Zhang San, please behave yourself!
Chapter 368 - 350: Night and Fire!

Chapter 368: Chapter 350: Night and Fire!

In the Eastern Palace, Yun Shengxu had just received the news and rushed to see the Crown Prince.

"Crown Prince, Crown Prince, great news! Great news indeed!"

Bang—

Yun Shengxu, overwhelmed with joy, fell directly to the ground as he entered the door.

The Crown Prince immediately went over to help Yun Shengxu up, and excitedly asked, "Did Concubine Yun give birth? No, didn’t she just get pregnant? That would be too soon!"

The helped-up Yun Shengxu pursed his lips and said, "Crown Prince, it’s about Zhang San. I’ve come to tell you, I just got the news. Today, Zhang San moved into his new home. He was hosting a banquet for guests at noon when, unexpectedly, the Vermilion Bird Principal Officer from the Town Martial Office showed up!"

Upon hearing this, the Crown Prince was initially startled and countered, "Vermilion Bird is also from the Town Martial Office, and so is Zhang San. Why would she attack Zhang San? And, wasn’t she supposed to be in the south? When did she come back?"

"I heard she just came back. After entering the city, she looked for a few people to inquire whether someone named Zhang San had come to the capital, then she charged directly to Jin City Fang and headed straight for Zhang San’s new residence. But no one knows yet why Vermilion Bird wanted to act against Zhang San."

The Crown Prince laughed and said, "Regardless of the reason, a powerhouse like Vermilion Bird taking action against Zhang San is good news for us. By the way, what about Zhang San? Is he dead?"

Yun Shengxu shook his head somewhat regretfully and said, "No, but I heard he was seriously injured."

Though not dead, the Crown Prince felt much comforted upon hearing that Zhang San was seriously wounded.

At that moment, Han Yanqiu, who had been organizing documents on the side, came over and bowed to the Crown Prince and Yun Shengxu.

"Congratulations, Crown Prince, I have just finished preparing the plan to deal with Zhang San. Please review it, Crown Prince, and Horse Washer."

Speaking of which, Han Yanqiu unrolled the scroll.

The Crown Prince and Yun Shengxu were delighted as they looked over the plan Han Yanqiu had devised.

"This strategy is ingenious, truly seamless! Han Yanqiu, when do you plan to act?" At this point, the Crown Prince, in high spirits, was already getting impatient.

Han Yanqiu pursed his lips and spoke in a low voice, "Crown Prince, this is the whole plan, but there are still many details that need to be polished. It involves the testimony of certain people and the falsification of physical evidence, which is easy enough to fabricate. However, witness testimony is more likely to be scrutinized, so not only must these people be completely trustworthy to the Crown Prince, I will also need to use interrogation techniques on them continuously, inducing them to truly believe that the stories they are memorizing actually happened. Only then can we make this fake case seem real!"

The Crown Prince, looking at Han Yanqiu’s plan to frame Zhang San, nodded in great satisfaction.

"Good! Whatever people or things you need, just tell Yun Shengxu!"

Yun Shengxu also smiled and said, "Your Highness, this time we must have Zhang San thrown directly into prison, once and for all!"

Han Yanqiu frowned, finally understanding why tasks entrusted by the Crown Prince had always failed.

Every time they were too hasty in acting before the plan was fully formed, was it not inviting failure?

And to throw him in prison as well?

"Your Highness, I designed this false case, weaving charges that accuse Zhang San of colluding with the Heavenly Punishment Sect, not to put him in prison. We should have an excuse which can be used to legitimately put him to death!"

"After all, this is a fake case. Even if my design looks real, it’s still fake. We need to confuse the real with the fake first, then during the capture of Zhang San, find a way to kill him! Once he’s dead, whether the case is real or fake won’t matter much any more!"

"Would Emperor Kaihuang really have the Ministry of Punishment and the Magistrate of Metropolitan prefecture monitor a case about a dead man every day? He wouldn’t. Thus, the purpose of this case isn’t to imprison Zhang San but to have a reasonable and legitimate excuse to kill him outright!"

"Now that Vermilion Bird Principal Officer has shown hostility toward Zhang San, we should gather more information about that. If Vermilion Bird harbors the intent to kill Zhang San, we could even use her to accomplish the deed!"

The Crown Prince nodded again and again. Previously, the only strategist by his side had been Yun Shengxu; now it seemed he had gained another!

Consequently, the Crown Prince immediately had the Eastern Palace set up a banquet to give Han Yanqiu a good meal before sending him away from his Eastern Palace.

However, they drank slightly late. When the Crown Prince escorted Han Yanqiu out of the Eastern Palace, the sky had already darkened, and he had to issue a pass for Han Yanqiu to avoid violating the curfew.

When the Crown Prince came out with the order in his hand, he discovered that there seemed to be a firelight on the north side of the Imperial Palace!

...

At night, Zhang San was in his room with Xu examining his injuries.

"Fortunately, you’ve been training your body, otherwise, after that palm from the Vermilion Bird, you would have probably died!"

Zhang San gave a wry smile, pointed to the clothes he had taken off beside him, and said, "Could you all shake my clothes out for me?"

Hu Xingxiang went over and shook the clothes on the ground, and with a rustling sound, broken pieces of wood scattered all over.

Zhang San sighed and said, "I usually carry around a dozen different types of defensive woodcraft. That palm, my knife even cut into it two-thirds deep. Broken, all of it is broken!"

"Thankfully, Big Sister taught me the Bamboo Breaking and Mending Technique long ago. Today, with that palm from the Vermilion Bird, my two True Cores, the two True Cores inside me are shattered!"

"What realm is this Vermilion Bird Principal Officer at to be so powerful?"

Everyone shook their heads.

Third Miss Gan spoke, "Within the Town Martial Office, the strongest is naturally the Chief, followed by four Hidden Principal Officers: Vermilion Bird, Xuanwu, Azure Dragon, and White Tiger. Among them, the White Tiger is first in apparent combat strength, but if a real battle breaks out, this Vermilion Bird Principal Officer may be a few notches stronger than the White Tiger Principal Officer."

Ximen Jinxing nodded repeatedly and said, "Exactly, that’s why I couldn’t rest assured about you. I’ll stay tonight, just in case Vermilion Bird comes to kill you, I’ll hold onto you, and she probably won’t make a deadly move!"

Ximen Jinxing originally wanted to go back to see his father but was persuaded by Lady Yu to stay here to "take care" of Zhang San.

At that moment, Wei sighed and said, "Zhang San, that palm earlier, Vermilion Bird didn’t strike with her full strength."

"Ah!?"

Zhang San stared at Wei with wide eyes. While shocked, Zhang San knew that when it came to dealing with danger, Wei was the most authoritative speaker.

"She just wanted to severely injure you with that palm first, then capture you and slowly interrogate how her son died. Otherwise, do you think at her stage of Purple Mansion Realm and Divine Cloud Jinqiao strength, striking your True Core is any different from flicking dust off her buttocks?"

Zhang San thought for a long while and said, "Maybe flicking her own buttocks feels better."

Everyone was speechless.

Even now, you’re still in the mood for jokes.

Just then, urgent knocks came from the newly installed main gate of the courtyard.

Zhang San was recovering quickly from his injuries but still couldn’t get out of bed right away.

So, it was Hu Xingxiang who ran to open the door.

Seeing Hu Xingxiang go, Ximen Jinxing immediately followed her out.

Before she left, Lady Yu instructed Ximen Jinxing a few words, one of which deeply impressed Ximen Jinxing, "Whatever Little Fox does, you do the same!"

The two women ran to the gate, just opened the door, and saw the somewhat disheveled Lady Yu and Qiong, as well as the old female guard who had always been protecting Lady Yu.

"Sister, what happened to you?"

Lady Yu smiled wryly and shook her head, sighing, "Some days ago, a Taoist told me I was fated for a disaster by fire. I didn’t expect it to come true tonight! I always felt something was wrong with this fire, so I dared not seek shelter with other relatives and came to my brother’s place instead."

Qiong nodded slightly on the side, but she knew that with the palace walls so high, how could it suddenly catch fire late at night!

Something’s off, this doesn’t feel right!