Chapter 63: I Refuse to Lower My Head

  The silver needle pierced into Xiaoyi's arm, and her body trembled. Her apricot eyes suddenly widened, she didn't expect that the thin silver needle piercing into her body would be so painful.

  Liu Xu pinched the needle tail, with a cold smile at the corner of her mouth, looking at her expression, her fingers began to twist forcefully.

  "Uggghhh..."

  Fresh blood gushed out, quickly seeping through her sleeves and dripping onto the ground. The umbrella-shaped silver needles brutally tore apart the muscles under her skin, rotating and shaking, twisting and turning, repeatedly destroying every inch of muscle that they touched. Xiao Ding's entire body shook violently, and the muscles on her face contorted and convulsed.

  Ow! It really hurts!

  Fresh blood kept flowing out, the unspeakable pain continued to hit her, this kind of suffering was unbearable even for a strong-willed warrior, let alone an underage girl.

  "Are you surrendering? As long as you nod, I'll let you off and tell me what you know. You're just a servant of the Yang Manor, what's the point of dying? Who will remember you? Will Yang Wenxuan care about your life or death? Don't be foolish, just nod..."

  Her eyes widened in shock, and a wave of dizziness washed over her. The room began to spin, and colorful spots danced before her eyes. The pain was almost suffocating, threatening to drag her under into unconsciousness. Yet, the relentless tide of agony also kept her tethered to reality, refusing to let her slip away.

  Her silver teeth were clenched tightly, almost biting through the ball of cloth, but on her tightly strung heartstrings, only one sound echoed: "He's a bad guy, he asked about Young Master, he must have some evil intentions towards Young Master, I can't say anything, what can't I say, speaking carelessly will harm Young Master."

  Her body was trembling violently, her painful body twisted, but her neck was stiff and straight, as if even a thousand-pound boulder fell from the sky, her delicate body could withstand it, and she would not lower her head to this vicious young master.

  "Isn't it? You can't tell, this little girl of yours is very tolerant!"

  Liu Xu smiled and pulled out the needle, Xiao Qi's body went limp, just as she had let out a sigh of relief, it suddenly tightened up again, her toes also desperately curled up, tightly grasping the ground. Due to the force, the ropes binding her deeply cut into her skin. The silver needle with thorns in Liu Xu's hand ruthlessly pierced another arm, and the pain surged again.

  Liu Xu had been in prison for many years, he knew that no matter how intense the pain was, there were people with strong willpower who could hold on, but he also knew that even people with strong willpower couldn't withstand continuous and unrelenting suffering. Human willpower has its limits, as long as one is allowed to do whatever they want, there will always be a moment when the pain will destroy those limits, causing the person being tortured to completely collapse.

  At that time, he will obediently follow your orders and reveal all his secrets. Even if it's fabricated evidence, framing colleagues, slandering friends, or dragging relatives into the water, every major case is linked to many people. If these people are not willing to "confess", how can there be tens of thousands of people implicated? They may not be afraid of death, but when they cannot die even if they want to, in order to avoid suffering more terrifying than death, they will yield.

  In Liu Xu's hands, countless tough guys ended up weaker than a snail, as obedient as a dog. Only two kinds of people could withstand the most brutal torture without confessing: one was those who didn't need to be interrogated or forced to make false confessions, but were instead subjected to unbearable suffering for no reason; the other was those who died before the torture was even finished.

  He had never seen anyone who could endure all the torture and still refuse to yield, not even one. So many self-proclaimed iron-willed civil and military officials had surrendered, he didn't believe a little girl like her could hold out.

  Vibrant red blood, drop by drop, splattered on his shoe tips, as beautiful as peach blossoms. Xiao Ding's eyes were blurry with tears, her lovely face twisted in pain, yet she still forced herself to hold back, never willing to lower her head.

  The night is still long, and Liu Xu has enough patience...

  After a long night, Xia Yu and Xiao Guan returned home exhausted. As soon as they arrived at the gate, Xiao's daughter, who had been up all night, rushed to greet them. When she heard that there was no news of her daughter, she couldn't help but burst into tears again.

  Magistrate Zhao also brought people with him, he was really angry. Time and time again, someone targeted the Yang family, attempted assassinations, kidnappings, all sorts of cases kept popping up. If this continued, even his own official hat would not be secure on his head. So, for those who intended to harm Yang Wenguang, they were no longer just a target for capture, but an arch-nemesis who threatened his very career, with whom he could not coexist.

  He gritted his teeth and inquired about the situation, but didn't get any useful information. He had no choice but to rush back to the prefecture like a trapped beast, venting his anger on the squad leaders and patrol officers, constantly pressuring them to find the person by any means necessary. The entire Qingzhou Prefecture was thrown into chaos, with people running around frantically.

  Xia Xun's heart was heavy with worry, and he couldn't finish even half a bowl of porridge. He pushed the bowl away and kept telling himself: "Can't panic, can't panic. When someone is kidnapped, the most important thing is not to rush around like a headless fly, which would be useless. Must calm down, must calm down."

  Although he comforted himself like this, his heart was like a tangled mess, twisting and turning. He had grown accustomed to the little sparrow that chattered in his ear every day when he returned to the mansion, accustomed to her waking up with him every morning, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, yawning lazily, and combing his hair in a daze. Her presence was as natural as air, never making him feel her preciousness or indispensability, but when she really wasn't there, his heart felt empty and hollow, a suffocating feeling that made it hard for him to breathe.

  How could she have disappeared? Was it like in Putai County, where a wicked ghost took her away? Impossible! This is Qingzhou, not some small Putai County. The king's mansion is nearby, with many government offices around, no one dares to take such a huge risk, and nothing like this has ever happened before.

  Abducting women and selling them to the land of smoke and flowers? Even more impossible, it wasn't until this era that he realized that forcing good family women to jump into the fire pit was nonsense. The brothels had enough voluntary sources of women, so there was no need to take the risk of receiving mysterious women and facing the danger of being shut down. Once someone reported them, they would be shut down and arrested, at least in peaceful times, the government would maintain basic social order, and the brothel didn't need to take this risk.

  What else could Xiaoxiao have that would make people covet her, besides being a beautiful woman from a good family? Why did they kidnap her? If it was for human trafficking, why didn't the kidnappers take those few little maidservants together with her? At that time, it had already darkened, and they were in a quiet alleyway with few passersby. Was the kidnapper specifically targeting the Yang family?

  Xia Xian Ning would rather that this person had a specific target in mind, because if Xiao Qi was simply kidnapped and sold as a slave, the hope of finding her would be almost impossible. Even in modern times, rescuing an abducted girl is extremely difficult, let alone in that era. However, if it wasn't...

  Xia Huo suddenly stood up, and Xiao Guanshi hastily came forward: "Young Master!"

  Xia Fan waved his hand: "Uncle Xiao, you stay in the mansion and keep watch, just in case there's any news that requires a prompt response."

  "Master, where are you going?"

  "I went to Shengchuntang Pharmacy and a few other friends' places to ask for help."

  Xia Liu walked to the entrance of the hall, and suddenly turned his head and said: "Right, post a notice all over the city for me. Whoever can provide clues about Xiao Qi's whereabouts and prove it will be rewarded with 1,000 yuan. If someone follows the clue and rescues Xiao Qi, they will receive an additional reward of 1,000 yuan! Whoever rescues Xiao Qi will be rewarded with 5,000 yuan!"

  Xiao Guan's eyes widened in shock: "Five thousand taels?"

  At first, the young master spent only 200 taels to ransom Hong Niang from the mortal world in Taizhou, and he also spent only 1,500 taels to give a birthday gift to his backstage boss, the current King Qi. Five thousand taels! Xiao Guan Shi didn't even dare to think about it, this is one-tenth of Xia Zhen's entire family property ah.

  Even with Young Master's wealth, this sum of money has reached an astonishing level. Normally, it would be impossible to gather such a large amount of cash in a short period of time. Fortunately, because they wanted to return to Jiangnan and also had to go to Beiping to purchase a large quantity of fur goods for Prince Qi, they sold some properties and recouped some funds. But if they were to spend this huge sum on their daughter, how would Young Master explain it to Prince Qi?

  Xiao's daughter excitedly rushed over: "Master, quickly follow Young Master's words and post the wanted poster. Daughter will definitely be sent back by someone."

  "Shut up!"

  He pushed the woman away, his face twitching several times as he forced himself to say: "I... I'll borrow 200 taels from Master, and take out all 150 taels we've saved at home. Whoever provides information will get 50 taels, whoever helps rescue Xiao Di will get 150 taels, and if someone can bring Xiao Di back, they'll get the 200 taels borrowed from Master plus an additional 350 taels!"

  He shook off his wife and was about to write a wanted poster, 350 taels of silver, which is the salary of a county magistrate for eight years. If there's a chance to rescue his daughter, this amount of money is enough to move people's hearts. At this time, Peng Ziyu rushed in with wind and dust, she went to ask for help from several masters of the martial arts school last night, sent out all the disciples of the school, and then hurried back to Pengjiazhuang.

  Peng Jiayu's second brother heard his niece say that she wanted to search for a maidservant from the Yang family, although he didn't think it was a good idea, he still agreed. However, when Peng Ziyu wanted to hurry back, the city gate had already closed, and he had no choice but to stay at home overnight, only returning early this morning.

  "Xiao Guan's affairs, has Xiao Ding not sent any news yet?"

  "Oh, Master Peng, no news yet, I was just about to write up a wanted poster to get more people to help with the search."

  "Alright, my second uncle has already spread the word. All the pawn shops, inns, and other businesses under the Peng family's name, as well as the idle rascals from Qingzhou Prefecture, have all been mobilized. Don't worry, they may not be good at anything else, but when it comes to searching for people and gathering information, no one is better than them. If someone really did kidnap Xiaodi with the intention of selling her elsewhere, it would be impossible for them to escape detection."

  Xiao Guan Shi gratefully said: "Thank you, Mr. Peng."

  "No need to be polite, Xiao Qi is so lovely, I don't want anything to happen to her either. How about Yang Wenxuan?"

  "My family's young master went to Shengchuntang and said he was asking for help from Gengyuan Wai, mobilizing his colleagues to find out about Xiaodi's whereabouts."

  "Shengchuntang?"

  Peng Ziqi was furious: "What kind of news can Shengchun Hall investigate? This is not about finding the whereabouts of injured villains, it's just a matter of customers buying medicine and seeing doctors. This heartless bastard, at this time he still wants to go on a secret date with his lover?"

  Peng Ziqi tightened his waist and walked away with his precious sword.

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