Chapter 3 Heartbreaking Past
The autumn colors outside the window grow stronger day by day, and the sycamore leaves in the courtyard have already fallen to the ground.
Looking at the desolate, withered yellow leaves, Lu Zhaoxue felt her heart sinking lower and lower each day, as if she were about to wither away along with these leaves.
Half a month passed like this, until one day at noon, a commotion suddenly came from outside Lu Zhaoxue's courtyard gate.
"Lu Zhaoxue, come out quickly to receive the imperial decree!"
The bright yellow imperial edict, carried by a high-pitched eunuch, followed the servants of the Lu family through the halls and courtyards, and stopped directly outside Lu Zhaoxue's courtyard gate.
Upon hearing this voice, Lu Zhaoxue struggled to sit up, then pushed open the door, slowly knelt down, and bowed to receive the imperial decree.
As she emerged, the eunuch cleared his throat slightly, his shrill voice piercing the silence of the courtyard: "By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees—"
"Lu Zhaoxue, as a subject's daughter, has behaved improperly and has brought chaos to the royal family."
"However, considering that General Lu has rendered meritorious service to the country in his early years, and that Lu Zhaoxue once had the name of a marriage bestowed by my imperial decree, I hereby arrange for her to marry the deposed Crown Prince Chu Siheng. Five days later, she will move to the Eastern Palace and be imprisoned together with the deposed Crown Prince."
"So be it."
These few words chilled Lu Zhaoxue to the bone. She stared blankly at the imperial edict, then took it with trembling hands, her heart filled with mixed emotions.
This was hardly a blessing; it was clearly nailing her to the pillar of shame for "infidelity," condemning her to this stigma for eternity.
Emperor Mingwu's imperial edict was merely the final straw that broke the camel's back for the Lu family...
Soon, punishment followed.
Lu's father was accused of "failing to properly educate his daughter," and Emperor Mingwu issued an imperial edict of exile, banishing him to the desolate southern frontier.
That place is remote and treacherous, shrouded in miasma; most ordinary people who go there do not survive.
The day Lu's father left the capital, it was still dark.
He stood in front of Lu Zhaoxue's door, looking at his daughter's tightly closed room, his eyes filled with heartache and helplessness. After a long while, Lu's father finally did not dare to go in and look at his daughter again.
Father Lu knew that this departure would be a final farewell! Serving a ruler is like serving a tiger; in the end, he had implicated his daughter!
The journey to the southern border was long and arduous, and coupled with the deep-seated resentment in Lu's father's heart, he suffered a stroke halfway through the journey and passed away suddenly.
When the news reached the Lu family, Lu's mother fainted on the spot.
The younger sister, Lu Zhaoxing, was engaged to Pei Yuanzheng, her childhood sweetheart, in a marriage that was considered a good match.
But ever since Lu Zhaoxue's incident, the Pei family has broken off the engagement, showing no regard for their past relationship.
After that day, Lu Zhaoxing, who used to be talkative and cheerful with a bright smile, was no longer the lively person she once was.
Lu Zhaoxing stopped going out and rarely spoke, spending his days huddled in his room, even his eyes becoming timid.
Unable to bear this series of blows, Lu's mother wept day and night, fell ill for a long time, and eventually followed Lu's father in death.
[PS: Lu's parents didn't die, and his younger sister is happy later on. This plot point is foreshadowing for later events!]
In just a few months, the once harmonious and happy Lu family has fallen into such a state of disarray.
Lu Zhaoxue lay on the cold bed, gazing at the increasingly desolate scene outside the window, her heart filled with despair.
It's her, it's all because of her...
If she hadn't misjudged people and mistakenly believed Chu Huaiyu's sweet words, the Lu family wouldn't have ended up in this situation! Chu Siheng wouldn't have fallen from his position as crown prince and become a prisoner.
All this suffering was caused by her; boundless regret and despair overwhelmed Lu Zhaoxue like a tidal wave.
She gripped the blankets beneath her, her chest aching more and more.
"No--!"
Lu Zhaoxue suddenly woke up from the nightmare, her body covered in cold sweat, her hair sticky to her forehead, and a suffocating pain came from her chest.
"Zhaoxue, did you have another nightmare?"
A gentle voice rang in Lu Zhaoxue's ears, filled with deep concern. Chu Siheng couldn't help but cough softly a few times.
A sickly flush quickly rose on Chu Siheng's pale face. After his cough subsided, Chu Siheng reached out and took Lu Zhaoxue's hand.
The warmth from Chu Siheng's palm seeped through the thin fabric of her clothes, like a faint light that helped Lu Zhaoxue dispel some of the chill brought by the nightmare.
Lu Zhaoxue had just escaped from that bone-chilling despair, her long eyelashes still glistening with tears, and her body was still trembling.
After a long while, Lu Zhaoxue raised her eyes and met Chu Siheng's gaze. Chu Siheng's eyes were still gentle, hiding an unyielding pity, like a deep pool, gently enveloping all her embarrassment and wretchedness.
Lu Zhaoxue swallowed back the words that were on the tip of her tongue.
She opened her lips, a thousand words stuck in her throat—guilt, regret, and unspeakable bitterness—but in the end, they all turned into a silent sigh.
Lu Zhaoxue lowered her head in shame, letting her falling hair cover her cheeks and conceal the complex emotions churning in her eyes.
Those heavy memories of the past, those unspeakable guilts—Lu Zhaoxue didn't know how to tell Chu Siheng, or even where to begin…
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