Chapter 22 He scared her
The dark room was surrounded by thick stone walls, mottled with age. The long corridor was dim and dark, with only the sound of slow, dull footsteps.
There were constant screams coming from the depths, which sounded extremely painful.
Pei Xingju stood not far away and listened for a while, then continued walking forward.
When Xue Gang saw him coming, he threw the long needle in his hand onto the bloody leather case.
"Coming?"
"How did the interrogation go?"
Xue Gang shook his head: "This time I've run into a tough guy who still refuses to reveal the person behind the scenes."
Pei Xingju glanced indifferently at the man hanging on the iron hook. The man was skinny, with disheveled hair and dried blood all over his body.
It was clearly a gloomy and terrifying scene, but he was as calm as if he was appreciating spring flowers and autumn moon, with no ripples on his handsome face.
"Was flaying used?"
Xue Gang was stunned: "No, this person is dying. If he is tortured by slicing, he will probably die."
Gua (slicing) is a form of torture in which a person is chopped into pieces with a sharp knife. The victim would watch themselves bleed to death while conscious, a process more terrifying than death itself.
Pei Xingju smiled faintly, and the faint smile blended into the dim night, which was actually frightening.
He walked forward and said to the hanging man, "Even if you don't tell me, I can guess who it is. Jinyiwei Duan Hongyuan sent you, right?"
The man lowered his head and looked dead at first glance, but when he heard these words, he moved.
The movement was very small, but it did not escape Pei Xingju's eyes.
He slowly curled his lips and said, "I kept you here for a few days just to let you taste everything my brother tasted back then."
At this moment, Pei Xingju's eyes were sinister, and he looked like a ghost. His face was reflected in the firelight and burst with bloodthirsty pleasure: "How did you force him to confess back then? From now on, I will repay you one by one."
After saying that, he raised his hand: "Bring me the knife."
.
Zhuang Wan enjoyed a meal of crayfish, but the result was... she had indigestion.
She felt very uncomfortable due to indigestion, bloating, and insomnia. She also didn't know if she was allergic to spicy food, but she felt like her stomach was on fire.
After drinking two cups of cold tea, Zhuang Wan took her maid out to help digest the food.
It is now May, the moon is bright, the stars are sparse, and the breeze is hot.
She walked slowly along the corridor, holding a round fan, while Qiu Tan followed her and told ghost stories from her hometown.
"My second aunt saw it with her own eyes. She got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and saw a strange figure standing under the bamboo trees in the backyard. She went over to take a look. Miss, guess what she saw?"
"I saw a ghost."
"Yes! But it wasn't an ordinary ghost." Qiu Tan said, "The ghost was completely black, and its facial features were indistinguishable. It only had a pair of eyes staring at her..."
“Ghost—”
Before she finished her story, Zhuang Wan suddenly jumped up and hid behind her, which scared Qiu Tan so much that her hair stood on end.
"Where? Where's the ghost?"
Zhuang Wan pointed at the Moon Gate. There was a cluster of bamboo planted next to the arched Moon Gate, and a figure was standing next to the bamboo.
Qiu Tan trembled as he stepped forward to investigate. When he saw who it was, he knelt down hurriedly and said, "Master Pei!"
Zhuang Wan walked over in shock and saw Pei Xingju standing there.
He was wearing a black robe, and his face was slightly obscured by the bamboo leaves, so only his sharp eyes could be seen.
No wonder Zhuang Wan thought it was a ghost.
"Yuzhi, you're so quiet here, you scared me to death."
Pei Xingju looked at her silently and said, "It's already midnight. What are you doing here instead of sleeping?"
Zhuang Wan said sheepishly, "I feel a little uncomfortable and can't sleep."
"What's wrong?"
"?"
Zhuang Wan was confused. She didn't expect Pei Xingju to ask so many questions in detail. At first glance, it seemed like he cared about her a little.
But she would not be so self-indulgent as to think that Pei Xingju cared about her, and thought to herself that he might be acting.
But Zhuang Wan was feeling sick to her stomach, and she wasn't in the mood to act. "My stomach feels bad, maybe I ate too much for dinner."
“…”
Pei Xingju was speechless when she recalled the scene of her and the maids eating shrimp in the Muxiang Courtyard in the evening.
Just as I was about to tell her not to eat too much spicy food in the future, I noticed that her expression suddenly changed.
Realizing something, he calmly hid his right hand behind his back.
"It's late, go back and rest early," he said.
Zhuang Wan nodded with a pale face, not daring to respond. She bowed to him, then quickly left with her maid.
Looking at her fleeing back, Pei Xingju pondered.
.
Zhuang Wan was afraid.
She had a keen sense of smell and could clearly smell the scent of blood as she approached Pei Xingju. At first, she thought it was an illusion, but when she caught a glimpse of the wet red on his sleeves, her stomach churned.
If she hadn't held it back, she would have probably vomited out the crayfish she had eaten.
So much blood...what on earth had he done?
In the book, Pei Xingju is a ruthless killer. The Xuanzhao Pavilion he has run for many years has trained countless talented individuals, including assassins, secret guards, and death squads. He himself is also a merciless killer, and countless enemies have died at his hands.
Tonight, maybe he just killed someone.
Thinking of this, Zhuang Wan shuddered and even wanted to cry.
She felt as if she was trapped next to a sleeping lion, unable to move forward or backward, and was always worried that he would break her neck.
This doesn't conform to the law of time travel at all. When other people travel through books, they are either the brilliant heroine or the daughter of a wealthy family who wins easily.
What is this about her?
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?
Once a person has had enough to eat and drink, their urge to live becomes stronger. Zhuang Wan was like this. During the day, she was just thinking about enjoying each day, but now she was starting to think about how to stay alive.
She had to escape, she thought, she couldn't just sit there and wait for death. But she couldn't just run away randomly like before, she had to plan it out carefully.
When Qiu Tan brought in water, she saw her young lady sitting at the table with a pen in her hand, working hard to improve herself.
"Miss, are you still writing so late?"
"Qiutan," Zhuang Wan looked up, "Go out and buy something for me tomorrow."
"What?"
"Buy a map of the capital."
.
Pei Xingju always had the habit of going to bed early, but after taking a bath tonight, he couldn't fall asleep.
He simply asked someone to light another lamp, took a book and leaned against the bed to read.
However, his proud state of mind was quietly disturbed.
His eyes were on the book, but his mind kept coming to the look of Zhuang Wan, who was frightened but pretending to be calm tonight.
She must have smelled the blood on him.
A woman so brave on ordinary days was actually afraid of blood, or more precisely, afraid of killing. This clearly showed that she wasn't a spy. After all, no spy would be like her.
As he pondered, he remembered how she had rushed forward without hesitation to block the arrow for him...
After a long time, Pei Xingju sighed softly.
He thought he must have scared her.
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