It was a good thing Standard-Bearer Pei went to the scene himself.
He'd made some discoveries—some major discoveries, in fact!
"This chest of jewels and this chest of silver may be related to the murder. Take them to my mansion for now."
"Yes, sir!"
"This chest of gold could be a crucial clue. Take it to the Hundred Households at once for Commander Zheng's personal inspection."
"Yes, sir!"
"The amount on these silver notes is small. They're probably unrelated to the case. Split them among the men."
"Yes, s—Ah! Thank you, my lord!"
With his hands clasped behind his back, Pei Shaoqing paced through the Mo Mansion like a general reviewing his troops, dictating the fate of the various treasures. He was carrying out his own redistribution of this detestable landlord's wealth.
"My lord, you have to leave something behind," Song Youcai reminded him. "Otherwise, it's going to look bad in the official report."
'Just what you'd expect from a high and mighty nobleman from the Capital. You can tell he's never had to get his hands dirty. He's probably never had to handle his own graft before.'
'I've never seen someone so insatiable.'
Pei Shaoqing shot him a glance. "Who writes the report? We do, don't we? We'll just add a line or two. We'll write that the culprit murdered for wealth, not only killing everyone in the Mo Mansion but also emptying it of all its assets."
'It wasn't a fabrication. It was a fact!'
"Brilliant, my lord," Song Youcai said, utterly convinced.
'My own perspective was too narrow.'
He realized that when it came to the art of corruption, he was as naive as a child before Lord Pei.
"Song Youcai, go and keep an eye on them. Make sure no one pockets anything for themselves. Tell them that if they do their jobs honestly, I'll be sure to reward them. I despise those who abuse their public office for personal gain and bend the law for profit!" Pei Shaoqing declared, his voice ringing with conviction.
The corner of Song Youcai's mouth twitched. "As you command."
After Song Youcai left, Pei Shaoqing lowered his voice and spoke to Sun Youliang. "Scour this place inside and out. I want it spotless. Make sure Gongsun Yi left no evidence behind last night. If anything is missed, I'm holding you personally responsible."
'Since I've taken Gongsun Yi on as my dog, I have to make sure no one can trace the dog back to me, its master.'
"Yes, my lord. Rest assured, I won't even miss the cracks in the floorboards," Sun Youliang answered with grave sincerity.
Pei Shaoqing waved a hand to dismiss him, then left the Mo Mansion and headed for the Hundred Households' prison.
'I almost forgot to release Gongsun Yi's two disciples.'
"This way, my lord." A prison guard obsequiously led Pei Shaoqing to the cell holding Jiang Yebai and Zhao Zilan.
Hearing the footsteps, Zhao Zilan, who was giving her senior brother some water, immediately shot up and rushed to the cell door. The moment she saw Pei Shaoqing, her eyes turned red. Tears welled as she glared at him, her face full of hatred, but she didn't dare to utter another disrespectful word.
'She'd learned her lesson, apparently.'
But in Pei Shaoqing's eyes, she hadn't learned it nearly well enough.
"Heh. It seems you still haven't learned what kind of attitude to have in my presence." Frowning, he let the words hang in the air and turned as if to leave.
"Don't!" Zhao Zilan broke down instantly, her hands gripping the wooden bars of the cell door as tears streamed down her face. "I... I'm begging you... let us out."
Though she had only spent a single night here and hadn't been tortured herself, she couldn't stand to remain in this living hell for a second longer.
Every moment, she could hear the agonizing, soul-crushing screams of prisoners under torture. At any time, she might see another inmate, beaten half to death and barely recognizable as human, being dragged past her cell.
For Zhao Zilan, who had always been so well-protected.
All of it was a constant, unrelenting torment.
Pei Shaoqing stopped and turned back, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips. "If you're going to beg someone, you should have the right attitude for it."
Zhao Zilan pressed her lips together, staring at him in silence.
She was clearly trying to stubbornly cling to some shred of her dignity.
"Hmph!" Pei Shaoqing flicked his sleeve and once again made to leave.
Zhao Zilan's knees finally buckled, and she fell to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. "Please, my lord, I'm begging you to let us out."
"Junior... Junior Sister..." From the corner, Jiang Yebai, whose face was pale from torture and who could barely even stand, watched the scene with a heart-wrenching agony. He was utterly powerless.
Pei Shaoqing looked down imperiously at Zhao Zilan, this proud young woman, now kneeling at his feet. Her hair was slightly disheveled, and her tear-streaked face made her all the more fetching. Her full chest rose and fell with her sobs. Her pert, peach-like bottom was pressed against her calves, the flesh squeezed so that its elasticity was palpable even through the fabric of her skirt.
'If he were a mountain bandit, a young martial heroine from a prestigious family like this would have treated him with nothing but scorn. But now, as the Young Master of the Marquis's Mansion and a Standard-Bearer of the Jing'an Guard, this same proud heroine of the Jianghu could only kneel at his feet and beg for mercy.'
'Power truly is a captivating thing.'
He bent down slightly and grabbed Zhao Zilan's chin. "See? Wouldn't it have been easier to just do this from the start?"
"You... What do you think you're doing? Let go of my junior sister!" Seeing his beloved junior sister being defiled by those filthy hands, Jiang Yebai yelled, a mixture of rage and panic in his voice.
Without even glancing at him, Pei Shaoqing slid the two fingers on Zhao Zilan's chin upward and shoved them right into her mouth.
Zhao Zilan was instantly filled with shame and fury.
"Dare to bite?" Pei Shaoqing asked nonchalantly.
Zhao Zilan could only shut her eyes in hateful humiliation. She felt his fingers moving wantonly inside her mouth, her heart filled with shame. All she could do was weep silently, her fists clenched and her delicate body trembling.
Clutching her sword, Ye Hanshuang watched this scene without any change in her expression. But her arms were tensing, pressing the longsword in her embrace so hard it sank into her chest.
"AHH! You bastard! Take them out! Take your fingers out of her mouth!" Jiang Yebai's eyes were bloodshot, ready to split with rage. He struggled to his feet to lunge forward and stop it, but collapsed to the ground as soon as he stood. In his despair, he could only crawl toward them, pleading, "Don't do this... I'm begging you, please."
A smile played on Pei Shaoqing's lips as he pulled his fingers from Zhao Zilan's mouth. A glistening thread of saliva stretched from her lips before dripping down her chin. He wiped his saliva-coated fingers on her cheek. "I only stuck my fingers in, not anything else. What are you so worked up about? Have your scars healed so quickly that you've already forgotten the pain?"
"You..." Jiang Yebai was incensed. 'What else were you thinking of sticking in there?' But he was utterly helpless. Crying tears of suppressed rage, he said in a hoarse voice, "If you want something, take it out on me. Don't degrade and humiliate my junior sister."
"Such touching affection between brother and sister!" Pei Shaoqing straightened up and waved a hand. "Let them out."
"Yes, sir!" The prison guard immediately took out a key and opened the cell door.
Zhao Zilan's eyes flew open in disbelief.
Jiang Yebai was likewise frozen in place.
Neither of them had expected this surprise.
Pei Shaoqing explained nonchalantly, "Your master will be working for me from now on. That makes you two my people, so naturally, I can't keep you locked up."
"Impossible! Master would never..." Jiang Yebai blurted out, but his voice died in his throat.
"He'd never become a lackey for a hound of the Imperial Court like me, is that it?" Pei Shaoqing finished his sentence with a smile. "And yet, he did it to save you. Tsk, tsk. I'm quite moved, really."
"AHH!" Hearing that his master had sold himself to Pei Shaoqing to save him, Jiang Yebai was overcome with anguish. He let out a long howl and began repeatedly smashing his head against the wall, sobbing.
"Senior Brother!" Forgetting her own recent humiliation and fury, Zhao Zilan lunged forward and threw her arms around him. "Senior Brother, stop!" she pleaded, her voice thick with tears.
A quarter of an hour later, a carriage carrying Jiang Yebai and Zhao Zilan departed from the Hundred Households' prison, bound for the Pei Mansion.
「At the same time.」
Commander Zheng, who was at home playing chess with County Magistrate Wang, received the important "clue" that Pei Shaoqing had sent to his mansion. He chuckled in amusement. "I never would have thought that for all his arrogance and imperiousness, Young Master Pei knows how to conduct himself."
"He is the son of a duke or marquis, after all, born and raised in the Capital City. Some things one naturally understands from a lifetime of exposure," County Magistrate Wang replied nonchalantly.
Commander Zheng placed a stone on the board. "Since it's such an important clue, you should take some of it back with you later to... analyze."
"Hahaha, you're too kind, too kind." County Magistrate Wang laughed heartily and placed his own stone on the board. "But Commander, do you really believe the Profound Sect rebels were behind the Mo Mansion massacre? I'm not so sure. The Profound Sect has been much quieter these past two years. It doesn't make sense for them to suddenly cause such a major incident."
Commander Zheng, however, was stubborn in his conviction. "Besides the Profound Sect rebels, who else would be so audacious?"
"That's also true," County Magistrate Wang conceded, then shook his head. "Enough shop talk. Let's play, let's play."