Chapter 3960 — Someone Turned
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
If the Law Enforcement Hall had once conducted itself with at least some semblance of order, then after Gongyang Jun took office, the men beneath him became utterly unrestrained; they would stop at nothing to achieve their ends. Among the Three Stack Pavilion, this was widely acknowledged as the most tyrannical generation the Law Enforcement Hall had ever seen—and at the same time, the most capable.
Often, even the senior members of the Council of Elders could not dictate terms to Gongyang Jun and his subordinates, and as for outside opinion, they did not deign to consider it at all.
Consider this: when Nan Tianyong, the supervisory deacon of the Soaring Pavilion—one of their own—died, Gongyang Jun dismissed the matter with indifference simply because it did not interest him. Now this case had claimed only a single life, that of Meng Jueming, and so naturally it could never catch Gongyang Jun's eye.
By the current rules of the Law Enforcement Hall, so long as Hall Master Gongyang Jun did not intervene midway, his subordinates held absolute discretionary power over a case and need not care how the outside world or the Pavilion's upper echelons might view it—because Gongyang Jun would shoulder every ounce of pressure on their behalf, leaving them no worries at all.
This was the source of Ma Jian's confidence. Gongyang Jun would certainly have no interest in such a petty case, and under his protection, so long as Ma Jian concocted a plausible excuse, he could do as he pleased without fear. Thus Xu Lingchong's request that he frame Wei Zhao seemed to him a trifling matter, hardly worth a thought.
This had caught Wei Zhao completely off guard, and he found himself utterly unprepared. In a place as authoritarian as the Law Enforcement Hall—and worse, in Ma Jian's hands—this time it was genuinely difficult.
Ma Jian's strength was not especially great; Wei Zhao was confident he could handle him. But if the man dared to raise a hand within the Law Enforcement Hall's own territory, then he was surely a dead man—ten lives would not be enough to save him. Unless… Shangguan Lan'er intervened with force.
Of course, that was a last resort, and Wei Zhao believed Shangguan Lan'er could not simply stand by and do nothing. But it was a desperate measure at best—tantamount to admitting that the mine collapse had been his own doing.
"What do you want?" Wei Zhao asked in a low voice. The only way to respond now was to take things one step at a time.
"What do I want?" Ma Jian burst out laughing, smug and triumphant. "I certainly don't want anything. I am an enforcement officer, and you are the murderer who caused the mine collapse and killed Meng Jueming. I am merely doing my duty—preparing to send you to the executioner's block!"
Ma Jian had expected that after these words Wei Zhao would panic and cower like any ordinary man. Instead, Wei Zhao showed no alarm at all; on the contrary, he arched an eyebrow with perfect composure and said, "Tell me—do you run roughshod like this, covering the sky with one hand, does your Hall Master Gongyang Jun know?"
Whatever methods Gongyang Jun used to rule his subordinates, however much he shielded his own—of one thing there could be no doubt: no superior would ever want a subordinate who acted wantonly.
What they wanted were obedient, capable watchdogs—not self-important curs that ruined everything they touched. That was an iron law.
However monolithic the Law Enforcement Hall might be, it must still have its internal rules. Even if Gongyang Jun himself did not intervene, there was no way such a case could be left entirely to Ma Jian to manipulate at will. Otherwise, the Hall's interior would have rotted away long ago—how could it possibly enjoy its present, sun-at-zenith prestige?