Chapter 144: The Good and the Bad Thrown into One Pot

Fang Prefecture, Fang Prefecture again!!

Leaving Wu Zetian's presence, Wu Sansi felt an inexplicable sense of suspicion rising in his heart.

And the mere thought of Fang Prefecture brought that youth named Wu Ning unbidden to his mind.

Wasn't Su Yuanli sent precisely to take over his charcoal kiln?

Fang Prefecture again, Wu Ning again—what on earth was so peculiar about that utterly unremarkable kid?

...

————————

Fang Prefecture.

"What a pity..."

Di Renjie looked somewhat dismayed upon receiving the Empress Dowager Wu's decree.

Just a little more—a mere hair's breadth—and he could have swept up the likes of Lai Junchen, Su Yuanli, and Zhou Xing in one fell swoop.

Yet the Holy Mother preferred to remit Fang Prefecture's taxes for two years, preferring to bear the infamous reputation of employing tyrannical officials, rather than abandon these men.

Standing with his hands clasped behind his back, his small eyes narrowed into slits, Di Renjie let out a deep, lingering sigh: "If we could have used this opportunity to make the Holy Mother resolve herself and eradicate the Lai faction in one stroke, the achievement would endure for the present and the benefits would span a thousand generations!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk."

Sun Hongde, who was standing obediently behind him, clicked his tongue repeatedly. No wonder they called Di Huaiying a prime minister while he himself was merely a prefectural magistrate.

The gap between them was simply too vast.

What he had considered an impending catastrophe to be avoided like the plague had turned out, in Di Renjie's hands, to be an exquisite gambit for striking down political adversaries.

It had been close—truly, so very close—that Lai Junchen and his crew had nearly perished in Di Renjie's hands before they even understood what was happening.

"Magistrate Sun."

Just as Sun Hongde was lost in his wild reveries, Di Renjie turned around, gazing at him with a gaze full of meaning.

"Can Magistrate Sun now tell this official precisely who killed Su Yuanli?"

"Ah!?" Sun Hongde gave a start, instinctively wishing to cover for Wu Ning with a falsehood.

"Lord Di, didn't Lord Di see it with his own eyes? It was the enraged people of Fang Prefecture!"

"The people?" Di Renjie's small eyes narrowed further. "The people are ignorant, but those who plot have intent!"

"This..."

"It matters not if Magistrate Sun does not wish to speak." Di Renjie adopted an air of utter indifference.

"However, Magistrate Sun should not forget that the Holy Mother has ordered me to thoroughly investigate the case of Su Yuanli. This encompasses not merely Su Yuanli's crimes, but naturally his cause of death as well."

"Does Magistrate Sun believe that with my abilities, I cannot uncover the true facts!?"

...

————————

Lower Mountain Ravine.

Daoist Priest Meng glared with his bovine eyes, filled with indignation. "That fat Di, sticking his nose where it doesn't belong!!"

He had planned it all so well: after killing Su Yuanli, an affair of such magnitude naturally required some time in hiding, right? This would smoothly allow Daoist Priest Meng to enjoy a long period of carefree days wandering the pugilistic world.

Yet, for all his calculations, he had never anticipated that this fat Di possessed such capability. Not only did the Holy Mother not pursue the mastermind, but she even exempted Fang Prefecture from two years of taxes.

"Enough."

Wu Ning teased from the side, "Didn't you see that when old Daoist Xiao learned of the wretched deed you pulled, he didn't even blink an eye?"

"He didn't take it to heart at all. And you still hoped to use this as an excuse to go down the mountain and live a carefree life? You were merely indulging in wishful thinking."

"..." Meng Changsheng curled his lip.

Glancing sideways at Wu Ning, he dropped a non-sequitur: "Master will let me go down the mountain sooner or later."

"Is that so?" Wu Ning smiled. "You want to leave that badly?"

Hearing this, Meng Changsheng's expression gradually grew cold. "There is nothing interesting on this mountain. Stay here long enough, and the only thing left within a person is suffocation."

Wu Ning looked at him, his brow furrowed tightly, before finally blurting out, "Then take me with you."

"You want to leave too?"

It wasn't Meng Changsheng who looked astonished, but Taiping. Shaking her head as she looked at the two of them, the Princess Royal decided they were utterly hopeless.

She said to Wu Ning, "You'd better figure out what to do next! Don't forget, Su Yuanli has been dealt with, but your refusal to hand over the charcoal kiln still hangs over your head. Sooner or later, Mother will send someone else to take it over."

"Furthermore, you'd better pray that word of Su Yuanli's affair doesn't leak out. If anyone finds out you were the one who did it, not only will Mother not spare you, but Su Yuanli's gang of cronies won't let you off either!"

"Who?"

"Zhou Xing, Wan Guojun, Liu Guangye—their friendships with Su Yuanli are by no means shallow."

"This time, Su Yuanli has died an obscure death in Fang Prefecture. Even if they only put up a facade and fake grief, they cannot simply sit by and do nothing."

"Sigh!!" Speaking to this point, Taiping let out a regretful sigh.

"What a pity! Di Huaiying seized the moment to attempt to wipe them out in one net, yet Mother chose to turn a blind eye and even ordered Di Huaiying to close the case swiftly. Her favoritism is plain as day."

...

Favoritism?

Wu Ning remained silent. Perhaps in Wu Zetian's eyes, tyrannical officials and upright ministers alike were nothing more than two political factions tearing at each other in a deadly struggle.

As for what benefited the common people or harmed them, that was never her primary consideration.

If tyrannical officials were useful, then keeping them was necessary.

When the day came that they were useless, killing them would not be too late.

Yet, viewed from the perspective of the "common folk," old Nine Wu wondered: how long must they wait? For how much longer must these wretches torment the common people?

"Forget it."

Wu Ning found the whole affair thoroughly uninteresting. "As long as they don't come to provoke me, that is enough."

Only, he had not expected that having successively toppled Wang Hongyi and Su Yuanli, those scoundrels were no fools either; they truly had no desire to provoke this mountain lad of Fang Prefecture who had a direct line to the heavens.

Yet, while they had no desire to provoke him, someone else was eager to force their hand—and that person was none other than... Fat Di!

At this very moment, a memorial from Di Renjie was speeding toward the capital—a reply submitted after Di Renjie received Wu Zetian's decree.

In it, Fat Di stated: If the Holy Mother does not wish to reform the official system, so be it; nevertheless, the infamy of the tyrannical officials has already taken deep root in people's hearts, causing popular sentiment to churn turbulently—they cannot be left uneliminated.

How were they to be eliminated? Fat Di offered the Empress Dowager Wu an idea.

That was: fall down where you tripped, and dispatch a scholar-official with a somewhat better public image to Fang Prefecture.

Naturally, as for the official referred to here, Wu Zetian knew without Di Renjie having to spell it out: he meant a tyrannical official.

What was he to come to Fang Prefecture to do?

Naturally, to go through the motions and establish an image, letting the people know that they held many misconceptions about tyrannical officials, and that not all of them were cut from the same cloth as Wang Hongyi and Su Yuanli.

Once that was done, the hearts of the people would naturally settle.

...

Having read Di Renjie's proposal and pondered it from every angle, Wu Zetian concluded that this seemed to be the only viable course of action.

Under what pretext, then, should he be dispatched to Fang Prefecture?

Why, a ready-made one was right here: old Nine Wu's charcoal kiln had yet to be reclaimed; it was the perfect excuse to send someone else to take it over.

And whom should she send??

Heh, that too was glaringly obvious: he had to be scholarly and articulate, yet possess a somewhat favorable image. Among the hoodlums and ruffians employed by the Empress Dowager, only one had ever studied books and had not committed atrocities that made the populace gnash their teeth in hatred.

Who was that? Zhou Xing!

And thus, Wu Zetian issued an imperial decree commanding Zhou Xing, an official of the Ministry of Rites, to succeed Su Yuanli and travel far to Fang Prefecture to take over the Wu family's charcoal kiln.

...

Oh, how that infuriated Zhou Xing! Di Fat Di, you thousand-times-damned bastard! You might as well have simply named me directly to take the fall instead of going through all this pretense, bothering with such circumlocution!

Meanwhile, upon hearing the news in Fang Prefecture, Wu Ning felt that he feared nothing so much as whatever kept returning to haunt him; the Empress Dowager had actually sent Zhou Xing once more, and the mastermind behind this trap was none other than Di Renjie?!

Very well!!

Old Nine Wu's temper flared.

Zhou Xing, is it?! Di Fat Di, is it?!

This time, your Grandpa Wu is going to fry the whole lot of you in one pot!