At this moment, when the Great Khan looked at Mutai, it was as if he were looking at a joke, a loser. All his previous expectations and trust had vanished.
"Lord Mutai, now that we have this to say, do you have anything to say?"
Mu Tai was dizzy all night and only woke up a little in the morning, but he was listless and looked like a frostbitten eggplant.
He opened his mouth, feeling deeply wronged, but unable to refute it.
If he were to tell Khan Zhenyou that Qiao Lian'er appeared out of nowhere and, despite the presence of so many guards, managed to take the person away unnoticed, Khan Zhenyou would see him as deliberately mocking the emperor and committing insubordination.
"Your Majesty, I am innocent! I don't know what happened," Mu Tai could only say.
He was dejected and looked like a piece of rotten wood.
"I only ask that Your Majesty trust me. I have absolutely no intention of deceiving or disrespecting Your Majesty."
Mayu Khan chuckled and snorted: "Prince Takumi is missing, the gunpowder is gone, and we won't get any other compensation. The money spent on building the gunpowder depot has been wasted. All of this is your doing. Is this your sincerity and attitude?"
"I have set up numerous checkpoints and guards, but Prince Takumi has simply disappeared, and I have no way to explain it."
"Absurd, utterly absurd!" Khan Zhenyou slammed his hand on the armrest of his throne, furious.
"How could a perfectly healthy person just disappear into thin air? I'm afraid you secretly hid them for your own selfish gain, isn't that right?"
The Khan's stern questioning made Mutai tremble.
He quickly lay down on the ground, touching his forehead to the ground and repeatedly kowtowing.
"I am innocent! I am innocent, Your Majesty! When I saw that Prince Tuohai was missing, I was so anxious that I almost vomited blood and died. If Your Majesty gives me another chance, I will definitely make up for this mistake."
"How can you make amends? Can you bring Prince Takumi back as a hostage of the Da Nu Kingdom?"
The person was already in Qiao Lian'er's hands, so Mu Tai certainly couldn't make such a guarantee.
He stammered, "I can atone for my sins by achieving meritorious deeds in other ways."
Khan Zhenyou sneered again, staring at Mutai with a sinister look: "You have disappointed me time and time again. This time, you have caused a deficit in the national treasury and committed a serious crime. I will not let you off easily."
"Guards, lock Mutai up and torture him every day. Remember, don't let him die. I want him to be unable to live and unable to die."
Mu Tai was dragged away, and he finally couldn't help but shout loudly: "It's Qiao Lian'er, it's Princess Qiao Lian'er of Daze. She has special abilities. She knows unorthodox methods and esoteric arts. She can appear and disappear like a ghost and take people away without the sight of any guards."
"Great Khan, it's alright if you imprison or punish me, but you must not let your guard down against Qiao Lian'er. All my setbacks are caused by her because I have a grudge against her. Otherwise, I wouldn't have stumbled so many times. The explosion of the Dongfu Kingdom's gunpowder transport ship, and even the fact that the high-quality gunpowder turned into inferior quality, may also be her doing."
Mu Tai was startled when he blurted out the last sentence.
He then realized that it was all Qiao Lian'er's conspiracy from beginning to end.
She secretly used underhanded tactics to cause these changes, turning him and Crown Prince Takumi against each other. Both Crown Prince Takumi and he were completely manipulated by her.
Now, Prince Takumi has fallen into her hands, and he will be imprisoned and tortured every day.
He then thought further that Qiao Lian'er might be right beside him, watching all of this unfold, and he wondered how smug she would be.
Mu Tai's face turned deathly pale, and his whole body trembled.
He stared into the void, as if he could see Qiao Lian'er standing there with a smile on her face.
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