Chapter 71 – He Lost a Treasure
“She is really dead?” Ji Yunhuang finally halted his footsteps and asked the jailers in a commanding tone.
“Yes… Yes, she really committed suicide out of guilt.” The jailers answered like they had discussed yesterday.
“Then where is the body?!”
“It’s… It’s been burnt…”
“Burnt?!” Ji Yunhuang became infuriated, and his killing intent could no longer be restrained. “Who gave you the guts to do so?!”
His anger rose to the heavens, causing the surrounding temperature to drop several degrees. The four jailers trembled even more, as they prostrated themselves. “Answering the Crown Prince, after Ning Xuemo died we immediately reported it to our superiors. They said that the weather was too hot these days; hence, the corpse could not be preserved. Miss Ning is after all Marquis Ning’s only child, and since she already confessed and committed suicide out of guilt, we cremated her body so she would not start to rot here. Her ashes were placed in an urn and sent back to the Marquis’ Mansion…” These lines had also been discussed beforehand.
Ji Yunhuang’s limbs turned cold. Only now did he understand that this was a plot. And this plot, in all likelihood, had been schemed by his Imperial Father.
Emperor Le Xuan had delayed him within the Imperial Palace, and then sent men to arrest Ning Xuemo. He made her suffer being tortured all alone and in helplessness, then forced her to sign a confession for something she did not do before silencing her…
Although he had guessed who was behind this plot, there was something he could not understand. Why would Emperor Le Xuan bother to scheme against a little girl?
She had no power or authority and was only a helpless orphan. How could this kind of person pose the slightest threat to the Imperial power?
No matter how he thought about it, he could not come up with an explanation. His eyes flashed as he thought of Ning Xuemo’s smiling little face…
He felt as if the deepest part of his heart had been stabbed by needles!
The girl who was still smiling at him last night was now dead like that?
She was clearly such an unusual talent! She could have truly shone in Chang Kong Country!
His gaze raked over the four walls filled with torture instruments before resting on the four prostrating jailers. A sharp look emerged from his eyes as he slowly asked, “Where is Tu Yidao? Get him to come see me!”
Those four had already arranged things to suit them as well as discussed what they should say, therefore they told Ji Yunhuang about what supposedly happened to Tu Yidao.
They said that Tu Yidao had left the prison last night and had gotten drunk. After that, he fell into the lake by accident. They had only received the news this morning when someone came over to report it.
Ji Yunhuang felt slightly puzzled. Based on what he knew about Tu Yidao, he usually drank very little, saying that it was because his line of work required steady hands…
That kind of person got drunk?
This suspicion flashed across his mind for a while before he dismissed it.
He did not care about what happened to this type of person.
His gaze landed heavily once again on the four jailers. “Since Tu Yidao is not here, then I’ll ask you guys. How many tortures did you put Ning Xuemo through?”
Naturally, those four people wouldn’t admit it, they kowtowed and denied his words frantically.
How would Ji Yunhuang be unaware of their lies?
His gaze turned ice-cold and so did his voice, “It’s fine if you don’t admit it. Then I’ll just have people come over and let you all have a taste of all the equipment in here!”
Since he did not arrive in time to save her, the least he could do was to take revenge for her!
……
The sunlight outside was enjoyable. Ji Yunhuang stood outside of the Ministry of Justice’s Prison and lifted his head to look at the sun hanging in the sky, lightly sighing.
In the course of a night, everything had changed.
That brilliant young lady had been lost; the world had lost a treasure. He would not be able to see her ever again…