Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace: Jia Ling's Double Rebirth, Creates a Great Success

Nanny Jingqi's face was as old-fashioned as a piece of wood submerged in water, without a trace of mercy.

They knew that anyone who could be sent to the Ministry of Punishment had either committed a serious crime or was likely to have committed a serious crime; no one was innocent.

For example, the noble lady in front of them, Xian. At first, they heard that she was an old person in the palace and had given birth to a royal heir, so they had doubts in their hearts.

This Concubine Xian had a pale face and blood coming out of her lower body. She looked like she was being persecuted. How come she was sent to the Ministry of Punishment?

The two secretly asked the eunuch Jinzhong who sent her in, and found out that Concubine Xian wanted to harm people, but was drugged by Concubine Rong.

What’s even more hateful is that Concubine Xian wanted to push the blame onto her own mother, which angered her biological mother to death.

Aunt Jingqi shuddered, is this still a human being?

Thinking of what the emperor said, that Concubine Xian must kneel down and beg for mercy before she can be released, the two looked at each other and came up with an idea.

Whipping, using a whip dipped in chili water to whip the back every day until the skin is torn and flesh is exposed. When there is some scab the next day, the whip is used again until bleeding, and this cycle is repeated.

It is usually used during interrogations. Although it is painful, the daily punishment is limited and the patient can still close his eyes and recuperate.

Although pounding rice sounds easy, it requires people to wear heavy handcuffs and shackles, stand upright and repeat the pounding action over and over again, and they can only sleep for two hours a day.

After being punished in this way, people in the palace would become seriously ill and suffer from nightmares all day long, unable to sleep or eat.

There was already solid evidence of what Concubine Xian had done, and she had been convicted, so the only thing they wanted to do was torture her.

If it was a flogging, having a concubine go out with scars all over her body would ultimately bring disgrace to the royal family, and it would be a hindrance if they did it.

Ruyi thought carefully about the two punishments they had proposed. Whipping was too undignified, and she had to endure the pain of whipping.

So she chose to pound rice.

Aunt Jingqi smiled. Every step was within their expectations.

Soon, Ruyi was brought to a stone mortar. Inside the mortar was a stone hammer as thick as an arm and weighing more than ten pounds.

A silver light flashed before Nanny Jingqi's eyes, and she discovered that Concubine Xian was actually wearing armor on her hands.

This was simply unheard of. She pointed at Concubine Xian's hand and angrily said:

"Take off this armor. You're about to be punished. What's the point of wearing this? Are you going to dig your ears?"

Ruyi was filled with grief and indignation. She was about to be tortured, but Nanny Jingqi still wanted to make things difficult for her and even glared at her with contempt, as if she was something not worthy of being on the stage.

Ruyi seemed to have a fishing line pulled out of her. She hunched over and spoke in a hoarse voice:

"Even if I am in the Ministry of Punishment, I must maintain my last bit of dignity."

Nanny Jingqi sneered, and someone grabbed Ruyi's hand and pulled the armor off.

"Dignity? Do you think you come to the Ministry of Punishment to be the emperor, the master? A criminal, a thing that killed his own mother, is not even a human being, how can he be decent!"

Nanny Jingqi put the armor into her pocket, then looked at Ruyi's hands waving around in confusion, and said with a sigh,

"Other ladies have hands as soft as catkins and long nails, so they wear armor to protect them. Your hands are thick, black, and short, and you don't even have long nails. What's the point of wearing armor?"

Ruyi was only wearing a gray-green inner garment at the moment, and her armor had been taken away. She felt that she had lost all protection and had nowhere to hide.

At this moment, she was as helpless as a peeled turtle and just wanted to hug herself.

But before she could get over her sadness, Aunt Jingqi's cane hit her calf with a "whoosh".

"Start pounding the rice! Do it harder and don't stop. If you stop for even a second, I'll whip you."

Ruyi gritted her teeth, picked up the stone hammer, and pounded the rice again and again.

After a few strokes, she lost her strength due to excessive bleeding, and the slightest pause would lead to a whipping.

She hated why she couldn't escape the undignified whipping even though she chose to pound rice.

It was dark and damp in the Ministry of Punishment, and soon Ruyi was sweating all over, causing her thin undergarment to stick to her body. The smell mixed with her blood made Nanny Jingqi feel dizzy.

The stone hammer was getting heavier and heavier, and Ruyi's arms were almost out of strength, but she couldn't stop for a moment.

Whenever Ruyi was about to faint, Nanny Jingqi would either pinch her or slap her to force her to wake up.

As a result, she hated Han Xiangjian even more. If Han Xiangjian hadn't made a big deal out of it, how could she have suffered so much.

She also hated her mother. Why did everyone say that she was the one who killed her mother? It was obviously because her mother refused to admit all her crimes that she was sent to such a dirty place like the Ministry of Punishment.

She thought of the emperor again. The emperor was so cold to her and did not care about their friendship in the past. He was so cruel to her, the victim, but did not blame Han Xiangjian, the perpetrator at all.

Ruyi gritted her teeth and pounded the mortar hard a few times.

That night, Ruyi had just stopped her work and leaned against the wall, enduring the pain all over her body, trying to close her eyes and take a nap.

Above their heads was a copper bell from the Ministry of Punishment. Serious criminals who could not bear the torture would ring the copper bell above their heads, and the ringing of the bell would signal their surrender.

This is the last line of defense for those who come in to be punished.

Anyone who rings the bell will either lose his life or his dignity.

In a trance, Ruyi heard two smart maids gathered together and talked about the people who had been tortured here before.

"The Queen is kind and lenient. The palace servants follow the palace rules and procedures. Unless someone steals, they will be punished at most. Fewer people come to the Ministry of Punishment."

"That's not true. But think about it, weren't the people who came to our Ministry of Punishment the most people back then the Yikun Palace's palace maids? Tsk tsk tsk tsk, their miserable conditions were truly, a sin."

Ruyi pouted her lips in disdain when she heard this conversation. She muttered softly,

"This is all Ah Ruo, Suo Xin, and Rong Pei's fault. Only Ling Yunche is innocent."

One of the maids was close by and frowned when she heard Ruyi's words.

If she remembered correctly, Concubine Xian was the Concubine Xian back then, which meant that those people just now were once Concubine Xian's personal maids.

It's really like the King of Hell calling on someone, whoever he calls can't escape.

The nearby Madam Jingqi spat fiercely.

"Bah! You are such a heartless person. I remember the first two people who came were both young girls. They were tortured beyond recognition. If it weren't for the death order from above, I wouldn't have the heart to interrogate them."

When Ruyi heard the angry curses from Nanny Jingqi, she wanted to refute, but thinking that she would continue to suffer under their hands, she had no choice but to endure it.

The other one also shook his head and said, "The one that impressed me the most was the third one. He was tortured with the board for half a month, but he didn't confess a single word. He was really loyal."

Ruyi couldn't bear it anymore. She felt that these two Jingqi maids had been deceived, and she wanted to make Jingqi maids recognize Rong Pei's true self.

"Madams, you are wrong. The Rong Pei you are talking about who was punished by being beaten with a board had long ago betrayed me and joined the Queen Mother. She even framed me many times. You sympathize with her, but you are wrong."

The two maids looked at each other. It turned out that the palace maid who was punished had already become a favorite of the Queen Mother.

"Bah! Aunt Rong Pei is not a traitor at all. She is a person who has turned from darkness to light. What good will it end for her to follow someone like you?"

Ruyi was speechless. Rong Pei did live a better life after leaving her, but she thought that this was selling out her master for personal gain.

So she turned her head away, and fell into a deep sleep, exhausted and damp from her sweat.

Nanny Jingqi looked at the sky and thought that letting Concubine Xian sleep for two hours was still too kind.

She swung the cane in her hand, "swoosh".

"It seems that Lady Xian is not only stubborn, but also stubborn. Tsk tsk tsk, it would be a pity for such a stubborn person not to work."

Ruyi was so exhausted that she had no strength to get up.

Nanny Jingqi looked at each other, picked up a basin of ice water that had been prepared long ago, and poured it on Ruyi's face.

Ruyi shuddered all over and was forced to get up and pound the rice again.

Enduring the extreme pain in her waist and lower abdomen, she dragged her shackles and stood weakly in front of the mortar, then picked up the stone hammer.

Ruyi's expression was distorted. It hurt, it really hurt. Every time she moved, her internal organs were twisted into a ball.

Cold sweat streamed down Ruyi's forehead as she mechanically repeated her previous actions.

Gradually, she felt dizzy and in a trance, A'ruo's hideous face and her mother's desperate face appeared alternately in front of her.

Ah Ruo covered her bloody forehead and mutilated face and asked, "Ruyi, how does it feel to be in the Ministry of Punishment?"

Her mother's face turned pale, she stared at her with empty eyes and scolded her, "Vicious, useless!"

The two men's voices were like a cocoon, wrapping her tightly.

She thought she was going to die.

She couldn't stay in the Ministry of Punishment any longer, she wanted to leave.

In the dark night, the wind blew on Ruyi's ankles, which had been worn out for a long time. She began to bleed from under her body again. She stretched out her hand with great effort and rang the copper bell above her head.

"Save me, I was wrong, I shouldn't have hurt Han Xiangjian, please, let me out..."

Ruyi knelt on the ground and kowtowed heavily towards the black wall.