If you traveled back to ancient times, while others ate Guanyin clay, you would actually have giant

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zheng realized something was amiss. He was a member of the Imperial Guard; why was he investigating a cult? Wasn't this the responsibility of the Prefect of the Capital?

The more Zhou Zheng listened, the more uneasy he felt. There must be a problem here, and it was very likely that the problem lay with his bunch of idiots.

The people were brought in quickly. Zhou Wu checked them and confirmed that they were the same people, so he had the Crown Prince's army take them away.

Just as Zhou Wu turned to leave, Zhou Zheng quietly tugged at his sleeve and pulled him aside.

"Sir, if these bastards really did something illegal, it wasn't on my orders. I don't know anything about it."

Zhou Zheng is now regretting getting involved in this mess.

I just heard my men report that there was trouble at the entrance of the military camp. I just came to check it out, and this is what happened. What bad luck.

"Don't worry, the Crown Prince is personally handling this matter, and he certainly won't let a good person get away with it."

"Yes, yes, yes, I'm a good person."

Zhou Zheng quickly smiled and nodded repeatedly.

"Of course, we won't let a single bad person get away with it."

. . . . . . .

Zhou Wu naturally did not take the person directly back to the Crown Prince's residence. His claim to the Imperial Guards that he was acting on the Crown Prince's orders was nothing but a fabrication. Therefore, he took the person directly back to the Prefect of Jingzhao.

"Hey, I called you grandpa? These are imperial guards. If you send them straight to the prison of the Prefect of the Capital, I can't take the blame."

From the moment Zhu Keduo learned that several imperial guards had been imprisoned in his cell at noon, he had been constantly nagging at Zhou Wu.

"What are you afraid of? Even if the sky falls, the Crown Prince is here."

Sigh, there are no people he can afford to offend. Zhu Keduo has never felt so anxious in the past few days. Seeing Zhou Wu's determined attitude, he knew that saying anything more would be useless.

"Hey~"

Zhu Keduo had already sighed countless times, and the clerk beside him could tell that his master was troubled.

"Sir, you've been sighing all afternoon. What's troubling you?"

"Sigh, it's all because of that cult case. They're all big shots we can't afford to mess with."

Zhu Keduo knew that his advisor was always full of ideas, so he briefly explained the situation to see if there was any solution.

“That’s easy, sir.”

"Oh, do you have any good ideas?"

"As the saying goes, if we can't afford to offend them, we can avoid them. Master, you can just ask for sick leave from above. That way, if anything happens during this period, it won't be your fault."

"Yeah, haha, it has to be you, Lao Zhang, always coming up with bad ideas."

Indeed, this was the best option so far, so Zhu Keduo wrote a leave note, had it sent to the Ministry of Personnel, and then returned to his residence, closed the gates tightly, and stopped concerning himself with outside affairs.

Zhou Wu wasn't bothered by Zhu Keduo's resignation, since he hadn't originally planned for Zhu Keduo to take charge.

After Zhou Wu separated the guards and put them into separate cells, he did not interrogate them immediately, but instead kept them locked up overnight.

Zhou Wu was playing psychological warfare with these people. He knew that if he had asked them immediately yesterday, they would have asked about something not far away, because they would have thought he was in a hurry. But at noon, he did the opposite and acted as if he wasn't in a hurry. This made the Imperial Guards lose confidence and start to have wild thoughts.

. . . . . .

Prison.

"Tell me, whose orders did you take?"

Because they were separated and detained yesterday, none of them know the situation of their companions.

"My lord, what do you want me to say? I didn't do anything."

The other party's answer was not unexpected for Zhou Wu, but there was no rush, he would take his time.

"Playing dumb? Who instructed you to do things related to the cult is not your Imperial Guard's business."

"My lord, what do you mean by this? It's quite a coincidence. We happened to find out about it that day, and fearing the prisoner might escape, we didn't have time to notify the Prefect of the Capital. Instead, we arrested the prisoner first."

These testimonies were pre-arranged by the Imperial Guards, but Zhou Wu obviously wouldn't believe them.

So, are we going to give you an award?

"That won't be necessary, sir. We Imperial Guards are also part of the Great Dragon, and this is what we should do."

Zhou Wu didn't waste any words and left directly. Then he asked the same questions to everyone else one by one. In the end, everyone's answers were exactly the same, and it seemed like a perfect match.

However, it was precisely because these answers were all so consistent that Zhou Wu felt there was something wrong.

Another day passed, and Zhou Wu came to that man again.

"Now that you've said that, your accomplices have already confessed. However, according to the laws of my Great Dragon, those who surrender and confess can be given a lighter punishment."

"Please don't try to fool me, sir."

The man smiled dismissively. He knew his partner very well and knew immediately that Zhou Wu was bluffing him.

"You do not believe?"

The man stopped speaking.

"Wasn't it Zhang Fan who gave the order?"

Upon hearing Zhang Fan's name, the man's pupils involuntarily contracted slightly. Zhou Wu knew he had made the right bet, and then pressed on while the iron was hot.

"Your partner has already submitted his testimony and is currently writing it. It's up to you whether you want to write it or not. If you do, your sentence will be reduced by one degree; if you don't, your sentence will be increased by one degree. The choice is yours."

Zhou Wu threw down his pen and paper and left, going to other cells to repeat the same words and act out the same play again.

An hour later, Zhou Wu received several testimonies written by different people, but the contents were all roughly the same, pointing to Zhang Fan as the instigator of the incident.

Zhu Keduo was feigning illness, but even here, he couldn't make any decisions.

Zhou Wu decided not to think too much about it and directly delivered the item to Emperor Li Tiancheng.

. . . . . .

Zhou Wu originally thought that with the testimony, the matter would be simple, and Zhang Fan would just have to wait to be questioned.

The emperor's verdict was completely unexpected.

All the arrested students were released without charge, and the imperial guards involved were all exiled to the border, where they would likely die fighting. However, the emperor made no mention of the mastermind, Zhang Fan.

Zhou Wu didn't understand what was going on.

Just then, Zhu Keduo recovered from his "illness" and explained it to Zhou Wu.

"My lord, Zhang Fan's background is not as simple as you think. His Majesty would not use such a trivial matter to deal with him."

"His background is not simple?"

“Zhang Fan has been operating in the north for many years and has nearly 100,000 elite troops under his command. Moreover, Zhang Fan has connections with many high-ranking officials in the court, so neither His Majesty nor Zhang Fan have taken such trivial matters to heart.”

Zhou Wu was somewhat disappointed, but he could understand. Many things cannot be done with just enthusiasm, especially for an emperor, who has to consider many more things and factors.

"Zhang Fan, you've really crossed me. Next time it won't be so easy."

Zhou Wu had a premonition that Zhang Fan would probably fight him again later.