Chapter 135 Interrogation

Xie Wuqi remembered that he was drunk at the time, and the nameless evil fire in his heart was more fierce than drinking strong liquor.

He just wanted to push away those annoying hands, just wanted to make the sharp cries that seemed to cut through the night sky disappear.

He used brute force on his hands and lifted it up suddenly. Then there was the dull sound of his body hitting a hard object, which turned into a "ho ho" sound like a chicken being strangled to death...

In the chaos, he caught a glimpse of dark red splashed on the ground, and a small green object was thrown from the woman's messy hair, landing with a tinkle not far from his shoes.

He was so panicked that his mind went blank. When he came to his senses, the stain on the ground had been cleaned up. He remembered that with trembling hands, he had torn the piece of cloth from his robe that was stained with something, and the earring he had picked up from the ground in a panic, and stuffed them all into a light yellow sewing bag that the maid had left behind.

But...how did it end up in Pei Ji's hands?

The chill instantly penetrated his limbs and bones, and Xie Wuqi's body began to tremble violently like a sieve.

"The earrings Linglong wore close to her body." Pei Ji's voice was flat and even, "Buried under the rubble brick wall in the back alley of your Wuwei Marquis Mansion."

Every word was like a hammer, hitting Xie Wuqi's shaky nerves hard.

When the words "under the broken brick wall" came out, the last bit of vitality on Xie Wuqi's face was instantly drained away, and his whole face was as gray as the wall just dug out of the grave.

Pei Ji's fingers still held the brocade bag firmly, and he even gave it a very slight shake, causing the worn and loose bag opening to open slightly.

This time, more than one rolled out.

There was also an earring with the same flower pattern and bean green jade piece that slipped out of the bag. It landed on the cold bluestone ground with a ding, and rolled together with the previous one, forming a pair.

The copper support in the center of the flower was also rubbed to a shine.

Immediately afterwards, Pei Ji's wrist sank and shook violently.

"Hua La"——

A pile of wrinkled cloth was roughly shaken out of the brocade bag and fell directly beside the two rolling jade earrings.

"What is this?"

The cloth was neither too big nor too small, but it was wrinkled like straw paper that had been rubbed a thousand times.

The fabric is the finest "Jiangning Blue", the kind of fine cotton cloth with excellent water absorbency.

The color was muddy, and large patches of dark brown stains had penetrated the fibers and had long since dried and hardened.

Xie Wuqi's eyes were fixed on the piece of rag, as if they were sucked into it.

He recognized that it was torn from the hem of his most beloved moon-white robe!

That stain on it isn't some damn Huadiao wine! It's... it's...

A despair deeper than fear seized him.

He clearly remembered the fear in his eyes last night as they stared at the cloth in his hand. The feeling of the woman's messy and tangled hair sticking to the dirty cloth seemed to still linger on his fingertips.

Fear and a kind of anger of being completely stripped away exploded instantly!

Xie Wuqi's whole body trembled, and a fishy and sweet liquid suddenly rushed up his throat.

He couldn't control it anymore.

"How dare you! Pei Ji! How dare you!" He screamed in a harsh voice, without any of his usual arrogance and arrogance, only the extremely weak madness that remained.

"Who do you think you are? How dare you frame me! Where did these junks come from? Who knows if you dug them out of some grave and pinned them on me! How dare you destroy the lintel of my Wuwei Marquis Mansion?"

His saliva was flying, his face was red and his neck was thick, and his fingers were shaking like autumn cicadas in the wind as he pointed at the pile of evidence on the ground.

Pei Ji's expressionless face finally showed a slight change amid Xie Wuqi's hysterical yelling.

"The door lintel of the Wuwei Marquis's Mansion?" Pei Ji's voice suddenly rose, and every word carried a thousand-pound weight, as if it was ground out from between his teeth. "Xie Wuqi! How dare you mention the door lintel? Three months ago—"

He took a sudden step forward, a step so heavy that it seemed as if it would crush the ground beneath his feet.

Those eyes, which were burned red, were fixed on Xie Wuqi's terrified face.

"Three months ago, when you forced Linglong into a corner, she knelt down at the corner gate in the backyard, kowtowed, and begged for her life..."

"Are you also going to do the same as before, to her, to this worthless life that is about to die—"

His lips opened and closed silently, without making any sound, but Xie Wuqi felt like he was being pressed down by a red-hot iron that night!

"Tell her contemptuously, 'She's just a lowly servant'?"

The last few words of this sentence came out of Pei Ji's mouth lightly, but it was like a snake licking Xie Wuqi's neck.

boom!

Xie Wuqi let out a shrill scream, piercing the dead silence!

"ah--!!!"

He was like a puppet with all its strings cut off, his legs trembling like reeds in the wind as he staggered and collapsed backwards. His knees struck the hard, cold bluestone bricks with a dull thud.

He felt no pain at all, but was shaking violently like a sieve, like the last dead leaf in the autumn wind.

"She...she..." Xie Wuqi's throat was filled with the sound of a leaking bellows, his teeth chattering frantically. He wanted to say something, but his throat felt like it was filled with ten thousand sharp thorns, and every swallow brought a tearing pain.

It seemed as if until this moment, the memory that he had deliberately forgotten was completely pulled back from hell by Pei Ji's question.

That night, the damp and sticky air deep in the back alley, the thick and indissoluble fishy smell, and the face covered by stains and black hair suddenly exploded in his blurred vision!

Xie Wuqi covered his face tightly, but the cold touch could not suppress the overwhelming fear in his heart.

Pei Ji looked down at the mud on the ground that had lost its human shape.

The ferocity on his face had not yet completely faded.

There was dead silence all around.

The only sounds were Xie Wuqi's heavy breathing, like the breathing of a broken bellows, and the rustling sound of his heavy brocade robe rubbing against the ground due to its violent shaking.

"Pei Ji! Come out and see me!"

This angry shout was like a thunderclap, wrapped in murderous intent, and suddenly split the deathly silence in the residence of the Dali Temple Shaoqing, shaking the few remaining dead leaves under the eaves.

It’s Xie Anfeng!

General Xie An of Wuwei is here to serve!

Xie Wuqi, who was lying on the ground and shaking like mud, was trembling all over. A hint of ecstasy of escaping from a desperate situation suddenly flashed in his gray eyes.

"Dad..." A broken scream came from his throat, like a drowning man finally seeing a piece of driftwood.

The figure as tall as an iron tower in front of the official residence had already rushed in.

Xie Anfeng was wearing a shiny iron armor and his black cloak fluttered in the wind. He did not go through the open main door at all, but stepped on the ebony threshold next to the door and broke it!

Broken wood chips flew like hail, and immediately afterward came seven or eight armored palace guards, all armed with swords and with fierce eyes, who instantly filled the already narrow vestibule of the small official residence.

Xie Anfeng's pair of tiger eyes swept across the entire audience, as sharp as a bone scraper.

When his eyes met the pale-faced eldest son, his thick eyebrows instantly twisted into two thick iron chains, and the shadow under his brow bones was so deep that it seemed to swallow his eyeballs.

"How dare you!" Another earth-shattering roar was heard, and the air waves rushed straight to the beams of the house!

Xie Anfeng rolled up his cloak, shielding himself from the cold wind, and walked a few steps to the front of the hall. His huge palm, covered with calluses like a palm-leaf fan, made a sound of breaking through the air. Without even looking, he slapped the nearest ordinary Dali Temple runner in the face.

“Bang!”

The young yamen runner didn't even have time to groan before he was hit by a galloping warhorse and flew out at an angle. He hit the ground with a heavy bang, and his cheeks instantly swelled up like steamed buns. Blood flowed from his mouth and nose, and he died on the spot, and it was unknown whether he was alive or dead.

The friction of armor was harsh, and the palace soldiers' swords were half-unsheathed. A bright cold light suddenly illuminated the dark corner of the official residence.

A threat carrying the breath of death, like an invisible iron chain, instantly locked down every person in official uniform in the hall.

The air was frozen and heavy like a block of lead, pressing down on the heart and making it hard to breathe.

In the dark corner of the courtyard, several low-ranking officials who had been peeking around earlier were already scared pale and tried their best to shrink their heads.

Xie An stood in the hall with his burly figure, like a deep pool and a towering mountain.

He just stared at his eldest son lying on the ground, then slowly raised his eyelids and looked a few feet away.

There was no warmth in his eyes, as if he was looking at a stone that was in the way.

"Pei Ji?" Xie Anfeng's voice was low, each word sounding like it had been ground down by sand and gravel. "My son was drunk and misbehaving last night, and I was about to take him back for severe punishment. You are so reckless, using the shackles. What are you trying to do? Are you trying to bring shame upon the Wuwei Marquisate? Or are you, Lord Pei, a new official, trying to establish your authority by using the Xie family?"

Every word was like a caltrop wrapped in boiling oil, imbued with a deadly poison, smashing hard at Pei Ji and even at the lintel of the entire Dali Temple.

He didn't even ask what those things on the ground were, nor did he look at Xie Wuqi's frightened expression. He took the initiative and dominated the situation with his tremendous power and murderous aura on the battlefield.

Xie Wuqi, who was lying on the ground, suddenly raised his head, his face covered with tears and snot, and his eyes were filled with great ecstasy as he looked at the old marquis.

That's right! Dad is here! Everything will be fine now that Dad is here! Who can touch the legitimate son of the Marquis of Wuwei?

Pei Ji, this ignorant bastard! His tears welled up even more, his throat rolling violently, trying to make a more aggrieved whimper, so that his father could see how humiliated he was!

Under the father's mountain-like power, the fear just now seemed to subside a little.

Father will definitely crush this damn Dali Temple Shaoqing to death!

Pei Ji stood there quietly, without even changing his posture.

Xie An rushed in with great force, surrounded by palace soldiers. The small yamen runner was beaten to the point where his life or death was unknown. The overwhelming pressure was like a heavy hammer, enough to make an ordinary person tremble with fear.

But Pei Ji's eyelashes didn't even tremble.

He just stood there, as if Xie Anfeng and his palace soldiers were just a strange gust of wind carrying sand and dust, which could not blow away even a bit of his clothes.

When Xie Anfeng's "What do you want to do" came crashing down on him with such heavy weight, Pei Ji slowly raised his eyes.

He just calmly looked back at the tiger eyes of Marquis Wuwei.

It's like a lake covered with ice and snow facing a volcano spewing flames.

"Xie Wuqi. On the night of March 11th, in the back alley of Jinxiu Tower."

"You dragged Linglong into the alley with ill intent. When she resisted, did you threaten her with a dagger?"

Xie Anfeng's pupils suddenly contracted, and the flesh on his face jumped violently!

How dare this petty official continue interrogating him right in front of him, completely ignoring his existence?

Xie Wuqi on the ground shuddered violently, and the little bit of ecstasy and dependence that had just ignited in him was once again smashed into an endless abyss by this cold question.

"I... I..." He burst into tears and instinctively wanted to deny it, but he did pull out a jeweled dagger for self-defense from his boot to scare the bitch!

"She struggled to escape, but you grabbed her hair and slammed her against the bluestone wall where the debris was piled up?" Pei Ji's voice was calm, as if he was reciting a case file that had nothing to do with him.

Xie Wuqi's throat made a strange "gurgling" sound, and a sour and smelly liquid from his stomach suddenly rushed up his throat. He covered his mouth tightly, but began to retch violently without control!

The fine wine that he drank in Jinxiu Tower last night mixed with the bitter bile in his stomach. With a "wow" sound, the filthy stuff splashed out, and the stench instantly spread in the cold official residence.

"Sir!" Cui Zhubu, who was standing by, could no longer hold back and cried out in shock, his face pale.

He was horrified by the lawless scene before him, and was even more frightened by Pei Ji's desperate behavior!

The sharp blades in the hands of the palace soldiers came closer because of the sudden cry.

Xie Anfeng's chest heaved violently, and the heart guard of his Ming Guang armor reflected a ferocious cold light.

A surge of violent rage mixed with a stinging sensation as if being stung by an ant rushed straight to the top of his head!

This bastard! How dare he treat the Marquis of Wuwei, who holds the power of life and death, like air!

In front of his subordinates, he forced his son to vomit on the spot!

"Capture him!" Xie Anfeng's voice suddenly rose, like a tiger roaring in the forest, and every word was filled with rage. "Capture this bastard who has no regard for dignity, framed loyal and honest people, and disrupted the law and order!"

"Yes!" The surrounding soldiers shouted in unison, their voices shaking the roof tiles.

The two sturdy soldiers closest to Pei Ji took a step forward without hesitation. With their big hands like steel hooks and iron claws, they grabbed Pei Ji's shoulders of his gray official robe, which was washed white, from the left and right, with strong winds.

A critical moment!

Pei Ji remained motionless. Even his gaze remained the same, staring intently at Xie Wuqi, who lay on the ground, tortured to the point of losing his soul.

In that instant——

Pei Ji's left hand, which had been hanging by his side, suddenly raised up like a poisonous snake that had been lying dormant for a long time.

In his hand, he was holding a neatly folded white letter.

The plain white paper, against the cold light of the armor in the room and the filth on the ground, was so dazzling that it seemed to be burning.

He held the thin piece of paper between his two slender and clean fingers and slowly handed it to Xie Wuqi who was kneeling on the ground.

The piece of paper was only three inches away from Xie Wuqi's cheek.

Pei Ji's voice finally took on a hint of emotion:

"You have been following Shuangxi for a long time. To save your life, you have signed a confession in prison."

"Here's the confession!"

"Xie Wuqi, do you admit it? — Was Linglong killed by you?"

Xie Anfeng's hand, which was like a steel claw and was about to capture him, froze in mid-air!

The two words "double happiness" were like two lead bullets, fiercely pouring into the old marquis' ears!