Chapter 949: Good Thing We Didn’t Eat Hotpot |
......
Soon, steaming wood-fired chicken was served.
Two chickens, four legs.
Wutian, Bai Hemen, and Wang Qingge all had portions.
The last drumstick he gave to Huangfu Lingyun. "Thanks for tending the fire."
Huangfu Lingyun munched the drumstick, thinking to himself, don't think that just because you gave me a drumstick I won't challenge you, wait and see.
Actually the best would have been hot pot.
But nobody dared mention it.
This was the first meal after their reunion, they had to eat it properly.
Then.......
So everyone obediently ate the wood-fired chicken.
Wutian ate the most.
That little monk had never eaten meat, he even used the broth to soak an entire bucket of rice—an entire bucket!!!
The reunion meal was joyful.
It was just missing some people.
It wasn't that Lu Ding didn't try to call them, it's just that when everyone met for the first time, nobody could relax enough to eat together like this.
Better to wait until everyone was familiar, then have a big reunion.
Meanwhile Lu Ding sat among them, shooting the breeze.
"The ones who hit the hardest, it wasn't the old New City—when I went on missions to Great Jing, the whole country treated me like the enemy."
"So could I baby them?"
"Just hit straight from the border inward..."
"Fight all the way to Four Dukes Mountain, let them see what a giant from the Great Han looks like."
Lu Ding spoke and gestured, "That Four Dukes Mountain is this tall, just pull it up, stick it in the ground upside down..."
Everyone burst into laughter, infected by Lu Ding's words, feeling as if they were on the scene.
At that moment, Lu Ding's phone notification sounded.
[Zhan Tingzhou: Mouth of the Evil Prison Bureau Chief has turned traitor. He has a lever over him in the Child Association. He received a message from the Child Association's vice president, ordering him to secretly deliver the Child Association member hiding in Mouth of the Evil Prison. They will meet later at the rotten ship dock, take the narrow gorge detour, and escort them to the northern pine forest plain. Child Association strongmen will rendezvous there.]
The instant Lu Ding read the message he stood up.
Good thing we didn't eat hot pot.
Otherwise, this news might have arrived earlier.
Seeing him get up, the others followed.
Lu Ding said, "You all keep eating. Treat this period like a break and push your cultivation. I have urgent business, I have to go."
With that he didn't wait for a reply and flew straight out.
Once he left, the fragrant food instantly lost its flavor.
Lu Ding was off working, while they were taking a break.
Who could eat under such circumstances?
Yan Feifan led the others away.
As they left, he insisted on paying the bill.
But the innkeeper refused, no matter what he said.
At that moment, elsewhere.
Lu Ding hurried at top speed to meet Zhan Tingzhou at the Mouth of the Evil Prison 749 Bureau.
As soon as he landed, he asked, "What's the situation now?"
Zhan Tingzhou replied, "Zheng Tai is on the phone negotiating a time with the Child Association member hiding in the Mouth of the Evil Prison."
Gotta admit, phones are convenient.
And the Zheng Tai Zhan Tingzhou spoke of was the Mouth of the Evil Prison 749 Bureau Chief.
Lu Ding frowned and glanced at the Mouth of the Evil Prison 749 building.
"So what about him!?"
Zhan Tingzhou organized his words: "The Mouth of the Evil Prison is harsh and resource-poor. Years ago Zheng Tai went to the north alone seeking a breakthrough to the Five Restrictions Middle Stage. Along the way, greed overtook him, and he killed to seize treasures."
"For some reason, someone in the Child Association found out. The person he killed was the brother-in-law of the northern Snow City 749 deputy bureau chief."
Lu Ding was puzzled: "They're in the same system, the north is next door, it's not like the east. He should know them, shouldn't he?"
Zhan Tingzhou nodded: "That's the problem. He not only heard of them, he even knew them. But money moves the heart—he still killed!"
"He even deliberately used that relationship to catch the other party off guard, attacking from behind."
"He thought he had covered his tracks perfectly. When he returned, he used the seized rare natural treasures to break through to the Five Restrictions Middle Stage. Who would have expected that, on the very day he reached that breakthrough, the Child Association called and threatened him."
"But because the Mouth of the Evil Prison is so poor, the Child Association didn't force him to do much over the years."
"The only thing they demanded was today: the Child Association ordered him to escort the member hiding in the Mouth of the Evil Prison out. If he refused they'd report him, and they said if you find out they'll ruin him."
Originally the Child Association wasn't this anxious, they could have stayed hidden.
But Lu Ding had returned with the dragon carriage and brought too much attention.
Every time he went out something happened.
Either he broke through a realm, or like last time, he brought back hundreds of Hanjing Qi Refiners.
Bandits never leave empty-handed, and Lu Ding never returned empty-handed.
If he went out and nothing happened, nobody in New City would believe it.
So now, after his silent departure and return, the Child Association panicked—after all, whenever forces other than them showed up, they were wiped out.
They were like birds startled from a stringed bow.
Under the butterfly effect everything escalated to the current situation.
Lu Ding listened and couldn't help but be angry.
This was one of the reasons the Great Han raised compensation from bureau chief down to investigator for 749 Bureau.
They feared the temptation—if risky assignments lacked generous rewards, people might use their positions to do dirty deeds.
In special places like New City, special incidents like this occurred.
"Ugh... damn it... did he confess himself or did you find out?" Lu Ding demanded.
Zhan Tingzhou answered truthfully: "He confessed himself. They pushed him hard. He tried to seek leniency. If the Mouth of the Evil Prison had been a bit richer back then, when the Child Association threatened him to do other things, maybe he'd have avoided that first fatal misstep."
"But too much time has passed, and the deterrent effect is gone."
"Besides, Zheng Tai, apart from that incident, had no major issues—lots of small mistakes, but not huge ones."
"Now we're cracking down on the hidden Child Association members so urgently."
"He wanted to atone by turning himself in."
Lu Ding, wearing his scholar-warrior sleeves and standing with hands on hips, smiled in disbelief. He didn't know what to say—so poor that a 749 bureau chief would be involved in killing and looting.
This is fucking...
Seeing his expression, Zhan Tingzhou unexpectedly said, "He has a son who also works at the Mouth of the Evil Prison 749, gifted and promising, good character."
If it weren't for the Mad God's Tomb incident in the last life, and if Zheng Tai had sacrificed himself back then, his son might have achieved something later and been known for his character. Zhan Tingzhou wouldn't have said this otherwise.
It wasn't his affair.
But the remark did shift something in Lu Ding. He looked toward the building. "When exactly did you settle on this? Stop hemming and hawing!!!"
Zhan Tingzhou ran forward. "I'll go check."
Before he took two steps he saw Zheng Tai come out, face uneasy, calling, "Lu... Grand Duke Lu..."
Lu Ding went up and kicked him, sending him sprawling.
"You're really that guy!!!"
If Zheng Tai had been worse, Lu Ding wouldn't have bothered speaking—squeeze all the value out of him tonight as a guide, then kill him.
But he was just mediocre enough to be annoying.
Zheng Tai flipped himself over and knelt: "Grand Duke Lu, I know I was wrong. Back then I was blinded by greed. Too poor, really too poor. My realm was stuck for a long time, there were no suitable herbs or supplements, I couldn't advance, it clearly wasn't my limit..."
"I couldn't accept it, Grand Duke Lu..."
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Extra chapter funded by the Gift King from patron Jun Shen Hongchen, thanks to Jun Shen Hongchen for sending three Gift Kings again, thank you benefactor