Chapter 675: Distracting Thoughts

Chapter 675: Chapter 675: Distracting Thoughts

March 25th, it was once again the annual Blue Moon Festival. Unlike before, this time Shen Hao was eating Blue Moon Cake in the military camp, and exceptionally got half a jin of fruit wine distributed as well.

Compared to the Blue Moon Cake he used to eat, the cook in the army obviously had a much rougher hand. Though the flavor wasn’t bad, the texture was far inferior. If this level of Blue Moon Cake was being sold in Fengri City, nobody would buy it for sure.

But even so, this kind of Blue Moon Cake was in high demand in the army.

What is Blue Moon Cake? It’s atmosphere! It’s comfort! It’s a day that stands apart from all the killing!

Living constantly with gloom or blood, people need something simple and warm. Look at even Li Jiang and Zhang Ye—guys who obviously know the comforts of an upper-class life—they were eating with gusto too. Just goes to show how rare it is to enjoy hometown food in the army.

As Shen Hao ate Blue Moon Cake, he couldn’t help but recall past Blue Moon Festivals. Who knew, with the way things were these days, was there still anyone in Fengri City organizing Blue Moon Association?

As for that half jin of fruit wine, Shen Hao gave it to Li Jiang. He just couldn’t get used to that tart "wine".

Even though it was a festival, the work in Shen Hao’s hands hadn’t reduced in the slightest.

One part was Internal Inspector business. This side was comparatively easy, since the Inspector had been set up to keep watch on the Military Supervisors, but now that those Supervisors had all shut up and acted like wooden dummies, the Inspector’s job was basically idle. If Shen Hao hadn’t told them privately to make notes on the main commanders’ oversights and the Supervisors’ laziness, they’d have nothing to do at all.

The other matter was the internal business of the Xuanqing Guard back in Fengri City. Don’t let the fact that Shen Hao was in the army now fool you—he hadn’t let go of Fengri City’s affairs. Most small matters didn’t need his attention, and Wang Yiming was plenty capable to handle them. But there were always things that needed his decision, so lately, the messages coming in from Xuanqing Guard channels far outweighed anything from Inspector business.

The first time Shen Hao saw the news that Liao Chengfeng had been seized, he was stunned for a long moment.

He still remembered the first Xuanqing Guard senior he’d ever met was Liao Chengfeng. Back then it was on a river boat by Bai River, and Shen Hao was just a lackey, grinning on the sidelines. Later, Jiang Cheng rose to power, and Liao Chengfeng was transferred to Jingnan. After that, he never saw him again. Who’d have thought—just a few years, and he’s gone?

Of course, the case files on Liao Chengfeng would be submitted to the Emperor, and no doubt there’d be solid evidence enough to cost him his life. But none of that would ever be announced to the public. Since there’s "no need for broad disclosure," it was fundamentally different from the big stir of the earlier Jingxi Action—and with how delicate the Dynasty’s current situation is, it wasn’t a good idea to show off this incident.

But Shen Hao understood full well that Liao Chengfeng’s problem wasn’t just a simple matter of internal cleansing. Later, Black Water sent word too, laying out in a single phrase the real reason behind it: He hadn’t abided by Xuanqing Guard rules, and relying on his deep background, tried to support the Third Prince independently outside the Guard. For Xuanqing Guard—and for Pang Ban in particular—that was an intolerable risk.

Since arriving in Fengri City, Shen Hao had personally set up Black Water, and after getting involved with many top-level power structures from the Jingjiu Dynasty, he’d gained a whole new understanding of the Xuanqing Guard. In his eyes, the Xuanqing Guard looked all-powerful and totally above the Dynasty’s law—"arrogant" didn’t even begin to describe it.

But if the Xuanqing Guard screwed up, got caught, they’d never be judged by the law either. In most cases, their punishment was much more brutal than the law could ever devise.

Just look at Liao Chengfeng. Now, there’s almost no news about him on the outside, and nobody even knows if he and his whole family are dead or alive. But in truth, by the Xuanqing Guard’s usual practice, Liao Chengfeng was already done for—no one in his family made it out alive.

You telling me killing Liao Chengfeng was just regular procedure? Shen Hao didn’t buy it.

Black Water had already dug up all of Liao Chengfeng’s dirt. There were plenty of major powers involved—Cultivation Race, and the Third Prince. That explained a whole lot.

How many years had Liao Chengfeng served as Governor? First in Jingxi, then in Jingnan, and before that as Thousand Households of Jingzhong—basically spent most of his life climbing the ranks. Even if something went wrong, it couldn’t have been some spur-of-the-moment thing; must have been festering for years. With Pang Ban’s character and methods, how could he not know what kind of guy his Governor was?

Maybe when Liao Chengfeng was promoted, there were other reasons—like the Emperor’s influence, or maybe Pang Ban had other calculations at the time. So it wasn’t so unbelievable that he’d put up with Liao Chengfeng for a while.

But everything has its limits. Pang Ban might have ignored Liao Chengfeng’s many vices and tricks, even his secret identity, but he would never tolerate Liao Chengfeng crossing the Xuanqing Guard’s bottom line.

Even Pang Ban never dared get involved in the Royal Family’s "Major Examination," but Liao Chengfeng wanted to drag the Jingnan Xuanqing Guard in with the Third Prince? Wouldn’t that pull Pang Ban down with him?

Did he really think Pang Ban wouldn’t dare to kill for this?

What Shen Hao found most interesting was that Pang Ban even made Jiang Cheng carry the can for him. Outwardly, he made it look like Jiang Cheng was after "private revenge," which served as the pretext for a sudden leadership shuffle inside Xuanqing Guard. He even took the opportunity to clean house throughout the whole Jingnan Xuanqing Guard.

Wasn’t Jiang Cheng’s name just Pang Ban’s fig leaf? Definitely. But it wasn’t for covering shame—it was for plausible deniability.

"Private revenge" might sound ugly, but what does something like that matter for the Xuanqing Guard? On the streets, the common folk feared the Xuanqing Guard like Evil itself; who knows how much filth is whispered in private—they just don’t dare say anything openly.

So it wasn’t about saving face for the Xuanqing Guard, it was about plausible deniability. To avoid people seeing the disposal of Liao Chengfeng as Pang Ban officially breaking with the Third Prince. Even if that was the truth, as long as it wasn’t out in the open, Pang Ban could just act the blind man.

One reason this mess made Shen Hao think so much was precisely this: if even someone of Pang Ban’s rank, a Boss at the very top, had to use Jiang Cheng as a fig leaf before daring to handle his own subordinate, didn’t that mean things inside the Dynasty were already way past "tense"?

To borrow a word that kept showing up in Black Water’s info: "silent as cicadas in winter."

No one dared to speak up. Anyone even a bit self-aware, knowing they had no claim to any faction, wouldn’t dare utter a careless word—afraid that a single slip would get them labeled as "so-and-so’s Prince’s man" and killed off just like that.

This wasn’t a joke, but hard reality. According to Black Water’s intel from the Imperial City, just in the month of February, all the Local Government Office stewards and the four garrison commanders in the Imperial City got swapped out in turn. The ones who got booted ended up in miserable shape—the whole mess stank to high heaven.

What the hell was all this?

Fighting for knife master in the Imperial City, that’s all!