The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 43

Zhao Li asked for the Eight Characters of Birth of the second Chen son’s wife.

He could not remember them at all, saying only that they were recorded on the marriage certificate at home.

Zhao Li sent him to fetch it, then told Zheng Lian to bring Granny Oil inside.

Zheng Lian had barely stepped out when an argument and a burst of commotion erupted in the courtyard.

Zhao Li frowned and hurried outside. A middle-aged man in blue was bent over Granny Oil, weeping.

“Auntie! How did you end up like this?”

As though she had found her savior, Granny Oil clutched the man’s sleeve and sobbed. “I was gravely ill, but they dragged me here.”

Nearby, Zheng Lian faced off against six or seven constables.

Their leader was a young man wearing the leopard badge of a sixth-rank military official. When Zhao Li emerged, he stared at first, then seemed to remember something. A careless smile touched his lips.

“I know the Jingning Guard is overbearing, but this case falls under the Five Cities Military Patrol Office. Haven’t you two overstepped your jurisdiction?”

Zhao Li knew he had come with hostile intentions, but she did not wish to create a pointless conflict with the Five Cities Military Patrol Office. She produced the official writ.

“We are acting under orders. Please understand.”

The military officer did not even look at it.

“This old woman is the aunt of one of my brothers. She is already a bag of old bones. How could she endure such a fright? I will take her with me today. What do you two think?”

Without waiting for Zhao Li’s answer, he called to the middle-aged man in blue.

“Why haven’t you thanked the two officers?”

His voice rang with confidence. He seemed certain that his intervention would settle the matter.

Granny Oil and the middle-aged man exchanged a glance, delight flashing across both faces.

The man in blue rose to offer his thanks.

Zhao Li snorted. “Who said she could leave?”

The officer stared. Realizing that Zhao Li refused to release the woman, he felt he had lost face. Embarrassment sharpened his voice.

“Do you know who I am?”

That stock line from a brain-dead princeling made Zhao Li’s teeth ache.

“Go on, then. Who are you?”

“My name is Fang Huai. My uncle is Fang She, the Minister of Revenue.”

Pride spread across Fang Huai’s face.

“I heard that Vice Minister Zhao’s daughter debased herself by joining the Jingning Guard.”

“My uncle gave your father, Zhao Huai, a thorough dressing-down over the matter.”

Fang Huai chuckled and looked at Zhao Li smugly.

He was accustomed to throwing his weight around on the strength of his uncle. In his world, if his uncle stood above Zhao Huai, then naturally he stood above Zhao Li.

Zhao Li found it absurd.

She raised her head. Her small face and large eyes looked pure and harmless, but the words that came out of her mouth were anything but.

“So Minister Fang forgot to fasten your leash and let a bastard like you wander around outside?”

“The Jingning Guard is His Majesty’s personal force. Every one of us upholds the law and serves the sovereign and realm. Yet you call joining it self-debasement? Do you even hear the shit coming out of your mouth?”

Her sudden outburst stunned everyone present.

Zheng Lian and Cuixiang were the most shocked.

Zheng Lian had never imagined Zhao Li would be so unyielding.

Neither had Cuixiang.

In her memory, Zhao Li had been like a frightened rabbit.

She forced herself to throw tantrums and make scenes, but anyone could see that she had no confidence beneath it.

She disliked Miss Yaoguang, yet always imitated Miss Yaoguang’s mannerisms with painful care.

As Cuixiang looked at Zhao Li now, she felt as though she were seeing her for the first time.

The farmhouse courtyard fell silent enough to hear a pin drop.

After a moment of stunned disbelief, Fang Huai flew into a rage.

“What did you say?”

He tried to advance, but a black scabbard pressed against his chest.

“Step back!”

Zheng Lian gripped his saber, its hilt braced before Fang Huai. His lean face was openly menacing.

“You’re only a discarded daughter of the Zhao family who joined the Jingning Guard by turning on your own father. Do you truly believe you have someone to rely on?”

Relying on his uncle, Fang Huai had obtained an official post. His subordinates flattered him daily, and even his superiors gave way to him.

Now Zhao Li had cursed him before everyone. He dropped all restraint and spoke coldly.

“Today, I will protect this old woman no matter what!”

The middle-aged man and Granny Oil exchanged another glance and relaxed.

“Many thanks, Young Master Fang,” they repeated.

Granny Oil even pushed herself upright and kowtowed.

“Thank you, Lord Fang, for upholding justice for this old woman.”

Fang Huai looked Zhao Li up and down, his mouth growing filthy.

“You’re pretty enough. That scar on your face spoils you somewhat, but I don’t mind. Given the chance, I’ll have to find out whether that little mouth of yours is always so sharp.”

“Bullshit!”

Zheng Lian had previously restrained himself because of Fang Huai’s uncle. He could no longer bear it and whipped his saber from its sheath.

But someone moved faster.

Fang Huai saw only a blur before a sheathed saber shot forward with ruthless precision and struck him squarely in the mouth.

Caught completely unprepared, Fang Huai screamed. Several white teeth the size of peanuts flew from his lips in a spray of blood and struck the ground.

“You don’t need that filthy mouth anymore.”

Zhao Li’s face was cold as she wiped the blood and saliva from her scabbard against his clothes.

The points she had added to her constitution had not gone to waste. Her current strength astonished even her.

This man’s uncle was the Minister of Revenue, one of the handful standing at the summit of power. In theory, Fang Huai had reason to feel secure.

So what?

Zhao Li slowly wiped her scabbard clean.

Only then did the constables from the Five Cities Military Patrol Office react. They hurried forward.

Shing—

A saber left its sheath. The pattern on its blue-green blade flashed with a cold silver light.

Zhao Li held the blade in one hand and her Bian’an badge in the other.

“The Jingning Guard is empowered by imperial authority to execute first and report afterward!”

She laid the edge against Fang Huai’s throat.

“This blade was the cherished weapon of a Northern Border General of the previous dynasty. It has not tasted blood since coming into my hands. Who wishes to test it?”

With the icy edge at his neck, Fang Huai could feel its chill against his skin.

He covered his mouth and glared hatefully at Zhao Li, blood streaming between his fingers.

The constables dared neither advance nor retreat.

The two sides entered a stalemate.

Zhao Li jerked her chin toward Granny Oil and her nephew.

“Zheng Lian, take those two inside.”

At first, Zhao Li had merely suspected Granny Oil of colluding with traffickers.

But when the woman’s nephew appeared so quickly with rescuers, matters became far less simple.

Now Zhao Li only regretted not bringing more men.

She had set out believing this was merely a child-snatching case, but the disappearance of the Chen wife had instinctively told her otherwise.

She absolutely could not let anyone take Granny Oil away.

Nor could she release the nephew who had arrived at such a convenient moment. And as for…

Zhao Li’s eyes darkened as she looked at Fang Huai.

“Just you wait.”

Fang Huai’s mouth was full of blood and air whistled through the gaps in his teeth. His eyes were crimson, veins bulging along his neck as he snarled the threat.

Zhao Li merely smiled coldly. “Worry about yourself first.”

She told Zheng Lian to force him to the ground, then found hemp rope in Cuixiang’s home and bound him.

Raising her badge, Zhao Li addressed the courtyard.

“The Jingning Guard is conducting official business. We now require your cooperation. Please actively fulfill your obligations as law-abiding subjects of Great Jing.”