"Ahem! Let go!" Jiang Songyi stumbled and grabbed the chains, blood scabs falling from the rack. Just as he was about to make a hand gesture, two guards suddenly arrived carrying a straw mat. The stench of decay instantly overwhelmed the blood, and the moment the mat unfolded, white maggots rolled down like an avalanche.
Gu Zheyuan nonchalantly wiped the knife with a silk handkerchief: "Prince Yongding, would you like me to take a closer look?"
Jiang Songyi held her breath and approached. The corpse was swollen like a drum, and the twined branches of Xu's clothing shop's pattern could be vaguely seen beneath the brocade robe. She suddenly drew the short blade from her waist. A flash of cold light revealed half of her forearm amidst the rotting flesh—the flesh and skin were completely bare.
"Yue Qingyang has a cinnabar mole on his right arm." The tip of the knife picked up a ball of maggots. "Last year at the Dragon Boat Festival banquet, he got drunk and fell into the lotus pond. I rescued him with my own hands."
The dungeon suddenly fell silent. Torches crackled, casting half of Gu Zheyuan's face in shadow. He suddenly raised his foot and crushed the maggots on the ground, the juice making a sticky sound on the sole of his soap boot. "So, the Jinyiwei sent a fake to the imperial prison?"
"Master Factory is wise." Jiang Songyi threw the short blade back into the sheath. "The real one must have sneaked out of the customs in the delegation." She deliberately emphasized the last two words, and sure enough, she saw Gu Zheyuan's pupils shrink suddenly - three days ago, the Dongling delegation passed through the customs with the golden seal, and the guard was his adopted son.
The corpse suddenly convulsed violently, and gray shadows emerged from its seven orifices. Jiang Songyi drew a line with his fingers, and a yellow talisman spontaneously ignited without wind. "Soul!" Amidst a shrill scream, resentment condensed into the form of the Dongling woman, a red butterfly on her forehead fluttering, ready to fly.
"Heart-eating poison." Gu Zheyuan's embroidered spring knife was already unsheathed. "Are you a Miao witch?"
"I only have a basic understanding of medicine." Jiang Songyi flicked her sleeves to extinguish the talisman fire. "If the factory owner doesn't believe me, you can just open the heart of this fake prince—the poisonous insect will form a cocoon after it has consumed all the blood and flesh, and it will hatch someday."
As if to confirm her words, a fist-sized bulge suddenly appeared in the corpse's abdominal cavity. The soldiers retreated in fear as they saw a crimson tumor burst out of the body and flutter towards Gu Zheyuan's brow!
"bite!"
The blade flashed, and the poisonous insect fell to the ground in two. Gu Zheyuan blew the blood off the blade, turned around and smiled seductively: "Such a good show, we should invite the Jinyiwei to watch it together." He suddenly pulled Jiang Songyi's wrist, and the cinnabar mole was faintly visible under the prison uniform. "But my benefactor, do you know that the Yongding Marquis's son also has a red mole on his left wrist?"
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