Chapter 417 — Tracing the Source

Song Yan only smiled at him, just as the caring brother he had always been.

"I did not, I did not!" Song Han sprang to his feet. "I truly did not hear anything..."

Song Yan rose and smoothed the slight wrinkles from his robe. He called out "Lu Ming" in a flat tone, then said, "Tell the second young master how he ought to speak to me." He added, "Do not leave any marks—I have no wish to invent a pile of excuses after the man is beaten to death." With that, he walked out with the bearing of a pine.

Lu Ming bowed to Song Han in salute.

The wavering lamplight fell upon Song Han's thin, small figure, casting him as a twisted monster.

"No!" Song Han let out a shrill cry and lunged toward Song Yan.

Lu Ming extended his arm to block him. "Second young master, do not make things difficult for us servants!"

He stared fixedly at Song Han, his eyes revealing an undisguised killing intent.

Song Han thought of Song Zhi's methods, of his father's fear of Song Zhi. And of how Song Yan had grown cold toward him since Jiang Yan appeared. All at once it was as though he had fallen into an ice cave, the cold piercing to the bone.

"Brother! Brother!" he cried out toward Song Zhi's retreating figure.

Song Yan did not turn his head.

Lu Ming locked Song Han's arms.

A piercing pain shot through Song Han's shoulder.

He struggled with all his might, but it was like an ant trying to shake a tree.

Four men walked in from outside.

One of them hesitated. "After all, he is the second young master of the Yingzhenguo Estate..."

Hope surged in Song Han's heart.

But the man went on, "I say waterboarding would be better—the weather is hot. If we slip up, we can say he drowned while swimming."

Lu Ming thought for a moment. "Then bring a basin of water!"

Every hair on Song Han's body stood on end. He spat viciously at Lu Ming. "You dare lay a hand on me? Just wait—my brother will regret this and use you as the scapegoat!"

Lu Ming grinned, his smile dripping with mockery. "You still fancy yourself the second young master of the Yingzhenguo Estate? Where did that Miss Jiang come from? Do not forget—Li Tiaoniang may be dead, but Li Liang is still alive and well. Everyone in the Yingzhenguo Estate knows by now that you have no blood ties to the Song family, that you are nothing but a foundling the Zhenguo Lord took in. We will wrap you in cotton batting and beat you—your organs will be destroyed within, yet no mark will show without. At most two or three days and you will breathe your last. Even the imperial physicians of the Imperial Medical Academy cannot detect this kind of underworld technique. Rest assured—even if the Zhenguo Lord brings a complaint before the throne, it will be a muddled case. Besides, with such a hold the Zhenguo Lord has in the heir's grasp, whether he will even speak up for you is another matter entirely."

As he spoke, with a crack, he wrenched Song Han's arm from its socket.

Song Han let out a scream.

Lu Ming said, "Stop putting on the airs of the second young master of the Zhenguo Estate before me. The heir only asked you because he was thinking of the brotherhood you once shared. Some things—if you do not say them, someone else naturally will.

"Since you will not take kindness when it is offered, do not blame our heir for being ruthless."

Song Han's head was shoved into the water basin.

Bubbles gurgled up in the basin.

Song Han shook his head desperately.

Water still poured in through his nose and mouth.

He felt the agony of suffocation.

He was hauled up.

He gasped for air.

Lu Ming asked him, "When the heir questions you, will you still say you do not know?"

Before Song Han could speak, his head was shoved into the basin again.

...

He gradually grew weak.

The shadow of death was closer to him than ever before.

But he still kept his mouth tightly shut.

Someone hesitated. "What if something truly happens... how do we explain it to the Zhenguo Lord?"

Lu Ming sneered. "The man is already dead. Do you think the Zhenguo Lord would cut off his own line?"

Song Han's head was pushed into the water once more.

This time, it lasted longer than any of the previous times.

The hands holding him down were like iron clamps, without the slightest hesitation or loosening.

What was more, each time he was held under the water it lasted longer than the time before, and each time he was hauled back up it was shorter, and there was a certain impatience in it, as though he were a burden, as though the sooner they finished him off the sooner they could report back...

Song Han suddenly understood.

These men were nothing but puppets in Song Yan's hands, and so they would not, as Song Yan did, soften at the sight of his misery.

If he did not beg for mercy, he would truly die here.

Just as they said: if he died, Song Yan would become the Song family's sole heir, and what could his father do then, besides beat and curse Song Chudun?

So when Song Han was dragged out once more, he grasped with what little strength he had the man holding his head down.

"I'll talk..." he murmured, his body slumped on the ground.

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Sisters and brothers, today's bonus update.

o(n_n)o~

ps: begging for pink votes...