AUBTN -Chapter 4 Separated Imprisonment—Time to Test Them

Lu Yan suddenly stepped back, tensing his legs, and shoved Yu Qing away like she was a dangling ornament.

The embroidered spring knife slid half an inch from its sheath, its cold gleam cutting sharply toward Yu Qing’s tear-streaked, delicate face.

“Who’s the traitor?”

Lu Yan’s voice was as cold as ice shards in the dead of winter. “Who sent you?”

Yu Qing was shoved onto the ground with a thud. Seeing the knife, she hiccuped in fright. The pink bubbles in her head instantly burst, replaced by a flood of desperate survival thoughts:

【Oh no, oh no! The male lead is about to kill his wife to attain enlightenment! This isn’t the script! Big brother, I’m just a fan of your looks, not a traitor!】

Meanwhile, Shen Jue neither drew his sword nor pushed Su Hewan away.

He simply crouched slowly and gently pinched Su Hewan’s chin.

Su Hewan was forced to lift her head and found herself staring into a pair of unfathomable eyes.

They were narrow and shadowed, the corners tinged with a sickly red—beautiful enough to take one’s breath away, yet terrifying in their cruelty.

“Oh?”

Shen Jue’s voice was soft, almost like a lover whispering in one’s ear, the trailing note lifting slightly with a chilling hint of playfulness.

“My secret? What else do you know?”

Just four simple words made Su Hewan’s pupils constrict sharply.

She forced herself to calm down, her mind racing, drawing on all her knowledge of psychology.

【Don’t panic. Absolutely do not panic.】

She took a deep breath and met Shen Jue’s gaze, her eyes brimming with tears.

But stubbornly, she refused to drop them, her voice trembling yet resolute:

“Overseer… what if I told you that I could help you reclaim what rightfully belongs to you?”

Shen Jue’s fingers on her chin tightened slightly.

Not enough to hurt, but enough to make her feel suffocated.

“What rightfully belongs to him.”

Shen Jue smiled.

“Interesting.”

He released her and pulled a pristine silk handkerchief from his chest pocket, meticulously wiping his fingers that had just touched Su Hewan’s chin, as if they’d become contaminated.

Then he stood up and casually tossed the handkerchief to the ground.

“Take her away.”

Two words, cold and absolute, sealed Su Hewan’s fate.

Two eunuchs immediately stepped forward, lifting Su Hewan and heading out of the hall.

“Hey? Wanwan! Wanwan!” Yu Qing panicked, seeing her friend being dragged away. She shouted and tried to rush forward, but Lu Yan grabbed her by the back of her collar.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Lu Yan asked coldly.

“You’re coming with me too.”

“Where? Where exactly? Does the Jinyiwei provide food and lodging? Are meals included? Do they have insurance and benefits?” Yu Qing struggled and shouted.

But Su Hewan could no longer hear anything.

She was roughly dragged out of the sacrificial hall and shoved into a pitch-black carriage.

The carriage bounced along for an unknown amount of time before finally stopping.

A nauseating stench hit her.

This was the Eastern Depot—the imperial prison.

“Inside!”

The eunuch shoved her without a trace of gentleness. Su Hewan stumbled into a cell.

She hit the cold stone floor hard, her knees stinging painfully.

Clang! The iron door locked.

Su Hewan ignored the pain, quickly getting to her feet and pressing her back against the wall, alertly scanning her surroundings.

The cell was relatively clean. Aside from a few piles of rotting straw on the floor, there was only a wooden frame for interrogation.

But next door…

“Ah—! Master, have mercy! Mercy—!”

The piercing screams cut through the thick walls and drilled into her ears, like fingernails scraping across a blackboard, making her scalp tingle.

Then came the crack of whips against flesh, and the sizzle of hot irons searing skin.

Su Hewan’s stomach churned violently—a physiological reaction of sheer terror.

As a museum researcher, she had seen countless unearthed instruments of torture and studied innumerable episodes of brutal history.

But all of that had been behind glass cases, separated by hundreds of years.

Now, she was inside the very meat grinder of history itself.

Stay calm, Su Hewan. You must stay calm.

She gripped her palms tightly, using the pain to anchor her mind and keep herself lucid.

Shen Jue hadn’t killed her on the spot; instead, he had brought her back. That meant her words had had an effect.

He cared about that secret.

This confirmed what the historical records suggested: although Shen Jue wielded immense power, he had been quietly investigating the wrongful execution of the entire Shen family. He wasn’t doing it for authority—he was seeking vengeance.

As long as she held onto this fact, she still had a chance to survive.

As long as she didn’t reveal all her cards at once, he wouldn’t have the heart to kill her.

While her mind raced with desperate calculations, the cell outside suddenly fell silent.

Soft, deliberate footsteps approached.

Su Hewan snapped her head up.

Outside the cell, a figure had appeared without her noticing.

Shen Jue had changed into plain clothes, immaculate and free of dust.

In this dark, filthy imperial prison, he was like a white lotus blooming in mud—completely out of place, yet commanding the entire scene.

He stood there silently, looking down at Su Hewan, who was cowering in the corner.

His gaze held no murderous intent, no anger—only a suffocating indifference.

It was as if he were looking at an ant he could crush at any moment.

Su Hewan’s heart nearly stopped.

【Don’t flinch. Look at him. You can’t lose face.】

She forced herself to take a steady breath, lifted her head, and tried to make her eyes look sincere and fearless.

The two of them stared at each other for a long time.

Long enough that Su Hewan felt herself about to faint from lack of oxygen, until Shen Jue finally spoke.

“My patience is limited.”

His voice was soft, echoing through the cold, empty cell.

He tilted his head slightly, and a young eunuch immediately stepped forward, presenting an incense burner.

Inside, a single stick of incense had just been lit.

Thin smoke curled upward.

Shen Jue casually adjusted his sleeve, his tone flat, as if commenting on the weather:

“You have the time it takes for one stick of incense to burn.”

He lifted his eyes, and a bloodthirsty glint flickered in his narrow phoenix-like eyes, the corners of his mouth curling into a cruel smile:

“Tell me the secret you know. If it fails to satisfy me…”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the corner of the cell where the blood-stained instruments of torture hung.

“The eighteen methods of punishment in this imperial prison are very eager to make your acquaintance… Miss Su.”

Shen Jue sat on the Grand Tutor’s chair, his long, pale fingers tapping idly on the armrest.

The rhythm was slow, oppressive.

Each tap struck at the very tip of Su Hewan’s heart.

She knelt on the floor, the stinging pain in her knees keeping her unnervingly alert.

She watched the curling incense smoke, her mind racing at full speed.

【Calm! Su Hewan! You are the top student in the History Department at S University. You’ve studied Shen Jue for three years! His life, his personality, even the epitaphs written for him after his death—you know them all by heart! Now is the time to combine theory with practice!】

Shen Jue’s tapping fingers paused for the slightest instant.

He slowly lifted his eyelids, and the unsettling light in his gaze fell upon Su Hewan.

Hm. Interesting. He’s not dead yet, and someone even prepared his epitaph in advance?