Bang!

Jingrong slapped the table and stood up.

His face full of fury, “Zuo Yao, even now, you’re still making excuses.”

“Your Highness, forgive me!” He raised both hands high and threw himself heavily to the ground again.

His body trembling.

“Human life is paramount—how can there be talk of forgiveness?” Jingrong walked before him, looking down at that corrupt official, his stern eyes suddenly rising with a fierce intensity. “Where the mistake was made, punishment shall be received there. Don’t you love accepting private silver? Since it was received with both hands, naturally, it should also be returned with both hands.”

His tone carried murderous intent.

Zuo Yao didn’t understand the meaning of these words. Just as he raised his head, he saw the stick lying horizontally before him stepped on by Jingrong’s foot, then rolled and shifted.

The stick was flipped up and caught accurately in his hand.

He weighed it a few times. “Since Magistrate Zuo brought a stick, he must want to bear thorns to plead guilty. This way, it also saves this prince from having to send someone to find an instrument of punishment.”

“Your Highness…”

“What? Is Magistrate Zuo afraid?”

“No… no!”

Of course he was afraid—afraid until his whole body trembled.

Jingrong smiled coldly and threw the stick directly to Lang Bo.

He issued the order!

“Fifty strikes to the palms.”

Lang Bo handled the stick. “Your Highness, rest assured. This subordinate will not spare a single strike.”

This kind of work of beating people—he was most skilled at it.

Zuo Yao was dragged out by two guards and bound entirely to a bench, his hands raised over his head, palms spread open.

Like a salted fish skewered on a stick!

He broke out in cold sweat, looking with terror-filled eyes at the stick about to fall, his lips trembling for a long while before he shouted toward Jingrong inside the hall, “Your Highness, this humble official knows he was wrong. These fifty strikes—I cannot endure them!”

Inside, Jingrong leisurely drank his tea.

“Thud!”

Lang Bo showed no mercy, striking with extreme force.

One strike after another!

After just over ten strikes, Zuo Yao’s palms were beaten into a bloody mess.

Gruesome.

The two guards who had bound Zuo Yao watched the spectacle from the side. They were all tough men accustomed to bloody scenes—that blood really wasn’t much to them.

One of them said, “Guard Lang, use a bit more force! Hitting like this, after fifty strikes, he’ll recover in two days. How is that punishing someone?”

The other chimed in, “That’s right, hit harder, or he won’t learn his lesson.”

Lang Bo glared at the two men and extended the stick. “Come, come, come—you do it.”

“Never mind. His Highness ordered you to carry it out, not us two.”

A hot potato—they weren’t foolish enough to take it on.

“Then why are you two talking so much?”

“We’re just speaking casually. Guard Lang, you hit, you hit.”

How polite!

Have you considered Zuo Yao’s feelings?

He was in such pain that sweat poured from his forehead, his lips turned white, his head pressed against the bench—he nearly passed out. His hands, originally burning with fiery pain from the beating, now had completely lost all sensation.

Completely numb!

It wasn’t that Lang Bo wasn’t using force—it was just that he was somewhat smarter than those two men. He knew his prince didn’t truly want to cripple Zuo Yao’s hands. Otherwise, dragging him out and directly chopping off both hands—wouldn’t that be more straightforward? Clearly, His Highness just wanted to teach him a lesson, not actually take his hands.

Therefore, holding the stick, he held back seventy percent of his strength and struck down again.

Until he had struck thirty times—

A voice finally came from inside the hall: “That’s enough.”

Jingrong came out, walked before Zuo Yao, and looked coldly at his nearly pulverized hands.

“Magistrate Zuo, can you still endure more?”

Zuo Yao lay there motionless. After a long while, he finally raised his head. “Your Highness… spare my life.”

“So Magistrate Zuo isn’t as tough as this prince thought.”

“This humble official… will never dare again.”

“Good. Then this prince will spare you this once.”

How generous!

However, he continued, “But the lesson of today—remember it well. The matter of you accepting bribes and wrongly deciding cases isn’t finished yet. If you refuse to reform after repeated instruction, this prince will not only remove your official hat—your dog life, you can forget about keeping as well. But if you want to lighten your crimes somewhat, you’d better cooperate with this prince and thoroughly investigate the matter of the disaster relief silver.”

“Yes!”

His attitude was fairly good!

Jingrong then signaled those two guards to untie him and drag him up from the bench. His bloody hands hung at his sides, his body also drooping.

Half-dead!

But also somewhat pitiable.

“Send Magistrate Zuo back to the yamen.”

“Yes.”

The guards dragged him away.

Lang Bo stepped forward and asked, “Your Highness, just let him go like this?”

Jingrong replied, “Right now, the court’s political situation is already unstable. The Ministry of Personnel submitted a memorial impeaching this prince at this critical juncture. The fuse was originally created by this prince dismissing officials along the way. If I continue now to dismiss this magistrate of Yu Prefecture, who knows—the spearhead originally pointing at Prince Yi might end up pointing at this prince instead. Moreover, Zuo Yao has been the magistrate of Yu Prefecture for so many years. He knows more about the disaster relief silver matter than anyone. Keeping him for now isn’t a bad thing.”

“So Your Highness had a plan all along.”

“Having taught him a lesson today, I estimate he should have learned to behave.” He pondered, then looked sideways at Lang Bo. “The matter I had you investigate about that merchant household—how is it going?”

“It’s already been assigned. Ziran is also investigating. I believe there will be news soon.”

“Mm.”

He nodded lightly and returned inside the hall.

…

Because the several scratch marks on the corner piece had the scent of aged tangerine, Ji Yunshu immediately ordered Shi Zijin to secretly make a trip to Zhichun Tower.

To investigate.

By the time he returned from his investigation, it was already the next day.

“Master Ji, Zhichun Tower does indeed have large quantities of aged tangerine. Those women inside use it to dispel unpleasant odors, so they all keep some in their rooms. Almost everyone has it, but the scent is very faint.”

“Everyone has it?”

“Yes.”

Ji Yunshu looked toward the sky, pondering something in her heart, and once again took out that corner piece to examine it.

She muttered to herself, “Since these three marks don’t seem to have been made by human fingernails, then what could they be? Miss Ye’er was a songstress—naturally, she wouldn’t carry such a heavy scent of aged tangerine on her person. Those other young ladies couldn’t either.”

After a moment, she thought of something else and asked Shi Zijin, “Do you know who has the most contact with that aged tangerine?”

“That cripple!”

“Liangda?”

“It’s him. He prepares all the aged tangerine for all the young ladies at Zhichun Tower.”

This was…

Interesting!

At this moment, Qiao’er came in.

She sighed. “I don’t know what’s going on, but another cat has died.”

Ji Yunshu set down the corner piece and asked her, “What do you mean ‘another cat has died’? Do cats die here frequently?”

“Yes, in our county town, many young ladies like to keep cats, but every few days one goes missing. By the time they’re found, the cats are already dead, and their deaths are extremely horrifying.”

“Tell me about it.”

Qiao’er’s brow furrowed slightly, seeming somewhat frightened. She pressed her lips together before speaking. “When those cats are found, they’ve all been poisoned with rat poison. Moreover, their bellies look as if they’ve been gnawed on by something—covered in blood, their intestines dragged onto the ground. It looks very gruesome.”