Chapter 14. Spring Flower

Defeated in argument, she had nothing left to say, her head drooping like a kitten as she clutched at her skirt.

"I want to see my brother..."

She couldn't help but cough, and then quickly covered her mouth to suppress it, fearing he would be displeased.

Zhang Duo put down the whip in his hand, pulled up the collar of his robe that was draped over his arm, straightened up, picked up the silver pot from the earthenware table, refilled the cup he had just drunk from, and extended it to her.

This was the first kindness Xi Yin had received from him in six days, but she couldn't understand the reason, and instead grew even more uneasy, staring at it without taking it.

Seeing that she didn't move, Zhang Duo simply rested his arm on his knee and looked at her in the lonely light.

"You have four days left. Besides seeing your brother, don't you want to do anything else?"

Xi Yin looked up, "I... what else can I do?"

Zhang Duo smiled, raised his wrist, and without answering her question, simply said, "Drink the water first."

***

It was the tenth day of February. Early spring had truly arrived in Luoyang. The grass was soft and fluffy, the North Mang Mountain turned green overnight, and the ice on the Luo River had completely melted.

Zhao Qian was brushing his horse in the stream in front of the Inner Guard camp. The cold water startled the horse, splashing him with dirty water. Zhao Qian jumped ashore and wiped his face.

"This lazy horse, I'll teach you a lesson."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a clear laugh from behind him. Zhao Qian turned around quickly and saw a woman standing under a weeping willow not far away. She was wearing a water-red robe with embroidered magnolia flowers and was covering her mouth, laughing at him. Zhao Qian's face turned red, and he quickly put on the fish-scale armor on his shoulder and walked towards her.

"Pingxuan, why are you here? This is where all the rough men are..."

"I came to find my brother. I didn't see him at his house, and Jiang Qin said he came to your camp, so I came over."

As she spoke, she raised herself slightly on her tiptoes and looked behind him. "Hmm... where is he? I have something good for him."

Zhao Qian quickly blocked her.

"Hey, he's in the interrogation room. How can a girl like you go there?"

"Interrogation room?"

Zhang Pingxuan frowned.

"Are you going to kill someone again?"

"It's not that we're going to kill someone..."

Zhao Qian was simple-minded, afraid that she would misunderstand, and directly told her the truth.

"Your brother is interrogating a prisoner. When have you ever seen me kill anyone?"

Zhang Pingxuan pouted, "Don't lie to me. The whole city of Luoyang knows that your brother has volunteered to be punished and will not participate in court affairs until the assassination case is closed. Shouldn't he be drinking with you now? Why is he interrogating a prisoner?"

These words were quite insightful.

Since the Minister of Justice presented the indictment of the night interrogation of the female prisoner two days ago, Zhang Duo had submitted a petition to resign from his official position. The emperor was panicked and rejected him three times in one day. Who knew that Zhang Duo submitted another petition to plead guilty and not attend the court. With him absent from the court, Zhao Qian and other generals were all watching, so that the military affairs of the Eastern Expedition could not be decided, and even Zhang Xi was somewhat at a loss.

The emperor was even more panicked and indiscriminately scolded several old ministers who had submitted petitions to resign from their official positions. The morale of the court was low. Many people came to the Ministry of Justice to ask for an visit, but were turned away by Zhang Duo on the grounds that he was guilty and should not be seen.

Zhang Pingxuan, the daughter born to Xu Wan and Zhang Xi, though not full siblings, was after all born of the same mother. Even though Zhang Duo had a strained relationship with the Zhang family, he still trusted his sister. Normally, Zhang Pingxuan would come over every other day to tidy up the Quiet Study and dust the Guanyin statue. For the past ten days, Zhang Duo had avoided even her, which puzzled her, so she came to find him under the pretext of delivering something.

Seeing her determined look, Zhao Qian, who had let slip a bit of information, began to regret it.

"Your brother is a man of great affairs, what would a young lady like you know?"

Zhang Pingxuan glanced at him, "Yes, you and my brother are the same, so focused on great affairs that you've lost all sense of family. For the past few years, Mother has been confined, and Brother and Father have been at odds. You don't even try to reconcile them, you just follow him around..."

As she spoke, she walked forward, and soft grass stuck to her ear. Zhao Qian wanted to remove it for her, but when she suddenly turned around, he quickly retracted his hand, subconsciously pinching his ear.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing... nothing, my ear is hot."

Zhang Pingxuan laughed and leaned closer, "Are you angry because I said that?"

"Nonsense, why would I be angry. Your brother is the one who's angry."

Zhang Pingxuan tilted her head, and a newly returned swallow soared into the sky above.

"That's right, I heard from my second brother at home that ten days ago, Father punished Brother in front of the East Hidden Hall again, and then he pleaded guilty. I originally planned to come over and help Jiang and the others take care of things, but Brother asked Jiang Ling to tell me not to go... hey?"

She turned to Zhao Qian and asked, "Who has been taking care of the Quiet Study these days?"

Zhao Qian awkwardly replied, "Who else, Jiang Qin."

Zhang Pingxuan shook her head, "Brother never lets Jiang Qin or Jiang Ling enter the Quiet Study."

Then, as if she had suddenly realized something, her eyes lit up. "Tell me, has Brother taken a concubine?"

"Ah... I... I don't know."

"You follow your brother around every day, and you don't even know that?"

"I don't live in his Quiet Study, how would I know?"

"If you don't know, then I'll ask him myself."

She walked directly towards the camp, saying as she went, "Where is the interrogation room?"

"Hey, hey! You're even more ruthless than your brother. If your brother knows I brought a young lady like you to see such a bloody scene, he'll beat me to death. Come back... go sit in my tent for a while, and I'll go find your brother."

Zhang Pingxuan hugged the thing in her arms and replied, "Alright, hurry up."

"Got it."

Zhao Qian pressed his brows and turned to order the soldiers, "Take Miss Zhang to rest. Brew my best tea."

Most of the soldiers in the middle rank knew their general's admiration for this young lady from the Zhang family, so they were very attentive. They led Zhang Pingxuan away respectfully.

Zhao Qian then pressed his brows and walked towards the interrogation room. As he reached the door of the interrogation room, he heard a heart-wrenching scream. Startled, he stopped in his tracks.

The bright spring light fell on the cold iron rack.

Cen Zhao, with his back to Zhang Duo, was almost completely covered in wounds from his shoulders to his legs. Upon closer inspection, every inch of his flesh was convulsing and trembling, causing the shackles on the rack to rattle.

For four days, even the torturers had become somewhat timid, fearing that they might accidentally hit his till end his life. Fortunately, even a casual movement would cause him unbearable pain, so the force of the torture was reduced, and there was more mental torture.

Zhang Qian sat behind him, fiddling with the hanging shackles.

Every clink of iron against iron would cause Cen Zhao to convulse.

"It's the same question."

"I... I'm not..."

A whip cracked, and the man on the rack, his neck extended, let out a heart-rending scream.

Jiang Ling looked towards where the whip had landed and saw a white whip mark on the desk in front of Zhang Duo. It turned out that the whip had not landed on Cen Zhao. Yet, Cen Zhao was convulsing as if he were mad, causing the entire rack to creak and nearly topple over.

"Hold him steady."

Jiang Ling quickly stepped forward and pressed down on Cen Zhao's shoulders, but he couldn't suppress the man's screams.

Zhang Duo behind him chuckled and stood up, walking to Cen Zhao.

"What are you yelling for? Think carefully, was that whip meant for you?"

"It was... it was meant for..."

"It was meant for Chen Xiao of Dongjun."

"The Minister of the Justice... I'm confused... confused..."

"Why did you call out..."

"Heh... I..."

"You are Chen Xiao."

"I'm not... I'm Cen Zhao."

As he spoke, his veins bulged and he coughed up a large mouthful of blood.

Jiang Ling was a little worried and turned to Zhang Duo, "Master, if this continues, he won't be able to hold on."

Zhang Duo took a step back and crossed his arms, "In Western Han, there were the Four Figure of Shang Mounain. Today, there is only one virtuous man left in Qinglu. The virtuous gentleman of Qinglu is a paragon of purity, untainted by the world. He is certainly not like you now."

Cen Zhao grabbed the iron chain on the shackles, and the little good skin he had left was pale and eye-catching against the blood. He managed to squeeze out a breath, "Mr. Zhang... since I'm willing to suffer... willing to suffer your punishment, I don't care about the vanity and pretense of being a pure and clean man..."

He couldn't cough up the blood phlegm in his throat, so he swallowed it.

For a moment, his voice was slightly clearer.

"Even Yin knows, how to lose one's composure, to abandon one's dignity, and to survive in the world of Luoyang..."

"Shut up!"

"Hehe..."

With blood in his mouth, he suddenly laughed, "Minister of the Justice, why are you so angry... ah!"

At the end of his sentence, he let out another heart-wrenching scream. His whole body trembled, and he was about to lose control of his bowels.

Jiang Ling quickly pressed him down and pinched his pulse. Feeling the irregular heartbeat, he shook his head at Zhang Duo.

Cen Zhao pressed his face against the rack and gasped, "Minister... it's the fourth day. I... I can only last until today... if... if the Minister... is still trapped by his obsession, then... then I can't go to Liu Bi of Jin for you."

Zhang Duo didn't speak, but glanced at Jiang Ling and gestured for him to let the man down.

Cen Zhao coughed for a while before he could barely raise his head.

"Mr. Zhang, ...you won't believe in the story of a soul being transferred. I heard that... when the Chen clan was exterminated, all the male members of the clan... were cut in half in the market, and you personally supervised the execution ground, verifying the identity of each one... so... how can you believe that I am Chen Xiao?"

Zhang Duo crouched down and looked at his gray eyes.

"Then what do you think I'm doing?"

"Cough... without these injuries, how can Liu Bi believe me, that I'm not your man?"

Zhang Duo slowly clenched his fist.

In fact, up to this point, except for the mention of Xi Yin, Zhang Duo had quite enjoyed this game.

"Before I send you to Dongjun, I have one last question for you."

"Mr. Zhang... please ask."

"When Liu Bi first asked you to come out of seclusion, you watched as more than twenty people died in Qinglu and still refused to answer Liu Bi. Why are you willing to be at my command today?"

Cen Zhao raised his head.

"Liu Bi... has no imperial ambitions, but you... do."

"Besides that?"

"Because... of Yin."

"What do you mean?"

"To Liu Bi... Yin is just a pawn, who can be killed at will."

He raised his head with all his remaining strength and spoke slowly, "But to you, Your Excellency..."

Before he could finish, he seemed to have exhausted all his strength and collapsed onto the ground like a puddle of mud.

Jiang Ling let go of his hand and stood up, asking, "Master, do you want to ask anything else?"

Zhang Duo looked at the man on the ground for a while, then suddenly sneered, "Playing mind games, huh?"