Chapter 433: Chapter 433 Crying with a Long Face Chapter 433: Chapter 433 Crying with a Long Face The county magistrate was trembling all over, his eyes closed as he shouted for mercy.
“With that pathetic look, you’re supposed to be a county magistrate? Stop your ghostly wailing. We aren’t with that dead dwarf,” the man in black said impatiently, kicking the collapsed county magistrate.
This Dog Official, actually helping the dwarf to harm my master, must be blind or simply too fed up with living.
Hearing this, the wailing county magistrate opened his eyes, saw only several tall men in black standing in front of him, and noticed the grotesquely ugly dwarf was nowhere in sight. Thinking they were not together, he said, “What brings you noble heroes to my humble home? I am but an honest official, poor and incorruptible.”
The county magistrate thought to himself since they weren’t with the dwarf and had appeared at his doorstep in the dead of night; they must be bandits. So, he hung his head and pretended to be poor.
An honest official? Incorruptible? That’s utter nonsense.
The man in black chuckled inwardly upon hearing his words.
A few days ago, the master went to the Yamen carrying a tiger to claim a reward. It was originally just 3,000 taels of silver, but because he had one of his men, carrying an Imperial Forbidden Guards token, give the magistrate a heads-up, the magistrate, eager to curry favor with an official from the Capital and improve his prospects for a faster promotion, outright gave my master 10,000 taels in a silver note.
Now, he dares to call himself an honest official, still incorruptible? Go deceive the ghosts; they’ve seen such acts too often in officialdom. If he were truly honest, given his rank as a seventh rank low-ranking official, his monthly salary would amount to only twenty or thirty taels of silver, barely covering his living expenses, let alone amassing 7,000 taels over a lifetime.
Even a fool could see the cookery involved.
The man in black said, “Master isn’t a bandit, nor here to rob you.”
What a blind fool, mistaking a righteously appointed Imperial official for a bandit? By the tone of the county magistrate, the man in black knew exactly his implication.
The county magistrate secretly breathed a sigh of relief; if they weren’t bandits, that was good news, fearing they might plunder his long-accumulated wealth, with which he hoped to retire luxuriously back to his village.
“What orders do you have then, Master?”
“You better clean out your ears and listen clearly,”
“This humble one is all ears.”
There he was, a county magistrate kneeling on the ground, being lectured by the man in black like a grandson, a stark contrast to his imposing self on the judge’s bench during the day.
A mere seventh rank low-ranking official, the man in black couldn’t care less about him, and spoke harshly, “From now on, you are forbidden to do that dwarf’s bidding, especially regarding capturing people.”
“He is a servant of the Fourth Prince. I dare not disobey.”
“The Fourth Prince counts for nothing,” the man in black said disdainfully.
The master is famously known as the Ghost King, even The Emperor fears him.
Hearing this, the county magistrate was scared out of his wits. These people clearly were influential enough not to regard the Fourth Prince at all. What kind of luck had he stumbled into recently, encountering such significant figures one after the other?
All of a sudden, he wilted again, his face sorrowful as he said, “He threatened to kill my entire family; I dare not disobey him!”
“Rest assured, he will no longer trouble you,”
“Really?”
Upon hearing this, the county magistrate’s eyes gleamed. Despite the dwarf’s hideous and dainty appearance, he was a demon, ruthlessly murderous at the slightest disagreement. The very first time he had met him, he had killed one of his servants, which made him tremble just remembering it.