My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 257: Mr. Liang, how are you?
Tingwei Prison...

Oh no;

Now, it should be called Dali Prison.

Speaking of this magical place, the story that is most well-known to later generations is undoubtedly the words of Zhou Yafu's father: Zhou Bo, Marquis of Jiangwu, "Today I finally understand the value of a jailer."

——In the 27th year of the Han Dynasty, Empress Dowager Lü passed away in Changle. The princes and ministers joined forces to kill the descendants of Lü and enthrone King Dai Liu Heng.

After bringing the "good old man" Liu Heng back to Chang'an and seating him on the imperial couch in the Xuanshi Hall, the group of officials who killed the Lü clan, led by Zhou Bo and Chen Ping, naturally took control of the government power firmly in their hands.

Later, Chen Ping passed away, leaving Zhou Bo alone. He was first driven back to his fiefdom in Guandong by Emperor Taizong's casual remark that "many meritorious officials are attached to Chang'an and refuse to return to their country. The prime minister is the head of all officials and should be the first in the world."

Later, he was caught by Emperor Taizong for hiding armor and was thrown into the Tingwei prison.

After spending a dark period in prison, Zhou Bo was finally able to regain some light thanks to his extensive network of contacts.

When walking out of the Tingwei prison, the dying Zhou Bo turned around and looked at the prison door, uttering the famous sigh that has been passed down through the ages: It was not until today that I realized the dignity of a jailer.

The fact that Zhou Bo, a founding hero who crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a member of the Fengpei clan, was tortured to the point of being on the verge of death and even sighing, "Today I realized the dignity of a jailer," shows how prestigious the Tingwei Prison was.

——Before Zhou Bo, no one had ever walked out of the Tingwei Prison upright!
Zhou Bo was the first one.

And today, after several decades, the Tingwei Prison, which has been renamed Dali Prison, has once again welcomed an important official of the rank of 2,000 stones to "move in".

The "treatment" that this important official of the 2,000-stone level enjoyed in prison was not as good as that of Jiang Hou Zhou Bo back then, but it was not much different...

"I heard that you are a Nei Shi?"

Deep inside the prison, outside a cell that was not too narrow but exuded a strong musty odor, the jailer was leaning lazily against a pillar;
With his hands crossed in front of his chest, he started a conversation with the only figure in the same cell who was bored.

Ever since Zhou Bo's words "the nobility of jailers" spread to the Tingwei Prison, the jailers in the Tingwei Prison have become more and more "honorable".

Although the salary was still 200 dan, which was not even a small shrimp at the foot of the Chang'an Imperial City, for everyone in prison, these 200 dan jailers were considered "big shots" per capita.

For Han Anguo at this moment, the same was true for the jailer in front of him, who spoke rudely and whom he would never even look at.

"Please, sir, help me..."

Han Anguo, who was lying on the mud couch with his back to the wooden fence and facing the wall, got up in a hurry when he heard the voice behind him.

While talking and walking, he did not forget to take out a piece of cloth covered with words from his arms.

He walked to the wooden fence and handed the piece of cloth to the jailer outside the fence with a slightly embarrassed look on his face.

"Please give this letter to the Empress Dowager of the Eastern Palace."

"If the Empress Dowager summons you, you will say: My old friend from Suiyang was imprisoned because of his bad words..."

As Han Anguo spoke, his attitude was quite humble.

At least compared to the past, when he would not personally meet with officials other than those with a rank of 1,000 stones, and would not even send his subordinates or servants to meet with the prison guards unless they were officials with a rank of 600 stones or above, it was not easy for Han Anguo to speak so gently to the prison guard with a rank of 200 stones.

But as the saying goes: The prime minister's doorman is a seventh-rank official.

In Chang'an, and even in the imperial capital of any dynasty, there was a saying that for officials of the same rank and rank, the capital officials were tacitly considered to be three levels higher.

What's more, this place is the Tingwei Prison which has Zhou Bo's "Noble Jailer" buff;
And Han Anguo was exactly the only person that these "honorable jailers" could trouble: the prisoner in the prison...

"Grand Empress Dowager of the Eastern Palace, you'd better not think about it."

"——I am just a jailer. Let alone meeting the Grand Empress Dowager, even if I deliver this letter to the outside of the palace gate, I don't know how many ways I have to go to find someone who can walk from the palace gate to the Changxin Hall and present this letter to the Grand Empress Dowager."

"After all, he is a real official in Liang. You should think carefully about whether you have any close friends in Chang'an who can plead with His Majesty on your behalf."

"If so, I can deliver a message to your friend for you."

Although he spoke politely, the jailer still looked nonchalant, leaning against a stone pillar with his body slanted. He had no awareness that he should bend his back in front of an important person.

Not only was he not panicking, the jailer even looked Han Anguo up and down leisurely, as if he was calculating how many places Han Anguo had to hide money and how much money he could carry on his body.

Being scanned all over by the jailer's offensive gaze, Han Anguo's face immediately showed a hint of displeasure;
However, based on the understanding that one has to bow his head when under someone's roof, Han Anguo suppressed the anger in his heart.

He took a deep breath and continued, "If it cannot be delivered to the Grand Empress Dowager of the Eastern Palace, then send it to the Tangyi Marquis Mansion in Shangguanli."

"——Princess Guantao and I have some friendship."

"Even if it is for the sake of our first lord, King Liang Xiao, Princess Guantao will help me..."

Unexpectedly, when Han Anguo said this, the jailer immediately showed impatience, and there was a strong disdain in his eyes when he looked at Han Anguo.

"You, bastard, have you been an official in the remote countryside of Guandong for so long that you don't even know who the dignitaries in the court are?"

"——The Tangyi Marquisate today has long lost the glory it had during the time of Emperor Xiaojing!"

"The current emperor has issued a clear order: No one is allowed to enter or leave Tangyihou Mansion without the emperor's order, let alone meet with Master Tao in person."

"You first boasted that you were an old friend of the Eastern Palace Empress Dowager, and then asked me to deliver a letter to the Tangyi Marquis's Mansion. Are you taking advantage of my lowly position and not understanding the importance of this?"

After saying this, the jailer immediately turned sideways and glanced at Han Anguo with an extremely unfriendly look.

"If you can't find anyone who can plead for you, then you can just wait to die here!"

"Since the Han Dynasty, the number of prisoners held in our Tingwei Prison is at least 80,000, if not 100,000;"

"Except for Jiang Wu Hou Zhou Bo, no one has ever been able to step out of the prison door alive."

After leaving these last words, the jailer turned around completely with a lack of interest, pretended to inspect the cells, and pretended to walk out of the prison.

Behind the jailer, Han Anguo, with a gloomy face, grasped the wooden bars with both hands, stuffed his face into the bars, and looked at the jailer's back viciously.

——Having been imprisoned for no apparent reason, and in the notorious Tingwei Prison, Han Anguo was already in a state of confusion;

Fortunately, because of the struggle for the throne between King Xiao of Liang and the Empress Dowager of the Eastern Palace, some friendship had been accumulated between him and the Lord of Guantao in the Tangyi Marquis's mansion.

After the Wu-Chu Rebellion was quelled, he was praised by Empress Dowager Dou as "the only capable minister beside Prince Liang"!
Thinking back on this, Han Anguo finally felt a little relieved.

However, he did not expect that not only could he not send the letter for help, but he was also humiliated repeatedly by the jailer. How could Han Anguo suppress his anger?
Even though he had mastered the art of cultivating his Qi, Han Anguo still couldn't keep his composure. He opened his mouth and yelled at the jailer's back, "How dare you, a petty official, bully me like this!"

"If we were outside the Tingwei Prison, even if you, a petty official, went everywhere and spent all your wealth, you might not be able to see my doorman!"

"Today is just a matter of a dragon trapped in shallow water. How dare a petty official like you who has a salary of 100 shi humiliate a high-ranking official and important minister with a salary of 2,000 shi!!!"

There were several shrill roars coming from behind, and the fact that the prison was empty to begin with caused even more echoes;
The jailer turned around with an angry face, walked quickly back to the cell where Han Anguo was imprisoned, drew out the wooden stick from his waist, and hit Han Anguo's back of his hand that was holding the wooden fence with all his strength!
Fortunately, Han Anguo was also a half-military man, and he barely reacted and retracted his hand, but his face became even more angry, and he immediately showed a ferocious look that he wanted to eat the jailer alive. Seeing Han Anguo's posture, the jailer seemed to have lost his temper and said with disdain: "Even if you are a high-ranking official, what does it matter?"

"Don't even mention Lieutenant Liang, who has a salary of 2,000 dan. Even if it's the Prime Minister, who has a salary of 10,000 dan, when he comes to my prison, he has to say honestly: Today I know how valuable the jailer is."

"how?"

"Do you think that you, Han Anguo, are more noble than Marquis Jiang back then?"

"Or are your connections and relationships, Han Anguo, stronger than those of Marquis Jiang back then?"

As he spoke, the jailer smiled jokingly and pointed to the brazier in the middle of the cell where wood chips were burning.

"Look;"

"Before being carried into the prison, the basins were filled with firewood or rare woods - each with its own unique properties."

"But if you were thrown into the fire pot by a 'minor official' like me, even the most precious wood would be burned to ashes."

At this point, the jailer turned around with a smile and said meaningfully: "My Tingwei Prison is the brazier."

"No matter how precious the wood is, it will be burned to ashes in my prison."

"There is no difference between the ashes from burning wood chips and wild firewood and the ashes from burning precious wood..."

Hearing this, Han Anguo was still filled with righteous indignation, and immediately asked: "Could it be that the dead ashes will never be rekindled?!"

"You said he was burned to ashes, but how can you know that the truly precious wood, even if burned, is only nirvana!"

But the jailer sneered jokingly when he heard that, then he held the cloth bag at his waist nonchalantly and shook it in a rather vulgar manner.

"Even if the dead ashes are rekindled, what can we do?"

"If I want to put him out, it's just a matter of taking off my pants and peeing."

"——Thanks to the late Marquis of Jiang, Zhou Bo~"

"The jailers in my Tingwei Prison are all men with balls;"

"No matter how precious the wood is, I, the chief judge of the imperial court, would dare to extinguish it by urinating on it."

···
"Hey;"

"It's resurrected."

"——You should think carefully about what to eat before your execution~"

"Tsk tsk, that bun shop outside the East Market, slurp..."

"When I get my salary, I must try those pork buns again..."

Smacking the yellow water in his mouth, the jailer recalled the sweet taste of the meat buns and walked towards the prison door again.

After walking a short distance, he turned back with a strange smile and said, "I will never change my name or surname - Tingwei..."

“Uh no;”

"Dali jailer: It's Tian Jia!"

"——If you want revenge, come to me anytime;"

"Whether it's the living Han Anguo or the dead Han Angui - if I frown, the eggs my mother gave me will be wasted!"

After saying these words with great dominance, the jailer walked straight towards the prison door without stopping.

As he walked, he didn't forget to mutter at the top of his voice: "Humph!"

"It's still two thousand koku!"

"I asked someone to deliver a letter, but I didn't even know how to get three or five gold coins out of it."

"——Are you expecting me to make this trip in vain?"

"He is truly a corrupt scholar who has become stupid from reading too much..."

As he said this, the jailer raised his foot in annoyance and kicked open the light wooden door of the prison.

Then, the jailer Tian Jia saw a scene that he would never be able to forget in his entire life.

——Outside the prison door, the current Emperor Rong, who was dressed in ordinary clothes and a crown on his head, but could be seen at a glance to be extraordinary, was standing closest to him with a somewhat embarrassed expression.

What Tian Jia didn't know was that the embarrassment on Liu Rong's face was because half a breath ago, Liu Rong's ear was still pressed against the prison door;

If Liu Rong had not reacted quickly, Tian Jia would have kicked the wooden door onto Liu Rong. Even a god would not have been able to protect Tian Jia's household registration book.

Beside Liu Rong, several dignitaries who were also dressed in extraordinary clothes, either covered their mouths to hold back laughter, or calmly cast their eyes towards the figure next to Liu Rong;
As for that figure, his face was gloomy at the moment, and his eyes were staring straight into the depths of Tian Jia's eyes, wishing he could rub Tian Jia and stuff him into his mouth and swallow him...

"Ting, Tingwei..."

"Uh no, Dali..."

Before Tian Jia could recover from his shock, he saw Liu Rong waving his hand as usual. Immediately, two guards came forward, each taking one of Tian Jia's arms to the side.

They didn't do anything to Tian Jia, they just carried Tian Jia away from the prison door to prevent him from blocking Liu Rong's way.

Liu Rong turned sideways with a smile on his face, gave Zhao Yu a meaningful look, then put his hands behind his back and walked into the prison door with his head held high.

Regardless of whether the people behind him followed or not, he walked straight to the deepest part of the cell, outside the cell where Han Anguo was imprisoned;
After the official accompanying him hurriedly brought a wooden chair, Liu Rong sat down leisurely and observed Han Anguo in the cell through the wooden bars.

Seeing that Liu Rong was clearly about to have a "private chat" with Han Anguo, the people accompanying him knew what to do and did not approach him, but waited at a distance of about twenty steps away.

Han Anguo in the cell finally recognized the man in front of him. He was about to kneel down and kowtow to the emperor, but Liu Rong's playful teasing made Han Anguo freeze in place.

"It's back to life~"

"What a resurgence."

···
"Liang Neishi, are you all right?"

(End of this chapter)