Chapter 609 – How to Remove This Concern? (1/2)

Chapter 609 – How to Remove This Concern?

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

With the hot blood dissipated, when the execution was carried out, it would be difficult to hear the powerful curses and recitations of the Great Zhou's laws. However, Yang Xiushen was still breathing, even though he was on his dying gasps, exhaling less then he inhaled, his breath like gossamer. His bones were still hard, even though his ribs had been shattered into ten or more pieces.

Yang Xiushen had never participated in the Grand Examination. He had entered the court as an official through the regular imperial examination. He had worked diligently in the government for many years before finally being recognized by the Divine Empress and promoted to a secretary of the palace. Everyone believed that he should have been thankful for the Divine Empress's kindness, yet he continued to act as he did in the past, quietly concerning himself with his own matters and recording all that occurred in the Imperial Palace.

This lasted until a certain autumn day four years after the bloody incident of the Orthodox Academy, when he suddenly submitted a memorial to the throne.

This memorial was fully aimed at Zhou Tong and also criticized the Divine Empress at the end.

The Divine Empress was greatly displeased and had him locked away in Zhou Prison. In Zhou Prison, he suffered countless tortures, but in the end, he endured and survived. Finally, he was pardoned, released, and transferred to the Ministry of Rites.

That was a matter from ten-odd years ago.

Ten-odd years later, he was once more jailed in Zhou Prison. This time, he had no colleagues in the court to call upon and the Divine Empress also seemed to forget his existence.

Through the bars, Zhou Tong gazed at the mass of mangled flesh lying on the disorderly straw. After squinting for a very long time, he finally confirmed that this was his greatest enemy from that period in the past.

”Lord Yang is truly a loyal and dependable official. After suffering so much torture, you still did not speak a single word.”

Zhou Tong continued, ”But that matter from back then was not known only by you.”

Upon hearing his voice, Yang Xiushen's body very arduously moved somewhat on the straw.

”Doctor Sun has just started talking.” Zhou Tong stood up and began walking out of the prison, his hands held behind his back. ”I came today only to bid you farewell.”

Hearing this, Yang Xiushen's body tensed and then suddenly relaxed.

He had persisted until now and finally had a reason to no longer persist. Of course, this did not mean that he would start talking, only that he could rest.

The sounds of heavy objects being moved could be heard in the gloomy and sinister prison cell. Ten-odd sacks packed with soil were moved into the cell by the officials of the Department for Purging Officials and then pressed over Yang Xiushen's body.

At the very beginning, Yang Xiushen's body would still twitch a couple of times, letting out a few muffled and indistinct noises. Ultimately, his voice grew softer and softer until it ceased.

Black and foul, almost solid blood flowed out from his eyes and nose. He could no longer breathe, but his eyes remained open.

Even if he was dead, he still wanted his eyes open. He stubbornly kept them open as if he wanted to see if the Heavenly Dao existed in this world, if there was such a thing as justice.

The autumn sun shone over the courtyard. The crabapple trees had no blossoms, but they were still beautiful.

Zhou Tong stood under the crabapple trees, his face slightly pale, most likely because it had been many years since he had seen much of the sun.

An official of the Department for Purging Officials stood behind him, his heart and body both cold. Not even the sun was able to warm him.

An official of the Imperial Court had died just like that.

Logically, this should have been a very normal affair. Similar things had happened many times, but this official of the Department for Purging Officials was Zhou Tong's most trusted subordinate and had followed him for several decades, so he knew that this time was different from all the other times. Those officials of the Imperial Court that had died in Zhou Prison in the past had often died without a trial, an act which logically was in serious defiance of the laws of the Great Zhou, but not in defiance of the Divine Empress's will.

The Divine Empress no longer wished to see those officials, so those officials quietly died.

But this time was different. He was keenly aware that Lord Zhou Tong was privately investigating something. The Divine Empress did not know, and also did not know of Yang Xiushen's death.

He turned to Zhou Tong, his gaze resting on the great crimson official's robe. Gone was its usual appearance—it now seemed to contain no boundless sea of blood or fiendish intent that filled the heavens, but a sense of anxiety, even fear.

Why had Lord Zhou Tong acted this way? To risk the Empress's rage and secretly interrogate so many people, just what did he want to know? What matter was he so fearful of?

……

……

If Black Robe could be called the most secretive person in the world, then Zhou Tong could be called the person that knew the most secrets in the world.

To him, secrets were like money and treasure, power and status. The more he had, the better, and the more he had, the safer he would feel.

From one year ago, he had begun attempting to discover Chen Changsheng's secret, but sadly, he had not made much progress. His sole source of progress had been forced to a halt because it involved the Imperial Palace and he had been highly likely to come upon one of the Divine Empress's secrets, but nobody knew that he had continued to secretly investigate.

He had at first suspected that Chen Changsheng was Crown Prince Zhaoming. The rumor that had suddenly begun spreading through the capital last year had been deliberately started by him.

It was the secret he most wanted to know.