Chapter 5: That fellow named Chu Xingchen had his eyes tightly shut. His figure was tall and slender, his face handsome and elegant.
Eunuch Shen sat calmly on the carved wooden chair, sipping the freshly brewed tea a guard had brought him. Holding the teacup lid with a delicate flourish, he smiled insincerely and asked, “Chu Xingchen, if you sign this confession now and admit your guilt, you’ll spare yourself further suffering. That way, I can report back to His Majesty sooner!”
Upon hearing this, Chu Xingchen, who hadn’t slept for a full day and night and had endured countless floggings, felt his mind grow hazy. Having previously jumped into the lake to save that woman Su Yingxue, his clothes had been soaked, leaving him chilled. Now, after being captured and tortured for so long without any justification, he felt dizzy, disoriented, and utterly miserable.
“Pah! A true man of Great Qi keeps his word and never lies!” Chu Xingchen’s voice was hoarse and weak. He spat a mouthful of bloody foam onto the ground—a result of the guards punching and kicking him in the face. Two of his teeth had been knocked out, and his mouth was filled with blood. The discomfort was unbearable.
“Hahaha! So our Hostage Prince from Da Qi still thinks he’s a prince?” Eunuch Shen laughed loudly and unrestrainedly upon hearing this. “With Da Qi and the Da Sheng Kingdom at odds these years, does the old emperor of Da Qi even remember you? Has he ever considered your safety or survival?”
Eunuch Shen stood up, still holding his teacup, and said to him, “Did you know? Although the old emperor is aged, he remains hale and hearty. Besides your two elder brothers vying for the throne, your old father has added ten more princes and five princesses to the Great Qi Dynasty.”
“Rumor has it that the favored Consort Xi and Consort Rong are pregnant again. Soon, there will likely be more good news.”
As Eunuch Shen walked to his side, he handed the teacup to a guard and picked up the leather whip with his other hand. Sighing, he said, “Third Prince, do you realize? Pitiful you, living a life worse than that of a servant in Da Qi for so many years—has your father or brothers ever spared a thought for you?”
“Have they ever remembered how you entered Qi State as a hostage for Da Qi’s safety? While they’ve lived in luxury and comfort all these years, have they ever sent so much as a word of consolation?”
Eunuch Shen spoke with a sinister, insincere smile, his voice raspy and eerie. At that moment, he seemed like a demon from hell beguiling the human heart, pressing the whip against Chu Xingchen’s body.
Eunuch Shen sneered coldly at him. “Your Highness, after all, you are the Hostage Prince of Qi State. If you admit your mistake, show submission, and sign the confession, given the current alliance between our two nations, we won’t actually kill you. At most, you’ll lose a finger as punishment.”
“The only misfortune is that Third Prince Qi offended the Eldest Princess. As everyone knows, how dearly His Majesty cherishes her. With the evidence and witnesses present, you must provide an explanation—there’s no escaping it. The only choice is whether to endure prolonged suffering before losing the finger or to end the pain quickly by losing it now. It’s up to you, Third Prince Qi.”
Eunuch Shen laughed as he channeled his inner force, unleashing a series of whip strikes. The whip, soaked in chili oil and a special secret medicine, lashed fiercely against his bare upper body.
On Chu Xingchen’s fair skin, gaping, bloody wounds were visibly torn open. Gritting his teeth in pain, Chu Xingchen let out a stifled groan. “In your dreams!”
“Since I haven’t done it, then I haven’t!” Chu Xingchen’s eyes burned crimson with icy fury as he spoke coldly.
“Guards! Since the Third Prince refuses to cooperate, we shall help him make his mark personally,” Eunuch Shen sneered, looking at the bound and immobilized Chu Xingchen. “Cut off one of his fingers—we’ll use that finger to stamp the confession and present it to His Majesty tomorrow!”
“Yes, sir.” The lead guards exchanged glances upon hearing this. Two guards pinned down Chu Xingchen’s hands firmly, ignoring his struggles.
Another guard retrieved a sharp dagger from the torture rack, heated it until glowing red in the brazier, and approached with the steaming blade, intending to sever a finger while hot. The bloody fingerprint would serve as the confession, and the severed finger along with the statement would be delivered to His Majesty the next day.
Seeing this, Chu Xingchen’s eyes turned bloodshot and frigid, his face pale with rage. He struggled wildly but couldn’t break free from the two men restraining him or the iron chains binding him. Like a beast trapped in a snare, he thrashed desperately but to no avail, his eyes blazing with naked hatred.
Chu Xingchen could only roar helplessly, “If you wrongfully take my finger today, mark my words—if you ever fall into my hands in the future, I will tear you limb from limb! I’ll make sure you die without a complete corpse!”
Hearing this, Eunuch Shen wasn’t angered but instead laughed mockingly. “Oh ho ho, listen to this! The little wolf cub is so furious he’s trying to scare people. I’ve heard threats like yours many times before.”
“I’ve heard far worse than this,” Eunuch Shen chuckled, patting Chu Xingchen’s right cheek with a bloodstained hand. “Pity, though. Care to guess how the last person who cursed me died?”
With a sinister smile, Eunuch Shen told him, “I cut out his tongue and fed it to the dogs in the backyard. Then I had one of his arms and a leg broken. From then on, he could remember me for the rest of his life—hahaha! Proceed with the punishment!”
“Acknowledged.” The guard approached Chu Xingchen’s left hand with the dagger, raising it to chop off his little finger.
Unable to bear watching the blade descend, Chu Xingchen shut his eyes tightly, resigned to the impending agony.
“Halt! This Palace commands you to stop! Who dares lay a hand on him?” Zhang Susu arrived at the interrogation room just in the nick of time.
The damned Inner Service Directorate dungeons were vast, sprawling like a labyrinth underground. After running frantically through the corridors, she finally reached the interrogation chamber and saw several guards binding Chu Xingchen tightly to a wooden frame with chains, while one guard advanced with a dagger.
In that split second, the guard could no longer retract his blade—it had already grazed Chu Xingchen’s finger, though not yet with full force.
Suddenly, an iron token flew through the air and struck the guard’s wrist. His hand went numb instantly, and he dropped the dagger, halting the motion.
It was the guard accompanying the Eldest Princess who had intervened.
Eunuch Shen observed the scene and, upon seeing Su Yingxue enter with Qiushuang and a guard, offered a hollow bow. The others followed suit, lowering their heads in deference.
From the moment Su Yingxue stepped into the interrogation room, her gaze never left Chu Xingchen. Her eyes were filled with undisguised concern.
That lad named Chu Xingchen, though his eyes were tightly shut, stood tall and slender with a handsome face. His excellent physique, now bare-chested, was covered in countless bloody whip marks. The extreme whiteness of his skin intertwined with blood-red streaks, filling the air with a thick metallic scent.
Zhang Susu stared at the red-hot dagger in the guard’s hand, her anger boiling over. So this is how you’ve been mistreating the male lead without my permission, she fumed. No wonder his first act after destroying the kingdom was to subject her to Flaying and Grass-Stuffing. The one wearing Chief Eunuch’s robes, Eunuch Shen, with his face powdered snow-white, offered her a bow with an ingratiating smile that didn’t reach his eyes, accompanied by several others kneeling before her.