43: The Land of Gentle Bliss... devours people without spitting out the bones.

"No, really? We let him take leave, and he's actually not coming to the office for two days?"

Lu Qianyuan looked up at Tang Jingzhong, truly unable to hold back, and asked: "Jingzhong, you live close to his house, didn't you go over to check on him?"

"Do you really think he could still be staying at home right now?" Tang Jingzhong looked at him as if he were an idiot. "I've been there, and I even instructed my wife to send a maid over during her spare time. But the door was locked; I'm afraid he hasn't been home since the day he left the office."

"Let me tell you, the nature of a person can't escape two words..." Lu Qianyuan said with quite some emotion. "It's just like eating stinky tofu. At first, you say you won't eat it no matter what, but once you get a taste? Heh, it's delicious. That's just how it is, right?"

"Chief Lu, are you comparing the two Legitimate Princesses to stinky tofu?" Tang Jingzhong was amused to the point of laughter by this strange analogy and casually took out the wuchang register. "I have to write this down and report it to Commander Qianhu later..."

"The phrasing is crude, but the logic holds, right? Look, can't we just keep this between us men behind closed doors? You taking out the wuchang register is going too far!" Lu Qianyuan hurriedly stopped him. "But with him gone, if something really happens these days, you and I won't be able to handle it..."

"Chief Lu, do I need to remind you that the Pacification Bureau doesn't just consist of you and Chief Mo?" Tang Jingzhong was speechless. "There are thousands of people in this Pacification Bureau; you're acting as if the office would stop turning without Chief Mo."

"If that were really the case, why have only the two of us been doing all the work of arresting the Rebel Prince's faction for the past year?" Lu Qianyuan couldn't help but sneer. "Do you really think the interior of the Pacification Bureau is peaceful? The Pacification Commissioner and Grand Chancellor Zhou are in cahoots, and Commander Qianhu is Eunuch Fang's nephew, which effectively makes him The Emperor's man."

"The Pacification Bureau appears peaceful on the surface, but in reality, it has long been divided into two factions. The position of Commander remains unsettled, and the Pacification Commissioner is no longer trusted by The Emperor, who instead places more trust in Commander Qianhu..."

Lu Qianyuan said this, then leaned into Tang Jingzhong's ear and lowered his voice: "Even under me and Little Mo, there's no guarantee there aren't the Pacification Commissioner's men. Now that Commander Qianhu intends to promote us to Centurion, do you think the Pacification Commissioner will compromise so easily?"

Tang Jingzhong rested his chin on his hand, pondered for a moment, and then said: "There's no need to worry about that. It's only a matter of time before you and Chief Mo are promoted. Even if the Pacification Commissioner wants to suppress it, I'm afraid he won't be able to."

"Not to mention that Chief Mo's identity is special now. Even if there's no movement currently, after the grand wedding, it's only a matter of time before Chief Mo is granted a title to gild his status. I don't believe the Pacification Commissioner would dare to openly oppose The Emperor like that."

At this point, Tang Jingzhong's pupils trembled slightly, and then he whispered a reminder: "With Chief Mo on leave recently, you need to be careful, especially regarding those people in the Southern Division."

The Pacification Bureau is divided into Northern and Southern Divisions. Mo Yingqi, Lu Qianyuan, and others responsible for arrests and interrogations belong to the Northern Division. Although the Southern Division has fewer people than the Northern Division, it is responsible for the internal supervision of the entire Pacification Bureau. If a member of the Flying Fish Guard commits a crime, the Southern Division is responsible for handling it, investigating, and then processing it.

"The Southern Division is almost entirely the Pacification Commissioner's people. Last time, Chief Mo set a trap for the Young Marquis of the Xu Family. The Xu Family and the Dali Temple can't touch people from the Pacification Bureau, so I'm afraid..." Before Tang Jingzhong finished speaking, his ears suddenly twitched. "I'm afraid the Southern Division will be watching you, and me, and perhaps even Commander Qianhu. I fear it's hard to guarantee they won't find something to hold over us..."

Upon hearing this, Lu Qianyuan felt exhausted. If Mo Yingqi were here, those people in the Southern Division wouldn't dare to provoke him. Not to mention how famous he is now as an Imperial Son-in-Law, even back when he was a junior flag officer, he beheaded a fugitive in the street, which already made the Pacification Commissioner Zhao Jiguang somewhat dissatisfied, and he had even sent people from the Southern Division.

Unexpectedly, the Southern Division had absolutely no way to deal with Mo Yingqi. Mo Yingqi directly produced the internal regulations of the Pacification Bureau and the laws of the Daxing Dynasty, and retorted to the Southern Division: "The prisoner resisted arrest, relied on his martial arts skills to ambush and strike the Flying Fish Guard escorting him. He deliberately fled into a crowded market, seized the weapons of the city patrol soldiers, and threatened the safety of nearby civilians. Reasonably and legally, as a member of the Flying Fish Guard, I have the authority to make a decisive decision to kill the prisoner."

"So, may I ask, sirs of the Southern Division, what was the problem with me killing the prisoner? Given the situation at the time, beheading was the most efficient and the only way to quickly minimize the harm."

With just a few words, the Southern Division was left helpless. According to the rules of the Pacification Bureau, executing the prisoner on the spot was perfectly fine. Mo Yingqi finally wore a cold sneer, his tone filled with mockery: "If you sirs think I was wrong, you might as well consider this: how I kill, or whether I kill or not, what difference does it make to those civilians? Once we put on this flying fish robe, we are the grim reapers of the King of Hell's palace. We either send people to the Imperial Prison, or we send them... to hell."

"Should I send someone to the Princesss Residence to ask Little Mo to come back?" Lu Qianyuan scratched his head. "I feel like with just you and me, we can't handle this!"

Before Tang Jingzhong could answer, Lu Qianyuan waved his hand. "Forget it, forget it, pretend I didn't say anything. I'm afraid even if you sent a palanquin with eight bearers right now, he might not even be willing to come back. Besides... this damn business, we should avoid it as much as we can."

"It's not that I don't want to hide, it's that I can't..."

Mo Yingqi was soaking in the bathtub, feeling somewhat helpless. On his exposed, sturdy chest, there were nothing but scratch marks and red plum blossom imprints.

It was fortunate that he was naturally gifted, and his master had made him soak in a medicinal bath with a unique secret formula every day since he was a child, continuing until he was twelve years old.

"You have an extraordinary skeletal structure, kid. You will thank your master in the future."

Back then, he really didn't know why his master had to do this. Aside from feeling like he had been marinated, and having a faint, pleasant medicinal scent often lingering on his body, it didn't seem like anything else.

"Now it seems, Master was truly not wrong..." Mo Yingqi let out a long sigh. "Good grief, this is probably just as absurd as King Zhou of Shang and the three demons of Xuanyuan Tomb, right?"

He really hadn't been drinking. This time it was truly... out of his own consciousness. From the initial shyness... to later, there was absolutely no so-called rationality left.

"Yingqi, we're coming in, okay?"

The door was suddenly pushed open gently, and Luo Yongan and Luo Yongning walked in, wearing gauze robes as thin as cicada wings. In their hands, the two sisters each held a basket of flower petals.

"Oh, Yingqi, really, you're like this already, why are you still blushing?" Luo Yongning leaned in front of Mo Yingqi, her gauze robe becoming translucent due to the warm steam. "My sister and I had these flowers picked. From now on, let my sister and me take care of your personal matters, okay?"

Mo Yingqi's face flushed to the tips of his ears, even though the three of them had almost forgotten the time in this courtyard for the past two days, with no one to disturb them.

Luo Yongan and Luo Yongning were just like legendary fox spirits descended to the mortal world. He was curious, so he had asked during a spare moment, but the result almost made him cough up blood.

"You ask why we know these arts of service? Because from the day we decided to marry you, we have been reading books on these bedroom techniques," Luo Yongan said with extreme naturalness. "As long as it makes Yingqi happy, it is only right that we do and learn these things!"

Indeed, a tender blade is fatal every time, and a soft trap... is truly a place that devours people whole!