Chapter 55: To Have No Reliance Is To Be Fearless! Seeking Monthly Tickets
Just as Zhang Biao made Old Zhu faint, outside the official residence near the Gate of Heavenly Acceptance.
Following the information he provided when he was captured, Zhu Yunteng and his siblings finally found his residence.
They saw that the dilapidated wooden door was ajar.
They pushed the door open, and a smell mixed with mildew and cheap Shao Daozi liquor hit them.
The scene inside the room stunned all three of them.
Zhu Yunteng especially so.
He stood at the doorway holding a pig’s head, his eyes wide with disbelief as he looked at everything before him.
Bare walls!
This phrase seemed to take on a tangible form, crashing into his vision.
In the corner were piled several worn bamboo slips and a few thread-bound books, the only things in the room that could be called property.
A dilapidated wooden table had a missing corner, propped up with bricks.
There were two stools, one of which had its leg tied with hemp rope for reinforcement.
The only bed was a straw-filled mat in the corner, with only a patch-covered rough cloth bedding.
This was the home of the good elder brother who had given him his first taste of ‘spicy, sour, and fragrant’ pig’s trotters and said, ‘Do not bully a young man for being poor’?
Zhu Yunteng’s throat tightened, and he opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
He recalled Zhang Biao’s casual, even roguish, demeanor in the alley when he said, ‘I, Zhang Biao! Orphaned since childhood, with bare walls! I have no choice but success!’
It turned out to be true.
He wasn’t exaggerating or seeking pity; he was merely stating a cold, cruel fact.
The immense shock made Zhu Yunteng’s heart clench, a strong sourness rushed to the bridge of his nose, and his eyes instantly welled up.
It turned out that whatever he had gone through was nothing compared to what his good elder brother had faced.
“Whoosh”
Zhu Mingyue also took a deep breath and looked around the humble room, her eyes filled with shock and an indescribable sigh.
Born in luxury and raised in the deep palace, when had she ever seen such extreme poverty?
She subconsciously raised her hand, as if to dust the table, but as her fingertips touched the cold, rough surface, she quickly retracted them, as if the poverty were scalding.
Even Zhu Mingyu, who always thought Zhang Biao acted erratically and crudely, now only muttered, “He’s really a strange person.”
Hearing this, Zhu Mingyue gently tugged her sister’s sleeve, her voice carrying a rare weight:
“Mingyu, speak with caution. This is not strangeness, but destitution. It is a life we have never seen, nor can we even imagine.”
After saying this, she suddenly noticed something was amiss with Zhu Yunteng and asked with concern, “Yunteng, are you alright?”
“Ah?”
Zhu Yunteng suddenly snapped back to reality, blinked his sore eyes hard, and his voice was a little hoarse: “N-no, I’m fine. I just didn’t expect…”
He paused, as if convincing himself, and murmured, “Good elder brother, he was telling the truth. Everything he said was true. No choice but success, so that’s how it is…”
Hearing this, Zhu Mingyu frowned slightly, then looked again at the bare humble room, and an inexplicable uncomfortable feeling surged within her.
Even her usual arrogance subsided significantly, and she awkwardly added, “No wonder he speaks and acts recklessly, like a madman, or like a desperate fugitive. This shabby place is indeed nothing to be nostalgic about.”
Zhu Mingyue sighed softly, her gaze sweeping over the extremely simple scrolls and the table, her eyes holding a different kind of meaning.
“Perhaps, it is precisely because one has nothing to rely on that one can be fearless. It’s just that the price is too…”
She didn’t finish, but the sigh said it all.
Just then, a commotion suddenly erupted from outside the door.
“Quick! Quick! Brother Biao must be waiting!”
“Damn it, I was almost scared to death just now. Stuffing that account book in my mouth was no easy task!”
“Did the Emperor really faint? Did we succeed?!”
“What do you think Brother Biao will praise us for later?”
“I think Censor Zhang will definitely think we performed well, because we are heroes!”
“Yes! Heroes are like carp crossing a river! We are heroes, Zhang Jianxian said so!”
This group was Shen Lang and the others, who had been expelled from the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
However, as they stepped into Zhang Biao’s house, the first people they saw were not Zhang Biao.
Inside the room stood three strangers, whose clothing, though plain, was clearly of excellent material and whose demeanor was vastly different from that of common folk. They were even holding five large pig heads.
Everyone was dumbfounded.
“Who are you? Why are you in Censor Zhang’s home?”
Li Mo, standing at the front, swept his gaze over Zhu Mingyue and Zhu Mingyu, then at Zhu Yunteng holding the pig’s head, his face still streaked with tears. An absurd yet logical thought arose, and he blurted out, “Could you be Censor Zhang’s family?!”
“Nonsense!”
Zhu Mingyu, already in a complex mood, was ignited by Li Mo’s word ‘family’.
Her eyebrows shot up, her almond eyes widened, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, and her voice was crisp and sharp: “Who is his family?! Are your eyes on the back of your head?! We are…”
“Mingyu!”
Zhu Mingyue quickly and quietly stopped her sister’s unrestrained speech.
If their identities were exposed, who knew what trouble it would cause.
Just as the atmosphere instantly tensed, with Zhu Mingyu’s face flushed red with anger, and Li Mo and the others looking bewildered and embarrassed, Shen Lang pushed through the crowd to the front. He glanced at the Zhu siblings, then at the five pig heads they were holding, instantly understood, and quickly said, “A misunderstanding! A misunderstanding, Brother Li!”
He then offered the Zhu siblings a smile as kind as he could manage: “These three are probably Brother Biao’s friends.”
He pointed at the pig head in Zhu Yunteng’s arms: “You’re here to deliver something, right?”
“Yes! We’re delivering something!”
Zhu Mingyu said angrily, glaring at Li Mo. Ignoring her sister’s restraint, she just wanted to quickly distance herself and leave this cursed place.
“We are here to deliver these five pig’s head meats to Zhang Biao!”
Zhu Mingyu’s voice was rapid and hurried, with her characteristic fiery tone: “That Zhang Biao! He was arrested by the Imperial Guard outside the Gate of Heavenly Acceptance! Jiang Huan personally led the men! They said he was arrested by imperial decree!”
Boom—!
It was as if a bolt of lightning struck the dilapidated official residence.
The bottom-rung capital officials, who moments ago had been filled with a bit of relieved excitement and confusion, had the color drain from their faces in an instant.
The smile on Shen Lang’s face froze.
The account book in Li Mo’s hand fell to the ground with a ‘plop’.
Sun Gui’s legs went weak, and he almost collapsed.
Zhao Fengman’s mouth gaped open, as if his throat had been choked, and he couldn’t make a sound.
Arrested? Brother Biao was arrested by the Imperial Guard? And Jiang Huan personally arrested him? By imperial decree?!
How could this be?
How could this be?!
An icy chill instantly seized everyone.
The fleeting euphoria from the ‘feat’ in the Hall of Supreme Harmony vanished, leaving only extreme fear and deep concern for Zhang Biao’s predicament.
Zhu Mingyu looked at their instantly pale faces and terrified eyes, and her heart inexplicably sank.
But she hardened her heart and relayed Zhang Biao’s last ‘last words’ verbatim, as if doing so would help her completely shake off the annoying guy:
“Before he left, he shouted: he said these five pig heads are for you! If he dies! You should eat and drink well tonight! Celebrate him!!”
Crash!
As these words were spoken, the room fell into dead silence.
Even the wail of the wind blowing through the torn window paper was clearly audible.
