Chapter 19 Imprisoned (2)
She didn’t think that he would personally come!! Lintian’s Crown Prince, Second Prince Zongzheng Xiaoren, rumors had it that he was able to obtain the position of crown prince because his mother exchanged for it with her life when he was young. Although this person seemed bright and kind on the surface, hidden in the depths of those foxy eyes laid a cruel and poisonous glint.
Yu daren hurried bowed, ordering someone to bring a chair for him to sit. Zongzheng Xiaoren propped up a leg as he glanced at the wet Man Yao on the ground, slowly speaking, “Yu daren, what are you still waiting for?”
Yu daren immediately shot a glance at the jailer standing next to him who understood and took a red-hot charcoal out from the firepit, walking towards Man Yao. Yu daren: “Li Yue gongzi, you should just admit it, otherwise, the feeling of this charcoal on your skin will not be very pleasant.”
Shocked, Ling’er tried to fight against the guard, “What are you guys doing? No one is allowed to harm my zhuzi!”
Zongzheng Xiaoren furrowed his eyebrows as his voice dropped, “Who is that? Daring to even cause a ruckus in front of this crown prince! Slap.”
Man Yao was startled and didn’t have enough strength to stop it. The two guards standing next to Zongzheng Xiaoren strode forward, each of them grabbing one of her shoulders, using so much force that it seemed like her arms were going to be ripped off. Ling’er wanted to fight but she found out that she couldn’t move at all, as if those two guards knew she was trained in martial arts and was purposefully suppressing her.
“Pa, pa, pa…” Consecutive strikes fell on her face as the sounds crisply rang out in Man Yao’s ears. It was like an iron bell was rocking in her heart. Ling’er and Xiao Yu were the two closest people to her in this world. She raised her head to look at Ling’er’s extremely swollen and bruised face as fresh blood ran down. Her pupils shrank as her heart was in pain.
The zhuzi in Ling’er’s heart was always someone who was calm and unruffled. Now that she saw Man Yao’s eyes held self-blame but was suppressing it, Ling’er brought up the corners of her lips, “Zhuzi, I’m…alright.”
Her delicate cheeks were so swollen she looked like a meat bun, how could she be fine! Man Yao bit her lip as she furiously glared at Zongzheng Xiaoren. Forcing herself to stand up, she coldly spoke, “If no one provokes me, I will not provoke them. Crown Prince, you will regretting hurting my people!”
Zongzheng Xiaoren gave a cold snort, “Regret? Ridiculous! This crown prince is warning you, don’t use that sort of gaze towards me. I’ve seen plenty of gazes are are more murderous than yours, but I’m still living well. So…give up your hate or else you’ll die even more quckly.”
Man Yao coldly laughed, “That’s true. With Crown Prince being so evil and poisonous, who knows how many innocent lives you’ve harmed. Someone like you whose hands are stained with the blood of people, be careful of their ghosts…knocking on your doors at night!”
Zongzheng Xiaoren: “Even when death is right in front of you, you still dare to be so sharp-tongued…the feelings between a master and a servant is quite deep, isn’t it? Someone come, continue hitting her mouth!”
Man Yao was furious as she yelled, “Stop! Crown Prince, it’s no use trying to go against me right now. Prince Li already knows that the person who bought the a.s.sa.s.sins was you.”
Zongzheng Wuyou cast a sidelong glance at her as he casually said, “Without evidence, how would he know?”
He actually didn’t care at all that Zongzheng Wuyou would find out about this? It seems like they both knew long ago who the other party was. Evidence? Man Yao’s gaze suddenly changed, “Who said there’s no evidence? Since you couldn’t get anyone from Wu Yin Lou, you had to ask for help from the a.s.sa.s.sins of Wu Xiao Men…”
Zongzheng Xiaoren’s face changed as he haltingly asked, “How did you know?” He repeatedly instructed the people from Wu Xiao Men to not expose their ident.i.ty, and furthermore, this person in front of him also knew that he wasn’t able to get any a.s.sa.s.sins from Wu Yin Low.
Man Yao’s face was mocking, “Why does Crown Prince think Prince Li stayed in my tea garden that night to play chess with me?”
Zongzheng Xiaoren’s suspicious gaze was probing as he asked a question instead, “What you’re trying to say is, he intentionally set up a trap to wait for me to send a.s.sa.s.sins to kill him so that he could use the opportunity to look for evidence?”
Man Yao gave a meaningful smile without answering him. One look at this Crown Prince would show that he is a narrow-minded person full of paranoia. If she spoke too much, he might see through her words, so it was better to give him some s.p.a.ce for him to extrapolate. As long as she could stall for more time.
Zongzheng Xiaoren furrowed his eyebrows as he paced around the interrogation room, contemplating: Why did fuhuang know about Old Seventh encountering a.s.sa.s.sins so early in the morning? All these years, Old Seventh never willingly entered the palace. And fuhuang never really completely trusted him (Crown Prince) so why did he a.s.sign Yu daren who is part of his (Crown Prince) faction the responsibility of investigating this case, unless he was trying to test him? If Old Seventh really had evidence in his hands, then why was fuhuang trying to test him (Crown Prince)?
He suddenly halted his steps, his mind full of suspicions as he looked back at Man Yao and spoke in a cold voice, “Old Seventh treats others coldly, how could he tell you all of this? Don’t try telling me that you were blindly guessing!”
Man Yao jerked, not thinking that he would fall out of his stupor so quickly, “Prince Li has spent every day for the last half month coming to my tea garden to taste tea with me. We have known each other for so long, and we are also fellow chess players, so naturally we treat each other as confidants. As such, unintentionally revealing some matters is not an unusual thing.”
Zongzheng Xiaoren wrinkeld his eyebrows, half-believing and half-suspicious, as he walked over to her and knelt down. With one hand on her pulse, and after a moment his eyes flashed as he grabbed her head, his eyes full of cruelty, “Daring to lie to this Crown Prince, you gained the courage of a leopard! Knowledge? Hmph! You think that it’s so easy to be Old Seventh’s confidant? If he treated you as a confidant, wouldn’t he have given you the antidote for the ‘loose incense’ poison? You were poisoned but he didn’t care at all, which clearly means that he was guarded against you. How could such a person treat you as a confidant?”
Man Yao fell into a daze, as expected, she really was was poisoned! She once heard Xiao Yu mention that those who are poisoned by this incense won’t be able to smell the scent of incense, but will lose all of their inner force within twenty four hours. In addition, the bodies of those who are poisoned will emit a faint fragrance which, when the people around them smell this too, will cause their minds to be muddled and they will also lose their inner force as well. No wonder Zongzheng Wuyou often fell into a daze when he was looking at her when they played chess, only coming back to his senses after she called him many times. Afterwards, his face changed and his gaze towards her looked complicated. Later, he lured the a.s.sa.s.sins to corner her, it seems like so that he could test whether they were working together! But how did she get poisoned with this ‘loose incense’ poison? The more she thought, the heavier her head felt as she almost lost consciousness, only for Zongzheng Xiaoren to pull back her head. Feeling as if her head was about to be split apart, she became more clear-minded.
Forced to raise her head and look at the man in front of her, she gasped as she spoke, “Regardless, may Crown Prince think carefully about this whole entire incident. There are too many coincidences, so it is definitely not that simple. I’m just a bystander, so even if you kill me, it won’t solve anything.”
Zongzheng Xiaoren’s mind was churning and his eyes were unreadable, “But since you dared to lie to this crown prince, you must be punished! Oh…that’s right, I heard that Li Yue gongzi‘s quite handsome, not losing out to Old Seventh. I really want to see as well.”
Using his hand, he brushed away the wetness on her face, revealing a peerlessly beautiful face in front of him, clear and elegant! He was even more ten thousand times more beautiful than any of his concubines and wives. Zongzheng Xiaoren fell into stupor as he looked at her.
“Crown Prince, Crown Prince!” Yu daren saw that his gaze was even more heated than when he was looking at his (Yu daren) own daughter, and Yu daren‘s face turned ugly.
Zongzheng Xiaoren came back to his senses, “The rumors are true! Look at this face, so beautiful that even the G.o.ds would be jealous, it’s just a shame…that it was born onto a male.” He lightly shook his head as he sighed solemnly, lowering his eyes to observe her slim body, thin shoulders, slender waist…no matter how he looked at it, it looked like a woman’s body. But that Adam’s apple was so real that he couldn’t help but reach out a hand to try to touch it before a cough sounded out behind him from Yu daren. He suddenly stopped his movements and waved his hand towards the person behind him, “You guys leave first! I will personally resolve this matter.”
Yu daren was unhappy but could only obey.
“I won’t leave, zhuzi, zhuzi—” Ling’er frantically resisted only to be hit unconscious and carried out.
Man Yao saw that Zongzheng Xiaoren’s gaze became sinister and her heart jumped. She formed her hands into fists but she had no strength at all, “Crown Prince, what do you want to do? I…am a man!”
Zongzheng Xiaoren slowly came closer to her, his hot breaths landing on her already read and burning face, as he gave a low laugh, “So what if you’re a man? This crown prince will…make an exception for you today.”
Man Yao’s heart became frightened as she suddenly felt helpless. The current her had no way to put up a fight, and she could only force herself to keep calm as she spoke coldly, “Zongzheng Xiaoren, if you dare to force yourself upon me today, in the future, I will definitely make you pay a thousand times, a hundred times over!”
Zongzheng Xiaoren gave a slight start. The person in front of him had quite a strong aura, but he also wasn’t one to be frightened so easily! Using a hand to caress her face, his foxy eyes carried a faint smile, “Look at you, your words don’t match your actions. I haven’t even started and your body is already burning!” As he spoke, one of his hands went to rip apart her robes and the other held her chin as he lowered his lips. However, the feeling on his lips wasn’t a soft and silky feeling but rather a hard and ice-cold feeling, causing his body to stiffen.