novelhk Chapter 599: Gold Sinks into the Sea
Chapter 599: Gold Sinks into the Sea
"Since yesterday, I have hired a doctor for you, this place to live, and the food and medicine you just had... all of these have cost a lot of money." Zhou Chang began to count on his fingers. "Just now, you did say something, although it is useless to me normally, but even if it is because you took the initiative to surrender, I will consider it even. But from now on, if you still want to recover here safely, you can't do it for no reason."
"Cough cough..." Sun Xiang coughed violently, not knowing what he was trying to hide.
Zhou Chang smiled calmly and motioned Gao Yuan to give Sun Xiang another glass of water.
Gao Yuan turned around and handed Sun Xiang another glass of water.
This time Sun Xiang took it and drank two sips.
Zhou Chang was still gentle and even smiled more patiently: "Look... you are seriously injured and live in my house, and you need someone to serve you. Even if you don't say anything now, I will still lose money. I absolutely can't do that. How should I answer next? I believe you have an idea in your mind, right?"
Sun Xiang understood and said with great fear: "Your Highness Prince Yi, I will never hide anything. The trip to Beiji Qihuang Mountain was what Your Highness Prince Xian asked me to do."
"Prince Xian did it?" Zhou Chang didn't know whether to believe it or not, but thinking that Yuan Yu was poisoned in the end, he immediately asked, "Who was the one who came up with the idea of giving Yuan Yu a slow-acting poison? To kill him?"
Sun Xiang replied quite straightforwardly: "It should be Mr. Bai."
"Who is Mr. Bai?" Zhou Chang asked.
"Mr. Bai is the man wearing the white mask." Although Sun Xiang answered, his face suddenly twisted and cold sweat began to appear on his forehead, as if the wound was very painful.
This answer is tantamount to nonsense.
Zhou Chang had to ask again: "Who is the person wearing the white mask?"
"I don't know. We are all wearing masks and we don't know each other's identities." Sun Xiang's voice was trembling.
"Don't you know each other?" Zhou Chang asked like a machine gun.
"Well... maybe... I once guessed that two of them were colleagues. They would know it with just a glance, but they just didn't say it out loud." Sun Xiang had a painful expression, and this time it didn't seem like he was pretending.
"Mr. Zhong, can you take a look at what's wrong with him? Didn't he just take his medicine?" Zhou Chang asked halfway through, feeling anxious.
Zhong Yu stood up and felt the patient's pulse, then lifted the quilt to check the wound, and then said, "Your wound is not suitable for sitting for a long time now, you'd better lie down."
Sun Xiang didn't insist and slowly lay down.
Zhong Yu added: "If it doesn't work after a while, just change the external application medicine again."
Sun Xiang agreed with a grin.
When Zhong Yu sat back down, Zhou Chang couldn't wait to ask, "Are you saying that all of you wore masks the whole time and didn't know each other's identities?"
"Yes..." After Sun Xiang lay down, he had some difficulty speaking.
Zhou Chang estimated that he could not find out the identity of the person wearing the white mask for the time being, so he changed the question to another one: "So, where did those masks you wear come from?"
"I don't know. I was just following orders..." Sun Xiang replied, but then he thought about it, "But the mask seemed familiar to me when I first got it. Now that Your Highness asked me this, I seem to remember where I've seen it before."
Zhou Chang didn't intend to say the three words "Yaoyuefang", so he continued to urge: "What else do you know about the kidnapping? Tell me."
Sun Xiang tilted his head on the pillow and thought for a while: "The kidnapping and extortion was originally planned to be carried out twice. Mr. Bai meant to squeeze the Yuan family dry, but it failed the third time. The other servants were unaware of it, but because of the subsequent failure, His Royal Highness Prince Xian wanted to hunt me down and kill me to silence me."
"How do you consider it a failure? Haven't you already extorted so much silver?" Zhou Chang had a blank expression on his face.
Sun Xiang swallowed his saliva and said, "The first two batches of two million taels of silver were fine, but the third batch of 500,000 taels of gold capsized and sank directly into the sea, so..."
"What? The ship sank?" This was unexpected and heavy news. Zhou Chang suddenly had more than a hundred question marks in his head. "Wait, let's talk about it one by one... First of all, where did the two million taels of silver from the first two batches of ransom go?"
Sun Xiang replied: “I don’t know.”
"I don't know?" Zhou Chang didn't believe it. "You have transported the silver out of the pass, right?"
"Maybe..." Sun Xiang looked at Zhou Chang's face and answered.
Zhou Chang then asked: "Are you colluding with the Mirage Kingdom?"
Sun Xiang was obviously unsure: "I don't know."
Zhou Chang also thought it was unlikely, but he had to ask: "How could King Xian collude with the Mirage Kingdom?"
Sun Xiang cried, "I really don't know. We had agreed to transport the first few batches of silver away and distribute the last batch to the brothers. Who would have thought that the 500,000 taels of gold sank into the sea? I got nothing and was even suspected by my master..."
Zhou Chang had no way of empathizing, so he just continued to ask, "What does the King want so much silver for?"
Sun Xiang was still complaining, but suddenly he shut up.
This is a case of trying to cover up one's own mistake.
Zhou Chang was not in a hurry and gave Sun Xiang some time to think about it.
But after waiting for a while, Sun Xiang clenched his teeth and seemed unwilling to give in.
Zhou Chang's pair of phoenix eyes narrowed into two curved knives: "Aren't you here to surrender? Do you want to live or not?"
Sun Xiang's eyes began to droop again, and after a while he gave an answer: "Your Highness Prince Yi is really embarrassing me. When I was with Your Highness Prince Xian, I was a low-ranking official, so I don't know the inside story. Since Your Highness asked, I can only infer that the money was used to raise death squads and private soldiers."
Zhou Chang had a hunch that the other party was not telling the truth: "You were once the deputy general of Prince Xian's palace. How could you not know what illegal activities Prince Xian was doing in private?"
"I really don't know." Sun Xiang's gaze was obviously avoided.
"Don't know? Then why did King Xian want to kill you?" This was not the first time Zhou Chang had interrogated someone.
Sun Xiang shook his head on the pillow. "I've already said it before. The ship sank because of the third ransom. His Royal Highness Prince Xian may have suspected that those of us who participated in it were plotting something and wanted to embezzle it, so he sent people to hunt us down."
Zhong Yu retorted: "I'm afraid there were other trusted military officers with you. How come there were no reports of other military officers being assassinated or missing, but only you were hunted down? This doesn't make sense, does it?"
"This, this..." Sun Xiang stuttered, his face turned even paler, and he lay on the bed like a dying fish, with hesitation in his eyes, "Your Highness Prince Yi, if I tell you, please promise to save my life."
"What you said is only enough for you to recuperate here for a few days. I'm here to save your life, but how much is your life worth? What can you give in return?" When the other party became anxious, Zhou Chang was no longer anxious.