"You should go back to the palace first." Cheng Ying stood up, put her wide sleeves embroidered with dark patterns behind her, and instructed in a very light voice.
Xia Ning guessed that the governor was going to "greet" Zhang Daoling, so he respectfully responded and left.
Cheng Ying walked down the wooden staircase step by step. There was no light in the tower except for the skylight in the attic on the top floor. The first and second floors had no doors or windows and were closed. The sticky darkness extended along the wooden stairs to the underground.
When he reached the basement, the wooden stairs had turned into stone steps. Cheng Ying had not been here for some time. Spider webs would appear from time to time in the not-so-narrow corridor. Cheng Ying was obsessed with cleanliness, and even though the light was extremely dim, he was able to accurately clean the spider webs with the handkerchief in his sleeve, and his black brocade robe was not stained with the slightest bit of dirt.
This corridor is so long that even though there are many people visiting the park on the ground every day, they can't hear any noise from underground and can't sense anything unusual.
At the end of the stone steps, the air was filled with the unpleasant smell of stale decay. Cheng Ying took out a lighter from his sleeve and lit the wall lamp on the stone wall to the right. The bright candlelight burned along the stone wall into a line of fire, which was enough to penetrate the darkness and illuminate the gloomy dungeon underground.
After the squeaking of the mouse, a rustling sound was heard, as if something was frightened by the candlelight and fled in all directions.
Cheng Ying walked slowly towards the iron prison.
The sound of iron chains shaking was heard, and in the iron cage, a white-haired man with tattered clothes, a body so thin that his muscles were almost atrophied, and a barely recognizable human form, was sitting cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed.
Cheng Ying stopped outside the iron prison. The man seemed not to hear the noise and still had his eyes closed like an old monk in meditation.
Cheng Ying's feminine face looked even more sinister under the candlelight's shadow.
Seeing a dried black-red bloodstain mixed with gray-brown hair on the dirty ground, he raised his lips and said, "Zhang Daoling, how long can you live?"
The white-haired man, whom he called Zhang Daoling, had disheveled hair and a tangled beard. He looked like a wild ape in the mountains and hardly looked like a human.
His hands were tied with long chains, and his palms were wrapped in iron palms. The long chains were hung on the stone wall behind him. The iron chains were as thick as a baby's arm. Without the key, it was impossible to break the iron lock with external force alone.
Zhang Daoling seemed not to hear Cheng Ying's words. He sat there, motionless.
Cheng Ying didn't seem to care whether he paid attention to her or not. She said with emotion as if she was talking to herself, "In seven days, it will be New Year's Eve. After this year, it will be the eleventh year of Mingzheng."
Cheng Ying did not go to see Zhang Daoling. She lifted her long sleeves and a gust of wind blew away all the dust on the chair next to the iron prison. He then took out a brocade handkerchief, wiped the chair clean, and then sat down on it.
"Why did you try every possible means to get close to me instead of Emperor Mingzheng?" Cheng Ying asked this question, as if he had not expected to get an answer from Zhang Daoling. Or perhaps he had asked this question many times and could not get an answer, or perhaps he had already guessed the answer.
Cheng Ying rubbed the Buddhist beads on her wrist, looked at the light coming through the ventilation hole, and smiled deeply, "To support the heaven? I am not very interested in Taiyan Jiangshan. As for who is on the throne, I don't care. You should never use her to deceive me. Since I can't get what I want, I naturally can't ask you to get what you want. What you want is Taiyan Xing, to restore order, right?"
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