SEHE Chapter 16
Torture
Yue Ting had no time to think carefully about this question, because he heard the sound of swords clashing from the neighboring courtyard. He rushed out of the door in a few steps and disappeared into the vast darkness of night.
Pei Yanci also followed him out of the room. Just as he stepped over the threshold, he saw Wushu hiding in the corner by the door.
He didn’t know how long he had been eavesdropping there.
“You little child…”
He sighed, and before he could finish speaking, he saw Wushu step out from the shadows in a few strides and throw himself into his arms.
Pei Yanci’s lips curved upward helplessly as he ruffled his disheveled hair.
Wushu nuzzled into his embrace before finally letting go.
There was some moisture in his eyes, but they sparkled with a firm, fearless light.
“Should we escape?” he asked.
“The Elu Bureau must have already surrounded the Crown Prince’s Mansion completely. Even if we wanted to escape, it would be futile.” Although he too didn’t want to be thrown into prison, “Where is Wuli?”
“He went to the kitchen to find food,” Wushu said. “Why did Steward Yue just run off on his own without waiting for us?”
“He went to find you, afraid you might be in danger.”
“Now we’re in trouble—who knows where to look for him.” Wushu muttered.
“Let’s go to the kitchen first. I hope they don’t do anything foolish.” Those people really dared to kill.
Pei Yanci protected Wushu as they ran out of the courtyard. The entire mansion was in chaos, with the Elu Bureau arresting anyone they saw. Wails and pleas for mercy filled the air continuously.
Not long after they ran out of the courtyard, Wushu grabbed his sleeve, pointing breathlessly in one direction.
“Over there.”
Pei Yanci looked in the direction of his gaze. Across a man-made stream, a round, ball-like black shadow was running with agile movements, dodging the Elu Bureau’s pursuit.
“Brother Wuli.” Wushu excitedly waved toward the person across from them.
“Stop shouting! Hurry up and run, or we’ll lose our lives if we’re caught!” Wuli called out breathlessly. Suddenly, a subtle sharp pain came from his lower back.
“Owww! I’m dying, I’m dying, I’m dying!”
He immediately collapsed on the ground, crying and wailing. The Elu Bureau guard who had been chasing him was stunned for a moment, glancing at the sword in his hand—it hadn’t even touched the man.
Without another word, the guard pressed his sword against his neck. “Stay put!”
Wuli’s eyes rolled back, and he fainted.
Wushu: “……”
He awkwardly lowered his hand.
Tonight, the mansion was full of Elu Bureau personnel. As Pei Yanci had said, not even a fly could escape.
More and more guards surrounded them. Pei Yanci scanned the area and, besides the distinctive black robes of the Elu Bureau, noticed quite a few people from the Capital Magistrate’s Office.
He pulled Wushu behind him and raised both hands.
****
Pei Yanci finally experienced the legendary taste of the Elu Bureau’s great prison.
The rats here were fatter than people. Seeing the sleek, well-fed humans, their eyes glowed green.
At least the food should be decent.
If he himself was that food, that would be another matter entirely.
Fortunately, Wushu and Wuli were imprisoned with him. Yue Ting, whom Wushu had been thinking about, was in the neighboring cell. The two were now chatting through the rough stone wall. The voice from next door sounded somewhat dispirited, making Wushu very worried that he was injured, yet he couldn’t get a clear answer about anything.
After the Elu Bureau people had made a commotion all night, dawn was breaking outside, but the cell remained damp and cold. Whenever someone opened a door and passed by, the dim corridor outside the cell would always stir up a chilling, foul wind, accompanied by nauseating smells of urine, sweat, and the stale stench of old blood.
Several Elu Bureau guards dragged a steward from the Crown Prince’s Mansion back into a cell, then looked around and finally pointed at Pei Yanci, who was sitting cross-legged to one side, saying to the jailer, “Bring him out.”
Pei Yanci stood up, gave Wuli and Wushu a reassuring look, and voluntarily followed them out of the cell.
Beneath his feet were two trails of blood left by the steward from earlier. Following the traces, he accompanied these guards through the corridor. Above the courtyard, wooden bars were arranged in rows, with sunlight filtering through the gaps between the bars, forming alternating patterns of light and shadow.
After passing the courtyard, they walked a short distance more before reaching the interrogation hall.
Even during daylight, this place seemed incredibly gloomy, lit only by several pungent oil lamps that smelled like burnt flesh. Resentful winds blew continuously, and the sinister atmosphere was hard to dispel.
The person sitting in the seat of honor had thick makeup powder smeared on his face. The stark pallor contrasted sharply with the normal skin tone at his neck, making him look particularly ghastly—like a paper figure.
Pei Yanci recognized this person. When he first met Tang Xizhui, this man had prevented him from releasing Jiang Yi.
At that time, he had called Tang Xizhui “adoptive father.”
Eunuchs mostly came from poor families, had no clan protection, and no descendants. Losing power due to aging was an inevitable result. Therefore, when eunuchs were in power, they would recruit young junior eunuchs as their adopted sons, both to plan early for their old age and funeral arrangements, and to form alliances and expand their influence. Sometimes, this relationship was more solid than the factions formed purely for profit interests in the previous dynasty.
Huo Cun’s little finger nail was nearly an inch long. He scratched his scalp with it, and even though Pei Yanci was ten feet away from him, he could almost hear that skin-crawling scratching sound.
“Pei Yanci, I remember you.” Huo Cun casually flipped through the papers on the desk, then looked at him with a sour tone. “You’ve really made a great contribution this time. You can finally show your face proudly before adoptive father.”
Tonight, the Elu Bureau had received information from the Capital Magistrate’s Office, saying they had received a case that was inconvenient for them to handle and wanted their advice.
It turned out that in the evening, someone had gone to the county office near Anxing District to report that they had discovered servants from the Crown Prince’s Mansion secretly selling calligraphy, paintings, and jade artifacts from the mansion. They went to arrest the suspects with some skepticism. Several young men and a middle-aged man in a separate residence looked bewildered, not knowing what had happened. Another person, hearing the commotion, tried to escape by climbing over the wall but was captured in time.
After arresting them, the middle-aged man kept protesting his innocence, saying he was the famous Fang Hongchun, not a merchant dealing in stolen goods. Upon investigation, this proved to be true. When asked about the other person’s identity, Fang Hongchun, having no suspicions, directly said he was an old friend’s son—the second son of the fourth branch of the Xue family from Hedong.
Upon hearing he was from a prestigious family, their arrogance immediately diminished by half. They cursed inwardly—why would a perfectly good young master from a prestigious family run like a mouse seeing a cat when he saw them?
However, when interrogating this person, they discovered that his travel pass and registered identity in the household records all showed that he was merely a minor steward in the Crown Prince’s Mansion.
Hearing the conflicting testimonies from both sides, along with Fang Hongchun’s extremely confident tone and the steward’s obvious guilt and suspicious behavior, the county magistrate’s mind was filled with doubts.
He discussed with his colleagues for a long time but still couldn’t determine this person’s identity. Moreover, the Crown Prince’s status was sensitive—they couldn’t afford to offend either side. So they reported it up to the Capital Magistrate’s Office, passing the buck to them.
The Capital Magistrate’s Office, seeing that it involved the Crown Prince, prestigious families, and the former teacher of those scholars previously arrested by the Elu Bureau, didn’t dare make decisions on their own and reported it overnight to the Elu Bureau.
Thus came tonight’s scene.
“I dare not claim credit—it was just good luck, a coincidence,” Pei Yanci said flatly.
It’s just that many coincidences in the world are controlled by human intervention. Although it couldn’t be foolproof, Pei Yanci could do his best within his capabilities.
For example, having Xin Hai and the other two go to the county office to report, tracking Fang Hongchun’s movements these past days, and monitoring the personnel coming and going from the Crown Prince’s Mansion.
For example, he had previously asked Xin Hai to inform him about all the stewards, large and small, in the mansion, recording everything in detail to help him understand everyone in the mansion.
For example, for a normal person, when facing an acquaintance who knew their background, they wouldn’t tell them about their steward identity.
“You got lucky with this matter,” Huo Cun said with a fake smile, “but now that you’ve fallen into my hands, I wonder if you’ll have such good luck again.”
“What do you want to do?” Pei Yanci asked.
“I worked so hard to capture Jiang Yi, and with just a few words from you, adoptive father released him. The credit for bringing down the Crown Prince should have been mine.”
“You held Jiang Yi for three days but never made him submit and frame the Crown Prince. On what basis do you think you could have succeeded?”
“How can you be certain that under my torture, he wouldn’t confess in the very next moment?”
Pei Yanci understood—this person was simply being unreasonable, wanting revenge. No matter what he said, today’s torture was unavoidable.
“The torture that Jiang Yi didn’t finish, you can complete for him.” Huo Cun ground his teeth, his face showing uncontainable excitement. “Come, hang him up.”
Actually, when someone had gone to the county office to report about the Crown Prince’s Mansion, Huo Cun had already learned of it from his informants. He had thought it was an opportunity to gain merit and had already gathered his subordinates, planning to go directly to the county office to demand the prisoners.
Only later did he realize that the person who made the report today was Pei Yanci’s man.
It was Pei Yanci again.
The people around him grabbed his hands. Pei Yanci couldn’t struggle free—his hands were bound with coarse hemp rope and hung from both ends of a tall wooden frame behind him.
Even with his feet stretched straight, his toes could barely touch the ground.
Both wrists bore the weight of his entire body pulling downward. Soon, his arms became stiff and numb with pain, feeling as if the joints and muscles were tearing and breaking apart.
Of course, it was just an illusion.
But looking at the bloodstained torture instruments around him, Pei Yanci couldn’t help but feel a wave of panic.
Huo Cun might not take his life, but these things would leave his body with permanent damage.
He didn’t want to return to that sickly state from before—numbly drinking bitter, foul-smelling medicine that never seemed to end, helplessly feeling his sense of taste failing, his limbs gradually becoming weak and powerless, counting each day how many more days he could live.
“Where is Dugong Daren? I have something very important to tell him.” Even though his mind was completely blank right now, unable to think of anything.
Huo Cun laughed. “Do you think he would care about the life or death of a nobody like you? The Crown Prince has already fallen—your usefulness ends here.”
“There are more important matters.”
“What else?” Huo Cun picked up a pair of iron hooks as thick as fingers, leisurely appreciating the fear that still seeped through despite his calm exterior, and sneered, “Don’t tell me you have inside information about Great Xi?”
“Great Xi?” He didn’t even know where that was.
Huo Cun took another step closer. The iron hooks clinked in his hands, their sharp points flashing with a cold, white gleam, ready to easily pierce through his shoulder blades at any moment.
Pei Yanci’s body couldn’t help but tremble. Because of his struggling and resistance, the hemp rope had rubbed his wrists raw and embedded into his flesh.
His breathing became rapid, and his head felt even more dizzy.
“Pretending to submit to adoptive father and bringing down the Crown Prince, but actually wanting to disrupt the court so that Great Xi could take advantage—is that it or not?”
“I don’t know.”
Huo Cun looked at his face, his eyes brightening. “You’re from Yexuan? Want to avenge your destroyed nation?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s definitely like that, yet you still refuse to admit it.” Huo Cun sneered coldly. “Fine, even if you wanted to confess now, it’s too late. After using a few torture instruments, even if it wasn’t true, it will become true. Come, pierce his shoulder blades.”
“Wait.” Pei Yanci shouted loudly.
His chest heaved as he took several deep breaths, then returned to his usual calm.
After scanning his surroundings, his gaze fell on the screen behind where Huo Cun had been sitting.
“Tang Xizhui, come out here!”
Damn it, I’m definitely going to kill this dog eunuch!