“Bah!” Lian Que spat saliva at his face, laughing coldly and weakly saying, “I told you, you can… kill me, but don’t expect… don’t expect to get… anything you want from me.”

Na Yan wiped the saliva from his face, seething anger surging in his heart, his eyes instantly turning red.

“Refusing a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit!”

With those words, he stepped back two paces and raised the whip in his hand, lashing it repeatedly across Lian Que’s chest that had been branded red-hot.

Though the guards were also ruthless, even they found this hard to stomach at this moment!

It was the first time they’d seen their lord torture someone like this.

Such methods—one had to admire them!

That night, Lian Que was tortured until he looked neither human nor ghost.

After fainting multiple times, he was splashed awake with cold water or burned awake with the iron brazier, his entire body covered in countless wounds.

But he was always kept barely alive.

The sky had already begun to brighten.

Na Yan had also grown tired from beating him. He grabbed Lian Que’s hair and yanked it forcefully backward.

“This lord will give you one more day. If you still won’t talk, tonight this lord will hang your corpse at the city gate for everyone to see what happens to those who offend this lord.”

Lian Que, like a corpse, had no strength to resist. He closed his eyes, his breathing faint.

He couldn’t even utter a single word!

Suddenly, someone came from outside the secret chamber, reporting: “Your Highness, Young Master Song has awakened.”

Awakened?

Upon hearing this, Na Yan released Lian Que and instructed the guards nearby: “Watch him carefully. If anything happens, this lord will have your heads.”

“Yes!”

Na Yan patted his sleeves and quickly left the secret chamber.

…

Though Song Zhi had already awakened, he had lost too much blood and couldn’t recover his vitality for the time being.

His complexion had improved considerably though!

He lay weakly on the bed while the imperial physician took his pulse.

“This truly is a miracle!” the imperial physician exclaimed in amazement.

Song Zhi opened his eyes and looked at the bed canopy above, then shifted his gaze to look at the people in the room.

Where was this?

He had completely no memory of it?

His own room was clearly extremely dilapidated, with spider webs still hanging on the roof tiles, but here… it was obviously where people of high status lived.

Could it be that he had entered heaven?

He opened his parched lips, and after a long while finally squeezed out a sound, asking weakly: “Where… is this place?”

The several imperial physicians were still immersed in the amazement of his “resurrection from death,” and with his voice so weak, they didn’t hear him at all.

Na Yan arrived to see him lying on the bed, his eyes listlessly wandering.

The imperial physician quickly said: “Your Highness, Young Master Song is out of danger.”

“So he’s all right then?”

“Now he just needs to rest well and will naturally recover.”

This truly was good news!

Na Yan quickly walked to the bedside and sat down, grasping Song Zhi’s ice-cold hand and breathing a long sigh of relief: “You’ve finally awakened. This lord has been worried about you for so long.”

What?

Song Zhi lightly furrowed his brow.

Looking at the Second Prince before him, he asked in surprise: “Your Highness? Where am I?”

“You’re at this lord’s residence.”

“What?” He was full of confusion, opening his mouth: “I… what happened to me?”

Na Yan was slightly surprised: “You don’t remember?”

“…It seems I…” His voice paused.

What should he remember?

For no reason, how did he end up here?

Na Yan reminded him: “That night at the lantern festival, you blocked a sword for this lord. If not for you, the one lying here today might be this lord.”

Upon hearing this, Song Zhi seemed to remember. He had gone to attend the lantern festival, the Second Prince had summoned him into the pavilion to chat for a while, and afterward many assassins appeared. He had no way to escape and could only hide behind a pillar, but then he saw an assassin about to kill the Second Prince. Without thinking, he had rushed over and immediately took a sword strike.

It seemed… his chest had been pierced through with a gaping wound.

Blood everywhere.

Thinking of this, his chest suddenly ached. He quickly reached to touch his wound.

But Na Yan stopped him in time and informed him: “Your chest was wounded by a sword, don’t touch it.”

This pain actually jolted Song Zhi awake. He came to his senses and asked: “How long have I been asleep?”

“Two days and two nights.”

“Two days and two nights? I thought… I thought I was dead.” Song Zhi truly thought he had died. How could he have known that upon opening his eyes, he was actually still in the mortal world, and in the Second Prince’s residence at that.

Na Yan smiled slightly: “You saved this lord, how could this lord let you die? This life-saving grace, this lord is waiting to repay it.”

“I wouldn’t dare!”

“Of course you dare.” Na Yan said earnestly, “In any case, the most important thing now is your health. You can recover from your injuries at ease in this lord’s residence. You needn’t worry about anything else—this lord will arrange everything for you.”

These words carried deep implications.

But how could this bookworm Song Zhi understand?

Bookworm, you’re about to strike it rich!

“Thank… thank you, Your Highness, but…”

“No buts! You rest well, and if you need anything just speak up.” Na Yan patted the back of his hand. “Then this lord won’t disturb you. I’ll come see you again later.”

Then he went out.

The imperial physician also followed out closely.

Na Yan confirmed again and again: “Young Master Song is truly all right?”

The imperial physician affirmed: “Your Highness can rest assured, Young Master Song is truly fine now. This subject will prescribe several doses of medicine to recuperate him, and he’ll naturally be fine.”

“Mm, that’s good then.”

Finally he could breathe a sigh of relief.

By now, the sky had gradually brightened.

The Marquis of Nanguo hadn’t rested all night.

He’d been waiting for news the whole time.

It wasn’t until daybreak that one of the men in blue robes he’d sent out returned.

The Marquis of Nanguo asked: “Did you find him?” The man’s expression was grave: “The Second Prince now has very tight security. We infiltrated the prince’s residence and searched for a long time, but we couldn’t find Lian Que. We don’t know where exactly the Second Prince has imprisoned him. When day broke, we didn’t dare continue searching in the residence to avoid being discovered, so we could only return first to report to the marquis.”

“How could a living person just disappear? Have you really searched everywhere carefully?”

“We’ve already searched everywhere, but didn’t find him.”

“Has he already been taken out of the residence?”

The man shook his head: “Our people have been guarding outside the residence the whole time. All night, people only went in, no one came out.”

“That’s strange then!” The Marquis of Nanguo frowned, pondering carefully. “If he wasn’t taken out of the residence, and he’s not in the residence either, then where could he be?”

“Marquis, what do we do now?”

“If we can’t even find him, even if we had a way to get in and rescue him it would be useless.”

“What if Brother Lian has already…” Died? “He hasn’t!” The Marquis of Nanguo immediately interrupted, saying with great certainty, “Given the Second Prince’s temperament, he will definitely try every method to get Lian Que to tell him who the person was who tried to assassinate him at the lantern festival! So he temporarily won’t take Lian Que’s life! And if he were dead, he should have been carried out of the residence. The only fear is… that Lian Que is now suffering a fate worse than death.”

Ugh! “Bang!” Suddenly the sound of a fist slamming against the doorframe came from the entrance.