"General, General."
In the middle of the night, Cen Xiao was woken up by Dao Ba.
Yang Cui was fast asleep when Cen Xiao carefully withdrew his arm, put on his clothes, and went out.
Dao Ba whispered, "Just as the general predicted, someone really did go to see Qinghua in the middle of the night. This person is none other than Qiao Mai!"
Cen Xiao asked calmly, "Where are they?"
"It's already under our control."
...
"I just came to see the blue and white porcelain. Third Master, what are you doing? Do you think I'm a prisoner?" Qiao Mai was scared, but she pretended to be calm.
When Cen Xiao and Dao Ba arrived, they heard Qiao Mai questioning Dao San.
Upon seeing Cen Xiao, Qiao Mai felt a chill, but she still mustered her courage and said, "General, I just came to see Sister Qinghua and wanted to ask her why she would harm the Madam when the General and Madam have been so good to us."
Dao San sneered: "Qiao Mai, do you think you're smarter or the General is smarter?"
Qiao Mai felt a jolt in her heart, a bad premonition.
Dao San continued, "You'd better confess honestly to avoid physical punishment."
"Explain...explain what? I have nothing to explain."
"For example, you can confess what you and Qinglan conspired about by the lotus pond, or what she gave you."
Upon hearing this, Qiao Mai collapsed to the ground. So they knew everything! They saw everything.
"You're spying on me?"
"You'd better confess. You can't withstand any of these torture instruments, and you don't want to implicate your brother, do you?" Dao San's words carried a hidden threat.
Qiao Mai stared at Dao San in shock: "What right do you have to touch my brother?"
After saying that, she looked at Cen Xiao and said, "General, my brother is loyal to you. You mustn't harm him!"
"If you don't say anything, I guarantee he'll die before you!"
Hearing Cen Xiao's cold and ruthless words, Qiao Mai burst into tears, her mind going completely blank.
Suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration and said, "Is it because I had contact with Qinglan that you suspect me? Actually, I don't know her at all. Today is the first time we've met. We didn't conspire together. She's the one threatening me."
She gave me a bottle of medicine and told me to poison the general. She also threatened that if I didn't agree, she would frame me, saying that I had poisoned the lady. She stuffed the medicine into my arms and left.
The more Qiao Mai talked, the more feasible her statement seemed. A lie that was half true and half false would be more credible.
She continued, "Later, I couldn't sleep at all when I got back to my room. I felt something was wrong. Sister Qinghua is indeed greedy, lazy, and gluttonous, but I don't think she's the kind of person who would poison the madam, so I came to ask her for clarification."
Qiao Mai felt that her words were flawless, but to her surprise, Cen Xiao broke one of her legs as soon as she finished speaking.
"Ah~" Qiao Mai let out a painful scream.
Cen Xiao's icy words still echoed in my ears: "This is the price you pay for lying!"
Qiao Mai fainted from the pain.
Dao Ba poured a bucket of ice water over her, instantly waking her up.
At this moment, Dao San kicked a dagger next to Qiao Mai: "Is this how you ask questions?"
Qiao Mai thought there was no one guarding the place, so he wanted to take advantage of Qing Hua's inability to walk after being flogged and kill her. However, he was caught red-handed after being stabbed three times and eight times.
This dagger was also the murder weapon she brought!
“From now on, for every lie you tell, I’ll cut off one of your fingers.” Cen Xiao sat in front of her, toying with the gleaming dagger in his hand.
Qiao Mai looked at Cen Xiao through teary eyes. She had never seen Cen Xiao so fierce before.
"Why...why are you doing this to me? I'm telling the truth, why don't you believe me?"
As soon as Qiao Mai finished speaking, Dao Ba pressed Qiao Mai down, and Cen Xiao actually cut off one of her fingers.
Qiao Mai let out another pitiful scream.
“You can keep lying. You have nine fingers, and if that’s not enough, your brother has ten.”
Qiao Mai was shocked, her face covered in tears and snot.
Dao San sighed, "Miss Qiao Mai, why are you doing this? Do you think we have no evidence at all? Do you think we really believe that Qinghua was the one who poisoned her?"
Cen Xiao and the others did not believe Qinglan, so Qinglan's identification made them think that Qinghua was most likely just a scapegoat.
However, it was not unjust for Qinghua to be beaten so many times, because Qinghua was not a clean thief and had stolen a lot of small items from the General's Mansion to sell, so she deserved to be beaten.
Joe was shocked again.
“We already know all about your embezzlement of the General’s mansion’s grain,” Dao San added. “Confess honestly, and you’ll suffer less, and your brother won’t have to suffer either.”
Qiao Mai and Qiao Shu, siblings, have always had a very good relationship. In addition, they are each other's only family in this world, which makes their bond even stronger.
"Qiao Mai, aren't you going to tell us yet?"
"I... I'll tell you, will you let my brother go?"
"That depends on what you confess. You're not in a position to negotiate now," Dao San said.
At this moment, Cen Xiao said, "Qinglan's threat against you is actually true, isn't it?"
Qiao Mai's heart skipped a beat.
Just as she hesitated, Cen Xiao's dagger was already pressed against her ring finger; the icy touch was undoubtedly a warning.
"It's...it's fake, I didn't poison you, ah..."
Her ring finger was cut off, and Joe screamed in pain.
“Since you don’t care about your fingers, then let’s find someone else. Dao Ba, go and bring Qiao Shu over.”
"No! No! I'll talk, I'll talk..." Qiao Mai mustered her courage and said, "I did it, I poisoned him."
Enraged, Cen Xiao broke her other leg.
Qiao Mai screamed again.
Qiao Shu, who was in the courtyard outside the gate, heard his sister's screams and burst into tears.
But he was powerless to do anything about it.
Inside the room, Dao Ba questioned, "Why did you do this? Wasn't the Madam good to you? Wasn't the General good to you? Not only did you embezzle the General's mansion's grain, but now you've even poisoned the Madam! What a vicious ingrate!"
Now that things have come to this, Qiao Mai is no longer willing to tolerate it.
She hurriedly defended herself, "I didn't embezzle! I was just temporarily holding onto the silver and grain for the general! Everything in the general's mansion was earned through his own hard work and risking his life. Why should he support so many idle people? I can't just stand by and watch the general leave nothing behind and let it all benefit outsiders!"
Dao Ba: "Who do you think you are? Do you think you have the right to make decisions about the master? Who do you think you are?"
Qiao Mai looked at Cen Xiao with deep affection: "Because I love you! Everything I did was for you!"
Cen Xiao said coldly, "You poisoned the woman I love most, also for my sake?"
The five words "the woman I love most" drove Qiao Mai to the brink of insane jealousy.
She gritted her teeth and shouted, "She's nothing but a divorced woman, a piece of trash! What right does she have to be the mistress of the General's Mansion? She doesn't deserve it!"
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