In the dim prison passage, a rush of footsteps rang out clearly.
"Eh? Who are you?"
"Show some respect! This is the Provincial Deputy of Jingzhou!"
"My lord!" The jailers hurried to bow.
"Make way up ahead! The Provincial Deputy is here!"
The Imperial Guards' cries echoed again and again through the long, narrow passage.
The jailers on either side stepped aside and bowed as Le Zhan strode past, his jade pendant chiming with his hurried steps.
A Cao officer hurried after him. "Rest assured, my lord. Though I don't know the details of this case, with the Chief Clerk absent, no one would dare touch a member of the Langya Wang clan."
Le Zhan kept walking, his expression troubled. "That may be so, but once someone is imprisoned, he is in another's hands and can hardly avoid suffering. Have you not heard what the Marquis of Jiang said? 'I once commanded a million soldiers, yet how could I have known the power of a prison officer?'"
"My lord, that should be the room."
They spotted a freestanding torture chamber, some distance from the rows of chambers they had passed earlier. The four jailers guarding it came forward when they saw the party approach.
One cupped his hands and bowed very low. "May I ask who you gentlemen are?"
The judicial officer asked at once, "Is Young Master Wang of Langya inside?"
The jailer hesitated briefly before answering, "Yes."
"Open the door."
"My lord, do you intend to..."
"This is Lord Le, the Provincial Deputy of Jingzhou. I am Bai Guan, Southern Commandery Judicial Registrar (a division chief in the municipal justice bureau). Open the door at once! Lord Le wishes to see Young Master Wang!"
The jailers hastily bowed, then said awkwardly, "But without orders from the Chief Clerk..."