Chapter 160: The Heart-Stealing Mystery (4)

Lou Xiyan was worried that help from afar wouldn't be enough, so he arranged for Mo Bai, dressed in black, to hide on the rafters, Ao Tian to hide behind the wardrobe, and Ye Mei, Qian Jing, and the Ministry of Justice people to ambush outside the house. Gu Yun insisted on entering the room, and Lou Xiyan was also worried about Zhuo Qing's safety, so they both hid in the corner of the room furthest from the inner room. From there, they could see clearly through the screen what was happening in the inner room!

Suddenly, a black shadow flashed by the window. The person was dressed in gray and wore a silver-gray mask. His lean figure was stretched very long by the moonlight. He was silent and moved extremely fast. Mo Bai and Ao Tian, hiding in the room, held their breath, hurriedly restraining their aura. This person was definitely an expert; if he discovered them, tonight's arrest operation would be over.

The gray-clad man stood by the window, glanced at the woman who shouldn't have been on the bed, his eyes darkened, and after hesitating for a while, he turned to leave.

No, can't let him go! Otherwise, even if they caught him, they wouldn't be able to solve the mystery of the illusion! Zhuo Qing suddenly sat up straight, and in her urgency, she called out in a low, tender voice, "Mufeng, is that you?"

The gray-clad man's back stiffened. He didn't answer, but he didn't leave either.

It really was him! Zhuo Qing got up and walked slowly behind him, but she didn't get too close. She said in a low, soft voice, "Actually, I fell in love with you the first time I saw you. I spent a lot of effort to get Gu Yun away tonight just to wait for you."

The gray-clad man turned around slowly. He was facing away from the moonlight and wearing a silver-gray mask, so Zhuo Qing couldn't see his face or his eyes. She only heard a low, sexy male voice chuckle and reply, "You knew I would come?"

This voice... the tone was very similar to Su Mufeng's, but the manner and intonation were completely different!

Zhuo Qing secretly calmed her mind, shook her head gently, stepped forward, grabbed his wrist, and while shaking it lightly, feigned shyness and said, "I didn't know, but I hoped you would come. As it turns out, the Heavens heard my prayers, and you finally came after all."

Gu Yun rolled her eyes violently. This woman shouldn't be too immersed in her acting, right? The legendary gentle-as-jade Prime Minister Lou beside her had already clenched and relaxed his fists several times!

Zhuo Qing thought the gray-clad man would push her away; that was Su Mufeng's normal reaction. To her surprise, not only did he not push her away, but he instead wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her tightly into his embrace. He even rubbed his face ambiguously against her cheek, his bewitching voice, tinged with hoarseness and accompanied by hot breath, whispered in her ear, "You said you like me?"

The cold mask rubbing against her face felt like snake scales sliding across her cheeks; that eerie and terrifying feeling was very tormenting. Zhuo Qing secretly took several deep breaths before nodding obediently and replying in a low voice, "Yes."

Before she could react, the man had already picked her up by the waist, walked to the spacious bed, gently laid her down, and then immediately pressed his body onto her, trapping her between his arms, his fingers teasing her earlobe in circles. This man was too good at flirting! Was he really Su Mufeng?

Zhuo Qing struggled to reach out, gently stroking the man's masked face, and whispered tenderly, "Mufeng, I want to look at you!"

Gu Yun carefully looked at Lou Xiyan, who was still quite calm. She saw his phoenix eyes were slightly cold; even in such a night, she could feel the killing intent in his eyes. She admired this man's rationality and deeply understood that this man loved Zhuo Qing to death!

The gray-clad man grabbed Zhuo Qing's hand. Mo Bai, hiding on the rafters, immediately became vigilant. Zhuo Qing was also startled, thinking he was going to get angry. To her surprise, the man actually grabbed the mask himself, took it off gracefully, and threw it gently to the side of the bed.

Zhuo Qing finally saw the man clearly. The face before her, with sharp angles and extraordinary handsomeness, was indeed Su Mufeng's face, but Zhuo Qing dared not be certain—was this person really Su Mufeng? The black eyes, which looked like they had a faint silver-gray tint during the day, were actually silver-gray in the night, half-squinting with a smile. His thin, rosy lips held a playful smirk. Unlike the detached and ethereal look during the day, he was now radiating a lazy, evil charm from head to toe. He was so dazzling that it made one's heart race. Zhuo Qing now had doubts, questioning her previous judgment; hypnotic suggestion couldn't change a person to such a great extent.

Zhuo Qing was lost in her own thoughts, but the man wouldn't allow her to be distracted. He pinched Zhuo Qing's chin lightly and asked in a low voice, "Are you willing to do anything for me?"

Zhuo Qing was stunned, nodded, and smiled. "Yes."

Lightly scraping Zhuo Qing's nose, the man asked in a low voice while rubbing her cheek, "Good girl, are you willing to give your heart to me?"

The low voice was gentle and possessed a bewitching charm. Zhuo Qing raised her eyebrows slightly and asked, "You want my heart?"

Zhuo Qing's answer made his eyes flicker, but soon, he returned to that evil, charming smile. "You don't want to?"

The two stared at each other without blinking. Zhuo Qing could see silver light swirling in his deep eyes, like a deep pool, sucking her in bit by bit. It was a very strange experience; Zhuo Qing felt a moment of trance and dizziness. After a while, Zhuo Qing nodded and replied, "Okay."

An excited and brazen smile appeared on the man's face. He sat up straight, looking with satisfaction at the motionless woman beneath him, and his hand reached familiarly toward her belt. Soon, her clothes fell away, and he smiled gently at the woman staring at him from below. "Don't be afraid, you'll be free soon."

A thin blade wandered over her smooth skin, the sharp, cold edge sliding across her chest. The bewitching red followed the edge, slid across her waist, and fell into the silk quilt.

The man slowly reached out, cutting down with his usual efficiency, and reached into her chest cavity. Before long, he held a heart that was still beating and handed it to Zhuo Qing, waiting to see her terrified and painful expression; this was the moment that excited him the most. When he met Zhuo Qing's eyes, his heart panicked; the eyes meeting his were calm and deep, and there wasn't a trace of fear or pain on her face.

The evil, charming smile on the man's lips froze there! Watching her heart being dug out, how could she still be so calm! What was going on?

"What is going on?" The one with this question wasn't just the man sitting blankly before the bed; except for Gu Yun, the three men in the room were all looking in astonishment at the scene unfolding before them!

Just now, after the man stared at Zhuo Qing, who was lying on the bed, for a long time, he sat up straight on his own. Zhuo Qing immediately moved to the side, and then the bizarre thing happened. The man was performing the action of undressing toward the empty bed, then took out a sharp thin blade from his waist, skillfully and cleanly made a cut, and reached his hand into the position where he had just cut, holding his hand as if he were holding something and taking it out, his face always carrying excitement and fanaticism, as if he were demonstrating to them how he stole a heart. It looked bizarre no matter how you looked at it.

Gu Yun smiled slightly and replied calmly, "Keep watching and you'll know." It seemed Zhuo Qing had successfully performed a counter-hypnosis.

"You..." The man stared into Zhuo Qing's deep eyes, only to feel a wave of dizziness, and then he was shocked to find that the heart he was holding had vanished, the blood on his hands was gone, there was nothing on the plain white bed sheet, and Zhuo Qing's sharp eyes were watching him coldly.

"This... impossible!" The man stared at Zhuo Qing, the expression on his face shifting from arrogant and evil to surprised and uneasy.

Zhuo Qing slowly sat up straight, her red lips parted slightly, and she said coldly, "In this world, you aren't the only one who knows how to hypnotize!" She admitted that at the very beginning, she had almost been lost in his eyes; if she hadn't been prepared, she might have been successfully hypnotized.

A flash of violence crossed the man's eyes. Zhuo Qing was startled, her body quickly falling backward, her hand subconsciously blocking her chest. The blade in the man's hand slid across the back of her hand, and Lou Xiyan's anxious voice sounded at the same time, "Mo Bai, Ao Tian, catch him!"

Mo Bai leaped down from the rafters and attacked the man's back. The man turned around nimbly and kicked, the blade in his hand still stubbornly stabbing toward Zhuo Qing, who had shrunk to the deepest part of the bed curtains. Just as it was about to pierce Zhuo Qing's chest, a large palm suddenly reached out from behind the bed curtains, intercepted the man's wrist, and used internal energy to shake off the man's attack. Zhuo Qing only felt a tightness on her shoulder, and a great force threw her off the bed. The force was so great that she almost hit the screen, but fortunately, Lou Xiyan and Gu Yun caught her body in time, so she didn't fall and get hurt.

The man immediately retreated toward the window, and in a flash, he was already outside. Mo Bai and Ao Tian also leaped out.

Outside the courtyard, he was met by Ye Mei's flaming whip. Around the small courtyard, the ambushed archers all appeared, drawing their bows and aiming at the silver-gray figure in the courtyard.

With Mo Bai, Ye Mei, and Ao Tian attacking together, the man had no chance to escape again. Ye Mei's long whip trapped the man, tying him up, and the other officials took the opportunity to step forward, using the hemp ropes and iron shackles they had prepared in advance. The man was tied up tightly.

Cheng Hang saw the man's face clearly and immediately cursed with disdain, "Su Mufeng, I didn't expect you to really be the murderer! And you even let your aunt take the blame for you! You're simply worse than a beast!"

The man, still struggling, stiffened, his violent eyes staring straight at Cheng Hang, roaring, "What happened to Aunt Xin?!"

These eyes were sinister and ruthless, not at all like the usual Su Mufeng. Cheng Hang couldn't help but panic, swallowed his saliva, and cursed, "Still playing dumb! Someone, take him back!"

The yamen runners swarmed up and dragged the man away. Zhuo Qing cried out, "Wait, I have something to ask him."

Cheng Hang turned back, saw the cloth wrapped around her hand, and thinking she was seriously injured, advised, "Madam, you should go get your wound bandaged. Whatever you want to ask, you can ask freely when you get to the yamen." After saying this, he turned to the yamen runners and shouted, "Take him back." This time, they had finally caught the real murderer, right?

Watching the group hurry away, Zhuo Qing lowered her head and sighed, "I'm afraid I won't be able to ask him anything by then."

Others might not have heard clearly, but Gu Yun heard it very clearly. After seeing the evil and charming Su Mufeng just now, and then thinking of the cool and detached person during the day, she had a bad premonition in her heart.

The next day, when Gu Yun and Zhuo Qing came to the Ministry of Justice again and saw Su Mufeng in the prison, both were surprised. At this time, he was once again elegant, ethereal, and cool, like two different people compared to the bloodthirsty maniac of last night.

The two asked about last night's events, but he had no memory of what he had done. Having no choice, Gu Yun and Zhuo Qing had to go ask Gu Yuexin. To make them believe Su Mufeng didn't kill people on purpose, she revealed the pain Su Mufeng had experienced in his childhood. It turned out that when he was young, a young lady had falsely accused him of molesting her, and he was severely beaten by his father's legal wife. To save him, his mother was beaten to death. Since then, whenever a young lady actively threw herself at him, he would develop murderous intent, and after he killed someone, he would have no memory of it.

Zhuo Qing suspected he had a dual personality, but in this era, it was impossible to give him a psychiatric evaluation. Even if it were proven that he was ill, what could be done? He had killed the daughters of high-ranking officials; they would absolutely never let him go.

When the two walked out of the Ministry of Justice, their moods were very heavy.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 161 =====