Tian An gently swung the hairpin left and right, and the dwarf's eyes seemed to be drawn to follow the hairpin and move slowly.
The pace of his steps swayed from slow to fast and then back to slow again. The light gathered in the dwarf's eyes slowly dispersed, and his eyelids slowly drooped, leaving only a slit.
"There's a glimmer in your eyes, and you'll follow it all the way. Your body will gradually become lighter, and you'll be like a cloud, carried by the wind to your hometown, the place where you were born. Your family is looking forward to your arrival..."
Tian An spoke softly, guiding the dwarf into a hypnotic state. Only when the expression on his face gradually relaxed did he begin to ask, "Your loving parents gave you a name with a very meaningful meaning. What is it?"
As if thinking of something happy, the dwarf slightly grinned through his dry, chapped lips and slowly said, "Fuwang, my father said he hopes I will be blessed and live a prosperous life in the future."
"Fuwang, why are you alone now? Where are your family members?" Tian An called his name.
The dwarf Fuwang was stunned for a moment, not sure if it was because he hadn't heard anyone call him that for a long time, or because he no longer remembered his parents.
After a long while, his expression gradually grew sad, and he whispered softly, "I can't grow up, and I never will. The people in the village say I'm a monster. The village was hit by a locust plague, and the villagers said I was the cause of the disaster and wanted to drive me out of the village.
My parents didn't want me anymore. They took me to the market, saying they wanted to buy me candied haws, but they never came back.
I couldn't find my way home, so I waited at the market for two days, hungry and cold, and was finally taken away by a smiling old lady.
She said she would take me to find my parents, but she handed me over to some vicious men, and I never saw them again."
Tian An saw him stop and continued to ask: "What happened next?"
Fuwang frowned, but continued, "They locked me up with a group of other kids, didn't give us any food, made us fight each other, and only gave one steamed bun to the one who fought the hardest.
I ate the steamed bun because on the surface we all looked the same size, but I was actually bigger than them and could hit people better than them.
Later they gave us knives and asked us to kill each other. I killed all the children around me and became the only one who survived.
But later I found out that there were actually many children who survived the group of children like me who were killed.
Those people drove all of us children into the mountains and forests, leaving us to die.
In the forest, in addition to being careful of wild animals, snakes, insects, rats and ants, and having to find food to survive, we also have to be careful of the children who go in with us.
More than fifty people went in, but only five survived.
Zhao Yiming and the prince listened to Fuwang's words, looked at each other, and wrote a line on the paper.
After seeing clearly by candlelight, Tian An asked, "What are the names of the five people who survived, except you? Where are they now?"
Because he was hypnotized, Fuwang answered almost every question Tian An asked, and quickly said four names. However, two of these four people had died over the years, and the remaining two were the two people who were previously captured by Tian An and Zhao Yiming.
After asking a series of questions about the secret chamber, Tian An asked based on the words written by the prince, "Who is the owner of the secret chamber?"
Hearing this question, Fuwang's expression gradually began to struggle, and he seemed very resistant.
Seeing this, Tian An inserted another needle into his head. His expression slowly returned to normal, and then he calmly said a name.
Hearing this, the three people in the dungeon looked at each other, all with expressions that were both unexpected and reasonable.
After a long silence, the prince began to write on the paper again.
After Tian An looked at it, he continued, "Where is the specific location of the secret room?"
"The arrangement of the mechanisms in the secret chamber?"
"The Dark Chamber's defense..."
After all the questions were asked, the prince nodded to Tian An. Tian An then pulled out the silver needle from Fu Wang's head and broke his hypnosis.
When Fuwang woke up, he looked confused and had no memory of what had just happened.
After struggling for so long, it was already dark when the three of them came out of the dungeon. Fortunately, the Duke's Mansion still had some status in the capital. The patrolling soldiers saw that it was the Duke's Mansion's carriage, so they gave it a quick check and let them go home unimpeded.
After the prince came out of the dungeon, he went straight to the imperial study to see the emperor.
All the palace servants were driven out. People outside had no idea what had happened inside, they only knew that the emperor was very angry.
After the prince left, the emperor called the palace servants in to clean up. Several jade cups and teacups were broken, and even the emperor's favorite wolf-hair brush was broken.
It can be seen that the emperor was very angry at that time, but it is not known whether his anger was directed at the prince or what the prince said.
They were all people who were used to serving the emperor, and they were extremely tight-lipped. No matter how hard people tried to inquire, outsiders couldn't get a single word out of them.
Seeing that the people around the emperor were keeping their mouths shut, those who were scratching their heads anxiously naturally did not dare to ask the prince, so they turned their attention to Zhao Yiming and Tian An. After all, these two people had been closest to the prince recently and might know something.
Unfortunately, Zhao Yiming was sent out by the emperor's secret order soon, leaving only Tian An.
As a result, the women of various families in the capital city held banquets one after another, and invitations to various flower-viewing banquets and outing banquets were sent to the Duke's Mansion.
Tian An only glanced at the posts and put them aside, and asked someone to call Jiang's mother, daughter and two others.
"Third Aunt, there have been many banquet invitations from various families in the capital recently. If you find any that you like, take your two sisters and Shuhua with you!"
Jiang accepted the invitations with a few polite words. It wasn't that she liked to show off, but her children were growing up and it was time for them to go out and show their faces and be noticed.
But after reading the posts, she said with some worry, "These posts specifically ask you to go. If we go there, I'm afraid it will cause dissatisfaction among the host family!"
Tian An said apologetically, "I know this is a little embarrassing for Aunt San, but you also know my current situation. If I don't go, I will offend people and they will say that I am too arrogant to be invited.
Go ahead. With my current physical condition, I can't even walk a few more steps, so how can I have the energy to deal with those ladies?
After much deliberation, I decided to ask Aunt San to bring her three younger sisters to apologize to the host family on An An's behalf. "Don't think she doesn't know why those ladies invited her.
After hearing Tian An's words, Jiang Shi felt the same way and said, "Your body is really not suitable for attending the banquet. Those ladies are really tactless. They insist on making trouble for a pregnant woman."
"Aunt, just be polite and considerate. If there are those who act recklessly, our Duke's Mansion will not be easily bullied."
Jiang knew that Tian An was backing them up, so she readily agreed without hesitation. "Don't worry, An An, I'll leave the banquet to Aunt San. Just focus on your pregnancy."
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