Taking Him Away

Minister Sun shot him a cold sidelong glance.

Director Huang felt as though he had plunged into an ice cellar. Head lowered, he hurried over in a panic.

"My lord, this happened so suddenly that I didn't have time to obtain an arrest warrant, chiefly because the man is a martial artist and the nephew of Xu Pingzhi of the Imperial Saber Guard. He was capable of fleeing to escape punishment." Director Huang thought, His lordship's big slapping hand is only six feet away from me, but I can shift the blame in 0.01 seconds.

"Young Master Zhou sent an attendant to submit a written complaint, saying that a scoundrel had beaten him in the street and threatened to make his blood splatter five paces."

"The matter was urgent, so I decided to arrest him first, lest he flee."

With the Bureau of Astronomy's white-robed members and the great scholars of Cloud Deer Academy present, he dared not lie, nor was there any need to.

The two sides had fought in the street; it was the sort of case where each should receive fifty strokes of the board.

Apart from lacking an arrest warrant, he had done everything by the book. At the Ministry of Justice, there were countless cases of warrants being obtained afterward.

The Bureau of Astronomy's white-robed members frowned.

Li Mubai and Zhang Shen exchanged a glance. Li Mubai stepped forward and said solemnly, "The sage said: A gentleman should be honest."

Thump, thump, thump.

Director Huang felt his heart pounding violently and blood rushing to his face. Ashamed of having lied, he wished he could find a hole to hide in.

He hated himself for lying. His mind protested fiercely, protesting his despicable conduct.

His mouth, too, angrily broke free of his will and began speaking beyond his control: "Young Master Zhou wants to do Xu Qi'an to death, to have him die in the Ministry of Justice's prison and vent the hatred in his heart! I-I wanted to do Young Master Zhou a favor."

That felt better. Director Huang dropped to the ground, sweat beading on his forehead.

An uproar broke out around him. More than a dozen Ministry of Justice officials were present; some looked at Director Huang with disdain, some with contempt, and some with gloating delight, while others shook their heads and sighed.

"Despicable and shameless! I'll write a memorial to impeach you tomorrow," a supervising secretary of the Ministry of Justice said, suddenly fired up.

Fifth-rank Virtue Realm. Minister Sun remained impassive. He glanced at Director Huang, whose face was deathly pale and whose eyes were vacant, then instructed an official under him, "Pass on my order. Release him."

Amid the clatter of shackles, Xu Qi'an was brought into the interrogation room. Young Master Zhou had changed into an indigo robe, thick yet not unsightly.

He sat sprawled in his chair, one foot propped on the seat. The ear Xu Qi'an had crushed underfoot was wrapped in fine white cloth.

A thin elderly man stood at his side, wearing a blue long coat with gold trim at the collar and cuffs. His sharp eyes were fixed on Xu Qi'an, and he made no attempt to conceal his killing intent.

Two jailers also stood beside a pile of torture implements, looking Xu Qi'an over with gloating delight.

The richly dressed young master waved a hand. A jailer pulled a sheet of paper from his robes and flung it down in front of Xu Qi'an.

"You have two paths to choose from now," Young Master Zhou said, looking down at him. "Confess and put your mark on it; or try every torture implement here, then confess and put your mark on it."

Xu Qi'an glanced at it. The confession stated, roughly, that Xu Qi'an, a county runner of the Changle County yamen, had quarreled with Zhou Li in the street, developed murderous intent, and used his martial strength to attack him, gravely injuring Zhou Li. Constables had then arrived and taken the runner Xu Qi'an into custody.

Attacking someone in the street, and the other party is the vice minister of revenue's son. If I sign and put my mark on this, the lightest sentence will be exile. If that Zhou fellow pulls a few strings, I could even be sentenced to beheading at the marketplace. He isn't leaving me a way to live.

Xu Qi'an looked away from the paper and at the richly dressed young master. "If I sign and put my mark on it, I'll be spared some pain?"

Young Master Zhou's lips curled. As though toying with an ant, he said mockingly, "No. The choice I'm giving you is this: put your mark on it first and be tortured afterward, or be tortured first and put your mark on it afterward."

Several jailers burst out laughing.

Xu Qi'an's face darkened.

The more he reacted like that, the happier Young Master Zhou became. He loved seeing people hate him yet be unable to do anything about it.

"Tsk, tsk, frightening, truly frightening," Zhou Li said with a grin. "Uncle Chen, are those shackles secure? What if this scoundrel suddenly attacks and kills someone?"

The thin old man smiled. "Rest assured, young master. He's only an ant. This old servant can slap him to death with one hand."

"Then I'm relieved." Zhou Li rose and walked over to the pile of torture implements, speaking at length. "There are twenty-four kinds of torture implements here. Every one of them can cause a person the utmost pain without taking their life. They're excellent tools for extracting confessions."

"I won't kill you. Wouldn't that be letting you off too easily?"

"I've heard there are a full hundred and eight kinds of torture implements in the Nightwatchers' prison. No one locked up in there has ever come out alive."

"Unfortunately, you won't have the good fortune to enjoy them. Tsk, tsk, what a pity."

Xu Qi'an could not help looking at the implements: a chair covered in iron spikes, rusty steel needles, and an iron saw stained dark red by years of blood. There were all sorts, and every one reeked of cruelty and bloodshed.

Xu Qi'an swallowed, his face turning pale.

By now, Miss Caiwei of the Bureau of Astronomy should have received Head Constable Wang's message. Why hasn't she arrived yet? Is she unwilling to save me?

No, I made that book extremely enticing. Any Alchemist who read it should be left feeling as though claws were raking at their heart and liver, desperate to see what comes next.

If she doesn't come save me soon, even if I survive in the end, I'll be crippled by the time they've finished using all those implements on me. Beads of sweat began to form on Xu Qi'an's forehead.

He was a normal person, and he felt fear too.

Young Master Zhou had been watching his face as he spoke, and he was very pleased by what he saw.

The game, like a cat playing with a mouse, had him engrossed and enjoying himself immensely. He continued, "I hear your second uncle, Xu Pingzhi, raised you from childhood. You must be very close."

"Hmm, I have reason to suspect that you and your second uncle planned this whole thing yourselves."

He investigated me. Veins bulged at Xu Qi'an's temples.

"But, Young Master Zhou, that isn't written in the confession," a yamen runner said, troubled.

"Idiot, just write another one," another jailer scolded.

"Then what are you waiting for? Write it right here, in front of him." Young Master Zhou laughed wildly.

His laughter echoed through the interrogation room. Suddenly, the shut iron door opened, and a jailer led an official in a blue robe inside.

The blue-robed official looked around and saw that Xu Qi'an had no blood on him and was unharmed. He silently breathed a sigh of relief.

"Take him away."

Finally, finally, they're here. Xu Qi'an felt a weight lift from his shoulders.

The jailers in the interrogation room instinctively looked at Young Master Zhou.

"My lord, we're interrogating a prisoner," Young Master Zhou said. His gaze moved from the blue robe, which signified the fifth rank, to the official's face, and he looked somewhat displeased.

The blue-robed official smiled sarcastically. "This is the Ministry of Justice, not the Ministry of Revenue. If Young Master Zhou wants to interrogate a prisoner, go back to the Ministry of Revenue and do it there-if the Ministry of Revenue handles criminal cases and prisons too."

With that, he shouted, "You good-for-nothing dogs, didn't you hear me? Take him away."

P.S. There will be three updates today to finish this part of the story. It's tiring for you to keep reading it like this. Let's count it as the first extra chapter I owe an alliance leader. I'll repay Xiu'er first. After all, he's been in my imperial harem for a long time, so I'll pick his tablet first.

Once the book goes premium, chapters will be at least three thousand characters. Knowing how I wrote Second Generation of Demons, four thousand characters per chapter will be the norm. When the time comes, I hope to see you all spamming: "Newspaper Seller is long and lasts a long time."