26 - Confrontation

T/N: This is the beginning of Part 2 of Book 4 which is a separate book. To enable a smooth reading experience, the two parts have been translated and combined into one story as Book 4.

Chapter 26 – Confrontation

Shangguan Yan walked out from the crowd and obediently came to Di Jing’s side.

When she was next to him, Di Jing glared at everyone.

All the guards who were glared at quickly walked away to return to their posts. Di Jing withdrew his gaze and turned to speak to her. “This time the Ninth Prince barged into the prison for you. To avoid having him make a huge fuss over this matter, go and borrow a set of men’s clothes to change then come back immediately.”

“Yes, this humble one will do it now.” She turned around and immediately wanted to change out of the female constable uniform. Just as she walked a few steps forward, she heard rude shouts behind her.

“Stop! Who are you? Report your name!”

Shangguan Yan turned her head around and saw that the personal guards of the Ninth Prince blocking Di Jing’s way. She knotted her eyebrows involuntarily.

Regardless of the situation, Di Jing is still the Imperial Commissioner and the guards are too pompous.

Di Jing slowly turned his head and looked at the guard in front of him.

This small guard in front of him is so daring to rely on his master’s power to suppress him? The Lord Magistrate may be afraid of the Ninth Prince but not him!

Over the years, he had arrested numerous vicious criminals, punished and eliminated evildoers, and faced the most wicked people, and had already cultivated a fearless and overwhelming awe-inspiring righteous aura. His eyes were like sharp knives with pointed edges. Just by staring, it was enough for him to subdue the other party and make the other party too scared to act rashly.

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Di Jing’s gaze stripped off the guard’s confidence and the guard’s momentum suddenly became inexplicably weak.

“Move out of the way.” Di Jing commanded in a deep voice. Just only those few words were like Mount Tai pressing down which made one afraid to disobey.

Frightened by Di Jing’s majestic official aura, the guard could not help but step aside to allow Di Jing to enter the hall.

After Shangguan Yan had observed everything, the corners of her mouth curved slightly and secretly admired him in her heart.

He is worthy to be an Imperial Commissioner! Indeed impressive and courageous!

Without any delay, she quickly turned around and hurried away to find the clothes.

At this moment, the Lord Magistrate was drenched in cold sweat. As soon as he saw the Imperial Commissioner had arrived, it was as though he had seen his savior. He quickly stepped forward with his clasped hands held up and bending from his waist, he gave a salute.

“My Lord……..”

“Mm…….” Di Jing nodded at him and then looked at the Ninth Prince. “This Officer was unaware that Your Highness, the Ninth Prince had arrived. This Officer seeks forgiveness for failing to welcome the Ninth Prince.”

Upon seeing Di jing, the Ninth Prince, Si Liuyin was surprised and frowned. “Why is it you again?!”

The first time he met this guy was in Fumen Inn.

The second time he saw him was at the banquet held in Cheng En Gong Mansion.

At that time, it was heard that Di Jing was the idle son of a wealthy family.

Now he made an appearance and referred to himself as ‘This Officer’. Moreover, the Lord Magistrate had said that the case concerning Shangguan Yan was presided over by the Imperial Commissioner………

The Ninth Prince looked him up and down suspiciously. “Are you the Imperial Commissioner?”

“It is this Officer.” Di Jing’s face became solemn and he said coldly. “Your Highness, it is an offense to break into the prison. If Your Highness does not give a proper explanation, this Officer will have to deal with it according to the laws.”

The Ninth Prince’s expression also became solemn.

“Huh! Di Jing! You’re meting out punishment at will and framing Shangguan Yan. If you don’t hand over Shangguan Yan today, don’t blame this Prince for not showing mercy!”

“Your Highness must speak with factual evidence. This Officer is upright and acts according to the law. How can it be called ‘punishment meted out at will’?”

“I have a witness.”

“Witness?” Di Jing was curious and narrowed his eyes slightly. “If this is the case, this Officer is willing to confront the witness.”

Di Jing’s attitude was neither humble nor overbearing.

Even though the other party is a Prince, he still has to speak with factual evidence. He follows the law and not the person and is only loyal to the Emperor and not the Prince.

“Alright, then let’s settle this! Come out!” With a roar from the Ninth Prince, the person hiding behind the screen came out cautiously.

The moment he saw the person, Di Jing was stunned because that person was none other than Pan Zeming.

The Ninth Prince pointed at Pan Zeming and said. “This Pan Gongzi said that he wasn’t prohibited from visiting in the past but recently, when he came to the prison to visit, suddenly the visits were disallowed. It‘s certainly an abnormality that makes it suspicious. Today, this Prince came personally to visit and your men were also so bold to stop me! If this Prince had not broken into the prison, this Prince wouldn’t have known that the person had disappeared! Speak! Where is Shangguan Yan? Did you punish him and he is now seriously injured? Or, has he already been killed?”

The Ninth Prince had a terrifying look. When he thought that Shangguan Yan might be killed in prison, he felt so angry that he wanted to kill someone.

Di Jing finally understood. The Ninth Prince had barged straight into the prison because Pan Zeming had begged him. He blamed himself for not thinking through it well and forgot about this man, Pan Zeming.

Initially, he had wanted to lure out Jiao Siniang so he took Shangguan Yan out of the imperial city and only left an order to the prison head to reject all prison visits. But he did not expect that being away for half a month would cause Pan Zeming to become anxious. When Pan Zeming could not visit her in prison, he panicked and went to beg the Ninth Prince.

“Your Highness had misunderstood. This Officer had secretly transferred her to another place.”

“If that is the case, why didn’t the prison guards say so? Why must they wait until we go in to find that the person is no longer there, then only said they don’t know? This is obviously a cover-up!”

“The case is being handled by this Officer and my plans can’t be made public. This Officer guarantees that Shangguan Yan is safe and fine.”

“Hmph, there’s no proof! If you don’t hand over Shangguan Yan today to let this Prince confirm that she is safe and well, this Prince will report to the Emperor and report you for disregarding human life!”

Di Jing frowned. The Ninth Prince’s temper was notoriously famous for being explosive. He had experienced it before when they met in the inn last time. Initially, he had wanted Shangguan Yan to change into men’s clothing before coming over to let the Ninth Prince have a look before sending him away. However, the Ninth Prince was being unreasonable and was interfering with his case and Di Jing who had initially wanted to explain to the Ninth Prince found that he no longer had the interest.

“Di Mou has a clear conscience. If the Ninth Prince wants to report to the Emperor, please feel free to do so. This Officer is busy and unable to accompany Your Highness. Please walk slowly, this Officer won’t be sending Your Highness off!”

The two people were in a state of mutual hostility and there was a strong smell of gunpowder. Pan Zeming who was standing at the side looked worriedly back and forth between both of them. After many days of not seeing Yan’er, he felt uneasy and could not eat or drink. When he thought of his future wife in prison, he was overwhelmed with anxiety and felt that he should bring out some of his maniless to save his wife.

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He had once heard from Yan’er that the Ninth Prince had always been taking care of her businesses, so he ignored the danger and stopped the Ninth Prince’s horse to beg the Ninth Prince to rescue Yan’er from prison.

On this side the atmosphere was tense and on the other side, Shangguan Yan very quickly found someone about her height and borrowed a set of men’s constable uniforms. Then she wrapped her chest with a piece of cotton cloth, put on the constable uniform, tied her hair into a bun, and put on the constable hat. Anyway, with her face swollen and covered with rashes, no one could differentiate whether she is a man or a woman.

After changing she hurried to the hall.

“Stop! Who are you? Report your name!”

Not surprisingly, it was the same guard of His Highness, the Ninth Prince who stopped her again.

Shangguan Yan looked at the guard with amusement. “Out of the way! Your Highness is looking for me, Shangguan Yan. If you obstruct me, be careful that your Highness will kick your ass!”

The familiar voice and tone shocked the guard and he saw her grinning at him. “Don’t you even recognize me, Shangguan Yan? Get out of the way!”

While the guards were still in a daze, she easily passed them and walked into the hall.

When she entered the hall, the atmosphere was very tensed at that moment.

The Ninth Prince was very angry and when he saw someone coming into the hall, he was startled and then began to curse fiercely.

“Who let this ugly monster in?……..”

“Yan’er!” Pan Zeming’s shout interrupted the Ninth Prince and excitedly rushed over to Shangguan Yan to hug her into his arms.

“Yan’er! It’s really you! It’s great! At last, I get to see you! You’ve made me so anxious!”