Chapter 36 Blood Wine "I know nothing!"
Yao Ningde sat on the chair with a condescending attitude, with Fu Chang on his left and right.
Xiao Ruo's hands were tied to a wooden pillar. He lowered his head and his clothes were soaked in blood, which dripped onto the ground along the edges of the cloth.
Yao Ningde asked loudly, "Are you still unwilling to tell me where they are now?"
Xiao Ruo's weak voice rang out in the yard: "No... I haven't seen it..."
The long whip fell heavily on Xiao Ruo, and Zhou Tinglan clearly saw that the tip of the whip had turned deep red.
The dried blood covered the newly shed blood, and the long whip reflected a cruel bloody color in the moonlight.
Xiao Ruo's painful groans continued to ring out in the yard.
"Ahhhh—I don't know, I really don't know anything!"
"Don't know?" A fierce look flashed across Yao Ningde's eyes. He clapped his hands, "Good! Good! You don't know, right? Then let me teach you what you mean by 'you don't know'!"
"Come here, bring me my newly brewed wine!"
The attendants beside him responded and soon brought back more than twenty jars of wine.
Yao Ningde ordered his followers to pour all the wine in the jars into a large vat.
He looked at Xiao Ruo in front of him, his tone icy, "You've been my guest for a day, and I haven't treated you properly yet. It just so happens that the Japanese government has recently brewed a batch of fine wine. The night dew is cold, so I'll give you some wine to warm you up."
"Okay... okay! It just so happens... I'm a little cold too. Thank you, sir, for the wine. It will... drive away the cold for me!"
As Xiao Ruo spoke, blood kept coming out of his mouth. He forced himself to speak incoherently.
He was thrown into a large vat by his followers, and the wounds on his body came into contact with the cold wine, causing stinging pain all over his body.
The blood dripping from his body melted into the wine, staining the whole area red.
Xiao Ruo's hands were then hung up on a horizontal pillar, and he was held in the hands of his followers like a hanging salted fish.
When Yao Ningde saw the pained look on Xiao Ruo's face, he laughed wildly.
"Look at him! Look at his expression right now, how - how fascinating! So beautiful..."
Xiao Ruo was pulled up and hung in the air, and then thrown down heavily.
Wine splashed everywhere, and Xiao Ruo was filled with a belly full of wine mixed with blood, which choked him and made him cough and spit out large mouthfuls of blood.
"Are you going to tell me now?" Yao Ningde asked.
"No...I won't say it." Xiao Ruo gritted his teeth and refused to let go, but before he could finish his words, he was thrown into the cold wine again.
Yao Ningde asked Fuchang to continue the interrogation and took the hot tea handed to him by his attendant: "Well, it's windy tonight, I really need to drink some wine to warm myself up."
He said, "Let's have some wine for our guests tonight! Don't let them get cold. It will be hard to deal with them if they say our hospitality was poor!"
Xiao Ruo's stomach was nearly suffocated as more and more wine poured into it. He looked up at the bright moon high in the sky in the distance.
The moon is crescent and bright, but it is blood red.
His lips parted, and he said firmly again: "I don't know, I don't know anything!"
Yao Ningde tutted his words a few times: "How pitiful! They didn't even come to save you, and you still risked your life to protect them. Is it worth it?"
"worth."
Xiao Ruo's head was pressed directly into the jar by his followers and was lifted up when he was on the verge of death.
"How about this fine wine from my mansion? It tastes good, doesn't it?"
"Delicious..." Xiao Ruo felt an unpleasant taste of rust in his mouth.
"Great! That's a good thing! I admire people like you who are so good-natured!" Yao Ningde smiled and said, "It's time to end the game. Let's play something more interesting!"
Xiao Ruo was dragged out of the vat by his followers. He was pressed on a chair, his limbs were fixed, and a sharp dagger was inserted straight into his thigh.
"You're just going to tell me you don't know, aren't you? Then tell me what you want!"
Yao Ningde asked Fuchang to stare at Xiao Ruo: "Since he can only say he doesn't know, let him talk as much as he wants! If he stops, I will beat him!"
"I don't know! I don't know! I don't know..."
Xiao Ruo kept repeating to himself that if he hesitated for a moment, the whip would fall on him mercilessly.
Yao Ningde sat leisurely in the chair and put down the teacup in his hand. "I am a little tired. Fuchang, you lead the interrogation. I hope to have a result tomorrow morning."
Fuchang bowed and said, "Yes, sir."
Zhou Tinglan's tears welled up in her eyes, and she covered her lips to prevent herself from screaming.
Xie Zechuan, who was standing beside him, was also shocked by the cruel torture he saw.
Zhou Tinglan's heart was burning with anger. She said to Xie Zechuan, "I'm going to save him! If I don't, Xiao Ru will really die here tonight!"
Xiao Ruo was such a good person, why did he die at the hands of Yao Ningde, a treacherous minister? Why!
Good people are killed while bad guys go unpunished. How unfair the world is!
"Are you going to save Xie Zechuan or not? If you don't go, I will!" Zhou Tinglan's voice gradually became higher.
"Lan'er, we can't!" Xie Zechuan disagreed and refused.
Zhou Tinglan thought, why not? Since he doesn’t want to, I’ll do it myself!
Seeing that Zhou Tinglan was about to draw her sword and rush out, Xie Zechuan hurriedly stopped her.
He thought that Lan'er was still upset by Xiao Ruo's torture. If he rushed out like this, not only would he fail to save her, but he would also expose his identity.
"Lan'er, we can't save him." Xie Zechuan looked at the dying Xiao Ruo with grief on his face.
I'm sorry, Xiao Ruo, it's my fault.
"What do you mean he can't be saved? If we go and save him, there's a glimmer of hope!"
Zhou Tinglan was annoyed. It was no good if there was no rescue yet. What did he mean by no hope?
She pointed at Yao Ningde who was about to turn and leave: "That damn traitor is leaving! I want to save Xiao Ruo!"
"Lan'er, no!" Xie Zechuan raised his voice.
The two men's voices alarmed Yao Ningde and his followers who had not yet left the yard.
Yao Ningde looked in the direction of the voice and shouted, "Who is it?"
Fu Chang led his men towards the bushes where Zhou Tinglan was hiding.
Seeing this, Zhou Tinglan wanted to draw his sword and fight with Fuchang.
Xie Zechuan cursed softly, picked up Zhou Tinglan and went back the way they came.
Zhou Tinglan struggled a few times: "Let me go, I want to go back and save Xiao Ruo!"
"No! Listen to me, okay, Lan'er?"
The tighter Xie Zechuan hugged her, the more Zhou Tinglan cried silently on his shoulder.
After turning the corner, Xie Zechuan turned sideways and entered a remote alley.
Their voices could be heard from outside the alley: "Hurry! Look again! We lost him around here! If you can't find him, you'll be beheaded and have to apologize to the adults!"
Xie Zechuan carefully looked out of the alley through the wall and saw the pursuers running forward.
"Lan'er, don't worry, they couldn't catch up."
He breathed a sigh of relief, calming the violent ups and downs of his chest. Xie Zechuan looked down at Zhou Tinglan in his arms, their breathing entangled with each other. Xie Zechuan's fingers gently wiped away the tears that were about to flow from Zhou Tinglan's face.
"Lan'er, don't cry, Xiao Ruo..."
Zhou Tinglan looked up, her eyes red. She slapped Xie Zechuan's hand away and punched him in dissatisfaction: "Why did you stop me from saving Xiao Ruo just now! Are you afraid of death? I didn't see you like this even when we were in Beijiang City!"
"The lives of the soldiers of Northern Frontier City are precious, but the lives of the common people in an ordinary town are not lives?"
“…”
Zhou Tinglan's consecutive words made Xie Zechuan a little incoherent.
"Lan'er, I... no, no, I wanted to save..."
"I see you just don't want to save me!" Zhou Tinglan struggled to get down: "Let me go! I want to get down. I'm also a noble lady from a noble family whose father was demoted. I'm not your Beijiang City soldier. Let me go!"
"Lan'er! I..."
Suddenly, there was a noise of footsteps at the entrance of the alley, and both of them looked over.
"They're here!"
It was the followers who discovered them hiding in the alley. They drew their knives and blocked Zhou Tinglan and the other person in the alley.
Seeing this, the two men drew their swords and prepared to fight the enemy.
The night was as dark as ink. In the narrow and deep alley, only the silver light emitted by the long sword could be seen.
Xie Zechuan stood in front of Zhou Tinglan: "Lan'er, you go first!"
Fu Chang and the rest of his followers raised their swords and pointed them at them: "No one will escape tonight!"
Zhou Tinglan cursed angrily, "You lackeys of Yao Ningde! You've done so many evil things, aren't you afraid of retribution one day?"
"Retribution?" Fu Chang licked his lower lip and laughed crazily, as if he had heard something ridiculous. "What is retribution? All I know now is that you are all going to die, so that I can present your still warm heads to the Lord!"
He raised his knife and chopped at him: "Give me your life!"
Xie Zechuan dodged sideways, and Zhou Tinglan attacked Fuchang from the side with a knife.
Fu Chang's clothes were ripped open, and he shouted angrily, "What are you all standing there for? Kill them and take their heads. Your Excellency will reward you handsomely!"
In a blink of an eye, many followers attacked Zhou Tinglan and the other man.
When Fu Chang attacked again, Xie Zechuan raised his knife to meet him, while Zhou Tinglan stood beside him and stabbed Fu Chang's shoulder fiercely.
Taking advantage of the aftereffects of the blades colliding, she quickly rushed forward, kicked him, and ran away pulling Xie Zechuan.
Fuchang's voice of pain was heard from behind.
Xie Zechuan shouted, "Lan'er, there are too many people. Let's retreat quickly!"
He waved away an attendant, turned around, held Zhou Tinglan's hand, and took her deep into the alley.
"Where are you running to!" Fu Chang chased after him relentlessly.
The two men kept changing the direction of their escape, trying to get rid of the Fuchang people and turning into several bends.
Fuchang was no longer visible behind him. Zhou Tinglan gasped for breath and looked out at the bottomless street: "He didn't catch up with me, did he?"
"Probably not."
Zhou Tinglan leaned against the wall, feeling dizzy. She looked up at the sky, not knowing whether the followers had caught up with them.
She had calmed down a bit now: "Xie Zechuan, I'm sorry for what I said just now. I said a lot of angry words in the heat of the moment."
Xiao Ruo can no longer be saved. She should be angry at Yao Ningde and attack those treacherous people in Dazhao Kingdom instead of being resentful towards Xie Zechuan.
"It doesn't matter. No matter how angry Lan'er is with me, I will forgive you."
Xie Zechuan patted the dust off his clothes and said, "Let's get out of here quickly. It will be bad if we meet again later."
The two men did not dare to stop and walked around the streets and alleys of Shangjing City, finally returning to the grain and oil shop where the secret spot was.
When they rushed into the shop, the spies were startled by the appearance of the two men and hurried forward to ask, "Sir, are you okay?"
Zhou Tinglan was about to wave his hands to say that he was fine, but he suddenly felt weak and his eyes went dark, and he lost consciousness.
In her last moment of consciousness, she fell into Xie Zechuan's arms and heard him anxiously shout, "Lan'er!"
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