Chapter 302: The Truth
He did not expect this operation to have existed for five years.
In the past five years, countless women had been captured by them.
When he first arrived, he had heard that the Huns had kidnapped the girls.
Because in the past, every time they reported it to the authorities, there would be no outcome. Everyone even treated this as a normal occurrence, so they could only try their best to prevent the girls at home from going out.
Now that he thought about it, perhaps some of them had indeed been captured by the Huns, but most of them had been taken by this group of people.
Who would have thought that the Great Philanthropist Liu, who was praised by everyone, would be a wolf in sheep’s clothing?
If not for this revelation, how long would this matter have lasted in his fief?
“That’s it?” Shangguan Han asked with a dark expression. “So where did they send the girls? Who are they working for?”
Zuo Fei lowered his head. “These people are only in charge of capturing people under Liu Deyi’s orders. They don’t know anything else.”
“What about the Liu family?”
“They won’t say anything.”
At this moment, someone came to report from outside the door. “Your Highness, Liu Deyi wants to see you.”
Shangguan Han frowned and looked at Song Jingchen, who nodded.
Soon, Liu Deyi was brought up. In just an hour, his body was already covered in blood.
He was thrown to the ground like a rag. He wanted to get up, but he was powerless. He could only try to raise his head.
Seeing that there was another person sitting there, he was stunned for a moment. He gritted his teeth and said, “I’ll only talk to His Highness.”
Song Jingchen didn’t move, and Shangguan Han remained silent.
“Your Highness, are you sure this person is trustworthy?” Liu Deyi lowered his head and asked, making it impossible to see his expression.
Shangguan Han sneered and said sarcastically, “You don’t have to worry about that.”
Liu Deyi’s face alternated between red and white. Perhaps because he had rested enough, he squirmed and got up to kneel. He gritted his teeth and said, “I can tell you everything, but Your Highness, you have to promise me that this matter cannot implicate my daughter. She doesn’t know anything. She’s innocent.”
Shangguan Han did not expect this person to still dare to negotiate with him. He was so angry that he grabbed the teacup in front of him and threw it at Liu Deyi. He said angrily, “All the people you captured are innocent. They also have parents and family. Why didn’t you think of them when you captured them?”
“Just based on what you’ve done in the past five years, I can exterminate the entire Liu family.”
Shangguan Han was so angry that he even said what he was most resistant to.
“I just want to give my daughter a way out,” Liu Deyi insisted.
As for the rest of his clan, they were long gone.
“It can be done,” Song Jingchen, who had been silent, suddenly said.
Shangguan Han was stunned for a moment but did not refute.
Since his cousin said so, so be it. Anyway, a woman’s death wouldn’t change anything.
Seeing that Shangguan Han did not say anything, Liu Deyi knew that he had tacitly agreed.
He was curious about Young Master Shen’s identity, but he did not dare to show it. He bowed respectfully to Shangguan Han. “I only know that that person is from the royal family.”
“Five years ago, I wanted to leave Xunyang with my family, but I didn’t expect…”
Thinking of bad memories, Liu Deyi’s entire body trembled.
It turned out that at that time, after Liu Deyi earned enough money from doing business, he wanted to move out of Xunyang City like the other rich people in Xunyang City.
However, all of this was broken by the sudden arrival of a group of men in black.
That group of people killed anyone they saw. Almost ten servants in the residence were slaughtered in a single breath.
The two elders of the Liu family had also died at their hands. Just as Liu Deyi thought that he would die, those people let him off. They only asked to work for them.
Although Liu Deyi was not as kind-hearted as the citizens of Xunyang City praised, he was not a great villain.
At first, he was naturally unwilling, but those people threatened him with the lives of Madam Zeng and her daughter, as well as dozens of people in the Zeng family.
It didn’t matter if he died, but how could he ignore his wife and daughter and their own families, who had always helped him a lot?
At first, he even hid it from Madam Zeng, but how could the two of them, who had been husband and wife for more than ten years, hide it from each other?
In the end, Madam Zeng was also implicated, and this compromise lasted for five years.
Shangguan Han frowned. “Then why didn’t you report it to the authorities?”
Moreover, how could outsiders not know that so many people had died? There was clearly a loophole.
“Of course I’ve thought about reporting it. But that group of people is watching us all the time. The corpse of the person I tasked with sending the news was thrown in front of me before I could leave the residence. That person even said that the next time someone died, it would be my daughter. I only have one child. I don’t dare to take the risk!” As he spoke, Liu Deyi’s tears flowed.
The thought of reporting this matter to the officials never rose again. After knowing by chance that the mastermind was someone from the royal family, he gave up resisting.
Moreover, he had only done evil deeds a few times. His hands were no longer clean, and he no longer had the courage to report it to the authorities. His fear turned into numbness.
It was not until the Hun army’s siege that those people stopped appearing. He thought that they had finally left and were willing to let their family off.
However, Liu Piaopiao’s incident with the horse alarmed him. This was a warning they had given him.
“At that time, Huns often entered the city in disguise and burned, killed, and looted wantonly. It’s not strange for anyone to die.” Seeing Shangguan Han’s doubts, Liu Deyi added.
“You don’t even know who those men in black are, so why did you conclude that they’re from the royal family? Even if you happened to hear something, what if they deliberately said it to deceive you?” Song Jingchen narrowed his eyes. He didn’t believe that that was all Liu Deyi knew.
Song Jingchen’s question hit the nail on the head. Liu Deyi gritted his teeth and revealed the name of a place.
Song Jingchen went out and called South Wind over to give him some instructions. He walked up to Liu Deyi and looked down at him. “Where were these women sent to?”
“They asked me to send them to Jing’an Temple. The women have to be between the ages of five and fourteen, with looks that are above average. They need to look lively. The people under the secret passage were in charge of sending them out. Someone else then takes over when the women reach Liang County. As for where they will be sent in the end, I don’t know.”
Song Jingchen already had an answer in his heart.
Soon, South Wind knocked on the door and entered. He handed Song Jingchen a small metal box that he had dug out from under the Buddha statue.
Song Jingchen took it and opened the box. Inside was a jade pendant with a four-clawed golden python totem.
“Take him away,” Song Jingchen said.
South Wind got the order to drag Liu Deyi away.
When Shangguan Han saw the jade pendant clearly, his pupils constricted. “Cousin, this…”
Every prince would be given a jade pendant like this after they were born.
Moreover, he looked at this jade pendant. It was real.
In other words, what Liu Deyi said was true. He was just a knife in the hands of an evil person. The person who used the knife was one of his brothers.
“Who is it? Why did he do this?” Shangguan Han punched the table with bloodshot eyes.
Song Jingchen smiled mockingly. “They were kidnapping women. You obviously know the reason why.”
