Chapter 79

Ye Zhizhou pushed the door open to look next door but only had time to see two doors closing.

When the door guard saw him come out, he saluted and asked reservedly, “Madam, have I disturbed you?”

“No,” Ye Zhizhou said while waving his hand. He frowned as he looked away and thought for a bit before he said, “You, go knock on the neighbor’s door. The general and Weiyuan have always had some friendship. Since you've met the young master of the Hou family here, you should greet him."

The guard hesitated. “Certainly. However, right now it’s very late and the general isn’t here. There is only madam…”

“No. Aren’t several guards here too?” Ye Zhizhou retorted. He tidied up his hair and clothes before saying firmly, “Go knock on the door. When the general comes back, I’ll explain to him. Moreover, I’m just greeting the Hou family’s young master at the door. I’m not entering the room.” The ancient times are so troublesome. A ger’s identity is even more troublesome. Regardless of the other person's gender, gers have to watch themselves and keep a distance from others, otherwise, there will be problems every minute.

When the guard saw that Ye Zhizhou insisted, he was forced to hold back his hesitation and moved forward to knock on the door before backing away.

“Who is it?” It was the voice that claimed to be Zhan Xuemi’s brother earlier.

The guard glanced at Ye Zhizhou and then announced his family name.

It was quiet in the room for a while until the silence was broken by the sound of rustling clothes. The lights were lit and a slender man with a veil over his face stuck his head out. “It turned out to be a man of the Shen family. What else does big brother have to say?”

The light in the corridor was too dim so he couldn’t clearly see what the man looked like… but the four flags on his head were so obvious!

Unexpectedly, it was really Zou Lan! The plot shifted ahead!

“You said that Zhan Xuemi was your eldest brother?” Ye Zhizhou stepped forward and walked into the light that was coming from the room and looked at him deeply. His spiritual power became restless as if it was ready to attack him. “What’s your name? How come I didn’t know that the Hou family had a third young master!”

Zou Lan finally noticed him. His body tensed and he asked, “Who are you?”

The guard noticed that the atmosphere wasn’t right. He stepped forward to guard Ye Zhizhou and shouted, “Don’t be rude! This is the wife of my family’s general. ”

The Shen family guard, the general’s wife… Zou Lan realized the identity of Ye Zhizhou and turned to look at him carefully. He was shocked. “Are you Zou Ming?! What about your face…” He quickly stopped halfway through his sentence after realizing it would be strange and lowered his head to avoid their gaze while changing the topic stiffly. “It turned out to be Madam Shen. I heard elder brother mention you before. You…”

Thud!

There was the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground from inside the room, and then a subtle moan sounded.

The guard’s complexion changed and he directly aimed a fist towards Zou Lan’s face at the side of the door. Ye Zhizhou took advantage of Zou Lan’s evasion to pull off the veil covering his face and then shouted, “Someone come! Zou Lan kidnapped the Hou family’s young master! Catch him!”

Several guards stationed around the inn rushed in when they heard the commotion.

Zou Lan evaded the guards' attack and glared at Ye Zhizhou with resentment. Suddenly, he took out a bag of powder from his cuff and scattered it into the air. Then, he took out something that looked similar to a small crossbow and arrows and shot at Ye Zhizhou several times.

“Madam, be careful!” The guard, whose hand was just about to grasp Zou Lan's shoulder, saw this and immediately turned around to cover Ye Zhizhou. Zou Lan took the opportunity to turn and run downstairs.

Ye Zhizhou, who took a sword out of his space, was ready to deflect the concealed weapons. Instead, he helplessly watched as the guard used his body to block the concealed weapons before falling to the ground with a low groan. He tightened his fist angrily and his spiritual power swept uncontrollably towards Zou Lan.

[Warning, warning! External forces causing damage to the protagonist will cause this small world to collapse. Asking host to calm and focus on the mission! Asking host to calm and focus on the mission!]

Damn it!

He suppressed his spiritual power and crouched down to feed the guard a pill. Then, he shouted to the wakened tenants who had peered out their doors to see what was going on. “Hold your breath! Go back into your room and wash your face with cold water! There is Menghan poison in the corridor. Don’t come out!”

The on-looking tenants were frightened and quickly shrank back into their rooms one after another.

He took out a powdered version of the Qingxin pill and dispersed it into the air. When he saw the guards that were coming up the stairs, which just happened to block Zou Lan from going down, he quickly warned them, “He has a concealed weapon in his hand! Cover your mouth and nose, watch out for his Menghan poison!”

The guards promptly adjusted accordingly and the men with bows and arrows stepped back a bit before drawing their bows to aim at Zou Lan.

Seeing their reaction Zou Lan stopped immediately, and the hand holding the small crossbow tightened. Suddenly, he turned sideways to shout at Ye Zhizhou, “Zou Ming! You’re truly like a lingering ghost! I’ll die with you today!” As he said that, he took out something that looked like a bag of explosives from his robe. It looked like he was about to ignite them with a flaming piece of paper.

The guards were startled, and the men with drawn bows quickly shot their arrows toward Zou Lan’s hand. The rest of them rushed to Ye Zhizhou as if trying to block the explosion with their bodies.

Ye Zhizhou, who had the system’s scanning function checking on the guard’s injury, raised his head when he heard Zou Lan and was shocked when he saw the system prompt. “Don’t shoot his hand! Hold your breath and catch him! He’s not holding explosives, it’s Menghan poison!”

The arrows had already been fired and the so-called explosives were flung into the air. Zou Lan wanted to take the opportunity to escape, but he didn’t expect the guards to quickly jump and block his way again at Ye Zhizhou’s words. He had run out of all the things he had on him that he could use, there was nothing he could do except wait to be captured.

“Zou Ming, I’m your brother! You actually dare to treat me like this! I will go back to the capital and tell father what you’ve done!”

The concealed weapons embedded within the guard’s body were all slender, tiny needles, which were very hard to get out. Ye Zhizhou was already so upset so when he heard those words, he directly blew up, “Shut up! Just wait for the guillotine, you murderer! Block his mouth for me, tie him up and send him directly to the government official tomorrow!”

The guard did as he was ordered and Zou Lan began to struggle harder. “Zou Ming, you dare! I’m not a murderer. I, … Let go… wuwu!”

There were still remnants of Menghan poison in the air and the guards all inhaled some of it. They forced themselves to stay awake as they tied Zou Lan up and blocked his mouth with some inevitable clumsiness in their movements. When Ye Zhizhou saw their clumsiness, his anger clouded brain quickly calmed down and he stepped forward to give each guard a Qingxin pill.

Afterwards, there was a rush to clean up and take care of the wounded. Zou Lan was thrown into Zhan Xuemi’s room by the guards under Ye Zhizhou’s instructions.

After confirming that the wounded guards were alright, Ye Zhizhou went upstairs. He leisurely ignored Zou Lan, who was glaring viciously, as he walked forward and scanned the rolling Zhan Xuemi on the floor with the system before feeding him an antidote.

A few minutes later, Zhan Xuemi who had been crazily rolling around on the ground slowly woke up. He looked at Ye Zhizhou who was crouched in front of him at a loss, then looked at his disheveled clothes with confusion before exclaiming, “Wh-who are you? What do you want to do to me? Although you’re beautiful…b-but I have principles. Whatever you do to me, I still won’t… Forget it. I’ll marry you. What’s your name? Where are you from?”

This guy….

Ye Zhizhou rolled his eyes gracelessly and stepped back. He used his finger and pointed to Zou Lan in the corner, who was tied up like a zongziand coldly said, “The one who wanted to do something to you was him. Is he beautiful? Would you marry him?”

Zhan Xuemi sat up when he heard this and inspected Zou Lan from top to bottom very seriously. After thinking about it, he said, “Although he’s not as good looking as you, if I really bullied him, then… Marry. I will marry him as long as he can let me continue to play around when we're married.”

When Zou Lan heard his words, he loudly made a few ‘wuwu’ sounds and shook his head, causing some of his messy hair to move from his face. He revealed his face as if trying to remind Zhan Xuemi of something.

“Ah!” Zhan Xuemi’s eyes widened and he got up to say in astonishment, “Beauty, did you make a mistake? This man is the poor man I saved while drinking. He was being bullied by an evil tyrant at the time, what a tragedy! He’s a good person. Why did you tie him up?”

Zou Lan nodded his head vigorously and moved towards him. His gaze was sad and pitiful.

Did this male lead feed his IQ to a dog?! Ye Zhizhou’s spiritual power began to stir uncontrollably again. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. He looked at Zhan Xuemi, who had a silly look on his face, and pointed at Zou Lan, “You’re saying he’s a good person?”

Zhan Xuemi nodded his head.

"He's my brother."

Zhan Xuemi looked at him incredulously. “You actually tied your brother up?! You’re such a bad person!”

“He’s also a murderer.”

Zhan Xuemi's mouth fell open.

He threw the report that the guard gave to him earlier into Zhan Xuemi’s arms and then sat down at the table. He poured out a cup of tea and scanned it with the system, his mouth twisted and he sneered.

Two minutes later, Zhan Xuemi finished reading the report and he shifted his incredulous eyes to Zou Lan. “Y-you actually killed so many people! That was your husband. Why did you kill him and his family?”

[The probability of Zhan Xuemi and the protagonist falling in love has dropped to 30%. May the host persist in his efforts.]

Zou Lan shook his head frantically, crying out ‘wuwu’ as if he wanted to explain but countless tears fell from his eyes. When Zhan Xuemi saw how pitiful he looked he became uncertain again, “Beauty, are you sure this isn’t a misunderstanding? He’s so weak and so pitiful and doesn’t look like a murderer, ah…”

[The probability of Zhan Xuemi and the protagonist falling in love has risen to 40%. Asking host to please pay attention! Asking host to please pay attention!]

Ye Zhizhou laughed at this male lead in his heart and handed the teacup over while smiling and asked, “Are you thirsty?”

Zhan Xuemi, who had been under an aphrodisiac earlier, sweated a lot when he rolled around on the ground for a while. He realized he was thirsty once Ye Zhizhou mentioned it and laughed foolishly as he took the teacup and thanked Ye Zhizhou. Then, he tilted his head back and drank the tea in one go, exclaiming, “Refreshing!”

Ye Zhizhou glanced at Zou Lan, who suddenly quieted down. He calmly crossed his legs. “Wait another two minutes, you’ll feel even more refreshed.”

One minute later, Zhan Xuemi began to feel hot. Two minutes later, he began to roll on the ground again. Ye Zhizhou crouched down and fed him half of a Qingxin pill, which kept him lucid but didn’t resolve the effects of the poison. “This was the tea prepared for you by the man you described as pitiful. It was poisoned with an aphrodisiac. How is it? Does it taste refreshing?”

Zhan Xuemi shook his head crazily and tugged at his collar forcefully. “Beauty, I was wrong. Pitiful people also have hateful points! It’s because I can't judge people clearly. Beauty, please give me the antidote. I feel very bad."

[The probability of Zhan Xuemi and the protagonist falling in love has dropped to 20%. May the host persist in his efforts.]

Unexpectedly, it didn’t cleanly drop to zero? He sneered and scanned Zou Lan with the system. Then, he pulled Zhan Xuemi up and threw him in front of Zou Lan. He pulled open Zou Lan’s sleeve and said, “Do you see this bag in his sleeve? It’s full of Menghan poison. Also, his belt is full of the aphrodisiac you’re under.” After saying this he let go of Zou Lan’s belt and regardless of his struggle, undid Zou Lan’s hair, twisting open his hair ornaments to reveal the silver needles inside. He pulled it out for Zhan Xuemi to see. “On these needles are poison. Just a little bit and there’s no doubt that you’ll die. Do you want to test it?”

Zhan Xuemi was already stunned into foolishness the moment Ye Zhizhou pulled back Zou Lan’s sleeve. He rapidly shook his head and quickly backed away. “I don’t! I don’t! This man is terrible! He actually hid this much poison on his body. You can know a person’s face but not their heart. I… I dare not trust people randomly anymore.”

[The probability of Zhan Xuemi and the protagonist falling in love has been reduced to 0%. The first soul flag has been pulled out. Congratulations to the host, please continue to work hard.]

Ye Zhizhou sneered in his heart. Sure enough, this kind of soft-hearted and gullible man just needed to be scared a bit. The quality of male leads in these mission worlds is getting worse and worse. Putting the hairpin away, he got up and tossed Zhan Xuemi a Qingxin pill and said, “Having a brain is a good thing. I hope you don’t abandon it easily. Fix your clothes and book another room to stay in.”

Zhan Xuemi quickly swallowed the pill but didn’t leave obediently. On the contrary, Zhan Xuemi looked at him with hesitation and said, “The book says that a small kindness should be repaid tenfold. I don't think you're a person that needs money. Beauty, how about…I devote myself to you?"

Zou Lan, who had been glaring at Ye Zhizhou angrily, suddenly stopped struggling. He gave a vague sneer with his gagged mouth, full of mockery.

Zhan Xuemi angrily questioned him, "What's that sneer for, you murderer!"

Zou Lan turned his head and didn’t look at him.

Ye Zhizhou was angered to the point of laughing. If it wasn’t for the task not allowing it, these two people would be an appropriate couple. He signaled for a guard that was waiting outside to bring Zhan Xuemi out. He moved a stool over and sat down three steps away from Zou Lan. He looked down at Zou Lan and said, “Hate it?”

Zou Lan raised his head to look at him with sinister eyes.

He bent down and removed Zou Lan’s gag from his mouth, suppressing his restless spiritual power and whispered, “There’s no use in hating. Things that aren’t yours will never be yours. You intentionally approached Zhan Xuemi didn’t you? With his deficient IQ, he’s really easy to fool… Who’s helping you find this information? Who gave you those poisons?"

“Pei!” Zou Lan spat at him and said with hatred, “Don’t be so proud of yourself. One day, I will crush you into the dirt! My hatred for you killing my mother will never be resolved! I can’t wait to see your retribution!”

Ye Zhizhou turned to avoid Zou Lan’s spit and straightened his clothes while laughing grimly, “Before I came here, I didn’t expect it was you that slaughtered the wealthy merchant and his family; an hour ago, I didn’t expect you would get close to Zhan Xuemi so fast; 30 minutes ago, I didn’t expect that you had a backer. Now, Zou Lan, the person behind you must be Old Madam Zou.”

Zou Lan’s expression transformed and he turned his head away. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about!”

“Tao Dong isn’t a niece from her maiden family, but Old Madam Zou’s daughter. As for father…heh. He’s not Old Madam Zou’s son at all, is he? Oh, let me think about it for a bit. Changing the prince for a raccoon kind of play, you guys have done this kind of thing before, haven’t you?”

Zou Lan resolutely bit his lips and hung his head, unwilling to look at him.

When Ye Zhizhou saw his reaction, he immediately understood everything. After confirming that Zou Lan was the person that helped Zhan Xuemi into his room, he suddenly thought of the most suspicious incident in the new plot—Zhan Xuemi’s meeting with the protagonist was too coincidental. It’s so much of a coincidence that it didn't seem like one anymore.

Zhan Xuemi, the second son of the Hou family, was a foolish person with plenty of money. He loved to play and was easy to fool. He didn’t need to be like the crown prince and shoulder many kinds of responsibilities. It was as if he was born just to enjoy a happy life. This kind of husband candidate, for those who wanted to take shortcuts, was the best choice for planning a conspiracy. After thinking about it, it seemed that it could only be Old Madam Zou that could find out the location of the Hou family’s second young master and help Zou Lan so wholeheartedly. After seeing that Zou Lan kept resisting arrest through various means, an idea flashed in his head. Could it be that Old Madam Zou wasn’t actually the real Old Madam Zou all this time?

When he was checking the guard’s injuries, he roughly flipped through the plot and found that Old Madam Zou’s maiden name was Tao, and she had a twin sister named Tao Hua. When Tao Hua was young, she was ignorant and eloped with a traveling doctor. Several years later, she returned home with a baby girl in her arms. She said that her husband died from an illness and that she couldn’t live on, so she brazenly brought her daughter back. At that time, Old Madam Zou had already married and moved to the capital. When she learned about it, she sent money back to help Tao Hua.

A few years later, Old Madam Zou’s family suffered from a plague and many people died. Tao Hua brought her daughter with her to ask Old Madam Zou for shelter. Unfortunately, just as they were about to arrive at the capital, they were killed by bandits. At this time, when the news reached the Zou family, Old Madam Zou was outside the city burning incense at a temple. After hearing the news, she became seriously ill and had to stay in the temple for more than ten days before she recovered.

Twins. Is this not the best example of exchanging a prince for a raccoon?

“Old Madam Zou… oh no, maybe we should call her Old Madam Tao?” Ye Zhizhou changed his sitting position, put on a thoughtful thinking look and continued after stopping for a bit, “The killer name Kang Run… was he also found by you guys? You got close to Zhan Xuemi to find a good husband and protective shield. You found Kang Run because you wanted to frame him for the massacre in Huzhou, right?”

Zou Lan suddenly raised his head and the resentment in his eyes changed to fear.

“Are you wondering how I know about Kang Run?” Ye Zhizhou raised his eyebrows and smiled at him. “Of course, it’s because… I guessed.” Kang Run’s appearance was too abrupt. In such a deep mountain forest, he was inexplicably poisoned by an aphrodisiac and also “coincidentally” met the protagonist. Truly an extremely tragic coincidence!

After learning that the Huzhou massacre case was the protagonist’s deed, he thought of the plot where the protagonist encountered Kang Run. He recalled that when he scanned all the poisons on the protagonist, he found that only the aphrodisiac was the hardest to detect. Suddenly, he found another possibility for Kang Run’s aphrodisiac poisoning in the new plot.

He could almost picture it. Zou Lan wanted to find a scapegoat for the Huzhou massacre case, so he settled on Kang Run and asked him to meet in the forest deep in the mountains. There, he would take the opportunity to give him the aphrodisiac. He didn’t expect Kang Run to be so different from the soft-handed and soft-footed Zhan Xuemi after being poisoned with the aphrodisiac. Instead, he was pressed down and tossed about… After realizing that he had dug a pit for himself instead of digging one for the other person, Zou Lan fled in a panic after Kang Run finished tossing him and passed out…

Perfect. Perhaps this is what the plot was really like. Zou Lan’s reaction just now also helped him affirm this possibility.

“I’m curious,” he met Zou Lan’s horrified gaze and asked, “If you really managed to dig a pit for Kang Run, how were you going to let him carry the responsibility for the Huzhou massacre case? Luzhou and Huzhou are quite far apart, how were you going to connect Kang Run to the murders?”

Zou Lan avoided his gaze, clenched his fists and didn’t speak.

“If you don’t want to talk, that’s alright.” Ye Zhizhou got up to stuff the towel back into Zou Lan’s mouth but was almost bitten. Slowly retracting his hand, he sneered and deliberately provoked him, “You don’t have to talk. When Kang Run comes, I naturally have a way to find out.”

Zou Lan struggled and let out a few ‘wuwu’ noises with his gaze becoming hateful again.

“You can keep hating.” Ye Zhizhou looked towards Shen Tingwei who had appeared in the doorway. His smile became more genuine and he whispered, “Your life is over. Before you go to the guillotine, I hope you dream of the 73 people that you killed every night.”

Zou Lan began to struggle even harder.

A system warning popped up again, and Ye Zhizhou regretfully suppressed his spiritual power and walked towards the door.

Shen Tingwei pulled him into his embrace, looked at Zou Lan who was tied up, and asked, "How are you going to deal with him?”

“Naturally, it should be handled in accordance with the law.” Ye Zhizhou took his hand and thought about it before he added, “But I hope that the government can make a public announcement about his crimes and let more people know about what he did.” Especially those two male leads in the capital who haven’t met Zou Lan yet.

"It should be done in this way."

The author has something to say:

Thank you Jun Shi for your landmine! Love you so much = 3=

PS: Ah, ah, a few minutes late! Wasted a few minutes catching bugs! Sorry!

Oops sorry for the late post, I forgot to schedule the post last night OTL

Also this family is so wild and messed up….

that incest

Poor Zou Qing, he never knew that Tao Dong was his cousin