Chapter 235

Forced to Confess (1)

After Zhou Yong died, those who fed him the poisoned wines could no longer stay calm. They participated in the killing of an aristocratic family member in front of so many witnesses. After all of this, it wouldn’t matter if the aristocratic families were alive or not, they had no chance of turning back now.

Mo Linyuan finally showed a grin. He glanced over at Ye Mu and saw that she was also glancing at him with a smirk. Of course the business tonight was still not over. This dinner banquet still had a long way to go.

After a short period, the last group finally arrived. Originally, they should have returned earlier, however they ran into an unexpected ambush near the end. They’d wrongly assumed that they wouldn’t have any reasons to be afraid because they had power in numbers. But unbenkownst to them, there was already a group hiding in the hunting grounds, who were all dressed as average commoners and knew the forest very well, prepared to ambush the families. Due to the fact that they were involved in the conflict, they arrived very late.

Originally, Chief Zhou had a bad premonition and wanted to send people ahead to complete the siege. But, the opponent once again blocked his plans and killed off those who were sent to siege. So, none of them had yet to return.

Suddenly, they heard a sharp whistle in the woods. Those who were blocking them rapidly retreated and disappeared. They hastily made their return and discovered hundreds of the officials were waiting for them. The expansive outdoor campus that could hold thousands of people was completely silent. The delicious smell of roasted meat and wine floated in the air. Although the ground was stained with blood, there no corpses were in sight.

The head of the Zhou family eventually rushed out. Wen Ze and the Wen family members also made their appearance exiting the woods. The girl who Mo Linyuan saved also arrived. She went up to Wen Ze, weeping endlessly while she recounted what happened. Wen Ze then glanced over at Mo Linyuan with a complicated expression.

“What is going on?” asked the Head of the Zhou family while he took a seat with a dozen of his people. Compared to the previous group that returned, they had even crueler smirks. He continued, “This was supposed to be a dinner party, how come the mood’s not festive at all?”

Mo Linyuan looked at him with a smile, “Chief Zhou seems to be crudely covered in blood. Could you have been wounded?”

The slightly chubby Chief Zhou shivered and laughingly replied, “Wasn’t this a night hunting event? It’s inevitable to have a few beasts with some blood splatters. It’s no problem at all.”

Those who were seated shuddered after hearing his words.

It’s no problem at all because the Wen and Zhou family returned. However, none of the Zhong family members returned.

The people who saw the two families didn’t say anything. The original 40 people that surrendered still had not fully resigned. Now, when they saw the two aristocratic families, they struggled to stand up. Surprisingly, they felt like they needed to rely on the emperor, which also didn’t seem like a good option.

Mo Linyuan asked again, “How come we still haven’t seen the head of the Zhong family. You two have such a close relationship, weren’t you guys walking together?”

Upon hearing this, Zhou Gu’s eyes grew a little anxious!

He shook his head, “How could we have a companion during this type of night hunting? What would we do if we accidentally harmed the other person? This official hasn’t seen him. They may have been delayed by an encounter!”

What delay? He was obviously dead! Everyone who was seated used to think the three big families were inseparable. Seeing the look in their eyes, a sudden shudder crawled down their spines. Indeed, there was no such thing as everlasting friendships, only passing benefits.

Seeing how the big families weren’t speaking, Chief Zhou coldly chuckled, “After speaking for so long, everyone should be hungry by now. Your Majesty, why don’t we start the banquet?”

Mo Linyuan replied, “No need to hurry.”

He suddenly signaled a servant to take out a small pile of notebooks. He softly flipped through the pages, the papers landing lightly like snowflakes falling onto land.

“Before starting the banquet, I still have some business to discuss.”