"What... what is this person talking about?"

People who arrived later were clueless about his great deeds and found Zhao Yin’s inexplicable utterances bewildering, but the words "The Emperor" were the only thing that struck fear into their hearts.

After all, they were just ordinary people, whereas the Emperor was considered the highest authority, unreachable to them.

"Who is this person, and why is he tied up here?"

The crowd pointed fingers at Zhao Yin.

The townsfolk who followed from the tavern tirelessly explained to everyone.

Only then did they realize that the case of the missing little kid from some time ago was orchestrated by this person behind the scenes, and suddenly, everyone was enraged. With no rotten eggs in hand, they picked up small stones from the ground and hurled them continuously at Zhao Yin.

"Kill you, kill you, you big villain! Tell us, where did my little kid go? Hand them over quickly!" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

The people present yelled and cursed while hitting him, their emotions spiraling out of control.

"Stop shouting and quickly go see if your little kid is amongst them," someone suggested sensibly.

A dozen or so malnourished little kids were laid out on the ground, surrounded by the crowd.

"Yes, yes, go check if my Baobao is there," a woman suddenly realized and hurriedly pushed through the crowd to check, but after looking, she couldn’t find her kid among them, and began crying loudly, wailing, "Why isn’t my little kid here? Where did they go?"

At this moment, Zhao Yin, beaten with small stones until his head was cracked and bleeding, burst into maniacal laughter at the woman, "If they’re not here, don’t bother looking, your little kid must have been sent to Western Heaven by me, hahaha..."

Of over a hundred insect people, only these few remain. If they’re not here, then they must be dead.

It’s said that public anger should not be provoked. Zhao Yin had always been a very clever person; otherwise, he wouldn’t be a favorite by the Emperor’s side. However, at this moment, his mind was in chaos due to the silver needles used by Xuexue, and he had no idea what he was doing, only repeating what Xuexue had taught him earlier.

Like a bolt from the blue, the woman slowly turned around, her eyes glaring at Zhao Yin as if she were about to devour him, and asked word by word, "What did you say, repeat it?"

Mindless Zhao Yin recklessly replied, "I was the one who killed your little kid, so what? You can’t blame me; only blame him for being too weak, dying as soon as the Gu insects touched him."

Woman: "Are you joking with me or speaking seriously?"

The townsfolk who followed from the tavern immediately chimed in, "It should be true; he’s been saying this all night, and earlier at the tavern, he said the same thing."

Zhao Yin’s self-destructive voice rang again, "I am a favorite by the Emperor’s side, too disdainful to joke with you!"

Zhao Yin repeated this matter over and over, and after hearing it so many times, some believed it to be true.

"Could it be you’re really Minister Zhao by the Emperor’s side?" someone in the crowd asked.

Zhao Yin: "That’s right, it’s me."

The speaker became furious: "As an Imperial Appointed Official, doing such heinous things and still acting so righteous? Where is justice?"

Zhao Yin smugly said, "The Emperor is justice; I am acting under orders."

As Zhao Yin finished speaking, he suddenly felt a heavy blow to the back of his head, and a gush of hot blood spurted out.

Zhao Yin slowly turned around and saw the woman glaring at him viciously, holding a large bloody stone in her hand.

"You...!"

"Thunk!"

Zhao Yin could only utter one word before collapsing to the ground, unconscious.