Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 33 - 29: Really a Ruthless Person

Chapter 33: Chapter 29: Really a Ruthless Person

"Snap," Chu Ge smashed the broken porcelain bowl in the corner.

"Could you bring me a lamp? It’s too dark in here," Chu Ge said to the prison guard outside.

The prison guard glanced at Chu Ge, and although he looked at him as if he were already a dead man, giving him a lamp was merely a trifling matter.

So, the prison guard casually took a lamp from nearby and walked over.

But he didn’t understand what Yang Yan wanted with the lamp. The prison was dark and damp, with no books to read.

Then, he witnessed a scene that shocked him deeply.

He saw Yang Yan exert all his strength to move his legs and, by the dim light of the lamp, locate several pus-filled and swollen wounds on his legs.

Next, he took the sharp edge of the porcelain bowl shard and stabbed into the suppurating wounds!

With forceful squeezing, pus and blood flowed out, emitting bouts of foul odor.

But in the dim dungeon, this bit of smell hardly counted for anything. It was hard to imagine, however, what kind of pain Yang Yan was enduring.

Finally, he finished squeezing out the pus and blood from one wound.

Chu Ge then turned to another wound, once again piercing it with the sharp shard of porcelain bowl, and once again squeezed out pus and blood.

For him, he had already performed such procedures several times before and had barely become accustomed to it.

Strengthened by an iron will, his sensitivity and tolerance to pain had greatly increased. Moreover, at this point, he had lost most of the sensation in his legs, so the pain wasn’t particularly severe.

The key was the visual impact, which was too strong.

To personally use a broken porcelain bowl to pierce and squeeze pus from boils on his own legs, repeating the process, was simply more intense than the visuals of a horror thriller game. Anyone without a bit of mental fortitude really couldn’t handle it!

And besides, this was just the beginning. There would be even more unbearable scenes to come.

Chu Ge did not stop because he knew his time was limited.

The game had allotted him only so much time. He must puncture all the boils and drain the pus within this timeframe to survive.

Otherwise, an infected wound could easily be fatal.

The lamplight flickered slightly; clearly, the prison guard holding it had also seen this scene, was horrified, and his hands shook slightly.

Yet Chu Ge was not too affected by it, and only after almost all the pus and blood had been squeezed out did he collapse weakly onto the straw bedding.

"Thank you."

The prison guard took the lamp and left, but the look he gave was now filled with a bit more respect.

Tough guy!

As a prison guard, he had seen all sorts of people in the Great Prison, but he had never seen someone as tough as this. Moreover, this tough guy wasn’t a river pirate, nor a highwayman, nor a valiant military officer, but a civil official.

Chu Ge felt his consciousness blurring, but since there was no failure message, that meant he had safely made it through the first stage.

...

The light flickered, and footsteps could be heard outside the cell.

Chu Ge knew that the second stage of the instance had begun.

However, this time the prison guards didn’t enter the cell to forcefully take him to the torture chamber; instead, they silently retreated.

The person who arrived remained hidden in the shadows and did not make a grand entrance like He Xueyi and Shi.

After the prison guards left, the whole torture chamber seemed gloomy and deserted.

A man with grizzled hair and a sinister look emerged from the shadows.

He wasn’t dressed in his official uniform, appearing very low-key, but Chu Ge knew clearly that this was the most powerful minister of the Great Wei dynasty, Wang Chong, who ranked below one yet above ten thousand!

Wang Chong scrutinized the barely human-looking Yang Yan and his voice revealed a hint of surprise, "Seeing me, you don’t seem surprised?"

Chu Ge remained impassive, "Mr. Wang, you and I are irreconcilable enemies. Since you have already made up your mind to doom me to death, why bother with this superfluity."

Although he appeared nonchalant at this moment, Chu Ge had, in fact, been shocked the first time he saw Wang Chong.

He had never expected that Wang Chong would actually come to the prison to see him!

This meeting was not recorded in the official history, so when Chu Ge first saw Wang Chong, he was completely unprepared. Wang Chong rendered him speechless, and naturally, the instance failed.

Fortunately, this time he was fully prepared.

Wang Chong took a seat at the table brought in by the prison guard, surprisingly pulled out a small wine flask and two small cups, filled them without a word, and placed one of the cups on Chu Ge’s side of the bars.

"Ting Ji, although you hate me to the bone and feel we can’t share the same sky, in my heart, people like He Xueyi are not worth mentioning. Only you can be considered my confidant.

"Looking across the entire Great Wei dynasty, those who truly deserve to be called ’heroes’...

"Are only the two of us."

Chu Ge couldn’t help but sneer, "Mr. Wang, you jest. How can great evil be likened to great good? After I die and meet the Saint, if he hears of Mr. Wang’s words, I fear he might just come back to life from sheer anger."

Wang Chong was completely unfazed, drinking from his cup, and then said, "It’s alright. You are incorruptible while I am greedy, you are virtuous while I am evil. You’ve taken all the reputation for integrity, and all the infamy has fallen upon me."

The top minister of the Great Wei casually drank alone. Seeing that Yang Yan had no intention of even touching the cup, he did not insist, but simply continued talking.

"Ting Ji, I may have a few more years on you, and I started my government service a few years ahead of you. But I must say, in the entire Great Wei dynasty, you are the only one I truly respect.

"You may think I came today to interrogate you like He Xueyi did, to argue you down?

"Not at all.

"Since His Majesty has not yet decreed your execution, it means the battle between us is still undecided. You are determined to attack until death, already preparing your own coffin. If I thought mere words, threats, or temptations could change your mind, that would be foolish.

"So, I am here today not for anything else, but to share a few heart-to-heart words with you, my hero-like confidant, words not meant for outsiders to hear."

Chu Ge fell silent for a moment, "Good, it happens I have a few questions to ’seek guidance’ from Mr. Wang."

In fact, the first time Chu Ge entered the second stage of this instance, he had indeed been shocked by Wang Chong’s attitude.

Because, in his impression, the historical Wang Chong was the image of a greatly treacherous and evil minister, forming cliques for personal gain, engaging in corruption and bribery, and using extremely ruthless political tactics to suppress his opponents, turning more than half of the court officials into the "Wang Faction."

Such a fierce person would actually take the initiative to come to prison and, feigning sincerity, offer a cup of wine to the condemned Yang Yan to chat about life?

This indeed made Chu Ge feel at a loss.

But after several failed attempts, Chu Ge had completely figured out Wang Chong’s mindset and naturally became much more adept in handling him.

Wang Chong continued, "Ting Ji, I’ve read the memorial you submitted. It’s truly a document as sharp as swords and knives, truly a heart-piercing indictment.

"I dare not comment on what you wrote about His Majesty, but your evaluation of me certainly made my heart tremble.

"Especially regarding last year’s heavy snow, where many of the so-called officials from the ’Wang Faction’ replaced the famine relief grain with bran and fodder for livestock, those few sentences truly bled with every word and were profoundly moving."

Wang Chong paused for a moment, and Chu Ge, as expected, picked up the thread, "What, could it be that Mr. Wang also feels ashamed for the starving people?"

Wang Chong shook his head, "No, I am actually quite gratified!

"Ting Ji, have you ever thought about it? One pound of food grain can be exchanged for three pounds of bran! That means, the grain that could originally save one person can now save three!

"Do you know what ’Goddess Earth’ is? Have you ever seen the sight of every tree bark in miles of plain stripped bare?

"Do you understand what those simple words in the history books, ’in great disasters, people ate one another,’ truly depict?

"Are you aware that the disaster relief funds dispatched by the court are always insufficient? If we don’t find some flexible solutions, in the disaster area you wouldn’t see any survivors, just endless white bones!

"You’ve read your sage books for a few years, clinging to the rigid doctrines within, but do you truly believe your sage books can save the lives of those starving people?"