Chapter 544 - 268: Until Next Year’s Full Moon Night

Chapter 544: Chapter 268: Until Next Year’s Full Moon Night

The matter of Second Lady’s family reunion was finally settled.

In the study, tendrils of sandalwood smoke drifted through the air.

Zheng Xiu clutched a piece of beautiful, antique jade. The craftsmanship was exquisite; the core was carved with a pair of mandarin ducks. On the back was an elegant character, ’Mei,’ that looked to have been inscribed by a woman.

For some reason, when Zheng Xiu learned that the couple weren’t Second Lady’s birth parents, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Human nature couldn’t be judged in simple terms of good or evil. Humans were, by their very nature, complex creatures.

The couple might have had kind hearts once, adopting the abandoned Second Lady. But later, as times grew hard, they gradually lost their way and revealed a much uglier side.

In the end, Zheng Xiu still had Qing Shisan arrange for someone to secretly leave the couple a sum of silver. They were also warned that from this day forward, Second Lady had no connection to them. If they ever dared set foot in the Imperial City again, they would have to bear the consequences themselves.

For the two of them, the experience in the Eternal Purgatory had been like an intensely vivid nightmare. It was more than enough of a lesson.

’Is this a clue to Second Lady’s origins... or is this character, ’Mei,’ the name she was supposed to have? Zheng... Mei’er?’ Examining the Jade Pendant, Zheng Xiu let his imagination run wild. ’How strange,’ he thought.

Two days later, once Second Lady had calmed down a little, Zheng Xiu told her everything. He didn’t hide the fact that he had investigated the matter himself, and he placed the Jade Pendant—possibly a keepsake from her birth parents—into her hands.

Second Lady’s reaction to receiving the Jade Pendant and learning the truth about her origins took Zheng Xiu by surprise.

She rubbed her eyes, her face breaking into a genuinely joyful smile. "Then that means Second Lady is still your sister."

"Of course!"

"Now, tell me!" With her worries resolved, Second Lady’s demeanor changed in a flash. She grabbed Zheng Xiu’s ear and demanded, "What’s been going on with you and Zizi and the others? You’re not getting any younger, you know. When are you finally going to hold a grand wedding and marry Miss Feng Bei?"

"Sister Second Lady," her old self again, once more tugged on Zheng Xiu’s ear, nagging the Red King to hurry up and take care of his personal affairs.

"AH, THAT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS..."

The two of them horsed around in the study, their laughter echoing throughout the Red King Mansion.

Hiding on the roof, Qing Shisan fiddled with his pipe, not daring to light it. He froze when he heard the noise, but the next moment, the corners of his lips curled into a fond, doting smile.

Some things are better left unknown.

This was the best possible ending.

「Additionally.」

Word gets around.

Although Zheng Xiu later had Scarface Liu claim the reward and built him up as the "Nemesis of Crime," many influential people in the city still managed to learn what happened that night through various channels.

Destroying a small gambling den like Xiaoyao Square wasn’t a big deal. What truly shocked them were the Red King’s swift and decisive methods.

On the surface, the Red King was acting virtuously, destroying a den of thieves and apprehending wanted criminals. But any discerning observer could see that in order to go from plastering wanted posters all over the city late at night to kicking down the doors of a gambling den and slaughtering all the major criminals inside in less than two hours, the Red King must have bypassed numerous official procedures.

Moreover, that little gambling den, small as it was, was still tied to certain people’s interests. To get his cut of the profits, did the Minister of the Ministry of Rites not make some sacrifices? Or promise favors to others?

Could the Red King really have been ignorant of these complex dealings?

Was the Red King really not going to give the Minister of the Ministry of Rites even a shred of face?

Was he pretending not to know, or was this a deliberate ’slip-up’?

The truth was, the Red King gave him no face whatsoever.

The Red King had snatched a piece of meat that was practically in the Minister of the Ministry of Rites’s mouth and tossed it aside without a second thought. It was no different from a resounding slap to the face.

Jiang Gaoyi later secretly told Zheng Xiu that at the next day’s morning court, he had reported the matter to the Great Emperor. The Great Emperor was overjoyed with Jiang Gaoyi’s efficiency and immediately rewarded him with a basin of gold ingots. As court was dismissed, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites approached Jiang Gaoyi with a beaming smile to congratulate him, but the man’s face was a mask of pure resentment.

It seemed they had inadvertently made a powerful enemy. When Jiang Gaoyi worriedly expressed his fear of being sabotaged by his colleagues, Zheng Xiu comforted him, saying, "A righteous man has nothing to fear." Besides, he added, who cares if you have enemies at your back? The Red King’s words finally put Jiang Gaoyi’s mind at ease.

After this incident, the Ministers in the Court, the Military Generals, and the three Princes finally saw one thing clearly.

The Red King had used a trumped-up wanted poster to effortlessly and quietly crush Xiaoyao Square. Not only had the Great Emperor not reprimanded him for acting first and reporting later, but he had instead praised the Ministry of Justice for a job well done. Did this mean that in the future, the Red King could do the same thing again? Find some other pretext, pick out someone he disliked, give them the name of the outlaw Zhang San, declare them irredeemably evil, and have them executed overnight without a trial?

Wasn’t this a clear sign that the Great Emperor favored the Red King?

Those who are favored always act with impunity.

Later, a rumor spread that Lord Blade’s real name wasn’t Zhang San; his surname was Guo, and his given name was Congliang. A new phrase began to circulate secretly In the Court: "to call a Guo a Zhang."

In the future, couldn’t the favored Red King just target whomever he pleased? There was no real Zhang San to begin with. With a single word from the Red King, couldn’t anyone become Zhang San?

Where, then, was the rule of law?

Was being a Prince really that incredible?

Er... actually, yes, it was!

The only Prince in all of Daqian.

For a time, the court was abuzz. Some saw the situation for what it was. Some lamented that Heaven was blind. Some sighed at the fickle nature of the world. And some schemed to ride this new wave of power to the top.

But even more people were thinking the same thing: "If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em."

The Ministers in the Court, each with their own agenda, began to reconsider how they should interact with this new Red King. Regardless of their true intentions, however, appearances had to be maintained. And so, the stream of people sending gifts to the Red King Mansion grew ever longer.