Xi Weilan was eating until her mouth and face were slick with grease, looking utterly delighted, while Xi Qingyue and Lu Jinshuang had completely lost their appetites.
Suddenly, Xi Qingyue asked Lu Jinshuang an unrelated question. “Sister Jinshuang, who first suggested that your father refine pills?”
Lu Jinshuang thought for a moment before answering, “I think it was someone working for the Fourth Prince. But that person later died suddenly at home for no apparent reason. No one knows who killed him.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly realized something. She rose to her feet in disbelief and uttered two words: “Human pills?”
“What are human pills?” Xi Weilan asked, looking up at her in confusion with her mouth still full of food.
Xi Qingyue hurriedly interrupted, “Weilan, you misheard her. Sister Jinshuang was saying ‘bastard.’ She was swearing. Don’t learn that from her.”
Xi Weilan said, “Oh,” but secretly committed those two swear words to memory.
Lu Jinshuang’s face had gone pale. The moment Xi Qingyue mentioned pill refining, those two words had inexplicably occurred to her.
Although it was only a guess, she had a strong feeling that it might be true. If it was, then the person in the capital could not escape responsibility. How much evil had he committed?
At that moment, she genuinely wanted to curse. What kind of monsters were her father and brothers?
Xi Qingyue stepped forward and patted her shoulder, gently comforting her. “Don’t think about it too much. None of this has anything to do with you. If it really is as we suspect, we’ll just kill him.”
Lu Jinshuang shook her head. “You’ve heard of a crafty rabbit having three burrows, right? For my eldest imperial brother, saying he has thirty burrows wouldn’t be an exaggeration. He has more than one double. Those doubles wear specially made masks and go out in his likeness. Their build and bearing are similar to his as well, so there’s no way to tell which one is real and which one is fake.”
Xi Qingyue was surprised at first, but then sneered. “Then kill them all. Keep killing until there are no doubles left.”
She refused to believe Prince Kang had hundreds of doubles. Besides, if he had that many, wouldn’t he be afraid of someone impersonating him? He was certainly bold.
Lu Jinshuang thought about it and decided Xi Qingyue was right. They could simply deal with him the same way they had dealt with the Fourth Prince—kill them all. At worst, they would just have to kill him several times.
Once she had made up her mind, she sat down on the sofa and held out a hand toward Xi Qingyue. “I want to eat too. Give me two bowls of rice, and I want some crab soup.”
At the mention of crab soup, Xi Weilan hurriedly spoke up, the piece of braised pork in her mouth not even swallowed yet. “I—I want some too.”
Xi Qingyue smiled, then placed more food and soup on the table. She and Lu Jinshuang sat down and began eating together.
At the county office, the magistrate was still interrogating the assassins.
Xi Qingyue had sent these people to him, so naturally he would question them thoroughly. Moreover, the assassins had hidden in Liucheng for years under the guise of actors, which posed a major threat to him as the county magistrate. He also wanted to find out where they had come from.
Outside the county office, a large crowd of commoners had gathered. They were curious about the assassins’ identities. The theater they visited every few days had actually been a nest of assassins. The thought of it sent chills down their spines.
Some of the parents whose children had disappeared at the theater were especially furious. They waited outside the county office for an explanation, glaring at the assassins being interrogated in the courtroom.
The assassins were still wearing their theatrical costumes, but the makeup and disguises on their faces had been washed away.
The magistrate had all the instruments of torture in the county office brought out. Xi Qingyue’s exact instructions had been: “If they refuse to confess, use every instrument in the county office on them. One of them will crack eventually.”
Xi Qingyue already knew part of the truth. She suspected that someone would eventually be unable to endure the torture and confess. Whether they named the Governor of Xinzhou or Prince Kang, it would be enough. Letting the common people hear it openly would be a good thing. Then, when she killed people, she would have all the more justification to do so.
She intended to bring everything into the open. She would kill openly as well—kill until no one dared provoke her again.
Before all the instruments of torture had even been used, two assassins could no longer endure it and shouted, “I confess!”
The magistrate slammed his wooden block on the desk. “Then tell us the truth! Who ordered you to assassinate the two Commandery Princesses?”
One assassin hurriedly spoke first. “It was the Governor, the Governor of Xinzhou. We all work for the Governor, and it was his men who ordered us to do this.”
The magistrate’s pupils contracted sharply, and he was utterly stunned. Cold sweat broke out all over his body.
If the Governor wanted him dead, it would take only a word. If he dared to kill even a Commandery Princess, murdering a mere county magistrate would be as easy as crushing an ant.
The two assassins took turns describing their deeds over the years. They confessed to everything they had done. One of them even revealed where the missing children had been taken, because he had once accompanied the Hall Master in delivering those children to the Governor’s residence.
The magistrate’s face turned livid. No wonder he had never been able to solve the cases. The Governor’s people had been behind it all. That explained everything. With the Governor involved, bribing people to transport the children out of the city would have been effortless.
He had the two assassins sign their confessions with fingerprints, then looked toward the remaining assassins. “Are you sure you won’t confess?”
No one responded. He let out a cold snort. “If you refuse a toast, you’ll be forced to drink a forfeit.”
Before he could use the instruments of torture again, something unexpected happened.
Outside the county office, a middle-aged woman suddenly rushed in. “Give me back my child!”
One after another, the other parents whose children had disappeared also stormed inside. The moment they entered, they began kicking and punching the assassins, wishing they could beat them to death on the spot.
The magistrate was about to order his men to restrain them when one of the guards Xi Qingyue had sent suddenly spoke up. “My lord, our Commandery Princess said that if the mastermind behind this is exposed, she will personally eliminate the threat on behalf of the people. These assassins may be left to the commoners. There’s no need to wait for an execution later. She will take responsibility for anything that happens.”
As soon as those words were spoken, the commoners, who had previously held back from dealing fatal blows, went completely berserk. They punched the assassins again and again. In no time at all, every assassin in the courtroom had been beaten to death.
The magistrate thought of what had happened to the officials at the Yongfu County Office and secretly congratulated himself on not being a corrupt or lawless official. Otherwise, he would not have escaped death today either.
While the assassins were being beaten, several guards outside the county office observed the crowd, watching for anyone behaving suspiciously. After a long while without finding anything unusual, they finally left with peace of mind.
Inside the courtroom, a middle-aged man who had been beating the assassins pulled back his fist. He waited until all of them were dead before finally breathing a sigh of relief. Looking at the nearest assassin, whose eyes remained open in death, he sneered inwardly.
Now no one would ever know his identity.
The magistrate, Liu Zhu, glanced at the bodies and waved to the bailiffs. “All right. Dispose of the bodies.”
Then he looked at the furious crowd in the courtroom. “As for the evidence in their confessions, this office will report it in accordance with the law. Your children have been missing for so long that they are most likely already dead. But your Commandery Princess will avenge you. Please accept my condolences.”
He sighed helplessly. As a mere county magistrate, he had no authority to lead people to search the Governor’s residence. The two Little King Yamas would have to handle that.
The commoners understood that he was right. Their children were most likely already gone, but for some reason, they believed that Xi Qingyue would avenge them.
The assassins who had just been beaten to death were proof enough.
The commoners dispersed after leaving the county office, while the middle-aged man who had done the beating glanced around and patted his chest.
Then he ran in a certain direction, his steps light. There was not a trace of sorrow on his face; instead, he wore a smug look.
Just as he was about to reach the entrance of a residence, two women appeared from nowhere, their swords pressed against his neck.
Nan Yun sneered. “Where do you think you’re going? Come with us. The Commandery Princess has been waiting for you for quite some time.”
