Captain Mengtu turned around and said,
"This transmigrator is called Su Ya. On the very first day she arrived, she boldly recited a poem in front of the soldiers at the city gates! Later, she even begged a eunuch to take her into the palace to meet the emperor, claiming that she wanted to become a concubine or even the empress!"
Captain Mengtu chuckled.
"Isn't it ridiculous? She didn't even know that Her Majesty is a woman, yet she wanted to enter the palace as a concubine. Where did she get such confidence?"
Qin Ming glanced back and saw that Su Ya was still kneeling on the ground, repeatedly pleading.
"Take me to the palace! I can surely please Her Majesty! I can definitely become a concubine! I've written many poems—have you even presented them to the emperor?"
Qin Ming shook his head.
This woman was clearly a typical "delicate princess" before transmigrating.
She must have watched too many fantasy dramas, thinking that writing poetry would win the emperor's favor and lead her to the pinnacle of womanhood.
Unfortunately, this world doesn't follow such clichéd scripts.
As they moved forward, Qin Ming saw another woman.
Her feet had been chopped off, and she was curled up in the corner, shivering!
Captain Mengtu spoke softly,
"That woman is Xia Xue. She's even more ridiculous. After entering the palace with a group of selected palace maids, she danced on the Yulin Bridge in the middle of a heavy snowfall, hoping to catch Her Majesty's attention.
But the Grand Princess saw her… and had her feet chopped off!"
Qin Ming: …|ʘᗝʘ|
Looking at Xia Xue's pale face, it was clear that she wouldn't survive much longer.
Moving forward, Qin Ming saw nearly thirty more transmigrators.
These people were much more rational than the two women earlier.
It seemed they had accepted reality.
Inside the prison cells, there were wooden tables, chairs, brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones.
These people were constantly writing something.
Captain Mengtu stopped in front of one particular cell.
Inside, a tall man dressed in a white shirt and jeans was holding a completed manuscript in both hands.
"Sir, I've finished writing the arithmetic formulas. Could I have some food now?"
Captain Mengtu took the manuscript, flipped through it, and, finding it uninteresting, casually tossed it to Qin Ming.
"Xiao Qin, the Grand Princess thinks you're clever. Learn their simplified script and knowledge so we can better deal with them."
Qin Ming glanced at the manuscript.
It was a multiplication and addition table using Arabic numerals.
Captain Mengtu called out into the distance,
"Give Prisoner No. 83 some food."
The man in jeans immediately knelt down in gratitude.
Qin Ming couldn't help but feel moved.
He had thought his life in the palace was already tough,
but these imprisoned transmigrators had it far worse.
What happened to their transmigrator abilities?
Were they stripped away?
Or had they simply not awakened?
...
Qin Ming followed Captain Mengtu and Captain Meiyang further ahead.
On one of the walls, shelves were filled with books.
All of them were written in simplified Chinese characters.
"The Complete Poems of Li Bai,"
"The Collected Works of Wang Wei,"
"The Art of Papermaking,"
"Fun Science Facts" …
Qin Ming was astonished.
"These were all written by them?"
"Of course. If they don't write every day, they don't get to eat."
Captain Meiyang pulled two books from the shelf.
"Xiao Qin, this is our Great Yan Kingdom's script. Compare it with their simplified characters and learn their language. Also…"
She grabbed another book.
"Study this one carefully and explain it to me once you understand it."
Qin Ming took the book and glanced at the title.
"A Golden Dragon Should Not Be Trapped in a Pond."
Holy sh*t! Which transmigrator wrote this?!
This is insane!
What's even crazier is that this transmigrator was a genius!
Not only did they write text,
but on the back of each chapter, they also sketched illustrations!
The characters' movements and expressions were vividly lifelike!
A true talent!
...
Captain Mengtu and Captain Meiyang left to handle other matters.
Qin Ming was left alone at the bookshelf.
He knew he had to be cautious and not appear too familiar with the text.
The first thing he reached out to open was the traditional Chinese characters of Dayan Kingdom.
The script of this era had never appeared in any dynasty of Huaxia.
Its structure was square and neat, aesthetically comparable to the Qin Dynasty's Xiaozhuan script.
Qin Ming flipped through a small booklet.
Inside, there were around a hundred simplified and traditional Chinese character comparisons.
It seemed to be written by Jingxiang.
Using this booklet as a reference, Qin Ming quickly deduced the rules of the characters.
In about two hours,
he had worked out nearly two hundred traditional Chinese characters.
Of course, he only wrote down twenty in the booklet—
the rest he memorized.
Just then,
a series of gut-wrenching screams echoed through the air.
One after another!
Qin Ming lost the mood to continue studying.
He simply put the booklet away and walked toward the depths of the prison.
Half a quarter of an hour later,
he found the source of the screams.
Captain Mengtu and Captain Meiyang were interrogating a transmigrator.
The transmigrator was an old man,
dressed in a tattered suit,
his body covered in wounds.
The usually seductive Captain Meiyang now looked like a vicious demon,
ruthlessly torturing the old man.
She held a red-hot branding iron and stepped toward him.
"Speak! Where is the transmigrators' base?
Why did you cross into our Great Yan Kingdom?"
The old man's bloodshot eyes glared fiercely.
He remained silent.
Meiyang's chest heaved in anger.
Frustrated, she pressed the scorching iron against his chest.
"Sizzle—"
A plume of smoke rose.
The smell of burning flesh filled the air.
"Are you going to talk or not?!"
The old man was stubborn.
He still refused to utter a word.
By chance, Qin Ming noticed something written in English at the foot of the wall:
"Look the door" (Watch the door).
Feigning curiosity, he glanced around,
his peripheral vision scanning the prison door.
In the corner of the cell gate, another line was engraved:
"Look at the top" (Look above).
Qin Ming grew puzzled.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to him,
he pretended to look around again,
this time subtly glancing at the ceiling of the prison cell.
Nothing.
But at that moment,
the old man, who had been silent all along, suddenly noticed Qin Ming's movements.
A strange gleam flashed in his bloodied eyes.
Out of nowhere, he burst into laughter.
"Hahaha!"
His hoarse voice echoed in the chamber.
Mengtu and Meiyang frowned, confused.
"What are you laughing at?"
The old man's lips curled into a twisted grin.
"Do you know what I, Mu Sizhe, have hated most in my life?"
Mengtu and Meiyang exchanged a glance,
their expressions wary.
"What?"
"Women!" Mu Sizhe's face contorted with hatred.
"I was ruined by a woman! The thing I despise the most in this life… is women!
You two bitches trying to interrogate me?
Even if you kill me, I won't talk!
Go on! Kill me if you dare!"
Mengtu and Meiyang exchanged glances.
This Mu Sizhe had been captured for a whole month.
Until now, he hadn't spoken a single word.
And the reason was this?
As they looked up, they saw Qin Ming standing at the doorway.
"Xiao Qinzi, you're just in time."
Meiyang stepped forward, a seductive smile playing at the corner of her lips.
"Come, do your sister a favor—interrogate this transmigrator.
Ask him where the others are hiding, and why he came here."
At this moment, Qin Ming had already pieced things together.
Mu Sizhe had carved English words in the corner, directing attention to the door.
Then, on the door, he'd carved more English words, pointing toward the ceiling.
This was clearly a test to identify other transmigrators.
A native of this world wouldn't be fluent in English.
Mu Sizhe had obviously noticed that Qin Ming could understand English.
That's why he deliberately made that statement—
demanding a man to interrogate him.
But Qin Ming was no fool.
If he agreed too quickly, it would definitely raise suspicion.
He immediately waved his hands.
"No, no, no! Sisters, I just came here to study writing.
This isn't something I can do—I'm not even a Demon Guard yet!"
Saying that, he turned to leave.
Whoosh!
In a flash, the voluptuous Meiyang moved in front of him.
She stretched out her arms—
her ample chest nearly bouncing into him.
"Just help me out, okay? I'll put in a good word for you with the Grand Princess."
"But I've never done this kind of thing before."
"Never done it doesn't mean you can't do it."
Meiyang's alluring eyes blinked at him playfully.
"Everyone has a first time, don't they? Don't be nervous~"
Qin Ming: (⊙o⊙)