Chapter 311 Regardless of blood ties, you will always be my little sister
I woke up again in a carriage.
What came into view was Meng Xi.
What shocked her even more was that her father, Mr. Lu, was sitting peacefully to the side. Although he looked haggard, he was unharmed.
It turned out that Lu's father's decision to leave home alone for the capital was a twist of fate that saved him from the massacre that targeted the Lu family.
He fainted due to exhaustion on the way, but was fortunately rescued by Meng Xi who happened to be passing by.
Overwhelmed by the joy of regaining what she had lost, and the grief of losing her confidant, Lu Zhaoruo opened her mouth but could not utter a sound, and in the end, she could only burst into uncontrollable sobs.
Upon seeing this, Chang Hong hurriedly stepped forward: "Madam Lu, what exactly happened?"
Lu Zhaoruo recounted how she was ambushed at Shili Pavilion, how Sun Jing fought valiantly to save her, and how he ultimately sacrificed himself heroically.
Hearing about the gruesome manner of Sun Jing's death, she couldn't help but tear up, turn her face away, and secretly wipe away a tear.
But why did the assassin from 'Dark Shade' try to assassinate me again and again?
Meng Xi helped her detoxify.
She returned to the Lu residence unharmed.
However, before even stepping into the mansion, they heard Tu Shi's sharp and shrill voice coming from inside the courtyard. She was acting like the mistress of the house, directing several rough servants: "Quickly! Level this unlucky cat grave! How dare a wild beast have a grave in the mansion? It's just dirtying the place!"
Under the old sycamore tree, Ah Bao's small grave had been half dug up with a hoe!
In an instant, Lu Zhaoruo felt all the blood rush to her head!
She lunged forward swiftly, a terrifying glint in her eyes, and said, enunciating each word clearly, "You dare to try to move!"
Startled by the sudden rebuke, Madam Tu turned around and saw Lu Zhaoruo, disheveled but with eyes as cold as ice. She was taken aback for a moment, then put her hands on her hips and scolded, "Oh! You still know how to come back? I am your mother, and I am in charge of this house now! If I say it's leveled, it's leveled!"
Lu Zhaoruo said no more and walked step by step toward the Tu family.
She swept past the stunned servants and snatched the shovel from one of them.
Amidst everyone's horrified gazes, Lu Zhaoruo swung her shovel, not at Tu Shi, but instead slammed the handle down onto a nearby idle stone block!
"Snap!"
With a crisp crack, the wooden handle, as thick as a bowl, snapped in two!
She threw the broken shovel to the ground, her gaze sweeping across Tu Shi's instantly pale face like a blade, and shouted sharply to Wang Mama behind her, "Take her down!"
Granny Wang immediately led two strong women forward and held Tu Shi tightly.
Lu Zhaoruo approached step by step, her voice chillingly cold: "Now, I'll give you a chance. Tell me, why did you lure me to Shili Pavilion? My father wasn't there at all. If you utter a single lie, the next shovel will break your bones."
Terrified by the menacing aura, Tu was paralyzed with fear, her body limp as a rag doll. Tears streaming down her face, she screamed, "I'll talk! I'll talk! Someone...someone forced me to do this! He said if I led you to Shili Pavilion, he would release me and give me a thousand taels of silver...I...I was bewitched!"
"How would I know he wanted to kill you?"
It turned out that when they were in Jizhou, Madam Tu saw Lu's father packing his bags to go to the capital alone. She then concluded that Lu Zhaoruo was making a fortune in the capital and was secretly taking her father there to enjoy a life of luxury.
She secretly sold the Lu family mansion and followed them away, packing her valuables.
Unexpectedly, halfway there, they encountered a group of mysterious assassins.
She was taken hostage all the way to the capital.
Then, a man in black appeared and forced her to lure Lu Zhaoruo to Shili Pavilion outside the city, promising her a thousand taels of silver and her freedom if she succeeded.
As for the assassin's identity and the mastermind behind it, she knew nothing.
She was unaware that Lu's father had collapsed from exhaustion on his way to the capital, but was rescued by Meng Xi and escaped a terrible ordeal.
Lu Zhaoruo stopped looking at her, but bent down and, with trembling hands, slowly and carefully gathered up handfuls of soil from Abao's grave.
As the last handful of soil fell, she straightened up, her eyes devoid of tears, only a cold, resolute look remaining.
“Wang Mama,” her voice was hoarse but left no room for doubt, “expel this person from the Lu residence and never let him set foot in it again.”
Lu Bohong happened to be home when he learned everything.
Madam Tu knelt down on the ground, hugging her son's legs and crying and begging.
Looking at his mother, who was weeping uncontrollably, Lu Bohong's last trace of warmth vanished, leaving only disappointment and heartache.
He slowly withdrew his leg and turned his back: "Mother, driven by greed, you almost killed my little sister and indirectly caused the death of Brother Sun Jing. From now on... our mother-son relationship is severed, and the Lu family will have no place for you."
After being expelled from the Lu residence, Tu slumped on the stone steps outside the door, wailing incessantly.
The vermilion gates opened once more.
Mr. Lu came out and threw a thin bundle in front of her.
Tu rushed forward and grabbed his sleeve tightly, tears streaming down her face: "My husband! We've been husband and wife for over twenty years, how can you be so heartless!"
Looking at his repulsive wife, and remembering how she had almost killed Aning and indirectly caused Sun Jing's death, the last bit of compassion in Lu's father's heart vanished.
He abruptly flung his sleeve and threw a letter of divorce on the ground: "You wicked woman! Our marriage is over! Take this letter and leave at once!"
Madam Tu picked up the letter of divorce, her hands trembling violently. Suddenly, she let out a shrill, eerie laugh, her eyes filled with venom: "Fine! Fine! Lu Yuanming! Since you are so ungrateful, don't blame me for exposing your past!"
She suddenly pointed at Lu Zhaoruo, who had just come out, her voice shrill and piercing: "Lu Zhaoruo! Listen up! You are not my child!"
"Twenty-three years ago, I was making a living with my parents in Linhai when I stumbled upon you and your father adrift on a wrecked ship! Your father was holding you, who was barely clinging to life!"
"It was my kind-hearted parents who rescued you all! It was I who saw your father as a scholar and forced him to marry me, a widow who had been divorced and returned to her family, and who also had Hong'er with her!"
She glared at Lu's father, gritting her teeth: "Back then, when you were about to die, it was I who spoke up: 'Marry me, and I will pay for your daughter's medical treatment!' You only agreed to this marriage because you were determined to save her life!"
Upon hearing this, Lu Zhaoruo looked at her father in astonishment.
Mr. Lu's face turned ashen. He closed his eyes and sighed deeply, which could be considered a silent acceptance.
After Madam Tu left in a daze, Lu Zhaoru pressed her about her birth mother's origins and the reasons for her wandering years ago, but Lu's father remained tight-lipped and refused to reveal a single word.
When Wang Wu and Ban Ling, who happened to be visiting, learned of this, they were both shocked.
Ban Ling clapped his hands: "I knew I wasn't wrong! So, Madam and Uncle Lu were the ones 'Dark Slaughter' chased back then? Madam's background must be extraordinary!"
Lu Zhaoruo pressed for answers repeatedly, but her father remained silent.
The only thing that brought Lu Zhaoruo some comfort was that she was not born to the Tu family, and the mistreatment she had suffered in the past could finally be forgiven.
Upon hearing the truth, Lu Bohong was initially stunned and speechless, standing there for a long time.
Finally, with tears in his eyes, he grasped Lu Zhaoruo's hand and said, "Little sister, whether we are of the same blood or not, you will always be my little sister."
late at night.
Lu Zhaoruo sat alone by the window. Besides her birth mother, whose lineage was impossible to trace, there was another blood debt that needed to be settled.
She took out a hidden porcelain bottle containing dark brown incense balls.
This was a "five-day consumption" poison incense that she secretly concocted based on her memory, imitating Lin Yingyu's recipe.
Moonlight streamed through the window lattice, reflecting in her calm eyes with a cold, razor-sharp glint.
A few days later.
A maid who had been whipped by Yunxiu and nearly disfigured trembled as she accepted a few tiny incense pills.
The next day, these incense balls were secretly mixed into the incense burner in Yunxiu's room, which burned continuously all day long.
The poisonous fragrance, when heated, spreads silently.
Lu Zhaoruo gazed into the distance toward the Grand Princess's residence, her fingertips digging deeply into her palm.
Ah Bao.
Mother is determined to make her pay for her blood debt.
Since the seventh day after Sun Jing's death, Lu Zhaoruo has suppressed her excruciating grief deep in her heart, showing no sign of it on her face, and throwing herself into a multitude of affairs.
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