Chapter 148: We Can’t Let The Emperor’s Son Return To The Capital City
The scene of Lin Xin erupting in fury that everyone had imagined did not appear. She just smiled faintly and said, “I have nothing to explain to you. No one can wake up a person pretending to sleep.”
After saying that, she didn’t even give her another gaze, but turned to the watching villagers. “Everyone heard what Lin Ju just said. Today’s incident was designed by them to frame Chu Yu, so…” She glanced at everyone. “From now on, we don’t want to hear anyone linking Chu Yu and Lin Ju together in gossip. If I find out…”
She didn’t say the rest, but walked to a tree nearby that was about as thick as her waist, formed her right hand into a fist, and swung it hard, hitting the trunk directly.
With a “crack,” after the sound, the tree broke in half at the spot where she hit it.
“Whoa!” Everyone looked at the broken stump, sighing in admiration while resolving to keep their own mouths shut. Those with chatty wives at home also firmly decided to make sure their wives kept their mouths shut too.
“Alright, it’s over. Everyone go back to what you were doing! We’re not entertaining anymore.” Amid the stunned silence of Gao Yong and the others, Lin Xin grabbed Lin Ju and her mother, one in each hand, threw them out the door, brushed nonexistent dust off her hands, and closed the courtyard gate.
“Miss Lin, impressive!” Gao Yong admiringly gave her a thumbs up.
The others also looked at her with admiration. Meng Yixuan nudged Chu Yu’s lower back and whispered, “Why don’t you go thank Miss Lin? If it weren’t for her today, you couldn’t clear your name even if you jumped into the river.”
Chu Yu’s heart had been uneasy since being confronted that morning. He was furious when everyone accused him and wanted to draw his sword to chop off those ugly faces. Only after hearing Lin Ju tell the truth did he feel slightly more at ease. Now, reminded by Meng Yixuan, he immediately gave Lin Xin a deep bow. “Thank you, Miss Lin, for getting me out of this. Otherwise, I don’t know how it would have ended.”
Lin Xin waved her hand. “This matter actually has little to do with you. It was mainly aimed at Tao Tao. And personally, I think the reason Lin Ju’s mother picked you to trap is mostly because you seem easygoing and not fierce. If today’s plan succeeded, their family could leech off your blood using their daughter from then on.”
Hearing this, Chu Yu felt even more disgusted and shook his head repeatedly. “Even if I killed her, I would never let her into my Chu family home.”
“Miss Lin, you just said today’s incident was aimed at Lin Tao. Do you have any evidence?” Meng Yixuan asked, frowning. He had previously thought the village girl just wanted to latch onto Chu Yu, but he hadn’t expected a deeper purpose.
“Evidence…” Footsteps sounded opportunely outside the door. She smiled faintly. “Here it comes.”
“Hm?” Everyone present looked toward the courtyard gate and saw Mo Ziyuan dragging in a villager-dressed man with fury on his face. After entering, he slammed the man to the ground, then turned to close the courtyard gate properly.
“What happened?” Gao Yong looked at the man on the ground, then at Mo Ziyuan, and asked.
At this moment, the man on the ground slightly turned his head. The disheveled hair blocking half his face slid aside, revealing his face. Gao Yong happened to be staring at him and cried out in shock: “Holy crap, how is it you?”
“What’s really going on here?” Meng Yixuan also asked.
“Let him say it himself.” Mo Ziyuan turned his head away angrily, clearly not wanting to look at the man.
“Commander Zhao, what did you do to make Zi Yuan this angry?” Meng Yixuan had been a guard by the Former Emperor’s side and dealt with the Imperial Guards, so he immediately recognized this man as the Imperial Guards’ deputy commander Zhao Jie.
“Winner takes all, nothing to say.” Zhao Jie turned his expressionless face aside, clearly not planning to speak further.
“Did you get anything out of him?” Lin Xin walked up to Mo Ziyuan and asked quietly.
Mo Ziyuan shook his head. “He won’t say anything.”
“Leave him to me.” Lin Xin walked up to Zhao Jie, took out a pill identical to the one given to Lin Ju, and without a word stuffed it into Zhao Jie’s mouth. Then she lightly stroked his throat, and his Adam’s apple moved. The pill steadily fell into his stomach.
Terror appeared in Zhao Jie’s eyes. He had seen clearly how Lin Ju was exposed before. He knew exactly the effect of this pill, and fear arose in his heart. He instinctively gritted his teeth, but before his upper and lower teeth could close, intense pain struck—his jaw had been dislocated.
With no luck left, Zhao Jie turned his head and glared viciously at Lin Xin. No one present doubted that if gazes could kill, Lin Xin would already be riddled with holes and deader than dead.
“Take out the poison sac in his teeth! Otherwise, he might kill himself before he speaks. Oh, and just removing the poison sac isn’t enough—in case he bites his tongue, that can kill too.” After saying this, Lin Xin took out another pale yellow pill and stuffed it into Zhao Jie’s mouth.
“What did you give him this time?” Gao Yong asked curiously.
“A fun thing,” Lin Xin smiled innocently. “Something that keeps him clear-headed but leaves him too weak to do anything except speak.”
“You!” Zhao Jie glared at her furiously. Saliva flowed from his dislocated mouth, making him look extremely wretched, completely different from when he had provoked her at the village entrance earlier.
Estimating the time, Lin Xin said to Mo Ziyuan, “You can start asking now.”
Mo Ziyuan nodded, stepped forward, pried open Zhao Jie’s mouth, removed a dark brown packet from the third tooth from the back, then “click” reset his jaw, making Zhao Jie grunt in pain.
“Why did you instruct the villagers to block us from leaving?” Mo Ziyuan asked, standing before him.
Sweat beads the size of soybeans oozed from Zhao Jie’s forehead. He bit his lips hard, not wanting to speak, but even after biting them raw, a sentence squeezed out through his teeth: “…The people on the road aren’t deployed yet… Can’t let you leave so soon.”
“What is your goal?”
This time Zhao Jie’s resistance was even fiercer, but he still couldn’t resist the drug’s effect and mumbled unclearly: “…Ambush you halfway… Can’t let… the Emperor’s… son return to… the Capital City…”
Everyone frowned. “What did you plan to do? Kill the future Crown Prince?”
“…The order I received… was… exactly that…”
“Who gave you the order?”
“The guard leader from the Third Prince’s residence!”
With every word he said, despair deepened on Zhao Jie’s face. When the sentence ended, he was ashen-faced, lying on his back on the ground, his gaze empty as if he had lost all vitality.
