Chapter 337

A moment later, Mei Qinghe returned, dragging a young man who was trussed up like a dumpling and wearing a flying-fish robe.

The young man was still struggling incessantly, shouting as he did so.

"Battalion Commander Mei, Battalion Commander Mei, what are you doing! I still have official business to attend to. If you tie me up right in front of my subordinates, how will I ever be able to hold my head up again!"

"Who told you to do this? Was it Brother Miao or my father? Let me go first, let me go! Do you hear me!"

"Are you deaf!?"

Mei Qinghe did not speak, merely continuing to walk forward blindly.

Upon reaching Zhu Zai's office, Mei Qinghe, completely disregarding the relationship between Zhu Zai and the young man, raised his hand and threw the man onto the floor, then cupped his hands in a salute.

"Commander, the person has been brought."

The young man also shouted with a look of grievance on his face.

"Father! What are you doing!"

But he didn't expect that as soon as he opened his mouth, Zhu Zai flicked his hand and threw the paperweight from the desk, smashing it directly onto his head. He let out a cry of pain, and blood immediately gushed from his forehead.

"You still have the face to ask!"

Zhu Zai roared.

"If Li Miao hadn't happened to take a trip to Guangxin Prefecture and happened to run into that so-called Luo Mincheng, would you have gone on to cause an even bigger disaster later!"

"You even dare to sell things from the Moni Sect! Why don't you go dig up our Zhu family's ancestral graves and sell them too!"

"Is there anything else, damn it, that you wouldn't dare to sell!"

Hearing Zhu Zai's words, the young man's face turned pale instantly, and he hung his head, not daring to speak.

Zhu Zai kicked over a chair and, pacing back and forth, pointed at his nose and continued to berate him.

"If you're short on money, go ask your mother for it! If you want a promotion, I have plenty of lucrative posts here for you to choose from! If someone bullies you, Li Miao will naturally stand up for you!"

"With your second-rate martial arts, third-rate methods, and no-rate brain, if I hadn't forcibly promoted you, how could you possibly be qualified to be this Battalion Commander!"

"Investigating the strongholds of the Moni Sect rebels—a task Li Miao didn't even let his own people do, but gave to you—and this is how you did it! Huh!?"

"If you had just pocketed the money yourself, I wouldn't even bother to care! But you, you actually!"

Zhu Zai was so furious that for a moment he couldn't even continue speaking.

The young man, who was his own son Zhu Yijing, spoke up cautiously.

"No, Father, please listen to my explanation—I didn't do it for the money."

"I just... I saw that you weren't getting along with those civil officials, so I thought, maybe we should plant a few people on their side... I didn't want the money."

"I did take money from the Moni Sect to buy an official position from Luo Mincheng, but that was to plant an inside agent on their side, which might be useful later... I was planning to tell you after I succeeded..."

As soon as Zhu Yijing said this, Zhu Zai's vision went black, and even Mei Qinghe on the side gave him a strange look.

Heaven have mercy, Zhu Zai had been brilliant his whole life; he was a formidable Imperial Guard Commander before the Imperial Mausoleum incident, and after the incident, he was the one who held all the power in the imperial court—yet he never expected that he was fated to be defeated by his "son."

"Fool! Fool!"

Zhu Zai roared.

"Using the rebels' things to trade with your opponents, and using the vacancy your opponents arranged for you to plant an inside agent... you might as well just hand your head over to them to be chopped off!"

"Mei Qinghe!"

Mei Qinghe cupped his hands: "Subordinate is here."

"Colluding with the enemy, failing in one's duties—according to the Imperial Guard's family discipline, what is the punishment!"

Mei Qinghe did not hesitate in the slightest, and his answer choked Zhu Zai half to death.

"Beheading in public, and the execution of all kin."

Zhu Zai slapped his own forehead.

He forgot; the person standing below the hall wasn't Li Miao, but this blockhead.

No matter how angry Zhu Zai was, this was still his own son. Besides, if he really followed the Imperial Guard's family discipline, he and his wife—his two kin—would also have to be "executed."

Facing a fool and a blockhead, Zhu Zai couldn't vent his anger and had to find a way to back down himself.

"Forget it, forget it."

Zhu Zai waved his hand.

"Mei Qinghe, take him away, give him fifty lashes, and send him home to recover."

"Does anyone else know about this?"

Mei Qinghe shook his head.

"The Regional Commander sent the message directly, and You Zi'ang brought him back personally; no one else has seen it besides you."

Zhu Zai waved his hand.

"Then let it be so. Take this little beast out. Give the letter to An Ziyang and have him clean up the loose ends; kill everyone who needs to be killed, and leave no hidden dangers."

Mei Qinghe nodded and walked out, dragging Zhu Yijing, who was shouting "I'm innocent" incessantly.

Zhu Zai let out a long sigh. After both of them had walked far away, he waved his hand to close the door from a distance, then stood up and walked to the front of the hall to squat down.

He reached out to wipe up the blood Zhu Yijing had dripped on the floor, clenched it in his fist, and held it to his chest. After a long while, he let out another long sigh.

————————

"Battalion Commander Zhu, we have arrived."

Mei Qinghe lifted the sedan curtain and said to the pale-faced Zhu Yijing.

"The Commander said that to avoid worrying the Old Lady, he will tell her you have gone on official business. You should stay here and recover well. The servants you usually use have been transferred here, and there are guards watching over you."

"Just rest and recover with peace of mind. After half a month, when you have thought things through, send a message, and the Commander will see you."

Having said that, he ignored Zhu Yijing's hostile gaze, arranged for people to help Zhu Yijing inside, and after making the arrangements clear, he turned and left.

Now, as Zhu Yijing was helped onto the bed by his page, seeing that there was no one else around, he could no longer hold it in, and his face revealed resentment and dissatisfaction.

"Jinyi, do you think I was born into the wrong family? Did I owe my father a debt in a past life, and am I here in this life to pay it back as his son?"

"If I don't do anything, he scolds me; if I do something, he scolds me too. Before I did anything, I reported it to him, and he called me a fool. I thought I'd tell him after I succeeded, and I ended up getting fifty lashes for nothing!"

"They say that fat water doesn't flow into outsiders' fields. He is now the one who holds all the power in the court, yet he lets an outsider sit in the position of Regional Commander. If an outsider says something against me, he wants to beat and kill me... what is the point of being father and son like this!"

The page reached out, dipped his finger in the ointment, and with fingers as delicate as white onions, applied the ointment to his back bit by bit.

"Young Master, how can there be overnight grudges between father and son?"

"Let outsiders handle the official business; you can enjoy your leisure at home. In any case, the Master's family business will all be handed over to you in the future, so why be so impatient?"

Zhu Yijing was suddenly furious.

"I thought the same way before, but do you think I want to compete with Brother Miao? What kind of person is he? He started killing at nine, led a team to wipe out a sect at fourteen, and grew up drinking human blood and eating human flesh!"

"If it were in the past, he could take the tasks, and I could take the money. I could even use his protection to get a cushy job; naturally, there would be nothing to compete for, since official positions aren't hereditary anyway."

"But now, my father clearly has the possibility of... ascending to the throne!"

He lowered his voice.

"If I do nothing and manage nothing, just drifting along every day, when the old man steps down in the future, will Brother Miao be able to submit to me? And how could I convince the others?"

"Even doing something wrong is better than doing nothing at all!"

While speaking, the page finished applying the medicine and sighed.

"This servant only hopes that Young Master is well... seeing this blood, this servant's heart is breaking..."

Having said that, she actually shed tears.

Zhu Yijing felt a pang of heartache, and ignoring the wounds on his back, he pulled her into his arms and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes.

"Sigh, Jinyi, only you understand me."

"If only you had a clean background, I would definitely marry you properly and wouldn't have to make you dress up as a page every day."

The page leaned into his arms and said softly.

"Just meeting Young Master is enough for this servant... how could I dare to ask for more?"

The two leaned against each other for a while, and Zhu Yijing seemed to remember something and said softly.

"Jinyi, I have checked your family... they left Shuntian several years ago, and there has been no news since. I only found out your original surname is Liu."

"Your name is Liu Jinyi."

The page responded, but did not answer.

Zhu Yijing did not see that in his arms, Liu Jinyi's expression had completely faded, leaving only a face without a trace of emotion.

After a long while, Zhu Yijing embraced Liu Jinyi and fell into a deep sleep.

Liu Jinyi pushed him away, walked to the window naked, and raised her hand in a gesture, causing a carrier pigeon to fly over.

She took off the letter tube, took out the note, read it, and swallowed it, then turned back to look coldly at Zhu Yijing sleeping on the bed.

"Liu Jinyi."

"Liu Jin, Yi."

Stripped of the clothing and skin, Liu Jinyi was just Liu Jin.

Or rather, Liu Jin.

Liu Jin was expressionless, thinking to himself.

"Yingzhou, a thousand-year-old overseas heritage."

"Perhaps there are experts stronger than that thief Li Miao... it would be a source of help, and I should make contact."

"If I can use them to lure away that thief Li Miao, perhaps I can set things right, wipe out these thieves in one fell swoop, and rescue His Majesty."

He stared at Zhu Yijing, a trace of murderous intent appearing in his eyes.

"Ascend the throne?"

"Even if it means destroying this Zhu family's empire, I will not let you rebellious thieves have even the slightest chance!"

(End of chapter)