Chapter 522: Lost and Fed to the Dogs

He had thought Jiang Tu's death would end here.

But unexpectedly, trouble cropped up halfway.

A notice from the palace forbade anyone from claiming Jiang Tu's corpse.

Why?

Because Emperor Jian Shi hated Jiang Tu deeply and wanted to whip the corpse. Had those around him not held him back, he might have done the whipping himself.

Chen Chen Guanlou: …

Ahhh…

He hated corpse-whipping most of all.

That smell, that filthy, gruesome scene — he never wanted to see it a second time.

Were all the people in the palace perverts? How could every single one of them enjoy corpse-whipping?

Jiang Fu's Liu Liu Guanshi looked at him with a pitiful, helpless expression. Not only could they not take their master's body away, it was going to be whipped. What were they to do!

Chen Chen Guanlou sighed and said to Liu Liu Guanshi, "Leave a sum of money, and I'll find you the best corpse-stitcher in the trade. How does that sound?"

"The mansion was ransacked — we can't scrape together any money. Even the coffin boards were prepared before the raid. Otherwise, we wouldn't even have those." Liu Liu Guanshi was wretched, spreading his hands — empty sleeves, not a single copper coin to his name.

Chen Chen Guanlou felt a great headache coming on. "I'm being generous enough not to charge you Jiang family for the cleanup fee, so don't give me that nonsense about having no money. Even if the house was ransacked, you must have hidden away some good things. Hurry back and have whoever in your family can make decisions decide quickly.

If you're late, you'll have to collect the remains yourselves — all in pieces, flesh torn strip by strip. Let me tell you, the people from the palace are craftsmen. When it comes to whipping a corpse, if the order says one hundred and one pieces of shredded flesh, there won't be a piece less or a piece more. Are you sure you lot can handle this job?"

We can't, we can't.

Liu Liu Guanshi's face went pale with horror.

Without a corpse-stitcher, no one could handle this job. They couldn't even pick up the pieces of flesh. If so, wouldn't Jiang Tu die without an intact body? They say burying someone without a whole corpse means the grievance won't disperse, and the consequences would be terrifying.

Liu Liu Guanshi asked in a small voice, "How much money?"

"I won't ask much of your money — ten taels of silver will be enough. Five taels to hire the corpse-stitcher, the other five is my labor fee. Don't ask what a labor fee is — just pay up. Go quickly and come back quickly. Once it's late, the corpse won't stitch well."

Liu Liu Guanshi dared not delay and hurried back to the mansion to report to his master.

After sending off the Jiang family people, Chen Chen Guanlou called over a jailer and ordered him to prepare straw mats.

"You must cover the entire courtyard of the mortuary, inside and outside. When the time comes, wrap everything in straw mats and carry it out to be thrown away. The courtyard and rooms only need to be swept twice. This way the smell won't linger long."

"As always, my lord thinks things through thoroughly. Lay down the straw mats, and no matter how many pieces of flesh, how much blood and gore, the courtyard won't be polluted, and everyone will feel a little better about it." Xiao Jin flattered him.

Chen Chen Guanlou sighed. He truly could not stand this perverted hobby of the palace. He instructed the laborers to keep their eyes sharp — as soon as they saw anyone from the palace coming, they were to carry Jiang Tu's corpse to the mortuary courtyard at once, and absolutely not leave it in the mortuary. Best to shut all doors and windows tight, and if necessary, nail a layer of straw mats to the walls as well.

"My lord, laying straw mats on the ground is understandable. But nailing them to the walls — if the people from the palace see it, might they take offense? What if they deliberately make things difficult?"

"You have a point. In all things, too much is as bad as too little." Chen Chen Guanlou thought it over and abandoned the idea of nailing straw mats to the walls, so as not to provoke the people from the palace.

The people from the palace were all a bit twisted in temperament.

The people from the palace arrived quickly, with a hint of impatience. Among them were two familiar faces — the same two who had come to the sky prison to whip corpses last time, true craftsmen, their whipping skills second to none.

Chen Chen Guanlou only stepped out to greet them briefly, then left the rest entirely to the squad leaders below and did not show himself again. He truly could not stomach that scene — too disgusting.

He made up his mind to leave early, knocked off early, went to the pleasure house to embrace a girl and soak in the bath together, washing off all the bad luck on his body.

Halfway through the soak, that bastard Lu Lu Da Tou caught the scent and came looking.

"Chen-ge, Chen-ge, you need to go back and take a look."

"No time." Chen Chen Guanlou refused outright. He had decided not to go to the sky prison for the next few days — he'd wait until the smell cleared.

Lu Lu Da Tou's face was the picture of misery. "Something happened, something big. Everyone's waiting for you to come back and take charge."

"What could possibly happen?"

"The people from the palace won't let anyone collect the corpse. They say they're going to throw Jiang Tu's body parts out in the wild for the dogs. Anyone who dares collect the corpse is going against the palace."

Damn!

Whipping the corpse wasn't enough to vent their anger — they had to feed it to the dogs too.

Too brutal, utterly inhuman.

Chen Chen Guanlou had always held that a person should have humanity, must not sink to the level of beasts, must not cross the bottom line of being human. As a person, raised on the teachings of propriety, righteousness, honesty, and shame, one should not do things of pure bestial nature. Killing a man is no more than a nod of the head — whipping the corpse was already bad enough, but feeding it to the dogs? That was going too far.

He could not be bothered with the girl's attempts to keep him, threw on his clothes, took the rooftop route, and went straight back to the sky prison.

The Jiang family people were wailing and weeping, begging piteously.

The leading Eunuch sat in a chair, teacup in hand, and in a pinched, solemn voice declared: "His Majesty did not have the entire Jiang Fu executed to the last man — he merely punished three degrees of kin, which was already extraordinary grace. Yet you ungrateful wretches not only fail to show gratitude, you dare try to collect the corpse for that traitor Jiang. Let this one tell you — the traitor Jiang's corpse must be fed to the dogs, and no one who tries to stop it will succeed."

"Did Your Majesty say this in person?" Chen Chen Guanlou's sudden appearance startled everyone present.

Immediately after, the jailers began to puff up, looking full of confidence.

The atmosphere in the room shifted accordingly — from one side dominating to a standoff between two.

"So it's Warden Chen. Didn't Warden Chen leave? Why is he back with time to spare?"

"Eunuch Tao has been busy all day — isn't he in a hurry to return to the palace and report?"

By then, the sharp-witted jailers like Huang Ye had already brought over a chair. Chen Chen Guanlou sat down smoothly, arranging himself into the posture of two sides squaring off for a showdown.

Eunuch Tao's eyes narrowed slightly. "What does Warden Chen mean by this?"

Chen Chen Guanlou gave a light laugh. "In my view, the noble ones in the palace would certainly not personally give an order to say anything about feeding a corpse to dogs. How inauspicious, how inelegant — it would be beneath their dignity. Am I right? I don't know whose instructions Eunuch has actually received. Whipping the corpse is one thing, but feeding it to dogs — sigh… even if the corpse really is fed to the dogs, what of it? Setting aside grand principles, just the simple matter of letting the dead rest in peace, of mercy where mercy is due — the Jiang family is nearly wiped out. What harm would there be in letting Jiang Tu be buried? I ask Eunuch Tao, for the sake of the Ministry of Justice's face, for the sake of heaven's face, to do us this favor — what do you say?"

"Not for the sake of your face?" Eunuch Tao's lips curled with a half-smile, full of mockery.

Chen Chen Guanlou immediately mocked himself: "What kind of important figure am I? My face isn't worth anything — don't do it for my sake. Of course, if Eunuch Tao is righteous enough to grant me a sliver of face, I will remember this favor. If someday you have need of me, I will certainly repay it."

Eunuch Tao toyed with the jade thumb ring on his hand, weighing the pros and cons. In truth, he was already tempted. To have a martial arts powerhouse owe him a favor — that was a fine bargain.

He could not help his curiosity and asked: "For the sake of that wretch Jiang Tu, is it worth Warden Chen going to such lengths?"

"Today, even if it weren't Jiang Tu but Zhang Tu, Wang Tu, Li Tu — any convicted official who paid us, who died and is to be fed to dogs — I would step forward to beg for a favor. This is the sky prison's rule: take money, do the job, treat everyone equally. I hope Eunuch Tao will understand."