Chapter 51. Prime Minister, please, stop reading. ...
When Lu Yuan woke up, there was only a dim candle burning in the room.
He sat up abruptly, the tearing pain in his chest gone, replaced by an empty, deathly stillness.
The feeling was as if someone had used the dullest knife to cut away the most vital part of his body.
He clutched his chest.
Awu.
Lu Yuan lifted the covers to get out of bed, but stumbled because of his weakness.
At the door, Xu Ming was carrying a bowl of medicine in. Upon seeing this, he hurriedly placed the bowl on a small table to the side and went forward to help Lu Yuan.
"Your Excellency, the imperial physician says the mother Gu is suffering a severe backlash; you should rest in bed more."
To avoid harming his wife, the Prime Minister used a secret medicine to suppress the mother Gu before leaving the capital. In addition, in order to return as soon as possible, the Prime Minister fought on the battlefield and repelled the enemy army in just three days.
After arranging the defenses, he rushed back without sleep or rest.
The journey was arduous and exhausting; even the strongest body would succumb to the strain, let alone the constant backlash from the mother Gu.
Where is she?
Lu Yuan's voice was hoarse, each word carrying the weight of a terrifying storm.
Xu Ming knelt on one knee, his head bowed low.
"Prime Minister."
It's just an action, a form of address.
Lu Yuan's heart sank straight down, sinking into an ice cellar.
The excruciating pain he felt before losing consciousness, and the guard's tearful report... all surged up like a tidal wave, overwhelming him.
It's not a dream.
"explain."
Lu Yuan uttered a single word, his face revealing neither joy nor anger. His hand gripping the bedpost tightened, his knuckles turning blue.
Xu Ming lowered his head even further, his voice heavy with sorrow.
"The lady's courtyard has been burned down. The fire was too big; by the time it was extinguished, only..."
His voice trembled slightly.
"Only one body was found, its appearance unrecognizable. The coroner examined it and found that the body shape was similar to that of the lady, and it was found in the inner room. The lady's usual mutton-fat jade safety buckle was also found on her body."
Xu Ming spoke very quickly after that.
However, with each word he spoke, the air in the room grew increasingly icy.
Lu Yuan listened in silence.
Every word Xu Ming uttered transformed into a poisoned dagger, piercing his heart.
Blood and gore.
He didn't move, not even his eyelashes trembled, as if he had turned into a statue that had lost its soul.
Only the hand gripping the bedpost, due to excessive force, deformed the hard rosewood bedpost.
"lead the way."
He finally spoke, his voice hoarse and devoid of any vitality.
Xu Ming dared not dissuade him, and silently got up to lead the way.
Turning into the corridor,
The once ornate courtyard is now nothing but ruins. The charred beams and pillars pierce the gray sky in a twisted posture.
The burnt gauze curtains fluttered in the wind like banners summoning souls.
Lu Yuan swayed slightly.
Her face was deathly pale, and her thin nightgown fluttered in the wind, making her look like a wandering soul that might vanish at any moment.
Xu Ming wanted to reach out to help, but was deterred by the deathly silence emanating from him.
It was a calm more terrifying than grief, as if all life had been consumed by the fire.
The steward was directing the servants to clear the ruins when he saw Lu Yuan. He hurriedly led everyone to kneel down, not daring to utter a sound.
On the cleared ground, there lay a body covered with a white sheet.
Chunnan sat beside the corpse, her eyes red and swollen, as if she had run out of tears, leaving only an empty, lifeless silence.
Lu Yuan stopped a few steps away, his gaze fixed on the white cloth. Beneath his sleeves, his fingertips trembled incessantly.
"Open it," he commanded, his voice eerily calm.
Xu Ming knelt down with a thud: "Prime Minister, please, stop looking."
"Get out of my way!"
Lu Yuan kicked Xu Ming away and strode over to the corpse.
He slowly squatted down, his hand trembling as he reached out towards the white cloth, but stopped the moment he touched it.
On the battlefield, facing thousands of enemy troops, he didn't even blink. Even with swords at his side, he could calmly calculate his next move.
But at this moment, he was afraid.
They didn't even have the courage to lift a thin piece of fabric.
Xu Ming knelt to the side, his eyes reddening as he looked at the Prime Minister. He had followed the Prime Minister since childhood and had never seen him like this before.
It was back then that the master listened to the instigation of that skinny horse and wanted to drown the young prime minister.
Even when the icy pond water reached his chest, the eight-year-old prime minister simply pursed his lips.
"Prime Minister, please let the lady rest in peace."
Chunnan choked out her words, her forehead repeatedly hitting the scorched ground, quickly drawing blood.
She did not leave with the lady.
Firstly, time was of the essence, and there was simply no time to prepare two corpses of similar build.
Secondly, the plan was ultimately too hasty. It wouldn't be easy to deceive the shrewd Prime Minister, so she had to stay and complete the final step to make him completely believe her.
Only in this way can the lady be truly safe.
Even if she might never see the lady again, as long as she knows that the lady is living peacefully somewhere.
She was very satisfied.
As for herself, she hadn't thought about it.
Lu Yuan's fingertips, still hovering above the white cloth, trembled violently upon hearing this. His eyes turned bloodshot, a glint of madness flashing within them.
It couldn't possibly be her!
This idea grew wildly in his mind like a wildfire.
His Ah Wu was so intelligent, how could she willingly perish in the fire? These people must be lying to him!
Suddenly, the white cloth was ripped off.
It was charred black and unrecognizable as human.
A few suppressed gasps filled the air.
Lu Yuan stared intently at the twisted limbs and the blurred face.
Finally, the focus shifted to the mutton-fat jade safety buckle, which was blackened by smoke but whose shape was still discernible.
His body swayed almost imperceptibly.
Reaching out, very slowly, I removed the button. On the back of the jade was carved a tiny character [渊].
It was their engagement token when they got married.
It really is her!
Lu Yuan's vision blurred, and a metallic taste rose in his throat.
He clenched his fist tightly.
The hard edges of the jade stone dug deep into his palm, and the stinging pain brought a sliver of clarity to his muddled mind.
"check."
He turned around, his cold gaze sweeping over the kneeling crowd.
"Why did this fire start so strangely? And why did it happen on the very day I returned to my residence?"
Each word was like an ice blade, scraping across everyone's heart.
Is this her way of escaping unscathed? Is she still... alive?
This idea, like a spark falling into a wasteland, instantly ignited a sky full of hope.
A glimmer of light appeared in Lu Yuan's otherwise lifeless eyes.
Xu Ming accepted the order and replied, "Yes." He then quickly dismissed a few guards and left.
Lu Yuan did not leave.
He slowly covered the white cloth with it, then knelt down on the scorched earth, motionless.
The dark robes were spread out, blending into the mess on the ground.
Soon, Xu Ming brought over a young servant. The servant was ashen-faced and his legs were trembling so badly he could not stand; he had been dragged over by the guards.
"Your Excellency, this man is Fu Gui, a servant in the back courtyard. Someone saw him sneaking around the back of the madam's courtyard yesterday, carrying something suspicious."
Traces of kerosene were also found in the residence.
Lu Yuan remained kneeling, not even lifting his eyelids. His fingertips gently caressed the safety amulet in his palm, his voice so calm it was chilling.
"Tell me, who ordered it?"
Fu Gui knelt down on the ground with a thud, his whole body trembling like a sieve.
"I...I don't know..."
Lu Yuan finally raised his eyes.
That gaze was as calm as a stagnant pool, yet it froze Fu Gui's blood.
There was no anger, no threat, not even a ripple.
It is this absolute calm that involuntarily reminds one of the oppressive atmosphere on the sea before a storm.
Fu Gui's teeth chattered, and his genitals instantly became wet.
In the suffocating silence, he finally broke down, kowtowing incoherently.
"Yes, it was Miss Qi. She told me to sprinkle kerosene all around the courtyard wall, saying, saying it was just to scare Madam. I, I really didn't mean to harm Madam... Your Excellency, please spare my life!"
Lu Yuan didn't look at him again, and only said indifferently, "Drag him away, chop him up, and feed him to the dogs."
Fu Gui rolled his eyes and fainted on the spot.
The guards dragged him away like a dead dog.
"Go and bring Qi Lan here."
Everyone involuntarily shivered.
The morning light shone through the ruins, illuminating Lu Yuan's calm profile.
At this moment, they seemed to have returned to that blood-red sunset five years ago.
Beneath the city walls lay mountains of corpses and seas of blood, the moat was stained a thick crimson, and even the setting sun was shrouded in a bloody mist.
On the city tower, the Prime Minister sat upright before the zither table, his blood-stained fingertips casually plucking the strings.
The sound of the zither mingled with the wailing, startling the crows perched on the treetops into cawing.
...
The sun had somehow hidden behind the clouds, and the world suddenly darkened.
Qi Lan was brought over.
She was still sitting in her wheelchair, her black hair disheveled, without even a hairpin in place.
Her plain white dress gleamed coldly in the dim light, making her bloodless face appear ghostly.
Qi Lan saw that the man, who was usually very clean and particular about rules, was now kneeling on the scorched earth without any regard for his image.
Her hands, resting on her knees, clenched tightly without her noticing, her knuckles turning a cold white from the force.
Her fingernails dug into her palm, but she felt no pain at all.
Was that woman really that important to him? So important that he was willing to abandon his dignity as prime minister?
Qi Lan tried her best to suppress the bitterness and resentment surging in her heart, lowered her eyes and choked out a sob, tears rolling down her cheeks at just the right moment.
"Why is Madam so upset..."
Lu Yuan glanced at him coldly.
Qi Lan's pupils contracted sharply, and the words she was about to say stuck in her throat.
My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to jump out of my throat.
She clenched her teeth so tightly that the sharp teeth dug into her flesh, barely managing to suppress the pleas for mercy that were about to spill out.
She had already devised a plan before she arrived.
The servant had no concrete evidence. As long as she insisted that she knew nothing, Lu Yuan could rely on his guilt towards his deceased elder brother, Lu Han.
Lu Han, her former fiancé.
If he hadn't died, she would have married into the Lu family long ago and become Lu Yuan's rightful sister-in-law.
Fortunately, he died young.
That's what gave her the opportunity to be entangled with Lu Yuan all these years.
In this respect, she was grateful to Lu Han. But at the same time, she couldn't help but hate him.
The dead man was like a lingering shadow, forever shrouding her life.
She both loathed living in his shadow and had to constantly use his name to protect herself.
How ridiculous.
The eldest son of the Lu family, who died saving Lu Yuan, was both the only light in Lu Yuan's dark childhood and a nightmare he could never escape.
And now, this ghost has once again become her talisman.
Qi Lan spoke in the gentlest tone imaginable.
"My lord, I know you are grieving, but the dead cannot be brought back to life..."
Before she could finish speaking, Lu Yuan interrupted her sharply.
"Shut up!"
Lu Yuan's calm mask suddenly cracked, revealing his phoenix eyes as bloodshot, like a demon crawling out of the abyss.
He slowly stood up and approached step by step, his dark sleeves stirring up a chilling wind.
"If my Awu dies, you will go to the underworld to keep her company."
Qi Lan finally panicked and began to stammering in her defense.
"It wasn't me... I didn't. I just wanted to scare her and teach her a lesson. It was Madam, she must have started the fire herself."
"She hates me, she wants to frame me."
"After the Prime Minister left, the Princess came to the mansion several times. They stayed in their rooms for most of the day, so they must have some unspeakable secret."
"Perhaps, this corpse is a substitute she found."
Chunnan's heart tightened, and she panicked, digging her nails into her palms to keep herself from jumping up.
substitute……
Lu Yuan's pupils trembled slightly, and even his breathing tightened. His gaze swept across Chun Nan's face almost imperceptibly before turning to Qi Lan.
“Go on.”
Seeing his expression soften, Qi Lan's tense nerves relaxed slightly.
She knew this was her last chance; she had to make him believe her story, otherwise…
“A few days ago, the lady tried to escape from the manor, but I stopped her. If the Prime Minister doesn’t believe me, he can ask Commander Xu; he’s here too.”
Lu Yuan turned his gaze to Xu Ming.
Xu Ming nodded, but then realized something was amiss. He was about to explain that his wife had gone to Lingyin Temple to pray for the Prime Minister.
Before he could finish speaking, Qi Lan hurriedly interrupted.
"So the lady hates me, hates that I ruined her plans, and deliberately framed me. The lady must be having an affair with another man and using this opportunity to elope..."
At this point, she couldn't resist slipping in her own agenda, taking the opportunity to smear Mingwu.
Lu Yuan's eyes flashed with a sharp look, and a murderous intent appeared on his face.
Qi Lan's back was instantly soaked with cold sweat, regretting her haste. But the words had already been spoken, and there was no going back.
She came up with a quick idea.
“I once saw with my own eyes that Madam secretly hid a cosmetic box in a vase by her bedside. There must be something shameful inside, perhaps even love letters between her and her lover.”
These were naturally seen by the servant she had bribed, by chance.
Chun Nan's face turned deathly pale.
How could Qi Lan know all this?
In her panic, she didn't see that Lu Yuan had already taken in her expression.
Lu Yuan's face was gloomy.
"Go find it."
At his command, Xu Ming immediately led his guards into the ruins and carefully searched the area where the burnt canopy bed had been.
The charred wood was moved piece by piece, finally revealing half of the broken vase.
Xu Ming carried out quickly, holding a makeup box that was blackened by smoke.
"Your Excellency, we've found it."
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