Chapter 868 I don’t like his eyes
Tang Ning said with a half-smile: "Is it that the lives of the Lu family are too worthless, or is it that your Lu family has always been cruel and ruthless? The lives of more than a thousand people, the blood debt of your closest relatives and elders, and the entire Lu family's century-long heritage are not worth your inherently lowly and spineless character."
"Lu Zhinian destroyed the Lu family, and you still let him drive you around?"
She paused and smiled.
"Oh, that's not right. Perhaps Lord Lu Erlang is gritting his teeth and lying dormant before his enemy, patiently waiting for the right moment. He decided to sacrifice the lives of over a thousand of his clansmen for now. When you succeed, you'll use his influence to seize power and then kill Lu Zhinian. You'll carry his head as a memorial to those of your clansmen who died for the Lu family's cause."
"Just like how the Lu family had a way out, Lu Chongyuan sacrificed his own life to ensure the survival of his clan members, and the death of all his direct descendants in exchange for a future for the Lu family's side branches for three generations. However, due to your own ambition, you led the Lu family into a desperate situation, attempting to lead the remaining Lu family members to seize power and become emperor as a bastard. In the end, you destroyed the entire Lu family, and paved your own future with the blood of the Lu family."
Tang Ning sat in the carriage, and her eyes fell on Lu Jiuan when she lifted the curtain with her bare hands.
That was the gaze of a superior, looking at the people on the ground as if they were ants. Although there was a faint smile on his face, every word he spoke was like a poisoned blade, which could peel off the flesh, crush the bones, and smash his self-righteous pride to pieces.
"Shut up! Shut up!!"
Lu Jiuan was forced by Geng Ji to kneel on the ground, with the bones in both legs shattered.
His entire face was almost pressed against the ground, but he still raised his head and stared at Tang Ning, his eyes looking as if he wanted to suck her blood and devour her flesh.
"It was you, it was you and Xiao Yan who pushed the Lu family into despair. It was you who plotted against Grandfather to leave the Lu family no chance of survival. I just wanted to find a way out for the Lu family. What have I done wrong?"
"Is it to save the Lu family, or is it to satisfy your own ambition to sacrifice the lives of the Lu family members?"
Tang Ning's eyes were calm, less sharp than before, but her words still stung Lu Jiuan's face so much that it turned pale.
"Lu Chongyuan is a tyrant who will do anything to protect the Lu family, but he also considers it his responsibility to protect the entire Lu family."
"If Lu Zhinian hadn't dragged us down, even my brother wouldn't have been able to do anything to the Lu family. After Lu Zhinian disappeared, he chose you when the Lu family had no other options. He also sacrificed himself and everyone in his direct lineage to protect the rest of the Lu family."
"He openly risked his own life to buy the Lu family a glimmer of hope, and you are the help he left behind to secretly support the Lu family's resurgence. After your rebellion with Prince Pingshan failed, I don't believe Lu Chongyuan didn't warn you before he was imprisoned."
Tang Ning spoke with great certainty, while Lu Jiuan lay on the ground with an extremely bleak face. He even looked up at the man on the carriage with eyes that seemed to see through everything, a little unwillingly.
When he left the capital with all the secret forces of the Lu family, he initially wanted to try his best to find a way out for the Lu family. His grandfather gave him all the connections of the Lu family and the foundation accumulated by the family over the years, so that he had the confidence to cooperate with King Pingshan.
But later, changes occurred in the capital, and the situation in the court took a sharp turn for the worse. The Lu family had already fallen into someone else's trap. When Prince Pingshan's attempt to rebel was exposed, the fact that he had left the capital for refuge was also revealed to everyone. When my grandfather realized that something was wrong, he sent a message to him to ask him to stop in time.
That letter was the last letter his grandfather wrote to him. In it, his grandfather said that he would try his best in the capital, and if he failed, he would surely die.
Lu Jiuan still remembers what was written in the letter.
"If I die, the entire direct lineage will perish. Emperor An will not tolerate the Lu family in order to conceal the truth of that year. However, if Xiao Yan is related to the He family, then this will be the only way for the Lu family to survive."
"No matter who ultimately wins in the capital, I will do everything in my power to protect the lives of the Lu family's branch members. I am now handing over to Erlang all the spies and assassins the Lu family has hidden for years, as well as the silver, money, and jewelry, and all the backup plans we have accumulated in our early years of worrying about the Lu family's future. I hope Erlang will endure the humiliation for a while, protect the Lu family's bloodline, and plan for a future revival."
My grandfather had already realized that the situation was hopeless that day. In his letter, he repeatedly reminded me not to seek temporary gains, and asked me to immediately abandon the cooperation with King Pingshan and lie dormant with the remaining members of the Lu family.
He spoke earnestly and softly, saying that Xiao Yan's identity was different, and that the revelation of the He family's past was only the beginning of chaos. He said that the aristocratic families' short-sighted abandonment of the Lu family seemed to be a desperate attempt to survive, but in fact it was sending all of them into the quagmire. He told him not to bother with those people, but just to watch secretly and guard the only remaining bloodline of the Lu family. As long as time passes, the Lu family will surely rise in the future.
My grandfather had calculated everything, even predicting that Xiao Yan was targeting more than just the He family, and that the aristocratic family would decline and Emperor An would be defeated.
If he had followed his grandfather's instructions and stopped in time, and moved all the power in his hands into the dark, he would have been able to protect the remaining members of the Lu family and maintain the confidence for the Lu family's future rise. However, at that time, he was already bloodthirsty.
He refused to give up, feeling that he still had the strength to fight back. He knew that Lu Zhinian had caused the Lu family to be destroyed, but he still secretly conspired with him and King Pingshan to set up a trap in Lucheng and Pingyang County in order to kill Xiao Yan and then assassinate the court generals. He brought out all the Lu family's hidden people, but ended up falling into the trap and ruining the retreat his grandfather left for the Lu family.
Lu Jiuan kept saying that he wanted to avenge Lu Chongyuan and turn things around for the Lu family.
But only he himself knew that he was just unwilling to accept it.
He was unwilling to accept that the throne of the emperor was right in front of him but he could not get it. He was also unwilling to accept that he had been hidden in the dark for many years and was carefully cultivated by Lu Chongyuan. He and Lu Zhinian should have become the pillars of the Lu family, one in the open and the other in the secret, and inherited everything from Lu Chongyuan and continued to control the court in the capital and make decisions with great power. However, he ended up hiding his identity and never seeing the light of day for the rest of his life.
At that time, the hatred for the Lu family only occupied three points in his heart, and the remaining seven points were all his arrogance and his ambition to disappear from the world and not be inferior to others.
Lu Jiuan made one wrong step after another. From the moment he received Lu Zhinian's letter again and agreed to conspire with him, he had already rebelled against Lu Chongyuan and the Lu family. He had thought that King Pingshan and others would use the lives of Lu family's side branches as bait, but he let it go.
It was simply because he had once been extremely confident that those side branches could die, and as long as he was alive, the Lu family would be able to turn things around, and their deaths would also help the Lu family rise to prominence, and their deaths would be worthy.
But later...
Lu Jiuan's eyes were red as Tang Ning exposed his despicable thoughts in just a few words. All his guilt turned into resentment as he stared at Tang Ning.
Tang Ning looked at him quietly: "I don't like your eyes."
Her voice suddenly became colder:
"They gouged out his eyes, cut off his ears and nose, chopped off his limbs, and sent him to the northwest."
"I haven't seen Lu Zhinian for such a long time. This lunchbox is a gift from me to him to celebrate his marriage to Princess Beiling. After Beiling is defeated, I will make sure everyone in Beiling sees the treasonous demeanor of Mr. Lu."
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