Prisoners

Within the Criminal Tribunal of the Martial Suppression Office, three sealed stone chambers stood side by side. Their heavy walls blocked all sound and sight.

Chun Tao, Wang Yu, and Wang Huai'an were each escorted into separate cells. Who confessed, who denied it, and how the interrogation proceeded—none of the other two could know.

Cut off information, lock away the unknown, and magnify the suspicion and fear buried deep within the human heart.

This was a classic interrogation method Lin Qing had learned of in his previous life.

Lin Qing knew full well that the three were bound tightly by lust, blood ties, and profit. If they were interrogated together, they would only bolster one another and deny everything as a group. Only by separating them and breaking them one by one, using the information gap to tear apart their alliance, could he force them to betray each other and collapse without a blow.

Lin Qing entered the first stone chamber on the left.

The guard fastened the lock tight. The door sealed shut, and the private one-on-one interrogation officially began.

The stone chamber was dim, damp, and cold. A lone lamp flickered as chill seeped into the bones.

Chun Tao sat curled up on the ground, trembling all over, her face deathly pale. She had personally administered poison for years, tainted herself with its sinister venom every day. The evidence for each and every crime was irrefutable. She had long known there would be no good end for her.

Lin Qing walked in slowly and closed the stone door. Only the two of them remained in the cramped cell, its suffocating pressure bearing down on her.

There was no torture, no instrument of punishment—only a cold verdict that crushed her last sliver of delusion.

"Chun Tao, you personally poisoned someone for years and plotted against the direct-line young master. Your hands are stained with blood, and your crimes are unforgivable. Whether you confess or not, your death sentence is already set. There is not the slightest path to survival."

Those few words completely extinguished Chun Tao's remaining hope.

Over these years, she had willingly committed every filthy deed, spending night after night in terrified unrest. The only things that had sustained her were Wang Yu's false promise and her own self-deceiving infatuation. She had always believed that once the matter came to light, Wang Yu would remember their past and save her.

Only now did she awaken from her dream. From beginning to end, she had been nothing more than a chess piece that could be discarded at any time.

Lin Qing's gaze was indifferent, his words sharp as blades as he peeled apart the cruel truth layer by layer.

"You thought Wang Yu had feelings for you? He knew full well that poisoning carried a death sentence, yet he never dared do it himself. He merely used honeyed words to coax you into standing at the forefront and bearing all the sins for him."

"Wang Huai'an is an old fox. He arranged everything from the shadows, exploiting your infatuation to control you. He treated you as a clean, sharp blade—one he could throw away as soon as he was done using it."

"You are doomed to die. Right now, you have only two paths."

"Keep your mouth shut and refuse to confess. In the end, the primary and secondary culprits will remain unclear. Wang Huai'an and Wang Yu hold high positions; they can use their status to obscure the truth and shift blame, receiving light punishment or even walking away unharmed. Only you will shoulder every charge and be executed by a thousand cuts."

"Or you can tell the truth and expose every hidden scheme. You still cannot escape death, but you can drag out the masterminds behind it, bring down the Wang father and son who used you, and make the people who ruined your life and deceived your heart be buried alongside these sins."

"Will you die for nothing, or drag your enemies down with you? Which do you choose?"

Despair and hatred instantly flooded Chun Tao's mind.

Years of infatuation had become a joke. Years of endurance had earned her not a shred of pity. Why should she die alone while the true culprits enjoyed wealth and glory?

Overwhelming resentment utterly tore apart her last trace of weakness.

Chun Tao's eyes turned bloodshot. Tears streaked down her face, mingled with hatred, and her hoarse voice carried a crazed resolve.

"I confess! I'll confess to everything! Wang Yu was the one who seduced me first. He promised to marry me, promised me riches and honor, and tricked me into poisoning someone in secret to clear away his obstacles."

She clenched her teeth, every word cutting to the bone as she nailed their crimes firmly in place without leaving them the slightest room to escape.

"The root of every scheme lay with Wang Huai'an! He coveted the power of the direct line, harbored poisonous resentment, and refused to remain beneath others. He had plotted this for years. The timing of every poisoning, the dosage, the methods of concealing my tracks—all of it was secretly instructed and arranged by him."

"Wang Yu is absolutely not innocent. He participated from beginning to end, probing the young master's daily routine, passing along information, covering up flaws, and cooperating in every matter. He was the central accomplice."

"I was the dead chess piece laid out in the open. That father and son were the wolves hidden in the shadows!"

Chun Tao held nothing back. She spilled every conspiracy, private transaction, and hidden detail, using the venom of one about to die to nail Wang Huai'an and Wang Yu firmly to the case.

The interrogation ended, and the stone door opened.

Chun Tao's testimony had become ironclad evidence. Yet the two neighboring cells remained deathly silent, their occupants unaware of the collapse and betrayal here.

The second stone chamber was sealed and silent.

Wang Yu sat alone in the darkness, unable to sit still, his mind in turmoil.

He had always been a cowardly, useless dandy with no mind of his own, living his entire life under his father's protection. With no one to support him, cut off from every scrap of outside news, the fear of the unknown kept growing, gnawing away at his mind bit by bit.

The stone door slowly opened, and Lin Qing stepped inside.

Seeing Wang Yu's panicked, disordered state and the fear filling his eyes, Lin Qing went straight to the point and threw out a fatal piece of asymmetric information.

"Chun Tao has confessed."

One sentence instantly shattered Wang Yu's psychological defenses.

His entire body went cold, his legs weakened, and every trace of color vanished from his face.

"She has already explained clearly how you feigned affection to trick her into poisoning someone, how you secretly cooperated and concealed the crime. She listed every detail one by one. She testified that everything was done at your instruction, and that you acted under Wang Huai'an's orders."

Wang Yu shook his head frantically and blurted out in panic, "No! I'm not the mastermind! My father forced me to do it!"

"I do not ask for reasons. I speak only of the result." Lin Qing cut him off coldly.

"Chun Tao's crimes are unforgivable. She was already doomed to die, but now that she has voluntarily exposed the truth, she may still be spared the torment of torture."

"But if you insist on denying it, every crime will be heaped upon your head. You will be judged a principal accomplice and suffer the ultimate punishment of death by a thousand cuts."

"Do not imagine that Wang Huai'an will protect you. You know better than anyone what kind of man he is. For a little power within the Lineage, he plotted to poison his own elder brother's son. Do you think that, faced with a choice of life and death, he will die for you? So long as he confesses first and claims that you acted on your own, defied your elders, and caused this disorder, he can remove himself from the matter entirely. Only you will surely die without a whole corpse."

"But if you confess now and actively testify that Wang Huai'an was the mastermind behind everything, exposing the truth of his plot to poison a younger relative, then you will be the second person to plead guilty. Weighing the two, you may escape the death penalty and receive only hard labor in atonement. At the very least, you can preserve your life."

On one side lay brutal execution, death and ruined reputation. On the other lay a wretched existence, but still a path to live.

Within the sealed cell, there were no ties of family, no restraints of alliance—only the naked choice between life and death.

Wang Yu had always been greedy for life and afraid of death. Before the ultimate threat of death, the fragile bond between father and son crumbled like a landslide.

He completely broke down, fell to his knees, and howled through tears as he confessed.

"I confess! Everything was planned by my father, Wang Huai'an! He bore a grudge against the direct line and was consumed by ambition. He taught me to use Chun Tao's feelings to commit evil and forced me to take part in this poisoning scheme!"

"I acted under orders the entire time. I had no choice. The true culprit has always been him!"

The second interrogation came to an end. Wang Yu had completely turned against them, personally testifying against his own father.

With layer upon layer of isolation, Wang Huai'an in the innermost cell remained in the dark, still stubbornly holding out.

The final stone chamber was oppressive to the extreme.

Wang Huai'an sat upright in one corner, his expression steady, the arrogance forged by years of scheming hidden in his eyes.

He had spent his life calculating human hearts. He believed he could grasp Chun Tao's infatuation in his palm and control his son's cowardice. Their alliance of offense and defense was unbreakable. So long as he gritted his teeth and refused to confess, the one-sided words of two juniors could never convict him of being the mastermind.

The stone door opened. A sliver of light seeped in as Lin Qing walked inside.

"Wang Huai'an, after scheming your entire life, you still lost in the end."

The calm sentence struck Wang Huai'an's heart like a heavy hammer.

"You thought your arrangements were seamless, but in truth they could not withstand a single blow. Three cells, separate interrogations, every chance of collusion cut off. Chun Tao has exposed everything, and Wang Yu has already confessed. The two chess pieces you were so proud of have long since turned against you."

Wang Huai'an's face abruptly turned livid. He rebuked him sharply, "Utter nonsense! Those two fear punishment and death, so they deliberately colluded and bit at me. It is complete baseless slander!"

"Colluded?" Lin Qing's tone was calm, yet it carried absolute control.

"The three cells were isolated. They could neither see nor hear one another, and there was no possibility of passing messages. The two gave separate testimony at different times, far apart from one another, yet their accounts matched exactly on key points such as the poisoning cycle, details of the conspiracy, and secret instructions. With such ironclad, closed-loop evidence, how can you call it slander?"

The evidence was as immovable as a mountain, leaving no room for argument.

"You exploited infatuation and buried a woman's entire life. You controlled your own flesh and blood and forced your son to commit evil for you. You thought bonds of profit could stabilize everything, but you forgot that before life and death, human sentiment, family ties, and alliances are all illusions."

"Now both have confessed and testified against you, while only you remain stubbornly resisting. If you insist on denial, you will be treated as the chief villain—sentenced to death by a thousand cuts, your reputation destroyed, and disaster brought upon everyone of your branch."

"If you confess and submit to the law, the three testimonies will form a complete loop and the case will be settled beyond doubt. Though you will receive severe punishment and be thrown into prison, you can still preserve some dignity and keep your wretched life."

Looking down at this old schemer who had exhausted every mechanism of his mind, Lin Qing slowly delivered the final verdict.

"You calculated every gain and loss, and saw through every human heart. But you alone failed to calculate that in desperate straits, everyone possesses the instinct to protect themselves and survive."

The stone chamber fell into a long silence.

Wang Huai'an's entire body stiffened. All his schemes and arrogance collapsed completely before the mounting facts and hopeless situation.

He understood clearly that the tide had turned, and he no longer had the power to reverse it.

After a long while, an aged, hoarse voice sounded, filled with endless dejection and despair.

"...I confess."

"Plotting against the direct line, arranging the poisoning, manipulating the younger generation into acting—every sin began with me. Because I refused to live beneath others and nurtured hatred for years, I brought about this disaster. I will bear all responsibility for these crimes."

Three separate chambers, three rounds of interrogation.

Cut off information, shatter the alliance, use human hearts to break deceitful schemes, and use despair to crush hope.

Lin Qing left the Criminal Tribunal with the three testimonies in hand. Zhao Feng and Wang Qingwan had long been waiting outside. Lin Qing handed the statements to Zhao Feng and said, "My lord, I have not failed your trust."

At last, the truth of the case came to light. Wang Huai'an coveted the interests of the Wang Lineage's main branch, so he plotted to murder Wang Xiaolong, heir to that branch. Wang Yu coveted the status of heir to the Wang Lineage; after a few years, once the old Wang patriarch passed on, his father would become patriarch, and his own standing would naturally rise with the tide. Chun Tao, meanwhile, had been bewitched by Wang Yu's affections and coveted the position of the Wang Lineage's young madam, so she secretly administered poison for years.

First, they used a concealed herbal chronic poison to erode Wang Xiaolong's heart meridians over the years. On the day they acted, they used another medicinal catalyst to make the problems in Wang Xiaolong's body erupt completely. Wang Huai'an had only made a slight move, yet it threw the Qi and Blood Realm within Wang Xiaolong—also at the Mid-Third Tier—into chaos, causing him to die suddenly.

Wang Huai'an truly deserved to be called the pillar of the Wang Lineage's second generation. The poison he had compounded was so well concealed that it deceived not only the Martial Suppression Office's coroners, but also everyone else in the Wang Lineage.

Unfortunately for him, the old physician Wang Qingwan had invited was not only exceptionally skilled in medicine, but also an expert at playing with poison.