Chapter 138: To Achieve Great Things Is To Either Succeed Greatly Or Fail Greatly 【 Seeking Monthly Tickets 】
Drip, drip, drip!
Raindrops the size of jujubes continuously fell from the sky over Yingtian Prefecture.
In an instant, the entire Yingtian Prefecture was shrouded in a hazy atmosphere.
This was the first rain of autumn in Yingtian Prefecture, and it was heavy.
It seemed to be gathering momentum for the impending ‘enormous flood,’ making the already tense atmosphere even more so.
“Something’s happened! Li Mo! Something happened last night—!”
Wu Nai Da rushed into Li Mo’s official residence in a panic, trying to keep his voice down as he called out.
According to their agreement, once Shen Lang, Sun Gui, and Zhao Fengman succeeded, they would contact them in a specific way.
However, the agreed-upon time had long passed, and no message had come.
An ominous premonition loomed over both of them.
Early this morning, Wu Nai Da had used the last of his connections in the Ministry of Personnel to inquire, at great risk, and quickly received news that was like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
Shen Lang and Sun Gui had broken into the Ministry of Revenue Archives last night, were caught red-handed by Fu Youwen and his men, and were now imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice prison.
As for Zhao Fengman, his whereabouts were unknown. It was said he had taken some iron box and escaped during the pursuit, but his fate was uncertain.
“How could this have happened…”
Wu Nai Da looked at Li Mo with a deathly pale face, utterly distraught. “Shen Lang and Sun Gui are caught! Fengman is missing too! Fu Youwen and his men… they struck too quickly and too ruthlessly!”
According to the original plan, once Shen Lang and the others succeeded, Li Mo would disseminate the ‘rumor draft’ he had written about the account books, using public opinion to contend with Fu Youwen and his faction.
Although the unease from last night had prompted Wu Nai Da to go investigate the news early in the morning, he still continued to write the ‘rumor draft’ as originally planned.
But now, after hearing the news Wu Nai Da had gathered, he was completely stunned. The brush in his hand fell to the table with a ‘thud,’ and ink stained the ‘rumor draft’ he had just written and was preparing to disseminate.
After a long while, he took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, but his slightly trembling fingers betrayed the tempest raging within him.
“The Archives trap.”
Li Mo muttered to himself, instantly understanding the key:
“Fu Youwen did it on purpose! He knew all along we would investigate his accounts! And that secret compartment, even that Old Clerk Wang, were all bait!”
“What do we do now?”
Wu Nai Da was anxious, like an ant on a hot pan. “Fu Youwen’s next target will definitely be us! They will use Shen Lang and Sun Gui to create accusations and frame us, arresting us all!”
“I know you’re anxious! But don’t be!”
Li Mo said with undeniable authority, then closed his eyes, his mind racing.
A desperate situation!
This was a true desperate situation!
A moment later, he suddenly opened his eyes, a resolute glint flashing within them. “We cannot just sit here and wait to die! And we certainly cannot expect Fu Youwen to show mercy!”
“You have a plan?”
Wu Nai Da clung to him like a drowning man to a straw.
“What is Fu Youwen most afraid of?”
Li Mo asked back, his gaze sharp. “What he fears most now isn’t us, but the now-missing Zhao Fengman, and that iron box whose contents are unknown!”
Wu Nai Da immediately understood. “You mean…”
“Exactly!”
Li Mo slammed his fist onto the table. “He’s afraid of the contents of the iron box being leaked! He’s so afraid that he’ll do anything to get it back! This is our opportunity!”
“We need to make him more afraid!”
Li Mo’s speech sped up. “Isn’t he everywhere looking for Zhao Fengman and the iron box? Then we’ll help him find it!”
“We need to let the entire Yingtian Prefecture know that Zhao Fengman possesses something that could end the lives of Fu Youwen, Ru Chang, Zheng Ci, and Zhai Shan!”
“Hiss—!”
Hearing this, Wu Nai Da couldn’t help but gasp, and hesitated. “Are you going to… put Fengman on the spot? Force Fu Youwen into a corner?”
“No! We are saving him, and saving ourselves!”
Li Mo’s gaze was cold, his voice firm. “Fu Youwen is searching in secret now. Once Fengman is found by him, he will surely silence him.”
“If everyone knows such a thing exists, Fu Youwen will be afraid to act rashly against Fengman! Because if Fengman dies and the item falls into other hands, their situation will be even more indefensible!”
“We need to stir up trouble! Make it so chaotic that Fu Youwen dares not make a move! Make everyone curious about what’s inside the iron box! Even…”
He paused, looking in the direction of the Imperial Palace, his gaze sharp. “We need to make the Emperor and Jiang Huan notice!”
“This…”
Wu Nai Da’s heart pounded, but he had to admit that this was the only way to break the deadlock, albeit extremely risky.
“Alright! Let’s do it!”
Wu Nai Da gritted his teeth. “I know a few fast-talkers who specialize in spreading news for people. They’ll do it for money, and no one will trace it back to the source!”
“Yes! Do it immediately!”
Li Mo nodded. “The news should be vague, but explosive!”
“What counts as explosive?”
“For example, a secret box left by the former Minister of Revenue, Zhao Qian, was discovered in the Ministry of Revenue Archives, containing secrets that could overturn the court. It is now in the hands of a righteous individual. High-ranking officials like Fu, Ru, Zheng, and Zhai are all terrified and frantically searching for it…”
“Brilliant!”
Wu Nai Da’s face lit up with joy, and he hurried away.
Li Mo looked at the stained draft paper on the table, his eyes becoming unfathomably deep.
【 Fengman, Shen Lang, Sun Gui… Hold on! 】
【 Brother Biao, do you happen to know the secret within that iron box? 】
…
At the same time, in the Ministry of Justice prison, in the torture chamber.
The sound of whips slicing through the air and dull thuds of impact continued incessantly.
Shen Lang and Sun Gui were hung on a rack, their bodies covered in wounds, blood soaking through their tattered clothes.
Cold water was splashed to revive them, only for another round of interrogation to begin.
“Speak! Where is that iron box?!”
The interrogating officer roared, his face contorted with ferocity, the branding iron in his hand glowing red in the coals.
Sun Gui spat out a mouthful of blood, his voice hoarse but laced with mockery. “Bah! I don’t know… Go ahead and roast me if you dare…”
Shen Lang’s breath was weak, but his eyes remained defiant. He gritted his teeth and remained silent.
The intense pain almost made him faint, but he had only one thought in his mind:
【 Protect Zhao Fengman, protect that only hope. 】
The Director of the Ministry of Justice watched from the side, his brow furrowed.
Fu Youwen had given a death order: they must make them talk and retrieve the iron box as soon as possible.
But these two hard nuts were proving tougher than imagined.
“Use needles!”
The Director of the Ministry of Justice commanded coldly.
A slender steel needle was brought out, aimed at Shen Lang’s fingertips.
This torture inflicted pain far beyond whipping, designed to crush a person’s last vestiges of will.
Just as the needle was about to pierce his skin, a prison guard rushed in and whispered a few words into the Director’s ear.
The Director’s expression shifted slightly, and he waved his hand, signaling to halt the torture.
He walked outside, where a familiar junior clerk quickly approached him and whispered something in his ear. The Director’s face changed several times, and he then returned to the torture chamber without betraying emotion.
Looking at the nearly deceased Shen Lang and Sun Gui, he waved his hand with a complex expression. “Take them down, put them back in their cells, and have a doctor see to them. Don’t let them die.”
The guards exchanged glances, bewildered, but complied.
Soon, Shen Lang and Sun Gui were dragged back to their cells. Although they were still in hell, they had at least temporarily escaped the torment of torture.
The two exchanged a look, seeing a flicker of confusion and faint hope in each other’s eyes.
Who was helping them?
Then Sun Gui spoke first, “Brother Shen, how are you?”
A moment of silence came from the other side. He struggled to sit up against the wall, spat out some blood foam, and looked towards Shen Lang’s cell with concern.
He was thick-skinned and his injuries were relatively lighter.
Shen Lang, a scholar, and the primary target of their attention, he truly feared Shen Lang wouldn’t make it and die.
“Brother Shen?!”
Sun Gui called out again, anxious.
“Cough, cough…”
After a period of silence, Shen Lang coughed hoarsely twice, then painfully managed to get up, his face pale as he looked at Sun Gui.
During this process, his whole body throbbed with pain, but he gritted his teeth and shook his head. “Not dead yet…”
“What do we do now?”
Sun Gui’s eyes were filled with unwillingness and anxiety. “The iron box should have been taken by Fengman, but the outside is full of their men. Where can Fengman hide? Do Li Mo and Wu Nai Da know we’re in trouble?”
“As for Li Mo and Wu Nai Da… they’re probably in grave danger too…”
Shen Lang endured the pain, forcing himself to think calmly. “Since Fu Youwen could set up this trap to catch us, he certainly won’t let them off.”
“Right now… we can only hope Fengman is clever enough to hide the item well, or… hand it over to someone trustworthy.”
“Trustworthy person? Who is trustworthy now?”
Sun Gui said despairingly, “Jiang Huan? The Emperor? If they were trustworthy, Brother Biao wouldn’t be in the Imperial Prison!”
Shen Lang fell silent.
Although Sun Gui’s words were extreme, they spoke a harsh truth.
In this Yingtian Prefecture, they seemed to truly have no one they could fully trust for strong support.
“Wait!”
Shen Lang finally gritted his teeth. “All we can do now is wait!”
“Fu Youwen wouldn’t dare kill us immediately. He still needs to break us to find the iron box. This is our chance! As long as we are alive, there is hope!”
“Alright, that’s all we can do now. I really hope Brother Biao finds out about this, maybe…”
“Don’t think about Brother Biao anymore. He’s already done enough. It’s our turn now!”
Shen Lang interrupted Sun Gui and then also struggled to lean against the cold wall, sighing faintly.
“Those who truly care for the country are often filled with a thousand years of sorrow. Brother Biao’s path is a difficult one!”
“Yes, ever since last night, I truly began to understand Brother Biao…” Sun Gui couldn’t help but sigh as well.
Shen Lang looked at him and managed a weak smile. “To achieve great things, it’s either total victory or total defeat. As long as we share the same ideals, even if the road is full of wind and frost, there will eventually be a sunny day.”
“Right! At worst, we’ll spill blood on the road of sand!”
Sun Gui clenched his fist, ready to face death.
On the other side.
Inside Fu Youwen’s study, the atmosphere had cooled to freezing point.
The four gathered again, but their previous triumphant air was gone, replaced by anxiety, anger, and a hint of unconcealable fear.
“Waste! All of you are useless!”
Fu Youwen was so enraged that he smashed a tea cup to the ground. “So many people! And you couldn’t even catch one Zhao Fengman? And you let him take the item!”
“What’s the use of saying this now!?”
Ru Chang’s face was so dark it could drip water. “The key is that iron box! That damned Zhao Qian! What did he hide inside?!”
This was what terrified them the most.
They knew Zhao Qian had a secret compartment in the archives, and they knew Zhao Qian surely held some leverage over them, which was why they were so eager to kill Zhao Qian in the first place.
Although Zhao Qian died from Zhang Biao’s ‘bundle deal,’ their active participation and kicking him while he was down were also crucial.
For example, the hidden reason behind Zhao Qian’s proposal to increase taxes in Jiangnan by thirty percent, or the evidence Jiang Huan was investigating—each of these required their ‘help.’
But they never imagined that Zhao Qian would leave such a contingency.
And hide it so secretly.
Their creation of the fake secret compartment was intended to kill two birds with one stone: to lure out anyone who might know Zhao Qian’s secrets, and to use it themselves if the need arose.
They never expected that, by sheer coincidence, they had actually led to the real item, and it had slipped away.
“You think…”
Zheng Ci’s voice trembled. “Could it be… about that Prince from Shaanxi…”
He couldn’t finish, but everyone understood his meaning.
If the iron box truly contained evidence collected by Zhao Qian regarding corruption in Shaanxi, or even evidence implicating the Prince behind them, then they were all finished.
After all, the now critically unstable Emperor had little patience left for them, and this item was simply a death warrant!
Zhai Shan was relatively calm, but his eyes were also filled with unease. “The most urgent task now is to immediately seal the news and intensify the search for Zhao Fengman!”
“We must find him alive or dead! The iron box must be retrieved!”
“Seal the news? It’s probably too late!”
Fu Youwen gritted his teeth. “I just received word that rumors are already spreading outside! Saying Zhao Qian left behind a secret box, and that we are desperately searching for it!”
“What?!”
Ru Chang shot to his feet. “Who is spreading it?! Could it be those two little brats, Li Mo and Wu Nai Da?!”
“Who else could it be!”
Fu Youwen growled. “They want to blow this out of proportion! To force us into a corner!”
“Then let’s kill them first!”
Zheng Ci said fiercely. “Immediately order the Ministry of Justice to torture Shen Lang and Sun Gui! Force them to reveal the iron box’s location! At the same time, send men to arrest Li Mo and Wu Nai Da!”
“No!”
Zhai Shan immediately objected. “Now that rumors are circulating, if we resort to severe torture on Shen Lang and Sun Gui, or if Li Mo and Wu Nai Da suddenly disappear or die, it will be like protesting too much! We’ll never be able to clear our names!”
“Then what do you suggest we do?!” Ru Chang shouted, agitated.
A sinister glint flashed in Zhai Shan’s eyes. “Search! Mobilize all our resources, both open and secret, and search for Zhao Fengman with all our might! But outwardly, we must remain calm!”
“We can also spread rumors, saying that the iron box contains new evidence of Zhao Qian’s corruption, and we are investigating stolen funds, or we can simply say it’s a rumor spread by Zhang Biao’s accomplices, intended to disrupt the court!”
“At the same time…”
He lowered his voice as he spoke again. “Immediately find a way to destroy or handle any of our own accounts and letters concerning Shaanxi and the Prince that won’t stand up to scrutiny! We must prepare for the worst!”
“Good!”
Fu Youwen nodded heavily, forcing himself to calm down. After a moment of thought, he made a decisive statement. “We’ll do as Director Zhai suggested! Go and do it immediately!”
After saying this, he looked around at the other three, his tone chilling. “Gentlemen, we are in this together now! Anyone who makes another mistake will not be forgiven!”
A look of ferocity appeared in all four of their eyes.
They knew that the real crisis had arrived.
That small iron box was like a bomb about to explode, hanging over all their heads.
And the one who might have lit the fuse was the missing Zhao Fengman.
