"You should know that the reason I can treat you so ruthlessly is because I never intended for you to walk out of here unscathed. Sign it now and suffer less."
The Crown Prince had already instructed the Minister of the Court of Judicial Affairs to show no mercy, as Shen Muzhou would never see the outside world again.
Shen Muzhou stared at him with a pair of sharp eyes and said, "You wish!"
The Minister of the Court of Judicial Affairs let out a sinister laugh, paced back and forth twice, and said unhurriedly, "Ninth Prince, do you know the most common words I hear during interrogations at the Court of Judicial Affairs? They are all denials of guilt."
"I usually tell them, 'Very well, let's see if your bones are harder or your words are harder.'"
"Guess what? Out of the one hundred and seven tortures in the Court of Judicial Affairs, everyone cracks by the third. That proves people's bones are quite soft."
As if he hadn't heard, Shen Muzhou gently closed his peach blossom eyes. The corners of his lips, usually tense, curled into a faint, mocking smile.
The Minister of the Court of Judicial Affairs said fiercely, "Very good, then I'll let you experience something more severe."
The jailer dragged Shen Muzhou to a large water vat and pressed his head into the water with all his might.
The Minister of the Court of Judicial Affairs placed a clepsydra on the table. The bottom of the clepsydra was sharp, and water dripped out, drop by drop, into a small wine cup placed beneath it.
"This clepsydra fills one wine cup in sixty drips. The longest one lasted for the time it takes to fill two cups, though not quite two and a half, because the person died in the end."
He let out a sinister laugh, which echoed throughout the cell.
Shen Muzhou's entire body was submerged in the water. He struggled, but his body was weak. Before being imprisoned in the Court of Judicial Affairs, the Crown Prince's personal guards had fed him a muscle-relaxing powder.
The feeling of suffocation instantly consumed him. His heart pounded furiously to an extreme, followed by tinnitus. His eyes widened, and his vision began to blur. The brief lack of oxygen caused him to hallucinate.
He seemed to see Zhaozhao, the woman he had always protected in his dreams.
She suddenly stopped and turned to look at him. At that very moment, he was pulled out of the water. Breath rushed into his chest, and he returned to reality.
"Three wine cups... again!"
This was repeated several times. The suffocating pressure made it impossible for him to distinguish between illusion and reality.
Next, Shen Muzhou was dragged to a torture device made of two giant wooden gears. He was bound upside down to the device.
The jailer turned a wooden wrench, causing the gears to interlock in opposite directions, stretching Shen Muzhou's limbs apart by an inch with each turn.
His body was contorted into a cruelly twisted shape. His joints made 'crackling' sounds, and he had already dislocated them slightly.
"Mmm..." He gritted his teeth, enduring the intense pain, and only let out a muffled groan.
His lips were bitten by his teeth until they bled, appearing unusually red. A cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Only his eyes stared intently at the person in front of him, filled with immense hatred.
One more turn of the gears would sever his limbs from his body, tearing flesh from bone. The Minister of the Court of Judicial Affairs seemed to be waiting for this moment, a hint of excitement in his eyes.
"Minister, bad news!" a jailer rushed in from outside.
His expression was flustered, his face covered in a layer of grime. "Sir, hurry and see, the eastern cells are on fire, and the prisoners inside have escaped in the chaos!"
The Minister's face froze. "What? It's on fire? How many prisoners escaped?"
The jailer, panicked, dared not look at him but still reported truthfully, "All of them."
The Minister's eyelids rolled back as if he were about to faint. He rushed out in a panic, "Then hurry and catch them! Do you want to be beheaded?"
The jailer who was turning the gears asked, "Sir, what about the Ninth Prince?"
"What else can we do? Keep him confined and watch him! If he escapes..."
The Minister paused, then gave a sinister smile. "The Ninth Prince wouldn't be so foolish, would he? If he escapes in the chaos, it would be an implicit confession, which would be a great help to me."
"Oh dear, hurry, hurry, hurry, go put out the fire and catch the people!"
The jailer heard the order, released the wrench, and the gears spun several turns. Shen Muzhou fell from the device, motionless on the ground, as if dead.
"Stop pretending to be dead," the jailer kicked him.
Seeing no reaction, he resignedly picked him up and dragged him back to the cell.
---
When Lin Yanxi arrived at the Court of Judicial Affairs under the cover of night, she was stopped by Xiao Liu and the people from the Dark Night Guard.
In a dark alley, Xiao Liu recounted the events in the court. "The Crown Prince insists that the Prince, after stealing the Jade Talisman from the East Palace, disappeared without a trace, secretly finding someone to send the Jade Talisman out of the capital."
"But actually, that day..."
Lin Yanxi leaned in as he hesitated to speak. Xiao Liu whispered, "That day, the Prince secretly entered Miss's room and only came out at dawn."
Her face instantly flushed. She glanced at the Dark Night Guard kneeling on the ground, relieved they hadn't heard anything.
"Miss, please rest assured, the Prince swore not to reveal his whereabouts that day. He also feared implicating Miss."
Lin Yanxi then asked, "Then what was Shen Muzhou's true purpose for going to the East Palace?"
Xiao Liu shook his head. He truly didn't know. Normally, the Prince would tell him everything, but not this time.
"Although I don't know the Prince's purpose for this trip, I believe the Prince would never steal the Jade Talisman. I and the Dark Night Guard will do our utmost to save the Prince."
The members of the Dark Night Guard responded in unison, "We are willing to die!"
"Miss, you must believe the Prince."
Lin Yanxi quickly stopped them, "Hush! Do you want others to discover you?"
What were they shouting slogans for? They had hidden in the alley precisely to avoid being discovered.
Seeing their resolute expressions, she pulled at the corner of her mouth. Of course, she believed him, because all of this was her father's plan.
"Wait, wait, wait. Xiao Liu, I believe the Prince, but listen to me. The Dark Night Guard cannot break him out of prison."
Lin Yanxi thought about the previous life. Shen Muzhou had endured many days of torture before being rescued. Now, Xiao Liu was going to rescue him? With their strength, if they could rescue him, wouldn't they have done so in the previous life, saving him from so much suffering?
Furthermore, if Shen Muzhou escaped now, he would be heading down the path of treason and slaughter he had taken in his past life.
"Why?" Xiao Liu asked insistently.
Lin Yanxi countered, "Xiao Liu, you just asked if I believed the Prince. Then I'll ask you, do you believe me?"
Xiao Liu pondered for a moment, then knelt on the ground, clasped his hands, and said, "When Miss Lin the Second saved the Prince with the Golden Wound Pomegranate Flower Ointment, she was the savior of our entire Prince's mansion. We believe in Miss."
The members of the Dark Night Guard knelt on the ground, all clasping their hands, "We believe in Miss!"
Lin Yanxi let out a 'hiss.' "Can't you be a bit quieter?"
She sighed and took out a few tinderboxes from her懷. "I have a plan. If you believe me, do as I say first."
These tinderboxes were different from ordinary ones. When thrown on the ground, they would instantly ignite a large fire. Xiao Liu would take the opportunity to grab the keys to the eastern cells and release the prisoners, creating chaos.
In the Grand Tutor's mansion, when her father was discussing matters with the Minister of the Court of Judicial Affairs, he had mentioned that the eastern cells held court officials and noble family members who had committed serious crimes. Due to their family connections, they couldn't be executed, so they were imprisoned to live out their remaining days.
If these people were given a chance to escape, they would undoubtedly use all their power. Lin Yanxi would give them that chance.
If one prisoner went missing, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Affairs would have to forget about his position, let alone an entire cell full of prisoners escaping.
Lin Yanxi seized the chaos and slipped into the dungeon of the Court of Judicial Affairs.
The dungeon was cold and damp, but since the jailers had gone to put out the fire and capture prisoners, only two jailers remained on duty.
Seeing Lin Yanxi, they were about to reach for their weapons and shout, "Pris-pris-prisoner escape."
Lin Yanxi wore the Soul Ring on her hand, her eyes instantly turned light purple, she formed a hand seal, and focused her energy.
"Sleep!"
The next second, the two men collapsed like a pile of mud.
As her eyes returned to normal, her spiritual energy dissipated.
Fortunately, she had learned a couple of moves from an ancient book, and they were quite effective. She had always said she was an extremely talented Talisman Master. She would definitely show Shen Muzhou her newly learned talisman techniques later.
The entire dungeon was devoid of any prisoners. Each small room was equipped with various torture devices, which were chilling to behold.
After turning through countless winding corridors, she saw an old man with a white beard locked in one of the cages.
Upon seeing Lin Yanxi, he became unusually excited. "Descendant of a Talisman Master? Wonderful!"
"Hmm? No, no, you're not quite a Talisman Master yet, but you're a good seedling."
Lin Yanxi eyed him vigilantly and asked, "Who are you? How do you know I know talisman arts?"
She was certain there were no clairvoyants in the world. In this prison cell, he couldn't have seen her cast the talisman just now, unless he could sense the talisman arts on her.
However, Lin Yanxi wore the Soul Ring. Since this Soul Ring did not belong to her own bloodline awakening, it was generally not sensed.
Unless she had used a very powerful force from the Soul Ring, affecting her bloodline, but clearly, at most, she had only used small techniques like immobilization talismans or sleep talismans.
Alternatively, it could be like her mother, who, although her bloodline had not awakened, had an exceptional understanding of talisman arts and shared a blood connection with Lin Yanxi.
This old man was clearly not from their Jiang family.
The old man stroked his white beard proudly and scoffed, "Tsk, there's nothing in this world I don't know."
"For instance, I also know where the person you're looking for is."
Lin Yanxi followed his pointing finger and indeed saw a figure covered in thick bloodstains in the innermost cell behind them.
"Hey, hey, hey, little Talisman Master, let me out."
Shen Muzhou lay on the ground of the cell, weakly curled up in a fetal position. His face was extremely pale, exuding a deathly aura. His body trembled uncontrollably, enveloped in a sense of brokenness.
Lin Yanxi suddenly felt that he wasn't that tall and strong. Yet, in the past, he always stood tall and straight beside her, a full shoulder taller than her. Among the princes, he was the tallest. She always felt he had no weaknesses; he was unstoppable.
But now, his handsome appearance had been ravaged by those people, leaving him covered in wounds. His skin was not intact anywhere, only deep bloodstains. Especially at the joints of his limbs, which were slightly dislocated from the tearing.
It was very cold...
Apart from the bone-deep pain, what was more unbearable for him was the chill that pervaded his entire body. Waves of coldness, as if originating from the depths of his heart, drilled into every joint.
For some reason, Lin Yanxi felt her heart being torn apart, a pain so intense it was almost suffocating.
Even though she knew he would face such a hardship, seeing this tragic scene with her own eyes still wrung her heart.
She couldn't help but repeatedly ask herself, could she save him? Could she truly save him?
But in this life, she hadn't even been able to protect her own mother.
With a myriad of thoughts intertwining, she slowly extended her hand, wanting to touch his cold, pale profile.
Just as her finger was about to reach his cheek, he mumbled incoherently in a daze.
"So cold, Zhaozhao."
"Zhaozhao..."