Imprisonment (Part 5)

After signing and affixing their fingerprints, Prefect Zhao and Master Su were relieved.

After locking the prisoners who were to perform their labor duties that day back into their cells, the jailer took Wang Pan'er to a cell closer to the outer edge.

The outer cubicles smelled much better, and the adobe floor wasn't damp. They even replaced the straw with a thick layer of clean straw.

After she finished changing her cubicle, it was time for the usual meal service.

Inside the dungeon, even the prison food was first served to those in the outermost cubicles. Although it was still cornbread and porridge, it was noticeably less cold and hard, and the porridge didn't have an overly sour or rancid smell.

I reckon those on the outside are people who have pulled strings or been bribed.

Wang Pan'er peeked at the food buckets that the prison guards were distributing; the ones further back were the most unbearable to look at.

She took her share.

Since chopsticks were not provided, the prisoners could only slurp up the gruel by turning the rim of their bowls.

The porridge had a mixed flavor, like leftover food from a traditional Chinese medicine shop mixed together with refugees. It had all sorts of tastes, so you couldn't really taste any of them.

At least she could eat; in this dungeon, Wang Pan'er already belonged to the "privileged" class.

It's likely that Master Su was afraid she would act desperately after arriving in the capital, disregarding the lives of her two younger sisters to recant her testimony. Within his power, he gave her the greatest possible preferential treatment.

But with a full stomach and straw lining the cold, hard adobe floor, I should be able to get a good night's sleep tonight.

Bored out of her mind in prison, Wang Pan'er would lie limply on the straw after finishing her meal, closing her eyes to rest even when she couldn't sleep.

There was a rustling sound at the door of the cubicle, followed by a soft whisper: "Pan'er, Pan'er."

Half-asleep, Wang Pan'er thought she was hallucinating. The voice sounded a bit like Su Lingzhao's, annoyingly chanting like a mantra. She rubbed her ears and turned over.

The voice didn't stop, it kept chanting, which annoyed Wang Pan'er so much that she opened her eyes and sat up.

Oh, it really is such a thing.

The Su family has dealt a ruthless blow to Wang Pan'er, essentially breaking off all pretense of civility. Moreover, Mu Chuan's evidence chain for the case is complete. Even though she's currently suffering in the dungeon, Mu Chuan is holding back, maintaining stability and avoiding alerting the suspects. He's having Lord Zhao and Master Su destroy the evidence. Once the imperial envoy arrives, they'll be rounded up, their property confiscated, and transferred directly to the capital.

Master Su had to consider whether she would turn against him, and he was eager to treat her well. Naturally, Wang Pan'er wouldn't give Su Lingzhao, who was now completely useless, a friendly look.

She didn't move, straddling her legs with a cocky air, elbows resting on her knees, slightly raising her eyelids, and glancing at Su Lingzhao, saying, "What are you doing here?"

Su Lingzhao had never seen Wang Pan'er with this expression before and found the woman in front of him quite unfamiliar. But then she thought that since Wang Pan'er had taken the blame for the Su family, it was only natural that she wouldn't treat her well. So she softened her voice and said, "I heard from my father that your case is going to be transferred to the Jingzhao Prefecture. Lord Zhao said that you will probably either be beheaded or exiled to the southern barbarians."

At this moment, Su Lingzhao is like a joke.

He was the one who tricked Wang Pan'er into signing the document, and he was also the one who came to visit her in the dungeon.

Wang Pan'er had no idea what this man was up to, so she stared at him with a death stare: "I did save your life, and you're going to kick me when I'm down?"

"No!" Su Lingzhao hurriedly explained, "I wanted to find a substitute to replace you."

"A stand-in?" Wang Pan'er scoffed.

Su Lingzhao hurriedly explained, "However, you are already guilty of a serious crime and cannot show your face in public anymore. If you are willing to provide the medicinal diet recipe, I will immediately ask my father to take you into the manor as a concubine."

It's true what they say, like begets like. In the Su family, favoring concubines over wives and having illegitimate children is the norm. Su Lingzhao has learned this perfectly, promising the position of secondary wife to the first wife before the first wife even entered the household.

"Save your breath," Wang Pan'er mocked. "If someone falls once, you can say they lack experience, but if they fall twice in the same place, they're just stupid. Besides, what's the difference between being confined to the inner quarters for the rest of your life, living at the mercy of others, and being dead?"

Su Lingzhao clung to the fence, speaking earnestly: "Miss Pan'er, please believe that I truly want to marry you. It was my father's idea to have you take the blame for the Su family; it's a major family matter, and I can't make the decision myself. But once you enter the Su family, I will do everything I can to treat you well."

"Does your father know that you want to find a substitute to replace me when you leave?"

Without hesitation, Su Lingzhao said, "If you present the recipe from the medicinal cuisine restaurant as a sign of sincerity, Father will definitely agree."

After saying that, Wang Pan'er sneered: "Whether it's going to the guillotine or being exiled, can you guarantee that your double will be flawless in every step?"

Su Lingzhao was stunned by the question and fell silent.

Wang Pan'er continued, "Any minor detail that goes wrong could affect the survival of the Su family. I am imprisoned in the dungeon because even your father couldn't guarantee my safety. Do you think you can? You are a son of a concubine, and you can't even protect yourself. You still want me to be your concubine's wife. You should go back and wash up and go to sleep. You can have anything in your dreams."

Su Lingzhao was astonished. The person who had risked her life to save her not long ago was now uttering such cold words: "Miss Pan'er, you..."

Wang Pan'er, impatient with his words, interrupted, "Save it. How could I possibly like a fool like you? I was only after your family's power before. You said it was your father's idea, but wasn't it you who tricked me into signing? Now that we've torn off the mask, don't come here pretending to be some innocent little rabbit."

If the timing weren't too bad, Wang Pan'er would have loved to reveal that her approach to the Su family was solely for gathering clues about the illegal ironworks case to gain influence.

Su Lingzhao was incredulous, his mouth opening and closing several times, unable to find any words to refute his statement. His beautiful eyes stared blankly at Wang Pan'er, trying to find evidence that she had said something in anger or tricked him into staying away from danger.

Wang Pan'er was getting annoyed. She grabbed a handful of straw, rolled it into a ball, and held it in her hand. "Get away from me. Stop pretending here. If you don't leave, I'll really throw it away."

There was no turning back. No matter how much Su Lingzhao wanted to salvage the situation, he knew the outcome was sealed the moment Wang Pan'er threw out the straw ball.

He felt as if all his strength had been drained away; his hand, which was gripping the bars, slipped, and he left the dungeon in a daze.

Wang Pan'er slept soundly all night on the dry ground covered with straw. She woke up refreshed and stretched.

The jailers have begun opening the cell doors, and the prisoners are about to begin their work for the day.

There was no escaping it today. Wang Pan'er obediently stood in the crowd after the jailer opened the door, waiting for them to shackle her feet.

The anklets were chafing her ankles painfully, and Wang Pan'er grimaced all the way to the kiln.

The kiln is constantly ablaze with fire, and the heat is intense as soon as you get close. When Wang Pan'er entered the kiln, it was like being in a steamer; sweat began to pour out, dripping onto the ground with a soft "hiss" before immediately drying.

Not only was there a heatwave, but also bursts of dark gray smoke billowing from the kiln. In this kind of working environment, it wouldn't be long before they developed silicosis.

Wang Pan'er quickly took a piece of cloth off her body, tied it behind her head, and covered her mouth and nose to filter out the smoke and dust.

Presumably because of her connection with Master Su, the jailer assigned her to the relatively easy position of adding firewood and blowing air.

She looked inside the kiln and saw that even elderly women had to carry heavy clay bricks from the stockpile to the kiln.

The old woman walked unsteadily, shaking the dried clay bricks out of shape. The jailer, seeing this, cursed and lashed out with his whip. She wailed and cried, tears and snot streaming down her face, a pitiful sight.

Wang Pan'er couldn't bear to look, and then she heard the jailer shouting, "If you had known you would suffer like this, would you have dared to sell children in the first place?"

Oh, I forgot these are all prisoners.

She disciplined herself, reined in her overflowing maternal instincts, and focused on adding firewood to the kiln.

Along with Wang Pan'er, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties was adding firewood. The man kept subtly moving closer to Wang Pan'er. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye; his hair was messy, his face was dirty, and she couldn't make out his features, which made her wary.

Adding firewood was an easy task, not as sore as her back from tossing the wok all day.

The kiln is so hot that it feels like you're inhaling a dragon of fire and exhaling sparks from your nose.

Even after pouring a large amount of hot water into the kiln and chugging down several large teacups, she still couldn't recover from the heat. Moreover, her porcelain-like skin, which she had always been proud of, was flushed red from the heat.

It's not the normal redness after exercise; it's a "baked" redness from heat radiation. Based on past experience, sunburn usually causes peeling, followed by a return to normal skin tone. But with this heat-induced redness, the skin should tan a shade darker next.

Chinese women, who consider fair skin beautiful and wear sun-protective clothing even in the sweltering summer heat, can no longer smile.

Wang Pan'er slurped her porridge listlessly when someone from the next room knocked on her wooden fence.

The middle-aged man who had tried to get close to her during the day was now sitting in the cell next door, staring intently at her.

Wang Pan'er was startled.

This guy must have bribed the jailers quite a bit, right? He can change cells whenever he wants?

When the uncle saw Wang Pan'er looking back, he quickly squeezed his head between the fence and asked her, "Do you know anyone from the Su family?"

Not knowing the man's background, Wang Pan'er dared not reveal her identity and looked up at him with a frown.

Undeterred, the man continued, "You don't seem like a vicious person to me. Were you framed and imprisoned?"

Wang Pan'er continued to ignore her.

Uncle: "You just came in, and I wanted to ask what the current situation is with the Su family?"

Having come specifically to inquire about the Su family, Wang Pan'er became somewhat interested. She swallowed the porridge and asked in return, "What, do you have a grudge against them?"

The uncle seemed to have been holding it in for a long time, and once someone spoke, he burst out talking like a flood: "Yesterday, the second young master of the Su family came to see you. I heard it. You and the Su family don't get along either. I was on duty at the Chamber of Commerce and accidentally overheard Master Su's secret, which startled me. The Su family wanted to find me and silence me, so I simply stole the second madam's jewelry and used the excuse of paying off gambling debts to escape disaster, which is why they sent me here."

Wang Pan'er asked curiously, "If you don't steal from the First Madam, isn't the First Madam richer than the Second Madam?"

“The First Madam is a good person, I wouldn’t steal from her.” The uncle said frankly, “The Su family is kind on the surface, but apart from the First Madam and the Eldest Miss, they are all bad people behind the scenes.”

Wang Pan'er pressed further, "Then what secret did you hear that they want to silence you?"

The middle-aged man immediately shut his mouth, saying warily, "If you don't want to talk, then don't. It's not good for a young girl to know too much. You'll only get yourself into trouble. The more you know, the faster you'll die."

Wang Pan'er intuitively felt that the secret the uncle mentioned was a very important clue.

She secretly marveled at her good fortune, then vaguely felt that rather than saying they were lucky to find clues in the dungeon, it was more accurate to say that Heaven is watching. The more sins the Su family had committed, the more clues, however small, would naturally emerge.

It's true what they say, "You can search high and low without finding it, but then it comes to you effortlessly."

Wang Pan'er felt she could forge a revolutionary friendship with the uncle while imprisoned, and said, "I'm working for the imperial court now, so please feel free to speak."

The older man looked at her suspiciously, clearly not believing her: "Alright, you can't have wealth and status, don't actually ruin yourself."

Wang Pan'er: "..."

Well, it's good that she's vigilant. Once she gets out, we can have Mu Chuan bring this person out for questioning.