Chapter 20: The Joys And Sorrows Of People Are Not Shared New Book Seeking Collection
Jiang Huan almost thought he misheard!
Wasn’t he supposed to be dragged out and beheaded? Not dismembered alive?! He’s being rapidly promoted?!
And to supervise the Ministry of Revenue?! To secretly investigate the Princes?! To report directly to the Emperor?!
Has the Emperor truly gone mad?!
Or has this madman completely swayed his heart?!
Zhang Biao was also stunned!
Completely stunned!
The solemnity and desire for death on his face instantly congealed, replaced by extreme shock and confusion.
What’s going on?!
Not beheading? Not flayed and stuffed? And definitely not lingchi?!
What the heck is going on? Old Zhu is actually promoting me? And so highly?!
Fourth Rank Left Vice Censor-in-Chief?!
Damn it! Old Zhu, what are you trying to do!
Where’s the promised ruthlessness? Where’s the stinginess?
What do you mean by promoting me?!
In my script, I’m just a lowly seventh-rank Censor!
“Your Majesty! Have you made a mistake?”
Overwhelmed by shock, Zhang Biao couldn’t help but ask Old Zhu, looking at him with a hint of pleading: “I meant, Your Majesty should kill me, and let my blood serve as a warning to the Great Ming!”
“No need, your life is the best warning to the Great Ming!” Old Zhu’s voice was icy and unquestionable.
Zhang Biao was on the verge of tears, his words becoming nonsensical: “But I don’t want to live, Your Majesty! I’m really in a hurry, it’s Crazy Thursday today! If you kill me quickly, I can still make it back to order food.”
BOOM—!!!
In the entire Hall of Supreme Harmony, time seemed to press pause, and then instantly explode!
The air congealed!
Thoughts congealed!
Even Old Zhu’s carefully suppressed killing intent and wrath seemed to be violently broken through by this extremely absurd, extremely out-of-the-box, and extremely unconventional last sentence!
Crazy Thursday??
Rushing back to order food???
What the hell is all this?!!
Zhu Yuanzhang’s purplish-red face instantly turned from red to green, from green to white, and finally to an indescribable, deep purple mixed with extreme anger, extreme absurdity, and extreme confusion!
He opened his mouth, his throat making a ‘huhu’ sound, but he couldn’t utter a single word.
Only his eyes, widened so much they looked like they would burst from his sockets, stared fixedly at Zhang Biao, as if he were looking at an ultimate monster in human skin!
Jiang Huan was completely petrified!
His hand on the hilt froze, his mind went blank, completely unable to comprehend what he had heard.
Crazy Thursday? Ordering food?!
This. This was more terrifying and bewildering than any treasonous curse!
This had completely surpassed his understanding of what it meant to be ‘human’!
The eunuchs and palace maids prostrate on the ground in the hall were even more terrified, not daring to even tremble, feeling a chill rise from their tailbones to the crown of their heads!
This Censor Zhang. is not a normal person!
He is definitely not a normal person!
“Zhang Biao.”
After a long pause, Old Zhu finally stabilized his emotions, his voice carrying a bone-chilling calmness.
He paused, each word as if fished out of an ice cellar: “Honestly, even if I dismembered you, it wouldn’t be enough to vent my hatred.”
“However.”
This word, “however,” was like a turning point in fate, making the atmosphere of the entire Main Hall tense to the extreme!
“Seeing that you were willing to die for your beliefs, and seeing your ‘clear-headedness’…”
Zhu Yuanzhang’s lips curled into an extremely cold, extremely cruel arc, like looking at prey that had fallen into a trap: “I’ll spare your dog’s life for now!”
“Don’t spare me, Your Majesty! I beg you! I really want to die.”
“Insolence!!”
Old Zhu roared, his eyes red from extreme suppression: “Dare to be presumptuous again, and I’ll have you castrated and brought into the palace to stay with me forever!”
“Ah?!”
Zhang Biao’s legs clamped shut in fear, and the words in his mouth were swallowed back down.
Because killing him was one thing, he could return to the modern world.
But if he were castrated, that would be another matter.
What if he couldn’t perform that function anymore upon returning, his life would be ruined.
So, he was so scared he became numb and stunned.
Old Zhu, however, had no mood to look at this vexing thing anymore, and impatiently waved at Jiang Huan: “Take him away! Until I give permission, don’t let him attend court for the time being!”
“Yes.”
Jiang Huan looked at Zhang Biao deeply, his heart filled with immense shock, but he dared not hesitate any longer.
With a wave of his hand, the Imperial Guards, like wolves and tigers, immediately pounced. Their movements were faster than any previous time, almost dragging Zhang Biao as they quickly retreated from the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
The heavy hall door slammed shut behind them, separating the inside from the outside, and as if separating two worlds.
In the vast hall, only Old Zhu remained.
After an unknown amount of time, Old Zhu suddenly murmured to himself, as if in a dream: “Biao’er. are you a spirit in heaven?”
“I want to keep him, I want him to solve those problems for me! I want the Great Ming to last for ten thousand generations!”
On the other side.
After being escorted out of the Hall of Supreme Harmony by the Imperial Guards, Zhang Biao was ‘escorted’ all the way outside the palace before being allowed to leave alone.
He wasn’t even allowed to stay in the Imperial Prison, which provided food and lodging.
It could be said that he was a rare official in Old Zhu’s reign who could walk out of the Imperial Prison intact.
He didn’t know whether to be happy or worried.
“What should I do? Old Zhu is disrupting my pacing again and again, when will I be able to go back? Is the only way to die for a cause to Emperor Yunwen, that useless emperor?”
“But Old Zhu hasn’t mentioned establishing a crown prince yet…”
Zhang Biao walked through the streets of the Great Ming in a daze, as if he were a solitary wanderer.
According to his previous pacing, he could ‘die for a cause’ and go back for a few days after each court session.
But for some reason, in the last two times, both ‘death for a cause’ attempts had failed.
To know that, with the content of his ‘death for a cause’, if it were anyone else, Old Zhu would have scattered their ashes.
“Sigh! Old Zhu must have awakened some special fetish recently, right?” Zhang Biao sighed again.
At this moment, a charming and seductive call came from a brothel on the left side of the street: “Sir, come and play!”
Zhang Biao: “.”
“Hush! Don’t shout, that guy looks like he has no money, dressed in rags, just a beggar!”
“But he looks quite handsome, how about half price for you?”
“I, I, I, I’ll do it for free!”
“You’re a man, don’t compete with us sisters!”
“Exactly! What’s fun about men and men! Sir! Come play with Nannan!”
“.”
The joys and sorrows of people are not always the same; Zhang Biao only found them noisy.
He calmly walked through the crowd, away from the brothel.
At the same time, he felt a mixture of grief and indignation in his heart.
Outrageous!!
Old Zhu! It’s all your fault! I’ve never received a single salary as your official!
Now I can’t go back either, what am I supposed to eat?!
No! You must Venmo me fifty!
No sooner said than done, Zhang Biao immediately turned around and rushed back to the Hall of Supreme Harmony to demand his salary from Old Zhu!
