Chapter 68

Chapter 68

The pavilion had an octagonal structure, facing a pond in the Lin Garden. A gentle breeze over the pond carried the fragrance of lotus leaves.

On the stone table in the pavilion, there were brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones. Before their arrival, Mu Jingxu was writing official documents, and Rong Tang glanced casually, seeing the name [Jiangnan Governor Lu Junxian] written prominently on them.

He withdrew his gaze, not looking any further.

Ke Hongxue greeted them to sit down, smiling and asking, “Today is Qixi, do the Young Lord and his wife have any plans?”

Rong Tang suddenly felt a bit dispirited, not really wanting to talk. He sat to one side, idly picking up a lotus seed head and playing with it, relieving stress by tearing off pieces of the lotus seed pod.

Su Huaijing then shook his head, “We don’t have any plans yet. Does Minister Ke have any recommendations?”

Ke Hongxue regretfully said, “If it were usual times when you visit Jiangnan, I could find a hundred places for you to enjoy on Qixi. But now, with the recent flooding, I'm afraid everyone is not in the mood for leisure.”

“That’s a pity,” Su Huaijing agreed, then changing the subject, he asked, “How long do the two officials plan to stay in Jiangnan?”

Ke Hongxue replied, “I planned to return to the capital after the trial of Lu Junxian, but my senior has had a recurrence of his old illness and cannot be burdened. So, I asked the Second Prince to send back a petition on my behalf, requesting extended leave for my senior.” He lifted his chin, “Look, once I finish this document and send it back to the capital, I can go on leave.”

Su Huaijing then asked, “Is it the investigation into the crimes of the Jiangnan Governor?”

“Exactly.”

Sù Huáijǐng remarked, "I heard that Governor Lǚ enjoys His Majesty's trust, and with Elder Zhang as a powerful backer in the court, he probably fears nothing and would remain silent during interrogation. But how did Mù Shàoqīng manage to pry so much information out of him?"

In addition to the background of Lü Junxian, Mu Jingshu's dossier also included records of bribery among officials in Jiangnan over the years, the amounts of gold and silver Lü Junxian sent to the capital for bribes, hidden cases of various magnitudes from over the years, and even records of frequent pirate disturbances along the Jiangnan coast...

His crimes were numerous and the evidence against him was as solid as a mountain, too many to enumerate.

To extract such information from a high-ranking official of the imperial court, Mu Jingshu was certainly not as harmless as he appeared.

Su Huaijing observed the Dali Temple Vice Minister, Ke Hongxue, without showing emotion, who simply smiled lightly without speaking, and slowly fanned himself.

Rong Tang paused in his task of peeling lotus seeds, frowning and looking towards Su Huaijing, feeling that he was being too obvious in his intentions.

During their time in Song Garden, Su Huaijing had not fully intended to involve Ke and Mu in the scheme, it seemed more like a mutually beneficial cooperation than a partnership.

Su Huaijing provided information beneficial to them, and in return, they helped cover up Sheng Chengli's framing of Queen Wang.

But this time, this question, if asked by Lu Jiaxi, could be taken as mere curiosity, but coming from Su Huaijing, it was certainly not just simple curiosity, and everyone present knew this.

Ke Hongxue remained silent for a long time, and just when Rong Tang thought that Su Huaijing's question might have touched on some taboo, Mu Jingshu spoke calmly, asking, "Master Su, have you ever studied interrogation techniques?"

Su Huaijing shook his head: "No."

Mu Jingshu asked, "Then do you know of any tortures that leave no physical marks but cause unbearable pain?"

Su Huaijing chuckled lightly: "Even less so."

The morning breeze in summer was refreshing, birds chirped leisurely, dragonflies rested on the tips of lotus leaves, and mayflies lived and died in the water.

Mu Jingshu's voice was light, emotionless, and steady, simply stating a fact: "Live burial, the 'adding official' torture."

"For the former, take a wooden barrel as tall as a man, and several buckets of sand. Place the person inside the barrel, and slowly pour sand into it, informing them beforehand that if they start to fear only when it reaches their chest, it will be too late to save them. It usually doesn't take long."

Mu Jingshu continued in his emotionless tone, "For the latter, take a long bench, tie the person onto it, securing their limbs... but I usually leave one leg untied. Then, use thin, light Xuan paper soaked in water to cover the criminal's face, layer by layer. The feeling of suffocation and drowning makes them struggle desperately, but with only one leg free. I hang a lantern frame above the leg with a bamboo pole. If they wish to confess, they must reach and kick it down. Then, the jailer will remove the Xuan paper from their face."

Su Huaijing's eyes sparkled with a hint of amusement as he asked, "What if they can't kick it down?"

"Master Su, have you seen the death row inmates in the Sky Prison? Sometimes their theories are quite fascinating, but I think they can be aptly applied to themselves," Mu Jingshu said softly.

Su Huaijing then asked, "How so?"

Mu Jingshu: "When the penal officer asked him why he killed, he said he just felt like killing; when asked if he had any grudge against the deceased, he said there was none; and when asked why he chose that particular victim, he said, 'It's just bad luck for her.'"

Mu Jingshu quietly looked at Su Huaijing and repeated softly: "It's just bad luck for him, that he couldn't save himself."

It's not that he didn't give them a chance to live. Those who were subjected to these tortures were all criminals with overwhelming evidence against them, undeniable. The purpose of the interrogation was to make them confess more details for a better conviction.

Even if they didn't confess, it didn't matter. Mu Jingshu was the top scholar of the Qingzheng seventh year, one of the most intelligent and astute people of the Dayu dynasty.

He had countless ways to write an unassailable dossier. To him, the words of the criminals were just a means to scrutinize human nature.

Rong Tang paused in his task of peeling lotus seeds, feeling somewhat dazed.

He had seen Mu Jingshu conduct interrogations.

The snow-white clothes were changed for a crimson official robe of the Dali Temple Vice Minister. Standing in a dark cell, surrounded by the wails of countless prisoners, rats gnawing on rotting flesh in the corners, the air foul and sticky. Mu Jingshu, holding a red-hot iron hook, would touch it to a prisoner’s body, showing neither sorrow nor joy, just calmly and indifferently hooking off a piece of flesh. With a flick of his wrist, the rats were given extra food, adding another high note to the countless screams.

After such an interrogation, not a single bloodstain would be found on the crimson official robe, yet it made him seem like a ruthless ghost who had crawled out of hell, cold and heartless.

Live burial and the 'adding official' torture could be considered gentle compared to other methods. The feeling of despair and suffocation in the Dali Temple's penal code was certainly not excessively terrifying, but Mu Jingshu only mentioned these two.

Su Huaijing raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly: "May I ask, Minister Mu, which method did you use on Lü Junxian?"

Mu Jingshu replied: "Xuan paper is expensive, and there is a shortage of dry sand after the disaster."

Su Huaijing was momentarily stunned, then suddenly burst into laughter, his beautiful phoenix eyes fixating on him: "In that case, Minister Mu, are you deceiving me?"

"No," Mu Jingshu shook his head, "I'm just telling you that there are various methods of punishment in this world. Some leave no trace, while others, once executed, will eventually be discovered."

Ke Hongxue bent down to pick a lotus pod from the basket at Rong Tang's feet, leisurely peeling it, separating the bitter leaves from the sweet flesh, placing them into a small dish and a small bowl respectively.

Rong Tang frowned slightly, looking at Mu Jingshu somewhat perplexedly.

The latter's expression remained unchanged, his emotions never revealed. As Su Huaijing watched him, he quietly met his gaze, neither speaking nor avoiding eye contact.

Gradually, Su Huaijing's expression changed, the open smile replaced by a faint wariness. He leaned back slightly, his eyes lowered, saying, "What do you mean by this, Vice Minister Mu? I don't understand."

Mu Jingshu was silent for a moment, then picked up his writing brush again, bowing his head to continue writing the dossier, saying indifferently, "It means nothing."

As he moved, his sleeve rolled up, revealing on his right wrist several striking scratch marks, each one fresh, with lightly reddened scabs, clearly recent wounds.

Rong Tang was momentarily stunned, unable to comprehend who could have inflicted such wounds on the Dali Temple Vice Minister, but in the blink of an eye, the sleeve covered all traces.

Rong Tang furrowed his brow in thought. Ke Hongxue laughed timely, saying, "My senior brother is probably afraid of scaring you by saying too much. For someone as important as Governor Lü, ordinary methods of punishment would seem too lenient."

Suppressing his doubts, Rong Tang followed up, "Then what kind of method would be considered serious enough?"

"The iron bucket," Ke Hongxue said with narrowed eyes and a smile, speaking slowly, "Tied on the stomach, with two rats inside the bucket, and a torch continuously heating the surface of the bucket." Whether true or false, his words inexplicably sent a chill down one's spine.

Rong Tang thought about the scene described by Ke Hongxue and its eventual outcome, shivering involuntarily.

The sound of a brush scratching on paper filled the air. Having finished peeling the lotus seeds, Ke Hongxue naturally started grinding ink for Su Huaijing. Rong Tang, recalling the recent conversation between Su Huaijing and Mu Jingshu, couldn't tell if it was psychological or something else, but felt that there was more to Mu Jingshu's words, a hidden meaning.

However, nobody brought it up again, and the conversation remained unfinished. Sheng Chengming, along with Lu Jiaxi, went out with the silver provided by Ke Hongxue for disaster relief. They sat in the pavilion, enjoying the breeze over the pond, casually chatting, and basking in the morning sun.

As the sun grew stronger, Rong Tang began to feel dizzy. It was then that Su Huaijing stood up, intending to take him back.

Ke Hongxue rose to see off his guests, while Mu Jingshu was halfway through writing his dossier.

Su Huaijing stepped down the stairs but paused at the moment he was about to leave, turning back to look at Mu Jingshu. He asked seemingly casually, "There's something I'm quite puzzled about, and I would appreciate Vice Minister Mu's clarification. Logically speaking, the crime of corruption and bribery does not warrant death. Lü Junxian, having been with His Majesty for so many years, would naturally know what His Majesty despises and what his taboo is. I can understand his confession of corruption and exposing his accomplices as normal, even re-reporting the previously hidden pirate disturbances seems appropriate."

Su Huaijing paused for a moment, and Mu Jingshu's pen stopped slightly. He looked up at him and asked directly, "What is it that Master Su does not understand?"

Su Huaijing said, "His background."

Rong Tang's heart tensed as he listened to Su Huaijing speaking leisurely, "In the nine years since His Majesty's ascension, the former imperial loyalists have either been executed or exiled. The only one who can be considered to have been treated well is probably only Ke Wenrui, Grand Tutor Ke."

He glanced at Ke Hongxue, who remained calm and unchanged in demeanor, even smiling and shaking his fan when his grandfather was mentioned.

Su Huaijing continued, "If other charges are not enough to lead to Lü Junxian's death, the fact that he is the younger brother of the late Empress Dowager and the uncle of the former Third Prince would be enough to enrage His Majesty to the point of family execution. Why would he confess to this?"

As the sun gradually climbed overhead, Su Huaijing stood on the pavilion steps, the glaring light outside not touching him at all.

He gazed at Mu Jingshu and asked softly, "Or perhaps, Vice Minister Mu, how did you come to know this secret that led Lü Junxian to confess?"

The pavilion remained silent for a long time before Mu Jingshu said, "This is a secret of the Dali Temple, not to be disclosed."

"Is that so?" Su Huaijing chuckled lightly, bowed his head in apology, "I've overstepped my bounds."

Then he turned, took Rong Tang's hand, and left, as if the question he had just asked was really just a spontaneous inquiry.