Proud Feather

Chapter 39 Torture
After Pang Yu left, Lu Chan drank his tea silently for a while. After confirming that no one was outside, he said, "Why did you scare her?"

Chu Ling sneered, "She's trying to scare me, isn't she? She finally got pregnant, and now she's running to apologize to me. If I don't accept it, won't I be unable to clear myself if something happens to her?"

Chu He had been married for three years and still hadn't conceived, so the timing was perfect. With the Crown Prince gone, and him being the first choice for the heir apparent, it was fitting that she had a little grandson.

A look of disappointment appeared on Lu Chan's face.

The Crown Prince had only recently passed away, but when she went to pay her respects today, she could clearly sense the joyous atmosphere in the palace. As expected, no matter how glorious one was while alive, when one is gone, nothing is left; after all, death is worse than life.

Chu Ling didn't care, because she knew she couldn't keep the child. Pang Yu didn't know what was going on. She had been pregnant several times in her previous life but failed. Later, when Tian Huier entered the palace, the two of them fought to the death. Chu Ling had seen a lot of jokes from her in Shangyuan.

Of course, Tian Hui'er couldn't defeat Pang Yu. Her father, Jingping Hou Pang Wei, was an old friend of the emperor's from the time he lived in the palace. He had accompanied the emperor from the Duke of Jia to the Son of Heaven. After the death of the old Duke Feng, the Pang family took over the military power from the Feng family.

Now that the Feng family has declined, the Pang family has become the most sought-after noble family in the dynasty. Chu He's smooth ascension to the throne has a lot to do with the support of the Pang family.

Seeing that Lu Chan was in a bad mood, Chu Ling deliberately diverted her attention and asked with a smile: "Sister-in-law, where is Jin'er?"

Speaking of her son, Lu Chan smiled: "He played all morning and slept like a sound sleep."

Chu Ling said regretfully, "I asked someone to make some toys. I wanted to play with him for a while."

Lu Chan laughed: "You want to play it yourself, right?"

Chu Ling smiled and agreed. At fifteen, she was still playful and had even done things like snatching toys from her three-year-old nephew. It was truly childish.

Perhaps thinking of her "great achievements," Lu Chan hesitated for a moment and asked, "Did you really go to the prison to interrogate the prisoners?"

Chu Ling nodded.

"How is the result?"

"The result is not important." Chu Ling said, "Second sister-in-law who should know already knows."

Lu Chan's eyes became complicated, and she said, "A Ling, you are really different now."

"I've said it before, I will continue what my brother has not finished." Chu Ling did not hide her ambition. If she wanted to take over the team left by her brother, she would need the help of her sister-in-law. It would not be enough to just go through Jiang Shijun.

Lu Chan was silent for a long time, and suddenly heard a cry outside. It was the little prince who woke up from his nap.

She smiled and said, "Okay, you work hard."

……

After Chu Ling left, Lu Chan handed her son to a trusted palace maid and ordered, "Please ask Master Zhu to come over."

Zhu Shan, a guest of the crown prince and one of the core members of the Eastern Palace, was appointed by the emperor to teach the crown prince because of his steady temperament and expertise in policy discussions.
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"Boss, the prisoner has fainted." The jailer reported in the Imperial City Prison.

The jailer narrowed his eyes, examining the newly crafted torture device on the table while saying, "If you faint, I'll wake you up. Do you still need me to teach you?"

"Yes." The jailer quickly brought a bucket of water and poured it over.

Jinghui, who was tied to the torture pillar, groaned and woke up.

He looked even worse than when Chu Ling arrived. There was hardly a single piece of intact flesh on his body, and he hadn't bled much, so he could only endure the torture. He fainted from the pain, and was woken up again to continue the torture until he couldn't bear it anymore and fainted again, over and over again.

"Sir, please spare my life..." Jing Hui said weakly, "I am willing to confess. Please do not torture me anymore..."

"Okay!" The jailer smiled. "You go ahead."

Jinghui's eyes flickered: "Don't you need to inform the princess?"

"Can you see the princess whenever you want?" The jailer's face changed. "If you still don't behave, keep beating me!"

"Yes!" said the jailer, picking up the torture instruments again.

Jinghui panicked: "Sir, don't do it! I confess, I confess now!" Unfortunately, the jailer did not listen to him. The barbed whip came out again, scraping off a piece of flesh each time, and the screams were unbearable to hear.

This time, after Jinghui fainted, the jailer did not ask anyone to wake him up. Instead, he had him thrown back into the cell and went outside the torture chamber to drink.

"Come on, come on, boss, you've worked hard. Let me offer you a drink." The jailer poured the wine attentively.

The jailer was very pleased and said, "You are new here, right? You are quite capable."

The jailer smiled and said, "Yes, I was originally working outside, and I wanted to live a more stable life, so I found a way to get by."

The jailer nodded at him and downed his drink: "Not bad, you have good taste. Our job may not seem unusual, but it's actually very lucrative."

After saying that, he gnawed on a piece of lamb bone and nodded repeatedly: "Is this from the Qiao family in the south of the city? It smells good!"

"Boss, you're amazing! You tasted it right away!" The jailer gave him a thumbs-up. "Qiao's lamb bones are the most popular. They sell out in a day. I asked my family to wait early in the morning, and only then did I get a bowl like this."

The jailer didn't say anything, but just kept eating until he had finished all the soup, then he let out a sigh of satisfaction.

He burped and asked while picking his teeth, "Okay, you're so attentive, what's the matter?"

The jailer rubbed his hands together and said with a smile, "You are the boss. I work under you. Isn't it my duty to show some respect? If there is anything I can ask, it is to ask you to teach me more so that I can do my job well for my superiors."

The prison boss smiled and said, "You're quite ambitious. Tell me, what do you want to know?"

The jailer was delighted and asked, "Boss, this thief has already said he wants to confess, why are you still torturing him?"

The jailer spat out the remaining debris with a "Pah" sound and said disdainfully, "He confessed just because he said so? You haven't seen many prisoners, so you don't know how cunning this kind of person is. The first time he confessed, eight out of ten words were probably lies. The second time he confessed, at least half of them were lies. The third time, the fourth time... As long as you give him the slightest chance, he will continue to make more demands."

"Is that so?" The jailer scratched his head. "Then how can we make him tell the truth?"

"Don't worry." The jailer was confident. "After seven or eight times, what he said will be 80% to 90% true. When he is sure that he can't leave the prison, he will seize every opportunity to survive."

He snorted, "Just wait, he'll confess tomorrow."

"I see." The jailer suddenly realized, "Boss is very smart!"

The jailer waved his hand and said, "Since you're so motivated, I'll let you try your hand this afternoon. It won't be a waste of my lamb bones!"

The jailer was surprised: "Thank you for your cultivation, Boss!"

……

It was late at night and Jinghui was drowsy and felt that someone had entered the cell.

"Who?" He was awakened by years of life on the run.

When he saw the jailer, he felt a little scared: "Sir, are you going to torture me again?"

Seeing him like this, the jailer believed what the warden said about 70% to 80%.

He said with a cold face, "You don't need to rest, I still need to rest! Drink the soup, but don't die, or I won't be able to complete my mission!"

Jinghui then realized that he had a bowl of soup in his hand and breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank you, sir."

The jailer didn't respond, put down the bowl of soup and left.

Jinghui struggled to get up and picked up the bowl of soup. The strong smell of medicine hit his nose, but he had been blending perfumes for many years, so he could easily detect a strange smell.

There's something wrong with this soup.

Correcting two bugs in the previous article. One is the Second Prince's title. I wrote it wrong in my notes, which caused me to use it incorrectly throughout the rest of the article. I'm correcting it today and will use "Prince Xin" instead. Thanks to those who brought this up. The second is the name of the Princess Xin. I didn't think much of it when I chose it, but today I realize it's too similar to the young emperor's grandson, so I changed it from "瑾" (Jin) to "羽" (Yu).