Chapter 4050 — She Could Not Swallow This Grievance

The moment the enforcers of the Law Enforcement Hall seized her and threw her into the dungeon, Murong Zhen's heart sank straight to the bottom of an abyss. She knew she was finished this time, utterly and completely—any hope of slipping through was nothing but a fool's dream.

This was no small matter. Though Shangguan Lan'er had been rescued safe and sound, the kidnapping of the Heaven Piercer Pavilion's foremost young lady was a crime of the vilest order, and the Law Enforcement Hall would certainly pursue it to the bitter end. She, the informant riddled with suspicious inconsistencies, was the readiest point of entry.

At last, amid that torment of dread, Murong Zhen's anticipated doom arrived: the Law Enforcement Hall had come to bring her in for questioning.

She had long since rehearsed her story in her head, yet she had not the slightest confidence that such honeyed words could fool the men of the Law Enforcement Hall.

She followed her escorts in silence the whole way, and with every step she felt herself draw one pace nearer to death. The despair of a road with no way out crushed the last of her nerves, and suddenly she crouched down on the spot and began to wail. The other prisoners in the surrounding cells turned their heads to gawk with relish, and a stream of flippant whistles rang out without end.

The Law Enforcement Hall experts leading the way were struck dumb for a moment, then exchanged glances and twisted their heads around to look at her, barking, "If you want to cry, cry outside! This is the heart of the dungeon—do you think it's a place for your tantrums?"

"Outside?" Murong Zhen's weeping broke off. She lifted her tear-streaked face—the picture of a rain-soaked pear blossom—to the enforcers. "Aren't you taking me in for questioning?"

The two enforcers laughed at that. "By the rules, we were going to bring you in. But just now Hall Master Gongyang gave the word: we're not to make things hard for an informant. Otherwise, who'd dare bring us leads in the future? So we're not here to question you—we're here to set you free."

"Truly... truly?" Joy burst through Murong Zhen's every pore. She had already given herself up for dead, and to be snatched back from the brink like this left her so giddy with relief that her head spun.

"Of course it's true. Do you think the Law Enforcement Hall is so idle that we have the time to play games with you? Have you cried enough? If you have, get up!" The enforcer curled his lip in exasperation, while bellowing at the top of his voice to make the other prisoners in the cells settle down.

If not for the fact that Murong Zhen was, after all, something of a beauty, he would long since have lost patience and kicked her.

"Uh... yes, yes, this humble woman will get up..." Having made such a fool of herself, Murong Zhen flushed with embarrassment, though inwardly she was quietly puzzled. Since when had Gongyang Jun grown so lenient?

For all these years, the Law Enforcement Hall under Gongyang Jun's command had been notorious for its cold cruelty. Anyone dragged in here, even if innocent, was at least stripped of half a life; in the past decade, more people had died in the Law Enforcement Hall than in the hundred years before it combined.

That remark about not making things hard for the informant sounded reasonable enough in logic, but it truly did not seem Gongyang Jun's style. And one knows one's own business best—now that Shangguan Lan'er, the very person at the heart of it, had returned, Murong Zhen's so-called report was full of holes. Could Gongyang Jun really not see a single one of them?

Baffled, Murong Zhen left the Law Enforcement Hall and went straight back to the Welcome Pavilion, where Kang Jingming was already waiting in her wooden cabin.

"Miss Murong, thank goodness—you're finally back!" Kang Jingming breathed a long sigh of relief to see her return unharmed.

Touched that Kang Jingming should show such concern for her, Murong Zhen felt much of her earlier resentment melt away—the grudge she had borne him for forcing her to risk the Law Enforcement Hall and inform on Wei Zhao.

But Murong Zhen was, after all, a woman of deep calculation. One glance at Kang Jingming's expression of relief was enough for her to realize that this creature had not stationed himself here out of concern for her at all!

Kang Jingming was keeping watch here simply to learn Murong Zhen's fate at the earliest moment, and thereby judge whether he himself should stay or go.

Seeing her cold expression, Kang Jingming choked for a moment, then piled his smile back on. "I heard Miss Murong was thrown into the Law Enforcement Hall's dungeon—I was worried sick. Now that I see you safe and sound, I can finally set my mind at ease."

"To have put Steward Kang through such anxiety—this fair lady is quite overwhelmed. But my safe departure from the Law Enforcement Hall this time is all thanks to Hall Master Gongyang. If not for him speaking up on my behalf, we would truly have been taken down in one sweep this time." Murong Zhen suppressed the resentment in her heart and put on a mysterious, teasing air.

Sure enough, Kang Jingming's eyelid twitched at her words, and he pressed eagerly, "Thanks to Hall Master Gongyang? Gongyang Jun spoke up for you? What is your relationship with him?"

A formidable, overbearing figure like Gongyang Jun—even a great young master like Xu Lingchong had found it hard to get a word with him in the past. How could he possibly step forward for a mere Murong Zhen?

"Who knows? As the saying goes, even heroes cannot pass the gate of beauty. After all, the Sanjie Pavilion has always had more men than women. However mighty and domineering Hall Master Gongyang may be, he is still a hot-blooded man. What do you say, Steward Kang?" Murong Zhen said with deliberate vagueness, her eyes silken with flirtation.

She knew that with her modest looks alone, hoping to ensnare a man like Gongyang Jun was pure fantasy. But by borrowing the tiger's skin to raise her banner, by vaguely insinuating at a connection between herself and Gongyang Jun, she could avoid giving offense while at the same time overawing Kang Jingming—so that he would not, the next time trouble struck, push her out to take the blame again.

"Uh... I suppose so..." Kang Jingming was no longer quite certain. Men all lust after beauty—he himself was proof enough. If Gongyang Jun really had taken a fancy to Murong Zhen, then he would have to weigh very carefully how he treated her from now on.

"So what do we do now? The dust from the kidnapping hasn't settled yet. If we want to move against Wei Zhao again, it won't be easy..." Kang Jingming said, half in frustration, half probing.

Murong Zhen shot him a glance, shrugged, and drew back. "Don't look at me. This fair lady has no way out now either. If we keep committing crimes in the teeth of the storm, the risk is simply too great—I can't bear it."

"But if we just let Wei Zhao go on enjoying himself, can you swallow this grievance, Miss Murong?" Kang Jingming said, unwilling to let it go.

"Even if I can't swallow it, what can be done?" Murong Zhen was just as unwilling, but matters had come to this pass, and facing the ever-stronger Wei Zhao, she was at her wit's end.

Suddenly her eyes lit up, and she proposed, "Two heads are short, three heads are long—why don't we bring Meng Zhou in to put our heads together?"

"That works too." Kang Jingming thought it over and nodded at once. R1152