Da Ming: I told you to die for your cause, why are you actually going to die?

Chapter 144 Eating meat, drinking wine, and cursing Old Zhu! [Bonus Chapter 3 for Alliance Leader S]

Prison Department of Punishment.

An atmosphere of near despair permeated the air; Old Zhu's strategy was gradually eroding Shen Lang and Sun Gui's will.

However, just when they were in a daze and almost gave up hope.

"Dong dong dong——!"

A deep, muffled yet incredibly penetrating roar seemed to roll in from the horizon, or as if it had exploded right above our heads.

Faint yet incredibly real, the sound penetrated the thick layers of earth and stone walls, reaching into this underground prison.

"what sound?!"

Shen Lang and Sun Gui were awakened almost simultaneously.

Sun Gui suddenly looked up, his bloodshot eyes filled with surprise and doubt.

Shen Lang weakly propped himself up, listening carefully to the regular and heavy sound. His pale face was first confused, then suddenly filled with great shock and unbelievable ecstasy.

"It's...it's the petition drum! It's the petition drum at the right gate of Chengtian Gate!"

Shen Lang's voice trembled with excitement and weakness: "Someone has sounded the petition drum! At this hour... during the court assembly... it must be... it must be Li Mo and the others!"

"Hahaha!"

As he spoke, he couldn't help but throw his head back and laugh, then turned to look at Sun Gui: "They succeeded! They've ripped the sky apart!"

Upon hearing this, Sun Gui was stunned for a moment, then quickly realized what was happening.

A surge of hope, like molten lava, instantly overwhelmed the weariness and despair of the past few days. He lunged at the iron bars of the prison door, as if to hear more clearly, his voice choked with sobs yet carrying a roar:

"Good! Good! Knock! Knock harder!"

"Let that old man...let the Emperor hear! Let him hear the voice of the world!"

The two could no longer sit still. They struggled to climb to the cell door, gripping the cold iron bars tightly, straining their ears to greedily catch the drumbeats from the ground that represented the last glimmer of hope and justice.

Although the sound was so faint it was almost drowned out by their heartbeats, murky tears slid down their sunken eyes, burning hot.

[Brother Biao, did you hear that? Li Mo and Wu Naida didn't let us down!]

We will always stand with you! Even if it means death, we will die together!

……

Meanwhile, in the Imperial Prison, cell number three, section A.

Through the narrow ventilation window, Zhang Biao clearly heard the drumbeats and clenched his fists in excitement.

Brothers, I, Zhang Biao, was right about you guys! Well done!

I heard it! The drum of petition! Finally... it has sounded!

[Li Mo, Wu Naida, well done! That drumbeat was perfectly timed!]

He knew he had finally achieved his goal, so he took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and slowly turned around, sitting back down on the relatively clean bed.

He even had the leisure to sip warmed wine from the set of glass cups that Old Zhu had given him, and to eat the special pork head meat from the prison, which was specially supplied by Wang Mazi's family.

This is part of Old Zhu's 'grace'.

After an unknown amount of time, a series of extremely oppressive yet overwhelming footsteps, as if stepping on everyone's heartbeats, came step by step from the entrance of the prison.

All the jailers were already kneeling on the ground, not daring to even raise their heads.

The footsteps finally stopped outside room number three in the Jiazi building.

The cell door was opened silently.

Old Zhu's figure blocked the doorway, his bright yellow uniform standing out starkly in the dark cell.

His face was expressionless, except for a pair of bloodshot eyes, like two bottomless pools of ice, staring intently at Zhang Biao in the cell.

Zhang Biao had already returned to his lazy demeanor, and even yawned, as if he wasn't the one who had been excitedly listening just moments before.

"Oh? Isn't this our Hongwu Emperor?"

He swirled the remaining wine in his glass, his tone as flippant as if he were greeting a neighbor:
"What? You just finished staging a grand show of 'Thunderous Wrath, Cleansing the Court' in the Fengtian Hall, and now you have time to come and inspect my death row cell? Are you here to check on the results, or to silence me?"

This bastard thing!
They really don't know what's good for them!

Old Zhu's face twitched, and the anger in his eyes almost burst forth, but he forcibly suppressed it, his voice low and muffled like thunder: "Zhang Biao, you're very good. You've planned very well."

"Plan?"

Zhang Biao chuckled, downed the wine in his cup in one gulp, and casually tossed the exquisite glass cup onto the ground, where it shattered with a 'crack'.

"What did I scheme for? I'm just a dying prisoner who was bored and talked in my sleep and had a few strange dreams."

After saying that, he stood up and met Old Zhu's murderous gaze without fear, the two of them only a few feet apart.

"It's you, Zhu Chongba, who has something to hide!"

"You can't sit still when you hear 'Shaanxi' or 'Crown Prince'!"

"It was you who insisted on bringing up those old, messy issues!"

"You are the one who should drag out those parasites under your son's command and expose them to the light of day!"

The four "it's you"s made Jiang Huan, standing behind Old Zhu, twitch his eyelids and put his hand on the hilt of his knife, his killing intent palpable.

But Zhang Biao hadn't finished speaking.

He looked at Old Zhu with disdain and said, "You're the one who can't handle the game, yet you flip the table!"

"Now that your court is rotten to the core, your crown prince died under mysterious circumstances, and you've lost face, you've decided to settle scores with me, the 'instigator'?!"

"Hahaha, Zhu Chongba, what else can you do besides kill people?!"

"presumptuous--!"

Old Zhu was finally enraged by the barrage of piercing questions, and his roar shook the entire cell:

"You bastard! You really think we wouldn't dare skin you alive right now?!"

"Excellent! I couldn't have asked for more—!"

Instead of retreating, Zhang Biao took a sudden step forward, almost touching Old Zhu's face. His eyes gleamed with a crazed and gleeful light, and he roared back without backing down:
"Strip me alive right now! Let your Imperial Guards do it!"

"If you don't skin me alive, I'll look down on you! You big idiot!"

Old Zhu: “…”

Zhang Biao: "..."

The two looked at each other, both silent.

After a long pause, Old Zhu impatiently shoved him aside and said coldly, "Where did that old litigator get that thing? And what's inside that iron box?"

"You ask me? How would I know? I'm just waiting for you to be executed in this death row!"

Zhang Biao sneered, then changed the subject:
"But Zhu Chongba! Look at your empire! Outside, there are starving corpses everywhere, and people are even exchanging their own children to eat them!"

"Inside are corrupt officials who form cliques and engage in corruption!"

“Your sons are all armed and ambitious, and they’re all waiting for you to die!”

"Your ministers are all sycophants, and behind your backs they're all wicked and immoral. Who knows what they're saying about you, Zhu the Butcher, behind your backs!"

"Go ahead and kill! Can you kill them all?!"

"You can kill corrupt officials, but can you kill people's hearts?!"

"You can revise the Great Proclamation, but can you revise the mess of this world riddled with problems?!"

"Shut up! Shut up! We're telling you to shut up—!"

Old Zhu was so angry that he trembled all over, his eyes were bloodshot, and he suddenly raised his hand, as if he wanted to slap this extremely arrogant madman to pieces.

But Zhang Biao abruptly slapped his hand away, continuing to roar and unleashing all the pent-up resentment, disdain, and despair he had been holding back for so long:

"What? Did I hit a nerve?!"

"Come on! Kill me! Just like you killed Li Shanchang! Killed Hu Weiyong! Killed all the meritorious officials who helped you conquer and govern the country! Kill me too!"

"Use my blood to paint your dragon throne another layer of red paint! So your Zhu family's empire will look a little more 'legitimate'!" "Didn't you want to know how the Crown Prince died?"

"Let me tell you! He was driven to his death by you! Driven to his death by your endless suspicion! Driven to his death by the mess you left him! Driven to his death by the endless power struggles of your Zhu family!"

"You're talking nonsense!"

Old Zhu, like a tiger whose tail had been stepped on, completely lost his mind. He suddenly reached out and grabbed Zhang Biao by the neck, slamming him hard against the cold stone wall.

The force was so great that Zhang Biao instantly had difficulty breathing and his face turned red.

"Cough cough... Hehe..."

Zhang Biao's eyes bulged from being choked, yet he still managed to squeeze out intermittent, mocking laughter from his throat: "Getting angry...huh? Zhu Chongba...that's all you've got...skills..."

Old Zhu's face was contorted with rage, and the veins on his hand gripping Zhang Biao's neck bulged.

He really wanted to strangle this monster who had torn open his life's merits and demerits, his deepest fears and scars, right away.

But in the end, his last shred of reason, or rather, the ruthlessness of an emperor, overwhelmed his pure anger.

He suddenly let go of his hand.

Zhang Biao slid to the ground, clutching his neck and coughing violently, gasping for breath, but his face still wore that hateful smile that was a mixture of pain and pleasure.

Old Zhu looked down at him, his chest heaving violently, the anger in his eyes gradually being replaced by a deeper, chilling killing intent.

"Sharp tongue and a sharp tongue won't save your life!"

Old Zhu's voice returned to calm, but beneath that calm lay an abyss of ice: "It won't save those five brats' lives!"

Upon hearing "five little brats," Zhang Biao's smile gradually turned cold.

"Zhu Chongba, do you want to die?"

"Ok?"

Old Zhu was stunned for a moment, then looked as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world, before calming down and saying sarcastically, "We will die, everyone will die!"

"Zhang Biao, how you want to end all this, which you've painstakingly orchestrated, is ultimately up to us."

"You will see how Fu Youwen and his team spill everything they know."

"You'll see how those five little brats you're desperately trying to protect die one by one in front of you!"

"You'll see how we drag out those rats hiding in the gutter, one by one, and crush them to dust!"

"In the end, we'll make you die last, so you'll see clearly what happens to those who follow you and oppose us!"

After saying that, Old Zhu didn't look at Zhang Biao again, turned around abruptly, and strode away.

The prison door slammed shut behind him, the loud noise echoing through the deep, dark prison.

Inside the cell, only Zhang Biao's heavy breathing could be heard.

He slowly got up from the ground, leaned against the wall, touched the clear finger marks on his neck, and stared at the tightly closed iron gate. The madness and mockery on his face gradually faded, replaced by calm and indifference.

[Idiot, I'm immortal!]

However, you've finally left the stage. But in this play, we were both involved.

[Full-figured, Shen Lang, Sun Gui, Li Mo, and Wu Naida have already made their choices; now it's your turn.]

On the other side, in the archway of an abandoned stone bridge in Yingtian Prefecture.

The air was filled with dust, musty smells, and the sour stench emanating from Zhao Fengman himself, as if he hadn't washed for days.

He huddled on the cold ground, clutching the cold, heavy, rusty iron box tightly in his arms, which felt like a hot potato.

The outside world seems both distant and close at hand.

He could vaguely hear the distant clamor of the market, and closer still, the barking of stray dogs and the whistling of the wind through the broken windowpanes.

Every unusual sound would make him tremble like a startled bird, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it was going to explode.

He had been hiding here for two days and two nights.

Hunger, cold, and fear, like three venomous snakes, relentlessly gnawed at his spirit and body day and night.

The iron box in his arms felt more like a cursed object emanating an ominous aura, making it hard for him to breathe.

The chaos outside the Ministry of Revenue that night, Shen Lang's desperate 'run,' the fierce shouts of the pursuers behind him, and the unexpected iron box in his arms...

It all felt like a nightmare.

He had thought countless times about whether to throw the iron box into the Qinhuai River, or bury it somewhere deserted, and then fly away to escape this terrible vortex.

But every time this thought arose, the resolute look in Shen Lang and Sun Gui's eyes when they were dragged away, and Biao Ge's seemingly crazy yet all-knowing smile in the prison, would flash through his mind.

No...we can't throw it away...this was bought with the lives of Brother Shen and Sun Gui...this is the hope of bringing down those parasites...

But what should he do?
Hand him over to the authorities? Which authorities? Shuntian Prefecture? Ministry of Justice? He'd probably be torn to pieces by Fu Youwen's men the moment he showed his face!

Even if it were to be delivered to an honest official by chance, who could guarantee that it wouldn't be immediately suppressed by a greater force? He wouldn't even know how he died!

Hand it over to the Emperor? How would he do it? By beating the Dengwen Drum?

As a powerless and insignificant official, he would probably be arrested by patrolling soldiers as a troublemaker before he even got close to Chengtian Gate, or even die "accidentally".

An overwhelming sense of helplessness and fear nearly consumed him.

He clutched the metal box, his body trembling uncontrollably from the cold and fear, his teeth chattering.

"Father...Mother..."

He muttered to himself unconsciously, thinking of his elderly parents back home.

How heartbroken would they be if I died? What if they were implicated because of me...?

Zhao Fengman dared not think any further.

Just when he was on the verge of a mental breakdown, he faintly heard some scattered discussions coming from above.

It was a group of beggars chatting as they passed by.

"Have you heard? Something big happened at Chengtian Gate this morning!"

"What happened? Another official's property has been confiscated?"

"It's even weirder than that! Some old litigious lawyer beat the petition drum! He's accusing... of something in the palace! I heard it even involves the Crown Prince..."

"Shh! Keep your voice down! Are you crazy?... But I overheard something, something about banned drugs... and Shaanxi..."

"Tsk tsk, the situation in the capital is probably about to change..."

These words drifted in intermittently, like bolts of lightning striking Zhao Fengman's almost frozen brain!
The Drum of Appeal?! Someone struck it?! Accusing someone of using forbidden drugs in the palace and exposing old stories from Shaanxi?!

It's Li Mo! It must be Li Mo and Wu Naida!

They took action! They really blew the sky out of the sky!
An indescribable mix of excitement and panic swept over Zhao Fengman at the same time!

Taking action signifies hope, but it also means greater danger!
He sat up abruptly, gripping the metal box tightly until his knuckles turned white from the force.

We can't hide any longer! We can't hesitate any longer!

Li Mo and Wu Naida sent out a signal in their own way, possibly at a great cost.

Now, all the pressure, and ultimately the key, rests on this little iron box and on him as a person.

So, what should I do?

[Li Mo and his group struck the Dengwen Drum, attracting everyone's attention, and possibly even the Emperor's. Perhaps this is an opportunity?]

A crazy plan, like a flame struggling to emerge from the darkness, ignited in Zhao Fengman's heart.

The emperor definitely wants to know the truth!
The emperor didn't want anyone else to know the truth!
Everyone who knows the truth will die!
Then let's choose someone he can't kill and give them to him?

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　　Finally, thank you for the generous gift of Extra Thick Latte 1000.

　　Thank you to 刂法自然 for the 500-yuan reward.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)