The Chengtian Hall was completely empty.

Lin Feng sat on the throne carved from black and gold divine wood.

Instead of lounging lazily as usual, he sat upright with his hands on the armrests.

When Qin Lan led Li Man into the main hall, the first thing Li Man saw was the man on the throne.

Although their temperaments were completely different, she would never forget that face, even until her death.

Her heart began to pound wildly, not because of love, but because of the ultimate temptation brought by that unparalleled power and wealth.

Her face immediately lit up with what she thought was her most charming smile, and she ran over, lifting her tattered skirt.

"Lin Feng! Darling! It's me! It's Xiaoman!" Her voice, sickeningly sweet, sounded particularly jarring in the empty hall: "I knew you'd make it big! Look at you now, my god, you're practically an emperor! I missed you so much!"

She ran down the steps, intending to pounce on Lin Feng and hug his leg.

"stop."

The two words, spoken from the throne, were devoid of warmth, yet carried an undeniable authority.

Li Man's steps abruptly stopped in front of the steps.

She looked up and met Lin Feng's eyes.

What kind of eyes were those? There was no joy of a long-awaited reunion, no excitement or infatuation she had imagined. There was only a bottomless, mocking gaze.

Li Man's heart skipped a beat.

"Long time no see, Li Man." Lin Feng spoke slowly, the corners of his mouth curving upwards into an almost sinister smile: "I thought you had died in some stinking ditch."

The vicious curse instantly froze the smile on Li Man's face.

"Darling... why are you saying this..." She forced a smile, trying to ease the tension. "I know it was my fault for leaving without saying goodbye. I was forced into it, I..."

"Forced you?" Lin Feng interrupted her. He slowly stood up, looking down at her as if she were an ant: "Forced you to run off with the 138,000 yuan I painstakingly saved from delivering food? Forced you to use my identity information to borrow 400,000 yuan at exorbitant interest rates? And then you took the money and lived a carefree life with some rich second-generation?"

Every word was like a heavy hammer blow, striking Li Man's heart hard.

Her face turned from red to white, then from white to pale. She hadn't expected that Lin Feng knew all of this so clearly.

"I...I didn't...it's all a misunderstanding..." she stammered, trying to explain herself.

Lin Feng let out a low, mocking laugh.

Laughter echoed in the hall, sending chills down Li Man's spine.

"A misunderstanding?" He stopped laughing, his eyes turning incredibly sharp. "Then I'll let you experience a 'misunderstanding' today, how about it?"

Li Man panicked completely. Her knees buckled, and she knelt on the ground. Tears streamed down her face as she began to perform her best crying act: "Lin Feng, darling, I was wrong! I was really wrong! I was bewitched!"

"Please forgive me this time, considering how long I've been with you! I have nothing left now, and that rich kid dumped me a long time ago. I've suffered so much... Please, for the sake of our past relationship, give me another chance and let me stay by your side. I'll do anything!"

She cried with tears streaming down her face, looking pitiful.

If it were the innocent Lin Feng of yesteryear, he might have truly softened his heart.

But now, standing before her was a king who had crawled out of hell.

"Forgive you?" Lin Feng's grin grew even more sinister. "Of course, of course I can forgive you."

Upon hearing this, a glimmer of hope instantly appeared in Li Man's eyes.

"As long as..." Lin Feng drawled out each word, "you just need to pay me back the money you owe me."

The hope on Li Man's face froze instantly.

"138,000, plus 400,000 in usurious loans. So many years have passed, let's round it up to one million gold coins, including the interest," Lin Feng said casually.

"One...one million?!" Li Man screamed in disbelief. "Where would I get that much money? I don't have a single copper coin on me!"

"No money?" Lin Feng's smile turned incredibly playful and cruel.

He slowly walked down the steps, each step feeling like he was stepping on Li Man's heart.

“No money,” he walked up to her, squatted down, and whispered in her ear in a voice only the two of them could hear, his tone as cold as a knife: “Then pay me back with something else.”

He stood up, no longer even glancing at Li Man, and instead delivered his final judgment to Liu An, the chief steward who stood respectfully bowing to the side.

"Liu An".

"Your subordinate is here." Liu An immediately stepped forward.

Lin Feng's tone became indifferent, as if he were handling a very routine official matter:

“Send her to the brothel.”

The moment these words were spoken, time seemed to freeze.

The vast Chengtian Hall fell into a deathly silence.

"His face changed drastically" is not enough to describe the reaction of everyone present.

Liu An, the chief steward of internal affairs, a man who always wore a humble smile and was as cunning as a devil, suddenly lost all color in his face, his lips trembled, and he couldn't utter a single word.

He knew better than anyone what the "Jiaofangsi" was!

If the slave labor camps outside the sanctuary city were a purgatory where men toiled to death, then the brothels inside the city were a hell where women suffered a fate worse than death!

That was where the leader punished the most wicked female traitors. Women who entered were stripped of their names and given only a code name.

They are no longer human beings, but tools and property.

Any man who has rendered meritorious service to the shelter, from high-ranking ministers to ordinary soldiers, can enter and do whatever he wants, as long as he can afford the corresponding amount of money.

That was a place where human dignity and soul were crushed inch by inch and displayed to the public!

For the first time, surprise appeared on Qin Lan's face.

Her pupils contracted sharply, and she instinctively took a half-step back.

She felt nothing but disgust and contempt for Li Man, even deeming her unworthy of death. But... the Imperial Music Bureau?

The cruelty of this punishment far exceeded her imagination.

She looked at Lin Feng on the throne, and in her eyes, in addition to the original awe, there was an added, indescribable fear from the depths of her soul.

She finally understood what a cold and ruthless abyss lay beneath the iceberg in the leader's heart.

Even the two black-armored guards who were responsible for escorting the goods and were used to seeing life and death, froze at this moment, and cold sweat seeped from their palms as they gripped their spears.

They looked at each other and saw horror in each other's eyes.

At first, Li Man didn't react; she just stared blankly at the expressions of the people around her, as if they had seen a ghost.

“The Jiaofangsi… what kind of place is that?” she asked, trembling.

No one answered her. But the deathly silence, filled with fear, had already given her the most terrifying answer.

"No..." She finally realized something, and her face, which had previously held a sliver of hope, instantly twisted into extreme fear.

She let out a scream that was not human, like a wild dog whose spine had been broken, and struggled and retreated frantically on the ground.

"No! Not there! Lin Feng! You can't do this to me!" The pleas and cries disappeared, replaced by the most primal fear of the unknown hell.

Lin Feng looked at her coldly, his eyes devoid of any emotion.

The two guards finally snapped out of their shock. They gritted their teeth and stepped forward to restrain the frantically struggling Li Man.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Li Man had completely lost her mind. She twisted with all her might, her fingernails scraping against the polished marble floor. "Lin Feng! Kill me! I beg you, kill me! Shoot me dead! Don't send me there! No!"

She finally understood that death, at this moment, was a luxury, a mercy.

"Lin Feng! You devil! You'll die a horrible death! You'll get your retribution! Ah!"

Her cries escalated from pleas to curses, eventually turning into a desperate, beast-like howl. The sound was dragged further and further away, until it finally disappeared outside the hall.

Inside the hall, tranquility returned once more.

Lin Feng slowly walked back to the throne and sat down again. He closed his eyes, as if everything that had just happened was just a boring farce.

That old scar was finally removed by him personally, in the coldest and cruelest way.

Although the process brought back that long-buried nausea, once it was removed, his mind felt clearer than ever before.

Absolute power also brings absolute fairness.

Debts must be repaid.

It is a matter of course.