Chapter 704: Live or dead, see the body
Lifting the millstone-sized rock aside, Sun Shaozong stretched out his hand to grab the bluestone slab at the edge. Just as he was about to exert force to jump out of the secret passage, he suddenly felt a coolness on the back of his hand melting into water.
It’s snowing?
Sure enough, when I came out of the secret passage, I saw snowflakes floating in the sky, but the ground was still clean, obviously it had just started snowing.
Sun Shaozong moved the big rock back to its original place, looked up at the gray sky, and let a few snowflakes melt on his face. The cool touch immediately lifted his spirits.
There are still a lot of things to deal with today, so I have to cheer up.
Thinking of this, Sun Shaozong did not panic. He carefully observed behind the rockery to make sure that no one was so ignorant as to break in. Then he pushed open the gate and walked out.
On the way to the front hall, he stopped a servant and was about to tell him to call Zhao Zhongji over to talk, but suddenly he remembered that he had sent him to deal with Zhang An's funeral these days.
So he changed his words temporarily and ordered, "Tell the doorman Wang to go into the front hall and wait, and tell him that I have something to tell him."
The boy responded hastily and ran along the corridor.
When Sun Shaozong rushed to the front hall, Wang Jin had been waiting outside the door for a long time.
Sun Shaozong walked into the hall on his own and sat down in the main seat. Then he turned to Wang Jin, who followed him in respectfully, and said, "Do you still remember the beggar chieftain Hong Jiu?"
Although Wang Jin was somewhat puzzled as to why his second master suddenly mentioned a beggar, he did not dare to neglect him in the slightest. He nodded like a chicken pecking at rice and said, "Every time that fellow came to our house, he would wait in the hallway. I have talked to him a few times."
In fact, it was Hong Jiu who took the initiative to greet Wang Jin with a smile every time he visited him, but Wang Jin just ignored him.
"That's the case."
Sun Shaozong nodded and said, "Go to Shanxi Lane right away and have Hong Jiu wait near the Dali Temple for the next two days. I may be able to use him."
In the past, these tasks were conveyed by Zhao Zhongji. Now that the second master personally entrusted him with the task, Wang Jin did not dare to neglect it in the slightest. He first found someone to temporarily take over the job of the doorman, then went to the stable to ask for a mount, and then hurried out of the corner gate.
…
At the same time, in Prince Zhongshun’s Palace.
Prince Zhongshun, who always liked to stay in bed, got up early today for the first time. He did not even bother to get dressed or wash up. He paced back and forth barefoot in the warm room covered with Persian carpets.
Seeing him like this, the Hu Ji who had slept with him last night did not dare to dress properly. She was only draped in very simple cloth and was shivering all over.
Half of it was fear, and the other half was pain.
Yesterday, Prince Zhongshun fully demonstrated what it meant to take an unconventional approach. He simply left his three mouths in the shape of a Chinese character "品" unused and focused on using his tools to punish people.
After that night, not only was the delicate skin on my body swollen, but even the soles of my feet were bruised and swollen. Stepping on the ground felt like torture, and I had to stand on tiptoes frequently to relieve the pain.
So King Zhongshun walked as fast as the wind, and the two Hu girls moved up and down, each busy with their own things, and for a while they did not interfere with each other.
However, this strange harmony was soon broken.
"Your Majesty."
A maidservant, about fourteen or fifteen years old, tiptoed into the hall and bowed her head to report: "Zhou Changshi is back."
"This dog actually knew to come back?!"
King Zhongshun gritted his teeth and cursed, then scratched his white flesh arm and ordered, "Get out of here, and call Zhou Mo in!"
The two Hu girls were as if they had been pardoned. They hurriedly took clothes, shoes and socks from the bedside, put them on, and fled in a panic with the little maid.
One of them lost a boot and didn't dare to turn around to pick it up.
Prince Zhongshun was too lazy to pay attention to them. He just sat back on the couch, breathing hard with gritted teeth.
Not long after, Zhou Mo came in from outside, first fell to his knees with a plop, then crawled forward on his knees, saying sadly: "This slave deserves to die, that Taoist Master Daoyan is... gone!"
"What?!"
Upon hearing this, Prince Zhongshun suddenly stood up from the couch. The layers of fat on his lower abdomen began to tremble violently, like the three waves of Yangguan Pass, which was eye-catching.
He walked barefoot to Zhou Mo, lifted him up from the ground, and asked him word by word , "What happened to Daoyan? Say it again!"
Zhou Mo saw the cold expression on his face, and immediately broke out in a sweat. He subconsciously turned his gaze away, and then he said in a trembling voice: "Master Daoyan, he...he ran...ah!"
Before Zhou Mo could finish his words, King Zhongshun kicked him in the face, causing Zhou Mo to fall on his back with blood flowing from his nose.
But King Zhongshun did not get anything good out of it - he forgot that he was not wearing shoes, and when he kicked with all his strength, Zhou Mo's front teeth knocked a gash on the sole of his foot, and he felt a piercing pain when he stepped on the ground.
However, the pain made him calm down a little. He stood on tiptoe and asked coldly, "Didn't I ask you to send more people to keep an eye on him? How could he suddenly disappear?!"
"I did send people to monitor him, but when I went there this morning, the place was empty. Those people who were following him didn't even notice anything strange!"
After hearing these words, Prince Zhongshun's face became even gloomier. He limped on one leg and slowly sat back on the couch.
It was a mistake, truly a mistake!
I should have dealt with the Taoist priest as early as when Yang Hancai was captured - but I was greedy for the elixir of immortality and was bewitched and kept him.
But who could have expected that Sun Shaozong, clearly under the pretext of making a secret recipe for his royal brother to have a child, would actually dare to report to his royal brother?
Fortunately, except for Daoyan himself, no one knew what kind of elixir he was refining this time - even Daoyan himself always thought that he was refining medicine for the emperor...
Considering the relationship between me and my brother the Emperor, and the fact that only a few beggars died, I would probably just make him drink three cups of wine as punishment and never do it again.
Thinking of this, King Zhongshun felt a little more at ease.
The most important thing right now is to not make this matter a big deal, otherwise Emperor Guangde might be forced by the situation to execute Ma Su with tears!
Thinking of this, King Zhongshun immediately ordered: "You dog, get up first!"
Zhou Mo was used to his moody appearance, so he didn't dare to stand up. Instead, he knocked his head to the ground and said in a muffled voice: "I deserve to die..."
“That’s enough!”
Prince Zhongshun said impatiently: "What's the point of talking about this now? Why don't you quickly gather all the people and go find Dao Yan!"
At this point, he solemnly warned: "Remember, if the person is alive, you must see the body; if the person is dead, you must see the person!"
Zhou Mo was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then he realized that this was not the opposite of what was said, but meant that he should kill the witness and then bring the body back - in short, not a single trace could be left.
Since I am still needed to hunt down Daoyan, I think my life should be saved.
Now Zhou Mo finally breathed a sigh of relief and swore that he would not let the prince down this time.
After repeated assurances, he bid farewell to Prince Zhongshun, gathered more than a hundred able-bodied men in the palace, and in the name of the prince, sent a message to the left and right commanders of the city defense camp, the prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, Jia Yucun and other officials, ordering them to assist in arresting the "thief Taoist" who stole the prince's secret treasure.
Not to mention how busy Zhou Mo is outside.
But after he left, King Zhongshun was silent for a long time with a gloomy face, and then he slowly said: "Since you yourself say that you deserve to die, then this king has no choice but to fulfill your wish."
