The river valley at Southern Foothills Mountain.
His face bruised and swollen, Yan Zizhan huddled beside the campfire, trembling nonstop.
"Guess this bastard's true identity." Jia Huan wiped the blood from his hands.
His subordinates exchanged puzzled glances.
His elder brother was the magistrate of Pengze County, and his father was Jiangzhou's associate commissioner. The Yan family could blot out the sky with one hand in their little patch of territory.
Did he have another hidden identity?
Jia Huan sneered.
"Eunuch Dai's own grandson!"
An uproar erupted!
Every Embroidered Uniform Guard looked stunned, then excited.
Had the eunuch fathered children before entering the palace?
Scholar suddenly understood.
"No wonder a powerful brush holder of the Directorate of Ceremonial personally cleaned up after an academy instructor, even leaving traces that his political enemies could seize upon. With his own grandson in trouble, how could he sit still?"
Jia Huan's smile vanished, and he barked:
"Torture the answers out of him!"
"I'll do it myself!" Scholar's expression turned vicious as he reached out and dragged the prisoner away.
Agonized screams continued for an hour. Blood gushed from Yan Zizhan like a spring, and his bones and sinews were broken.
"Boss." Scholar reported gravely:
"He's nothing but a dissolute wastrel. He never gets involved in the Yan family's internal affairs. His father and brother never tell him what they've done."
"He knows only one thing. Four years ago, a bald donkey claiming to be the abbot of No-Killing Temple brought the Yan family two chests of gold sycees and a cartload of antiques, calligraphy, and paintings. He saw it himself."
"Which temple?" Something suddenly occurred to Jia Huan.
"No-Killing Temple!"
The corner of Jia Huan's mouth twitched.
Jiangzhou's No-Killing Temple. Enemies truly did meet on a narrow road!
The first stepping stone in