The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 36

[Quest Complete! You successfully found him and brought this terrible game to an end.]

[Quest Reward: 1,000 EXP.]

[Item Obtained: Zhang Hui’s Apron—a small bib worn by a young child to keep his clothes clean, embroidered with a little tiger by his mother. When worn, it provides a slight concealment effect for the wearer’s aura.]

…

The hide-and-seek incident in Xingping Ward came to an end.

Blackened bloodstains and strands of hair were discovered in the grooves of the stone mill in the rear courtyard of the Zhang family’s abandoned residence.

A nationwide warrant for Zhang Jun’s arrest was swiftly issued to every province and prefecture.

The remains of the victims dragged into the ghost domain were gathered and laid to rest.

But the repercussions of the case had only begun to ferment.

The Imperial Palace, Hall of Diligent Governance.

Emperor Longqing frowned deeply at the pile of memorials before him.

Shen Yan and the Jingning Guard had been impeached yet, yet, yet again.

Within the stack of memorials, the censors of the Purist Faction had put their eloquence to full use, listing a considerable number of charges.

Great Jing’s founding emperor had granted officials the right to submit impeachment memorials based on rumor. Censors and remonstrators could impeach ministers over hearsay without offering any evidence.

By now, that system had become a weapon for political factions to attack one another.

For both the Jingning Guard and Shen Yan, impeachment was more commonplace than drinking cold water.

Emperor Longqing would ordinarily have paid it no mind.

This incident, however, was different.

As the emperor’s personal troops, the Jingning Guard were the most loyal hounds in his hand and his sharpest blade.

They had become especially forceful after Shen Yan assumed the post of Commander-in-Chief.

The Guard performed work that could not bear the light of day and endured curses from morning to night, but throughout Great Jing, only the Jingning Guard bullied others. No one dared bully them.

For three of their men to perish at once, directly beneath the walls of the imperial city, was enough for Emperor Longqing to sense an approaching crisis.

He set down the memorial in his hand and once again picked up the confidential report Shen Yan had submitted.

There was no one else in the hall apart from Shen Zhixing at his side, so Emperor Longqing spoke without reservation, a little despondently.

“Companion, could those censors be right? Has my lack of virtue truly brought heavenly punishment upon us?”

Shen Zhixing chuckled. “The censors also claim that I, Shen Zhixing, am a lecherous fiend with countless favored beauties, debauched beyond measure.”

His self-mockery drew a laugh from Emperor Longqing. A moment later, however, the emperor’s expression darkened.

“Those men’s thoughts are truly filthy. They make me sick.”

Emperor Longqing loved amusement and shirked his work, but he possessed a sincerity rare among sovereigns, along with an almost instinctive gift for sharp intuition.

Compared with the court ministers who spouted lofty principles in public, practiced sordid deeds in private, and picked quarrels every day, he far preferred to trust the Shen uncle and nephew who did his dirty work for him.

“Unnatural cases have appeared frequently across the realm in recent years. Now even the foot of the imperial city knows no peace. A-Yan must take greater care in the future. He must not place himself in danger again.”

The mention of Shen Yan made Emperor Longqing look toward Shen Zhixing.

“A-Yan proposed establishing another office within the Jingning Guard to take special charge of supernatural cases. What do you think, Companion?”

Shen Zhixing did not answer at once. He merely poured the emperor a cup of tea.

“Your Majesty, have you not already made your decision?”

“You know me well, Companion.” Emperor Longqing’s brow relaxed. He drew out a sheet of fine paper and spread it across the desk.

After dipping his brush and considering for a moment, he swept three large characters across the page.

Night Watch Bureau.

…

With a flutter of wings, a gray sparrow startled from the ground and flew onto the blue-tiled roof of the Jingning Guard’s Pacification Office.

The fat orange cat abandoned its hunting crouch. It tucked its paws beneath itself and sat lazily in the sun before the Pacification Office canteen, eyes narrowed.

The fragrance of scallion pancakes filled the surrounding air.

“Why are we eating scallion pancakes again?” A Jingning Guard agent held the leather belt at his waist and stared in distaste.

The cook serving the food answered with a question of his own. “Are you eating them or not?”

“I am, I am!”

The agent irritably accepted two pancakes, then moved aside and added a chopstickful of pickles dressed in mustard oil to his bowl of congee.

“No matter how sick I am of scallion pancakes, they’re still better than the pig feed we used to get.”

The Jingning Guard agent muttered as he held his bowl and bit into a pancake.

Then he froze.

Was it his imagination?

This pancake seemed tastier than yesterday’s!

Just as he was about to take another bite to make sure, he spotted someone approaching and hurried to step aside.

“Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Lu.”

“Ah! Having breakfast?”

Lu Zhao’s eye twitched when he saw the scallion pancake in the man’s hand. After returning the greeting, he headed for the kitchens.

The moment he stepped through the door, he saw a small figure kneading dough, her hair covered with a kerchief and protective sleeves over her arms.

“A-Li.”

Lu Zhao had no idea what had possessed her to volunteer in the main kitchen.

She made the same thing every day, with the result that scallion pancakes had been the staple served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner throughout the Pacification Office for seven or eight days straight.

He did not know that Zhao Li was grinding proficiency for the Butcher profession.

She had experimented with many dishes. A bowl of red-braised pork added 0.02 EXP and two proficiency points, which was an excellent return.

But the cost and complexity of red-braised pork were more than ten times greater than those of scallion pancakes.

Zhao Li had practically carved the twin principles of relentless grinding and cost-efficiency into her soul. Naturally, she embarked upon the path of grinding out scallion pancakes to raise her proficiency.

To cut costs even further, she had simply moved her efforts to the Pacification Office’s main kitchen.

All the finished products could be consumed in-house, so nothing would go to waste.

Hearing a familiar voice call her, Zhao Li wiped her forehead with one hand and looked around.

“You’re here, Lord Lu? Want a pancake?”

“Thank you!”

Unlike the bachelors who ate all three meals at the Pacification Office, Lu Zhao usually ate at home. He was not quite as resistant to the scallion pancakes as they were.

He casually accepted one and took a bite, only to stare in surprise.

Why did today’s pancake taste especially good?

Zhao Li felt rather pleased with herself. After many days of effort, her Butcher profession had risen by one level.

Her former title of Kitchen Wrecker had advanced to Dark Cuisine Maker.

It did not sound like anything good could come of it, but after the upgrade, Zhao Li could clearly feel that her knife skills and other abilities had improved.

The most direct improvement was the taste of her food!

Even a perfectly ordinary scallion pancake—two handfuls of white flour, one handful of chopped scallions, and a pinch of salt—now emerged with an astonishing flavor.

Zhao Li suspected that if she kept leveling the profession, she might someday be able to make scallion pancakes that shone with golden light.

“Come on. I’ll take you on street patrol,” Lu Zhao said.

Assignments within the Jingning Guard were distributed by drawing lots, and Lu Zhao had recently happened to draw street-patrol duty.

In truth, anyone above the rank of Hundred-Household Commander did not need to go in person.

But Lu Zhao thought the young woman looked ready to go mad from being cooped up. He decided to use the assignment as an excuse to take her out for a stroll through the streets.

Zhao Li lit up at the words *street patrol* and dropped her work on the spot.

“Yes, absolutely! I can go out for breakfast while we’re at it. The sight of scallion pancakes makes me want to throw up.”

Lu Zhao stared, then found himself amused. “So even you’ve grown afraid of eating them?”

“I’m going to change!”

Zhao Li called a farewell to the others in the kitchen and hurried lightly back to her room.

After changing into her black Flying Fish Robe, she gave the matter some thought and slipped the gold bracelet she had kept into the small pouch hanging beneath the leather belt at her waist.

She intended to find a pawnshop and exchange it for silver to cover her daily expenses.