Chapter 1107: Revenge

Sang Hong was furious. "Do you realize that falsely accusing a prince is a crime punishable by the extermination of your entire clan?"

Taohong sighed. "See? Just hearing his name spooks you like that. Why bother making me confess, then?"

Sang Hong's face alternated between green and white, as if deep in thought.

Pei You and Zu An exchanged glances, their earlier anger fading. A strange silence suddenly descended upon the room.

Only Zu An remained relatively calm. He asked in a deep voice, "Did Prince Qi send you personally, or was it one of his subordinates?"

Taohong replied, "Prince Qi is a man of such stature; he would never personally handle matters like this. It was naturally arranged by his subordinates."

"Then how do you know someone isn't just using Prince Qi's name falsely?" Zu An pressed, his voice deep.

Taohong scoffed, "As secret agents, how could we not know who we serve?"

"If that's the case, then why betray them so quickly?" Zu An said blandly. Although the Embroidered Uniform Guard were experts at interrogation, her confession as a spy seemed a little too swift.

Taohong said with a voice full of hatred, "Do you know why Yun Jianyue caught me?"

Without waiting for Zu An's reply, she continued, "Because after I completed my mission here, assassins under Prince Qi were sent to silence me. Fortunately, I was cautious and made preparations in advance, allowing me to escape. It was pure bad luck that I then ran into Yun Jianyue and was captured by him."

The others exchanged glances, all inwardly acknowledging her cleverness.

At this point, Pei You spoke. "The last time I saw you at Biyu Pavilion, was the deep affection you displayed for Shen Zhou real or faked?"

Taohong sneered, "At this point, does it make any difference if it was real or fake?"

Pei You's voice was low. "Of course it does."

Meeting his intense gaze, Taohong fell silent for a long moment before finally speaking. "I was trained as a spy from a young age. Everything I experienced was cruel and cold; even the occasional kindness from my superiors was merely a method of control. Only Shen Zhou gave me genuine affection and warmth. Even though he was clumsy and slow, I truly did fall for him."

Zu An said flatly, "Yet, you still caused his death."

Taohong gave a desolate smile. "Yes, I was indeed responsible for his death. When I reported his discoveries to my superiors, I knew what fate awaited him. Sadly, at the time, I didn't understand my own heart, and I was too afraid of the organization's retaliation for betrayal, so I didn't think too much about it."

"It wasn't until I learned of his death that my heart felt as if it were being torn apart, and I finally understood my mistake. But by then, regret was too late."

"Yet, afterwards, you continued to work for Prince Qi as if nothing had happened, even using Shen Zhou to mislead our investigation," Zu An said gravely.

Taohong lowered her head. "What choice did I have? My life and death were in their hands. Could I refuse? How could high-ranking figures like yourselves ever understand the sorrows of ordinary people like us?"

Zu An fell silent, knowing she spoke the truth.

This woman likely did have feelings for Shen Zhou, but lacked the courage to defy Prince Qi, which left her trapped in turmoil and pain.

"Were the account books of the Zhenyuan Merchant Association altered by your side?" Sang Hong interjected. He was an old man, accustomed to life's storms, and his heart had long since hardened like iron. He cared nothing for the romantic entanglements of young people, focusing only on the most critical matters.

Taohong hummed in affirmation. "I wasn't involved. A specific person, in disguise, retrieved the original account books and replaced them with new ones. I don't know the exact modifications that were made."

"Who was your contact? How can we find him?" Sang Hong asked.

Taohong replied, "Manager Ma from Ping An Pharmacy in the west of the city. Many of the girls from Biyu Pavilion often require a doctor, so he could enter and exit frequently without arousing suspicion."

Sang Hong quickly signaled to Xiao Jianren, who understood and promptly left to take his subordinates to make the arrests.

"Do you have any other evidence?" Sang Hong pressed on.

Taohong shook her head. "Those of us in this line of work are constantly guarding against one another. We wouldn't leave any evidence behind."

Sang Hong frowned and continued the interrogation, but regrettably, no more useful clues were unearthed.

He then left Pei You to continue the interrogation, while he brought Zu An to a secret chamber for a private discussion.

"Are we going to suppress this information again?" Zu An asked curiously.

Sang Hong shook his head. "Before, Prince Yan wasn't the Emperor's target. If we had pushed them to rebellion, the Emperor would have blamed us. But Prince Qi is precisely the one the Emperor intends to deal with, so we naturally have no such concerns."

"Unfortunately, we only have witness testimony, no physical evidence," Zu An said worriedly. Prince Qi, after all, ranked second only to the Emperor. Relying solely on Taohong's confession to deal with him would be quite challenging.

Sang Hong also sighed. "Indeed. Now, it's up to Sir Xiao to see if he can unearth anything, though I'm not optimistic."

Zu An concurred with this assessment. An old fox like Prince Qi would hardly leave such obvious loose ends after Taohong's escape.

At the same time, Zu An felt a flicker of hesitation. He had previously interacted with Prince Qi in the capital, and they had even formed an "alliance." While both parties knew it was an unreliable arrangement, Zu An genuinely needed Prince Qi's help to deal with the Emperor. Ideally, they would both be weakened. If Prince Qi were simply eliminated, it would not align with Zu An's interests.

Soon after, Xiao Jianren returned. The reason for his swift return was that Ping An Pharmacy was already deserted, with only a few completely unaware clerks remaining.

"Just as I thought," Sang Hong muttered with a bitter smile, starting to ponder whether to hand Taohong over.

While Sang Hong had no direct personal ties to Prince Qi, he was considering a different angle. This accusation was no ordinary charge. If they made a move without concrete evidence and Prince Qi managed to weather the storm, the Emperor, with his detached nature, might very well throw the Sang family forward as scapegoats once more.

They had already suffered a setback last time and were unwilling to repeat the same mistake.

Just then, another subordinate arrived to report, "A village on the city's outskirts is on fire."

Sang Hong snorted. "Why are you telling us about such a trivial matter? Do you think we don't have enough to deal with already?"

The soldier quickly clarified, "It's the village where Shen Zhou's widow lives."

Because Zu An had investigated there previously, the envoy mission had secretly assigned people to monitor any related information. They never expected to receive such tragic news.

"What?!" Zu An exclaimed, shocked, and immediately demanded details.

The soldier replied, "The exact circumstances are unclear, but it seems the fire started in the middle of the night. Everyone was asleep, and the flames, fueled by the wind, spread very quickly. All thirty-six villagers perished; not a single soul survived."

Zu An's voice turned icy cold. "It's been snowing heavily lately; how could a fire spread so easily? And not a single person in the entire village survived!"

"Silencing them!" Sang Hong came to the same conclusion.

Soon, Zu An and Sang Hong led a group to the crime scene on the city's outskirts, where yamen officers were already collecting bodies.

The air was thick with an incredibly foul stench. The scene was nothing short of a human purgatory, and many of the yamen officers were retching uncontrollably nearby.

Zu An, his face devoid of emotion, walked directly to the charred remains of Shen Zhou's wife and child. The thought of that once sturdy little boy now reduced to cinders ignited a furious storm within his heart.

Though he was well aware that to the powerful elite, commoners' lives were as worthless as blades of grass, he never imagined such a lack of bottom line, that they wouldn't even spare small children.

At this moment, a yamen clerk approached to report, "A preliminary autopsy has been performed. The lungs of the deceased contain a large amount of smoke and black ash, which is consistent with death by burning. For now, homicide can be ruled out."

Zu An looked at him coldly. "What were the conditions of their deaths?"

The clerk replied, "Their bodies showed peaceful expressions; they likely died from the fire in their sleep."

Zu An snorted. "No matter how soundly they slept, would they truly have no reaction when the fire reached such an intensity? It's clear they were immobilized before the fire was set, and then burned alive!"

"This... this... who could be so deranged?!" The clerk was visibly terrified.

Zu An did not reply. Instead, he simply picked up the tiny skeletal remains and stated in a deep voice, "There's no need to take these two back to the yamen. I will lay them to rest here first."

Since he knew who the culprits were, there was no need to leave their bodies exposed at the yamen any longer.

Using his cultivation, Zu An quickly dug a large pit, then split some wood to fashion a makeshift coffin, and buried the mother and child.

He remained silent throughout the entire process. Sang Hong, standing beside him, offered comfort: "A'Zu, don't blame yourself too much. This isn't your fault."

Zu An did not reply. Instead, he silently drew the wooden sword the child had given him. "I swear by this sword that I will avenge you," he vowed, "or I shall be broken just like it!"

As he spoke, he channeled his power, and the wooden sword instantly snapped into two halves.

He was about to thrust the broken sword into the grave mound when his gaze suddenly sharpened.