After sitting on the wooden bed for a while, a jailer brought several people with him.
"Yun Ying."
Xiao Yunying looked at her parents and walked to the wooden fence: "Father, Mother, what brings you here?"
She thought she could keep it a secret for a while, but she didn't expect it to happen so quickly.
Mu Lianrong looked worried: "I put down my things and called your two brothers to go to your house again. On the way, someone told me that you had been taken away by the officials. When we got to your house, Luo Sheng's mother tried to hide it from me, saying that you had something to do at the county government office."
When I saw Luo Xin crying like that, I knew it wasn't that simple. I asked her again and again before she finally told me, "Child, you've done something so big and you still want to hide it from your family?"
Xiao Yunying said softly, "I just didn't want you to worry."
Xiao Shanhai looked around and lowered his voice, saying, "Daughter, tell your father the truth, did you really poison the Empress Dowager?"
Speaking of this, Xiao Yunying was not lying: "How could that be? Father, don't believe the charges they've made against me. If I really poisoned the Empress Dowager, how could I have come back unharmed? That's a crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of your family. They can't just arrest me; they would arrest all of you."
"Then why would they pin such a crime on you?"
Xiao Yunying said roughly, "The Empress Dowager saw that I could purify salt and improve weapons, and she wanted to threaten me into working for her. But she wants to seize power for her son and become emperor. To put it bluntly, it's treason. I will not agree to that."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Shanhai said with a grave expression, "That cannot be agreed to."
Mu Lianrong didn't care about those things; she only thought about her daughter's safety: "What if you don't agree? Will you get your head chopped off?"
Xiao Yunying pretended to be relaxed and said, "My parents don't know about what's happening in the capital, but I do. Luo Sheng has already started to solve the problem, and I think there will be a result soon. I should be fine, but I may have to stay here for a few days."
Mu Lianrong glanced at the environment inside the cell: "You are the cleanest person, how can you live in here? I will bring you a clean quilt and food later. I will order three meals for you from Huiweilou and have someone deliver them to you."
Xiao Yunying was just about to tell her parents about this, but her mother had already thought of it for her.
"Just have the staff from Jinxiuge deliver the bedding, and have the staff from Huiweilou deliver the meals. Mother, don't come here so often. It's not a good place, and it's tiring to travel back and forth like this."
"But I'm worried about you. What if they torture you?"
Xiao Yunying glanced into the depths of the prison: "No, Mother, don't worry."
They probably won't use torture...
Coercion and enticement, first coercion and then enticement—it's hard to say for sure.
Hearing her daughter say this, Mu Lianrong felt a little relieved: "It's good that they won't use torture. Will everything be fine once Luo Sheng comes back?"
"Yes, so Mother, you just stay home and wait. Don't worry about me. If you come too often, it will remind them that I care about my family. What if they arrest you and use that to threaten me?"
Mu Lianrong didn't want to trouble her daughter: "Mother knows."
Xiao Yunying spoke with her parents through the wooden fence for a while. Mu Lianrong was in a hurry to bring her bedding and food, so she didn't stay long and urged Xiao Shanhai to go out and prepare things for her.
Xiao Yunying sat there waiting for about half an incense stick's time, when she saw the jailer leading Cheng Yue and a waiter in.
The jailer opened the cell door: "Speak quickly, and then leave immediately."
Cheng Yue said to him, "Thank you very much, officer."
Xiao Yunying asked, "Sister Cheng Yue, what brings you here?"
Cheng Yue placed the food box on the table: "Aunt Xiao went to my shop to buy bedding, saying it was for you. That's how I found out you were back. Why were you arrested and thrown into jail? Did you really poison the Empress Dowager?"
Having no other choice, Xiao Yunying could only repeat what she had just said to her parents.
Upon hearing this, Cheng Yue comforted her, saying, "It's alright, there's still room for maneuver. It's not like she's been convicted outright, but she'll probably have to suffer for a while."
"It's not so bad, just the accommodations are a bit cramped. We can have the food delivered by the staff at Huiweilou."
The shop assistants at Jinxiufang had already made up the bedding for her. Cheng Yue said, "I brought you extra thick bedding. As for food, I will bring it to you on time for each meal."
"No need, Sister Cheng Yue." Xiao Yunying refused directly, "This is a prison, not a good place. It's best for a woman like you to stay away."
Cheng Yue's tone was full of worry: "No, I won't feel at ease until I see you are alright with my own eyes. You don't need to use those words to scare me. I've already asked you to persuade your parents to go back. I've also told them that I will bring you food from now on. That way, we can all feel at ease."
Xiao Yunying knew she couldn't persuade her otherwise, so she could only agree, "Alright then, thank you for your trouble, Sister Cheng Yue."
Cheng Yue opened the food box and took out the food: "Aunt Xiao said you haven't had time to eat since you came back. Hurry up and eat something to tide you over. Then tell me if there's anything you need, and I'll bring it to you when I bring your dinner tonight."
Xiao Yunying was indeed hungry, so she didn't make a fuss and sat down to eat: "I don't need anything... Oh, right, buy me a few storybooks. It's too boring here. I'll read some books to pass the time. Buy the scary kind, the scarier the better."
"Okay, I understand."
As they were talking, a jailer came over and knocked on the wooden fence: "It's time to go."
Xiao Yunying glanced at him while biting into her steamed bun. It wasn't the same jailer as before; it was a completely different face. Just by looking at his appearance, you could tell that this person wasn't as good-tempered as the previous one.
Cheng Yue could also tell that this person wasn't as easy to talk to as the previous one: "Yun Ying, I'll go out first. You can eat slowly. I'll come back to pick up the food box tonight."
"Okay, Sister Cheng Yue, drive carefully."
As soon as Cheng Yue stepped out of the cell, the jailer forcefully wrapped the iron chain around her several times and locked the door.
Before leaving, he gave her a strange smile.
Xiao Yunying was completely confused.
Does this person recognize themselves?
Or were they spies sent by the Empress Dowager?
She didn't think about the question for long. Under the stares of the other prisoners, she finished her meal, tidied up the food box, and sat on the bed.
She was indeed quite tired from rushing to get there, so she pretended to make the bed again and sprinkled insect repellent powder around the bed. She then lay on the bed facing the wall to block others' view and took a nap.
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