I saw that in the yard where there should have been houses, there were actually "prisons" lined up side by side, each enclosed by iron bars as thick as teacups.
A house like this can only be described as a "prison"!
Outside the prison, there was a row of long wooden troughs that were hollowed out from whole tree trunks, like horse troughs, filled with "food" cooked with unknown ingredients.
It would be more accurate to say that it was pig food rather than "food". There were all kinds of mess in it, and it gave off a faint sour smell.
It should be their dinner time now. The people imprisoned in the cell put their heads through the gaps in the iron bars over the "feeding trough", and then quickly scooped food from it with their hands and stuffed it into their mouths.
Among them are men and women, old and young. The oldest one looks to be around 30 years old and must have been caught here for a long time. The youngest one is estimated to be only four or five years old and must have been abducted recently.
They were all half-naked, unkempt, and covered in all kinds of dirt. Their hair, which should have been black and shiny, had long been stuck into strands or clumps by unknown dirt. Even though the weather had cooled down, they still attracted a lot of flies.
Even if he heard someone entering the yard, he didn't even look up to check, but was just concentrating on grabbing the so-called "food" in the trough.
"Ugh..." Tian An couldn't control himself and ran out of the yard to vomit.
Xiao Qingheng didn't mind, and asked someone to move a chair to the door and sat there, watching her vomit with interest.
Tian An finally felt better after he vomited out the food he had eaten at noon and his face turned pale.
Seeing that she had recovered, Xiao Qingheng squinted his eyes and asked her with a smile on his lips, "What do you think of this prince's pig house?"
Pigsty? So they are raising people like pigs, animals.
Tian An clenched his fists tightly in his wide sleeves, his nails digging into his flesh, and only then did he barely suppress the urge to kill him right now.
He forced a smile on his pale face and said, "Your Highness's hobby is truly unique."
"Hahahaha..." Xiao Qingheng was in a good mood when he saw Tian An's face pale with fear but he was trying to endure it.
However, he soon stopped laughing.
Because his poison had taken effect, seeing him unable to bear the pain, his eyes red as he screamed like a madman and hurt himself, Tian An not only did not have the slightest sympathy, he just felt that he had been too lenient at the beginning.
Such a person should be left to watch himself rot, pus, stink, and be infested with maggots without being able to do anything about it.
"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and give the prince some relief!" Seeing Tian An quietly watching Xiao Qingheng suffer, the strong man who came with them yelled at her.
Tian An shrugged indifferently and said, "Even if I want to help the prince again, I still need to have a silver needle in my hand."
The strong man choked. They were afraid that Tian An would play tricks, so they naturally didn't dare to leave things like silver needles on Tian An.
It was unrealistic to take Xiao Qingheng back at the moment. He could only order people to go back to the yard at the village entrance to get it, while he and the guards in charge of guarding these people worked together to restrain Xiao Qingheng and wait for the arrival of the silver needle.
While Xiao Qingheng was going crazy, Tian An began to look at the people imprisoned in the cell.
At this time, the food in the "trough" had been snatched away. They sat back in the innermost part of the cell, staring blankly at everything that was happening here. Their eyes were full of numbness, and there was no expression that a normal person should have.
With the last ray of light in the sky, Tian An actually found a few familiar faces among those people.
It seems that her eyebrows and eyes are extremely similar to those of some ladies at the banquet she attended together.
In this way, it can be confirmed that these people are the children who have been kidnapped by King Wenxuan to threaten the ministers in the court for so many years.
I thought they were just being held hostage, but I didn't expect they would be in such a situation.
Those who were kidnapped were all legitimate sons and daughters of their families, the pride of the world. It was hard to imagine what they had gone through over the years to become so calloused.
If those ministers who compromised for the sake of their children and worked for King Wenxuan knew that their children were in such a state, how would they feel?
There are probably more than twenty such courtyards in this village. If the situation in other courtyards is the same as here, then how many children of officials have they kidnapped, how many court officials have they threatened, and how many officials have been controlled by them and become their minions?
Tian An really didn't dare to think about it.
Without waiting for Tian An to think about it, the silver needle arrived. Tian An held the silver needle and casually inserted two needles, and Xiao Qingheng's originally painful expression immediately relaxed.
Although Tian An was in his hands, he was also controlled by Tian An. He took a moment to calm down before saying to Tian An, who was still pale: "Don't worry, County Master. You are the guest of this prince, and naturally you are not comparable to these "pigs."
When she returned to the courtyard at the entrance of the village, the clothes that Tian An wanted were already placed in her previous room.
The scarred woman had prepared hot water for her. She carefully checked the room and the dress, and after making sure there was nothing unusual, she closed the door, took a quick shower, and changed into new clothes.
My body felt refreshed, and the shock of the scene I had just seen gradually faded.
The scarred woman went into the house to clean the bathtub and then came back to set the table. Unfortunately, when Tian An saw the food on the table, the scene just now stayed in her mind like a thorn in her side.
Unable to hold it back, she vomited all over the floor again, until she could vomit out nothing in her stomach and her mouth tasted bitter.
After a pause, for the sake of her health, she looked at the scarred woman and said, "Please take all of this away! Just leave this vegetable melon soup, pickles, and rice."
It’s not okay to not eat. Besides being bad for her health, she also has stomach problems after all!
The scarred woman frowned subconsciously when she heard her words, but she quickly recovered and went to clean up the other dishes without saying anything.
She hasn't said a word since she met Tian An, as if she was really just a mute.
Tian An thought of the children eating pig food, then looked at the scarred woman in front of him, and couldn't help wondering what role she played here.
Was she an accomplice of Xiao Qingheng? Or was she kidnapped like those other children? And what was she eating? Was it normal food? Or...
"Wait." Tian An interrupted her cleaning and pointed at the food on the table and said, "Eat all this!"
The scarred woman was stunned and looked at Tian An in disbelief, but still didn't say anything.
"I told you to eat all of this." Tian An repeated.
The scarred woman looked embarrassed, but still didn't speak, which made Tian An really doubt whether she could speak.
"You? Can't speak?" Tian An asked, pointing at his mouth.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
