“Isn’t it your plan to kill me with a good reason when Xiao Chen is out of the Imperial City? Otherwise, why would you pay so much effort to contrive all these?”

“Well, it seems that you are not stupid as I thought.” Fu Ruoqing put down the teacup in her hand slowly with her eyes slightly blinking. Seeing Jing Yue falling down on the ground weakly, she continued with a smile hanging at the corner of her mouth, “You’re right. It was me who sent those hooligans to your restaurant. However, I didn’t expect that you had the gut to kill them. I guess the killer is sent from Xiao Chen, right?”

“Well…who else do you think?” Jing Yue felt the pain last for so long that her fingers couldn’t stop trembling for pain even when the torture had suspended for a while.

“Whatsoever, you are here on my turf at this moment.” Fu Ruoqing said with her eyes looking at Jing Yue’s weak appearance, “I can figure out numerous ways to torture you once you have been taken into the Emperor’s palace. That’s the price you should pay for seducing Xiao Chen!”

“Are you jealous very much?” said Jing Yue, looking at Fu Ruoqing with a smile, “Because I can enjoy the protection and love of Xiao Chen?”

“You are wrong. I don’t care!” Fu Ruoqing got infuriated and said with her eyes glaring at Jing Yue, “Why should I be jealous of you—such a coquette. Torture her hard!”

“Hiss…”The strong pain spreading over her body made Jing Yue turn pale all of a sudden. She almost got swooned with the bouts of pain. The only thing she could do to fight against the pain was clenching her fists tightly though her arms were grabbed by others.

“Fu Ruoqing, I’ll get even with you sooner or later.” Jing Yue gasped.

“You are such a hard bone.” Fu Ruoqing sneered, “Pull harder! You two help to pull.” Fu Ruoqing said with her finger pointing at two other maids standing aside with their heads deeply bowed. The maids obeyed and helped to pull harder.

“Ouch…” Jing Yue became dreadfully pale with pain, her eyes turning red all along. The pain was so hard that she turned all in a sweat and nearly got fainted with her eyes popping out.

Jing Yue stared at Fu Ruoqing with her dark eyes in which there was something weird rolling. She struggled to stand the torture with her teeth grinding. Finally, it seemed that the pain was on the breaking point of Jing Yue. She felt her self-control became weaker and weaker with a faint gleam of green light flashing in her dark eyes.

“Your Highness…Your Highness! The Emperor is coming!” A servant hurried to the mansion and said.

“So soon?” Fu Ruoqing’s face changed when she heard the news. She said to the servants around, “Take away the instrument of torture and go get her cleaned and changed quickly.”

“Ay.” The servants followed Fu Ruoqing’s order and cleaned the traces in the mansion calmly. Obviously, this was not the first time that they had done it. Jing Yue let herself get rearranged like a puppet with a cold smile hanging at the corner of her mouth.

After a while, Xiao Ye—the Emperor truly came back. The scene inside the mansion was the same as before like nothing had happened when the door was opened. Jing Yue was still on her knees in the same position while Fu Ruoqing was sitting up high on the imperial concubine’s seat. Fu Ruoqing didn’t stand up to greet Xiao Ye until hearing the notification of his coming.

“Your Highness, I am sorry to tell you that I haven’t got any new information.” Fu Ruoqing apologized to Xiao Ye and kneeled down beside his feet.

“All right, I know.” Xiao Ye responded slightly, “Jing Lang, you can take Jing Yue away now. I made a mistake.”

“What? Your Highness, what’s wrong?” Fu Ruoqing changed her look and asked Xiao Ye with her eyes looking up at him.

“Jing Zhan’s coming has reminded me of what the Crown Prince had told me about a snitch in the Imperial City days ago. What the Prince described about the snitch was exactly the same as Jing Yue just said. I forgot it just now, while, fortunately, Jing Zhan reminded me.” Xiao Ye said in a plain voice.