Within the Imperial Prison of Pijin City, Zhou Fugui, with his disheveled hair and dirty face, looked pale and significantly thinner. His prison uniform had not been changed in a long time, emitting a foul odor.
Before his imprisonment, Zhou Fugui was a handsome man. However, during his time in Pijin City, he had been tortured to the point of looking like neither man nor ghost, with a sallow complexion and a withered, listless appearance.
In reality, the officials in the Imperial Prison of Pijin City had not tortured Zhou Fugui. The reason was that Zhou Fugui had not yet been convicted. Not only had he not been convicted, but he had not even appeared in court once, and no one had interrogated him. Ever since Zhou Fugui was confined to the Imperial Prison of Pijin City, the entire Great Yan court seemed to have forgotten him...
However, even without torture, several months of dark and sunless days had made Zhou Fugui's experience exceptionally difficult. The reasons were self-evident. Firstly, the prison environment was dim, damp, gloomy, and terrifying. Even the air carried a smell of mold and rot.
Secondly, sleeping. How could one sleep soundly in such a cold and damp environment? Yet, sleeping was bearable. Zhou Fugui, being in his prime, could curl up anywhere and endure the night, managing to get by. But the food was what caused Zhou Fugui immense suffering, to the point where he almost couldn't hold on.
The prison food was difficult to swallow. That aside, after eating it, he either couldn't excrete, feeling as if his stomach were filled with lead, or he suffered from explosive diarrhea, like a cascading mountain stream...
The long period of imprisonment had tormented Zhou Fugui severely.
In fact, it was not just the food and sleep that caused Zhou Fugui so much pain. Zhou Fugui wished for a swift judgment from the Yan court, to walk the path of the underworld once more. But the current situation left him unable to live and unable to die.
Beyond that, the most torturous aspect of imprisonment was the loneliness and desolation. Almost no one spoke to him, no one paid him any mind. There were no books or anything else to pass the time and fight the endless days of imprisonment. However, this situation had recently improved. For some inexplicable reason, a few days ago, a prisoner was moved to the cell next to Zhou Fugui, finally giving him someone to talk to.
The hardships of military camp, compared to his current environment, felt like paradise.
In fact, the most terrifying place in Pijin City, the place that struck fear into the hearts of all, was the water prison. A water prison was a cell filled with water. Prisoners in the water prison could not sit or rest, nor could they sleep. The water also contained various filth and insects. Within a few days, the prisoner's skin would rot and fester, extending to their internal organs, causing unbearable pain until death.
If Zhou Fugui were thrown into the water prison, even with his strong physique, he would not last more than a few days. Even a fierce battlefield general would be tortured into a state of being neither human nor ghost.
"I say, General Zhou, why have you not eaten yet?" his "cellmate," with his unkempt hair, asked Zhou Fugui while biting into a piece of cold, hard, coarse grain bread that felt like a stone. "There are three joys in life: eating, sleeping, and drinking. Eating is the most crucial matter, not to be taken lightly. Oh, and yes, another joy in life is women. I say, General Zhou, have you experienced the pleasure of the pillow?" httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
After speaking, the cellmate smacked his lips, revealing a set of yellowed, uneven teeth, looking wistful.
Someone was speaking to Zhou Fugui. This person, however, was a chatterbox. But at this moment, Zhou Fugui found his words like a divine decree.
"Crack!"
"Ouch! That hurts!"
As the cellmate spoke, he bit onto something hard, almost breaking his few remaining teeth, and cried out in pain.
"Haha..." Zhou Fugui couldn't help but laugh, leaning against the cell wall, holding his rice bowl to his chest. He chuckled, "Brother, be careful. A starving ghost is much better than a toothless one. Brother, you ask if Zhou has experienced the pleasure of the pillow? Alas, to be honest, I still don't know the scent of a woman!"
For some reason, the cellmate knew Zhou Fugui's name and even his experiences, yet Zhou Fugui knew nothing about this person.
"Hiss..." The cellmate drew a sharp breath, extracted a small pebble from his teeth, and then chuckled. "The scent of a woman? Hmm, General Zhou, you speak of a crucial matter. The scent of a woman, fragrant and intoxicating, a memory that lingers."
"How long have you been in prison? You seem to have experienced the pleasure of the pillow..." Zhou Fugui asked, glancing sideways at his cellmate.
"General Zhou..." The cellmate said smugly, "In my day, I had countless wives, concubines, singing girls, and dancing girls. Their faces were like flowers kissed by dew, their beauty illuminating the inner chambers. What a pity... Hmph, unlike you? To die without experiencing the pleasure of the pillow!"
"Tsk, you're not only a gossip but also a braggart, full of lies." Zhou Fugui scoffed.
"I'm a braggart?" The cellmate feigned "anger," "Do the sheep on the grassland know? In my time, my women were as numerous as sheep."
"Haha, sheep, sheep? Brother, you keep saying 'I' and 'my.' May I ask your esteemed age?" Zhou Fugui asked with a laugh.
Although the cellmate was disheveled and missing a few teeth, his mouth full of yellow, uneven teeth, Zhou Fugui knew this person was not very old, perhaps around forty at most.
"My esteemed age? I've forgotten." The cellmate shook his head, then held up two fingers and said, "But I am at least... hmm, two generations older than you. General Zhou, Commander Zhou, you shouldn't call me brother, you should call me grandfather..."
"Ah? Haha, you want to be my grandfather? In your next life," Zhou Fugui said with a laugh.
Zhou Fugui was in his early twenties, and the cellmate was at most around forty. Therefore, the cellmate could be at most one generation older than Zhou Fugui. Two generations or more? Zhou Fugui would never believe it.
"Boy, don't you believe me..." Zhou Fugui refused to believe it, yet the cellmate declared himself Zhou Fugui's grandfather... Putting down his rice bowl, he looked at Zhou Fugui and suddenly asked, "My grandson, what relation is Princess Ziyue to you?"
"Zi...yue... Princess? What Princess Ziyue? Zhou knows no Princess Ziyue," Zhou Fugui's face instantly paled, and he stammered, "I don't know any Princess Ziyue."
The cellmate said Zhou Fugui would die without experiencing the pleasure of the pillow, but in fact, Zhou Fugui had had hopes before. One was Princess Ziyue, Murong Huiying, and the other was Xiao Qing. However, due to twists of fate, things never went as Zhou Fugui wished.
And at this very moment, the person Zhou Fugui least wanted to face, or rather, dared not face, was Princess Ziyue, Murong Huiying.
Zhou Fugui and Murong Huiying had been deeply in love and were on the verge of marriage. They had agreed that once Murong Huiying returned from her father's campaign, Zhou Fugui would go to the prince's mansion to propose.
But now, things had come to such a pass. Zhou Fugui was almost in an irredeemable situation, with almost no room for maneuver. In this light, Zhou Fugui could only be said to have failed Murong Huiying.
Therefore, at this moment, Zhou Fugui could only deny it outright.
"Boy, don't play coy with me..." The cellmate stared at Zhou Fugui and said, "I know all about your affairs! Not long ago, Princess Ziyue caused a scene in Pijin City."
"She... returned? Caused a scene in Pijin City? Why was she so upset?" Zhou Fugui, hearing this, stopped pretending and stammered, "Why was she so upset?"
"Boy, you admit it now?" The cellmate stood up triumphantly and paced back and forth in front of Zhou Fugui through the iron bars, hands behind his back. He looked at Zhou Fugui and chuckled, "Princess Ziyue, who is she? She is the Heavenly Daughter of the Great Yan Kingdom. A Heavenly Daughter descended to favor you, a foolish boy, yet you, this foolish boy, are so incompetent, committing such a great crime, such a serious offense, making her heartbroken! Every time I think of this, I wish I could slap you to the Western Heaven. It's just a pity I'm not your match. Why don't you slap me to the Western Heaven? It would save me the trouble of looking at you and getting angry..."
"Alas, old man, can I call you old man?" Zhou Fugui, exasperated by the cellmate's rambling, interrupted and asked, "Princess Ziyue... what happened to her? What do you mean she caused a scene in Pijin City?"
"What is Pijin City?" The cellmate ignored Zhou Fugui and continued his rambling, "It is the strategic stronghold of Great Yan. When I entered back then... forget it, I won't say. Little Princess Ziyue, for your sake, led troops and caused a commotion in Pijin City. Her feelings for you are deep and true. I really don't know what kind of capability you possess, you look like a White Impermanence, yet you managed to seduce Princess Ziyue? Boy, quickly tell me, how did you get involved with her?"
Zhou Fugui truly wished he could strangle this verbose and overly curious "old man." He was quite confident in his appearance and physique, so why was he being called White Impermanence?
"Alas, old man..." Zhou Fugui sighed helplessly and asked, "What happened next? What was the outcome?"
"What outcome?" The cellmate glared at Zhou Fugui and said, "There's no outcome. Trespassing into Pijin City is a capital offense. If it weren't for the Left Virtuous King, she would have been apprehended and punished long ago. What virtue or ability do you possess to make Little Princess Ziyue like this? However, my good grandson, doing this is useless. Even if you hooked up with Little Princess Ziyue, and she is devoted to you, saving you from Pijin City is harder than ascending to heaven!"
"Alas, brother, you speak the truth," Zhou Fugui said, slumping down and sighing.
"Hey, hey, I say, White Impermanence, my good grandson..." The cellmate looked at the dejected Zhou Fugui and said, "I haven't finished speaking yet. Why have you become like this? You're making me so angry, a piece of rotten wood that cannot be carved! Cough... cough... If you want to leave Pijin City, only one person can help you. If you can persuade this person, you can escape from this predicament."
"Who is it?" Zhou Fugui asked, greatly surprised.
Did this old chatterbox mean Emperor Yan, Murong Xi, or the Left Virtuous King, Murong Bole? Zhou Fugui mused to himself.