Liu Bei time-travels to become the Heavenly King Chao Gai

Chapter 28 The Unsolvable Overt Scheme

"You two adulterers! Let's see what you have to say now!"

Lei Heng roared angrily, his voice like a thunderclap.

The two people on the bed froze instantly, as if they had been frozen in place.

Yan Poxi let out a piercing scream and instinctively pulled the blanket over herself, trying to cover her body.

Zhang Wenyuan was so frightened that his handsome face turned deathly pale.

In the firelight, he could see who it was.

Behind Lei Heng stood several people.

Two constables.

The man with a gloomy, ashen face was Song Jiang, the very person he least wanted to see.

One of them held a feather fan, his expression indifferent, as if watching a play that had nothing to do with him.

There was another one, tall and with a thick beard, who calmly swept his gaze over them. His eyes held no anger or disdain, as if he were looking at two animals trapped in a cage.

That look sent a chill down Zhang Wenyuan's spine.

"what!"

Yan Poxi's screams were so loud they almost pierced people's eardrums.

She clutched the brocade quilt tightly, wrapped herself up in a ball, and trembled like a leaf.

Zhang Wenyuan scrambled to get out of bed, but a quick-thinking official kicked him in the chest, sending him sprawling back onto the bed.

"Have mercy, officer! Have mercy, officer!"

He didn't bother to put on clothes, and just knelt naked on the bed, kowtowing repeatedly to Lei Heng.

"It's not my fault! It's...it's this bitch who seduced me! It's all her fault!"

Upon hearing this, Yan Poxi, who was on the bed, abruptly stopped screaming.

She stared incredulously at the man who had just been so affectionate with her, at his face contorted with fear.

A sense of despair and anger, even deeper than being caught in bed with someone cheating, welled up inside me.

"Zhang Wenyuan! You spineless coward!"

She screamed, her voice trembling with sobs.

Lei Heng snorted coldly, too lazy to pay attention to the two of them tearing each other apart.

He walked to the bedside and said in a deep voice, "Caught red-handed! According to the laws of our Great Song Dynasty, even if you two are beaten to death on the spot right here, Brother Song Jiang will still have the moral high ground!"

He turned to look at Song Jiang.

"Brother Song Jiang, what do you think we should do?"

Song Jiang remained silent.

He didn't even glance at the two people on the bed.

His gaze had been searching the room ever since he entered.

Finally, his gaze fell on a wooden box under the dressing table.

He walked over, squatted down, and opened the wooden box.

Inside was the document bag he had left behind.

He opened the bag, poured out all the letters inside, and looked through them one by one.

Upon seeing this scene, Yan Poxi seemed to suddenly remember something, and a final burst of madness erupted in her eyes.

"Song Jiang! Don't even think about it!"

She screamed and lunged off the bed, desperately trying to snatch the letters.

"This letter is mine! None of you can take it away!"

An officer stepped forward and kicked her to the ground with a single kick.

She lay sprawled on the cold, blue brick floor, her long hair disheveled, looking like a madwoman.

Song Jiang found the letter that Wu Liangcai had written.

He looked at it carefully twice to confirm that it was correct.

Then he stood up, walked to the charcoal brazier, and threw the letter into the blazing embers.

The letter, when exposed to fire, instantly curled up, turned black, and transformed into a wisp of smoke.

Watching the wisp of smoke dissipate, Song Jiang felt as if all his strength had been drained away.

He let out a long breath.

That tone contained humiliation, anger, and a sense of relief.

Yan Poxi lay on the ground, staring at the brazier of charcoal, her eyes completely dimming.

She knew that her last resort was gone.

It's all over.

Liu Bei stood at the door, quietly watching everything.

He neither intervened nor spoke.

Wu Yong stood beside him, gently waving his fan.

Liu Bei only spoke slowly after Song Jiang burned the letter.

"My dear brother."

Song Jiang turned around and looked at Liu Bei.

Liu Bei's voice was calm: "How to deal with the two people in this room is entirely up to you. If you hand them over to the authorities, they will both be caned, have their faces tattooed, and be exiled three thousand miles away. Zhang Wenyuan's future will be completely ruined. As for Yan Poxi, she will have no face to live in this world anymore."

"If you settle this privately and vent your anger today, you can't guarantee they won't gossip behind your back and ruin your reputation in the future."

Lei Heng chimed in, "Brother, in my opinion, we should just break their legs and throw them out of Yuncheng County to fend for themselves!"

Song Jiang ignored Lei Heng.

He looked at Liu Bei, at the man who had helped him turn the tide in just one day.

They used fifty taels of gold as bait and the eyes of a rogue as a trap.

This series of interconnected schemes, each step meticulously planned, demonstrates an extreme understanding of human nature.

A chill that had never been felt before suddenly arose in Song Jiang's heart.

Brother Chao Gai is unfathomable!

He walked up to Liu Bei and bowed deeply.

"Please make the decision, brother."

All eyes in the room were on Liu Bei.

Liu Bei did not speak immediately.

He looked at the woman on the ground with her hair disheveled and her clothes barely covering her body, and then at the pale-faced scholar on the bed who was trembling like a leaf, tears streaming down his face.

Yan Poxi was a vicious and insatiably greedy person.

But with that face and that figure, she is indeed a rare beauty.

It would be a pity to kill them like this.

He lived two lives; in his previous life, he was an emperor and had seen countless beauties.

Even so, Yan Poxi was by no means inferior.

He was no longer the Liu Bei who, when he first started out with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, regarded women as worthless.

People and things are all resources.

How to use it, when to use it, and where to use it are the things that those in charge should consider.

He pondered for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

The firelight in the charcoal brazier cast flickering shadows on his face.

"Zhang Wenyuan had an affair with the wives and concubines of officials, which violated human ethics, and he also intended to frame them."

Liu Bei spoke slowly.

"Break both legs, throw him out of the city, and let him fend for himself."

Zhang Wenyuan, who was kneeling on the bed, suddenly went limp and collapsed completely, his face drained of all color.

Yan Poxi, however, sensed a glimmer of hope in these words.

She realized that the real decision-maker was this burly man with a bushy beard, so she hurriedly crawled on her knees to Liu Bei's feet, grabbed his legs, and kowtowed desperately.

"Brother, spare me! Brother, spare me! I'll never dare to do it again! I'm willing to be your slave and serve you!"

Lei Heng frowned and stepped forward to kick her away.

"Brother, why keep such a vicious woman alive?"

Liu Bei raised his hand, stopping Lei Heng's actions.

"Killing her would indeed solve everything."

Liu Bei looked down at the woman at his feet, her face streaked with tears, looking utterly pitiful.

"But it is indeed a pity."

He looked at Lei Heng, a strange smile appearing on his lips.

"Brother Lei, I've heard that recently, many merchants from the northern regions have been passing through this area on their way to Daming Prefecture?"

Lei Heng was taken aback, wondering why he had suddenly asked this question.

"That's true. Most of them are Khitan and Jurchen merchants, bringing over furs and ginseng."

Liu Bei nodded.

"This woman is vicious; if she doesn't die, she will eventually become a menace."

"But her physical appearance is worth some money."

"With her looks, selling her to those Hu merchants traveling to the north should bring in a good sum of money for their journey."

Lei Heng was taken aback.

Wu Yong, who was standing to the side, stopped waving his feather fan.

He looked at Liu Bei, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes.

Good tactic.

This is not about selling for money.

The Jurchens beyond the Great Wall are now powerful and seem poised to conquer Liaodong.

Yan Poxi was beautiful and skilled at using her looks to please men; she was also very cunning.

Sending such a woman into the heart of the Jurchen territory would surely allow her to attach herself to high-ranking officials and nobles, given her abilities.

A greedy and ruthless woman can sometimes stir up more trouble in the inner quarters of powerful and wealthy families than a thousand troops.

This was the elder brother's open scheme.

By using a useless pawn, we plant a hidden mine behind the enemy's rear, a mine that could explode at any time.

"Brother's insight is brilliant!"

Wu Yong clapped his hands in admiration.

Lei Heng also realized what was going on. Although he couldn't think that far ahead, he felt that this method was both satisfying and practical.

"As expected of my brother! That's a great idea! It not only gets rid of that bitch, but also lets her earn some money back for me!"

He immediately called to his men.

"Tie up both of them!"

Two officers stepped forward and used hemp rope to tightly bind the limp Zhang Wenyuan and the distraught Yan Poxi.

Zhang Wenyuan was so frightened that he couldn't speak.

Yan Poxi was still crying and begging for mercy, but her voice was filled with despair.

Lei Heng found her noisy, so he tore off a piece of rag and stuffed it into her mouth.

"take away!"