Chapter 656: Interrogation

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas StudiosThere were few people on the streets since it was snowing heavily.While tailing the group of men, Chu Liuyue realized that they were indeed heading to the Jiang Residence. However, they had arrived at the back door instead.From afar, she could see Sun Qi standing at the doorway, seemingly waiting for these men. Once the men arrived, they nodded at Sun Qi and only entered the Jiang Residence after getting checked by him. Other than the ones she met earlier, a few others also arrived one after another.Did Jiang Yucheng summon all the people who went to Nan Jiang with him? Chu Liuyue frowned. From what I gleaned from those men’s conversation earlier, they seem to have undergone a lot of suffering at Nan Jiang. He hasn’t summoned them in the past year, but he’s suddenly gathering all of them now.A thought hit her mind just then. That’s right! Weichi Song said that he’d be visiting the Jiang Residence when he came down the mountain with us this morning. Could it be… because of this?“I wonder why the Eldest Young Master summoned us…”Chu Liuyue heard a lazy voice coming from around the street corner. She whipped her head in the voice’s direction and saw two men heading toward the Jiang Residence.The one speaking was a burly man, who looked dirty all over. His left ear had been sliced off, along with some of his scalp, leaving behind a terrifying, bowl-sized, and dark-red scar.Behind him was a petite and skinny man in tattered black clothes. Although he had an iron mask covering half of his face, there was a scar on the other half of his face that looked like a burn mark. He had probably put on a mask because his entire face had been ruined. He looked listless with his head drooping low.The man in front of him suddenly turned back and laughed at himself. “It’s pointless for me to ask you these questions since you’ve lost your voice because of poison! Disabled people like us… have lost their worth! We can only live at the mercy of others!”Chu Liuyue quickly hid herself.“Look, Sun Qi is standing right there! Even the others are here… Nothing good can come out—”Whoosh!A blurry red figure suddenly zipped past and left a bloody scratch on the burly man’s arm.“What’s this?!” He waved his hand, only to see the red figure quickly running off to the other side. “D*mn it! Just you wait!”Even a beast dares to bully me now! Furious, the man quickly chased after it.The skinny man looked up and was just about to follow him when he suddenly felt something strong dragging him backward. He struggled out of shock, but he felt something cold touching his neck, and warm blood started gushing out from him the next moment.His eyes widened as he tried to look behind, but the person’s grip on him was too strong. It didn’t take long before his legs went limp, and he fell silent.…“D*mn it! That little thing sure runs fast!” Not long after, the burly man came back looking angry. He had wanted to catch and kill the beast, but he didn’t expect it to be so agile. Despite chasing after it for some distance and expending a lot of his energy, he failed to catch it.The beast even jumped and vanished before his eyes. It was only when he recalled that he had matters to attend to that he returned with gritted teeth.“If not for what happened a year ago… I wouldn’t be reduced to the point of being bullied by a beast!” He cursed and irritatedly waved to the man who was still standing in the same position as before with his head hanging low. “Come on! We’ll be punished if we’re late!”The skinny man thus followed him to the Jiang Residence’s back door.…“Lord Sun Qi.” By the time they arrived in front of Sun Qi, the burly man’s anger had dissipated. He was also wearing a flattering smile on his face instead. “We rushed over as soon as we heard the news. We aren’t late, are we?”Expressionless, Sun Qi swept his eyes across the two of them. “Qi Dahe and Xia Mu?”“Yes, yes,” answered Qi Dahe before pushing the skinny man forward. “What are you doing, Xia Mu? Hurry up and pay your respects!”The skinny man remained stuck to the spot, much to Qi Dahe’s surprise. Xia Mu has a frail body, but I failed to push him just now…Just as he was feeling puzzled, Xia Mu bobbed his head in Sun Qi’s direction.Sun Qi knew that Xia Mu was dumb, so he wasn’t bothered about this. Instead, he frowned slightly when he noticed the scratch mark on Qi Dahe’s arm. “What happened to you?”Qi Dahe hurriedly answered, “I got scratched by a beast on the way—”“Alright, alright. Just go in!” interrupted Sun Qi irritatedly.Qi Dahe dared not say anything else. Thus, he nodded and quickly led Xia Mu inside.…After entering, someone led them to a quiet and remote courtyard that seemed to have been uninhabited for a long time and had just been cleaned up that day.When they arrived at the courtyard, they saw many people—even the scar-faced man and his group—standing there. All of them looked pretty much in the same condition as them.Most of them knew each other, but they very rarely contacted one another ever since they returned from that place a year ago. They hadn’t met anyone else other than the ones closer to them.The air was somewhat stifling with everyone gathered here. Other than the occasional whispers, the entire courtyard was very quiet, and the atmosphere was heavy and solemn.Standing in the corner with Xia Mu, Qi Dahe dared not say anything in this situation. All he did was hurriedly bandage the wound on his arm. Eldest Young Master has always been averse to blood… If he sees this, I’ll surely be scolded.More people came in after them. Including the newcomers, there were fifty-odd people in total.Fifteen minutes later, Sun Qi finally walked over and headed toward the innermost room, which got the rest of the people looking over nervously. He knocked on the door. “Eldest Young Master, they’re all here.”The door creaked open, revealing a tall figure in green robes.This person was none other than Jiang Yucheng. He walked out and stood atop the steps as he looked down at the people below with authority.Everyone hurriedly paid their respects to him. “Greetings, Eldest Young Master!”Jiang Yucheng lifted his hand, asking, “How many of them are here?”“57, Eldest Young Master,” answered Sun Qi respectfully.This was originally a group of seventy-odd people, but a number of them had passed away in the past year or so. The ones who were still barely hanging on were these 57 men.Jiang Yucheng nodded and swept his gaze across them. “Do you know why you have been summoned?”There was no answer from them.As he put a hand behind his back, he gave them a hard look and said sternly, “Everyone present here followed me to Nan Jiang back then. What I want to know is: Did any of you return with the Messed Yuan Gravel?”