A Prisoner in Chains
With every jolt of the horse, the cold iron chains struck Chen Fan's bones again and again.
He had been tossed carelessly over the horse's back like a sack of goods. Every jolt sent a tearing pain through his chest.
All around him came the steady beat of the residence guards' horses and the metallic rasp of their armor. The princess consort was carefully protected at the center of the procession, while he was a prisoner bound in iron chains.
The White Lotus Sect, Su Xin.
He would remember this debt.
After an unknown length of time, the procession stopped. Two guards roughly dragged him off the horse and hauled him into a magnificent residence.
They took him through a long corridor and past ornamental rockeries and streams, before throwing him into a dark, damp place underground.
Clang!
The heavy iron door slammed shut behind him.
The Prince of Xiushan's Residence, the dungeon.
Chen Fan leaned against the cold wall and slowly slid to the ground. The air was thick with the smell of mold and blood.
Black Wind Mountain was gone.
Of the bandits who had drunk and divided the spoils with him, some were dead, and the rest had fled. The second chief, Iron-Armed Monkey, and the third chief, Smiling Tiger, had most likely died on the spot amid the chaos of battle.
His brief career as a mountain bandit chief had come to a hasty end, just like that.
The wound in his chest still burned with pain. Li Zhong's blow with the back of his saber had been powerful enough to shatter his internal organs.
What an idiot.
Chen Fan cursed inwardly.
Li Zhong had passed up an enormous merit and insisted on capturing him alive. Interrogation? What was there to interrogate a bandit chief about?
He closed his eyes and silently began to weigh his options.
Dying at the hands of Li Zhong, a Seventh Rank commandant, had been the best option in his original plan. Now the plan had fallen through, and he was locked in a dungeon, having completely lost the initiative.
Next, he would await judgment, then be beheaded by some nameless executioner.
That would be a terrible loss.
Should he take over an executioner's body and spend the rest of his life dealing with the dead?
No, absolutely not.
He had to find a way to pick another high-value target before his execution.
Footsteps approached from a distance.
The small window in the iron door opened, and a pair of cold eyes watched him from outside.
Click.
The lock opened, and Li Zhong entered with two guards. Torchlight flickered across his gloomy face.
He looked down at Chen Fan, who was slumped on the ground.
"Black Wind Baleful Intent, do you know your crimes?"
Chen Fan raised his head and bared his teeth in a carefree smile smeared with blood.
"Crimes? I'm a bandit. I've committed plenty. Which one are you asking about, Commandant?"
Li Zhong's fists creaked as he clenched them.
Forcing down his anger, he asked, enunciating each word, "I'll ask you one thing. What did you do to Her Highness the princess consort?"
Chen Fan shifted against the wall into a more comfortable position.
"Nothing."
His answer was breezy, as though he were speaking of some trivial matter that had nothing to do with him.
"Nothing?" Li Zhong was so furious he laughed. "Her Highness's clothes were in disarray, she had been struck by a strange poison, and she was unconscious on your bandit bed! And you're telling me you did nothing?"
"Believe it or not, it's up to you." Chen Fan couldn't even be bothered to argue.
Right now, he only wanted to know one thing.
"When are you going to kill me?"
The whole arsenal of interrogation tactics Li Zhong had prepared stuck in his throat.
He froze.
The two guards behind him froze as well.
They had interrogated countless vicious criminals. Some had fallen to their knees and begged for mercy, some had refused to confess to the bitter end, and some had hurled curses at them.
But never had they seen anyone so calmly urge them to hasten his own death.
Has this bandit chief gone mad?
"You want to die?" Li Zhong's voice turned chillingly cold. "Not so easily!"
"Defiling the princess consort is a monstrous crime! His Highness said you are to be cut a thousand times and sentenced to death by slow slicing!"
Death by slow slicing?
Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat.
That was no good way to die. If he was sliced to death piece by piece, he wouldn't even be able to tell which executioner struck the final blow. How would the system judge it?
The risk was too great.
"Then what are you waiting for? Get on with it now," Chen Fan urged.
Looking at how impatient he was, Li Zhong found his anger replaced by immense bewilderment.
What the hell is he up to?
"Hmph. You're lucky we're letting you live a few more days." Li Zhong snorted coldly. "Something else has happened at the residence. We don't have time to deal with you for now."
"What happened?" Chen Fan asked instinctively.
"Don't ask what you shouldn't!"
Li Zhong snapped at him, but seeing Chen Fan's indifferent attitude, he couldn't resist trying to strike a blow at the bandit with his words.
"On the night you were captured, the residence's library caught fire. An assassin slipped in and stole several important texts."
The White Lotus Sect again.
Chen Fan understood at once.
What a move, making a feint to the east while striking in the west. They had used the enormous scandal involving him and the princess consort to draw the attention of everyone in the residence, then seized the chance to steal the texts.
The White Lotus Sect had grand ambitions.
"So, until the assassin's case is solved, your dog life must be spared for now." A trace of cruel pleasure appeared on Li Zhong's face. "His Highness wants you to wait in despair as death slowly approaches."
So that's how it is.
The little bit of worry in Chen Fan's heart vanished like smoke.
Not only was he no longer worried, he almost wanted to laugh.
A delayed execution was wonderful news!
That meant variables.
It meant he still had a chance to choose a better "rebirth target."
"Commandant," Chen Fan suddenly said.
"What last words do you have now?"
"Nothing." Chen Fan flexed his wrists, which were bound in iron chains. "I just wanted to tell you something."
"The princess consort is still chaste."
"I may be a bandit, but I haven't sunk so low as to lay a hand on a woman who's been drugged."
Li Zhong's body trembled slightly.
He stared intently at Chen Fan, as if trying to find a trace of a lie on his face.
But there was none.
There was only complete composure on that rugged face.
"Do you think anyone will believe that now?" Li Zhong gave a self-mocking laugh. "The princess consort was abducted by you, and now she's been found in your bed. Rumors are spreading like wildfire outside, saying she lost her chastity to a bandit long ago. Even His Highness... has taken it to heart."
"You've ruined the princess consort, and you've ruined the residence's good name!"
Chen Fan fell silent.
He merely found it a little absurd.
A White Lotus Sect holy maiden who wanted to kill with a borrowed knife, a Yellow Robe Army that wanted to shift the blame east of the river, a foolish and lecherous prince, and himself, a bandit chief bent on dying.
Everyone had been swept into a vast whirlpool, powerless to control their own fate.
In the end, only the princess consort, a defenseless woman, had become the sacrifice.
In this world, a woman's chastity mattered more than her life.
Looking at the silent Chen Fan, Li Zhong assumed he had nothing to say and lost all interest in questioning him further.
"Stay here and behave yourself."
Leaving those cold words behind, he turned and led the guards out of the dungeon.
Clang!
The heavy iron door shut again.
Click!
The sound of the iron lock falling into place came from outside.
The dungeon returned to darkness and deathly silence.
Chen Fan lay on the cold straw, listening to the footsteps fade outside. Far from feeling the slightest despair, he was thinking about something else.
The library had been robbed, and the prince was furious.
Perhaps he would come in person to interrogate Chen Fan, his only lead?
If I could die at the Prince of Xiushan's hands...
That would be ascending to heaven in a single step, going from bandit to prince!
But that was just a thought. The prince couldn't possibly kill someone with his own hands, much less come down to the dungeon to interrogate a prisoner.