"What do you mean?" Pei Zhiyan stared steadily at the man in front of him and took out a token. "Lord Song, do you recognize this?"
This token was the keepsake of the dead - end warriors raised by the Song family. Only the leader had one. Coincidentally, the only survivor Pei Zhiyan caught that day was the leader.
Song Zhen stared at the token, his heart pounding with fear. But he still stubbornly argued, "My lord, I've never seen this thing before. I wonder if there's some misunderstanding?"
Pei Zhiyan watched Song Zhen blatantly lie. He just gave a soft laugh and motioned to his subordinate beside him to arrest Song Wanying. Song Wanying was shocked and struggled. "What are you doing? Father, father..."
Song Zhen also propped himself up half - way excitedly and anxiously looked at Pei Zhiyan. "My lord, I don't know what crime my daughter has committed. Arresting her without any clear explanation, doesn't it damage the reputation of fairness of the Supreme Court?"
Pei Zhiyan turned to look at him, his eyes filled with intimidating pressure. "Without clear explanation?" He took a step closer to Song Zhen. "Lord Song, come with me to the Supreme Court, and you'll understand."
Pei Zhiyan's tone left no room for argument. He didn't even give Song Zhen a chance to speak. He just turned to his subordinate and said, "Take them away."
Song Wanying was escorted, and Song Zhen was also dragged off the couch and carried out. When the people from the Supreme Court reached Nie Rong, she gritted her teeth. "I don't need you to escort me. I can walk by myself."
When the group walked out of the mansion, Song Wanying looked at the snowflakes all over the sky and let out a sigh of relief. At least not many people had seen what was going on here, so they didn't look too disgraceful when they left.
When the three members of the Song family were escorted into the Supreme Court, Pei Yu had just finished feeding the horses and was coming back. Song Wanying saw him from afar and immediately struggled and shouted, "Yu Lang! Yu Lang!"
Compared to Song Wanying, Pei Yu saw Pei Zhiyan's tall and upright figure first. No matter how stupid he was, he could tell that the Song family had committed another crime.
Pei Zhiyan naturally saw him too. Pei Yu was standing there awkwardly at the door, unable to hide. He could only step forward and salute Pei Zhiyan. "Father, what's going on?"
Pei Zhiyan didn't show a cold face to him. He just observed his expression and explained, "The Song family is suspected of murder. I've specially escorted them here for interrogation."
"Father means that you already have evidence?" Pei Yu asked cautiously. Pei Zhiyan didn't answer. He just ordered his men to lock up Song Zhen's family of three in the prison.
Everyone in the capital knew that Pei Zhiyan never arrested people recklessly when handling cases. He must have had evidence before taking action. Pei Yu's question was clearly rhetorical, so Pei Zhiyan didn't want to answer.
Feeling Pei Zhiyan's coldness, Pei Yu awkwardly scratched his nose and wisely walked away. He was already in a difficult situation himself and had no time to care about the Song family.
As soon as Song Wanying entered the prison, she saw from afar the leader of the Song family's dead - end warriors hanging on the wall. There was blood all around, and his body was in a complete mess.
Song Wanying's legs immediately went weak, and she almost fell to the ground. Fortunately, someone was holding her up. Song Zhen was behind her. Afraid that she would reveal something, he quickly turned to look at Pei Zhiyan and explained, "My lord, A Ying is just a young lady raised in a deep boudoir. She has never seen such a bloody scene. I hope my lord will forgive her."
"Don't you recognize him, Lord Song?" Pei Zhiyan glanced at the man on the wall and then looked at Song Zhen. The latter averted his gaze. "I don't recognize him. My lord may have some misunderstanding about me."
"It doesn't matter," Pei Zhiyan smiled. "If someone is innocent, I will surely clear his name. But if someone refuses to talk like this man, I'll have to use some means. A person with integrity has nothing to fear. Lord Song, don't you think so?"
Song Zhen didn't say a word. Just then, the executioner beside him splashed a bucket of water on the man on the wall. Then he whipped, and a sharp sound exploded in the prison. With a whoosh, the whip hit the man.
The man was already on the verge of death, but suddenly being whipped like this, he couldn't help but let out a faint and extremely painful groan. The executioner didn't stop. Whip after whip landed on his flesh, making a sound like hitting mud, which made people listening imagine the torn - up flesh on his body.
Song Zhen felt a chill in his heart. Nie Rong was also trembling all over. Song Wanying was already scared senseless. The family of three was locked up next to the leader, and the pungent smell of blood rushed towards them.
Song Wanying retched a few times. Pei Zhiyan stood in front of the prison door, looking down at her. "What? Nothing to say?"
Song Wanying lay on the ground and carefully glanced at Song Zhen from the corner of her eye. The latter slightly shook his head, signaling her with his eyes not to act rashly.
"Uncle, I really don't know what you're talking about..." Song Wanying gritted her teeth, lowered her eyelashes, and tears fell. "These days, father has been injured, and I haven't fully recovered either. I've been staying at home all the time and have no idea what's going on outside."
Pei Zhiyan watched her performance for a while and found it boring. He didn't want to waste his time here. Just as he was about to walk out, a subordinate rushed in from outside and handed a token to Pei Zhiyan. "My lord, we found it."
Song Zhen also looked at the token. His heart sank to the bottom. He looked at Song Wanying with hatred for her incompetence. What a fool! Why didn't she hide the token in a more secret place?
"Lord Song, this token was found in your daughter's room. It's the same style as the one carried by the people who tried to kill me. What else do you have to say?" Pei Zhiyan showed the token in front of Song Zhen and asked in a cold tone.
Song Zhen clenched the straw under him with the hand hidden in his sleeve. After a few breaths, he seemed to suddenly realize something and clapped his hands. "Oh, I was wondering why these tokens were scattered. Did you secretly send someone out to do something and happened to meet Lord Pei, causing a misunderstanding?"
Song Wanying also reacted at this time and quickly nodded. "Yes, it was the people I sent. Because I heard that my younger sister was missing, I sent people to look for her."
"You've always been on bad terms with Song Ruotang. Would you be so kind as to send people to look for her?" Pei Zhiyan didn't want to listen to their nonsense. "Since they were the people you sent, why did you say you didn't recognize this man?"
He mercilessly exposed Song Wanying's lie. "Don't tell me you've never met him."
Song Wanying nodded, with tears constantly flowing. But she still explained, "My lord, the person who contacted me was indeed not him. I sent people to look for Song Ruotang because our Song family has been going through a difficult time recently, and we wanted to borrow some money from her..."
She knew very well that if she didn't portray herself as someone with a purpose at this time and just blindly refuted, it would be impossible to make Pei Zhiyan believe her.
Song Zhen and Nie Rong also knelt on the ground at this time. "My lord, please spare our lives. We really didn't know they would meet you."
Song Wanying wiped her tears and sobbed. "I really only told them to track down Song Ruotang. But they met you. Could it be that you and Song Ruotang were together..."