The cells of the Royal Prison in the Eastern Depot were dark and gruesome. The cell was walled on three sides and railed on the last.

In this dark environment, Gu Yunxi couldn't know the day and night. She ate when she was hungry and slept when sleepy.

At first, she would ask the jailer about the time when he came to send food and water. Later, the jailer would tell her the time without being asked. In this way, she spent over ten days in prison.

Gu Yunxi didn't know why Leng Qingtang became extreme like this.

His indifferent face, angry face, and fierce face made her shuddered as they came into her thought.

The Buddhist saying went, "Who is the most affected one in the vicissitudes of life?" The better the beginning of destiny was, the more miserable the end would be.

If the saying had been wrong, why would so many events have happened in a year, making his feelings for her go from indulgences to indifference?

As a member of the Eastern Depot, the jailers prepared rich meals for Gu Yunxi. She could have two meat dishes, one vegetable dish and a soup, together with rice or steamed buns every meal. The meals were too much for her to eat.

Her cell was remote and clean, but there were a lot of mice and unrecognizable insects.

Gu Yunxi wasn't afraid of those little creatures. She had already accustomed to their existence when she was in the central prison of the Court of Judicial Review. The mice and insects there were not as big as the Eastern Depot's. Perhaps there were many prisoners in the Royal Prison and provided the insects and mice abundant flesh and blood, fattening them up and smoothening their fur.

Gu Yunxi fed the insects and mice with leftover food to pass her time. Sometimes, she would lean on the hard wall or lie on the damp quilt, thinking about the strange events that happened recently in the Eastern Depot over and over.

Who changed the damsels who were supposed to dance at the Spring Banquet?

Why did Master's wound fester? Was Yanwan who did it?

As Empress Qian's maid, why did she harm Master?

What happened between Master and Pei Rushi?

Gu Yunxi was confused about the Master’s sudden boiling with anger after he knew she gave Jiaozhu Pear Curd for Fu Danqing's paintings.

Little by little, the time drifted by. She remained sleepwalking.

One day, a jailer sent her dinner and told her it was five o’clock in the afternoon. It was the evening of the thirteenth day in the Royal Prison.

Gu Yunxi didn't do any exercises all day. She looked at the plates of meat and raised no appetite for them, so she just had some soup.

After the meal, she crouched lazily in the corner, looking up at the roof, thinking about the things outside and what the Master and others were doing.

A piercing cry came suddenly. Gu Yunxi jerked and quickly woke up from brooding.

It sounded like a woman... a woman familiar to her.

Gu Yunxi's cell was a deep and the most hidden one in the Royal Prison. The scream sounded clear even at this spot, so it was easy to imagine the bloody and terrifying scene there.

The mournful wail sustained for a long time, accompanied by the jailers’ shouts and curses and the dull clatter of machines. It seemed that unknown torture was underway.

Gu Yunxi's hair stood on end. She crawled into bed in a panic, sweaty, and covered her ears tightly with both hands.

After a long time, the painful wail gradually reduced, and Gu Yunxi drifted off to sleep...

The wind blew all night.

She had just finished a bowl of plain porridge at breakfast when two people rushed over.

Their anxious calling reached to Gu Yunxi's cell before themselves,

"Lord, Lord, where are you."

Qinger?

Gu Yunxi recognized her voice, and she scrambled to the bar, stretching her arms out and calling,

"Qinger, Qinger! I'm here!"

Soon, she saw Qinger and Xiao Xiaoshen, led by a jailer, strode to her cell.

Qinger cried as soon as she saw Gu Yunxi.

The jailer unlocked and removed the chain on the door, bent to salute Xiao Xiaoshen, and then left.

Xiao Xiaoshen pushed the door open and entered the cell at once. Holding the thin girl in his arms, he tried hard to control the emotion of grief that was about to break out, comforting in a trembling voice, "Yunxi, my dear sister! Sorry to make you go through this."

"Why are you coming here?"

After they calmed down, Gu Yunxi dried her face and grabbed Xiao Xiaoshen and Qinger in each hand, looking at them. Her eyes sparkled with joy,

"Is... is Master letting me out?"

Qinger rubbed her wet nose and said,

"Lady, the Master was to protect you and find the spy Rui Yanwan! Now that the truth comes out and the criminal has pleaded guilty, the Master asked Xiaoshen and me to take you home."

Pleaded the guilty?

So, the familiar wailing she heard last night was from Yanwan?

Gu Yunxi was shocked. She was taken aback for a minute and looked down, muttering,

"So... the Master had never, never detested me..."

Xiao Xiaoshen felt pathetic and gave her a bitter smile,

"How can this happen? Forced by the situation, Master deliberately gave you the cold shoulder to prevent you from getting hurt. He received Yanwan out of expediency to regain the Eastern Depot and unify guards for two important cases. Now, two of the missing damsels had returned to Dayi smoothly."

Gu Yunxi was surprised. Her excitement grew and couldn't repress. Finally, she covered her face and cried,

Problems came one after another, during which she suspected Master and resented him. However, he was always there with her and had never left...

He had once told her, "Girl, I love you!"

More than once had he told her to engrave this on her mind?

She didn't understand it until now. What he said was a sincere pledge as well as an explanation to all the suspicion and misunderstandings.

She hated herself for being so stupid!

Qinger helped Gu Yunxi to dry her face and said,

"Lady, Master knows that you've contributed a lot in the case of missing damsels. He is waiting for you in the mansion."

"Fine! Let's go home. Now!"

Gu Yunxi was in a trance. She felt her head in clouds. She pinched herself hard, and the pain made her believe that it was not a dream.

She gathered her mind and went out of the cell with Xiao Xiaoshen and Qinger.

On the way out, Gu Yun Xi looked forward to seeing her Master early and walked quickly, but she didn't notice the sorrow on Xiao Xiaoshen and Qinger's faces.

A bloody scene in a cell stopped her.

...

In the cell, the prisoner’s naked body and unkempt hair were red with blood.

Two sharp iron hooks penetrated this mutilated body through the collarbones and stuck out of her back. The hooks were attached to chains, and the other ends of the chains were embedded deep into the stone wall.

On the ground below his body, the bedding hay was wrapped in dark blood and fresh blood. The strong and pungent smell filled Gu Yunxi's nostrils violently.

Gu Yunxi bent over to vomit. Xiao Xiaoshen turned around to block her sight, frowned on the strain,

"Yunxi, don't waste time here! Let's go!"

"She's Yanwan?"

Gu Yunxi suppressed the upset of her stomach and stiffened to meet Xiao Xiaoshen' eyes.

Just then, she recognized the prisoner as a woman by her upper body.

Xiaoshen avoided her eyes and kept silent, which confirmed Gu Yunxi's thought.

She spoke aloud at once, "Open the door!"

A jailer quickly came over and opened the door of this cell.

Bearing the panic in her heart, Gu Yunxi slowly stepped into the cell and approached the prisoner.

The crackling sound of walking on the hay awoke the dizzy female prisoner. She lifted her head and saw Gu Yunxi. Xiao Xiaoshen and Qinger were protecting her by her sides.

As a dying woman, she didn't mind chastity in the slightest. She smirked at the three people, feeling no shame for her naked body.

"As the spouse Empress Qian appointed to Master, why did you betray him? He treated you well."

Gu Yunxi fixed her eyes on this woman covered in blood with her cold eyes narrowed.

Yanwan stiffened her body with difficulty. Each movement pulled her wounds all over the body, crinkling her swollen face with pain.

Her cracked lips moved and uttered a dull and creepy laugh.

"That eunuch... Is he finally letting you out?"

After a night of inhuman torture, most of her teeth were knocked out, which made her pronunciation slurred.

She nodded, trembling and satisfied. A creepy smile kept hanging on her ugly face,

"Good... good. Go back at once. He is running out of time..."

"What did you say?"

Gu Yunxi heard her words. She opened her eyes wide, staring at Yanwan with shock.

Xiao Xiaoshen pulled her outward by her arm and shouted in a sobbing tone,

"Don't listen to her nonsense! Let's leave this place! Yunxi, go home with me!"

Gu Yunxi pushed him away and rushed to Yanwan, shouting,

"What did you say?"

With the energy came from nowhere, the woman threw back her head and cackled aloud. They could see the bloody remaining teeth in her wide-opened mouth, which reminded them of the phrase "the bloody mouth as large as a basin".

"What did she say on earth?"

Unwilling to ask crazy Yanwan again, Gu Yunxi turned her astonished face to Xiao Xiaoshen, asking in a trembling voice,

Xiao Xiaoshen's eyes turned red at once. On the verge of tears, he avoided Gu Yunxi's eyes.

Gu Yunxi tossed her head to Qinger, who had already choked with sobs.

"He is poisoned with Juehun Powder. There's no antidote for him..."

Yanwan's cold and malicious words came from behind.

Gu Yunxi suddenly lost the strength to support her body. It felt like stamping on air when she was climbing a lofty tower. She shook and turned around, crying,

"Liar."

"I poisoned him myself."

Yanwan raised her voice. She blinked her swollen eyes, trying to provoke Gu Yunxi.

"..."

Gu Yunxi fell into silence at once. She met Yanwan's eyes and suddenly dashed over and gave her a kick in the chest.

Yanwan's mutilated body crushed to the stone wall behind and then rolled onto the hay. The chains attached to the hooks in her collarbones shook violently, and its sharp clatter rocked people's souls.

Yanwan struggled. She stiffened her body against the pain, but Gu Yunxi's hands locked her throat.

"You were the maid of Kunning Palace, but the one you serve is not Empress Qian, isn't it?"

"Yes."

Staring at Gu Yunxi's anxious and tortured complexion, Yanwan jeered at a steady speed,

"Unfortunately, it's too late for you to know."

Gu Yunxi nodded, understood,

"Making medicine with human blood, The Exquisite Collection of Delicacies, and Lu Qiange's wooden hairpin. They are your tricks, right? You plotted step by step, stirring up troubles between Master and I. What was your intention?"

"I wanted to cast a bone between you two and induce him to drive you out."

Yanwan ground her teeth, shouting. She stared at her enemy with hatred, but her eyes became moist,

"What I didn't expect is that he was always partial to you! He knew you have affection for another man, but he would rather put you in the Royal Prison than let you go!"

Being touched a sore spot, Gu Yunxi staggered back a few steps, quivering. Qinger quickly supported her.

"Who on earth do you serve?"

Under Gu Yunxi's rancorous eyes, Yanwan lowered her head numbly and shut her mouth.

The jailer outside the door said,

"She is quite lip-pursed. Last night we've used all the cruel punishments and she bled a lot, but she didn't give us anything."

Gu Yunxi smiled bitterly. Murderous intention flashed in her eyes,

"We have no reason to keep her since she gave us nothing. It would be better to feed her half-dead body to the insects and mice here. That's the last contribution she can make before she dies..."

The jailer didn't understand, "You mean?"

Gu Yunxi cast Yanwan a sharp glance,

"Get me a sack and do as I say..."