Chapter 594 Gao Hui’s “Afternoon Tea”!
"It's very simple!" Lin Hao smiled slightly, and then said: "Let's draw lots!"

"I'll have someone fetch some papers with various punishments written on them. There's one blank piece of paper left. If you draw the blank piece of paper, I'll release Ouyang Xu!"

"Of course, if you draw a punishment, then use that punishment on Ouyang Xu!"

"What?" Lin Hao's smile looked like a devil in Gao Hui's eyes.

Is this playing a game? It's like playing with Ouyang Xu's life. It's totally unscrupulous.

Gao Hui wanted to refuse, but before she could open her mouth, she heard Lin Hao say:
"Of course, you can refuse, but you have to think clearly. If you refuse, he will lose his only chance of survival!"

"How about it? Do you want to give it a try?"

Lin Hao has said so much, does Gao Hui still have room to refuse?
If he refused, Ouyang Xu would surely die, but if he agreed, Ouyang Xu would at least have a glimmer of hope. What if he was lucky?

"Okay, I promise you." Faced with this situation, Gao Hui actually had no more choices. After a moment's silence, she said, "But I have to write the note. I'm afraid you'll cheat!"

"Haha, no problem!" Lin Hao readily agreed, and then ordered his men: "Come here, get some pens, ink, paper, and inkstone."

After that, the two of them did not speak again. The room was silent, with only Ouyang Xu's voice coming from a distance:
"Hui Niang, are you still there?"

"Hui Niang, save me~!"

Ouyang Xu thought that this time he was in great danger, but he didn't expect that Gao Hui would come to find him.

His heart was about to sink to the bottom, but when he saw Gao Hui, his desire to survive was ignited once again.

He thought Gao Hui would come to save him, but he had been shouting for so long and Gao Hui didn't respond at all, which made him very anxious.

"Don't worry, Ouyang. I won't let anything happen to you." Gao Hui came to the door of the cell and comforted Ouyang Xu.

"I believe in you, Comet~!"

Ouyang Xu originally wanted to say a few sweet words to increase his weight in Gao Hui's heart so that Gao Hui would try her best to save him.

As a result, Gao Hui said nothing and played games with Lin Hao.

There was no way. If Ouyang Xu didn’t play games with Lin Hao, he would be dead.

······
At this time, someone had already brought in pens and ink, and moved in tables and chairs.

Lin Hao and Gao Hui sat down, then Lin Hao read out a punishment and Gao Hui wrote it on paper.

"Dismember and chop up!"

"Cut off the limbs!
"Sit on the nail and stand on the nail!"

"Hook the back and brand the tendons!"

"Light the sky lantern!"

"..."

At this time, Gao Hui listened to the punishment read out by Lin Hao, and the hand holding the brush trembled constantly, and then said angrily:

"Wait, why are they all so scary? Once this punishment is used, I'm afraid there will be no way to survive! Doesn't the Imperial City Bureau have other lighter punishments?"

Lin Hao pondered for a moment, thought about it, and said sympathetically:
"Forget it, let's try the simplest one, how about dismemberment by five horses?"

Gao Hui's breathing stagnated. She didn't expect Lin Hao to be so cruel. It would be better to just behead him at the Meridian Gate?

No wonder the princes and ministers in the court were all petitioning the emperor to abolish the Imperial City Administration.

"Can't you be a little gentler?" Gao Hui asked pitifully.

"How light do you want it to be?" Lin Hao looked Gao Hui up and down.

For some reason, the more humble Gao Hui acted, the more excited Lin Hao became.

Gao Hui shook her head and said:

"Can you please not let Ouyang get hurt?"

Finally, after Gao Hui's repeated requests, Lin Hao agreed to add a few non-lethal punishments, such as ten military sticks, ten whips, and the like.

In fact, Gao Hui was overthinking it. You must know that Lin Hao's arrest of Ouyang Xu was illegal in itself. He brought Ouyang Xu to the Imperial City Division under the pretext of investigating the case of the Queen's prophecy.

Moreover, Ouyang Xu was the third place in the imperial examination, so Lin Hao could not execute him at will. This was just Lin Hao trying to scare Gao Hui and achieve his own goals.

Lin Hao crumpled all the notes into a ball and put them into a box, then shook it twice and placed it in front of Gao Hui.

"Pick one!" Lin Hao said with a smile.

"I" Gao Hui hesitated for a moment and pointed to a ball of paper: "I choose this!"

"Are you sure?" Lin Hao raised his eyebrows and said meaningfully.

For Lin Hao, relying on his photographic memory, he can easily remember the appearance of each paper ball and know what is written inside the paper ball.

However, he did not expect that Gao Hui would be so unlucky and choose to be torn into pieces by five horses.

But Lin Hao just wanted to scare Gao Hui. The first punishment was so severe that there would be no fun afterwards.

It would be best to use a simple punishment first to let her see her determination, and then she can achieve her wish.

In fact, Ouyang Xu is just a bonus in this game, and Lin Hao's real intention is naturally not to play the game.

Even if Gao Hui chooses Baizhi this time, Lin Hao will release Ouyang Xu as promised. After all, Lin Hao has plenty of opportunities to punish Ouyang Xu and is not in a hurry.

Sure enough, after looking at Lin Hao's expression, Gao Hui hesitated for a while, and then said:

"Wait, let's choose this one."

Gao Hui gritted her teeth and chose another piece of paper with the words "light a sky lantern" written on it.

"Have you made your choice this time?" Lin Hao raised his lips to smile.

"Wait a minute!" Seeing Lin Hao's expression and Lin Hao's question, Gao Hui hesitated again.

After all, this concerns Ouyang Xu's life, so she had to be cautious. Gao Hui then chose another paper ball, and then looked at Lin Hao's expression, trying to analyze which paper ball was white.

In a blink of an eye, Gao Hui had almost chosen all the dozen or so paper balls, but she was still hesitant.

The patient Lin Hao was speechless, and then he pointed at a ball of paper and said casually:
"If you don't choose, I'll choose for you!"

Looking at the paper ball that Lin Hao was pointing at, Gao Hui naturally saw it as well. For some reason, Gao Hui felt that Lin Hao was helping her.

But she didn't know whether she should trust Lin Hao. What if, what if Lin Hao deliberately asked her to choose a death sentence?

"Wait!" Gao Hui hesitated for a while, thinking that since Lin Hao had captured Ouyang Xu, he would definitely not let him go easily, so she pointed at another paper ball and said:
"I choose this one and I won't change it this time!"

This time, Lin Hao didn't waste any words. He directly opened the paper ball under Gao Hui's nervous gaze and said, "Ten lashes!"

"Huh~!" Gao Hui breathed a sigh of relief when she heard that. Although she failed to save Ouyang Xu, compared with other tortures, being whipped ten times was still acceptable.

At this time, Lin Hao picked up the paper ball he had given him at the beginning, opened it, and placed it in front of Gao Hui and said:

"What a pity! The correct answer is right in front of us, but we don't know how to cherish it!"

Gao Hui's face immediately turned grim upon seeing this, and she regretted it deeply in her heart. If she had followed Lin Hao's instructions and chosen the white paper ball, Ouyang Xu would have been released immediately.

At this time, Lin Hao approached Gao Hui with a smile on his face, and then whispered in her ear:

"Actually, if you want to save Ouyang Xu, there are ways. It just depends on whether you are willing to do so."

"Don't even think about it!" Gao Hui blushed immediately after hearing what Lin Hao said in her ear, and directly rejected Lin Hao's proposal.

Lin Hao knew that Gao Hui was still unwilling to give up, so he shrugged indifferently and then ordered his men:
"Someone, give Ouyang Xu ten whips!"

Immediately afterwards, Ouyang Xu's pig-slaughtering screams were heard from the cell.

"What are you doing?"

"I am the third place winner of this year's imperial examination, and my fiancée is the only daughter of Observer Gao. How dare you torture me~!"

"Pa~pa~pa~!" The guards didn't care whether you were a top scholar or not, and whipped Ouyang Xu hard with the whip.

"Ah~, stop hitting me, stop hitting me!" Ouyang Xu begged for mercy and wailed, "My dear officers, I will confess to anything you ask me, stop hitting me, ah~!"

Listening to Ouyang Xu's wailing and begging for mercy, Lin Hao exclaimed:

"Tsk tsk, your fiancé is really strong-willed!"

Gao Hui looked at Lin Hao with a dark face. In fact, she also felt that Ouyang Xu was a little embarrassing. It was just ten whips, which was better than being torn apart by five horses, right?
Although she thought so in her heart, she still tried her best to defend Ouyang Xu:
"Ouyang is a scholar, not a rough soldier. How can he withstand this?"

"What a great scholar." Lin Hao said sarcastically, and continued: "Then let's continue the game and see what the fate of this great scholar will be."

"Still, continue?" Gao Hui was stunned when she heard Lin Hao say that he wanted to continue.

Then Gao Hui said angrily:
"No, if we continue playing like this, won't Ouyang be finished sooner or later?"

"Haha, the opportunity is right in front of you. It depends on whether you are willing to save him!" Lin Hao said with a dangerous smile on his face:
"If you don't play with me, then I can only entertain myself. Help Master Ouyang choose a punishment. What do you think of this back hook and tendon branding?"

At this time, Ouyang Xu had already finished the ten whips, and he was in so much pain that even his screams were barely audible.

Gao Hui knew that she didn't have much time left, so she gritted her teeth and said, "Okay, I promise you!"

After hesitating for a while, he had no choice but to continue playing with Lin Hao. He was afraid that Lin Hao would really kill Ouyang.

So Lin Hao pinched all the paper balls again and poured them in front of Gao Hui in the same way as before.

This time Lin Hao did not give her any hints, and her luck seemed to have been used up in the previous round. After picking out a ball of paper, she immediately exclaimed.

"Ah~!" Gao Huiwen covered her mouth, her little face turned pale. After all, she failed to save Ouyang Xu and executed him in such a cruel way.

Lin Hao glanced at the words written on the note, and then said with regret:
"Hey, light the sky lantern! Ouyang Xu is doomed this time!"

Then Lin Hao excitedly said to the guard:

"Come here, prepare the burlap packages, oil tanks, wooden poles..."

"Do you know what lighting a sky lantern means?" Lin Hao said to the horrified Gao Hui:
"It's very simple to light a sky lantern. All you have to do is strip the prisoner naked, wrap him in linen, and soak him in an oil tank. At night, tie him upside down to a tall wooden pole and light him on fire from the feet!
"Tsk tsk! Do you know the name of the last celebrity who used this criminal law?" Lin Hao said with a click of the tongue:
"Call Dong Zhuo!"

There are three famous people in history who have been burned to death, the first one was Dong Zhuo.

Because Dong Zhuo used all means, played power games, trampled on the law, destroyed the economy, and harmed the people, he caused extreme chaos in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and accelerated and promoted the decline of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

At the same time, there were various perverse measures, such as gouging out the eyes of captured soldiers, cutting off their tongues, chopping off their hands and feet, and boiling them in a pot of hot water during banquets, and then pouring their blood into wine and drinking it together.

Dong Zhuo's crimes were so numerous that they could not be counted. Later, he was eliminated by Prime Minister Wang Yun through Lu Bu. The people hated this cruel and merciless guy so much that they dragged his body to the street and set it on fire!

The second celebrity is Song Huizong, the eighth emperor of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Ji.

After the "Jingkang Incident", Song Huizong was captured by the Jin people. When Song Huizong wanted to commit suicide, he was stopped by Song Qinzong and eventually died of illness on the kang.

Finally, the Jin people placed Song Huizong's body on a stone pit and burned it, and boiled him into lamp oil.

The third one was a woman. After the victory of the Taiping Rebellion, Zhu Jiumei was not only talented but also stunningly beautiful.

She was favored by Yang Xiuqing, who already had 66 wives and wanted to make her his concubine. However, Zhu Jiumei strongly resisted and refused to obey even at death.

In the end, Zhu Jiumei was burned to death by Yang Xiuqing on false charges, and she was the only person to be burned to death while still alive.

Hearing this, Gao Hui's smiling face turned pale. The thought of Ouyang Xu being set on fire like a torch made Gao Hui shudder at the thought.

"No~!" Gao Hui grabbed Lin Hao's arm, knelt down in front of Lin Hao and begged:

"Marquis Jing'an, please let Ouyang go, okay? If you have any anger, come to me!"

As Gao Hui spoke, she knelt down and kowtowed to Lin Hao.

"Oh~!" Lin Hao looked at Gao Hui with melancholy, and thought of Zhao Paner, who was also willing to give her heart to Ouyang Xu.

I don’t know whether Ouyang Xu has a talent for deceiving women, or whether the women in ancient times have never seen the world and are too easy to deceive.

The same is true for Song Yinzhang. They both have a love-brained mind and no one can persuade them to stop. They will not give up until they are beaten to a bloody pulp.

And it is not so easy for Lin Hao to accept Gao Hui who is totally devoted to Ouyang Xu, especially since Gao Hui, like Song Yinzhang, has an extra love brain.

If you want to change their minds, you must take drastic measures, or they will not change their minds.

For example, Song Yinzhang, if Lin Hao had not planned it in advance, she would have definitely been cheated of her money and her sex by Zhou She.

Gao Hui loves Ouyang Xu so much that she doesn't even listen to her father. If she is not given some drastic measures, she will definitely not give up Ouyang Xu.

Thinking of this, Lin Hao smiled and said:

"I'm willing to admit defeat. Miss Gao, this makes me very embarrassed!"

"Woo woo~, I made a bet with you. It has nothing to do with Ouyang. If you want to punish someone, just punish me." Gao Hui cried.

"Ah~!" Lin Hao sighed when he heard this, stood up and walked in front of Gao Hui, looking down at her and said:
"I have always been soft-hearted. I hate to see women cry!"

"In fact, it's not impossible to exempt Ouyang Xu from punishment!"

"Really?" Gao Hui was delighted when she heard that, and immediately looked at Lin Hao with tears in her eyes, her eyes full of pleading.

"Of course it's true!" Lin Hao smiled mysteriously at first, but then changed the subject:

"But I am very angry right now. Miss Gao, what do you think I should do to calm down?"

Gao Hui was stunned when she heard this, and immediately remembered what Lin Hao said in her ear when he whipped Ouyang Xu ten times last time. She suddenly felt her face burning.

Lin Hao did not wait for Gao Hui to answer. He lifted her chin and continued:
"I can guarantee that what happened today is known only to you, me, and God. It will never be known to a third person!"

"After you leave the Imperial City Division, you will still be the pure and innocent eldest daughter of the Gao family!"

"And in the near future, you will marry your Mr. Ouyang in glory and become your wife who won the third place in the imperial examination!"

Hearing this, Gao Hui fell silent, but Lin Hao's words seemed to have some kind of magic, constantly lingering in Gao Hui's mind.

If she didn't agree, Ouyang would surely die, and she couldn't just watch Ouyang die.

If she agreed, no one would know what happened today anyway, and she had not lost her virginity, so it would not affect her marriage to Ouyang Xu, and it would not cause any trouble to her future life.

Therefore, in order to save Ouyang Xu, Gao Hui unconsciously compromised with Lin Hao:

"I promise you!"

"Haha, what a wise choice!" Lin Hao was very happy when he heard that.

Then Gao Hui knelt in front of Lin Hao...!

"Ugh!" After a long while, Gao Hui felt a nauseous feeling coming over her, and her stomach felt churning.

"Don't vomit!" Lin Hao handed a cup of tea to Gao Hui, then said with a stern face:

"This is the afternoon tea that I carefully prepared for you. If you spit it out, wouldn't it be a waste of my kindness?"

"Hmm~!" Gao Hui puffed up her cheeks and stared at Lin Hao, her beautiful eyes full of murderous intent.

Finally, Gao Hui hummed vaguely, and finally her throat moved, and she had to swallow the nutritious tea that Lin Hao had carefully prepared for her.

"That's good!" Lin Hao laughed and patted Gao Hui's little head in appreciation.

"Take your dirty hands away!" Gao Hui dodged to the side, avoiding Lin Hao's big hand, and stared at Lin Hao with a cold face.

Lin Hao's action of touching her head was like stroking his own pet, which made Gao Hui feel strongly ashamed.

"Can we release Ouyang now?" Gao Hui then stared at Lin Hao and asked.

"That won't do!" Lin Hao said with a smile.

"You, you lied to me?" Gao Hui's face changed.

"When did I lie to you?" Lin Hao straightened his clothes and said to Gao Hui with a smile:
"I did promise that as long as you draw a blank piece of paper, I will let Ouyang Xu go!

"But the problem is that you didn't draw a blank piece of paper, and you just helped me put out the fire, but you only helped Ouyang Xu avoid the punishment of lighting a sky lantern!"

"But I won't go back on my promise. As I said before, if you want to let Ouyang Xu go, you have to wait until you draw a blank paper!"

"You~!" Gao Hui wanted to refute something, but then thought about what Lin Hao had said before. He did not directly agree to release the person, but he could only leave if he drew a white paper.

Thinking of this, Gao Hui became furious and stared at Lin Hao without saying a word.

"Okay, today's game ends here!" Then Lin Hao turned around and said comfortably:
"Someone, take Miss Gao back home and treat her to delicious food and drinks. Don't let Miss Gao suffer any injustice!"

"Also, use the best medicine to treat Ouyang Xu. Don't let him die!"

"Let's continue tomorrow, hahaha~!" After saying that, Lin Hao left laughing.

However, Lin Hao did not leave directly, but went to Zhao Paner's room.

Lin Hao planned to take Zhao Pan'er home. After all, Zhao Pan'er was hostile to the Imperial City Bureau, and he couldn't let her stay here for long.

(End of this chapter)