I picked up skill fragments in the demon world.

Chapter 93 You're in trouble!

For Zhang Chen, faking his own death was not unacceptable. If his faking his own death could calm everything down and buy him enough time to dig a large tomb, then it would all be worth it.

Zhang Chen looked at the vixen: "Do you have any other ideas?"

"It's difficult!" The vixen scratched her head, also feeling that the situation was quite difficult: "At this point, we can only wait and see what happens."

Zhang Chen looked at the vixen and said, "You are the one who caused all this trouble!"

The vixen was immediately displeased when she heard this: "How can it be my business? I am just following the trend! Even without me, the Pingbian Palace will still not let you go."

"But don't worry, King Pingbian would never dare to kill you openly. First, you haven't committed any crime. Zhang Xiaohua just made a false accusation, and you have proof of your alibi. Second, if King Pingbian kills you in a hurry, it will only make the Procuratorate think that Prince Pingbian's Mansion has mastered the secret of the explosion, which will cause more trouble for King Pingbian. You must know that King Pingbian is already facing a difficult situation under the pressure of the court, and he will never do anything that will put himself in more trouble because of a mere ant-like character like you." The vixen spoke to comfort Zhang Chen.

"Do you think King Pingbian will treat me like this?" Zhang Chen looked at the vixen.

"I don't know! At worst, I can just risk my life at the critical moment." said the vixen.

She didn't want to die! She didn't want Zhang Chen to die more than anyone else!
The carriage was rumbling as it went along, and screams were heard from the county jail.

Even in broad daylight, the county jail was still dark. Only the flickering braziers illuminated the entire county jail.

Next to Gou Chun, the steward of the Pingbian Palace was eating roast chicken leisurely and leisurely. Since they were interrogating the secret of the explosion, of course someone from the Pingbian Palace had to be present. There couldn't be any negligence in this matter.

The red iron branded Zhang Xiaohua's body, and along with the splashing of salt water, a series of shrill screams echoed through the cell: "You dog officials! You dog officials! Even if I become a ghost, I will never let you go."

"Boy, why are you being so stubborn? As long as you tell us the secret of the explosion, you can go home and reunite with your stepmother and your younger brothers and sisters. We brothers can also get off work early and have dinner, and you will suffer less!" The officer kept rubbing the red branding iron on Zhang Xiaohua's body. Pieces of green smoke rose up, and the smell of barbecue kept wafting in the prison, making the steward in the Pingbian Palace eat even more deliciously.

"You bastard, my husband is Mr. Wu Liu, who is well-known in the capital. When he comes back, he will definitely redress my grievances!" Zhang Xiaohua was in so much pain that he yelled and cursed, but he would never give up, because he still had hope. As long as Mr. Wu Liu came back, he would definitely redress his grievances. If he gave up now and established the ironclad case, when Mr. Wu Liu came back, he would be powerless to save the situation.

The steward of the palace who was eating roast chicken over there was so frightened when he heard the words "Mr. Wuliu" that he shouted, "Wait a minute!"

"Sir, what are you doing?" County Magistrate Gou Chun looked at the steward of the palace with surprise.

But the palace steward quickly stood up and walked all the way to Zhang Xiaohua: "Say what you just said again."

"What? Are you scared? What's the use of saying it again? You bunch of dog officials are forcing a confession. When my teacher Mr. Wuliu comes back, you will all be dead!" Zhang Xiaohua spurted out a mouthful of blood-red saliva and spit it in the face of the palace steward.

"Are you the scholar Zhang Chen or the hunter Zhang Chen?" The steward of the palace did not wipe the blood off his face. Looking at Zhang Xiaohua, whose whole body was covered with wounds without a single good spot, he felt his calves trembling.

As someone who had experienced this incident in the palace, he certainly knew many of the tricks involved.

"I am the plaintiff, and you said I was that one!!!" Zhang Xiaohua gnashed her teeth in anger: "I, the plaintiff, was tortured by you, but you let the murderer escape. I will never forgive you!"

The steward felt as if he was struck by lightning when he heard this, and he quickly said to the county magistrate Gou Chun, "Go and get a petition with the confession written on it."

"Should we directly write a false petition? The scholar hasn't opened his mouth yet. If we directly write a false petition and it is discovered by the Procuratorate, it will be a big trouble. We need to pry his mouth open first, and then ask him to write the petition himself." Gou Chun said from the side.

Unexpectedly, Gou Chun was greeted with a slap in the face. The manager's face was extremely gloomy: "Go and get the written petition quickly."

When Gou Chun heard this, his head was buzzing with anger from being slapped in the face by the big slapper, and his eyes showed a hint of anger. However, facing the manager of the Pingbian Palace, he, a seventh-rank county magistrate, could do nothing and could only swallow his anger and bring a written petition.

The steward snatched the petition away and came to Zhang Xiaohua: "If you can read this petition, your crime can be forgiven."

Zhang Xiaohua glared at the manager and looked at the complaint in front of him. He felt that this man was a psychopath, but he was also happy to suffer less and take the opportunity to delay for a while.

After Zhang Xiaohua finished reading the petition, the manager felt his legs go weak and his head was buzzing: "It's over! Something went wrong!"

Lian yelled at the officer beside him: "What a bunch of bastards, why don't you untie the prince!"

"Prince?" Gou Chun was stunned when he heard this. His brain seemed to be struck by lightning and he was unable to function for a while.

Half an hour later, in the Pingbian Palace.

The butler and Gou Chun knelt outside the door. Zhang Xiaohua looked at the middle-aged man who claimed to be the chief butler of the Pingbian Palace in front of her with a confused face, her eyes full of disbelief: "I am the prince of Pingbian?"

"The verification is correct. You are the Prince of Pingbian, the only heir to the future Pingbian Palace." The middle-aged man had a gentle expression and sat down in front of Zhang Xiaohua's bed. "Prince, welcome back! From today on, you are the most dazzling person in the north, and you will usher in a new life."

Zhang Xiaohua was wrapped in gauze like a dumpling at this time. For a moment, she was unable to accept this huge amount of information. Then she came to her senses and said with a grim face:

"Where's Zhang Chen? I want him dead! I want to cut him into pieces!"

"Zhang Chen's crime is not fatal!" The steward shook his head.

"He wants to murder me, doesn't that mean he deserves the death penalty? As the prince of the Pingbian Palace, am I incapable of deciding the life or death of an ordinary person?" Zhang Xiaohua's voice was filled with dissatisfaction. If he had not seen the darkness in the yamen with his own eyes and had been injured himself, he would have almost believed the other party's lies.

"You say he committed murder, but there is no evidence! It's not difficult to kill a mere hunter, but the difficult thing is that you are the prince now and you will be watched by the Censorate at all times. If the Censorate finds any flaw in you, you and the palace will be involved in a huge trouble." said the steward.

"You are the young prince now, and your reputation is the most important. If it is spread that you are taking revenge for personal reasons and killing people without solid evidence, I am afraid that your reputation and that of the prince will be ruined! Our Pingbian Palace has always treated people with benevolence and generosity. This reputation concerns people's hearts. At this critical juncture, there can be no flaws!" "You said that we can't kill him directly, but it should be okay to kill him in a roundabout way, right? I know that this kid escaped corvée five years ago, and his sister brought back a sum of money to bribe the officials. Why not ask him to serve in the Yellow River! If he accidentally contracted the plague while serving, or accidentally fell into the mud and drowned, or fell into a big pit and died, this is all very normal, right? Even if people know about it, they can't find any evidence!" Zhang Xiaohua said here, looking at the steward: "Don't say that the Pingbian Palace can't even do such a small thing."

The manager nodded upon hearing this, saying that this was a very good idea!

After all, the prince wants a reputation for being virtuous, and the prince needs a reputation for being generous. If this matter gets out, it may become a good story in the north, which can greatly increase the cohesion of the people and make their own prince gain more people's hearts in the north.

Zhang Chen offended the prince so much, but he was forgiven by him. If the people heard about this, what would they think?
The prince is the future of the North, and his reputation cannot have the slightest blemish.

They would only think that the prince was so wise and the prince was so generous, and then their prestige would increase greatly.

The chief steward looked at Zhang Xiaohua and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "This new master is vindictive and not easy to deal with. I guess I have to be careful in the future."

"I will make arrangements. You take good care of your injuries. Once you're well, you can return to your roots. The prince is busy with an important matter now. Something unexpected happened a quarter of an hour ago, so he secretly left the mansion. When the prince comes back in a few days, he will personally explain many things to you." After the steward finished speaking, he stepped out.

The chief steward came all the way to the door and saw Gou Chun kneeling on the ground sweating profusely. He said in a gloomy voice: "Did you hear what was said in the room just now? You should know what to do, right?"

"I understand!" Gou Chun said hurriedly. He knew that this hurdle was over. "I also want his mother, younger brother, and younger sister to be buried with him! This can be considered as an apology gift from me to the prince."

"Stupid!" The chief steward scolded him sternly upon hearing this: "The cause of the palace has reached a critical period, and we must not let the Procuratorate catch us and ruin our reputation and people's hearts. You can't touch the mother and her two children. If the Procuratorate catches us and ruins the reputation of the palace and loses people's hearts, you will have more than a thousand heads to chop off."

Gou Chun shuddered when he heard this, and nodded quickly like a praying mantis to say "yes".

In fact, Gou Chun is feeling very miserable!

What does all this have to do with him? He is the innocent one, the one who is wronged the most! If it weren't for the concubine in the Prince Pingbian's mansion who recognized the wrong person, how could he have done things like this?

Good man, I took half of the prince's life. If this gets out, I will be so proud.

If the prince had not always been kind to others, I'm afraid my entire family would have died.

"You are not a human being!" Gou Chun cursed inwardly, then walked towards the door.

The horse-drawn carriage of the Prince of Pingbian's Palace was strolling on the street. Zhang Xiaolan took Zhang Chen shopping, enjoying the scenery of the city along the way.

Inside the carriage, Zhang Chen and the vixen were discussing countermeasures. Zhang Xiaolan was trapped in an illusion and did not notice anything unusual.

Zhang Chen was thinking more. If he was really exiled, he could take the opportunity to pretend to be dead, and then sneak back into the tomb to make gunpowder to blow up the twelfth-level mystery. With the twelfth-level mystery by his side, he might have a chance to turn things around.

However, before Zhang Chen's carriage had gone out for long, a group of officers suddenly rushed up and blocked the carriage's way.

"This is the carriage of Prince Pingbian's Palace. Are you blind? How dare you stop the carriage?" the coachman scolded arrogantly.

"What happened?" Zhang Xiaolan heard the noise in the carriage at this time, lifted the curtain, looked at the more than 30 officials who were surrounding the carriage, and asked in a calm voice.

Zhang Chen, who was sitting next to Zhang Xiaolan, couldn't help but shrink his eyes. The thing that the vixen had expected finally happened. He didn't know how the Pingbian Palace would deal with him.

In fact, it doesn’t make much difference to him. In the end, it’s all fake death, so it seems to be the same thing to him.

As he spoke, Zhang Xiaolan actually got off the carriage.

Zhang Chen's pupils shrank when he saw this scene. He knew that what the vixen said had come true. This woman had deliberately misjudged him. Now that the incident had happened, the other party was afraid that he would threaten her or hurt the baby in her belly.

"It's all Old Six's fault! A mere concubine in Prince Pingbian's Palace has such a mind. It would be strange if I didn't get caught if I went to Prince Pingbian's Palace!" Zhang Chen cursed in his heart. He could be said to have witnessed the methods used by the ancients of this era.

"Your Majesty, the man behind you is the fake prince. We have tracked him all the way here and are about to bring him to justice." Gou Chun said, and then the bailiff beside him rushed out and locked Zhang Chen in the car.

Zhang Xiaolan was stunned when he heard this, and said in disbelief: "Sir, could you be mistaken? This is my brother, don't I even recognize my own brother?"

Gou Chun smiled bitterly and said, "Madam, you almost killed me. You almost took away half of my life! When you return to the palace, the steward will naturally explain to you."

Zhang Xiaolan's face was filled with astonishment. He stared at the young man sitting quietly in the carriage, then turned to Gou Chun and said, "Are you sure? Is he really a hunter?"

"The spies in the palace have checked, and the little prince has been welcomed back to the palace. But the little prince has been in the torture room, and there is no intact part of his body. He won't be able to get out of bed for three to five months, and he may even be left with scars..." Gou Chun looked at Zhang Xiaolan.

Zhang Xiaolan didn't say much after hearing this and went straight to the Pingbian Palace.

After Zhang Xiaolan left, Gou Chun looked at Zhang Chen, who was as handsome as jade and had the temperament of a gentleman, with a look of emotion in his eyes: "I never thought that you were born as a hunter in the mountains."

He actually wanted to say, 'No wonder Madam recognized the wrong person, you are more like the Crown Prince than he is', but this sentence was too outrageous, so he didn't dare to say it!

"Boy, you escaped from corvée five years ago. Now that the incident has happened, you should go and perform the corvée! The prince and the prince are magnanimous and will not care about the crime you committed. In the future, you must serve our prince and prince day and night and thank them for their generosity." Gou Chun said with a smile.

(End of this chapter)