Chapter 590: Never Let Go of the Fat Meat Already in My Mouth

After leaving the Jia-shaped prison, Chen Chen Guanlou called Wang the Foreman over.

Lord Huang is being held in Wang the Foreman's jurisdiction.

"That new official surnamed Huang who's been imprisoned—keep a close eye on him. First starve him for three days, nine meals. Teach him some manners."

Wang the Foreman didn't ask why. "Besides starving him three days and nine meals, does my lord have any other instructions?"

"Give him the Number One package. One look at this fellow and you can tell it's his first time in the big prison—he still doesn't know how things work. We need to make Surnamed Huang understand the rules quickly, so he doesn't run his mouth saying whatever pops into his head all day long. This place of ours is the Heavenly Prison, not a teahouse—he can't just say whatever he likes. Remember, I don't want to hear things I shouldn't coming out of Huang's mouth, and I certainly don't want the jailers below getting confused and stirring up trouble."

Wang the Foreman was an old hand. The moment he heard this, he knew Surnamed Huang ran deep, that enormous matters were tangled up inside, and that this was absolutely not something a mere jailer could get involved in—unless he wanted to keep his head on his shoulders.

He accepted the order. "My lord can rest easy, this one knows what to do. If the time comes, should we…" As he spoke, he made a slitting-the-throat gesture.

Chen Chen Guanlou smiled. "When the time comes, come and ask me. I'll tell you what to do."

"This one understands."

"Go! Keep a close watch on this man. Move him to a different cell, with no one else around him."

"My lord is thorough in his thinking."

Wang the Foreman took the assignment and went down into the Heavenly Prison to make the arrangements one by one.

Chen Chen Guanlou was in a foul mood. Such a hot potato—and they put him in the Heavenly Prison instead of the Imperial Prison. He refused to believe Surnamed Huang was hiding so deep that the investigators above hadn't noticed a single thing.

There was a sign that a storm was about to break.

Several days passed, and the seals on the gambling house still hadn't been removed. The gambling house and the Ministry of Justice were still wrangling, each showing off their own tricks.

Chen Chen Guanlou looked into it a little. The two sides were negotiating privately behind the scenes, and it seemed the price hadn't been agreed upon. The Six Doors opened their mouth with an outrageous demand; the gambling house thought the Six Doors looked too ugly eating, so they brought out their backers. The backers went straight to the Minister of Justice, Sun Sun Daoning.

Sun Sun Daoning had clearly set his mind on swallowing the whole thing in one gulp.

How many years had it been!

After so many years, he'd finally caught a chance to openly take down these gambling houses. That black-hearted Sun Sun Daoning, even under enormous pressure, refused to let go of the fat meat already in his mouth. He went straight to the throne with an impeachment memorial—impeaching those backers.

When he learned that the impeachment list actually included Zheng Zheng Daochong, Chen Chen Guanlou's face cleared with sudden understanding.

Sun Sun Daoning was Xiang Zhuang dancing his sword—his aim was on Pei Gong!

Just as he thought—last time they met, Sun Sun Daoning had been uncharacteristically easy to talk to. Without being asked, he'd taken everything upon himself, eager to nail the case down solid.

It turned out the other man had known all along that Zheng Zheng Daochong was connected to those gambling-house operators, serving as one of their backers.

Sun Sun Daoning was a treacherous one. Outwardly he showed nothing, but privately he'd investigated Zheng Zheng Daochong down to the last detail, just waiting for the right moment to strike decisively.

The only question was whether this time he could drag Surnamed Zheng down from his horse. Even if he couldn't pull him down, he still had to wrap up the lawsuit between the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Justice, and make the Ministry of Revenue swallow a silent loss.

Heh heh!

Chen Chen Guanlou was happy to watch the show.

Of course, the impeachment list wouldn't be complete without the Zhu family of the Marquis of Receiving Grace's estate.

The Zhu family getting involved in the gambling-house business was perfectly normal. They couldn't resist sticking their hand into the slave trade either, let alone gambling houses. Since ancient times, the slave trade and gambling houses had been a pair of twin brothers—inseparable.

The Zhu family had bumped right into it. They wouldn't walk away without losing a layer of skin.

Sun Sun Daoning's move—if you called it a personal grudge settling scores, that would surely be unfair. If you called him impartial and selfless, that would be nonsense.

In any case, no one could deny that Sun Sun Daoning's move was beautifully played. A pack of censors and supervising secretaries joined in the clamor, one after another submitting impeachment memorials, fanning the small flame higher and higher.

Emperor Jian Shi watched this scene, both startled and delighted, and a little headache-ridden. Zheng Zheng Daochong was his man—he had to protect him. But he couldn't be too brazen about it. So the conspicuous Zhu family fell on hard times—who told them to be a noble house?

Emperor Jian Shi seized the chance to issue an edict reprimanding Marquis Zhu, docking his salary for a year and demoting him two ranks. The Zhu family's sons and nephews who held official posts were all implicated to varying degrees.

That evening, Chen Chen Guanlou carried two fresh fish home.

A tribute from Lu Lu Da Tou—genuine wild-caught fish.

He handed the fish over to Dawang.

The kid Dawang had become an odd-jobber at the yamen, had money in his hands now, and was thinking about improving their meals.

That bit of thinking actually led him to develop a skill for cooking fish. Combined with some pointers from Chen Chen Guanlou, his skill was even a touch better than the head chef at a restaurant.

Dawang saw the fish and got as excited as a cat spotting a little dried fish.

"Brother Chen, don't worry. Leave the two fish to me, I'll handle them properly for sure. Tonight I'll do one fish three ways—does Brother Chen have any objections?"

"What three ways?"

"Steamed clear, the fish head, plus braised in soy sauce."

"Fine! You handle it however you like. I'll just wait for dinner."

Afterwards he grabbed a handful of copper coins and sent a few youngsters to buy wine and groceries. He also deliberately took out top-grade polished rice to put in the pot. Sister Sister Chunxiang would certainly begrudge using top-grade polished rice just to cook a meal.

Rare that they'd be having a big meal tonight—eating coarse grain rice would be a real waste. It had to be polished rice.

Anyway, he had the money, he could afford it.

When Sister Sister Chunxiang saw the polished rice going into the pot, she indeed started nagging, saying Chen Chen Guanlou didn't know how to run a household, that he spent money like water. Running a household had to be done carefully—blah blah blah, she went on for quite a while.

Chen Chen Guanlou smiled and listened to her nagging, not finding it tiresome in the slightest. It was Dawang who kept rolling his eyes, full of disdain. The result was that Sister Sister Chunxiang grabbed a broom and gave him a beating.

A big meal that left everyone with greasy, glistening mouths.

Once full and satisfied, they drank tea to cut the grease.

Sister Sister Chunxiang was about to start nagging again, so Chen Chen Guanlou quickly steered the topic to Hou Fu.

"The eldest Miss's marriage has been settled. The match is the Young Master from the Duke's estate."

"The eldest Miss is from the first branch?"

"The second branch. Don't you remember?"

Chen Chen Guanlou felt a bit embarrassed—he'd only remembered the sisters' faces and forgotten which branch each belonged to. There were too many sisters, every one of them as pretty as a flower, so he couldn't be bothered to distinguish first branch from second.

"A Miss from the second branch marrying into a Duke's estate—is that marrying up or…?"

"Barely a match of equal standing. Though she's not marrying the legitimate eldest son who inherits the title, but the legitimate youngest son."

"How many legitimate sons are there?"

"The Duke's estate is full of people. Just the legitimate Young Masters alone number three or five. The eldest Miss marrying the legitimate youngest son is a good match. Although he won't inherit the title, the Duke certainly won't shortchange his youngest son. The old saying goes that the Emperor loves his eldest son, common folk love their youngest—the Duke's estate won't be any different."

"The late Emperor certainly didn't favor his eldest son." Chen Chen Guanlou quipped.

"That was an exception. I've heard the elders say, in the early years, when the late Emperor was still young, his favorite was the current Your Majesty. It was only later, when he grew old and muddled, and was bewitched by others, that he committed the act of deposing the Crown Prince. Fortunately, everything was set right in the end. Thank heavens, the proper order was not thrown into chaos."

Look at that — even a mere hereditary servant of Hou Fu had more insight than a country bumpkin. A country bumpkin couldn't even pronounce the words "proper order," let alone understand the consequences of upending it.