I have to move Prime Minister Yu? Prison Clerk Chen, stop guessing. Your guesses are truly laughable, although very creative.

As for Prime Minister Yu impeaching the Prince of Zhong, this is something that would happen sooner or later. Prime Minister Yu is newly appointed as Prime Minister, and it happens to coincide with the Prince of Chu raising an army to rebel; he must produce something to show his ability and please His Majesty. What is more worth doing than impeaching the Prince of Zhong?

After all, the Prince of Chu raising an army to rebel can still be linked to the Prince of Zhong to some extent; if the Prince of Zhong hadn't been deposed, the Prince of Chu naturally wouldn't have dared to move.

His Majesty is narrow-minded and will never admit that it was his own reasons that prompted the Prince of Chu to rebel. Who will bear this responsibility? Except for the Prince of Zhong, no second person can be found. In other words, sooner or later, His Majesty will pin the responsibility for the Prince of Chu's rebellion on the Prince of Zhong. Prime Minister Yu just took a step ahead."

"You knew early on that the Prince of Chu would rebel?"

"If I could predict the future, how could the Prince of Zhong have been deposed?" Xie Changling laughed in anger, "If I could predict the future, the person sitting on the Dragon Throne right now should be the Prince of Zhong, and I would be the youngest Prime Minister of the current dynasty."

His angry appearance looked much more vivid, no longer like the dead person from before.

Chen Guanlou breathed a sigh of relief secretly; he had been worried before whether Xie Changling would secretly seek death, but now it seems he thought too much.

"You actually envy Yu Zhaoan?" He teased as if he had discovered a secret: "Lord Xie, you are a top scholar. Yu Zhaoan is just a two-list successful candidate. And you are only in your early thirties."

Xie Changling snorted coldly, "Can't I be Prime Minister in my early thirties? Am I worse than those old men in the court? Except for seniority, which is not as good as theirs, I am better than them in every way."

The self-confidence of a scholar-god is unmatched.

"Those old men you mentioned are also top scholars, second-place scholars, and third-place scholars; they are no worse than you." Chen Guanlou retorted.

"But they are already outdated." Xie Changling mocked, "One by one, old stubborns, old traditions. The court is like a pool of stagnant water. No wonder it was pressed to death by His Majesty, and even played out a military coup to depose the Crown Prince—such a ridiculous thing in the world. And it actually succeeded.

Prison Clerk Chen, you are also a scholar; have you ever seen a military coup to depose a Crown Prince in official or unofficial history? Have you ever seen a Prime Minister as incompetent as Li Liangcheng, who was played around by His Majesty, and when His Majesty wanted to depose the Crown Prince, he had no power to fight back? A bunch of waste!"

Xie Changling was so angry that his nostrils flared slightly, and he punched the wall, covering himself with wall dust. ===== CHAPTER 357 =====