Chapter 48: My Lord, Kneel Down, This Subordinate Has Something to Report (Seeking Monthly Votes)

Standing at the city gate with a group of subordinates.

Pei Shaoqing suddenly felt a bit dazed.

He recalled the day Zheng Xuancheng brought people to welcome him.

At this very moment, it was just like that moment back then.

"My lord, they have arrived," Chen Zhongyi reminded him.

Pei Shaoqing snapped out of it and looked ahead, immediately frowning; counting the maids and attendants, there were twenty or thirty people escorting four carriages slowly approaching.

"What a grand display," Song Youcai said, squinting his small eyes. "My lord, I fear the newcomers are not here with good intentions."

Pei Shaoqing did not take this to heart.

He was a newcomer too, and he was not here with good intentions either.

Moreover, he had arrived first.

In the leading carriage, Zhou Xiangyang was embracing two beautiful women, one feeding him fruit and the other feeding him wine; he was having a grand time.

Although he had always held the Thousand-Household in high regard.

That did not mean he actually liked a troublemaker.

His sexual orientation was normal, but because his background was humble and his personal ability was mediocre, he had to sell his body to sleep with his superior in order to climb the ladder.

He truly achieved the feat of a great man knowing when to bend and when to stretch.

Now that he was far away from the Thousand-Household, he seemed to want to vent all the grievances he had suffered over the years and make up for all the ways he had shortchanged himself.

Thus, all along the way, he had used the banner of the Jing'an Guard Hundred-Household to extort and take from the local landlords, refusing neither money nor beauty; this was why he had taken half a month to cover a journey that should have only taken three or four days.

"My lord," an attendant with a goatee knocked on the carriage window. "The people from the local Hundred-Household Office have come out of the city to welcome you. Do you think you should get out of the carriage?"

Zhou Xiangyang lifted the door curtain and took a look.

Seeing that the person in the lead was a young man in his twenties with a sturdy build and handsome features, he guessed that this was the Weiyuan Marquis Mansion Young Master and Jing'an Guard Flag Captain, Pei Shaoqing, whom the Thousand-Household had instructed him to get along with well.

He lowered the curtain. "Continue moving forward."

Zhou Xiangyang had his own considerations.

After Zheng Xuancheng died, the Tongzhou Hundred-Household Office had two Flag Captains, but Pei Shaoqing stood at the very front, which meant that everyone in the Tongzhou Hundred-Household Office now held him in the highest regard.

He had played the role of a grandson in Jingguan City just so that one day he could be promoted and sent out to be a master; therefore, in this situation, he had to give Pei Shaoqing a show of force.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to reclaim the power of the Hundred-Household Office.

Of course, Zhou Xiangyang did not want to offend Pei Shaoqing; he was not that arrogant, he just wanted to establish the master-servant hierarchy today and make the other party and the people of the Tongzhou Hundred-Household Office clearly realize that he was the superior officer.

Otherwise, if he had played the grandson to his superior, the Thousand-Household, in Jingguan City, only to come to Tongzhou and play the grandson to his subordinate, Pei Shaoqing, wouldn't he have come here for nothing?

Once he had established a firm footing, he would naturally strive to improve his relationship with Pei Shaoqing, allow him to be his second-in-command, and make money and get rich together.

The confidence he had to do this stemmed from three things: first, his status as a superior; second, having the Thousand-Household as his backing; third, the fact that Pei Shaoqing had been expelled from the Capital by his family; and fourth, his own ambition to monopolize power.

For the past half month, he had been immersed in the joy of being a bird flying high in the sky; he was still unaware that Pei Shaoqing had killed the Opening Sun Holy Son. If he had known the other party had performed a great service and might be promoted, he would not have acted this way.

Seeing the carriage getting closer and closer, yet the person inside showing no intention of getting out, Chen Zhongyi and the others all looked displeased and looked toward Pei Shaoqing. "My lord?"

"Let us wait and see," Pei Shaoqing said expressionlessly.

The carriage stopped several meters away from the crowd, and an attendant walked up swaggeringly, saying arrogantly, "The Hundred-Household orders Flag Captain Pei to come forward and answer."

"Insolent!" Chen Zhongyi was about to draw his blade immediately.

Before the blade was even partially drawn, Pei Shaoqing pressed his hand down to push the blade back into its scabbard, saying with a smile, "Flag Captain Chen, you must not commit an offense against your superior."

The attendant who delivered the message had been startled, but seeing this, he began to tremble again, and scolded with a mix of embarrassment and anger, "Bold! I represent the Hundred-Household lord; how dare you act so presumptuously?"

"How can the Hundred-Household lord be so rude? It must be you acting like a fox borrowing the tiger's might. This official will take you to the Hundred-Household lord to confront him," Pei Shaoqing said coldly.

As his words fell, his figure flashed and appeared before the attendant, pressing one hand onto the top of his head, twisting and pulling.

Crack! The bones snapped.

Splat! The blood vessels severed.

The attendant's head was ripped clean off by him.

The bewildered attendant fell to the ground and died before he could even react; his bloody esophagus and trachea dangled outside the severed neck, and scarlet, warm blood continued to gush out, forming a small stream on the ground.

"Ah!" "You, you, you, you! You are bold!"

"Hundred-Household lord! It's bad! Something has happened!"

The attendants around the carriage all turned pale, shocked and angry at this unexpected scene.

"What are you making such a racket for!" Hearing the noisy sounds outside, Zhou Xiangyang impatiently lifted the curtain.

Just as the curtain was half-lifted, Pei Shaoqing, holding the head in one hand, had already strode over and handed the head before his eyes, saying softly, "Hundred-Household lord, this person spoke rudely to me, claiming it was on your orders. I have specifically brought him to you for a confrontation. Is this the case?"

He had originally intended to give the other party plenty of face, but since they were so unappreciative, he would not be polite.

"You! You! You!" Zhou Xiangyang looked at his attendant's head, equally shocked and angry, his face full of disbelief; he had not expected Pei Shaoqing to dare to kill so brazenly.

Pei Shaoqing asked again, "Yes or no."

"You are bold!" Zhou Xiangyang roared in anger.

"Then it seems it is so," Pei Shaoqing nodded in sudden realization, tossed the head aside, and turned to leave. "This person is impersonating an official. Arrest him."

"Yes!" Chen Zhongyi and his men swarmed forward.

"Insolent!" Having failed to give a show of force and instead being slapped in the face, Zhou Xiangyang was furious. He reached into his bosom, pulled out a letter, and held it high. "The appointment document is here! Why do you not retreat quickly? Do you really wish to commit an offense against your superior? Do you disregard your parents and kin at home?"

But soon he was sweating profusely, because the Jing'an Guards surrounding him were not intimidated at all; instead, they all looked at him as if he were a dead man.

"Let me see it to verify its authenticity," Pei Shaoqing, who was walking back, turned his head and said indifferently.

Zhou Xiangyang threw the appointment document out; because he used internal energy, the light paper flew a long distance.

Pei Shaoqing caught it, glanced at it, gave a contemptuous smile, and the appointment document turned into shreds in his hand.

He tossed the shreds aside and smiled slightly at Zhou Xiangyang. "Now you have no appointment document."

"You... you are reckless!" Zhou Xiangyang had never dreamed that the other party would dare to destroy the appointment document.

Pei Shaoqing gave an order: "Seize this person who is impersonating an official; if they dare to resist, kill them without mercy."

"Yes!" A group of Jing'an Guard rushed forward.

"Wait!" Zhou Xiangyang roared, his entire spirit and energy suddenly dissipating, and looking at Pei Shaoqing as if his parents had died, he said: "I beg Young Master to spare my life. It was I who was blind and offended you; from now on, I am willing to follow your every command."

He had finally realized that if he did not bow his head now, he would truly have only a dead end to walk.

Isn't it just acting like a grandson to someone?

He had already done it in Jingguan City.

At least here, he wouldn't have to live in constant fear.

"If you had been like this sooner, it would have been fine. Why did Hundred-Household Zhou have to insist on making things unpleasant for yourself?" Pei Shaoqing, this rebel who had committed treason, didn't even bother to act anymore, and with a light chuckle, he said: "My lord, kneel down; this subordinate has matters to report."

"You!" Hundred-Household Zhou was furious, but he gritted his teeth, stepped down from the carriage, knelt on one knee, lowered his head, cupped his hands, and said in a low voice: "Hundred-Household Zhou Xiangyang of the Tongzhou Hundred-Household Office of the Jing'an Guard is here; please give your instructions, my lord Flag-General!"

"Hundred-Household Zhou, the folk customs in Tongzhou are simple and honest; people do not pick up lost items on the road, and doors are not locked at night. There are not so many cases that require your concern and intervention, so you don't need to go to the Hundred-Household Office every day, my lord. All miscellaneous matters can be handled by this subordinate on your behalf," Pei Shaoqing said with breezy indifference.

Hundred-Household Zhou's face turned livid, his whole body trembling with rage, and he squeezed two words through his teeth: "As you command!"

He had not expected that things would be even more miserable after leaving Jingguan City.

Now, he didn't even have a shred of real power left.

"Escort the Hundred-Household lord into the city; tonight, we shall not return until we are drunk," Pei Shaoqing said, throwing his head back and laughing.

Even without Zhou Xiangyang, the higher-ups would just send a new Hundred-Household, so as long as Zhou Xiangyang was obedient, he naturally wouldn't insist on killing him off completely.

"Lord Zhou, please!" Chen Zhongyi looked at Zhou Xiangyang, gestured with his hand, and grinned with pure malice.

Hundred-Household Zhou, who had originally been happy to take up his post, instantly looked as if his mother had died, and he walked into the city, dejected and dispirited.

Yet, in his heart, he secretly decided that he must report Pei Shaoqing to Thousand-Household Lu; this was simply lawless!

Begging for monthly tickets! Begging for monthly tickets! Begging for monthly tickets!

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(End of chapter)