Ji Yunhuang was currently somewhere Ning Xuemo would have never expected him to be… the Imperial Palace!
He had originally planned to spend the night at Ji Yunxiao’s place playing chess. However at midnight, he received an imperial edict from his Imperial father, the Emperor, summoning him to the palace.
The Imperial decree can not be defied. Hence he had no other choice but to bid goodbye to the Fifth Prince and head for the palace.
What he did not know was that just after he had left for a quarter of an hour, one of his shadow guards had rushed over to the Fifth Prince’s residence, to report the news of an official from the Ministry of Justice coming to arrest someone in the crown prince’s residence. However, the shadow guard had just missed him.
Only when Ji Yunhuang entered the palace did he realize that his Imperial Father had come down with a fever and was currently lying down on the dragon bed. He wanted Ji Yunhuang to stay at his side.
Ji Yunhuang was helpless and could only remain in the palace for the night.
He felt that tonight, his Imperial Father was rather long-winded. He kept asking Ji Yunhuang about his life recently and continued having small talk with him.
He could only listen in and chat perfunctorily. For some reason, he felt anxious and wanted to rush back to his residence to check up on the situation. But, he could not do so because his Imperial Father seemed rather adamant that he accompanied him, prohibiting Ji Yunhuang from leaving…
……
Ning Xuemo had already dragged on for as long as she could, but Ji Yunhuang was still nowhere to be seen. Hence, she could only allow herself to be brought out by Ji Yunyao and be handed over to Lord Lu from the Ministry of Justice…
Naturally, Ning Xuemo inquired about the reason underlying her arrest, but Lord Lu barely said anything and was only concise in his reply. “Once you reach the Ministry of Justice, you will know why. If you are innocent, then of course, we will let you go.”
He ordered people to put iron shackles on Ning Xuemo. She knew that based on her current ability, escaping is not an option as it would be useless and might even worsen her situation. She could only grind her teeth as she left with them.
What Ning Xuemo did not expect was that they did not bring her to the Ministry of Justice’s Court but directly sent her to the Ministry of Justice’s prison.
The pathways were long and narrow. The walls were thick and sturdy, made out of dark black stone. The light from the torches weakly illuminated the dark, and a faint fishy odor permeated the area. Furthermore, from the depths of the prison, miserable shrieks and wails echoed into her ears.
Every single detail proved to be extremely similar to those ancient Chinese prisons; furthermore, the atmosphere felt even more unsettling.
Lord Lu sent men to lock her up in the prison. When she got handed over to a skinny and decrepit man, she understood that these turn of events were definitely not good!
Her new jailer, about as tall as Ning Xuemo, had a tiny head. However, his face was filled with enough wrinkles to squish a fly between their folds, and from his triangular, drooping eyes, came a sharp blade-like gaze.
He wore a dark red tunic riddled with brown colored splotches that eerily resembled bloodstains. He sat in a wheelchair because of his seemingly disabled legs, while another jailer pushed him around.
He looked quite ugly. In addition, he possessed a sinister, dark and bloody aura which surrounding him, making most people shudder in fear.
Ning Xuemo was handed over by six bailiffs of the Ministry of Justice. The leader of the six went up to exchange a few words with that man in a wheelchair.
From their greetings, Ning Xuemo overheard that the man’s name was Tu Yidao, truly a name filled with killing intent[1].
The leader of the bailiffs also said something, that Ning Xuemo could not hear, to Tu Yidao, at which Tu Yidao slightly nodded his head before turning around to examine her.
Ning Xuemo felt an indescribable chill akin to a blade passing by, also similar to the feeling of being stared at by a vicious beast…
‘This is not good!’ Could it be that they were going to punish her without caring about whether or not she was innocent?
Are they going to cane her to death?[2]
Ning Xuemo slowly clenched her hands, causing the iron shackles on her wrists to clank noisily.
When the six bailiffs left, Tu Yidao once again stared at her for a while with a bloodthirsty look in his eyes before ordering people to drag her into the depths of the prison.
[1] Tu Yidao or ‘屠一刀’, literally means butcher knife.
[2] This is a particularly popular corporal punishment which consist of hitting you with stick or cane. The number of hits and what type of stick will be used for punishment depended on the crime. For more details, click here.
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