After his initial shock, Zuo Su gradually calmed down. He looked at the other party and asked, “Did you come to silence me?”
Pei You stood in place without saying anything, tacitly agreeing. A flash of color filled Zuo Su’s face. His chubby face jiggled; he was clearly furious as he exclaimed, “But why? I didn’t say a single thing!”
Pei You finally spoke up. “As someone who was able to sit in your current position, why would you ask something so naive? For others, only the dead can be trusted with secrets. If you were in our position, you would have made the same choice.”
Zuo Su fell silent. If it were him, he would definitely have made the same decision.
“Can you give me a chance?” Even though he knew there wasn’t much hope, his survival instincts still made him try one more time. “Since you could enter this place, you can use this chance to save me…” His voice became softer and softer, because the other party’s eyes continued to stare at him expressionlessly.
“I understand.” He smiled in distress. “I tried so hard to prevent this situation, but I was still dragged down by you guys in the end. I should’ve realized that this day would come a long time ago.”
“You’ve enjoyed yourself plenty over the years. Your life wasn’t lived in vain,” Pei You said indifferently.
“That’s true. You’re all full of different tricks and styles. I was able to enjoy things many people wouldn’t be able to enjoy even if they lived ten lifetimes…” Zuo Su sighed, as if acknowledging his fate. However, the next second, he suddenly raised his head and hollered, “Help…”
But Pei You was already prepared for that. He instantly sealed up Zuo Su’s vocal acupoint, making the man’s voice come to a grunting halt. A hint of disdain appeared in Pei You’s eyes as he remarked, “You’ve shown an unsightly side, Sir Zuo.”
In that instant, Zuo Su’s eyes filled with pleading and horror. Tears even poured out from his eyes. No words could describe his conflicted expression fully.
Pei You no longer had any interest in chatting further with him. His eyes shone with light, and Zuo Su’s eyes began shining with a similar light.
The light in Zuo Su’s eyes faded soon afterward. His head also slumped weakly to the side. He had instantly lost his life. Pei You checked to confirm that he had already died, and only then did he turn around and leave.
Normally speaking, with Zuo Su’s cultivation, killing him would definitely be no easy task. But all of his major acupoints had been sealed, so he couldn’t use any of his ki to protect himself. That was why he had ended up becoming the sacrificial sheep.
…
The next morning, after Zu An left, Hong Zao came in to check the room. She saw that Pei Mianman was lying lazily in bed as if she didn’t even want to move a single finger.
“Young miss, are you going to get up?” Hong Zao asked. She thought to herself, The young master really is formidable! Whenever he left, the young miss would look as if she were completely broken.
“Stupid girl, aren’t you asking a question you already know the answer to? Stop disturbing me and let me sleep for a while longer.” Pei Mianman mumbled. She then turned around, adjusting her body to find a more comfortable sleeping posture.
Hong Zao exclaimed in surprise, “Huh? Young miss, why is your mouth so swollen?”
Pei Mianman subconsciously covered her lips, her face turning red. However, she pretended to be calm as she said, “I might have caught a cold.”
“Why would a cold make your lips swell?” Hong Zao looked at her with a ‘do you think I’m stupid’ face. She suddenly smacked her own head and said as if she had a sudden realization, “I know now! The young miss must’ve secretly sucked on the young master’s lollipop, but then your lips became like that after eating it too much. You didn’t want to give me any either, so you told me that kind of lie to trick me, right?”
Pei Mianman was ashamed and panicked. She grabbed a pillow and threw it at Hong Zao, exclaiming, “You stupid maid, eat eat eat, all you know is eating! You’ll definitely be done in by that mouth of yours one day!”
Seeing that the young miss had gotten angry, Hong Zao stuck out her tongue and quickly went downstairs.
…
Zu An returned to his temporary residence with a refreshed expression. Big Manman really is incredibly talented, a treasure that men yearn for day and night!
But he suddenly noticed that something was wrong with the atmosphere. The Armed Escort Army’s expressions were serious, as if they were facing a great enemy. Zu An called some of them over, but they didn’t know what was going on either. They just said they were following Sir Sang’s orders.
He felt a huge weight drop down in his heart. He quickly went inside with large strides.
There were only Sang Hong, Xiao Jianren, Pei You, a few others, and a few guards present. Zu An recognized them as the guards that had been in the prison. What was truly unexpected, however, was that Pei You was tied up and kneeling in the very center.
Sang Hong paced back and forth nervously, as if he were making an extremely difficult decision.
Zu An was alarmed. He had only left for a single night; why did he feel as if he had left for an entire century? He asked, “What happened here? Why is Brother Pei…”
Pei You seemed to have found his savior when he heard Zu An’s voice. He quickly turned around and bawled, “Brother Zu, you’ve finally returned! Sir Sang wants to kill me!”
Zu An turned to Sang Hong in confusion. Sang Hong exclaimed angrily, “Scoundrel, you still have the nerve to say that? You killed Zuo Su! Do you know the consequences of such a thing?”
“Pei You killed Zuo Su?” Zu An blinked blankly. No matter how powerful his imagination was, he still couldn’t understand what was going on.
“I’m being wronged here. I didn’t!” Pei You immediately cried out.
“You still dare to argue back?” Sang Hong slammed the table furiously. Then he pointed at the jailers and commanded them, “Speak! What exactly happened last night?”
The guards gave Pei You a look. After some hesitation, they said, “Last night, Sir Pei came to guard the prison. Later on, in the middle of the night, Sir Pei suddenly got up and went into the prison, and he even sent us away.
“We didn’t think too much of it and let Sir Pei in. But early in the morning, we discovered that Sir Zuo had already died inside the prison.”
…
The guards took turns recounting what had happened the previous night.
Zu An looked at Pei You with a strange expression, thinking, I didn’t expect this brat to be that kind of person.
“I didn’t do it!” Pei You immediately spoke up to defend himself. “I was always sitting outside in meditation. I never left that spot! You guys are making things up!”
Sang Hong said seriously, “Ah Zu, you can see for yourself that the two sides have continued to stick to their own versions. There were many who saw Pei You enter the prison cell, while he is the only one who claims to not have done such a thing. Tell me, who should I believe?”
Zu An frowned. He pulled Sang Hong aside and asked, “Respected uncle, have you looked into the backgrounds of those Armed Escort Army soldiers?”
“I have. They are all individuals with clean backgrounds without any dealings with the people in Cloudcenter Commandery. Furthermore, I even interrogated them separately and there was nothing wrong with their confessions,” Sang Hong replied gravely.
“Then Pei You is the only one with a problem?” Zu An frowned.
“That is indeed the case right now,” Sang Hong said with a sigh.
“But he doesn’t have any motive, does he?” Zu An replied. After he had been around Pei You for so long, they had already established quite a bit of camaraderie. He obviously didn’t want to see anything happen to Pei You.
“That is something you will have to ask him.” Sang Hong gave Pei You a look, his eyes filled with worry. “But judging from how scared he is, he might not speak the truth.”
Zu An thought of something and said, “Don’t worry. I have a way to tell if they’re speaking the truth or not.”
“How so?” Sang Hong asked, confused.
“Prepare an isolated room for me and send them in one by one.” As insurance, Zu An decided to question the jailers first.
When he passed by Pei You, he asked quietly, “What rank and what step are your cultivation at exactly? This is related to your very life, so don’t lie.”
Pei You was really scared badly by the current situation. If he couldn’t prove his innocence, then he really might perish, so how could he dare to hide anything? He replied, “The eighth step of the sixth rank.”
Zu An sighed in relief, thinking, That’s good then; everything is still within my realm of control. As such, he entered the room first and had the jailers come in one after another. Even though Sang Hong didn’t understand what was happening, he trusted Zu An and didn’t ask too many questions.
When the jailers entered, they saw that there was a devastatingly beautiful white-clothed woman inside. The woman perfectly combined both charm and purity.
How can there be a woman this beautiful in our imperial envoy? they thought. But the jailers’ expressions became blank the moment that thought arose.
Zu An used Daji’s Fox Charm skill to control those people. Then, he asked them about what had happened the previous night. Their replies were identical to before, however,
Zu An became gloomy, thinking, Looks like Pei You really did go in last night.
After the jailers left, he didn’t call in Pei You and instead summoned his keyboard.
Daji was only at the fifth step of the sixth rank, and Fox Charm was at the second level. It was enough to control a target at the same level of cultivation as her.
Meanwhile, Pei You was at the eighth step of the sixth rank. Daji’s skill couldn’t control him just yet, so he had to increase Daji’s cultivation. He had saved up a total of 338,795 Rage points, which was already enough to raise Daji’s cultivation with Ki Fruits.
The shop’s price for Ki Fruits, at 1000 points per fruit, was too boring for him. Zu An decided he was still going to try his hand at pulling the lottery.
‘Thank you for playing’ messages quickly appeared on the screen. Zu An didn’t panic at all. He had already pulled the lottery many times, so he was already used to it. If he got a new skill each time he pulled the lottery, he might have to start worrying about his own predestined lifespan.
He quickly earned 340 Ki Fruits.
Zu An was about to feed them to Daji when his eyes narrowed. He saw that the last pull had landed on the ‘S’ key.
Congratulations for pulling the skill ‘Kawaii Waifu Voice Changer’!
Zu An was stunned.
