Chapter 48: Your Excellency, Kneel Down. This Humble Subordinate Has Something to Report.
Chapter 48: Chapter 48: Your Excellency, Kneel Down. This Humble Subordinate Has Something to Report.
Standing at the city gates with a group of his subordinates, Pei Shaoqing suddenly found himself in a daze.
He was reminded of the day Zheng Xuancheng had led a group to welcome him.
This very moment felt just like that one.
"My lord, they’re here," Chen Zhongyi prompted.
Pei Shaoqing snapped back to reality and looked ahead, his brow immediately furrowing. A retinue of twenty to thirty people, including maids and attendants, escorted four horse-drawn carriages as they slowly approached.
"What a grand display," Song Youcai remarked, his small eyes narrowing. "My lord, I’m afraid they don’t come in peace."
Pei Shaoqing was unconcerned.
’I’m a newcomer too,’ he thought, ’and I don’t come in peace either.’
’And I was here first.’
In the lead carriage, Zhou Xiangyang had his arms around two beautiful women. One fed him fruit, the other wine. He couldn’t be happier.
Although he had always held Lu Households Commander in high regard, that didn’t mean he actually liked the degenerate.
His own sexual orientation was normal. But with his humble origins and mediocre abilities, he had been forced to sell his ass and sleep with his superior to climb the ladder.
He had truly embodied the principle that a great man knows when to yield and when to stand firm.
Now that he was far away from Lu Households Commander, it was as if he wanted to vent all the grievances he had suffered over the years and make up for all the ways he had wronged himself.
That was why, along the way, he had used the banner of a Jing’an Guard Hundred Households Commander to extort food and goods from local landowners, accepting all offers of money and women. It was the reason a journey that should have taken three or four days had stretched to half a month.
"My lord." An attendant with a goatee knocked on the carriage window. "The men from the local Hundred Households have come out of the city to welcome you. Do you think perhaps you should get out?"
Zhou Xiangyang lifted the door curtain and glanced out.
Seeing that the leader was a powerfully built, handsome young man in his early twenties, he guessed it must be Pei Shaoqing—the Young Master of the Marquis’s Mansion and a Standard-Bearer of the Jing’an Guard, whom Lu Households Commander had instructed him to get along with.
He dropped the curtain. "Keep moving forward."
Zhou Xiangyang had his own agenda.
After Zheng Xuancheng’s death, the Tongzhou Hundred Households had two Standard-Bearers, yet Pei Shaoqing was the one standing at the very front. This indicated that the entire Tongzhou Hundred Households now deferred to him.
He had played the submissive grandson in Jin Guan City precisely so that one day he could be promoted, transferred out, and become the master. Therefore, in this situation, he had to put Pei Shaoqing in his place.
Otherwise, it would be difficult to reclaim power over the Hundred Households.
Of course, Zhou Xiangyang didn’t actually want to offend Pei Shaoqing—he wasn’t that arrogant. He just wanted to establish the hierarchy of master and subordinate today, to make it clear to Pei Shaoqing and the men of the Tongzhou Hundred Households that he was their superior.
’Otherwise, I’d have gone from being a grandson to my superior, Lu Households Commander, in Jin Guan City, only to come to Tongzhou and be a grandson to my subordinate, Pei Shaoqing. Wouldn’t that mean I came here for fucking nothing?’
’Once I’ve secured my footing, I’ll naturally work on building a good relationship with Pei Shaoqing. I’ll let him be my second-in-command, and we can rake in money and get rich together.’
His confidence to act this way stemmed from four things: first, his own status as their superior; second, the backing of Lu Households Commander; third, the fact that Pei Shaoqing had been exiled from the Capital City by his family; and fourth, his own ambition to hold absolute power.
For the past half-month, he had been immersed in the joy of being as free as a bird in the vast sky. He was still unaware that Pei Shaoqing had killed the Kaiyang Saint Heir. If he had known the man had performed a great service and might be promoted, he would not have acted this way.
As the carriages drew closer without any sign of the person inside dismounting, Chen Zhongyi and the others grew displeased. They looked to Pei Shaoqing. "My lord?"
"Let’s just watch," Pei Shaoqing said, his face devoid of expression.
The carriage stopped several meters away from the group. An attendant swaggered forward and announced arrogantly, "The Hundred Households Commander orders Standard-Bearer Pei to step forward and answer."
"Insolent!" Chen Zhongyi immediately reached for his blade.
The blade had barely left the scabbard when Pei Shaoqing pressed his hand down, forcing it back in. With a smile, he said, "Standard-Bearer Chen, you can’t commit insubordination against a superior."
The messenger, who had flinched in fear, started trembling again upon seeing this. He then lashed out, partly in anger and partly in shame, "How dare you! I am representing Lord Hundred Households! Do you dare act so presumptuously?"
"How could Lord Hundred Households be so discourteous? You must be abusing your master’s authority. This officer will take you before Lord Hundred Households to confront you," Pei Shaoqing said coldly.
The moment he finished speaking, his figure flashed, and he appeared before the attendant. He placed one hand on the man’s head, twisted, and pulled.
CRACK! Bones snapped.
SQUELCH! Blood vessels tore.
He had ripped the attendant’s head clean off.
The headless attendant, not yet comprehending what had happened, collapsed and died. The bloody esophagus and trachea dangled from the stump of his neck as warm, crimson blood gushed out, pooling into a small river on the ground.
"AHH!" "You... you... you! How dare you!"
"Lord Hundred Households! It’s bad! Something’s happened!"
The attendants around the carriage turned pale at the sudden, shocking scene, a mixture of fear and fury on their faces.
"What’s all the racket!" Hearing the commotion outside, Zhou Xiangyang impatiently threw open the curtain.
The curtain was only halfway open when Pei Shaoqing strode up, holding the head in one hand. He presented it to Zhou Xiangyang and said softly, "Lord Hundred Households, this man was rude to me and claimed to be acting on your orders. I have brought him before you for a confrontation. Is that so?"
’I was prepared to give you plenty of face,’ he thought, ’but since you don’t know what’s good for you, don’t blame me for being rude.’
"You! You! You!" Zhou Xiangyang stared at his attendant’s head, filled with the same shock and anger, his face a mask of disbelief. He never imagined Pei Shaoqing would dare to kill so brazenly.
Pei Shaoqing asked again, "Is it so, or not?"
"How dare you!" Zhou Xiangyang roared in fury.
"Then it seems it is so," Pei Shaoqing said with a nod of mock realization. He casually tossed the head aside, turned, and walked away. "This man is impersonating an official. Arrest him."
"Yes, sir!" Chen Zhongyi led his men and surged forward.
"Insolent!" His attempt to intimidate them had backfired, and now he was being utterly humiliated. Zhou Xiangyang flew into a rage, pulling a letter from his robes and holding it high. "The letter of appointment is here! All of you, back down at once! Do you truly wish to commit insubordination? Do you care nothing for your parents and kin back home?"
But he quickly broke out in a cold sweat. The surrounding Jing’an Guard were not intimidated in the slightest. Instead, every single one of them was staring at him as if he were already a dead man.
"Let me see it, to verify its authenticity," Pei Shaoqing said nonchalantly over his shoulder as he walked back.
Zhou Xiangyang threw the letter of appointment. Infused with his Inner Strength, the flimsy piece of paper flew a great distance.
Pei Shaoqing caught it with one hand. He glanced at it, sneered, and the letter of appointment exploded into confetti in his grasp.
He tossed the scraps of paper aside and gave Zhou Xiangyang a slight smile. "Now you don’t have a letter of appointment."
"You... You’re audacious and reckless!" Zhou Xiangyang had never dreamed the man would dare to destroy an official letter of appointment.
Pei Shaoqing gave the order: "Take this man impersonating an official into custody. If he dares to resist, kill him on the spot."
"Yes, sir!" The Jing’an Guard charged forward.
"Wait!" Zhou Xiangyang roared. All the fight suddenly drained out of him. Looking at Pei Shaoqing as if he had just lost his parents, he said, "I beg you to spare my life, Young Master! I was blind to have offended you. From now on, I will follow your every command."
’I see it now,’ he thought. ’If I don’t submit, there’s truly only death waiting for me.’
’So what if I have to be someone’s grandson?’
’I’ve already done it in Jin Guan City.’
’At least here I don’t have to act out the part of a bottom.’
"If you had just done this from the start, we could have avoided all this unpleasantness, Hundred Households Commander Zhou." Pei Shaoqing, the very man committing this act of insubordination, didn’t even bother to pretend anymore. He chuckled softly and said, "Kneel, my lord. Your humble subordinate has something to report."
"You!" Hundred Households Commander Zhou was furious, but he gritted his teeth, stepped down from the carriage, and knelt on one knee. With his head bowed and fist clasped, he said in a deep voice, "Zhou Xiangyang, Hundred Households Commander of the Jing’an Guard’s Tongzhou Hundred Households, is here. I await the Standard-Bearer’s command!"
"Hundred Households Commander Zhou," Pei Shaoqing said breezily, "the people of Tongzhou are simple and honest. Valuables are not pocketed from the street, and doors are not bolted at night. There aren’t many cases that require your attention. Therefore, you need not come to the Hundred Households every day. Your humble subordinate can handle all miscellaneous affairs on your behalf."
The Hundred Households Commander’s face turned ashen. He was trembling with rage and forced two words through his clenched teeth, "As ordered!"
’I never thought things would be even worse after leaving Jin Guan City.’
’Now I don’t have a shred of real power.’
"Escort Lord Hundred Households into the city," Pei Shaoqing said, throwing his head back and laughing. "Tonight, we drink until we drop!"
’Even without Zhou Xiangyang, the higher-ups would just send another new Hundred Households Commander,’ Pei Shaoqing mused. ’So as long as Zhou Xiangyang is obedient, I naturally won’t feel the need to eliminate him completely.’
"Lord Zhou, if you please!" Chen Zhongyi said to Zhou Xiangyang with a gesture, a malicious grin spreading across his face.
The Hundred Households Commander, who had been so overjoyed about his new post, now looked like his mother had just died. Crestfallen, he began the walk into the city.
But inwardly, he resolved to report Pei Shaoqing to Lu Households Commander. ’The man is absolutely lawless!’