Operating on the principle that the more one knew, the more dangerous it became, neither dwelled too much on or investigated the matter. Thus, the two sides had tacitly agreed on Ma Ruzhen's identity.
When they heard Meng Zhao say that Ma Ruzhen had a special identity, the two exchanged a glance, both growing intensely curious. Ma Ruzhen was doomed anyway; satisfying some long-standing curiosity would not be a bad thing.
"Oh? What identity did he have, and how does it affect the two of us?"
Meng Zhao smiled faintly.
"Ma Ruzhen was a man of the Imperial Court. He answered to the Beitang Imperial Clan and was one of the Imperial Guard—the Moon Guard Commander, overseeing the entire Moon Guard network in Liang Prefecture. In recent years, the reason he kept siphoning wealth and savings out of Ma Family Manor was precisely to prop up the entire Moon Guard system and keep the Imperial Clan's eyes and ears in Liang Prefecture from collapsing."
At those words, Ma Tianyi and Zhao Zhen were both stunned. They had never imagined that Ma Ruzhen was a man of the Imperial Court.
The reason was simple. Ma Ruzhen's life had always followed the path of a pure Jianghu man, a martial arts powerhouse. He and the Imperial Court were like two parallel lines that would never intersect.
Yet what Meng Zhao said happened to fit some of what they knew about Ma Ruzhen. In particular, it resolved the matter that had always rankled them: Ma Ruzhen had squandered the family fortune they had painstakingly built and accumulated.
Now it seemed that he had not squandered it at all. It had indeed been put to use, though there was hardly anything praiseworthy about it.
Working to the point of paying out of one's own