Deep within the Ministry of Justice prison in Luoyang lay a secret chamber, its walls steeped in the stale reek of blood and rust.
An oil lamp flickered outside the iron cage, stretching two or three shadows into twisted phantoms that clawed and lunged across stone walls covered in dark brown stains.
The foul air stagnated like dead water, laden with the metallic tang of iron, rotting flesh, and a sour chill straight out of hell.
Clatter-
Chains cranked, and water exploded into spray. Two burly jailers hauled with all their might, dragging an emaciated body, little more than a skeleton, out of a water vat as tall as a man and suspending him in midair.
Cold water streaked with blood dripped down his ragged clothes, gathering into a filthy puddle beneath his feet.
Bi Yunfei stood three paces away with his hands behind his back. His dark purple official robe, embroidered with a Xiezhi, gleamed coldly in the dim yellow lamplight.
His face was stern and cold, his cheekbones slightly prominent. The corners of his lips curled upward into a sinister smile as cloying as honey.
"Chief Constable Su..."
His voice was quiet, yet it scraped like a blunt knife across bone. "I deliberately left you a breath of life and let you escape. I thought... you would flee to the Knowledge and Practice Institute and spill everything in your belly to Wei Zhilin..."
He strolled to the charcoal brazier beside the wall, picked up a long, slender iron poker, and leisurely stirred the glowing coals. Sparks crackled, throwing up flecks of white ash that vanished in an instant.
"The greatest hermits hide at court, the lesser ones in the wilderness. But you? You crawled into the filthiest alleys of the Capital City and played the stinkbug in the