Chapter 558 - 560: Treating Burns
"How did the fire start?" Pei Huaian glanced around the room, sensing it shouldn’t have ignited such a fierce blaze.
Even if a fire did start, how could it not be extinguished? Unless there was something within the flames that made it burn even more intensely, like saltpeter and sulfur.
Ah Mo called over a servant boy to ask, to which the boy stuttered, "It, it...it was the Second Prince’s Consort."
"The Second Prince’s Consort?" It was then that Pei Huaian remembered Jiang Zhou, someone he had neglected before.
"Why would she set the room on fire?" If Jiang Zhou was responsible, then she must have been resolved to die.
Moreover, Pei Chengye must have been drugged by her; otherwise, even if Jiang Zhou wanted to drag him down with her, he would have surely fought back fiercely and escaped, instead of waiting to be consumed by the fire.
The servant boy’s eyes darted about, and he stammered, "Th-this, I, I really don’t know."
Pei Huaian observed his demeanor; it didn’t seem as if he was ignorant but rather as if he was intentionally concealing something.
"Speak! What exactly happened?" Pei Huaian commanded sternly.
The servant boy was so frightened that he immediately knelt and kowtowed, trembling as he explained the whole story.
"After the Second Prince was imprisoned, he was in a very bad mood. One time, after drinking, he beat the Prince’s Consort, and afterwards, his treatment of her grew even more severe."
"He even locked the Prince’s Consort in the woodshed, and he would beat her cruelly for even the slightest disobedience."