Chapter 201: Chaos in Xiaocheng (Forty-One) [Requesting Monthly Tickets]

special!

Very special!

only--

Some people couldn't help but mutter to themselves.

Zheng Qiao doesn't even care about his own father. There are even rumors circulating in Geng Kingdom that when the old king of Geng Kingdom suffered a stroke and was bedridden, Zheng Qiao took advantage of his position to join forces with the old king's queen (now the queen dowager) to secretly kill the old king.

No one doubted the veracity of this rumor.

There's no other reason than that the succession of power in the Geng Kingdom has always been costly due to the "father" (ref

Old traditions, old craftsmanship!

If even one's own father is like this, how could one possibly care about one's master?

Moreover, Yan Xingning is only his master's son.

The so-called fellow disciples are just so-so in terms of relationship.

There was much discussion outside, but none of it reached Zheng Qiao's palace.

Elsewhere, the eunuch led Yan An through a maze of turns until they finally arrived at an elegant garden with lavish decorations and picturesque scenery at every turn.

The stone table inside the octagonal pavilion is carved from jade.

Not long after she sat down, a eunuch brought over some delicate pastries and a pot of fragrant floral tea. Yan An glanced at them casually and knew that the pastries were all her usual flavors, and even the temperature of the floral tea was just right, neither too hot nor too cold, as always.

Yan An lowered his eyes and slowly began to enjoy his meal.

After he had drunk half a cup of tea, he heard familiar footsteps behind him. He stood up to greet them, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zheng Qiao wave his hand and say, "Xingning, there is no need for such formalities between us."

Yan An said, "Times have changed, but etiquette must not be abandoned."

Zheng Qiao was not displeased when her words were rejected.

He knew his senior's temperament.

Seemingly gentle and easy to talk to, but actually stubborn and opinionated.

Zheng Qiao lifted his robe and sat down on the other side of the stone table. If the court officials had seen this, they would have been scrambling to pick up his eyeballs.

He asked, "Was your previous plan really feasible?"

Yan An: "It's good that the Imperial Seal doesn't fall into their hands. Are you planning to send troops to suppress both sides? Even if you want to, how much is left in the national treasury for you to fight? The same goes for your troops. Your indulgence has fostered the ambition of too many people. If you give them military power now, they will be the first to attack you."

Giving civilian forces a "legitimate" title is certainly not something Yan An wants. But if he doesn't, he'll face a situation where he's attacked from both sides. At this time, he can't allow military power to be given to soldiers who develop disloyalty and ambition; he can only maintain a balance and suppress them!

Zheng Qiao pursed her lips and remained silent.

This scene would also have shocked the court officials.

Zheng Qiao is the only one who ever berates others like they're his grandson; no one dares to immediately point out where he's wrong. Even if Zheng Qiao really did something wrong, he shouldn't be so blunt.

Only by pretending to be deaf and dumb can one save their life and the lives of their family.

However, Yan An is clearly an exceptional case among exceptional cases.

Yan An chuckled and asked, "Why aren't you saying anything?"

Zheng Qiao: "..."

Yan An's words were clearly a question he was asking the court officials.

Now the boomerang has pierced itself.

He said, "Xingning, you shouldn't have come here."

Yan An countered, "Why shouldn't it be so?"

"I know that my senior brother came down from the mountain to guide me back to the right path, but—" Zheng Qiao was unusually calm, without her usual perverted and unpredictable nature, and without the chilling ferocity she once possessed. Her incomparably beautiful face was even more stunning. "I don't want to."

Yan An's gaze sharpened: "You don't want to?"

Zheng Qiao trembled involuntarily.

My palms were also throbbing slightly.

The shadow of my senior's ruler still lingers from the mistakes I made as a child.

He took a deep breath, suppressing the fleeting fear in his eyes, and said frankly, "Xingning, I am no longer the junior brother you can discipline with a ruler, nor am I a helpless hostage! I am the ruler of this land. The path I choose is the righteous one!"

After saying that, he said helplessly, "Can't we just stay in our ancestral home and observe mourning for our master? Why do we have to jump into this mess!"

Yan An's forehead veins throbbed as he listened.

"You know it's muddy water too?"

He was clearly provoked by Zheng Qiao's few words. He wasn't angry at Zheng Qiao's refusal, but at Zheng Qiao's deliberate violation of the law—knowing full well that his actions would incur the wrath of the world, yet still going his own way. He knew everything, but he still insisted on doing every outrageous thing imaginable.

Yan An then asked, "Who stirred up this water?"

Zheng Qiao said casually, "It's me."

Yan An: "..."

He knew that Zheng Qiao had changed a lot.

During the years of mourning in the hut, Yan'an had heard a lot about Zheng Qiao. His cruel methods would make any normal person curse him. Yan'an had also complained and cursed at his father's grave many times, hoping that Zheng Qiao had been deceived into doing these things.

But he knew even more clearly that Zheng Qiao was not so easily fooled.

If the rumors are true, it's likely that he intentionally condoned it.

The more this was the case, the less Yan An could believe it.

He said, "Why did it have to come to this!"

How did Junior Brother Zheng Qiao end up looking like this?

How innocent were the people of Xin and Geng?

Having avenged their great grudge, why are they still unwilling to let go?

Yan An only wants to ask—

Why did it come to this?

Zheng Qiao said calmly, "Human nature is inherently evil, and I am someone who carries 'evil' in my bones. Even if I used to wear a veneer of 'goodness,' a fake is still a fake... Senior Brother Xingning is not me after all, and there are some things he cannot empathize with me on."

"Wear it the way you always did before, and wear it back now!"

Zheng Qiao suddenly became stern: "I'm only lenient with you a little out of consideration for our past relationship as fellow disciples, Yan Xingning. Don't overstep your bounds!"

Yan An was slightly taken aback, then said in a gentle tone, "Your Majesty, please forgive me."

Zheng Qiao ran into a thorn in her side, and had nowhere to vent her anger.

He said, “As the ruler of the country, I don’t need anyone to tell me what to do. They only need to listen to my arrangements… If my master were still alive, it would be the same! Yan Xingning, we were fellow disciples, and I don’t want your blood on my hands. But you really don’t know what’s good for you—one more life is not unacceptable!”

Yan An looked at him with heartache.

His biggest regret was probably towards this junior brother.

Back then, if he and his father had been more determined and found an excuse to take Zheng Qiao on a journey, as long as they stayed away from the Xin Kingdom's royal family, they might have been able to prevent those things from happening.

At least, the inappropriate title "Nüjiao" couldn't be applied to Zheng Qiao! Unfortunately, her father still harbored a sliver of illusion about the morals of the King of Xin, believing that the aging king was still the wise and virtuous monarch he once was, and that even the most outrageous ruler had a bottom line.

He was simply too trusting.

The result was something no one wanted to see.

Everything that followed proved that Zheng Qiao was indeed a legitimate descendant of the Geng royal family! Once the moral constraints imposed by the world were lifted, he could unleash a ferocious beast with astonishing destructive power.

Even though Yan An knew his junior brother had made countless mistakes, he still hoped Zheng Qiao could stop and return to the right path. It's never too late to mend the fence after the sheep are lost!

However, Zheng Qiao is not someone he can persuade right now.

Zheng Qiao's biggest disagreement with him was—

The former believes that as the ruler, ants have no right to judge the good or evil of his actions. Even if they do judge, they should use him as the standard.

He says it's good, so it's good; he says it's evil, so it's evil; he says it's right, so it's right; he says it's wrong, so it's wrong!

Everyone who disagrees—

They all deserve to die!

It was precisely because Yan An saw through this that he felt even more heartbroken. How could Zheng Qiao, who used to be humble, obedient, and even somewhat timid, have become this arrogant and absurd person? Now, he wantonly plays with the lives of others, taking pleasure in cruelty and bloodshed.

They disregard the principles of morality, ethics, righteousness, integrity, shame, filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, and trustworthiness!

Yan An rubbed his temples wearily: "Very well, Your Majesty understands. However, could Your Majesty please enlighten me—why did you treat the Princess that way?"

When the news arrived, his mourning period had just ended.

Without thinking too much, they hurriedly packed their bags and set off.

It's not surprising that Zheng Qiao hates everyone else in the Xin Kingdom's royal family, but it's truly unexpected that he hates even the princess so much that he would go so far as to poison her. As Zheng Qiao's most trusted senior brother, he knows many of Zheng Qiao's unspeakable secrets from his youth, including those concerning the princess.

His junior brother was extremely fond of that princess.

Zheng Qiao smiled and said, "I thought Xingning wanted to ask something."

Yan An looked at Zheng Qiao, but it all seemed unreal.

Zheng Qiao didn't find anything amiss: "Didn't I say that people change? I've changed, and Princess Wangji will naturally change too. She used to be gentle and kind, and even someone like me could treat her with respect. But that was before. I personally witnessed Princess Wangji, who used to be so careful not to step on an ant and tirelessly care for injured birds, kill a palace maid in a fit of anger because the maid stole her new shoes."

Actually, there's nothing wrong with it.

The palace servants deserved to die for doing that.

But at the end of the day, it's just a pair of shoes!

Princess Wang was pampered since childhood. Let alone a pair of shoes that she might only wear once or twice, even if she wore different clothes every day, enough to last a lifetime for the common people to live on for several years, she would still have enough to wear! Why would a pair of shoes that she might not even like cost someone their life?

But no one outsiders thought the princess was wrong.

That palace maid certainly deserved to die.

Zheng Qiao laughed again, "However, no one cares about such trivial matters. People only remember that the princess endured humiliation and hardship for the sake of the Xin royal family. She dared not die, nor could she die! I can decide when she dies! What she did is no different from what I did. Even if there is a difference, it's just a minor evil versus a major evil! What, does a minor evil not mean it's not evil? Minor evils can be ignored and forgiven, but major evils cannot be understood?"

Yan An opened his mouth and whispered, "He has not failed in his duty."

Zheng Qiao retorted, "You are upright in major matters but not concerned with minor ones. In your opinion, are the lives of palace servants merely 'minor matters'?"

Yan An said, "You know perfectly well that's not what I meant."

Zheng Qiao steadied herself.

Since he stopped suppressing his temper, his anger has become increasingly difficult to control, even though he knows that Yan An's trip was for his own good.

As the old saying goes—

He doesn't need anyone to tell him what to do.

Who, apart from the king, dares to claim that they are always right?

Yan An then gently advised him to cultivate his character and control his temper.

Zheng Qiao flatly rejected him!

"I don't need to! Before, I was dependent on others, at their mercy, having to put on a smiling face and imitate those prostitutes to win a little favor and live a life that was even remotely human. But now, I am the ruler! The people of this land have to live at my beck and call!"

He smiled at Yan An's incredulous gaze.

"If they don't want to live anymore, they can just die."

As night fell, Yan An emerged from the palace garden.

When he turned around, a chill ran down his spine. For a moment, he saw not a magnificent palace, but a ferocious beast.

Yan An sighed and whispered.

"Some things you only know after you do them."

How could he face his father's spirit in heaven if he didn't give it a try?

If not—

At least I won't regret it.

That evening, an urgent imperial edict was sent from the imperial palace to various places.

This caused an uproar among all parties involved.

I have absolutely no idea what Zheng Qiao is up to.

Even knowing that the edict might be poisoned by Zheng Qiao, some people still couldn't help but waver in the face of enormous profits. This was a golden opportunity to seize power, amass military strength, and become independent!

(End of this chapter)