Bai Qingxuan opened his mouth, babbling “yiya yiya” with a voice as hoarse and unpleasant as a crow’s, making it impossible for anyone to distinguish what he was saying.
What Squire Wang found most annoying were these treasured possessions of his son. He grabbed his son’s arm and dragged him out of the room, instructing the steward: “Hurry up and deal with this! Don’t leave any traces!”
Bai Qingxuan’s “yiya” sounds became even more shrill, hoarse, and sharp like cat claws scraping across a porcelain fish tank, extremely uncomfortable to hear.
The Wang family was just preparing to strangle those children and throw them into the dry well when suddenly thunderous gong sounds rang out from Nine Curves Alley.
Before the shouts from outside the courtyard could reach them, the servants and old women in the yard began screaming and shouting first.
“Disaster! Fire! Fire!”
Thick black smoke continuously billowed upward from the Wang family’s back courtyard. The cries of “Fire!” in Nine Curves Alley grew louder and louder, as if adding fuel to the flames’ arrogance. The fire suddenly shot up high, and the Wang family’s back courtyard was immediately engulfed in firelight and thick smoke.
The Wang family’s maids and servant women covered their mouths and noses with wet handkerchiefs, supporting the Wang family’s old matriarch and their respective masters as they rushed out through the hanging flower gate like a swarm, running outside.
The servants carrying water buckets to fight the fire felt that the deeper they ran inside, the more terrifying the heat waves became. The heat waves hitting their faces carried the heavy smell of fire oil—this was arson.
The fire followed the wind, pouncing directly toward the hanging flower gate, its fangs and claws devouring courtyard after courtyard. The carved beams and painted rafters of the nine-curved corridor were soon blackened by the thick smoke. The grass and plants in the Wang residence curled up under the heat waves, and the tall trees were smoked black…
When servants splashed water buckets upward, the flames would shrink back, but moments later would “whoosh” and shoot up high again. The fierce fire tongues darted up and down chaotically, while the blue base flames at the bottom of the fire steadily devoured the wooden pillars and eaves.
“Master! Someone set the fire! It’s all the smell of fire oil!”
Seeing the Wang family fire growing fiercer, neighbors all sent out their household guards and servants to help fight the fire. After all, if the Wang residence fire couldn’t be extinguished… it would burn to their homes too.
“Save people! Save people first! There are people in the back courtyard… a group of children! Hurry!”
Squire Wang’s face changed drastically, unable to even say a word of refusal.
Now, many common people were surrounding Nine Curves Alley, and even more were helping to rescue people and fight fires. He couldn’t very well stop them from saving people!
But if people were rescued, the matter couldn’t be concealed anymore.
“Oh my! Children!” Someone among the common people suddenly realized, “Weren’t those who went to beat the Dengwen Drum looking for children? That couple filed a complaint against the Wang family of Nine Curves Alley and Prince Liang for using children to refine elixirs, stealing many children! Could those be those children?”
“If those are those children, that would be good! At least they’re still alive, so their parents still have some hope!”
“Hurry and save people!”
The common people shouted at those guards fighting the fire.
“Father! Father, what should we do?!” Wang Kun stepped forward and asked his father in a lowered voice.
People continuously rushed out of the Wang residence’s main gate and several side gates, covering their faces with handkerchiefs. Several of Squire Wang’s beloved concubines had all been blackened by smoke, some with their hair singed by fire. Sporting smoking hair, they rushed toward Squire Wang, crying and shouting: “Master… what should we do! All my valuables are still in the room! And the property deeds and land deeds you gave me, what should we do?!”
“You should be glad to be alive! Still worrying about valuables!” Squire Wang’s legitimate wife sneered, unable to stand the concubines’ seductive behavior. Maintaining her dignity as the main wife, she said: “Master, the smell of fire oil is so obvious, clearly someone committed arson! I think we should quickly send a steward to report to the authorities! Perhaps before the fire finishes burning, we can still investigate something!”
Seeing that Squire Wang was only staring fixedly at the gate, not knowing what he was thinking, Squire Wang’s legitimate wife turned her head and instructed a servant woman beside her to send someone to report to the authorities.
“Report to what authorities? Saving the fire and people comes first!” Squire Wang said this in a hoarse voice.
Squire Wang’s fists were tightly clenched, his lips pressed into a straight line, staring fixedly at the guards and servants going in and out with water buckets.
At this moment, how could Squire Wang care about so much? Under the watchful eyes of so many people, he only hoped that fire would burn everything inside clean, burning those children and his son’s unsavory things to ashes without a trace.
Unfortunately, things went against his wishes. Soon, the patrol battalion heard the news and rushed over with men, ordering the patrol battalion soldiers to rush in to save people and fight the fire.
Those children in the Wang family home that hadn’t yet been disposed of, along with Wang Kun’s beloved objects, were rescued. Some cried for their parents with burns, some were already frightened senseless, and some clever ones held onto the soldiers who rescued them, begging for their lives.
Squire Wang’s mind was filled with only two words: “It’s over.” It was too late to run.
At this time, Prince Liang was kneeling before the Emperor.
The Emperor had just angrily swept his sleeves and left, leaving behind the Crown Prince, Dali Temple Minister Lu Jin, and the Imperial Censor in the hall, precisely to avoid them and meet alone with Prince Liang, whom he had summoned to the palace.
“Speak! What exactly is this matter of refining elixirs with children?!” The Emperor suppressed the fury in his voice, his blazing eyes staring unblinkingly at Prince Liang kneeling on the blue stone floor.
Though the Emperor’s voice wasn’t loud, it still frightened Prince Liang into trembling. He lowered his head and said in an extremely small voice: “After your son first presented elixirs to Imperial Father, Imperial Father’s headache condition still flared up once. Your son was extremely worried and went to ask the immortal master. The immortal master said… when ordinary families want to extend their elders’ lives, they only need blood献血 from children of their bloodline! But Imperial Father is the Son of Heaven, and your son is getting older, not as pure as the fresh blood of children under ten years old. He said that using the blood of boys and girls under ten together with your son’s blood in the medicine would make the medicinal power much better, so your son…”
Prince Liang rolled up his sleeves. Deep and shallow knife scars were still visible on Prince Liang’s arms—some had healed and appeared pink, others were slightly deeper, but all were fresh wounds from recent months.
Hearing this, the Emperor stood up, walked around the desk, and looked down at Prince Liang’s arm, his fists tightening at his sides.
This child, how could he be so…
Prince Liang looked up at the Emperor with tearful eyes, then kowtowed again: “At first… your son used your son’s blood, but just as the immortal master said, when used on Imperial Father, the effect was negligible.”
Prince Liang began crying again as he spoke.
“Your son knows that refining elixirs using boys and girls is too cruel, but when your son thinks about… thinks about how Imperial Father has worked tirelessly for the Kingdom and people all these years, working from dawn to dusk, and ended up with chronic ailments, your son cannot sleep at night. When your son saw that Imperial Father’s condition improved so remarkably after taking the immortal elixirs refined with boys and girls, thinking… if it could strengthen Imperial Father’s body and extend your life, even if it meant going through mountains of knives and seas of fire, your son would be willing! Your son was afraid that if Imperial Father knew, you would find this matter too cruel and refuse to take the elixirs anymore, so your son acted in secret. Please punish your son, Imperial Father!”
Prince Liang knocked his head against the ground, hitting the blue stone floor with resounding thuds.