The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 382 Fire, Return to the Capital, Murder

"What is there to regret?"

Zheng Qi looked at the ground and said in a hoarse voice.

"Everyone has something they hold onto in this life. If I could let go of everything, why did I hide in the cabin, eating rotten rat meat, to escape to Da Shuo? Why am I still clinging to life now?"

“Wang Hai, Commander Wang, in fact, among the people in that room just now, you are the most similar to me, and only you can understand me, which is why you spoke to me.”

"If one day Li Miao dies at someone's hands, for the sake of revenge, you wouldn't hesitate to burn down Nanjing, or even the whole world, right?"

Wang Hai did not answer.

After a long pause, he spoke slowly.

"Should I help you, or will you do it yourself?"

Zheng Qi took a few deep breaths and slowly walked towards the burning palace.

"No need to trouble yourself."

“I have done what I can. Zheng Yi will still have to work with you in the future. If I die at your hands, it will only be a problem for her.”

"Let's end it here... I'm tired too."

Stepping over the charred corpses on the ground, Zheng Qi entered the burning hall.

The scorching air rushed into her lungs, and the burning sensation intertwined with the excruciating pain throughout her body, slowly bringing her back to her senses.

"what--"

She breathed a sigh of relief.

Over the course of forty-eight years, she contemplated her own fate many times, pondering what she would feel before she died—resentment? anger? hysteria?
Now she finally got the answer.

Relieved.

Forty-eight years ago, Yingzhou invaded Penglai, and everything the girl owned was reduced to ashes. She hid beneath her mother's body, which was gradually rotting and swelling, watching the flickering firelight in the distance.

She was already dead by then.

The firelight reflected in her pupils, and Zheng Qi's lips slowly curled up, as if she had seen something.

"Mother...I'm back."

She staggered and plunged into the flames, as if a long-wandering girl had once again run into her mother's arms.

The flames that have been burning fiercely forty-eight years ago gently embraced her.

The last disciple of Penglai rests in eternal sleep amidst the flames.

--------

"You heard what she just said, didn't you?"

Li Miao reached out and grabbed Cun Dong's head, shaking it from side to side.

Because Zheng Yi was present, he couldn't bring himself to interrogate Zheng Qi. But he didn't have that concern with Cun Dong. Before he could even begin questioning her, his true energy had already flowed into her body through her Baihui point, causing unbearable pain along her meridians.

This is far superior to the "minor techniques" that Li Miao taught Cao Hanyan and Gao Anyu. By circulating true qi and healing while injuring, parts that would normally require carving can now be easily cut into fine tofu without fear of being too heavy-handed and killing the animals.

Cun Dong's eyes widened instantly, and he opened his mouth as if to cry out, but Li Miao's true energy suppressed him from within, rendering him unable to move.

After a long while, Li Miao finally stopped.

Cun Dong suddenly collapsed to the ground, his body soaked in sweat, yet he continued to struggle and roll around.

He finally stopped after a cup of tea had been brewed, panting heavily.

The officer of the Right Guard of the Valiant Cavalry and the eunuch in black kneeling beside him were already sweating profusely and trembling uncontrollably.

"Now it's time for the Q&A session. You've all heard what happened in Yingzhou. Now it's time for the first question."

Li Miao asked.

"Besides Zheng Anqi, have you colluded with any other people from Yingzhou?"

"Or rather, apart from Zheng Anqi, have you ever seen anyone who looks like me?"

Cun Dong did not answer.

But another eunuch in black suddenly spoke up.

"Have!"

“Before we set off for Nanjing, a man who looked seven or eight parts like you arrived in Shuntian Prefecture, and Liu Jin met with him.” Li Miao nodded, showing no surprise.

Liu Jin wasn't looking for Zheng Anqi from the very beginning, but rather Yingzhou. His collusion with Zheng Anqi was mostly due to coincidence. Yingzhou came to the Central Plains in pursuit of Zheng Anqi, and his encounter with Liu Jin was a natural progression.

He asked, "What did they say? What did they do?"

Before the eunuch in black could speak, Cun Dong on the ground suddenly shouted, "Traitor! Scoundrel!"

"You aid and abet the wicked, you curry favor with the traitor! How can you face His Majesty?! You—"

Xiao Si raised his hand and pressed it on his body, and Cun Dong suddenly stopped moving, his whole body stiffened and began to tremble.

The eunuch in black hurriedly spoke.

"We really don't know..."

“It’s not that I’m deliberately hiding it! After deciding that a few of us would come to Nanjing, everything in Shuntian Prefecture has been kept out of our sight! If that person who resembles you hadn’t arrived so suddenly, Liu Jin wouldn’t have even let us see him!”

"Liu Jin is His Majesty's... no, the false emperor's confidant. Although he is young, his talent, methods, and ruthlessness are outstanding. From the beginning, he considered the possibility that we would fall into your hands, so he will not let us know any useful information!"

Li Miao slowly flicked his fingers.

"Oh? You don't know anything... so you're useless?"

The eunuch in black remained silent, but the officer of the Right Guard of the Valiant Cavalry quickly spoke up.

"It works! It works!"

“I didn’t want to get involved in this, but these eunuchs showed me a few things to gain my trust—right here in my bosom! You’ll see when you look!”

Cao Hanyan stepped forward, reached into her pocket, and presented the item to Li Miao.

Li Miao casually flipped through two pages and sneered.

"Heh, I told you the commander was too soft-hearted. If you had listened to me, you could have cut the Gordian knot and wiped them all out; that way, fewer people would have died."

"As the saying goes, 'Goodness does not make one an official, sentiment does not make one a leader, and benevolence does not make one a politician.' This old man throws books at people all day long without ever opening them to read. He'll suffer the consequences sooner or later."

He flipped through a stack.

"A handwritten letter from the Minister of War, to the imperial court."

The next stack.

"The Five Armies Protectorate, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, and the army."

The last stack.

"Even the unprinted imperial edicts did not completely eliminate those within the palace."

"These people, Liu Jin, and Yingzhou, you've really turned up all of Da Shuo's power... That's good."

With a wave of his hand, Li Miao instructed Cao Hanyan to put the stack of documents into her bosom and step aside.

"Is there anything else?"

"For those who have spoken, I can give them a quick death without implicating their families; for those who haven't spoken... everyone knows who I am, so I won't say more."

"Oh, you bunch of spineless cowards, don't think you can pretend to be loyal to me just because you have no ties. In the Jinyiwei prison, there has never been a shortage of eunuchs who would confess and beg for a quick death."

Li Miao walked slowly to Cun Dong and flipped him over.

"Eunuch Cun, what do you say?"

Cun Dong remained silent, gritting his teeth.

Li Miao asked in surprise.

"That's strange. Are you really a loyal subject?"

"I'd like to see just how loyal you are, Xiao Si. I'm leaving you here."

Xiao Si smiled and nodded, then called out to Gu Feixuan to help her carry Cun Dong, before skipping out the door with her hands behind her back.

A moment later, Gu Feixuan rushed back, his face pale, and handed Li Miao a piece of paper covered in writing with bloodstains on the edges.

Li Miao glanced at him up and down, and his expression darkened.

He strode outside.

"Let's go back to the capital and kill people!"

(End of this chapter)