Inside the Imperial Prison.
The atmosphere was sinister and terrifying.
Dai Quan glanced at the eyeless heads piled inside the cell. Every face was familiar. His eyes nearly split with fury as he thundered:
"Running roughshod over everyone, slaughtering the innocent-are you an Embroidered Uniform Guard serving imperial power, or a butcher without restraint?"
Jia Huan looked at the eunuch bearing down on him and chuckled.
"Insulting this Thousand-Household Commander and plotting to assassinate an Embroidered Uniform Guard-these men were courting death!"
Dai Quan forcibly suppressed his grief, his eyes all but spitting flames.
"Where is the evidence?" an attendant in a python robe demanded fiercely.
Jia Huan's smile did not fade.
"Does a full-fledged Thousand-Household Commander need evidence to investigate a handful of men like them?"
Veins bulged on the python-robed attendant's forehead as he rasped:
"Such despicable fabrications! Just you wait!"
With that, he turned to leave.
"Come back!" Dai Quan struggled to rein in his emotions.
They were all dead, and had been tortured before dying. Clearly, they had been arrested first, then interrogated about their crimes. This little bastard must have confessions from his boys in his hands.
"Thousand-Household Commander Jia." As expected of a powerful eunuch weathered by countless storms, Dai Quan actually smiled, his voice sinister.
"I hear the memorials impeaching me have reached the Grand Secretariat. They've caused quite a stir all morning. What was it again? I colluded with the Tatar invaders?"
"Listen carefully: I did indeed collude with the Tatar invaders. Come, write that in your Book of Impermanence. Take it to the Grand Secretariat and submit it for His Majesty's inspection!"
He approached as he spoke, laughing from sheer fury.
"Have you lost your mind, or do you think all the High Ministers at court are fools? You had two