Chapter 345
Chapter 345
Ji Yan’an and the others changed out of their disguises before asking about the captured Ji women.
“Young Master, your two elder sisters have been locked in the Ministry of Justice prison along with their children. My rank isn’t high enough to get me inside, so I haven’t been able to learn anything more about their situation.”
Ji Yan’an nodded to show he understood.
“If you want to know what’s happening, I’ll go.”
Jiang Yunsui walked over while munching an apple. “But I don’t know those two sisters of yours. I have no idea what they look like.”
She could communicate with the birds here.
But if even Jiang Yunsui did not know the two sisters’ appearances, the local birds certainly would not either.
Ji Yan’an glanced at her. “I’ll draw them.”
He still remembered what his two sisters looked like.
Once the portraits were finished, Jiang Yunsui patted her stomach. She was full now.
“Then I’ll go take a look. Where’s the Ministry of Justice prison?”
As she spoke, she stuffed all the pastries on the table into the little crossbody bag she wore.
“I’ll bring extra. Who knows whether they’ve had anything to eat in prison?”
“Pack some drinking water for me too.”
Before long, Jiang Yunsui was carrying quite a collection of supplies. She also prepared some medicine and weapons such as daggers.
Ji Yan’an’s subordinate stared at her in bewilderment.
What in the world was she doing?
Jiang Yunsui stood on tiptoe and patted him on the shoulder.
“Lord Wen, take me over to the Ministry of Justice. You only need to show me roughly where its prison is.”
Lord Wen gaped at her. “Young Master, this…”
“That won’t work! Even I can’t get in, so naturally there’s no way I can take this young lady inside.”
Ji Yan’an said, “No one asked you to take her in. You only need to point out the general location.”
Then he warned Jiang Yunsui, “Don’t do anything unnecessary. Find out where they’re being held and come back as quickly as you can. And stay out of the kitchen.”
Jiang Yunsui’s little face reddened, and embarrassment made her bristle.
“That was when I was little! If I was hungry, of course I had to find something to eat.”
Ji Yan’an added, “And don’t go chasing after trouble.”
Jiang Yunsui: …………
How annoying! This was the problem with growing up under someone’s watch. He knew every bad habit she had and every embarrassing thing she had ever done.
Jiang Yunsui left, grumbling under her breath.
Lord Wen felt as if his head might split in two. What kind of situation was this?
Still, he could only steel himself and escort Jiang Yunsui away.
Along the way, he explained the general layout of the Ministry of Justice to her.
Jiang Yunsui listened attentively.
When they reached the entrance to the Ministry of Justice, Lord Wen immediately greeted the men there with a cheerful smile.
“Lord Wen, what brings you here?”
Lord Wen came up with a casual excuse, then turned his head. Huh? Where had she gone?
“Um, did either of you just see a girl of about ten beside me?”
The guards at the gate gave him strange looks.
“Lord Wen, are you ill? You came here alone. What girl are you talking about?”
“Perhaps you should have a physician examine you.”
Lord Wen: …………
No, there really had been someone with him. She had come here with him…
His scalp prickled, and he hurried back to find the Young Master.
By then, Jiang Yunsui was already strolling openly through the Ministry of Justice.
The Ministry of Justice was where criminals were interrogated, so the entire place had a somewhat sinister air.
The prison was especially grim.
She reached the Ministry of Justice prison without incident.
The smell inside was far from pleasant.
Jiang Yunsui carefully examined every occupied cell.
“Not this one.”
“Not this one either.”
There were not that many prisoners being held inside the Ministry of Justice prison.
Although the ministry did interrogate and detain criminals, this prison was special. Its inmates were all people of some rank or status.
That made it different from the local yamen jail.
It did not take Jiang Yunsui long to spot two people who somewhat resembled the portraits.
They only somewhat resembled them because both women looked far more haggard and emaciated than they did in the drawings.
Their hair hung loose, and their bodies were covered in wounds that looked like whip marks.
Even so, Jiang Yunsui had to study them for quite a while before she was sure.
She clung to the bars of the cell. “Are you members of the Ji Family?”
The sudden voice startled everyone crying inside the cell.
The ones crying were three children.
The two women had been whipped to the brink of death, and the three children were in despair.
They had tried calling for help, but the jailers ignored them. If they persisted, the jailers even lashed them with whips.
“Who… who are you?”
A boy of about fifteen regarded Jiang Yunsui’s sudden appearance warily.
She wore a pale yellow dress, and her entire figure was bright and exquisite, utterly out of place in the filthy, chaotic prison.
Jiang Yunsui said, “Ji Yan’an sent me.”
“Hurry and give this medicine to your mothers. It’s for their injuries.”
The boy remained wary. He clearly did not trust her.
Jiang Yunsui promptly popped one of the pills into her own mouth.
“Will you believe me now? Hurry and give it to them. What else are you going to do, sit here and wait?”
There was no other choice. They could not truly sit there and wait to die.
The boy gritted his teeth, took the medicine, and hurriedly fed it to his mother and his aunt.
“You should take some too. You’re hurt as well.”
Jiang Yunsui kept her voice very low. There were other occupied cells nearby, after all.
The cell beside them was empty, but the next one was not. Someone lay sprawled inside it, barely alive.
“Did my little uncle really send you?”
A glimmer of hope appeared in the boy’s eyes.
Jiang Yunsui nodded.
She pulled out everything she had brought and shoved it all through the bars.
“These are daggers. Hide them well.”
“When Ji Yan’an comes to rescue you, you’ll have something to defend yourselves with.”
“And this is food.”
At the sight of everything Jiang Yunsui took out, all three children swallowed.
They were members of the Ji Family, and that wretched emperor Yang Yan hated the Ji Family to the bone. Naturally, he would not treat them well.
Since their capture, all the food they had been given was rancid.
They had been able to endure the hunger and refuse it for the first two days, but once they became desperate enough, they could swallow anything.
Even then, there had not been enough food to fill their stomachs.
Now that they saw real food, their eyes reddened.
“Hurry and eat. I’ll keep watch for you.”
As Jiang Yunsui glanced around, she met the gaze of the prisoner in another cell.
It was the person who had been lying there, his condition impossible to determine.
Now he was staring fixedly in their direction, though he did not shout or make a fuss.
Jiang Yunsui: …………
She looked around furtively, walked over, and handed him some food.
The man took it and wolfed it down.
He was little more than skin and bones, clear evidence that he had suffered greatly in this prison.
He was an elderly man as well.
Jiang Yunsui was softhearted in the end. Since he had not made a commotion and drawn the jailers over, she did not mind sharing some food with him.
Fortunately, she had possessed the foresight to bring plenty.
“Here’s some water. Don’t choke to death.”
From the way he was eating, Jiang Yunsui was truly afraid he might choke himself to death.
“Grandpa Bai, you’re awake?”
Jiang Yunsui was a little surprised. So they actually knew him.
When she looked over, Ji Yan’an’s two sisters had already regained consciousness.
The wounds from their whipping had stopped bleeding, though their faces were still very pale.