Arc 3: Chapter 2 t/n tw: slavery/torture
An hour later, a carriage stopped in front of Prince Yanping’s mansion.
Lin Yuan was ready to barge inside, but 521 quickly reminded him: “Senior! You can’t be too anxious ah! Right now it’s an ancient dynasty and you’re the noble prince of the Chu mansion. You can't break character, otherwise other people will start to believe you’re possessed.”
Lin Yuan was agitated but he knew that 521 was right.
He looked at Lin Xia, the servant who had served the original host for many years and said calmly: “Go and notify Yanping mansion that I’ve come to have a cup of tea with the son of Yanping.”
In this dynasty, it was customary to deliver a letter before visiting someone, but Lin Yuan was in a hurry and hadn’t prepared one. However, with his identity as the prince of the country, even if it was Prince Yanping himself, the other would have to salute respectfully to him.
A servant in Yanping mansion quickly went to report Lin Yuan’s presence, and soon, the son of Prince Yanping came to the front door.
The son of Prince Yanping bowed to him from outside the carriage and welcomed respectfully: “I pay my respects to the little prince!”
Sitting in the carriage, Lin Yuan glared at the son of Yanping with eyes full of anger. If he didn’t need to worry about breaking character, then he would go and beat the other’s head into the ground and stomp on him to vent for Jiang Qian.
A big villain! A big bad guy!
Lin Yuan pretended to be elegant and acknowledged: “Son of Prince Yanping.”
The son of Prince Yanping was confused in his heart. He had no past intersections with the little prince, so why did the other suddenly visit him today? And without notice too, so he couldn’t prepare anything as a host.
Prince Chu’s Mansion, which was Lin Yuan’s family, was home of the highest-ranking official in Daliang. Prince Chu was also the only prince with the surname Chu left since the founding of the country 200 years ago. Although the young heir didn’t hold a post in the imperial court, the son of Yanping did not dare offend him.
“Little prince, your presence brings light to my humble dwelling. Tea has been prepared, please come in!”
Lin Yuan was tempted to ask for Jiang Qian straight away, but he had to consider his own status and how his actions would reflect on Prince Chu’s mansion.
Because the Jiang family was stamped with the enormous crime of rebellion against the emperor, if he directly took Jiang Qian away from Prince Yanping’s mansion, some people might suspect that Prince Chu’s mansion had ties with the Jiang family’s rebellion.
Emperors of all dynasties were sensitive and suspicious of their ministers. He couldn’t let the emperor doubt himself or Prince Chu’s mansion. He had to protect his status to protect the mission target.
Lin Yuan clenched his hands and suppressed his anger, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to restrain himself from smacking the son of Prince Yanping’s head: “You’re being modest.”
They entered the main hall together. On the outside, Lin Yuan was drinking and chatting with the son of Yanping, but on the inside he was anxious enough to cry.
He placed down the porcelain tea cup and said faintly: “Word is that Jiang liuyuan, who achieved first place in all six imperial exams, is now in Prince Yanping’s mansion.” t/n liuyuan is the title of the person who achieved first place in all six imperial exams
The son of Yanping cast a meaningful look at Lin Yuan. No wonder the other person suddenly visited him. It turned out to be for Jiang Qian.
Situations like this weren’t uncommon. Ever since he bought Jiang Qian, many people in the capital came to see.
After those people saw that Jiang Qian was now just a slave with no status and could be beaten and scolded at will, they were eager to pick up the whip and trample over the once proud son of heaven.
The little prince rarely went outside, he had never heard of the other drinking or playing around in the capital. Since the little prince was so obsessed with calligraphy and painting, it seemed that the other was not a person who liked to bully others, and was probably just curious.
The son of Yanping took a sip of tea and said: “Yes. Jiang Qian is in my Yanping mansion.”
Lin Yuan didn’t beat around the bush anymore and declared: “This prince wants to see this Jiang liuyuan.”
The son of Yanping naturally did not refuse.
Lin Yuan followed the son of Yanping outside of the main hall, and their crowd walked to the back of the mansion.
In the dilapidated courtyard, there was a huge iron cage, and inside was a skinny figure. His clothes were ragged, and his body was covered with bleeding whip marks and dirt.
As they approached, a smell of blood, excrement, and rotting choked the senses.
Lin Yuan’s fist trembled in unprecedented fury. Regardless of whether Jiang Qian was his husband or not, he was his mission target, and this stinky son of Prince Yanping pushed the difficulty of his task to hell mode.
AHH! Son of Prince Yanping, this stinky piece of dog shit!!!
The son of Yanping found that Lin Yuan’s face was dark. He immediately made up an explanation; “Little prince, after this Jiang Qian came to my Yanping mansion, he did not do his duty as a sinful slave and repeatedly tried to escape. Hence my humble self ordered the bodyguards to teach him a lesson.”
“As you’ve heard, the Jiang family used to be in power, so Jiang Qian was quite arrogant. The demotion to a criminal slave was a big blow to Jiang Qian, and now this person is crazy.”
Lin Yuan wanted to stuff soil into the son of Prince Yanping’s mouth.
He was raging on the inside, but he couldn’t vent his anger in front of everyone right now.
Lin Yuan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “So that’s how it is, this prince knows.”
The son of Yanping was ready to spout more nonsense, but the handsome little prince spoke first: “Son of Prince Yanping, Jiang Qian is now a waste. Since he can’t serve people, raising him is wasting food. It would be better for the son of Prince Yanping to give him to this prince.”
What?
The son of Prince Yanping was dumbfounded. People had wanted to buy Jiang Qian from him before, but he rejected all of them. He felt that he hadn’t tortured Jiang Qian enough and he had bought Jiang Qian for 20,000 taels, but no one else wanted to pay that price.
But at least those people offered a price of 5,000 taels, this little prince in front of him actually wanted him to give away Jiang Qian for free.
This was too shameless.
The son of Prince Yanping cursed in his heart yet still held a smile on his face: “Little prince, this humble one bought Jiang Qian for 20,000 taels out of prison. I’m afraid that I can’t agree to the little prince’s request.”
Lin Yuan stepped forward and placed his pale hand over the railing of the iron cage and smiled without a smile: “This prince understands your meaning. This prince can pay 20,000 taels, but this prince wants an intact Jiang Qian. Whatever state Jiang Qian was in when you bought him, this prince wants the same.” t/n HELL YEAH, you tell him Lin Yuan
He nodded to Lin Xia and Lin Xia immediately took out a bag 20,000 taels of silver and handed it to him.
Lin Yuan took the bag of silver and smashed it on the son of Prince Yanping directly. The bag fell and the silver sprayed all over the ground: “In a transaction, one hand pays and the other hand delivers the goods. This prince has paid the money. The son of Prince Yanping must now deliver the original Jiang Qian to this prince.”
The son of Prince Yanping never expected Lin Yuan to act this way and he froze in shock.
He had never been this humiliated before, but the other party was the highest ranking prince and he couldn’t afford to provoke him.
At this moment, the son of Prince Yanping realized that he had angered the little prince. But he could understand, after all, the little prince of Prince Chu’s mansion had lost his father when he was young, so the emperor and empress dowager doted on him a lot. It was not surprising that he would be angered when his request was rejected.
Now that the little prince had given the silver taels, the son of Prince Yanping didn’t dare refuse again.
The son of Prince Yanping was willing to bend and stretch under someone more powerful than him. He picked up the 20,000 taels on the ground and smiled: "Little prince, this humble one made a mistake. It’s just a lowly slave, if the little prince wants it, Yanping’s manion will naturally offer it to you.”
Lin Yuan stayed silent and did not take back the silver.
The son of Prince Yanping understood his meaning and bowed deeply with his hands outstretched: “Please forgive me, this humble one was rude just now.”
Lin Yuan nodded to Lin Xia and Lin Xia came forward to take the bag of silver.
The son of Prince Yanping bowed his head to the power of Prince Chu’s mansion, but the other party actually let a servant come forward. He bit his lips in humiliation but there was nothing he could do. Who let the other party be a first ranking prince?
Jiang Qian’s body was filthy and his mind was crazy, moreover his slave status did not allow him to ride in the same carriage as the little prince. In the end, Yanping mansion sent him over in a carriage.
Back at Prince Chu’s mansion, Lin Yuan asked someone to carry Jiang Qian over to his courtyard and ordered his servants to bathe Jiang Qian.
The moment Jiang Qian’s clothes were taken off, Lin Yuan was stunned. There was no unmarked flesh on his body. New wounds overlapped with old scars, and some of the wounds were also rotting. Jiang Qian was only skin and bones.
His physical wounds were distressing, but what worried Lin Yuan the most was Jiang Qian’s mental state.
As Jiang Qian was being bathed, he did not move at all, and even his eyes barely blinked. He was like a body without consciousness.
Lin Yuan recalled that in the plot, there was a period when Jiang Qian really went crazy because of torture.
Jiang Qian didn’t remember his own identity, and even forgot he was human. Every day he lived mindlessly and could only instinctively breathe. The son of Prince Yanping was bored after seeing Jiang Qian like this, and then he came up with a even more vicious torture method. He castrated Jiang Qian.
Amidst the heart wrenching pain, Jiang Qian finally woke up.
And completely fell into the depths of hell.
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After cleaning Jiang Qian, the mansion’s physician came over. First, he measured Jiang Qian’s pulse, and then removed the rotten flesh and used the best quality medicine on the wounds.
All of this tossing finally ended in the middle of the night. Lin Yuan looked at the dull Jiang Qian and could only go back to his own room to sleep.
Once everyone else left the room, Jiang Qian still lay in bed with empty eyes. Slowly, he raised head and untied the bandages around his body. He began to pick at the places where the medicine was pasted.
Poison.
These are all poisons.
It was the same as before. They gave him poison that accelerated decay and he had to remove it.
Remove it.
Pick it off……