"Your body, hair, and skin are gifts from your parents and must not be harmed. Open your mouth!"
Little Pillar picked up a thin slice of flesh and tried to stuff it into the captain's mouth.
The captain whimpered, his teeth clenched and lips sealed tight as he shook his head frantically. Every part of him rejected it. He was terrified of eating his own flesh, and his wild struggling aggravated the pain from his broken bones and the blade wounds that had pierced through him. Though he could only make muffled sounds with his mouth shut, they carried a trace of misery.
In the end, the thin slice of flesh never made it into his mouth. Little Pillar tossed it to the ground, then looked at the captain, who had visibly breathed a sigh of relief. "Now tell us. Who told you to do this?"
"It was this lowly one's own decision..."
Little Pillar had been wiping his dagger with a rag. Hearing that, he paused and made as if to continue the torture.
The captain hurriedly said, "It truly was this lowly one's own decision. Your Excellency's transfer orders reached Fushi after the Lantern Festival. Once, while drinking with the commander, he said that once Your Excellency took office, our good days would be over. We might even be implicated—dismissed, have our homes confiscated, and sent to the front lines to die. He also said that anyone who killed Your Excellency surely would not die.
"After all, we are far from the Emperor's reach. We could fake our deaths and escape, then assume new identities. Besides, all the civil and military officials in the city, high and low, would be glad to see it happen. They might even promote us further and give us better prospects. This lowly