Song Lian looked at the youth in front of him expressionlessly. Then, he rolled his eyes and spat out a word, "Idiot."
"Your Excellency, how can you say that about me?" Chen Chao opened his eyes wide, looking innocent.
The corners of Song Lian's mouth twitched and he said calmly, "If you're in my Left Guard, Your Father would whip you right now."
Chen Chao chuckled and said, "If Your Excellency really has this intention, you can recruit me to the Left Guard too. That has a much brighter future than being a puny little warden."
"Alright. If you can walk out of the Court of Judicial Review alive, I can give you this opportunity."
Song Lian glanced at Chen Chao and could not help thinking that if this youth could really walk out of the Court of Judicial Review safe and sound, what on earth would that mean?
Returning to his senses, Song Lian asked, "Can he travel in his current state?"
There had always been people behind him, they were all people that he brought from the Divine Capital's Left Guard. At this moment, hearing the commander asking a question, someone immediately answered, "Replying to Your Excellency, his injuries are quite severe. If he departs on a journey now, I'm afraid that... he won't die."
Hah?
Chen Chao looked at that fellow who was wearing black official robes. What was he saying?
Song Lian nodded his head in satisfaction, "Then let's set off. The Divine Capital is far away, let's not delay. After all, this person is a felon of the imperial court."
Imperial court felon, Song Lian said the words very solemnly.
"Is the prison wagon ready?"
Song Lian casually asked.
The officer said somewhat embarrassedly, "Your Excellency... we didn't seem to have brought anything like that when we came... However, there seems to be a manure transportation cart over at the county government."
Song Lian pondered seriously for a moment before saying with a nod, "Is that case... we can only make do with it."
"I object!"
Chen Chao looked at Song Lian as well as the officer behind him with incomparable seriousness and said with a frown, "Don't you guys find it rather preposterous?"
"Why would it be preposterous?" That officer looked at Chen Chao and had the same serious expression, "We'll wash it clean, then transform it into a prison wagon. That way, it will be no different from a new one..."
Chen Chao was speechless. What rendered him speechless was not using a manure cart to bring him to the Divine Capital, but that this person had a serious look, as if it was perfectly natural to do so.
Song Lian smiled and said, "He's called Weng Quan. He'll be taking care of you along the way."
Chen Chao's expression was ugly.
Song Lian got up and instructed, "After you're done making the prison wagon, bring Warden Chen out and wait for this official at the government office entrance."
After he finished saying this, Song Lian got up and left without waiting for Chen Chao's reaction.
He still had to do some things in order to take Chen Chao away. He had to leave behind a file in the county government.
Other than that, he also had to meet someone.
……
……
At the beginning of every month, there would be a sizable debate at the bank of the South Lake. At first, it was by the academy's teachers from various subjects having a mutual discussion about the concepts that they were good in. They would gain insight under the continuous collisions. Whenever this day arrived, it would be destined to have many students sit around and listen. Later on, this matter gradually developed rules and turned into a South Lake debate by the various subjects' teachers every late autumn.
It was just that the practice of the early autumn discussion was still retained. However, it changed from the teachers to the students.
It became an organization developed by the students themselves.
However, even if it was a self-developed organization by the students, it was also very popular in the academy. Because once someone won in this, it would mean that their reputation would reverberate throughout the academy. Whether they became an official in the future, or right now in the academy, it would be greatly beneficial.
Today was the time for the debate again. Many students already gathered on the lake viewing platform beside the South Lake.
There was a small forest next to the lake viewing platform and there were some pavilions in the forest. At this moment, there were a few students dressed in the academy's attire who were gathered under a pavilion. One of them was the debate leader last month, Huang Zhi.
This person came from Changping Prefecture's Commandery Nanxing, he was also from a scholarly family. These few days, he had been gradually making himself stand out. He even won the top spot in the debates for two consecutive months. Today, no one knows how many students wanted to snatch his number one position. But as the debate started, Huang Zhi did not go and think about these but looked at that small courtyard that was further away. There was faintly some disappointment in his eyes.
"Fengjie, is she not coming today as well?"
Huang Zhi was a little disappointed with plenty of hurt in his eyes.
These few days, he often went to wait in front of that door, but she did not open the door once. When he went to class, he deliberately waited many times for that young girl on the route that she had to take. But she never responded. Not only did she not say a word to him, she even looked straight ahead and never glanced at him.
Her attitude was already clear.
Huang Zhi just treated it as that she felt that he was not outstanding enough, so she refused to get acquainted with him. That was why he had been debating at the lake for several months in a row. In the recent two months, he was already the champion.
Many teachers in the academy also approved greatly of him. After examining his body, there were several teachers who expressed their intention to accept him as a disciple too.
Studying in the academy versus cultivating with a teacher, was two very different concepts.
Huang Zhi originally felt that he was already rather impressive like this. But that young girl was aloof and indifferent from start to finish.
This really disappointed him.
"I'm here every month. It was actually never because of being the champion. I just wanted to see her here. But why isn't she here every month?"
Hearing this, the few schoolmates under the pavilion whom he had a good relationship with all looked at Huang Zhi. Their eyes had some sympathy.
Presently, it had spread all over the academy until it was in an uproar. Everyone knew that this Huang Zhi who came from Nanxing's Huang Family had always liked that young girl who stayed by the lake. But that girl who came from the Xie Family had never responded.
As Huang Zhi'z best friend, seeing that his good friend was so dejected, Jiang Fengjie hurriedly comforted him, "Maybe Miss Xie is just busy with other things. Or maybe she doesn't like crowds to begin with. I heard before that Miss Xie has even missed many classes. Perhaps it's because the tutor who's teaching the class is too noisy."
Jiang Fengjie's face was slightly red. These were excuses that he was finding. In reality, the entire academy knew that Miss Xie did not like Huang Zhi at all. If she had an ordinary background, there might still be a possibility due to Huang Zhi's family. Yet, she was a descendant of the Xie Family. Since it was the Xie Family, then there was no such thing as wanting to curry favor with any aristocratic family in the Great Liang Dynasty. Whoever she wanted to marry would likely be entirely up to her.
"Brother Huang, why must a good man be depressed because of a woman?"
Someone in the pavilion urged, "Since that Miss Xie isn't interested, why must Brother Huang do this?"
Huang Zhi sighed and just shook his head and walked out of the pavilion. The debate was about to start. Even if she was not coming, there were still some things that had to be done.
……
……
A letter was delivered to that small courtyard by the lake.
Liu Ye who was holding the letter jogged all the way. When she arrived at the entrance of the courtyard, she stopped for a moment to adjust her breathing. Only then, did the spectacular sight of her chest heaving non-stop gradually stop.
Although she was not old, she was indeed different from ordinary people in some aspects.
Ordinary people, ordinary women.[1. Big boobs]
Pushing the door and walking into the courtyard, she quickly passed through the courtyard and came into the house.
"Miss, a letter is delivered from Wei Prefecture there."
Actually, when Liu Ye was speaking, her heart was racing too. Miss took a trip back home when she received that letter from Wei Prefecture previously. She heard that on that day, Miss even went to see Ancestor. Now that another letter came, what would Miss do after reading it...
Liu Ye did not dare to think about it. She only hoped that Miss would not go and find Ancestor again. That place filled her with great trepidation every time she went.
Dressed in a gray shirt today, Xie Nandu who had her hair casually let down her shoulder like a waterfall took the letter that Liu Ye handed over. She did not open it, because this was opened before in the first place.
Taking out the paper inside, there were only a few words. It was roughly saying one thing: that was that the youth had already been rescued by someone now, and already left Tianqing County. Presently, he had probably already arrived at the Wei Prefecture office. It may be presumed that he would be able to leave Wei Prefecture and come to the Divine Capital in a few days.
However, he was being escorted.
He was coming to the Divine Capital to go to prison.
When ordinary people entered the Court of Judicial Review, they would probably never come out again in this lifetime.
Xie Nandu already learned previously that Chen Chao killed those few foreign cultivators. Once such a felony was verified, there would be almost no possibility of survival.
Chen Chao did not clarify a lot of things in the letter before. Therefore, she wanted to ask now.
"Grind the ink, I want to write a letter."
Xie Nandu looked outside the window. Currently, the debating sounds at the lake was a little intense. There were voices coming over from afar. She was born clever and had a photographic memory too. Even discerning people by their voices was nothing difficult.
Hearing Huang Zhi's voice and listening to the things that he was talking about, she was silent for a moment and shook her head.
There was no disgust between her brows, just nonchalance.
Picking up the pen, Xie Nandu slowly lowered it onto the paper and wrote a line very quickly.
"Miss' handwriting is really good."
Liu Ye scooted over and could not resist praising after a glance.
……
……
A group of dozens of people left the Wei Prefecture office and headed to the Divine Capital. With Song Lian in the squad, no foolish demons dared to attack along the way.
In the center-most prison wagon, the youth who had a pale complexion welcomed the embrace of death. His head would continuously sway along with the jolting of the prison wagon.
Weng Quan rode on the horse and kept talking about the things that he had already talked about countless times.
Chen Chao only used one day to go from his initial-most objection to resigning himself to his fate.
All the way until a black dot cut across the sky. A wooden bird fell from the sky and landed on the prison wagon.
"Your Excellency..."
Weng Quan immediately opened his mouth.
"No problem."
Song Lian was indifferent. If they followed the rules, Chen Chao naturally could not read the letter at this moment. But these rules were superfluous things in the first place.
When he saw this wooden bird, light finally returned to Chen Chao's lost eyes and he took out the letter in the wooden bird.
Opening it up, a small row of words entered his eyes. The small characters looked elegant, but in reality, it had a special vigor of style.
Seeing this letter, he seemed to remember that young girl he met in the mountain god temple on that snowy night.
Very soon, he finished reading the contents of the letter.
Xie Nandu was asking about the details of that incident. She wanted to take this opportunity to do some things for him before he arrived in the Divine Capital.
Chen Chao thought about it and wanted to reply too. Hence, he opened his mouth to ask for a pen and ink.
Song Lian came over on horseback and asked, "Who are you writing to?"
Chen Chao lifted his head and said with a frown, "Lord Song, you don't need to worry about this sort of thing, right?"
