Chapter 77: Spicy Pot (Part 3)
If she would roll away just because he told her to, then she wouldn't be Leng Yue—she'd be a ball.
Originally, Leng Yue had intended to push the door open properly with her hands. But provoked by his command to "roll away," she simply raised her foot and kicked the door open with a loud "bang!"
Before her kicking foot even touched the ground, Leng Yue froze completely.
The scene inside was completely different from what she had imagined. There were no traces of delicate feminine presence, only a lamp flickering unsteadily from the wind brought by the opening door, and one person she almost missed at first glance.
In the depths of winter, with no charcoal fire lit in the room, it felt even colder and gloomier than outside. The room's sole occupant was curled up on the icy blue brick floor, loosely wrapped in only a thin undergarment. Perhaps from the intense cold, his entire body was tightly contracted into a ball, trembling incessantly, his breathing rapid and noticeably labored.
He was facing away from the door, so when Leng Yue's eyes first fell upon him, she clearly saw his hands tied behind his back. The ropes seemed bound extremely tightly, already turning those beautifully shaped hands pale blue-white, as if they were severed limbs.
The kick she had just delivered seemed to rebound with some invisible force against her chest, making her heart ache sharply, nearly causing her to stagger backward.
Wasn't this supposed to be house arrest? How could...
Leng Yue had no time to ponder further. She rushed over in panic, drew her sword to cut the ropes, then bent down to embrace his shoulders and back, attempting to lift him from the cold floor.
Only upon touching him did she realize that although Jing Yi wore little clothing, his body was burning hot like glowing charcoal. The front of his undergarment was soaked, and the spot where he had been lying was also damp, emitting a strong mix of alcohol and that mesmerizing, unusual fragrance.
What had happened to him...
Leng Yue's hands hesitated slightly. The person she had just tried to support suddenly stiffened as if possessed, and with inexplicable strength, he sharply jerked his elbow, striking Leng Yue squarely on the shoulder and actually causing her to stumble.
As Leng Yue retreated and loosened her grip, the person she was holding fell back onto the ground.
The moment his spine and the back of his head simultaneously hit the blue brick floor, even Leng Yue heard the sickening thud. Yet the one who had fallen tightly pressed his lips together without uttering a sound.
This fall, however, turned him from curled on his side to lying on his back, allowing Leng Yue to clearly see the face she had thought of every single day for the past three months.
This originally gentle and handsome face was now gaunt and sharply angular, deathly pale with an abnormal flush. Stubble grew wildly like weeds, and his clear, fox-like eyes, seemingly deprived of rest for too long, were bloodshot with dark circles beneath, appearing utterly exhausted.
Leng Yue stared at this face for a moment before she could find, within the vaguely recognizable delicate features, evidence matching the celestial beauty she remembered in her mind.
It had only been three months since they last met. How could he have ended up like this...
In Leng Yue's daze, the person on the ground seemed to have recovered from the pain of the fall. After barely suppressing his rapid breathing, he slightly turned his head to locate Leng Yue and immediately fixed her with a gaze as cold and sharp as blades.
"Don't touch me..."From the moment she first met him until now, this was the first time Jing Yi had looked at her with such sharp intensity. In fact, throughout Leng Yue's many years of memories, she had never seen him direct such a gaze at anyone else.
Jing Yi had always been a gentle person. She had even envied and resented everything he treated with tenderness. But at this moment, there wasn't the slightest hint of gentleness in his eyes—it was as if he wanted to tear her limb from limb with that glare.
In her momentary daze, Leng Yue couldn't help but whisper, "Jing Yi?"
"Get out..."
Leng Yue took a deep breath.
Even if she were to leave, she'd have to get him up from the ground first.
With Jing Yi's frail scholarly physique—someone who would genuinely fall ill after soaking in cold water during late summer and early autumn—letting him lie on the ground in the middle of winter for too long would undoubtedly cause serious problems.
Given her strength, forcibly picking Jing Yi up against his will wouldn't be difficult at all. So Leng Yue decided not to waste words on him. She bent down, one hand slipping under his armpit, the other about to slide beneath the crook of his knees, when suddenly Jing Yi raised his arm. Before she could react, her cheek was struck hard by a resounding slap.
His body was clearly weak and trembling—Leng Yue had no idea where this unnatural strength came from. The slap was so forceful that even her trained martial arts physique staggered, losing balance and causing her to fall seated on the ground, her vision blurring and ears ringing for a good while.
In the brief moment Leng Yue sat stunned on the ground, clutching her cheek and frowning, Jing Yi had mustered all his strength to shift his seemingly uncooperative body slightly farther away from her.
"You..." Leng Yue stared blankly for a long moment, still unable to figure out the motive behind this slap. "Why did you hit me?"
No matter what, given the refinement Jing Yi had cultivated over years at the palace and within the Jing family, even in a state of drunkenness where he recognized no one, encountering the person he despised most, he would never resort to slapping someone—let alone a woman, a woman who had once shared his bed.
For the time being, Leng Yue couldn't muster any sadness or heartache because the Jing Yi before her seemed utterly possessed, completely unlike himself.
The man curled up on the ground tightened his body, as if using every means to suppress the primal urges stirred by excessive alcohol and drugs. His entire frame trembled uncontrollably from the resistance, yet the gaze he fixed on Leng Yue was steady—steadiness laced with a murderous intent that sent chills down the spine of even Leng Yue, who carried a sword.
"You dare impersonate her, and even wear these clothes... I wouldn't be wrong to kill you..."
Impersonate her?
Leng Yue was genuinely taken aback, utterly confused as she glanced down at her attire. She rarely wore this official uniform, but Jing Yi had seen her in it before. Every time he saw her dressed like this, he would teasingly call her "Officer."
She could somewhat dismiss his earlier words as drunken ramblings, but these sentences were coherent, with clear cause and effect. Though his voice was unsteady from suppressed panting, the words were distinct enough. If she still dismissed it as drunken nonsense, she didn't deserve her position as Chief of the Criminal Department's Constable Unit.
Who did her appearance resemble?"What do you mean 'pretending to be her'..." Leng Yue was utterly confused by his disjointed remarks and couldn't help feeling irritated. "Speak clearly! These are my own clothes. Why wouldn't I dare wear them? I am Leng Yue! Who exactly am I pretending to be?"
As these words left her mouth, the gaze fixed upon her inexplicably turned several degrees colder. His pale lips pressed together slightly, forcing a curve at the corners that formed a smile utterly devoid of warmth.
"You're not worthy of that name..."
Leng Yue nearly went mad with frustration, her voice rising involuntarily. "I've had this name since birth! It's not like you just learned it today! How am I not worthy?"
"Unworthy means unworthy..." Jing Yi let out a cold laugh, glaring fiercely at the increasingly flustered woman before him. After catching his breath for a moment, he slowly but clearly stated, "She is the most beautiful, gentlest, and cleverest person in this world... No matter how much you resemble her, no matter how perfect your imitation, you could never measure up to even one ten-thousandth of her..."
After saying this, he regulated his increasingly labored breathing before coldly delivering another line.
"Stop wasting your effort... Get out..."
Leng Yue didn't know how long she stood there dazed before suddenly snapping back to reality.
If every word Jing Yi had just spoken was the result of clear thinking and expressed sincerely according to his own will, then there was only one plausible explanation—her earlier speculation when she first entered through the main gate wasn't just wild imagination. When Leng Yan said "like a fart" at the entrance, she really had been referring to her.
The reason Jing Yi was treating her with such bizarre behavior was exactly as he said—in his eyes right now, she simply wasn't the woman named Leng Yue whom he knew.
Including all the soldiers who had allowed her into the city, through the gates, and into the courtyard—none of them saw her as the female constable whom the Fourth Young Master Jing had once enthusiastically married and then unceremoniously divorced.
Just like the unfinished words of the soldier at the main gate that were sharply cut off by Leng Yan—if completed, they would likely have been: This one really looks like, really looks like Leng Yue.
Having worked in the yamen for so long, she should have realized it when she first smelled that strangely scented alcohol from outside. When she didn't figure it out then, she should have understood when she saw Jing Yi's hands tied behind his back, because this scene should have been all too familiar to any experienced law enforcement officer...
This was clearly the widely circulated interrogation method that had spread through various yamens in recent years.
Not long after Prince An took charge of the Three Judicial Offices, he issued a strict prohibition against local yamens using torture to extract confessions. When local officials encountered suspects who refused to confess, they could no longer resort to beatings. Instead, they devised a method more effective than physical punishment—forcing strong liquor down stubborn suspects until they were intoxicated, then questioning them. This often yielded different information. If the suspect remained uncooperative, they would mix aphrodisiacs into the alcohol before administering it, while tying the suspect's hands to prevent them from relieving the drug's effects through self-stimulation. After such torment, investigators usually obtained whatever information they wanted, and when higher authorities inspected, the suspects would show no physical injuries.This method had indeed deceived the Three Judicial Offices for quite some time. It was only later that Prince An noticed something amiss and personally traveled to several prefectures and counties, thoroughly cracking down on the corrupt officials leading those Blackwater offices. Officials at all levels of the Three Judicial Offices also suffered considerable consequences for this matter, and the practice of extorting confessions through torture gradually faded away in government offices at all levels.
When this incident erupted, Leng Yue had assisted Prince An and witnessed firsthand those suspects tormented by alcohol and drugs until they were neither human nor ghost. Yet Jing Yi endured even more excruciating torment than them.
If her guess was correct, ordinary alcohol and drugs would have little effect on Jing Yi, who had long frequented pleasure quarters without indulging in physical pleasures. Therefore, besides these two methods, Jing Yi was likely tormented by women who closely resembled her in appearance, attire, and even voice—taking turns to seduce, deceive, and even torture him.
When Jing Yi forbade her from touching him, told her to get lost, and stared at her with such murderous intensity, he probably mistook her for one of those women.
If that were the case, then in his eyes, every move she made, every word she spoke—no matter how closely they resembled the Leng Yue in his memory—were nothing but deceptive acts designed to trick him.
If Jing Yi were still the same man who had once treasured her above all else, being confronted day after day by women disguised as her to lure him into traps would undoubtedly push him to the brink of murderous impulse.
She could roughly imagine what these people wanted to extract from him, but she truly couldn’t comprehend how Jing Yi—a scholar without any Inner Cultivation—had endured such prolonged torment and still managed to remain so lucid...
"You..."
Leng Yue stared blankly at Jing Yi, who remained curled up and looked at her as if she were some monstrous demon, momentarily at a loss for words.
She had never before considered how to prove to someone that she was indeed herself.
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