Qian Renxue nodded. Having impersonated Xue Qinghe for years, she naturally knew that the harshest punishment generally handed down to members of the imperial family was execution. The next harshest was confinement. Due to the special status of imperial family members, many punishments were handled internally by the royal family rather than by judicial authorities. Thus, for crimes that did not warrant death, the lighter punishment was a fine and confiscation of property, while the heavier one was confinement—essentially the equivalent of an ordinary person being sent to prison.
However, such confinement generally did not last very long. Since it was handled privately within the royal family, a royal member being absent for too long would certainly affect the family's prestige and reputation. Even a year of confinement was considered lengthy.
Mo Lin continued:
"Since I wanted Xue Ye to give me a relatively severe punishment, I needed to take indirect responsibility for some more serious cases. What I took responsibility for today was the theft last night."
Qian Renxue's beautiful eyes blinked lightly, as though she had understood something:
"You didn't push all the blame for this onto your brother, did you?"
As Mo Lin's "bedmate," Qian Renxue naturally knew what his eldest brother and second sister did all day long. Besides, hadn't he already come clean about it once before?
Mo Lin shrugged, looking utterly helpless.
"There was no helping it. I merely went with the flow. My eldest brother really did take part in last night's operation, and he's built up quite a reputation in the underworld. Back then, in order to let my 'pleasure-seeker' brother vent his desires a little, I had to carefully maneuver around Xue Ye and Xue Beng. Today, all that effort finally paid off—I successfully diverted their attention."
"Then that means we'll