Chapter 347

At noon the next day, the Peach Blossom Mountain Villa in the suburbs of the capital was in full spring bloom, the scenery so beautiful it was indescribable.

Peach blossoms covered the hills and fields, enveloping the entire mountaintop, like a fairyland on earth.

In such a setting, picking a scenic spot, inviting a few close friends, drinking, admiring the view, composing poetry and exchanging couplets, chatting freely amidst the mountains and waters, is practically a day of the immortals.

Deep in the peach woods, there really was someone hosting guests at this moment, though the atmosphere……

"Today I, Xiao Yin, have invited you all here just to catch up on old times—don't stand on ceremony, eat well and drink well," Xiao Yin said, seated at an elegant table beneath a thatched hut.

Around sat seven or eight people in palace attire, shivering, their clothes old and shabby, and all of them already advanced in years.

These people at this moment each had faces ashen as death, constantly trembling, lifting their eyes pleadingly toward Xiao Yin.

From where Xiao Yin sat, looking backward, he saw that several people were tied to the splendid peach trees.

One by one they cried for father and mother, terrified, their faces turning pale.

They were tightly bound to the trunks of the peach trees, each with a black-clad guard wearing a sword standing beside them, who held a writhing parasite worm and brought it directly up to their faces.

Instantly those people wailed and screamed even louder.

Imperial Physician Song glanced at his son tied to the tree, and his heart instantly knotted with panic—he should not have taken out that jade tablet and passed it to Xiao Yin.

This person has always been the number one villain of Shang Jing; how could he have ever imagined that this person would be merciful?

This is no banquet for guests—it's a demand for their lives!

Xiao Yin spent one night tying up the loved ones most dear to these people here.

Before the table lay exquisite dishes, yet beside the relatives' mouths were placed the parasite worms.

This time Xiao Yin once again raised his wine cup, wearing a pleasant expression as he looked at the several guests before him, who sat as if on pins and needles.

"Drink! Why aren't you drinking? Come, try these dishes!"

"These are all prepared by the top chefs of Fenglin Pavilion; you usually eat light fare in the Imperial Harem, but now I, the Prince, am hosting you—please eat quickly, for after this meal, the next……"

Xiao Yin did not finish his words, merely giving a hehe laugh.

That appearance truly invited hatred.

Eunuch Feng lifted his sleeve, trembling as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He raised his head and glanced at the youth bound to one side; the youth looked pallid, his body frail, though his attire was otherwise proper.

At this moment the youth trembled all over, his complexion flashing white; he was a foundling that Eunuch Feng had picked up years earlier.

He was likely the child of a secret liaison between some guard and palace maid in the palace.

Originally they had intended to bind the child to a stone and sink him, but presumably the mother softened, left the stone unbelt, and the child floated downstream with the waters of the Taiye Pool.

Fortunately Eunuch Feng found him and brought him back; over these years in the Imperial Harem Eunuch Feng had served a while, saved some silver, and purchased an estate outside the palace.

He hired an old wet nurse to raise the child, registering him under his name, making him his son.

Eunuch Feng's greatest regret in life has been having no offspring; now he treats this child as his own biological son, so that after his hundred years someone will remember that there was a pitiful old eunuch named Feng in this palace city.

Being able to offer incense at his grave would be something, yet he never imagined his son would be hidden so tightly—found by Xiao Yin, brought here, and bound to the peach tree; at this moment the youth trembled all over in fear.

As for the others, needless to say—some were old mothers, some were their own nephews, and some were the food companions of the palace wet nurses.

Finally an old wet nurse could bear it no longer and burst out wailing.

"Prince, spare my life, Prince, spare my life! When Commander Ling Feng first came into the palace, the His Highness the Crown Prince gave us some silver."

"We are all poor folk; we rely on having served long in the palace, and outside we also want to establish a livelihood and save some private money."

"My old man is terribly ill, and years ago he loved gambling, losing all the family fortune. If it weren't for the Crown Prince helping us repay the gambling debt, the old man would have long been beaten to death."

"Prince, spare my old man's life—on that day the Crown Prince indeed did not enter the palace."

"Prince, spare my life, spare my son's life—the Crown Prince told us to say this."

"On that day when Miss Gu met with misfortune, it was definitely not the Crown Prince; the Crown Prince simply never entered the palace."

Xiao Yin's facial expression was a half-smile, playing at being ruthless and cruel.

He lightly waved his hand, and the relatives of the two summoned wet nurses were lowered from the trees, each receiving a reward of one hundred taels of gold.

A full hundred taels of gold! These people had never seen so much money in their lifetimes; holding the gold, they kept kowtowing to Xiao Yin without cease.

Xiao Yin slowly said: "Tuo Ba Yu is not someone easy to deal with; having obtained the gold, you should flee as far as possible. If you do not wish to flee but instead seek my protection, you may work on my estate—your choice."

These two wet nurses set the precedent, and the people all knelt down, begging for mercy.

For a moment Xiao Yin grew angrier the more he heard—Tuo Ba Yu, that bastard, had actually bribed so many people in the Imperial Harem to help him fabricate a lie.

As a result, even he himself came to believe that the child in Gu Jiu Ling's womb was Tuo Ba Yu's.

Eunuch Wang's forehead had already broken out in a cold sweat, especially since Tuo Ba Yu had done him a favor; if not for Tuo Ba Yu's help back then, his son would have died that winter.

At that time his son was bullied by a gang of petty ruffians, who threw him into the lake.

If Tuo Ba Yu had not happened by and fished his son out of the river, there would be no son left for him now.

But if he does not speak now, his son's life will be forfeit immediately.

Eunuch Feng's heart was in extraordinary turmoil this time; he did not know what to do.

On one side lay gratitude and duty, on the other his son; he did not know how to choose.

The two guards suddenly drew their knives, slit the youth's arm, and shoved the parasite worm into that wound.

Eunuch Feng was shocked and pale, hastily kneeling before Xiao Yin; Xiao Yin then gestured, and the two guards, quick-eyed and swift-handed, ruthlessly stabbed another knife into the youth's arm, pulling the worm out from a different wound.

The youth screamed in pain, and Eunuch Feng, unable to bear it, hurriedly kowtowed and begged for mercy: "I'll speak, I'll say everything!"

"Prince, spare my son!"

"Back then I personally saw the Prince stumbling along, following the side of the artificial mountain, and rushing into Miss Gu's chamber."

"Perhaps the Prince has forgotten? At the artificial mountain, the Prince even collided with this servant."

"At that time the Prince felt mad, not like a normal person, and did not pursue the servant."

"Indeed, it was precisely the Prince who ruined the chastity of the Gu family's eldest miss that day!"

Xiao Yin's hand holding the teacup twitched slightly, and with a crack the teacup was crushed in his grip.

Nobody dared to speak, but Xiao Yin's heart was in an uproar, as if overturning rivers and seas, stirring up raging winds and huge waves.

He wished he could slap himself to death.

It turned out his child and lover had always been by his side.

At this moment, that woman took the child and fled to a foreign land, the crucial point being that she left with Tuo Ba Yu; he now feels like dying.