The low-key prince summons trainees from the Imperial Household Department at the start of the game.

The prefect of Runzhou was surnamed Zheng, with the given name Ke and the courtesy name Shouzhuo. He had been serving in Runzhou for five years.

Over the past five years, he has repaired river embankments, provided disaster relief, and resolved wrongful convictions. He believes he has lived up to the expectations of the court and the people.

But at this moment, he stood by the study window, gazing at the old crabapple tree in the courtyard, whose petals had been mostly knocked off by the night rain.

The fingers behind his back unconsciously clenched and unclenched repeatedly.

Something big happened on the canal tonight.

Liu Heng, the "River Scoundrel," hijacked an official ship but was caught red-handed by the Wudang Boxing School in the west of the city. The ship was seized and the evidence was stolen, and the seals on the official ship were not even torn off.

Liu Heng is currently being held in the government jail, bound tightly.

With witnesses and physical evidence, the hijacking of the official ship was punishable by death according to the laws of the Great Zhou Dynasty. This case should have been his most outstanding achievement during his tenure.

But at that moment, he felt as if he were holding a piece of red-hot iron.

I can't throw it away, I can't hold onto it, it's burning my insides with pain.

"Master Dong." A low voice came from behind.

The advisor's surname was Fang, and his given name was Yan. He had been following Zheng Ke for many years.

He rose from a poor, unsuccessful scholar to a high-ranking official, remaining loyal to Zheng Ke, never speaking out of turn, and never making mistakes.

But at this moment, Fang's voice carried a rare hint of hesitation, clearly indicating that he had also realized the thorny nature of the case before him.

"Caught red-handed, he should be executed according to the law." Zheng Ke did not turn around, his voice sounding somewhat hollow in the quiet signing room. "How many merchant ships has Liu Heng robbed over the years, how many lives has he taken? The people of Runzhou hate him so much they wish they could eat his flesh and sleep on his skin. Tonight, the Wudang Boxing Academy captured him, and I should enforce the law impartially."

Master Fang opened his mouth, but before he could speak, the door to the signing room was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

A constable on night duty stumbled in, his face ashen as if he'd seen a ghost, stammering, "Sir! There's someone outside!"

Zheng Ke turned around, his brows slightly furrowed: "You're here, so take your time."

The constable swallowed hard and wiped the rain off his face with his sleeve. "It's Zhou, the clerk from the Governor's Office! He brought the Governor's order, saying he wants to... to take Liu Heng to the Governor's Office for questioning."

Zheng Ke's expression froze for a moment.

The governor's office was far away in Jiangning. Although Runzhou was under its jurisdiction, ordinary official business was conducted through written communication. There had never been a precedent of someone from the governor's office coming to pick someone up late at night.

Zheng Ke's fingers trembled slightly as he adjusted his official robes. He responded and followed the constable step by step toward the front office.

Fang, the clerk, followed behind, his doubts growing to their peak.

The governor's office, an official from Jiangning, came to Runzhou prison late at night with a warrant to bring back a newly captured river bandit.

This is too strange.

But he dared not say it aloud, and silently followed behind Zheng Ke, his boots making a dull thud on the blue bricks.

The main hall of the front office was brightly lit.

A middle-aged man in an indigo official robe stood with his hands behind his back in the hall, raindrops still dripping from the hem of his robe, clearly having rushed here on horseback.

Behind him stood two bodyguards with curved swords at their waists, their eyes fixed straight ahead, exuding an imposing aura.

Zheng Ke quickly stepped forward, cupped his hands in greeting, and was about to exchange pleasantries when the other party didn't even return the greeting, but instead pulled out an official document from his sleeve and handed it over.

The official document bore the vermilion seal of the Governor-General's Office, the ink was still fresh, the handwriting was neat, and the wording was polite, but beneath the politeness lay an undeniable coldness.

Liu Heng, the "River Scoundrel," is implicated in a military smuggling case in Jiangning Prefecture. The Governor-General's Office wants to bring him back to Jiangning for interrogation, and the Runzhou Prefecture Office must immediately transfer the criminal without delay.

Zheng Ke read the document twice from beginning to end, every word feeling like a nail stuck in his eyes.

He raised his head, trying to maintain the dignity expected of a prefect, but his voice trembled slightly: "Prefect Zhou, this Liu Heng just hijacked a government ship from Runzhou tonight, caught red-handed, and according to the law, he should be executed. Your Governor-General wants to take him back to Jiangning, and I dare not stop you, but this hijacking case..."

Zhou Jingli gently pressed the official document into Zheng Ke's hand and interrupted him in a low voice: "Lord Zheng, you are the prefect of Runzhou. It is your duty to act in accordance with the rules."

"But I must also remind you that some cases are not ones you can simply handle as you please."

"Do you think Jiang Ning doesn't know what Liu Heng has done all these years? But Lord Zheng, think about it, he's been running rampant on the waters of Runzhou for so many years, why has no one ever been able to touch him?"

"Think about it again. You made a move tonight. Who came? It was me, not someone else."

Zheng Ke's hand, holding the official document, froze in mid-air. His lips moved several times before finally closing silently.

Zhou Jingli didn't look at him again, turned around and walked towards the prison, with two bodyguards following closely behind.

Standing under the eaves, Master Fang listened to every word, and the cloud of doubt in his heart was finally torn open.

It's not that we won't move, it's that we can't move; it's not that we won't catch them, it's that even if we do catch them, we have to let them go.

At this moment, in the prefect's prison, Liu Heng was leaning against a pile of dry straw in the corner of the cell.

His right shoulder had been simply bandaged, with faint traces of blood seeping through the strips of cloth.

But he showed no fear whatsoever that a prisoner should have. Instead, he crossed his legs and hummed a tune, as if being in prison was just a change of scenery for sleeping.

Hearing the iron gate clang, he raised his eyelids and saw Zhou Jingli. He grinned, lazily stood up, brushed the grass clippings off his backside, and said in a casual tone as if greeting an old friend, "Old Zhou, you've finally arrived. There are so many mosquitoes in this lousy place."

Zhou did not respond, but simply waved his hand to signal the jailer to open the door.

The iron chains on the prison door rattled down, and Liu Heng rubbed his wrists, which were numb from being bound.

He swaggered out of the cell, but stopped abruptly when he reached Zheng Ke's side. He leaned close to Zheng Ke's ear and whispered something in his ear.

His tone carried an undisguised smugness: "Lord Zheng, you've had a hard night. I'll treat you to tea another day when you're free."

Zheng Ke trembled, his hands clenched into fists under his sleeves, his nails digging into his palms, drawing a trace of blood, but his face remained expressionless.

Master Fang stood under the eaves, watching the figures of the people disappear outside the gates of the government office. After a long silence, he finally couldn't help but step forward and ask in a low voice, "Sir, this is... the Governor's Office wants to take someone away. Couldn't they wait until dawn?"

"Coming here in the middle of the night in the rain, it's as if they already knew Liu Heng would be arrested tonight."

"They're coming to arrest people tonight, and they've timed it better than we have to make the arrests ourselves."

Zheng Ke turned and glanced at him.

Master Fang immediately shut up.

There was no anger or resentment in those eyes, only a deep-seated, bone-deep understanding.

Zheng Ke slowly sat down behind the desk in the signing room, unfolded the official document from the governor's office, read it for a few moments, and then gently placed it aside.

He picked up his pen and wrote a few lines on the blank file in front of him.

Master Fang knew that it was a case closure document.

It's not about settling Liu Heng's case, but about settling the responsibilities of the Runzhou Prefecture government in this ship hijacking case.

What happened tonight will become an official document and be archived, never to be mentioned again.

"Master..." Master Fang's voice was somewhat hoarse.

Zheng Ke put down his pen, placed the wolf-hair brush he had used for more than ten years on the brush rest, looked at the solitary lamp on the desk, and suddenly spoke.

His voice was very low, almost as if he were talking to himself: "Old Fang, you've been with me for so many years, it's time you understood some things."

"Runzhou City is neither too big nor too small. It's a melting pot of all sorts of people, but the waters here run deep."

"What you can see on the water is the boat, what you can't see are the reefs. Liu Heng is just a knife, but the hand holding the knife is elsewhere."

"This knife can be used to cut others, and it can also be used to cut us. The person who wielded the knife is coming tonight to take someone away, which is to tell us that this knife is still useful and we can't let it be broken."

"What can we do? We are local officials, in charge of the people's affairs, but there are still many intricate connections between the local government and higher levels."

"The grain transport boats on the canal, the military equipment of Jiangning Prefecture, the tax revenue in the capital—haven't you heard of these things before?"

"Liu Heng hijacked a ship from Runzhou, but he has the entire canal behind him. We can arrest people, but can we control the entire canal?"

Master Fang remained silent for a long time.

The night wind blew in through the crack in the door, causing the candlelight on the table to flicker and casting Zheng Ke's hunched and thin shadow on the wall.

He finally understood.

It's not that Liu Heng can't die, it's that his death would bring up too many people and things that shouldn't be brought up.

Those people and events were intertwined, stretching from Jiangning to the capital, from the grain transport gangs to the imperial court, with countless interests tied to each node.

The person wielding the knife sent Zhou Jingli tonight to take someone away; it's both a demonstration and a warning.

Zheng Ke bent down and took something out from under the desk.

It was his official hat, the wings of which were covered in dust. He carefully blew on them, wiped them with his sleeve, and then gently placed them on the table.

After doing all this, he suddenly gave a bitter smile, a smile that made Master Fang feel even more pained than crying.

"Old Fang, I'm not wearing this official hat on my head, I'm holding it in my hands."

"When Liu Heng's case came out, the person with the knife would come to warn me first. It was Zhou, the clerk, who came and politely took the official documents. This was to save face for me."

"But if I don't know how to appreciate it, the next time it won't be Zhou who comes."

"The one coming will be an imperial inspector, bringing with him a memorial impeaching me, accusing me of corruption, perverting the law, and disregarding human life."

"There are countless charges against me; any one of them could cost me my job."

"I'm not afraid of losing my job; I'm afraid that if I lose my job, the new prefect won't even approve the funds for repairing the river embankment."

He paused, his voice hoarse as if sandpaper was rubbing against wood, "Master Fang, having risen to this position in the government, I have no desire for greed or ambition. I only wish to honestly do a few things that are worthy of the people."

"But sometimes, when you want to stand up straight, someone presses down on your shoulders and makes you kneel down before they feel at ease."

The signing room remained quiet for a long time. In the distance, a boat whistle on the canal sounded faintly in the night, like a low sigh.

Fang, the clerk, suddenly spoke, his voice lower than before: "Sir, what about the Wudang martial arts school... They went to such great lengths to capture Liu Heng tonight, and they'll be rushing to the yamen to claim their reward first thing tomorrow morning. How are we going to explain this?"

Zheng Ke remained silent for a moment, then slowly stood up, walked to the window, and pushed open the wooden window that was wet with rain.

The night breeze, carrying the moisture from the canal, swept over him, dispelling the last trace of hesitation on his face.

"To tell the truth, but not by us saying it, but by me personally saying it."

"I will go to the Wudang Boxing School early tomorrow morning to express my gratitude. I will reward you for your meritorious service in capturing the bandits, but the people have already been handed over to the higher authorities and cannot be kept by the Runzhou Prefecture."

"I, Zheng Ke, have never done anything wrong in my life, but I owe Wudang Martial Arts School an explanation for this matter."