Yuwen Hao was already coldly saying: "You don't need to confess right? The people around Marquis of Huiding have already said that you deliberately lingered in front of Marquis of Huiding these past few days, knowing his fondness for handsome men. You deliberately dressed as a man to seduce him. Have you gone crazy? Or has a ghost hit your forehead? Who is Marquis of Huiding? How dare you provoke him? If you don't want this life of yours, go dig a grave and bury yourself, don't cause me trouble. I wish I could just kill..."
Yuan Qingling looked at him with anger on his face, and gently interrupted: "When I was at the marquis's mansion, I heard you tell Marquis of Huiding that if I died by his hand, you would stop at nothing to kill him and make him a scapegoat for me. Prince, I didn't know you loved me so much."
This should be the fastest way to make him shut up.
Sure enough, Yuwen Hao's angry face suddenly froze, the corners of his mouth twitching a few times, as if suffering from aftereffects of a stroke. "What nonsense love are you spewing?"
Just as he was about to give her a good scolding, the saying goes that the onlooker sees more of the game, Tang Yang calmly said: "Prince, about her injuries."
Yuwen Hao immediately came to his senses, his eyebrows shot up in anger. He grabbed Yuan Qingling's arm and pressed her down, raising his palm, about to strike down. Yuan Qingling hurriedly pleaded for mercy, "I'll talk, I'll talk!"
Yuwen Hao let go of her in one motion. "Today I won't mess around with you. If you don't confess everything truthfully, the plank awaits you."
For the sake of the present, she could only bow her head to the evil forces.
She adjusted her sitting position, sitting cross-legged on the bed. She cleared her throat, but was grabbed by the ears by Yuwen Hao, who barked, "Speak!"
Yuan Qingling shrank her neck aggrievedly, looking at his fierce face, "I'm about to."
"If there's half a lie, I'll kill you first before explaining to Father. You'd better not challenge my bottom line." Yuwen Hao said angrily.
Yuan Qingling knew he didn't necessarily have the intention to kill her, but losing control and killing someone did happen.
So she didn't dare conceal anything, and said, "I was thinking that a person like Marquis of Huiding commits evil without end, yet I have no evidence to convict him, and I feel resentful. Knowing his preferences, I disguised myself to deliberately approach him. At first I only wanted to attract his attention, and when he took the bait I would set a trap to catch him red-handed with you leading people to arrest him on the spot. I swear, that was my original intention, I wanted to cooperate with you."
She looked at Yuwen Hao sincerely.
Yuwen Hao's face was impatient. "Go on." Cooperate? With her brains could she even do that?
Yuan Qingling said with a dejected face: "Who would have thought he had already noticed me. What I didn't expect even more was that he dared to openly abduct me, and he knew my identity. He had me taken to a room full of torture devices, wanting to take indecent liberties with me there. Of course I refused, and injected him with anesthetic, then took the opportunity to..."
She took a furtive glance at him, seeing that his eyes were still spraying fire, she faltered, "took the opportunity to poke his tool that he used to violate commoner girls in the past, with the legs of a chair."
Upon hearing this, Xu Yi and Tang Yang gasped. Xu Yi subconsciously protected a certain place. Heavens, how painful would that be? That Marquis of Huiding was truly a tough guy, getting injured there yet still able to skip around.
Yuwen Hao's complexion also changed. But he burst out scolding, "When you had the chance, instead of escaping immediately you had to injure him first. Are you dumb as a pig?"
Yuan Qingling continued, "After injuring him I immediately escaped, but when I went out I was discovered by maids and forced into the dog pen. Strangely, those dogs were like mad dogs rushing at the guards instead, which gave me a chance to escape. Seeing the chaos, I immediately ran out the back door and didn't stop until I was very far away."
Yuwen Hao listened uncomfortably, raising his eyebrows, "You escaped?"
"Yes!"
"Since you escaped, why did you appear at the marquis's mansion again?" Yuwen Hao pulled over a chair to sit down, his expression slowly calming down.
Yuan Qingling looked at him and said, "After escaping, I hid in an alley and didn't dare to go out for the time being. But I saw you leading people passing by, and at the time I thought you were on official business so I didn't dare call out to you. Later I thought you seemed to be going towards Marquis of Huiding's mansion, so after hesitating for a long time, I sneaked back to take a look. Seeing people guarding the gates, I knew I was right so I went in through the back door."
"That's not right!" Xu Yi stared at her, "I was guarding the back door the whole time, the Consort never came in."
Yuan Qingling was rather embarrassed, "I thought the guards were the marquis's men, I didn't look closely. I crouched by the wall for a while, and discovered a dog hole on the ground..."
Everyone fell silent.
The Consort crawled through a dog hole?
Yuan Qingling really didn't want to say this out loud, "The dog hole was too small, I definitely couldn't crawl in. So I climbed up the wall and jumped down from above."
Xu Yi said, "But the Consort could still crawl through that dog hole, I saw it when I went to stand guard."
"No one's asking you to play mute!" Yuan Qingling glared at him resentfully.
Xu Yi felt very wronged, he was just stating facts.
But Yuwen Hao looked at her thoughtfully, "Even if I went to the marquis's mansion, why did you go back?"
Yuan Qingling said matter-of-factly, "Of course I had to go back! Prince, you brought Jingzhao Prefecture's men there, if they couldn't find me, would Marquis of Huiding let it go graciously? He'd surely bite you like a mad dog and not let go."
"Don't you hate me? Wouldn't it be to your satisfaction to see me bitten by a mad dog?" Yuwen Hao watched her closely, and his anger had damned well vanished from his heart.
Yuan Qingling patted him on the shoulder and boldly said, "It's fine if I kill you with my own hands, but I'm unwilling to have you die by another's hands."
"Go die!" Yuwen Hao pushed her impatiently.
Yuan Qingling didn't expect him to suddenly push her. She fell back and the back of her head hit the bed frame hard. Her eyes rolled back and she fainted.
"That's what you get for pretending!" Yuwen Hao raised his hand and slapped her calf.
No reaction.
Yuwen Hao bared his teeth and dragged her up by the hand, "Still pretending?"
Yuan Qingling was pulled up and flopped limply to one side again, eyes still closed motionless.
Tang Yang's sharp eyes saw it and exclaimed in shock, "She's not pretending, the wound opened up, look, she's bleeding again."
Yuwen Hao looked and saw the bed curtain was indeed stained with bright red blood.
"What are you still stunned for? Call the imperial physician!" Yuwen Hao yelled loudly. He knelt on the bed and picked Yuan Qingling up, reaching to the back of her head, his hand was covered in blood.
Xu Yi hurried out in a panic.
The imperial physician was very helpless as he treated Yuan Qingling's wound again, grumbling, "This wound is at the back of her head, already very serious to begin with. It must be carefully tended to. How did it get injured again? If injured again, the Consort will become an idiot."
"The Consort... bumped into it herself." Xu Yi guiltily explained to the physician.
"The Consort isn't an idiot. Knowing she has an injury at the back of her head, how could she bump into it on purpose?" The imperial physician really couldn't stand it any longer. He had been treating the Prince's injuries in the residence for many days, knowing the Prince would yell at and handle the Consort roughly at the slightest thing.
"Is the imperial physician criticizing me?" Yuwen Hao asked coldly with an icy face.
The imperial physician took one look at Yuwen Hao's cold ferocious face, the courage he had just displayed instantly vanished into thin air. Picking up his medicine box, he didn't dare say anything more and scurried away dejectedly.
