Cao Ru broke out in a cold sweat. He looked at the emperor and could not answer.

The emperor was too lazy to talk nonsense with him.

"Ruyi, you come and ask."

Ruyi nodded and turned to look at Cao Ru. "There are two secret passages. Where is the exit of the other one? Who is in charge of that side?"

Cao Ru kept silent and was extremely worried.

If he told it, it would be all over.

This was his own mistake, and it has implicated a large group of people.

Ruyi didn't intend to let him go, so she told the truth, "Whether they confess voluntarily or not, those who deserve to die will die."

However, she squatted down and looked at Cao Zhizhang, "If you don't speak, I will make you live a life worse than death."

"When the time comes, it will depend on whether you are tough-mouthed or tough-minded."

“…”

When Cao Ru faced the little girl from the Shen family for the first time, he felt that she was very different from what he remembered and imagined.

In his original understanding, Ruyi was a sixteen-year-old girl living in the inner chamber, and no matter how capable she was, she would never be a match for a real adult.

The Shen family and the Gu family, that was because they were too useless that their flaws were exposed and they were unable to recover.

Looking at Ruyi directly at this moment, I realized that I had completely underestimated her.

Ruyi's eyes were clear and her face still had a little bit of baby fat, but the words that came out of her mouth were arbitrary and cruel, and her eyes were calm and without any ripples.

To be precise, she has the same qualities as the one on the dragon throne!

What's more, she, a little girl, played the role of Yan Heidou so vividly that she deceived him.

Cao Ru felt that he had really fallen into trouble this time, and it was not unfair.

"Just kill me."

But he always felt that he was almost a dozen years older than Ruyi and there was no way he could be forced into confessing something by her. He also didn't believe that she could come up with any particularly effective means in the imperial study.

So, he took a deep breath, looked at Ruyi, and there was a kind of desperate sneer in his eyes.

With provocation.

It is also contempt.

As expected, he smiled softly.

"Someone, plug his mouth for me."

Her tone was gentle, not like she was going to torture him, but more like she was inviting Cao Ru to tea.

Two imperial guards stepped forward and stuffed Cao Ru's mouth.

Ruyi unfolded the silver needles and inserted them into Cao Ru's acupuncture points one by one.

Soon, an unbearable itchy feeling spread throughout his body, making him open his eyes wide, driving him crazy, struggling, wanting to shout, and making him feel like dying of ecstasy.

The guards held him down.

He couldn't struggle, and tears kept pouring out of his eyes, but soon his eyes turned bloodshot and his eyeballs almost popped out!

"Do you want to say it?"

Ruyi looked at him quietly, still without any anger on her face, "If you don't want to talk, I'll serve you again."

She took out the silver needle again.

"I say! I say!"

Cao Ru was speechless. There was only a voice in his heart shouting, and he nodded frantically.

Ruyi smiled, "You nodded, do you want to say it, or don't you want to say it?"

Cao Ruxin said, he wanted to die!

He burst into tears in front of Ruyi.

"Let him go."

Ruyi stood up and the smile on her face disappeared.

The imperial guards took the cloth out of Cao Ru's mouth, and Cao Ru cried bitterly, "Please, please take out the silver needle, please!"

He felt like he was going crazy.

His hands were still tied, so he couldn't relieve the discomfort. Now he felt like his whole body was about to explode and he went crazy.

Ruyi took the silver needle.

Cao Ru fell to the ground. The extremely itchy feeling on his body disappeared, but his heartbeat was still abnormal, as if an invisible fear had penetrated into his limbs and deep into his soul.

It was as if all life had been exhausted at this moment.

He lay there as if dead, motionless, only tears flowed from his dry, wide-open eyes, wetting the ground.

There was total silence in the imperial study.

Eunuch Yuan, the eldest princess, and the imperial guards all felt a chill down their spines when they saw this scene.

Smiling tiger.

At this moment, these three words were the only ones in Eunuch Yuan's mind.

When Ruyi was interrogating Cao Ru, there was no anger on her face, only a smile as warm as spring breeze and a soft voice.

But what is the ending?

The end result was that Cao Ru was on the verge of madness.

His face was now ashen, as if his soul had been sucked out of him.

His feet occasionally twitched involuntarily, like some dying animal.

The emperor was also quite sad.

When they first met, he thought this girl should be able to keep her composure.

Cultivate it and it will be useful.

Later, he felt that she was smart and could stand on her own if she was trained.

At this moment, he felt...

This sixteen-year-old girl is not only smart and steady, but also ruthless. Such a person is suitable for doing some drastic things.

In other words, suitable for doing big things.

After a while, Ruyi finally spoke, "There is another secret passage. I hope Lord Cao can tell me about it."

Cao Ru felt that he didn't even have the strength to breathe.

Not to mention resistance.

Before, he thought that at most he would be subjected to all 72 kinds of punishments in the Heavenly Prison. Wouldn't that just be painful?

He can endure.

At this moment, he felt that there were many feelings in the world that were more painful than pain.

For example, just now, he had lost his mind.

At this moment his mind was still blank, or to be more precise, he had no willpower.

There was no time to consider anyone else.

He spoke, his voice hoarse and trembling, "The other secret passage originally ran under Yingchun Tower, but was later sealed off. We dug one from outside the South City, starting four years ago until now..."

Outside the south city?

Ruyi pondered this and connected many things together, "So, the banditry four years ago was actually deliberately created by you, right?"

Cao Ru widened his eyes.

He only said one sentence.

Why did the little girl in front of me think of that?

Ruyi looked at him and said, "This matter is very strange."

"Logically speaking, Nanshan outside the city is only a dozen miles away from the capital. Even if the bandits are extremely daring, they will not cause trouble under the feet of the emperor."

"So, the bandit riot was fake, and your need for manpower was real. But these people can't just appear out of thin air, so these people are bandits from other places that you got, right?"

Cao Ru: “…”

"this--"

Eunuch Yuan was also stunned and subconsciously glanced at the emperor.

The emperor looked at Ruyi thoughtfully.

A strange feeling arose in his heart: This little girl is so smart, how great it would be if she was his daughter?

But then he changed his mind and thought that if it was his daughter, there would probably be another battle for the throne, and she and Rong Yan would fight to the death.

It seems better this way.

Ruyi didn't know how much impact her judgment had on the people around her. She said quietly, "You killed two birds with one stone during that bandit riot. First, you took the opportunity to plot against General Yao, forcing him to recuperate. Then you took the opportunity to send people to the city defense army."

"Second, it is to give Lord Cao a chance to go and suppress the bandits. You can not only gain military merit, but also conceal the truth. Under the guise of suppressing the bandits, you can actually let these people become your labor force and start digging tunnels."

At this point, she changed the subject and stared at Cao Ru, "Well, there is one thing I'm curious about."

"Where did Lord Cao get those people who were killed at that time?"

"I'm afraid they are not bandits at all, but are trying to eliminate dissidents, right?"

Ruyi sneered, and Cao Ru's soul was chilled.