Linzi.
There was neither wind nor rain today.
After a day of questioning, Ji Zhaonan, clad in silver armor and a snowy robe, walked expressionlessly down the long street.
He was the personal disciple of Jiang Mengxiong, the Great Qi God of War, a decorated general who had fought year-round beyond the Gate of Ten Thousand Demons. Thus, he received preferential treatment: he wore neither cangue nor shackles, nor did he have to squat in the Heavenly Prison.
He merely had to come to the Capital Patrol Inspection Office and submit to questioning by several veteran Green Badges, including Yang Weitong, Commander of the Northern Office—the Ministry of War had already interrogated him, but the Northern Office had to conduct another round.
Naturally, no one dared subject him to brutal torture. They had not even cursed at him.
Yet every person in the Capital Patrol Inspection Office had been exceptionally cold. That hostility... he felt it clearly.
Just as now, walking the streets of Linzi, a man of his peerless bearing would ordinarily have drawn countless cheers. Anywhere in Qi State, he would have received the treatment due a hero. Even if he hid himself in a carriage, there would never be any shortage of women flinging fruit after it from carriage to carriage.
But today...
Today, he was still a suspect. He could not ride in a carriage that displayed his status, nor could he have an honor guard.
Today, every person he encountered on the long street looked at him with cold eyes.
He understood.
He had caused the death of this city's young hero.
He had brought an end to a legend of a commoner rising to become a state marquis.
The representative of the new people of Qi had fallen.
Many people's banner had collapsed.
He