Chapter 470
Chapter 470
At that moment, in a house across the way, Crazy Nan was on his knees, weeping and begging.
“Miss, oh, Miss. Please have mercy. It wasn’t easy for me to grow this long hair. You absolutely cannot shave me bald. I am destined to be a prime minister in the future. I can’t meet people without my hair. Ma’am, if you just spare my hair, I will consider you my savior for the rest of my life. My savior, please, I beg you, spare my hair!”
Hamno said coldly.
“I have no idea how many lice are in that mess of weeds you call hair, so it absolutely cannot be spared. What if the lice spread to Lady Bing? What if they spread to Young Master Shen? He is a man as divine as an immortal.”
Crazy Nan pleaded in a desperate tone.
“Then what if we kill the lice with hot water?”
“You want to kill the lice with boiling water? What will be left of your scalp?”
Crazy Nan gritted his teeth and said.
“Let’s give it a try.”
A moment later.
“Aaaargh!”
Crazy Nan let out an unprecedented, bloodcurdling scream.
“It’s cooked, it’s all cooked…”
His scream startled a street vendor passing by, causing him to collapse to the ground. Nearby beggars changing their clothes were so shocked they nearly wet themselves. A full quarter of an hour later, over a hundred lice corpses floated on the surface of the hot water in the basin. Crazy Nan’s scalp was nearly boiled, and his hair was clean for the first time. He tossed his long hair, stroked his beard with one hand, and leaned halfway against a pillar, his gaze tender as he spoke.
“Miss Hamno, has anyone ever told you that you are exceedingly beautiful? Where is your hometown, Miss? Are you married?”
* * *
If Shen Lang setting up a stall on the street to recruit talent had made him a laughingstock, his actions today were like dropping a massive boulder into a calm lake, stirring up enormous waves. Shen Lang had appointed the trash-like Crazy Nan as a seventh-rank registrar in the Fifth Prince’s marquisate. That alone was shocking enough, but he had also taken in ten half-crippled beggars as Hundred Households. The news spread through the entire capital in an instant, and nearly everyone within its walls was talking about it endlessly. Shen Lang had gone from being a laughingstock to a complete madman, a man who disdained the monarch, a man so insidious his true intentions were impossible to fathom. Finally, King Ning Yuanxian could bear it no longer and had Yeo Jun drag Shen Lang into the royal palace. Then, the king unleashed an unprecedented torrent of fury.
* * *
“Shen Lang, what is the meaning of this? Are you provoking me? Are you trying to humiliate me? Are you blaming me for not assigning people to Ning Zheng? So you bring in eleven beggars to tarnish my reputation? You, how could you subject me to such disgrace? You… you have thoroughly chilled my heart. Not long ago, you set up a stall to recruit talent and made me a laughingstock, but I tolerated it. But now, you have crossed the line even further, acting with such abandon. Explain yourself to me, explain yourself!”
The king trembled with rage, his face ashen.
‘I may not have treated Ning Zheng well, but Shen Lang, how much have I favored you? I favored you to the point where you could act with complete impunity, and this is how you humiliate me?’
Ning Yuanxian once again felt betrayed. Taking a sip of tea, he said coldly.
“Shen Lang, you must give me an explanation today. I have sent my Blackwater Terrace experts outside Ning Zheng’s estate. If I do not give an order to stop them within half a watch-hour, they will kill all eleven of those beggars you brought in. And you, Shen Lang, will get the hell back to Xuanwu City immediately. A great talent such as yourself is beyond my ability to employ.”
Under the cover of darkness, hundreds of experts from the Blackwater Terrace waited outside the Marquis of Ning Zheng’s estate. If no new orders came by the appointed time, they would storm in and kill the beggars. This was to prevent the king from becoming a laughingstock to the world. …Actually, to be frank, he already was, but this could at least prevent his reputation from being utterly ruined.
Shen Lang said solemnly, “Your Majesty, I am serious.”
Ning Yuanxian roared, “You’re serious about humiliating me! What have I, Ning Yuanxian, done to you to deserve such resentment?”
The more the king thought about it, the angrier he became, and he immediately waved his hand.
“Yeo Jun, give the order. Tell the Blackwater Terrace experts to act ahead of schedule and kill all those beggars. Escort Shen Lang back to Xuanwu City overnight and return him to Jin Zhuo. This man is too great for me to employ!”
The king was truly heartbroken.
“Your Majesty, is it true that a Special Examination will be held this year?”
The Metropolitan Examination had already been held last year, so the next one was scheduled for the year after next. However, the State of Yue had experienced so much this year, including an unprecedented victory. Thus, Ning Yuanxian had decided to hold a Special Examination to boost the nation’s morale.
“Your Majesty, Crazy Nan and the ten beggars are all talents. The kind of talent you find only once in ten thousand miles.”
“Hahaha…”
The king laughed, both infuriated and incredulous.
“That Crazy Nan is in his thirties this year and has been wandering the world since he was a teenager. He has never attended a proper school, nor has he ever sat for any imperial examination! There is still over a month until the Special Metropolitan Examination. If Your Majesty would grant him the status of an Imperial Academy Student so he may participate, I guarantee he will pass the examination.”
The king scoffed even more derisively at his words. That Crazy Nan had been a wandering swindler since he was a child, living entirely by deceit. He hadn't spent a single day in a school and had no training for the examinations. He couldn't even pass the exam for a scholar, let alone a jinshi. And there was only a little over a month until the Special Metropolitan Examination.
“Your Majesty, those ten beggars are also martial arts talents. Although they have never trained in martial arts, have been beggars since childhood, are half-crippled, and have no martial foundation whatsoever, they are truly talents you find once in ten thousand. There is just over a month until the military examination, but in that time, I will train them and ensure that every single one of them passes to become a military graduate.”
Hearing this, the king looked at Shen Lang as if he were looking at a madman.
‘This man must be truly insane. Either that or he’s deliberately feigning madness before me. Even an ordinary prodigy must train diligently and arduously for over a decade to barely pass the military examination. Look at Zhang Jin or Lin Zhuo. Which one of them didn't endure all sorts of hardships to pass? Didn't they wake at the crow of the rooster and train for ten years?’
The martial arts of this world were stronger than those of ancient China, so the status of every military graduate far surpassed that of their counterparts in ancient China. Most military officers had to be military graduates or military jinshi. In this world, the status of military graduates and jinshi was no less than that of their civil counterparts. Thus, becoming a military graduate in this world was like winning a spot so fiercely contested it was akin to thousands of soldiers crossing a single-plank bridge. Tianyue City, being the capital, produced countless talents, so every military examination held in the capital was a veritable group of death.
To be blunt, even an expert like Thirteen had a very low chance of passing the military examination. Only someone at Jin Zheng’s level could barely manage to pass. Yet Shen Lang claimed that ten half-crippled beggars with no martial foundation could pass after just over a month of training? It was utter nonsense, the kind of nonsense a madman would spout in his sleep.
“Your Majesty, I will write a military pledge. If, in the metropolitan examination a month from now, Crazy Nan does not become a jinshi, and those beggars do not become military graduates, I will return to Xuanwu City in disgrace and never set foot in the capital again. I will never again speak of His Highness Ning Zheng competing for the throne.”
* * *
In a pavilion.
After drinking a cup of wine, Gou Duhuan looked at Zhuo Xiao'an with a complex and ashamed expression.
“Xiao'an, I… I’m sorry!”
“Why did you do it? Failing to kill Jin Zhuo was one thing, but leaving without a word, do you know what a disadvantageous position that put me in?”
“I… I couldn’t do it. Marquis Jin Zhuo is an upright and noble man.”
Zhuo Xiao'an sneered.
“If he’s noble, then am I, Zhuo Xiao'an, a despicable person?”
Gou Duhuan said urgently, “Xiao'an, I’ll make up for my mistake. I can make up for it. For the past month, I’ve been trying to do just that. You wanted to know why the Zhuo Clan was destroyed, didn’t you? I’ve investigated it all. Xiao'an, I will go and avenge you right now. I will kill all your enemies for you. No matter how powerful our enemy is, I am not afraid. At worst, I’ll just die once. Xiao'an, I would do anything for you. For you, I do not fear death. The enemy who destroyed the Zhuo Clan is an expert of profound skill, perhaps even at the Grandmaster level. But I am not afraid at all.”
Zhuo Xiao'an let out a soft sigh and said, “That won’t be necessary. I know who it is. But I will not seek revenge, so I will have no more use for you, brother.”
Gou Duhuan’s voice trembled.
“Xiao'an, don’t be angry. Please don’t be angry. What must I do for you to forgive me? Tell me, and I will do anything for you!”
Suddenly, Gou Duhuan felt something trickling from his mouth and nose. He reached up to touch it and found his hand covered in black blood. He asked, his voice shaking, “Xiao'an, did you poison the wine?”
Zhuo Xiao'an replied coldly, “Yes.”
Gou Duhuan trembled, his body wracked with disbelief.
“I… I did so much for you, killed so many people for you. I gave you my all. And you poison me to death? What you said… that you loved me… was that a lie too?”
Zhuo Xiao'an sneered.
“Of course, it was a lie. You are nothing but a lowly war refugee. Just because my father adopted you, did you really think you were my brother? In my eyes, you are nothing but a slave!”
Gou Duhuan felt as if he had been struck by lightning. Mouthful after mouthful of black blood gushed from his lips. After a long moment, tears fell from his eyes.
“Zhuo Xiao'an, if you wanted to kill me, did you really need to use poison? You could have just stabbed me with a sword.”
Gou Duhuan forcefully tore his clothes, revealing a chest of rippling, twisted muscles, and shouted.
“If you want to kill me, kill me yourself! I will not dodge!”
With a cold expression, Zhuo Xiao'an drew her sword and plunged it directly into Gou Duhuan’s chest.
*Thrust!*
In an instant, Gou Duhuan’s chest was pierced. Though he was poisoned, and Zhuo Xiao'an’s martial arts were formidable, several martial artists of her caliber would have been useless against him. Gou Duhuan could still have crushed her with a single finger. But he didn’t. He allowed her to stab him in the chest as she wished.
“Useless thing, die!”
Zhuo Xiao'an shouted coldly, then pulled out her sharp sword and kicked him. Gou Duhuan’s body tilted backward, and he fell into the rushing river below, black blood pouring from his seven orifices.