Chapter 13: Getting Married (3)
Ziheng raised his lips and stood up: "Yes, I am stupid. I have always been stupidly in love with a willful young lady. I am so stupid that I would do anything for her, even giving up my reputation——"
Ziheng's awakening made Yinyin feel happy and shy.
Leaning over and kissing Yin Yin's forehead: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have recognized you earlier, I shouldn't have doubted you, I believe you are my Shu'er, I will never let you go, I will never let you leave me again!"
"Um!"
Yinyin nodded happily, tears of happiness sliding down her face uncontrollably...
"Don't cry, you won't be beautiful if you cry. Today is our wedding day, so you should cry!"
Kiss away the tears in Yin Yin's eyes, and take care of her tenderly...
"I'm sorry, I was so happy that I didn't realize it—"
He tried desperately to wipe away the tears of happiness, but it seemed that he could not stop them. Hearing Yinyin's narration, Ziheng's heart suddenly shook. He pulled Yinyin's hands apart. Yinyin's face was in tears, but her eyes were filled with infinite happiness. Tears of joy rolled silently in her eyes...
Ziheng couldn't help but lean over and kiss Yinyin's lips shyly. Her breath and fragrance made him forget himself.
Ziheng's kiss and breath flowed into Yinyin's body. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the happiness that Ziheng brought her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the pleasure she had felt for the first time since she was born!!
Ziheng laid Yinyin on the bed, his hands began to wander over her body, kissing her uncontrollably, greedily inhaling the fragrance from every part of her body, from her lips, her neck, her white breasts...
Their night is still long for them.
Their happiness has just begun, but it is also the beginning of destruction...
The guests outside the cottage had left at some point.
The strong wind blew up the fallen leaves and drifted them toward the nearby cliff and towards the sea. The thin moonlight seeped faintly from the clouds.
A faint, happy moan came from inside the house.
Across time and space.
After separation, we meet again.
The lovers finally got married.
Will they continue to be happy?
[Yancheng] Underground dungeon in the official residence.
A prisoner was tied to a pillar, his body covered in blood and whip marks, and he had been beaten unconscious...
"Wake him up!"
A familiar voice, a cold tone, even the air would be frozen by his cold tone...
"Yes Yes--"
The guards trembled in fear, and one of them lifted a bucket of water and poured it on the unconscious person...
"ah--"
After the unconscious man had his body broken by the water , he immediately woke up with a burning pain. It can be imagined that the water that the yamen runner had just poured was salt water!
"Do you remember it?"
Zhou Yan sat in front of the prisoner, looking majestic and cold, staring at him with eyes as cold as ice. What had happened that made Zhou Yan personally go down to the cell to interrogate him? His sharp eyes seemed to want to slice him alive and stew him in soup...
"I, I really, really forgot—"
There was nothing false in the prisoner's frightened, weak voice.
But the prisoner's words did not give Zhou Yan a satisfactory answer. He raised his hand slightly, and a yamen runner came forward with a whip. Then the sharp whip sounds and screams echoed in the cold and dark cell. The other prisoners huddled up in fear, and the yamen runners were trembling. Only the entourage that came with Zhou Yan stood there expressionless and as if nothing had happened...
Just a few minutes passed.
The prisoner fainted again from the pain.
"Keep pouring water on him to wake him up!"
"Yes Yes--"
Whenever the prisoner was beaten unconscious, he would be poured with salt water to wake him up. When he woke up, he would be whipped with a whip soaked in pepper water. This repeated process left the prisoner's body completely intact. The prisoner's time to wake up was getting shorter and shorter. How long would this torture last? The prisoner even wanted to use death to get rid of it, but he no longer had the ability or the physical strength to do so. He didn't even have the physical strength to bite his tongue to commit suicide...
The prisoner was awakened by the pain again, weakly and feebly: "Kill, kill, me——"
He didn't even have the thought of asking for mercy. The torture that was worse than death made him want to die and be freed!
"Do you want to die? This king wants you to live, so that you can taste the taste of a life worse than death--"
Zhou Yan's words undoubtedly made the prisoners feel extremely desolate and desperate.
"As long as you remember where this was stolen and from whom, I will not only let you live a life of drunkenness and dreams, but also satisfy any of your requests!"
The tempting benefits sounded unrealistic, and some would just continue to suffer from the torture of living a life worse than death; Zhou Yan's expression was chilling, and the jade pendant in his hand was shaking in front of his eyes. At first glance, this jade pendant looked so familiar. Thinking back, it turned out to be one of the ornaments that Yin Yin gave to Xiuying to sell. But how could the sold items fall into the hands of others? How did Zhou Yan find out?
"I've said everything I need to say. It was so dark at the time that I really didn't know who it was—"
"Keep fighting!"
"yes!!"
The answer he got was still the same, which made Zhou Yan furious again. The screams and the sounds of whipping could be heard again in the cell...
While Zhou Yan was waiting for an answer, a burst of hurried footsteps gradually approached, and a servant soon arrived beside Zhou Yan and whispered in his ear...
“…How can this be possible!”
After a stern rebuke, Zhou Yan stood up from his chair and left, followed by his attendants. What happened ? Why did Zhou Yan react so strongly after the attendant's report? The answer will soon be revealed!
Not long after, in a room in the official residence, the city guard and his son knelt on the ground, facing Zhou Yan!
"What is going on here? Lord Zhang Chengshou? Can you give me a definite explanation?"
"I'm so sorry, I didn't know about this before, I hope Your Majesty will understand!!"
Zhou Yan's cold tone frightened the city defender so much that he trembled and dared not look up. The people behind him were even more frightened and trembled all over, not even daring to breathe loudly.
"Humph, you are so bold. You knew that I was looking for someone who had contact with this thing, but you dared to protect your own son and not report it to me. What crime should you be punished for?"
"I really didn't know about this beforehand—"
"Shut up, do you want to just brush this matter off like this?"
"I dare not, please show mercy, Your Majesty—"
"Come here, drag the city guard and his son out and give them each a hundred lashes!"
"yes!!"
Zhou Yan's followers took action immediately after receiving the order.
"Your Majesty, please have mercy—"
The followers set up the city guard and his son.
"If you are still alive after being beaten a hundred times, I will show mercy!"
"Ah, Your Majesty——"
"Don't drag it down!"
"yes!!"
No matter how the city defender pleaded, Zhou Yan had no intention of showing mercy!
While the city guard was being tortured, Zhou Yan waited in the house, waiting for his subordinates to bring back good news...
"Stop, no entry!"
"Get out of the way, let me see the prince!!"
While Zhou Yan was waiting, he heard the sound of a servant and a woman arguing outside the house!
"What's all the noise outside?"
Zhou Yan asked disdainfully.
"My Lord, it is——"
"Step aside!!"
Before the servant could answer, a woman broke into the house, and the guards hurriedly chased in and beat the woman...
"Are you the prince?"
Although the woman was not outstanding in appearance, she looked elegant and smart. Zhou Yan waved his hand, and the two attendants holding the woman immediately let go...
"Who are you? Don't you know that disturbing this king is a serious crime?"
The woman knelt on her knees and said, "My name is Zhang Ying, and I am the daughter of Zhang Chengshou!"
"...So what does Miss Zhang want from me?"
They both have the same surname, Zhang, and their names are very similar, which surprised Zhou Yan!
"Please have mercy on my father. He is old and cannot stand the punishment. One hundred strokes of the cane would kill him. Besides, he has been loyal to his duty for many years and has never done anything to harm the people and benefit himself. Why would you punish him?"
"Humph, your father is protecting your brother and saying that he is not doing it for his own benefit. What does this mean?"
"...I am not aware of this matter, but if Your Majesty is willing to let my father go, I am willing to take the punishment on his behalf—"
Zhou Yan sneered, because he had seen this kind of thing so many times that he didn't feel anything.
"Can a woman like you bear the next 100 blows?"
"Whether I can bear it or not, I am willing to take the punishment on behalf of my father—"
"He deserves it. His partiality took up a lot of my time, so I'm showing him a great deal of mercy by not lingering him to death. What else do you want me to show you?"
"You severely punished him with a hundred strokes of the cane. Isn't that like asking for his life? I believe my father never shows partiality. If he knew about my brother's affairs, he would definitely not cover up for him just because he is his own child!"
"The facts are before us, what else do you want to say?"
Zhou Yan's repeated cold eyes made Zhang Ying's heart tighten.
He suddenly raised his head and glared at Zhou Yan: "Even if my father was wrong, his crime was not punishable by death. Is a human life so worthless to you? Although my father did not have any merit, he worked hard. He has been loyal to his duties for more than 20 years, but in the end he has to suffer such a severe punishment. I have heard that you, Your Highness, are cruel. First, you whipped the captured thief to death, and now you have severely punished an innocent person. Today I see that your reputation is well-deserved. Your cruelty is really outrageous!!!"
This attitude and tone made Zhou Yan feel nostalgic. Yin Yin seemed to have said the same thing in the past...
"Woman, you are not allowed to be rude to the prince!!"
The two attendants in front immediately stopped Zhang Ying.
"Humph! Don't you like to hear it? I don't know how many people are accusing you of being cruel and merciless behind your back. I am just one of them. Even if you kill me today, there will be others who will spread the rumor in the future. You can kill a hundred people but you can't kill everyone in the world. Even if they dare not say it in front of you, your cruelty will be spread by the world-"
[Snap——].
With a loud bang, Zhou Yan hit the tea table with the teacup in his hand. The teacup and the tea table broke and collapsed almost at the same time. This made everyone present shudder, including Zhang Ying, who was so scared by Han Li's sudden rise that she dared not say a word!
Zhou Yan's right hand was bleeding. He stood up and walked forward to Zhang Ying. The two servants were so frightened that they were unsteady. Zhou Yan squatted down and grabbed Zhang Ying's chin with his injured right hand...
When facing Zhou Yan's expressionless face and eyes full of cold and sharp light, even though she was not afraid, she shuddered in her heart and her whole body was shaking...
"I didn't expect that someone would brazenly say such things in front of me. Your stubborn expression is exactly the same as hers—"
She? Zhang Ying was a little surprised that Zhou Yan mentioned "she". Could there be other people who would say such things in front of him like her?
"You say that I am cruel and inhumane? Then I will show you -"
Zhou Yan shook Zhang Ying's chin away, stood up and said, "Tell the people outside to stop and don't let the old guy die too early. Tomorrow morning, I will gather all the people in the city and beat him to death in front of everyone. I will also ask him, my filial daughter, to watch. After beating him to death, I will grind his body and feed it to the dogs, so that everyone can see my brutal style as described by the city lord's daughter—"
"yes!"
After receiving the order, an attendant left quickly.
"no, do not want--"
Zhou Yan’s words made Zhang Ying’s face turn pale instantly.
Zhou Yan looked down at Zhang Ying with his eyes shining with cold light and said: "Didn't you say that I am cruel and inhumane? Wouldn't it be too damaging to my reputation of cruelty to just beat him to death in front of a few people? I just did what you said, what? Or are you not satisfied with the fact that only the people in the city are watching?"
Leng Sa's desperate words made Zhang Ying regret what she had said before. She didn't expect that her impulsive words would change the whole situation...
