From a son-in-law to a favorite of the empress

Chapter 537

This is a small boat, and it is a passenger ship, so there are only sixteen people in total, including sailors and crew members.

Except for two cooks and two women who handle chores, the other twelve people are young and middle-aged men.

They all stood on the deck, facing Zhuang Xuansu's sword, and their faces were pale.

Especially the boss on the boat, sweating all over his face, trembling and said: "This sir, what happened?"

He didn't know Zhuang Xuansu's identity, but he knew that the other party was a big shot, otherwise he wouldn't have chartered the boat directly.

Zhuang Xuansu said coldly: "Except you, there are fifteen people here, who is new?"

The boss's surname is Liao, he is from the south, with an accent from the Fujian and Guangdong regions, and he speaks haltingly.

"New, new?"

He looked at two of the sailors and said hurriedly, "These two are new. Because the adults urged me to come, I didn't have enough manpower, so I found two people temporarily."

Zhuang Xuansu looked at the two people, slowly raised his sword, and shouted, "If you take the initiative to confess, there may be a way to survive."

Zhou Yuan and the other two looked at each other, and did not interrupt, leaving the matter to Zhuang Xuansu to deal with.

The process was surprisingly smooth. Zhuang Xuansu hardly knocked on the two newcomers.

One of them was only about twenty years old. He clasped his fists and smiled, "Duke Wei is really sharp. He noticed my existence so quickly."

"Yes, I got on the ship for you..."

Zhuang Xuansu directly put the sword on his neck and shouted coldly, "Except these two people, everyone else, go!"

Boss Liao was as if he had been pardoned, and hurriedly shouted for everyone to leave.

The young man was not nervous, he just looked at Zhou Yuan and continued: "Duke Weiguo, don't you want to chat for a while? It's too boring to kill people directly."

Zhou Yuan nodded and said: "Then tell me."

The young man said: "In the cabin, under my bed, there is a box of silver notes."

"There are 300 pieces with a face value of 1,000 taels. This 300,000 taels of silver is a small gift from an old gentleman in Yangzhou."

"If Duke Weiguo is willing to show mercy, there will be another 300,000 taels, which will also be delivered to you."

Zhou Yuan sighed and said: "If I knew it was so easy to make money, I would not be an official."

"It's 600,000 taels at once, and it's a small gift. The people of Yangzhou are really rich. I envy them."

The young man smiled and said: "If Lord Zhou is willing to persuade Lord Zhao, the Imperial Censor of Salt, let alone 600,000 taels, even 1 million taels will not be a problem."

Zhou Yuan's heart was beating. He knew that salt merchants were rich, but he didn't know they were so rich.

Guan Caixi was dumbfounded. She was not ignorant of numbers, so she knew what one million taels meant.

So she shouted, "You are bribing court officials, which is illegal."

Zhou Yuan ignored him and continued, "Then... I must know who gave me the money, otherwise even if I accepted it, I don't know who to show mercy to."

The young man was obviously very courageous, and smiled calmly, "As long as Lord Zhou is willing to accept it and promises not to pursue the responsibility of the host who gave the money, that's enough. We all believe that Lord Zhou is a man of his word."

Zhou Yuan said softly, "If I accepted the money but refused to admit it, what can you do?"

The young man said with a gloomy face, "That means... Lord Zhou is determined to fight to the death. It's not a loss to buy this information for 300,000."

Zhou Yuan nodded, and couldn't help but sighed, "You have even thought about this, you are really well prepared."

The young man smiled and said, "Anyone facing the Duke of Wei must be well prepared, otherwise there is no way to survive."

Zhou Yuan said, "Then are you well prepared?"

The young man frowned "What do you mean?"

Zhou Yuan said softly, "I took the 300,000 yuan. I recently married two wives. Money is tight at home. Thank you."

"As for whether to let the Bai family go... Alas, I found them, how can I let them go?"

The young man glared and said, "You, how can you... You took the money and didn't do anything. Do you really want to fight to the death?"

Zhou Yuan tilted his head and smiled, "Maybe you all misunderstood me, and still treat me as the imperial envoys in the past. First, use money to attack, and if you can't attack, use connections to pressure, and if you can't suppress, assassinate. This set is outdated."

"I just don't do what you want. I just don't play by the rules."

He yawned and said, "It's really cold today. It's so nice to drink some hot porridge. You have to poison me."

The young man was stunned for a moment, and then shouted quickly, "No! No! I didn't poison you! I just want to talk to you!"

"So you didn't notice me at all! It wasn't me who poisoned! It was him!"

He quickly pointed to another person beside him.A newcomer shouted, "I don't know him. Since he's new here, he must have poisoned me. I thought you noticed me and came forward."

Zhou Yuan patted his shoulder and smiled, "No, it was you who poisoned me. Do you understand what I mean?"

The young man was silent, then raised his head and gritted his teeth and said, "So you are also a dog official!"

Zhou Yuan said, "To gain a foothold in this court, how can you not be ruthless? Master Zhuang, kill him and throw him into the river to feed the fish."

Zhuang Xuansu looked at Zhou Yuan with a puzzled look on his face.

Zhou Yuan glared and said, "Are there any questions? I'm serious."

Zhuang Xuansu saw the murderous intent in Zhou Yuan's eyes, and then realized that the other party was not joking, so he stabbed the man's heart with a sword.

Blood gushed out, Guan Caixi screamed in fear, covering her mouth and retreating.

She couldn't believe the scene in front of her. After all, although the atmosphere just now was tense, they were just talking. How could they kill him?

Besides… Besides, it wasn’t this person who poisoned!

“You bastard! We… we’re not afraid of you!”

The young man spat out blood and fell to the ground, only twitching for the last time.

This scene gave Guan Caixi a huge shock. Her face turned pale, and she felt her stomach churning. She couldn’t help but retching continuously.

Zhou Yuan then looked at the other middle-aged man who was sweating profusely.

He narrowed his eyes and said, "I ask you questions and you answer them. If you dare to play tricks, I don't mind killing you."

The middle-aged man flopped and knelt on the deck, trembling: "Duke Wei, spare me!"

Zhou Yuan said, "Did you poison me?"

"Yes! I wanted to jump off the boat and run away, but who knew you were so quick and didn't give me a chance at all."

Zhou Yuan smiled and said, "It's not easy to judge the timing of jumping off the boat, right? Too early will easily alarm us, and too late will make it difficult to escape."

Speaking of this, he raised his head slightly and said, "Are you from the Wu family or the Xu family?"

The middle-aged man was sweating profusely and gritted his teeth and said, "The third branch of the Wu family."

Zhou Yuan took Zhuang Xuansu's sword and handed it to him, smiling slowly, "Poisoning is not without cost. Cut off your right hand and then jump off the boat."

"If you live, you are lucky. If you die, you deserve to die."

The middle-aged man was shaking all over, and finally picked up the sword and suddenly cut off his right hand.

"Ah!"

Guan Caixi screamed, tears streaming down her face.

The middle-aged man looked pale, and said with difficulty: "Thank you, Duke Wei, for sparing my life!"

He stood up, ran to the edge of the boat, and jumped off.

Zhou Yuan looked at the corpse next to him, waved his hand, and said: "Ask the boss to clean it up, and then ask him to prepare some food for us."

Then, he looked at Guan Caixi and smiled: "Caixi, it's time to eat!"

"Wow!"

Guan Caixi burst into tears. She felt that Zhou Yuan was a devil who killed people without blinking an eye and killed people intentionally.