Chapter 538 - 265: City-Wide Manhunt (3)

Chapter 538: Chapter 265: City-Wide Manhunt (3)

Twenty years ago, during that era of widespread suffering, it wouldn’t have been strange.

Lord Blade had intended to use this as a pretext to curry favor with the Red King, but he ended up sucking up the wrong way.

In short, his flattery went sideways. It was like he missed the ass and kicked him in the balls, which just pissed the Red King off.

Qing Shisan said with a frown, "This really is a tough situation."

Zheng Xiu understood him. If it were anyone else, they could just take care of it and be done. But since the couple were Zheng Erniang’s parents by blood, it wasn’t so simple.

"It certainly is a tough situation." Zheng Xiu patted the dust from his clothes, placed the lid back on his teacup, then stood and walked out of the house.

Qing Shisan paused, stunned, then followed him out. "Are you thinking of...?"

He made a throat-slitting motion, his hand trembling slightly.

Qing Shisan was instantly fired up.

Zheng Xiu shook his head and said with an air of self-evident virtue, "How could we possibly do that? I have always been a charitable, law-abiding, and self-disciplined man. Now that I am the exalted Red King, could I possibly engage in illegal and disorderly conduct?"

Qing Shisan was somewhat disappointed.

But the next second, a piercing whistle from Zheng Xiu’s lips echoed resoundingly through the Red King Mansion.

Qing Shisan froze, completely stunned. ’That’s the Brotherhood’s... assembly whistle!’

’The Red King is summoning his crew!’

All along the high walls of the Red King Mansion, shadowy figures materialized. They were clad in hooded black robes, the clever blades in their sleeves ringing softly.

"Well, damn!" Qing Shisan flicked his sleeve. With his middle finger extended, a Sleeve Arrow sprang out from between his digits. It turned out he had been ready all along.

The Red King swaggered out of the Prince’s Mansion, stepped into his carriage, and set off for the West Market.

"The Red King rides forth to eliminate a menace for the people!"

...

「Deep in the night.」

Having just dragged his exhausted body home from the Disaster Prevention Bureau, Jiang Gaoyi turned down his Madam’s proposal for a bit of a "tumble." After washing up, he collapsed into bed, dead to the world.

And whose fault was that? The Red King had left him a note, telling him to organize the last several months of the Disaster Prevention Bureau’s case files.

At this thought, Jiang Gaoyi wanted to cry but had no tears. He even felt the urge to resign from his position as Minister of the Ministry of Justice and just be the Red King’s personal little secretary. But the post of Minister of the Ministry of Justice wasn’t one he could quit just because he wanted to. In the imperial court, if he dared to reveal the slightest inclination to resign, he would face the risk of decapitation.

As his superiors would say: ’If you don’t have something to hide, why would you want to resign for no reason? There must be something fishy going on. Arrest him, throw him in jail, and await our verdict!’

Jiang Gaoyi had been naively upright before his imprisonment, which was precisely why he ended up in chains. In prison, Zheng Xiu’s actions had been a wake-up call. Now, having enjoyed a meteoric rise to the post of Minister of the Ministry of Justice, he saw the crooked paths and straight roads of the bureaucracy with perfect clarity.

’Once you’re in the world of politics, you’re no longer your own master.’

Just as he was sighing with his eyes closed, the Eternal World Painting that Zheng Xiu had given him began to flicker, pulsing like a faulty lightbulb.

[Red King is calling. Accept?]

[Accept?]

[Accept?]

The Red King’s calls on the Eternal World Painting didn’t come with a "Decline" option.

Jiang Gaoyi scrambled to splash some water on his face, trying to muster his spirit before accepting the call. He was just about to report that the case files were nearly organized when Zheng Xiu appeared on the screen, grinning. He said he’d just stumbled upon a wanted fugitive and needed Jiang Gaoyi to issue an arrest warrant immediately, tonight.

"What?"

Jiang Gaoyi was dumbfounded.

’What time is it?! And he wants me to issue an arrest warrant overnight?’

GONG! GONG! GONG!

It was late, but the city had grown strangely lively.

The Six Gates’ Divine Hunter, Guo Zifei, received a secret order that very night. A wanted fugitive, with a long and bloody history of crimes, was said to be hiding in the city.

In less than an hour, the notice boards at every city gate—east, west, south, north, and central—were plastered with the same arrest warrant.

The warrants were bizarre. The face on each poster was drawn differently; some were nothing more than a circle with two dots for nostrils, only barely qualifying as a face. They looked as if they’d been hastily and unprofessionally sketched overnight by temporary workers.

But the portrait clearly wasn’t the point. A drunken Third Scholar happened to pass by, hiking up his trousers. He squinted and drunkenly read the words on the warrant:

"*Hic—*"

"The hell is this?"

"Fugitive Zhang San, alias Lord Blade. Guilty of robbery, burglary, murder, and all manner of heinous crimes. The Six Gates offers a reward of one thousand silver. Wanted throughout the city..."

...

By the time the entire city was blanketed in arrest warrants, Zheng Xiu’s carriage was just arriving, slowly and leisurely, at the West Market.

The trip was so short that the man on the poster didn’t even know he was a wanted fugitive yet.

Zheng Xiu stepped down from the carriage, hooked the Red King Mirror back onto his belt, and grinned at Qing Shisan.

"See?" he said. "Now it’s legal."

Qing Shisan was deeply impressed.