Chapter 174

Chapter 174 Prince Jing was speechless for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh. "...This Prince was unaware that Suisui had become so vindictive." Xie Run wiped her tears dry with a handkerchief, her eyes as red as a rabbit's. "Your consort holds grudges indeed. The grudge from when Your Highness bit me last time—I still remember it!" Prince Jing: "?" When did that happen? How could he not remember? Xie Run gently reminded him: "It was the time Your Highness promoted your consort to Concubine Consort." Prince Jing suddenly realized and found it both amusing and exasperating. "That was so long ago, and you still remember?" Xie Run glared at Prince Jing with her reddened eyes. "Hmph!" A beauty glaring with tearful eyes still carried her charm, and it stirred Prince Jing's heart into disarray. The two talked for a while longer, then Xie Run went to the inner room to wash her face, while Prince Jing went to see his son. Xie Run had just changed her clothes and come out when she heard Eunuch Shian come to report: "Your Highness, Yuezhi has been revived!" "Have Jing Wu question her!" Prince Jing was holding a jade pendant of excellent quality, teasing Taotao with it. Upon hearing this, his expression showed no fluctuation whatsoever, and the jade pendant in his hand continued to dangle. Taotao's round, dark eyes followed it back and forth. In the household, once Prince Jing ordered Jing Wu to question someone, it meant that some harsh tortures would be employed. Eunuch Shian added: "Jing Wu is already interrogating her. He says that within half a quarter-hour, Yuezhi will surely confess." "Jing Wu asks—would Your Highness and Consort Xie like to listen in person?" Prince Jing lowered his gaze in thought for a moment. "Then let us go listen." With that, he tossed the jade pendant in his hand to Zihu, who stood nearby. Zihu looked utterly bewildered. Prince Jing: "Fifth Young Master likes it. Continue playing with him." Zihu bowed in acknowledgment. His gaze swept sideways to catch sight of Xie Run standing at the doorway, and Prince Jing said calmly, "Come listen along." Prince Jing smiled meaningfully. "This Prince is rather curious—who else she might drag down with her." Xie Run: "..." Xie Run had initially assumed that with Jing Wu handling it, Yuezhi would surely confess everything truthfully. But hearing Prince Jing's words now, it seemed Yuezhi would implicate others as well? Could it be that Prince Jing knew something? Xie Run quietly followed Prince Jing to the side chamber. She had barely reached the doorway when Prince Jing's arm blocked her, and then she caught a thick, cloying smell of blood. Raising her eyes, she saw Yuezhi lying half-dead on the bed in the inner room. She had just pressed her neck against a blade; now her neck was wrapped in thick white bandages, with a patch of blood seeping through. Her hair was disheveled, her features pale, her eyes vacant—as if she had just endured a life-and-death ordeal. Not just Xie Run—even Dantao and Xiaoshu following behind were startled. Eunuch Shian quickly said, "Your Highness, Consort Xie, perhaps you should listen from the doorway, so as not to be struck by the bloody miasma in the room." Prince Jing gave a slight nod and asked Jing Wu inside: "Has she confessed?" Jing Wu looked at Yuezhi. The look alone made her tremble all over, and she hastily stammered, "I'll confess, I'll confess... I'll confess everything." Fear instantly flooded her eyes, and her body trembled uncontrollably. "Just let me die, let me die..." Jing Wu said coldly, "If you confess honestly, you'll get a quick death. If not, you'll taste what it's like to wish you were dead." Yuezhi's voice was hoarse as she cried out in near despair: "It wasn't Suici who put me up to it." "It was Ping'an! Ping'an from Concubine An's quarters!" Xie Run's eyes flew wide open, shock flashing through them. This answer was something she had never imagined! Her first reaction was that Prince Jing's words from just now had come true. Xie Run immediately turned her gaze to Prince Jing, and sure enough, she saw him wearing a composed expression. He seemed to have anticipated this all along, showing not a trace of surprise. Prince Jing glanced sidelong at Eunuch Shian, who had already sent someone to fetch Ping'an. Jing Wu asked coldly, "And the evidence?" Yuezhi said, "There's a hidden compartment under the bucket I use to fetch water for Fifth Young Master. Two one-thousand-tael banknotes were stuffed inside!" Everyone present was startled by this. Without even needing Prince Jing's order, someone had already gone to search for it. Yuezhi spoke in fragments: "Ping'an approached me half a month ago. Coincidentally, that day was my day off. She pulled me aside on the road into Yunjiao Lane, told me about the affair between Brother Wu and Suici, and said she had a way to help me deal with Suici—she just needed my answer." "Seven days ago, I couldn't stand seeing Suici and Brother Wu being lovey-dovey in front of me, so I used an excuse to go home. In truth, I met Ping'an in Yunjiao Lane and agreed to her request." "She gave me two one-thousand-tael banknotes. I drove a hard bargain—not only did I ask her to help me deal with Suici, but I also demanded that her mistress find a way to let me marry Brother Wu. She agreed!" "Everyone in Chunshan Courtyard knows about my two days off!" Yuezhi said with certainty: "Someone must have seen me near Yunjiao Lane!" Jing Wu had tried many cases and now had a clear line of reasoning. "What you've said isn't enough to prove anything." "Besides, if Ping'an wanted you to harm Fifth Young Master, what benefit would that bring Ping'an and Concubine An?" Yuezhi said, "Ping'an said that Fourth Young Master was born deficient, which caused His Highness to despise her mistress." "If Fifth Young Master remained sickly and weak, then it wouldn't make her mistress look bad for failing to care for Fourth Young Master properly." "And Princess Duanmin from Consort Li's courtyard—it seems she was also drugged by Ping'an..." Seeing that Jing Wu and the others didn't believe her, Yuezhi gritted her teeth and dropped a crucial piece of information. "We have a written contract!" A contract?! Everyone was stunned with shock. In this day and age, people actually signed contracts for murder?! Jing Wu immediately asked, "Where is it?" As Yuezhi spoke, tears began to slide down her cheeks. "I sewed myself a set of wedding clothes... the contract is hidden inside them." "This contract was written by Ping'an under my threat, and it bears both of our fingerprints." Yuezhi said, "I've confessed everything. I only ask for death." Her lips trembled. "If possible... please don't destroy that wedding dress. Let me die wearing it." "At least in my dreams, I can marry Brother Wu..." Jing Wu showed not a trace of emotion, only asking, "When the matter was exposed, why did you insist on blaming Suici? Why were you so adamant about not revealing the person behind it?" Yuezhi had already been on the verge of death, but upon hearing the name Suici, it was as if a surge of vitality was instantly injected into her body. Her eyes turned bloodshot as she spat hatefully, "Now that everything is exposed, I can't escape death. And even if I didn't die, I'd only be living a life of shame and humiliation!" "The reason I'm in this state today is all because that shameless Suici seduced Brother Wu!" "Even if I die, I'll drag her down with me!" Yuezhi's rage was too intense, her face still twisted with ferocity, when she suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood. The white gauze around her neck was instantly stained red. She was still cursing with paranoid, gloomy obsession. "That bitch Suici brought me to this. Even if I become a ghost, I will never let her go!" Yuezhi kept spewing insults from her mouth, seeming to lose all reason. As she cursed, more and more blood poured from her mouth.