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Trigger Warning: Animal abuse & gore in this arc starts at the end of this chapter. As you might guess from the title...:/
Bam! Jing Rong pounded the table again as he rose to his feet. Furiously, he said, “Zuo Yao, even until today, you're still making up excuses!”
“Forgive me, Your Highness!” He raised both his hands and threw himself to the ground, his body shuddering all the while.
“This involves a human life. How dare you ask for forgiveness?” Jing Rong approached him. His eyes glowing with malevolence, he lowered his gaze to stare at the corrupt official. “Whoever made the mistake should be punished. Weren't you happy to receive those silver? Since you accepted it with your two hands, the punishment should be received with the same pair of hands as well.” His tone was laced with a hint of malice.
Zuo Yao did not understand the hidden meaning behind Jing Rong's words. When he lifted his head, he saw Jing Rong step on the wooden rod, kick it up and catch it with his hand. He studied the rod before commenting, “Since Magistrate Zuo brought this wooden rod, I reckon that you’re offering to be punished as a way to seek forgiveness. Just as well, I won’t have to trouble my men to find me another tool to mete out your punishment.”
“Your Highness…”
“Why? Magistrate Zuo, are you scared?”
“N... no…” Of course he’s scared! He’s so terrified his whole body is shivering!
Jing Rong sent him a razor-sharp smile before he tossed the rod to Lang Po and instructed, “Fifty strikes on his palm.”
Lang Po played with the wooden rod as he answered, “Don't worry, Your Highness. Your subordinate will ensure that he receives every single strike.” Chores like carrying out punishments were his forte.
Zuo Yao was dragged out of the room by two guards and tied to a bench. His hands were raised above his head with his palms open and facing up, making him look like a skewered fish.
Zuo Yao was drenched in cold sweat as he stared at the wooden rod, eyes filled with fear. His lips continued to shiver for a long while before he cried for Jing Rong, “Your Highness, this humble official admits his mistake. I am unable to bear these fifty strikes!” In the meantime, Jing Rong was leisurely sipping his cup of tea.
“Slap!” Lang Po did not show any mercy as he carried out the flogging. The wooden rod continued to strike his palms. After merely a dozen strikes, the skin on his palms had already been torn open and was covered in blood. It looked horrifying.
The two guards who had tied Zuo Yao up were gleefully watching the show from the sides. For men like them who had long gotten used to even gorier scenes, these few drops of blood were nothing.
One of the guards needled, “Guard Lang, hit harder! If you continue to apply only this amount of force, it will take two days to heal from the fifty strikes. How can that be a real punishment?”
His peer agreed, “Yes. You need to hit him harder. Otherwise, he will never learn his lesson!”
Lang Po glared at the two guards and passed them the wooden rod. “You two should take over if you have such strong opinions about it.”
“That's fine. His Highness ordered you to do it, not us.” They were not so foolish to take over such a troublesome job.
“Then why are you commenting on the way I work?”
”We were merely making casual remarks. Guard Lang, don't mind us and continue with the punishment.”
How polite they were being! Have they ever considered how Zuo Yao felt when hearing this conversation?
Zuo Yao’s forehead was drenched with sweat and his lips were pale from the excruciating pain. Close to passing out, he leaned his forehead on the bench. The searing hot pain that initially blazed across his palms had been replaced by complete numbness.
In fact, Lang Po was not trying to go easy on him. Instead, he was far smarter than the two guards and understood that the prince did not actually want to cripple Zuo Yao’s hands, or the prince would have ordered him to cut off those hands. It was evident that the prince only wanted to teach Zuo Yao a lesson, not really handicap him.
Therefore, he lifted the rod and struck it on Zuo Yao’s palms again, but reserved more than half of his strength. Before the thirtieth strike, they heard an order. “That’s enough.”
Jing Rong came out of the hall and walked up to Zuo Yao. He threw a cold glance at Zuo Yao’s severely-injured hands. “Magistrate Zuo, can you bear the rest of the strikes?”
Zuo Yao lay there motionlessly. After a while, he finally lifted his head and begged, “Your Highness…please spare my life.”
“After all, Magistrate Zuo is not as stubborn as I thought.”
“This humble one...will never repeat my mistake.”
However, he added, “You have to always remember what you've learned today. Remember all the bribes you've received, and all the unsolved or mishandled cases. If you continue to make these mistakes, I'll not only remove you from your official position, but I'll also have your life as penance. However, if you are willing to atone for your crimes, you should do as I say and cooperate in solving the case of the missing relief silver.”
“Understood,” Zuo Yao answered obediently.
Jing Rong beckoned the two guards over, and ordered them to untie Zuo Yao’s hands. As they pulled his limp body up from the bench, his two bloody hands dangled on his sides and he had difficulty even standing upright. He made for a sorry sight indeed!"
“Send Magistrate Zuo back to the yamen.”
“Yes.” The guards dragged him away.
Lang Po walked up to Jing Rong and asked, “Your Highness, are you going to let him off just like this?”
Jing Rong replied, “The situation at the Imperial Court has not been stable, yet the Ministry of Personnel still chose to submit petitions against me. The root cause of this was the multiple officials i had deposed along my journey. If I insist on firing the magistrate of Yufu County as well, they might shift their crosshairs from Prince Yi to me. Moreover, Zuo Yao has been Yufu County’s magistrate for many years, and he knows the case of the missing silver better than anyone else. It might not be a bad thing at all to keep him around.”
“ So Your Highness has already had everything planned out.”
“He probably has learned his lesson today,” Jing Rong said as he gave Lang Po a side-eye. “How is the investigation of the merchants going?”
“I have ordered Ziran to work on it. I'm positive that Your Highness will hear from him very soon.”
Jing Rong gave a hum of acknowledgement before he returned to the hall.
……
Ji Yunshu sent Shi Ziqin to Zhichun Court to investigate the possible origin of the faint scent of dried orange peel in the scratches on the broken screen corner-pieces.
Shi Ziqin only returned on the second day after she was done with her task. “Teacher Ji, there are indeed a substantial amount of dried orange peel in Zhichun Court. They are used by the ladies to remove their body odour, and can be found in almost every room. However, it only carries a very faint scent.”
“Everyone has it?”
“Yes.”
Ji Yunshu looked into the sky as she got lost in her thoughts. Then, she took out the broken corner-piece to study it again. She mumbled, “These don't seem like scratches left by human nails. Then, where did these scratches come from? Miss Ye'er was a singer, and it was unlikely for her to carry such a strong orange peel scent. It shouldn't be the other ladies too.”
A moment later, she seemed to have discovered something when she asked Shi Ziqin, “Who comes in contact with dried orange peel most frequently? ”
“The cripple!”
“Liang Da?”
“Yes. He prepares the dried orange peel for all the ladies in Zhichun Court.”
This is...interesting!
At that moment, Qiao'er arrived. She heaved a sigh and said, “Somehow, another cat died.”
Ji Yunshu put down the corner-piece and questioned her, “What do you mean by another cat died? Is it common for cats to die here?”
“Yes. Many girls in this city have pet cats. However, every few days or so,a cat will go missing. When their cats are finally found, they all have already died a gruesome death.”
“Tell me more about it.”
Qiao'er knitted her brows together and seemed to be a little scared to speak. She pursed her lips before answering, “When the cats were discovered, they all had been killed by rat poison and were covered in blood. It was as if some animal had ripped open their bellies and torn out their intestines. It was extremely gory.”