Chapter Ninety-Three: Flawless and Unassailable

Shi Guangjun and Yu Yuanliang had long been the sort of idle scions who could rival one another for a moment’s brilliance. The two were like-minded in all their vices and had come to regard each other as confidants, yet this time Shi Guangjun brought Yu Yuanliang to this shop with a belly full of mischief.

He had originally been on his way to board a ship back to the royal capital when, halfway there, Jiang Chen forced him up to Qishan. After that, the people of Qishan took him around the place and told him to see with his own eyes everything that had happened there, so that when he returned to the royal capital he could report truthfully to the court.

Just like that, Shi Guangjun was inexplicably made into a go-between for Qishan and the court, and even his father Shi Wanli had to shift his position along with him. He had no choice but to say a few fair words on Qishan’s behalf.

Originally, the court had intended to bring the butcher’s blade down on Qishan. After all, the reports they had received said that Qishan refused to surrender the military tally and had even launched an attack on the Tianfeng Camp, which had come forward to represent the court.

To defy orders by force of arms was blatant rebellion. There should have been no room for compromise in this matter, yet when Shi Guangjun stepped forward and spoke from personal experience, the entire situation changed markedly.

What is more, the rebels captured by Qishan had confessed that their aim had been to provoke conflict between Qishan and the Tianfeng Camp, so that the court would take harsh measures against Qishan and force it to join those who were rebelling against the throne.

In the imperial court, the elderly emperor, already in the grip of his final years, looked upon the testimony and material evidence before him and ultimately overruled the clamor of the ministers, suppressing the drastic measures they had demanded against Qishan.

Thus the matter was still far from settled. Because of his special status, Shi Guangjun’s unexpected move to protect Qishan was also taken as proof that Shi Wanli had stood behind him.

This, however, left the Shi household in a terribly awkward position. In the court they were mistaken for having aligned themselves with Qishan, and Shi Wanli was frantic, running himself ragged day and night in an effort to clear the air and sever all association with Qishan.

As for Shi Guangjun, he was in even worse straits. His journey south had not only ruined the marriage alliance with the Lin family, it had also dragged his father, Shi Wanli, down with him.

When the gloomy Shi Guangjun learned that he had not actually been poisoned at all, his face darkened to the point of ice.

At the time, Jiang Chen had frankly told him that the earlier threat about administering poison had been nothing but a fabrication. He had merely used a finger-force strike to injure Shi Guangjun, causing a dull pain in his lower abdomen that felt much like a slow-acting toxin.

By the time they returned to the royal capital and all had been said and done, that injury of Shi Guangjun’s had nearly healed. Yet Jiang Chen had deceived him all along the way, making him do whatever he was told, and he had truly been played for a fool.

The one who was smoldering with resentment at home, Shi Guangjun later learned by chance that Jiang Chen had opened a breakfast shop in Willow Lane, and, to his surprise, it had become immensely popular. Thus, a wicked idea gradually took root in his mind.

He wanted revenge on Jiang Chen no matter what, but for the moment he did not know where to begin. Then he thought of Wu Yue beside Jiang Chen and felt that this was surely Jiang Chen’s fatal weakness.

By now, Yu Yuanliang’s eyes were already fixed and glistening. If not for the constant stream of people coming and going before the breakfast shop, he would probably have already lunged forward like a starving wolf.

Shi Guangjun thought to himself: I’ll let this little brat Yu go and make trouble for Jiang Chen first. Then I can stir things further from the side and make them fight tooth and nail. I refuse to believe that in the royal capital, Jiang Chen can still be so capable!

“Brother Yu, what do you think? Why not wait until nightfall and find a chance to make our move then?” Shi Guangjun deliberately urged him on.

“Mm, good, good...”

Yu Yuanliang, bold with lust, agreed several times over, then led Shi Guangjun off to find somewhere to enjoy themselves. After all, someone had found him such an enchanting beauty; he ought to offer a proper thanks.

Meanwhile, Jiang Chen stood before Wang Qiaoling’s private residence, feeling an unprecedented sense of helplessness. He had imagined dozens of ways to infiltrate the estate in his mind, but in the end, he rejected each and every one of them.

The reason was simple: the place was ringed on three sides by water, and only a long covered corridor stretching nearly a hundred meters led directly to the main entrance of the white-walled house.

This was the scene he had finally reached after breaking through two successive inner courtyards with great difficulty.

The outer defenses were exceedingly strict, as solid as a fortress. Five patrol units circled the whole residence in endless rounds, a formation so tight that even a fly would likely not have been able to get in.

There were not only patrols; sentries had also been specially stationed atop the pavilions. The elevated posts made it easy to observe every movement around them, like watchtowers in wartime, though ordinarily no one would think to call them that.

Without ample experience and utterly confident skill, there was simply no way to break through. Even Jiang Chen had nearly been discovered by the guards, and only by moving swiftly and deftly had he managed to avoid disaster.

Once he had penetrated the first two courtyards, however, the defenses ahead immediately slackened. Looking out, he could see no one at all.

But that was only because this place, with water on three sides and terrain that was easy to defend and hard to assault, left people completely helpless. There was no need to station so many guards here. In their eyes, anyone capable of infiltrating this place unnoticed simply did not exist.

Yet Jiang Chen had done it. He only needed to press on a little farther.

If he were to stride openly onto that exposed corridor, he would instantly fall into the other side’s line of sight. Then the situation he faced would be like kicking over a hornet’s nest, leaving him overwhelmed and with nowhere to hide.

That was a predicament Jiang Chen absolutely did not wish to meet.

So he lay concealed in a discreet corner, calmly considering his next move. If he relied solely on his own ability, there was no second way in besides forcing his way through.

With such nearly flawless defenses, it was no wonder Han Yuyang and the others, no matter how long they lay in wait outside, had come away with nothing.

Just as Jiang Chen was at a loss, he heard footsteps from the front courtyard. Among the approaching figures was unexpectedly the very girl he had encountered yesterday at Drunken Life Tower.

It seemed her name was Yingying. But why would a courtesan like her appear here?

“Miss, I can only see you this far. You know the rules: no more than the time it takes to burn two incense sticks.”

Three men dressed in court robes escorted Yingying to the end of the corridor. Only after bowing respectfully did they withdraw.

From their manner and tone, it was as though they were dealing with someone of far greater rank and status than themselves. Yet that made no sense, because such court robes were the exclusive attire of officials from the Ministry of Punishments of the Great Qian court.

In other words, these three were all from the Ministry of Punishments. Even the lowest clerks among them could not possibly hold so humble a rank.