Chapter 160 Paying Back for Sins (Still Torturing Chu Huaiyu)
[This chapter has been revised and edited repeatedly, and the review process keeps preventing it from passing...]
The iron gates of the prison slammed shut behind Chu Huaiyu with a dull thud.
The day after Chu Siheng left, Chu Huaiyu's punishment arrived as scheduled...
Two burly guards, carrying thick ropes soaked in salt water, trudged into the prison.
Chu Huaiyu leaned against the damp stone wall, slowly raising his eyes upon hearing the sound. Beneath his disheveled hair, his once domineering eyes were now filled with a stagnant stillness.
"By order of the new emperor, he shall be flogged fifty times daily as a warning to others!"
The head guard's voice boomed like a bell. Before he finished speaking, the thick rope, carrying a strong wind, slammed hard against Chu Huaiyu's prison uniform.
The whip whistled as it fell, creating a sharp, piercing sound that was particularly jarring in the cold, dark dungeon.
The excruciating pain was so intense that Chu Huaiyu felt his body tremble violently.
He knew that Chu Siheng was retaliating against him for what he had done to Lu Zhaoxue back then.
Chu Huaiyu was in so much pain that his vision went black. Cold sweat soaked through his prison uniform, mixing with the blood seeping from his wounds, sticking stickily to his skin, both cold and painful.
The guards, having received the new emperor's orders, naturally showed no mercy.
Chu Huaiyu's body was now a bloody mess, a truly gruesome sight.
The guards ordered two jailers to come forward, and then the jailers roughly dragged Chu Huaiyu up from the ground.
"The new emperor also said that you must kneel for a full two hours, not a moment less!"
They forced Chu Huaiyu to the cold, hard ground, rendering him unable to move an inch.
Chu Huaiyu's wound was aggravated, causing him excruciating pain.
There is no day or night in the dungeon, only eternal darkness and cold.
Chu Huaiyu's consciousness was repeatedly torn between pain and dizziness. Every time he was about to faint, the jailer would splash him with cold water to wake him up.
His knees were already numb, and soon the smell of blood filled the cell.
Two hours later, Chu Huaiyu was on the verge of death.
Just then, the head of the Imperial Medical Academy arrived in a hurry with two imperial physicians and medicine boxes.
Chu Siheng had given instructions beforehand to save his life at all costs and not let him die a quick and painless death.
The jailers immediately stepped forward and carried Chu Huaiyu to a pile of straw to the side. The judge squatted down, looked at Chu Huaiyu's body covered in wounds, and frowned.
He skillfully cleaned the wound, applied wound medicine, and then fed Chu Huaiyu the life-saving soup.
"His Majesty said that his life must be spared."
While bandaging the wound, the chief physician whispered instructions to the imperial physician beside him.
"The wound needs to be dressed frequently, and the medicine must be given on time. We absolutely cannot let him die."
The imperial physician was puzzled and asked the chief physician in a low voice, "If you're going to torture him like this, why are you saving him in the first place?"
The judge sighed, glanced at Chu Huaiyu who was already in a daze, and said in a low voice, "What His Majesty wants now is for him to be unable to live or die."
These words happened to fall into Chu Huaiyu's ears.
Unable to live, unable to die... Ha...
Silence returned to the depths of the dungeon, with only Chu Huaiyu's suppressed breathing and the sound of medicine dripping from his wounds echoing slowly in the darkness.
Fifty lashes a day were Chu Siheng's way of making him pay for the heinous crimes of patricide and matricide with his own flesh and blood, and also to atone for the crime of framing Chu Siheng and Lu Zhaoxue back then.
This little bit of physical pain is nothing; it's something he owes her.
Chu Siheng wanted to make him live a life worse than death; that would be the cruelest punishment for him!
Unable to live, unable to die—these eight words were the boundless hell that Chu Siheng tailored for him.
Chu Huaiyu recalled what had just happened, and the sound of the whip landing on his back gradually overlapped with the sound of Lu Zhaoxue being punished in his memory.
So this is what pain feels like...
Chu Huaiyu looked down at the hem of her clothes, which was soaked with blood, and suddenly remembered Lu Zhaoxue from that day.
Was she like this that day? Was she also covered in whip marks and in such a wretched state...?
Now that Chu Huaiyu has experienced it firsthand, he belatedly realizes how much pain Lu Zhaoxue must have been in back then.
He's only suffering physically now, and the pain will pass, but what about Lu Zhaoxue? She was used by him, and she's suffering because of him. Her body is aching, but her heart is probably aching even more.
Such humiliation and despair, coupled with physical pain, must have been an incredibly cruel form of torture.
So this is what it feels like to live and suffer like this.
However, my pain is nothing compared to even a fraction of Lu Zhaoxue's pain back then.
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