Chapter 831: The Cause of the Palace’s Collapse
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Sun Qingwen and Jiang Biebu were carried out of the residence like chickens and thrown on the ground. They were both shivering.
Jiang Biebu shouted repeatedly, “Sir, this is a misunderstanding. I’m Jiang Biebu, the son of Jiang City’s warlord. I have come here to visit and I’m not with them!”
“Jiang Biebu? Let me think. Yeah, that’s right! There’s your name on it too!” Hong Bao burst into laughter. “You have saved me some effort!”
He then took out a piece of paper, but didn’t understand a word of it.
“You read it!” He threw the paper to the person behind him.
“You do it!” The person behind him threw it to another person without even looking at it.
“Don’t you know that I can’t read?” That man shouted fiercely. “What about Little Fifteen?”
“Little Fifteen’s wife is giving birth today, and Sir gave him two weeks off!” someone answered
“You read it yourself!” They handed the paper to Jiang Biebu and Sun Qingwen.
When they glanced at the paper, their faces immediately went pale. Their sweat immediately soaked their clothes.
“Read it!” The burly man beside them got impatient and kicked one of them.
“The two men, Sun Qingwen and Jiang Biebu…”
“Louder, understand?”
“… are the envoys of Hu and Yongjiang City. However, during Her Majesty’s wedding banquet, they privately teased and made improper comments about Her Majesty and the officials. Many of their words were disrespectful…”
“Damn it! You actually made improper comments about Her Majesty?” As Hong Bao listened, his eyeballs almost popped out. He kicked Jiang Biebu, who was drenched in cold sweat, in the chest, causing him to throw up blood in the air. His entire chest caved in.
“Pah! You are pretty gutsy! Check if he’s dead. If he is, just say that he resisted! If not, just grant him an easy death!” Hong Bao shouted.
“Sir, I’m afraid you’ll get punished for this!”
“What’s there to be afraid of! These people dared to privately make improper comments about Her Majesty. I’ll take some men to their damned cities and start a massacre!” Hong Bao shouted with glaring eyes.
At the side, Sun Qingwen shivered as a pool of yellow liquid flowed out.
Originally, he was still a little hopeful. At that time, Jiang Biebu was the one who did most of the talking, whereas he had merely added a few sentences. He expected to receive some light punishment and would then think about how to remedy it on the way back. He didn’t expect these aboriginals to go directly for the kill!
He felt so regretful now! If he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have spouted such nonsense! At that time, they were speaking very softly, so it was impossible for others to hear their conversation. How did this spread out?
He wasn’t the only one regretting it. Fortunately, some of the warlords’ sons who were eavesdropping outside the wall had been cautious about what they said. However, there were also some who were scared sh*tless as they had also said disrespectful words during their stay in Lan City.
At that moment, a man separated the crowd, walked into the courtyard, and said, “Sir, this isn’t appropriate!”
As the people outside the courtyard wondered who was ballsy enough to do this, they saw his figure and were shocked.
“Lin Mengsheng?”
“Why is he meddling in this mess?”
“Let’s see!”
Hong Bao was furious when he heard Lin Mengsheng’s words. When he turned his head and saw that it was someone from the Yun Nation, he immediately sneered. A murderous aura permeated the whole area.
“Sir, my name is Lin Mengsheng. I’m currently working at Black Bamboo Academy. Like you, I’m serving as an official!” He looked very calm and didn’t seem to fear Hong Bao’s murderous spirit.
“What did you say, kid?” Hong Bao almost flew into a rage and started killing, but after hearing that this man was working at Black Bamboo Academy, he remembered that he had heard about such a thing. However, he didn’t restrain his murderous spirit at all and still looked extremely frightening.
“Sir, did Her Majesty order you to arrest or to kill? No matter what these two people have said or done, even if they are found guilty and convicted, Her Majesty will be the one making the judgement. There are regulations in the household and laws in the nation. It’s all the same, regardless of whether you are in Dayao or the Yun Nation. It’s not appropriate for you to do as you wish without permission!”
He then lowered his voice and said, “Sir, since the Yun Nation has just surrendered, the people are feeling anxious. These two men have special identities as they are envoys of the warlords. Even though their statuses aren’t high, their significance is different. You represent the imperial court and Her Majesty. If you wound and kill according to your own wishes, the people of the Yun Nation will definitely feel threatened and it will end up in chaos! Even though these two people are nothing, if you simply kill them at will, the impact will be great! I’m afraid that both Zhao Prince Consort and Her Majesty won’t want to see this happen.
From the way that Zhao Prince Consort handles things, regardless of whether he was dealing with Tianjing Basin or the Yun Nation, he has always been powerful, yet gentle, in his approach to merge these two nations into Dayao’s territory. Even though you will feel delight when killing them, it will be harmful to the overall situation! I don’t know whether you think that your delight or Zhao Prince Consort’s plan is more important?”
Hong Bao stared at Lin Mengsheng with his eyes wide open. It was as if he was looking at something strange.
He kept silent for some time before saying, “F*ck you! What are you talking about?”
“You look very forthright, but I’m sure you understand what I’m talking about!” Lin Mengsheng replied faintly.
“Even though I don’t quite understand you, you sounded impressive!” Hong Bao suddenly burst out in laughter.
As he laughed, he patted Lin Mengsheng’s shoulder a few times with his hand that was the size of a palm leaf, causing Lin Mengsheng’s face to twitch a little.
If Lin Mengsheng didn’t apply medication to it afterward, he probably wouldn’t be able to lift his arm for more than a week.
When Hong Bao finished laughing, he turned around and asked, “Is he dead yet?”
“He’s still breathing!”
“Take him to the clinic, keep him alive, and throw him into prison! Arrest the rest of these people!”
He then lowered his head, looked at Lin Mengsheng with a sinister smile, and said, “Kid, what you said made a bit of sense! However, you suddenly don’t look very pleasing to me, and I feel like killing you!”
Hong Bao continued laughing and took everyone away.
When he and the people from the Department of Inspection left, everyone outside immediately rushed into the courtyard and surrounded Lin Mengsheng.
Prior to this incident, nobody thought that he would ever stand up for those two people, let alone convince that aboriginal official! Everyone admired his actions, especially when he stood strong against that frightening man.
Many people suddenly realized something. Since Lin Mengsheng, who was also a native of the Yun Nation, now held a position in Lan City and was willing to stand up for his own people, he became more valuable as an acquaintance than the others.
Even if he wouldn’t be able to get promoted to a high rank, being acquainted with him would only bring them benefits and no harm.
…
Ren Baqian and the empress sat across from each other. In front of them was a chessboard.
He held a chess piece and thought about his next move for a long time before putting down a white piece!
The empress ate a piece of fruit before quickly playing a red piece. It was red instead of black because she liked this color!
“Five in a row, I win!”
Ren Baqian looked at those five red pieces that were connected together on the board, threw his white pieces aside, and declared, “I’m not playing anymore!”
The empress twitched her nose and smiled. She was in a very pleasant mood.
His flustered and exasperated look made her even happier than seeing him concede defeat.
Soon after, Xin Zhe came over and reported, “Your Majesty, we have arrested those people.”
At the same time, she handed over a piece of paper and said, “The Rearguard Commandery sent this.”
The empress took a glance at it and threw it to Ren Baqian.
He read it carefully and said, “This Lin Mengsheng is pretty interesting!”
“That Hong Bao has got too much nerve. I ordered him to arrest those people, but he actually tried to kill them!” She was concerned about a different issue.
“It’s also because of the great respect he has for you that he can’t tolerate others making such improper comments!” Ren Baqian laughed.
“Even so, he can’t go unpunished for this!” the empress replied.
“What do you intend to do, Your Majesty?” He was slightly curious.
She pondered for a moment and replied, “Forfeit his salary for half a year!”
Ren Baqian nodded. That was a relatively balanced punishment.
“And then reward him with 1,000 taels of silver! I do appreciate his thoughts at least!” the empress added.
“This Hong Bao only earns an annual salary of 800 taels of silver. He actually still benefits from this punishment! Your Majesty, do you intend to punish or reward him?” Ren Baqian burst out in laughter.
She blinked her eyes a few times and asked, “Haven’t you been telling me to make a clear distinction between punishments and rewards?”
Ren Baqian was stunned. Actually, he didn’t pay any attention to what she said, but was in fact attracted by her charm when she blinked. He leaned over and gently kissed her eyelids.
Qing Yuan and Hong Luan were already used to this, so it didn’t bother them at all.
They had seen him do even more shameless things.
It was actually Xin Zhe whose eyes were very expressive behind her pair of glasses.
“Your Majesty, we have cleared out the ruins of your quarters and discovered the cause of its collapse.”
“Oh? Let’s go take a look!”
Ren Baqian and the empress rushed to the site and saw that they had already cleared up the debris from seven meters deep beneath the ground of the empress’s quarters. There was a 50 centimeter hole along the wall of soil, and it seemed like there were more than ten of these holes beneath the entire quarters.
They were surprised at first, but then, they suddenly discovered something.
These holes… There was only one thing in the entire palace that liked to dig holes… The roaring emperor!
They didn’t know when that fellow actually dug so many tunnels below the quarters! Of course, these tunnels were all at least five meters below the ground. If nothing unexpected happened, the palace probably wouldn’t collapse in the next few decades!
It was a bit implausible to say that these tunnels were the cause of the collapse. However, the empress insisted that this was the cause, regardless of whether it was implausible or not!
“Your Majesty, the quarters collapsed because of these tunnels. However, I realized something just now. There’s a layer of rock below with signs of sculptures carved out by men. There might be a hidden chamber below!”
“Excavate!” She immediately gave the order.
A hidden chamber actually existed below the quarters. This made both Ren Baqian and the empress very curious as to what lay beneath.
Ren Baqian then added, “Capture the roaring emperor!”
It was time to let that fellow understand the consequences of digging holes!
