“The children are still young, barely three months old. They can’t be separated from…”
“But the Emperor has issued a decree!”
The secret agent’s hand caressed Qin Yining’s face repeatedly, his gaze gradually becoming burning hot, his voice carrying excitement and trembling. “The Emperor ordered me to bring both children into the palace. As you said, they’re only three months old, and it’s freezing cold outside. I really can’t guarantee whether they’ll be safe on the road, Your Highness?”
Qin Yining pressed her pale lips tightly together. After a moment, she said, “If you harm them, you won’t be able to report back to the Son of Heaven, will you? Do you think the Son of Heaven will spare you then? Do you know what the Son of Heaven captured us for? Our lives are in danger, but the Son of Heaven hopes to see all our lives used ‘where they matter most.'”
“Is that so?” the secret agent said. “When you put it that way, it does make sense. Anyway, they’re dragon and phoenix twins. Leaving behind the boy to report back would be enough. As for the girl, females have always been weaker by nature and can’t withstand the northern wind and snow.”
Qin Yining’s pupils suddenly contracted, her face turning ashen.
Ji Yun gritted her teeth and roared angrily, “You despicable scoundrel!”
The wet nurses hugged the two children tighter, their eyes full of wariness.
Xie Yue, Jingzhe, Shopkeeper Zhong, and others wished they could break free from their prison and fight this secret agent to the death. Everyone cursed loudly: “Despicable scoundrel, taking advantage of people in distress! What kind of good man are you!”
The angry curses echoed in the prison cell. But that secret agent had a smile on his face, his eyes burning as he stared at Qin Yining’s lovely face, playing with her long hair in his hands.
“So, how have you considered it?”
Qin Yining closed her eyes.
She didn’t dare gamble.
She knew Li Qitian would use her children to threaten Pang Xiao. In a man’s heart, children were naturally more important than his wife. But she couldn’t be certain whether the person before her would understand this principle, or if he might secretly harm her children.
She really didn’t dare gamble. She couldn’t lose either Xuan Ge’er or Yun Jie’er.
“Fine.” Qin Yining suddenly opened her eyes, a cold light seeming to flash in them. “But I don’t want it here. There are too many people here.”
The secret agent was overjoyed, laughing heartily, “Good, good, good! We should at least have a bed to match Your Highness’s noble status. This way, Prince Zhongshun and I could be considered to have shared the same boots?”
While speaking, he lifted Qin Yining by the collar, embracing her as he walked out, instructing the jailers of the Ministry of Justice prison: “Go, clear out a place for me.”
“Yes! Please take care, sir.” The jailer grinned and led the secret agent outside.
“Your Highness! Your Highness!” Ji Yun, Bingtang, and other female family members all began crying in despair.
Xie Yue and others had bloodshot eyes, their angry roars echoing throughout the entire dungeon. But they were bound and could do nothing at all. Along this journey, they had endured beatings and insults, but now that the princess consort had to accompany such a despicable scoundrel because of their failure to protect her, how could they bear it? And how would they explain this to the prince?
“This old man has failed the prince, failed the prince!” Xie Yue wept, sighing toward heaven.
Liao Zhibing gritted his teeth and said, “We must find a way. Even if we’re seeking redemption, we must take the princess consort, the young master, and young miss out before we die!”
“Right!” Everyone agreed, racking their brains for solutions.
The secret agent had already wrapped his arm around Qin Yining’s shoulder and turned a corner, arriving at a solitary prison cell. This cell had an iron door with only a small window at the bottom, apparently for delivering food.
The jailer took out keys and opened the door, smiling, “Master Nie, this is the only ‘single room’ in our prison. Please make do. Although it won’t block sound, at least those people can’t see.”
The secret agent couldn’t care about such things now. He was already impatient, pushing open the door and shoving Qin Yining inside.
In the narrow cell stood a wooden plank bed covered with moldy straw. On the wall was a small window showing the gray-white winter afternoon sky, with a thin layer of snow falling.
Qin Yining was pressed down onto the wooden plank bed. Her hands were bound behind her back. She twisted her body slightly, her soft voice carrying a hint of breathlessness, “You, you should untie my hands first. This is too uncomfortable.”
The secret agent was already burying his head in her neck, kissing wildly, coldly sneering in a rough voice, “Don’t even think about it. As long as your legs aren’t tied, that’s enough. I don’t trust you!”
Then came the sound of tearing fabric throughout the cell.
In this gloomy prison with damp walls that provided no sound insulation, everything could be heard clearly.
Everyone wanted to make noise to cover those sounds, but they didn’t know what else they could say.
Bingtang cried until her eyes swelled like walnuts, covering her mouth as she sobbed, murmuring, “What can we do? This is a dead end, a dead end…”
Given the prince and princess consort’s feelings for each other, after going through such an ordeal, could the princess consort still live?
The wet nurses hugged the children while weeping, feeling both pity and moved. For mothers, strength comes from love, comes from being strong. Even the most unbreachable bottom lines could be abandoned for the sake of children.
Just as everyone was at a loss and in despair, suddenly came a man’s scream from the distance, followed by intermittent, chaotic, unbearable cursing.
“Let, let go, you, bitch! Let…”
The jailer had been eavesdropping outside, but hearing something wrong, he quickly rushed in. As soon as he pulled open the iron door, he saw the woman with hands bound behind her back straddling the half-dressed man, like a wild wolf, fiercely biting the man’s neck.
The man’s carotid artery had been bitten through by sharp canine teeth, blood flowing like a fountain. The woman was splattered with blood all over her face and body, but still held tightly to his neck without letting go.
The secret agent pushed with his hands and threw punches at her head and face. Qin Yining endured it all but simply would not release her bite.
Either he would beat her to death today, and if she died, she could let the whole world know how the Son of Heaven treated the families of meritorious officials. Then perhaps her children and those around her might still have a chance to be saved.
But if he couldn’t beat her to death, she would take this bastard’s life!
How could she allow such a person who might harm her children to remain alive in this world? Since he worked for the Son of Heaven and could think of such crooked schemes, and Li Qitian, birds of a feather flocking together, couldn’t see this person’s true nature, she would help Li Qitian clean house!
The smell of blood filled her nostrils. Qin Yining didn’t know how much blood she had swallowed, even her hair was soaked with blood into strands.
The secret agent could only scream in agony.
The jailer hurried forward to pull at Qin Yining, but the scene was too horrifying. Even he, a grown man, was frightened cold by this bloody scene, yet this woman stubbornly refused to let go!
Finally, with great difficulty, he grabbed her hair and pulled her away, only to see the woman still had a piece of flesh and skin in her mouth!
She was covered head to toe in blood, only her eye whites particularly bright in the dim light, smiling wickedly at him as she spat out that piece of flesh with a “ptooey.”
Meanwhile, the secret agent was now covering his neck with his whole body trembling, fresh blood “spurting” out from between his fingers. He was like a fish out of water, eyes wide and mouth agape, but to no avail.
“Go. Tell your Son of Heaven.” Qin Yining’s hands were still bound as she swung her long legs over and jumped down from the bed.
The jailer was frightened by her blood-soaked appearance and bright eyes, stepping back.
“…Tell him that the person he sent didn’t follow orders and tried to kill important hostages. I’ve dealt with him.” Her usually soft and low voice, perhaps nourished by human blood, had gained several notes of metallic resonance, echoing in the quiet cell where a pin drop could be heard. “Also tell your Son of Heaven that if he wants to negotiate, then negotiate properly. If he wants to use us as hostages, we’re willing to cooperate. My two children and I can only die together. If he tries to kill any one of us separately, I’ll make his efforts worthless—he won’t be able to use a single hostage!”
Her resolute tone was filled with a death wish.
At worst, it would be mutual destruction!
If she and the children were no longer there to restrain him, Pang Xiao wouldn’t have to be cautious about everything. If news of their deaths spread, given Pang Xiao’s deep affection, he might not even bother with the Tatars and could directly lead his army back to attack the capital.
This was absolutely not what Li Qitian wanted to see.
Li Qitian would definitely try to make maximum use of them as hostages.
The secret agent’s legs twitched a few times. His eyes stared wide as he desperately clutched his collar, then stopped moving.
In the cell full of fresh blood and the smell of blood, the jailer dazedly came to his senses, swallowed, and nodded frantically.
Qin Yining walked toward the door. The jailer was so frightened he stepped back, hesitating for a moment before daring to follow her toward the original holding cell.
Xie Yue, Bingtang, and others had long heard the commotion, each craning their necks to look out. Seeing Qin Yining’s blood-soaked appearance, they gasped, but noticing that only her collar was slightly disheveled while everything else seemed normal, they secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
“Your Highness…” Bingtang choked up.
Qin Yining passed by their cell, smiling reassuringly. But a person covered in blood smiling only created a sinister and terrifying impression, providing no comfort at all.
“Don’t worry. I bit that bastard to death.”
“Bit, bit to death?”
“Mm.”
The jailer pushed Qin Yining into the cell, like he was afraid a fierce beast might escape and bite someone. His hands quickly locked the cell door, then he hurried out to call colleagues from the neighboring cell to help, shouting loudly: “Something’s wrong! Something’s wrong! The princess consort bit Master Nie to death!”
Bingtang, Ji Yun, and others all crowded toward Qin Yining’s side, looking at her through the cell bars. “Your Highness, how are you?”
Qin Yining smiled and sat wearily on the moldy straw. Only then did she feel darkness before her eyes, her whole body aching, especially her head. Moving even slightly made her dizzy.
It must have been because that “Master Nie” had hit her too hard when he resisted.
“I’m fine. Won’t die.” Qin Yining closed her eyes, the back of her head resting against the ice-cold wall, murmuring, “After this commotion, let’s see who else dares to have crooked thoughts. Li Qitian wants living hostages to threaten Pang Zhixi to return to the capital. If Pang Zhixi learns of our deaths, then it won’t be just him returning alone to the capital to report, but bringing his army to attack directly. Soldiers who have just killed Tatars and seen blood—isn’t Li Qitian afraid? Heh.”
Though her words were tough, her disheveled appearance covered in blood looked nothing like that at all.
A woman who nearly lost her chastity, who bit through a man’s throat with her own mouth and was splattered with his warm blood.
How desperate must she have been to do such a thing…
Bingtang’s heart ached as she burst into tears, even forgetting proper address: “Miss, Miss, why hasn’t the prince come yet? Why hasn’t he come to save you?”