Chapter 127
Those who were unwilling to move forward persuaded the official in front of them, saying, "How about this? We won't go in either, and let them take out the things for us..."
Before he could finish his sentence, he was angrily interrupted by the official: "Don't you have brains? Aren't they treating us like this just because they don't want to agree to let us take out the things now? People who don't know would think that we are their prisoners and they are our superiors! How presumptuous and shameless! Do they know who is the official? Do they know who is the boss? Humph."
The officers were not angry. They looked at each other and smiled. They all showed a smile that seemed to indicate they had won the victory. They approached the official and whispered, "Don't be angry. We haven't finished talking yet. It's true that they are unwilling now, but they don't know who we are."
The official was angry again: "What do you mean you don't know? Haven't we already made our attitude and identity clear? What else do we need to do? What else do you want to say? Do you think I'm here to sing? Before you speak, you should first explain how your relatives persecuted your parents, brothers and sisters, and how you ended up here alone and helpless? It's too troublesome! It's too ridiculous! Who do you think I am?"
The officials continued to soothe him gently, "That's not what I meant. That's not what I meant. Although they now know that we are officials, they certainly don't know that you came here to find a birthday gift for the princess under the order of the emperor. If they knew, how dare they neglect us? Especially you! Think about it, right?"
These words are simply gentle inducements.
The official looked at them doubtfully, and seeing that they all said the same thing, he nodded and frowned, neither happy nor reluctant. He snorted coldly, swung his sleeves, and said angrily, as if he was angry and wanted to throw all the teacups on the table and smash them, "I came here on the order of the emperor to find a gift for Her Royal Highness the Princess!"
He shouted, "How dare you stop me?"
The officers on the other side all knelt down and complained: "We dare not, we dare not."
The officer shouted, "Why don't you take out the stuff for me now?"
The officer replied, "But we really don't know where the thing is, so we can't take it out! If it really is there, it must have been secretly hidden by a dead person before he died, and we don't know where it is either."
The official asked, "What's the difference between death and inaction?"
The officer on the other side replied: "Recently, a man here fell ill and was in a coma. He is probably dead. We don't know what to do with him. However, if anyone knows the whereabouts of the treasure, it must be him. We have already asked other people, and they all said they knew nothing. There is nothing we can do. Please forgive us, sir!"
Everyone shouted, "Please spare our lives! Please spare our lives! We know nothing!"
The official was skeptical: "Well, then, where is the body of the dead person?"
The officer on the other side replied, "Because the weather is too hot, if it stays here it will probably stink, so it must have been thrown out when it died. It is no longer possible to find the body. We have searched everywhere."
The official took a deep breath and said angrily, "Bullshit! You just want to fool me! I'm not that easy to fool!"
The officer quickly stepped forward and offered a plan: "To be honest, although it won't work now, don't we still have a way? It doesn't matter if they don't admit it, we can set a fire. As long as this fire is lit, whether it succeeds or not, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. If it works, of course it will be even better. Besides, didn't the man say before? If something meets fire, it will glow."
The official nodded: "Yes."
He waved his hand and shouted, "Light it up! Light it up for me!"
The officers on the opposite side looked at each other in bewilderment. They didn't know whether to shout at the prisoners inside to come out or to stop them from coming out. They could only kneel on the ground, as if in a stalemate, motionless, with their heads down, as if they had heard nothing, which meant that they had done nothing.
Very good, this is how the fire started.
Some waiting sounds came out from the flames, and golden light really came out from the flames.
The officials clapped their hands, overjoyed, and shouted, "Look! Someone said there was no such thing before. Isn't this it? If there wasn't any, how could there be such a light? This must be a good omen! This must be a good omen! Hahaha! Hahaha!"
As he spoke, he quickly asked people to put out the flames and went in to look for something. Colorful fireworks flew out from the flames one after another, dazzling people. They all stared at the sky and forgot to continue splashing water for a moment. The water was not nearby, but far away. The nearest water was dirty and turbid. The people inside were splashed with water when they ran out, and they screamed and cried out.
Unable to tell which was more serious, the wound on his body or the filth of the water, he rolled on the ground and continued to shout. The official heard him and frowned, saying, "Someone shut their mouths! Quickly!"
The officer next to him immediately said, "Yes, yes, yes, the master is kind-hearted and cannot bear to hear or see such things. Hurry up and drag him away!"
As they spoke, they made a beheading gesture to the people who came to handle the matter. Those people saw it, nodded, and blocked the mouths of the people who made the noise on the ground one by one, dragging them away.
When those people entered the house to look for it, they found nothing. They only saw a mess on the floor, covered in black gray. They searched everywhere but couldn't find anything. They didn't know what was going on. They looked at each other and shook their heads.
They didn't know how to explain to the officials and were scolded to death. The officials also felt very annoyed and walked back and forth in front of the crowd with their hands behind their backs, acting like a big leader, cursing: "I came here to find something, not to put on a show for you! You want to watch a show and find a monkey showman, why are you looking for me? You people are incapable of doing anything good, but you are more likely to cause trouble than to do anything else! Are you anything else? sick?
You can't even find this little thing, do you want me to go in and look for it myself? I'm not your puppet. You can order me around without taking any responsibility or paying any price, right? Good! Good! I'm going to teach them a lesson today! Come on, give each of you twenty lashes! I'm going to teach them a lesson, they dared to get involved in this kind of thing casually, if it goes wrong it will be a big deal!"
The more he spoke, the angrier he got. He kicked the people around him one by one. They were all kneeling on the ground. They didn't dare to run when they saw him coming. They could only endure it and fell backwards one by one. They looked so weak, in so much pain, and so pitiful.
But the situation is not much better.
Perhaps it was because they had no foundation for the moves the girl used, so they were not used to the local environment and had no effect, and they cried even more sincerely.
The official became even more irritated by the crying. He took two steps and cursed, "You guys are clueless! Why are you still crying? What are you? What use are you? You can't do any work, you can't talk. You have nothing! How did you become the officials you are now? Are you dreaming? How ridiculous! Could it be that you relied on the money from your family to get here? Damn it!
I will ask the Emperor to investigate when I get back! You rotten brats should all be rooted out. You pretentious bastards, you think else is blind and deaf to accompany you, right? Humph, I am not a qualified kid to pretend to be deaf and dumb everyone."
He felt a little relieved, and remembered that it was Jiaming who told the story in the beginning, so he wanted to accuse him of instigation. However, when he looked for him, he was gone. When he asked about it, he learned that he had left long ago. He went out to look for him, and found the real official lying in the mud, unconscious, with his coat taken off.
The man supported him and asked, "Why are you sleeping here?"
The officer said, "I don't know either."
The visitor asked: "Then why are you sleeping here?"
The officer said, "I don't know either."
The visitor asked again: "What were you going to do?"
The officer said, "I was going to attend a banquet."
The visitor asked, "You have already attended the party, but you were drunk and don't remember it?"
The officer rubbed his head, and suddenly a surge of anger surged in his heart: "What? Nonsense! I didn't go there at all. Even if someone went there wearing my clothes, it was definitely not me. How did it become my business? I didn't do it at all. I didn't even drink the wine, how can it be mine? It's funny, too funny! Fuck it, I must have been framed."
The man turned pale and let go of his hand. He was still clueless and shouted, "It's definitely not my fault. No matter what happened, I don't know. How can I be wrong if I don't know anything? Even if the emperor came, he couldn't find fault with it. What's more, he is just a small official sent by the emperor. Humph, just give him some face and let him do good things.
Does he really think that he is a shallow turtle and can be called a king? Don't be so proud! He is just a self-righteous person. A piece of dog."
The man knelt down, groaned, and said to the side: "I know nothing! I didn't mean it! I didn't encourage him to say such a thing! Please have mercy on me, sir, and forgive me!"
As he spoke, he trembled and began to kowtow, with great sincerity and emotion.
The officer didn't know what was going on. He slowly turned around and saw an official coming. He was wearing beautiful and high-end clothes that he had never seen before. He smiled and walked over to ask, "Hey, who are you? You are dressed so well. Why don't you give me this dress to try on? I promise I won't ruin it for you."
As he spoke, he stretched out his hand, which was still covered with mud. His whole body, even his hair, was wet. He didn't know how to avoid it, nor did he feel that he was very dirty. He was smiling, but was knocked down by someone who suddenly rushed out. He was pressed to the ground and had a mouthful of mud in his mouth. The mud was grayish white and looked like sesame paste, but it was not sweet. He spat it out.
The official looked down at him, calm and serious. "He committed treason. He deserves to be punished. Give him 40 strokes of the cane. If he is still alive, come to me. If he is dead, he has sacrificed his life for the law. This is a cause for celebration and respect. Send his family a plaque with the words 'Good Dog Official' written on it. Have them hang it on their door day and night so that the neighbors can see what it is."
As he spoke, he snorted coldly, smiled and walked away.
Jiaming had run a long way. He was tired, hungry, thirsty and sleepy. He gradually fell asleep in a secluded place. When he woke up, he felt a snake crawling towards him. He looked over and found that the snake was lying on his calf. He turned his head, spit out its tongue, and crawled forward little by little. Jiaming pinched the snake by the wrist with one hand and killed it and ate it.
Maybe it was because there was no seasoning and it didn’t taste very good, but I heard that snake gall can clear the heart and improve eyesight, so I roasted it thoroughly and swallowed it.
After having a full meal, Jiaming prepared to take a bath. He found a stream, scrubbed his skin clean, twisted his clothes, and got up. When he got up, he found someone not far away, so he chased after him. The person ran all the way, and he finally caught him. He found that he was not very old. He cried and begged Jiaming, "I'm sorry, I didn't know there was someone here, don't kill me."
I don't know what was going on in his mind, it seemed like he thought he would die if he saw it.
Jiaming wouldn't do anything to him for such a small matter.
"Why are you running?"
"You chased me as soon as you came out. I got scared and ran away. I'm sorry."
The stranger said to Jiaming.
"Never mind. It's not a big deal."
Jiaming said with a frown.
"Then can you let me go?"
The stranger looked at Jiaming pitifully and asked.
"It's not that I won't let you go, it's that you didn't give me the chance. You look suspicious. Who knows what will happen if I let you go? Do you know something? Have you seen my face?"
"No, no."
He said no, but fear was almost bursting out of his eyes.
"Forget it. Seeing you like this, there's nothing to say. I'll let you go."
Jiaming tidied himself, patted his clothes, and waved to him.
He got up from the ground in a flash, and asked in surprise and joy, "Can I really leave now? Can I leave now?"
Jiaming said, "Yes, we can go now."
The stranger ran away suddenly, and Jiaming followed him slowly, standing far behind him and watching from a distance to see where he was going. He found that he had indeed run to the government office. He arrived at the door of the government office, knocked on it, and went in. He soon came out with his people, and a group of people walked up the mountain.
Jiaming had circumvented them and had already run away. They didn't catch anything, so they beat the man up and said to him, "You are a fool. If I don't show you some power this time, you will think we are all idle people. It's really unreasonable."
After being beaten, he went home crying and hugged himself, and then he cried again when he got home.
Jiaming had already walked to the place where he kept his money, took out the money, went into a store on the street, changed his clothes and shoes, and walked out a delightful person again.
He was sitting in a teahouse resting when he heard someone talking next to him. Suddenly, they mentioned Kyoto. He tilted his ear to listen: "What's going on? What's going on?"
"Oh, you didn't know yet? Hahaha! A big fire broke out in Kyoto, and the Imperial Palace was burned down. We ordinary people can actually see what's happening over there from here one day. There was such a huge thick smoke. You didn't see it, so you don't know how spectacular it was!"
"How did it catch fire?"
"How else could it have caught fire? I heard that the eunuch or the maid accidentally lit the charcoal fire that the noble used to keep warm, but it was knocked over and not cleaned up properly, so sparks were hidden. Afterwards, someone went out to burn charcoal for barbecue, but didn't pay attention, and the fire started at the back. It was a huge fire, and it couldn't be put out for a while. They had to get out first, but there was no way to put out the fire, so it kept burning."
“Did it burn for a long time?”
"Probably three days and three nights. It's no big deal. Our house often has fires, which last for three days and three months. But it's really rare for a fire to be so big and burn the house. Hahaha! Hahaha!"
"Everyone seems happy?"
"Aren't we happy? They wouldn't be like this if they had something wrong. They wouldn't be like this if they were nicer to us, but they didn't do anything. Shouldn't we be happy about their misfortune? Bullshit! What a rubbish. I didn't yell at them because I was afraid of death, not because I didn't have any resentment in my heart. They usually pretend to be good. What about them in reality?"
Someone nearby said, "Nothing can be solved!"
Another person said, "Yeah, yeah, once, I went to the government to report a case to them, and they told me that it was just a suspected scam, not a real scam, and we couldn't help at all. How could we help? They didn't even have an attitude! Bullshit, if they were really scamming, they would have been in jail long ago. Why would we need to say that nonsense to them? What the hell. They are sick in the head."
The fourth person said: "It's not just that! They are just such rubbish, and they don't even admit it. After you say a few words, some dog-like creatures will crawl up and bite you to death."
The fifth person laughed out loud, "Yeah, one time, I went to the government hall and stood there to do something. They glanced at me and rolled their eyes at me before asking me what I wanted to do. Another time, I went to their place to pay for something. They sat there, chatting among themselves. It was so funny. They didn't ask me, didn't look at me, didn't do anything, and didn't pretend to be anything."
I would say that these people are even more disgusting than those people! They are all disgusting, and they are all disgusting. They don't admit that it doesn't matter. We are all people with eyes, so why should we get involved with them? People who don't know would think they are mentally ill. Should we work like slaves for them? Or should we kowtow to them? Hey, you don't know, once I went there, they asked me to kneel down first.
They thought I was a prisoner who surrendered himself to help them with their sales! They arrested me and locked me up, and only released me after three days.
The sixth person also gnashed his teeth and said: "They deserved the fire. I just hate that they didn't have more deaths!"
The seventh person said, "You don't know, they are more than that. I was once cheated out of 80,000 yuan. I went to the government, and the government recorded it and told me to go back and wait for news. I waited for eight years, and now there is still no news. I still can't get the money back. It's funny, funny, they are such trash, what are they? Are they worth praising?"
The eighth person shouted, "That's right. I'm giving them face by not swearing at them. They talk so lazily that people who don't know them would think they are big shots! Bullshit, they are just pretending to be evil, they are all fucking evil."
The ninth person looked around and asked, "Is it okay for us to talk about this here?"
A group of people looked at him and said, "That's your business. If you go out and report us, of course we will be in trouble. If you don't go out and report us, no one will be in trouble. It's up to you. Who among us hasn't been persecuted by them? You are pretending to be innocent here, and we can't do anything about it. If you have the ability, tell them not to promote the idea that no case can be solved!"
The people around laughed cheerfully, "The reason why they can solve every case is because they think that no one knows about the unsolved cases because they don't file them and don't count them. Why are you pretending? If you have the ability, why don't they put up slogans and shout slogans all day long, saying, 'If you have any problems, come to us, the government will definitely solve them.' Oh, there is no guarantee, right? How funny! Why don't you just say that?
What is it? You want to lie to us and pretend that we don’t have it. Well, you don’t have it, and you really don’t have it when you lie to us.”
The ninth person blinked and asked: "How could that be? They did solve our problem. We can't say that about them, right? It's not good, right?"
Others asked, "Since you feel bad, have you ever been there?"
The ninth person shook his head: "I haven't been there, but everyone knows that they are very good."
Others sneered, "If things were great, we wouldn't be here. If things were great, why would someone buy a house but not be able to move in and still be in debt and no one is responsible? If things were great, why would someone die suddenly from working? The government clearly said there were laws to take care of it, but why didn't they do anything? Those who should die are still dead, and those who should work are even deader! But you are still alive.
You live only for a sweet-talking mouth to spew out these filth! I don't know how the concierge let you in."
The ninth person was a little scared, so he stood up and tried to run away: "I will definitely report you."
A man in the crowd stood up and said, "Since you are determined to harm us, why don't we kill you now? Otherwise, you will run away and kill us all. Wouldn't that mean we will die unjustly?"
The ninth person shouted, "How are you wronged? You are not wronged for saying these things!"
The others sneered, "So, aren't we wronged for being owed debts and having our families destroyed for no reason? Are we waiting to die? Are we wronged for being victimized? Are we wronged for being deceived? Are we wronged for believing their lies? They are living in peace and contentment, while we work ourselves to death and have nothing to show for it. Aren't we wronged? Bullshit! You are just a lackey, why are you pretending?"
So they killed the man and sent him to the back of the kitchen. Then they brought out a bowl of hot fat meat. Everyone at the table ate it, with rice and weeds, and said with a smile, "Delicious, delicious. It turns out that we still need our enemies. Only the flesh and blood of our enemies are the most delicious!"
They also invited Jiaming, but Jiaming shook his head and said, "I don't want to eat this. I just ate a snake before I came here, and now I'm not very hungry, so I can't eat it."
They nodded, and finished their meal without saying anything more. After clearing the bowl and chopsticks, they looked at Jiaming and said, "It's not that we think there's anything wrong with you, but if you leave here, you will be ours, and others will not treat you as a human being. Why don't you join us? We are the same as you."
Jiaming shook his head: "I have something else to do."
He will go to a fixed location to meet up with the agreed people.
They took a deep breath and said, "Okay, since you must leave, we won't stop you. But you have to swear that you will never tell anyone about what happened today, you will never report us, you will never be self-righteous, you will never become one of them, and you will never persecute us in turn."
Jiaming said: "I can swear, I swear now."
After he swore his oath, the men let him go. He asked, "Aren't you afraid that I might go back on my word?"
They looked at each other and smiled: "Even if you regret it, what can we do?"
Jiaming asked: "Don't you think there is a problem?"
They said, "Of course we think that repentance is a problem, but to be honest, we don't think you will repent because you look like someone who can't repent on this matter. If you could repent, you wouldn't have come to us in the first place."
Jiaming said, "Okay."
They said to Jiaming, "We're going to say goodbye now. I hope you can come back in the future and eat meat with us."
Jiaming said, "Let's talk about it later."
He nodded and walked away.
When he was gone, the people behind him asked, "Hey, are we really not going to kill him?"
"Don't worry. If he reports us, we will kill him before he goes in. He is not heading towards the government, so don't be afraid."
In a blink of an eye, the group of people were drinking and joking happily again.
Jiaming arrived at the destination. The agreed time had long passed, but they still remembered to leave him a message, telling him: "We have been waiting for you for a long time, but you didn't come. We really can't wait here any longer. We are leaving first. If you want to catch up, come here. If you don't want to go with us, that's fine too. Just don't tell anyone about us, it will only cause you trouble.
Find a way out for yourself.”
Jiaming crumpled the paper he was about to write on into a ball, threw it away, picked it up again, lit a fire, burned the paper, stared at the ashes for a while, cleaned the table, mixed the ashes and water, and fed it to the stray dog.
After doing all these things, he didn't know where to go for a while.
He was so worried that he had a headache. He fell asleep on the bed. When he woke up, it was raining outside. It seemed that it had been raining outside before he fell asleep. The rain lasted for a long time. Jiaming waited for a whole day and a night, but the rain didn't stop. So he opened an umbrella and went out. He didn't know where to go, but he wanted to take a walk, even if it was just shopping or going to the wilderness to find a snake to eat.
Hun was soaked all over, and the money was still on him. Jiaming found a place to sit down and rest. The place was soaked and he didn't know how long he had been walking. He gradually fell asleep. When he woke up, the rain had stopped. Someone wanted to take his umbrella. He snatched the umbrella back and cursed at the man. The man refused to accept and tried to snatch it from him, so he knocked him to the ground.
The man stopped struggling, and Jiaming left with the umbrella. Then it rained a little, and the umbrella was clean, but he became even dirtier. He found a place to wash up and sat in a clean room to think about what to do next.
Suddenly someone knocked on the door. It was a stranger. The stranger said to Jiaming, "I'm someone you know and I'm here to see you."
Jiaming knew that the stranger was a young man.
Jiaming opened the door, let the man in and asked, "What's the matter?"
"We are almost there, but you might get caught, so be careful."
The stranger instructed Jiaming.
Jiaming nodded: "Be careful not to get caught, I understand."
The stranger said: "Victory is at hand, but——"
He seemed to have something unfinished to say. Jiaming didn't know what he meant. He uttered an "ah" and stood up suddenly, saying to Jiaming, "Sorry, I have to leave now."
Jiaming nodded: "Okay."
After Jiaming sent the people away, he felt that he could not stay in this place any longer. If he continued here, he would be caught again.
When he was about to leave, he was blocked at the door and had to retreat because the person at the door said, "There are criminals here, and we need to catch them now! No one of you is allowed to leave. Whoever leaves will be the criminal!"
Jiaming was arrested again, and this time he was dealt with quickly and was about to be beheaded.
He didn't know how long he had been in prison. Anyway, when he opened his eyes and thought his head should have fallen, he found that there was no one around. A horse came running over from a distance. A young man got off the horse. He walked up to Jiaming and said, "It's okay now."
Jiaming looked at him suspiciously, thinking that he was speaking sarcastically, because Jiaming always felt that he would chop off his head at the next moment.
The young man untied Jiaming's rope and helped him stand up. He hadn't stood up for a long time, so his legs were weak and he staggered. The young man said to him, "We have succeeded now, but we are still unclear about what will happen next. You——"
Before he finished speaking, Jiaming had already fallen into a coma.
The young man moved Jiaming to a room and let him rest. When Jiaming opened his eyes, it was already two days later. The person guarding him was a young girl wearing a very light-colored dress and two buns. When she saw him open his eyes, she stood up and shouted to the outside: "He's awake!"
Jiaming was almost woken up by the noise.
The young man walked in after hearing this, looked at Jiaming, and said with a smile: "I didn't know you would wake up at this time, but you have caught up."
Jiaming asked: "What did you catch up with?"
He stood up, his whole body aching, and he felt as if his brain had been soaked in sea water for who knows how long and had become rusty.
"I think there's something wrong with you."
Jiaming looked at the young man and said, "What are you now? You haven't even thought it through, and it's already happened. Don't you think it's too easy?"
The young man said, "That's fine. I've already discussed these things with someone and they'll be able to work it out soon. But before that, I want to ask you, what do you hope to happen next?"
Jiaming said: "If possible, I hope that the situation will remain the same as before, because it takes a lot of effort to make a major change from beginning to end. We have a lot of waste to rebuild, so where can we find so much manpower and resources to deal with it? In the end, the people will suffer when the country prospers and the people will suffer when the country fails."
The young man said, "It's not impossible. But the bottom line needs to be dealt with."
Jiaming said, "I don't care about other things, but we have to deal with the things we know. It is absolutely impossible to steal other people's things, but it is only natural to ask others to give up the things they have stolen, right?"
The young man said, "In theory, that's true, but we don't know where the people are, so what can we do?"
Jiaming raised his eyebrows in confusion and asked, "Hey, when we succeed, are they ready to pack up and run away? They are too good at changing their minds and are like fence-sitters. How can anyone think that they can be trusted and entrusted with important tasks?"
The young man smiled and said, "I don't know about that. It's not my arrangement. Besides, it's a long and arduous task to deal with all these trivial matters."
Jiaming said, "That's what I say, but if something happens in the future, you'll be the one to blame. If they call you 'dog emperor', I'm afraid they'll be calling you that."
The young man smiled and said, "So I don't want to be the emperor. I don't want to be scolded. I just want to be the regent. No matter if others scold the emperor or the pests of the country, they can't scold me. It's very good. Even if others want to purge the emperor, they have to ask me first because I have the power in my hands. Isn't it better? But power will corrupt people."
He sighed, sat down, propped up his head with one hand and said, "I don't know if I can handle it. I don't have confidence in myself. But, what should I do? I don't know."
Jiaming asked: "How do you do this if you don't know this or that?"
The young man smiled and said, "Oh, I think it's unfair, abnormal, and unreasonable, so I thought, I can't go on like this, I have to find a way to change it, whether it's a little bit or a lot, or all of it, as long as I can do it, I will do it, isn't it the case today? It's a natural result. You can't blame me for everything, no one has thought it through.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have delayed it until today. You've already woken up, but they haven't finished their discussion yet."
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