In the blink of an eye, Wang Jingshuo emerged from the secret passage.
Next was the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, followed by a highly respected old gentleman who was also the headmaster of the largest academy in the capital.
The person helping him was his prized student, a talented individual highly respected by his fellow students.
Further back were the people from the Marquis's mansion, the officials from the Dali Temple, the onlookers, and the students who were furious that Shi Yan was running rampant in Dayuan because of his status and wanted to come and punish him.
These students were actually the Prime Minister's men, and they were deliberately instigated by him after learning what Shi Yan had done at the Su family.
No one could have imagined that Shi Yan would move so fast, exposing Anzhai in the blink of an eye.
Li Heng was experiencing an unprecedented despair.
The people who came out of the secret passage were first shocked, then angry, and then curious when they saw him.
Some people could never imagine what the Prime Minister's study looked like in their entire lives. After visiting it, they would return through the secret passage with the intention of sharing the good fortune with others, and spread the news to everyone.
As a result, many ordinary people who love to watch the excitement also followed them into the secret passage.
This was also the result of the officials deliberately condoning it.
The officials remained unconscious, but were being guarded by the constables.
Before long, news spread throughout the capital that Prime Minister Li had dug a secret passage from his study directly to the Marquis of Pingchang's residence, and that he had built a pleasure house in the backyard and underground of the Marquis of Pingchang's residence.
Upon learning that many officials were still naked, the crowd of onlookers grew larger and larger, and even the Ye siblings lost interest in going to the execution ground to watch them being tortured.
They flocked to the Marquis of Pingchang's residence.
Those trapped in the basement of the dark house were also rescued in time.
To protect them, the officials tried their best to cover their faces so that they could return to normal life after being rescued.
These people had been tortured and abused to the point that most of them had become numb, and they would do whatever the officials told them to do.
But some people, having resolved to die, no longer cared about saving face.
The woman was six months pregnant. She staggered to the side of an unconscious old official and began punching and kicking him.
"You beast, you old beast who bullies others by relying on your power, I'll beat you to death, I'll beat you to death to avenge my family..."
The officials did not stop her, but they also did not allow the woman to use a sharp weapon to injure anyone, so as to prevent her from being punished.
The woman hit him for a while, then ran to another middle-aged official, bit him on the face, and tore off a piece of flesh before bursting into tears again.
Amid the woman's cries, everyone learned that she was originally a newlywed from a nearby village, who had come to the capital with her scholar husband to take on book-copying jobs.
However, she caught the eye of an old official who wanted to take her as a concubine. When the woman refused, the old official used underhanded means to kill her scholar husband and mother-in-law.
They abducted her to the capital without a sound and hid her in this dark room.
A month later, the old official discovered she was pregnant and, having grown tired of her, decided to get rid of her.
Unexpectedly, the middle-aged official behind them took an interest in the pregnant woman and took her from the old official. He then locked the woman in a cage, where she remained for several months.
After weeping bitterly, the woman suddenly cursed, "God, open your eyes and see what kind of lives we poor people are living!"
Your Majesty, my husband often praises you as a wise and virtuous ruler, but look at the officials under your command—they are all demons in human skin.
Are you deaf and blind to these devils committing evil right under your nose?
Have you lived up to the trust of the people? Have you lived up to the taxes we tightened our belts to pay...?
"shut up!"
An official shouted to stop them!
Insulting the emperor is a capital offense punishable by the confiscation of property and the extermination of one's entire family
The officials couldn't bear to see the woman punished.
But the woman suddenly ripped open her clothes, revealing the festering sores on her chest.
She pointed at the middle-aged official and said to the crowd, "This beastly thing said that pregnant women can produce milk, but he insisted on squeezing milk out of me."
If they can't get it out, they bite me, beat and scold me. I am a woman, but I am also a human being, and also His Majesty's subject.
As Your Majesty's subjects, why can't Your Majesty protect me? Why allow these filthy creatures to hold official positions?
When wicked people gain power, it is a disaster for the people, and even livestock suffer. Look at those cages; besides people, there are also livestock.
They've gone so far as to abuse people that they don't even spare livestock. These are the officials we, the people, worship, the ministers His Majesty has handpicked.
Every month, countless corpses were carried out of that basement. They were all children from ordinary families, captured by these demons and monsters and wantonly tortured.
In their eyes, our lives are as worthless as weeds. How unfair! Heaven is unjust!
The lady cried and touched her belly, "My poor husband and mother-in-law, who did good deeds all their lives, did not have a good end."
My poor child, who was conceived in my womb, was murdered before birth, and whose father and grandmother were killed, and who has endured all this filth with me…
Most of the onlookers were ordinary people, and they couldn't bear it; some even started wiping away tears.
The woman began to gather her clothes, and just when no one was paying attention, she suddenly pulled out the hairpin from the middle-aged official's head and stabbed it into her own throat.
It was knocked down.
It's Ye Zhen!
In the palace, the emperor learned that the Prince Yun's mansion had caught fire and that the imperial guards had failed to rescue the prince in time. Before he could even grieve or reflect on the prince's death, he learned of the events at the Prime Minister's mansion.
He hurriedly ordered the Imperial Guards to surround the Pingchang Marquis's residence and the Prime Minister's residence, and brought Li Heng, the Pingchang Marquis's wife, and others into the palace.
Seeing that the dark room had been overturned, Ye Zhen pretended to blame herself, "Father must have been worried that something had happened to me, so he led people to search all over the capital. I will leave the palace now."
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