THE MYSTERIOUS SLANDER

"No, all of you are wrong. The reason why we get starving, all is the government's fault."

The one who spoke just now was a middle-aged man whose face looked shrewd. He soon became the center of attention and the people who were debating stopped their talk, watched him thoroughly.

The man continued, "It has been widespread, this flood is the curse to the current government who has been so cruel towards his people by enslaving them to build The New Palace in Beijing as well as Grand Canal. It provokes the anger of Heaven. And besides flood, famine also occurs, but instead giving us help, the government is even so ruthless, keeps collecting tax from us the poor people. Our miserable condition is because of the government!"

Other people who only remained quiet before, now began to chatter with each other.

"Yesterday, I couldn't afford the tax, but the tax collectors neglected my reason, they insisted that I must afford as instructed! I must owe money to my relative!"

"Ah... the previous emperor is much better. When the outbreak spread over, he directly stopped collecting the tax."

"The current emperor ascends to the throne by overthrowing the previous emperor who is his own nephew! He can have the stomach to be cruel to his own nephew, he must be crueler to the people!"

"Stop that, all of you! This topic is very dangerous! It is prone to make us caught and punished!" One of them said in fear.

The middle-aged man said, "No need to worry. There will be no Emperor's henchman in this small village."

Snorted, his crony chimed in, "That's right! Our courteous leaders won't bother themselves with pitying the fate of small people, because they'd rather to have party with many women in their palaces!"

"It's so pleasurable to become a ruler, I envy them so much! I want to be a ruler, too!" Someone joked, a moment later he folded his chin under his hands. "Huh! It's a bad time to daydream!"

"But why do you want to be a hated ruler? Just like our Fan Wang, who is only busy collecting tax without caring for his afflicted people!"

"Nah, you're right! It's more correct to blame our great Fan Wang! Because it's not the emperor who collects the tax, it is he! It is he who collects the tax arbitrarily just for the enjoyment of him and his family!"

The person who once warned them not to be careless warned once again, he was even more panic than before, "I tell you, stop your nonsense chat! Maybe the Emperor's henchmen here, but the Fan Wang's henchman might be here! And... if we have bad luck, the Fan Wang himself can be walking here and coincidentally hear your curse! And this entire village would be executed just because of you!"

This time the lethargic young woman also said, "Yes, please stop! Or... or my children will be executed just because of your chat!..."

Instead of showing scare, the man laughed even louder. "Such cowards, you are! Hey, I tell you, nothing bad will happen! Our great Fan Wang won't have an idea about his people's affliction because he is busy partying in his majestic palace! Moreover, this is a refugee village, there's nothing beautiful to be seen, he won't come here! And, if he really comes here and hears our chat... that's good! Maybe he can repent and improve his attitude to become a better leader!"

All of this just started from the cries of hungry children, however right now their conversation had far deviated from the starting point. Nobody was paying attention to the little kids who were still crying. They were busy releasing their anger and hatred by cursing the government since they "felt safe".

The boisterous voice of the conversation was able to attract the attention of many villagers who were initially far away from them, of course, it also attracted the attention of Zhu Su, Liu Ku, and Qu You. Moreover, their topic was very sensitive, very offended. Qu You stared closely at Zhu Su in worry, while Liu Ku said cynically, "It seems that the man said it right, they all want to be executed..."

"Your Highness..." Qu You called in a low voice as he was so worried about Zhu Su.

On the other hand, although Zhu Su had been exerting his best to act casually, yet he must admit that he was very angry. Raged flowed through him like lava. How dare they offended him as well as his brother! As if they were no more than the scumbags whose hobbies were only bringing trouble to others. They even claimed that Zhu Yunwen was far better than Zhu Di while they knew nothing about reality!...

Even though Zhu Su could control his facial expression, but he could not do the same with his body gesture. Zhu Su clenched his fist so tightly, and his whole body was trembling as he saw those people did not stop complaining and cursing.

Qu You got Zhu Su's hand, pulled him went away. "Your Highness... that old peasant, as well as his cronies, still observe you," He whispered.

"Oh... well..." Zhu Su realized that he must act as casual as possible. However, it was not an easy job to do. Anger welled up in his chest it made him get headache. He then tried to inhale and exhale to tamp his anger.

"Your Highness... are you alright? Shall we return to the palace?" Qu You asked again.

Zhu Su gave a weak smile. "No problem... I am alright. I just... tense up a little..."

"I understand, Your Highness. Everybody will get his anger aroused if he is slandered like that..."

"But... maybe they are correct, it is all because of me..."

"Your Highness? How can you say so?!? You are not wrong, it is them who..."

"All of you! Come here! Follow me! Come here, quick"

A teenager in his late teens shouted aloud, his loud, full-of-joy voice attracted the attention of everyone who soon came into him. "What's up, Huan?"

"A great Dao Priest has appeared! He says that he is able to take us all out of this disaster!"