Chapter 154



154 Don’t Mess Around

Inside Prince Min’s Mansion, the Eagle Guards pushed open the main door of the Daoguang Pavilion.

Smoke lingered in the pavilion. Prince Min, who was dressed in a green Daoist robe, was sitting cross-legged on a meditation cushion, facing the portrait of the Three Pure Ones.

Hearing the door open, he turned around and saw Xiao Juan striding in.

Prince Min did not look pleased. “What are you doing here?”

Xiao Juan first looked at the portrait of the Three Pure Ones hanging on the wall before speaking.

“Isn’t it a little late to be praying?”

Prince Min snorted. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

Xiao Juan said in a low voice, “The person you sent out last night hasn’t returned yet.”

Prince Min was stunned for a moment before he realized that the people he had sent out had been followed by the Eagle Guards!

He laughed in anger. “Ha! No wonder I could send the message so easily. It’s because you deliberately let someone go easy on me. As expected of you. I was actually tricked by you!”

Xiao Juan had no intention of wasting his breath on him and asked directly.

“Who did you send out the man to find?”

Prince Min stood up and straightened his neck. “Why should I tell you?!”

Xiao Juan slowly walked up to him. His voice was neither fast nor slow, and it was filled with pressure.

“If you don’t say it, the crime of the anti-government poetry case will fall on you and Shen Xu. When the two of you become ghosts under the swords, don’t come and complain to me.”

Prince Min clenched his horsetail whisk and gritted his teeth.

“Don’t think I don’t know that you want to use me as a scapegoat just because you can’t find the mastermind behind the anti-government poetry case. The emperor won’t allow you to do such a thing!”

Xiao Juan looked at him sympathetically.

He looked at him as if she were a pitiful ant.

“Uncle, have you ever thought about why the emperor never mentioned letting you free when Prince Min’s residence has been sealed for so many days? Without the emperor’s approval, no matter how much power I have, I can’t put you under house arrest.”

Prince Min’s brain felt like it had been hit hard. He froze in place, his brain buzzing.

His eyes widened incredulously.

“Y-you mean, Imperial Brother wants me to…”

He couldn’t bring himself to say the word “die.”

Xiao Juan did not answer.

In Prince Min’s eyes, his attitude was equivalent to a tacit agreement.

Prince Min felt weak all over. He swayed and fell onto the meditation cushion. His face was pale as he muttered.

“No, Imperial Brother won’t be like this.”

However, as he spoke, he could not continue.

Because he remembered what the emperor had done these past few years.

When the emperor was young, he was ambitious and hardworking. He was also quite tolerant of his brothers.

However, as he grew older, the old emperor’s paranoia became worse. In order to better monitor the civil and military officials, he specially set up the Justice Department.

The Justice Department was directly under the Emperor’s jurisdiction. It could monitor all officials and act accordingly.

Over the past few years, more officials had died in the Justice Department’s prison. Even some of the royal family had suffered.

Prince Min had thought he would be fine. After all, he was just an idle prince with no real power. He was no threat to the emperor. There was no need for the emperor to trouble himself with him.

Unexpectedly, he was too naive.

The more Prince Min thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt. His fingers trembled uncontrollably.

Xiao Juan looked down at him.

“If you want to live, tell me everything you know. As long as you can find the mastermind behind the anti-government poetry case, you and Shen Xu will be exonerated.”

Prince Min knew in his heart that Xiao Juan had deliberately told him these things to force him to tell the truth.

And he had no choice.

He lowered his head dejectedly and said hoarsely, “Okay, I’ll tell you everything.”

It turned out that someone had quietly found Prince Min and given him an address long before the Eagle Guards started investigating the anti-government poetry case.

“That person was a wandering Daoist priest. He claimed to be very experienced in seeking longevity and wanted to share his experience with me. I met him with a skeptical attitude. After a conversation, I realized that he indeed had some real talent and interacted with him more and more frequently. However, one day, he suddenly disappeared. Before he left, he left a letter and said that if I was in trouble, I could send someone to that address to look for him. He would help me.”

Xiao Juan asked in a low voice, “What about the letter?”

Prince Min hesitated before pulling the letter out of his sleeve.

The Traveling Monk had reminded him in the letter to burn it after he read it before anyone found out.

But Prince Min was not completely brainless. He knew that if he burned the letters and was really exposed in the future, no one would believe him even if he told the truth.

In order to leave himself an escape route, he chose to keep the letter.

Xiao Juan took out the letter and quickly read the contents.

The address mentioned in the letter was the Zhang family’s guest house. If you went out from the east city gate and walked along the official road for ten miles, you would see it.

He asked Yan Nanguan to immediately bring someone to the Zhang family’s guest house.

Yan Nanguan accepted the order and left.

Xiao Juan looked down at Prince Min, who was sitting on the meditation cushion, and said slowly.

“You have to return to the Justice Department with me.”

Prince Min was terrified. “No! I’m not going to the Justice Department!”

It was said that the torture methods in the Justice Department were extremely cruel. Anyone who was locked up would be skinned regardless of their official status.

He was already old. If he was locked up in the Justice Department, he might not be able to come out alive.

However, Xiao Juan did not give him a chance to refuse and directly brought him back to the Justice Department.

Prince Min was led to the interrogation room.

He was uneasy and trembling. His eyes kept looking around, and at the same time, he did not forget to threaten him.

“Don’t mess around. I’m the emperor’s younger brother, a proper prince. If you dare to abuse your punishment on me, the spokesperson will definitely not let you off.”

Xiao Juan looked at him coldly. “I invited you over because I want you to answer a few questions. As long as you cooperate obediently, we won’t make things difficult for you.”

Prince Min looked at him skeptically.

Xiao Juan instructed Meng Xizhou softly.

“Go get Yu Niaoniao.”

“There.”

Meng Xizhou accepted the order and left.

Prince Min deliberately looked disdainful and said sarcastically.

“Did you specially bring me here to let Yu Niaoniao see me being tortured with her own eyes? Are you taking revenge for your fiancée? I really didn’t expect the murderous Duke Lang to have such a loving side. If this matter gets out, who knows how many people will laugh their teeth off?”

Xiao Juan ignored him.

It wasn’t long before Lo Pingsha led Yu Niaoniao in, followed by four other artists.

Prince Min clearly did not expect so many people to come at once. He was stunned.

Yu Niaoniao was in class when she suddenly received a message from Prince Lang. He said that a new job was coming and asked her to come to the interrogation room immediately.

So she moved the class from the morgue to the interrogation room.