I will bear the burden: "Is my wife willing? I will endure her hardships..."
Before Mu Tong could answer, Tao Qingyun said anxiously, "What about Lu Yu? We've been going around in circles with her for so long, and now we've all gotten ourselves into a mess. We can't let her escape this time. This morning, the people General Xue sent to keep watch said that she's sold all the chickens and sheep at home recently. I think we should bring her back to the capital!"
Qin Weixi recalled the little girl who always held a yellowed book and read under the eaves, and asked, "How should I bring it?"
Tao Qingyun waved her folding fan in one hand, making a whooshing sound: "Tie it up!"
Zijin, standing to one side, said, "But what if she turns around and accuses us of coercing her confession?"
A slight smile appeared on Chu Yening's lips as she slowly picked up the teacup in front of her, took a small sip, and remained silent.
Tao Qingyun watched him slowly and deliberately, then struck him hard with the tip of her fan: "You taciturn teapot, you cunning old fox, what are you up to now? Tell me quickly!"
Qin Weixi, sitting opposite him, tilted his head slightly upon hearing this, his eyes filled with inquiry. A fox? Not quite. More like a wolf king running rampant across the wilderness.
She looked at his jet-black robes, which resembled a black wolf.
It was afternoon, so the group didn't linger at the teahouse any longer and headed to Lu Yu's residence together. This time, Mu Tong and Xue Zhao made no attempt to hide their presence.
The courtyard was quiet, but the little girl who usually read and wrote under the eaves was holding a snow-white puppy in her arms today.
The little girl ran over busily when she saw her, and said sweetly, "Big sister, Mom bought me a little snowball."
Qin Weixi looked up at the sound and saw the little girl with her big, bright black eyes looking up and smiling, just like the bunches of black grapes that would grow in her Qingliang Garden every summer. For a moment, she seemed to see Luo Jia Xiaoxing in a daze.
The little girl then looked at the two handsome older brothers standing beside her, and the strangers who had inexplicably appeared outside the courtyard, and suddenly lowered her eyes.
Qin Weixi peeked through the small window into the house and saw Lu Yu hurriedly wrapping up the last of her gold and silver valuables, completely unaware of the strangeness outside the courtyard. She turned around and chuckled softly, "How adorable. I also have a dog at home that looks at me with its big, round eyes. It has pure black fur and is named Zhoufeng."
The little girl's eyes brightened even more upon hearing this, and she looked up in an instant: "Really?"
Qin Weixi smiled faintly and nodded, then gently patted her head and walked into the house unhurriedly.
Behind them, Tao Qingyun remained in the same spot, laughing and joking with the little girl.
Qin Weixi pushed open the dilapidated door and walked step by step toward Lu Yu, with Chu Yening by her side never leaving her side.
Qin Weixi said, "Lu Yu, Madam Yu, it's been a long time."
"Having grown accustomed to a life of wealth and tranquility, would one day think of living a life of uncertainty?"
The moment the door was opened from the outside, Lu Yu's eyes widened in terror: "You, you guys?"
She hadn't heard that name from anyone for many years.
Chu Yening watched Lu Yu's flustered state with great interest, then pulled over a worn-out, dusty chair, brushed off the dust with disdain, and slowly sat down.
"You're quite quick-witted. When did you find out?"
Looking at the man staring at her with eyes as sharp as knives through the swirling dust, Lu Yu felt her heart stop for a moment.
"No! You've come from the capital!"
"Who are you?" A thunderbolt suddenly flashed through Lu Yu's mind. She froze on the spot and asked repeatedly.
Chu Yening lifted her eyelids and glanced over indifferently: "Who do you think I should be?"
Lu Yu repeated this sentence to himself, staring intently at the composed young man. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he stammered, "You...you're the General's son?"
Chu Yening's eyes were icy cold.
Lu Yu remained frozen in place, when suddenly he remembered his daughter playing in the yard, and he ran out quickly.
No one stopped her, but at that moment, seeing the strangers suddenly appearing in and around the courtyard, and the man in blue robes talking to his obedient daughter, Lu Yu felt as if she had fallen into an abyss.
"Give me back my daughter!" she cried out in alarm.
Tao Qingyun looked at Lu Yu, who was trembling and terrified, and walked over with a smile. Then Lu Yu looked at the two people who came out behind him, his teeth chattering and his face deathly pale.
Tao Qingyun said lightly, "How has Madam Yu been lately? Oh, I forgot to mention, I am from the capital and am also the Emperor and Empress's nephew. I have traveled thousands of miles to find an old friend whom I have not seen for many years."
As she spoke, Tao Qingyun smiled slightly, "And the young lady standing in front of you, you probably didn't recognize her back then because you lived in seclusion. This is the daughter of Duke Qin Heng of Dingguo!"
Lu Yu's breath hitched and she almost fainted. The little girl holding the puppy rushed over and called out "Mother!"
Chu Yening said, "Tell me about what Li Mou did during those ten years of hiding."
Lu Yu pressed his lips tightly together, remaining silent. After a moment, he murmured, "Duke Dingguo... General Chu..."
Tao Qingyun sneered, "Madam Yu, if you don't think about yourself, you should at least think about your little daughter. After all these years of hiding, this little girl probably hasn't even attended a private school yet, has she?"
Lu Yu hugged his obedient and well-behaved little daughter tightly, and suddenly his eyes reddened.
“Back then, my husband and I were very much in love and we told each other everything, but he never told me about this matter.”
"Which matter?" Qin Weixi stared at her intently, his eyes filled with icy coldness.
Lu Yu gave a bitter laugh: "The matter of the Duke of Dingguo plotting rebellion against the country."
“My husband was quiet for a while before he went to war with General Chu. I thought it was because he was thinking about my daughter and me, so I didn’t think much of it.”
"Later, when the case of the Duke of Dingguo came to light, I suddenly heard the news of General Chu's tragic death in a foreign land. My husband also returned to the capital after a near-death experience and became despondent, growing thinner and thinner. I was so confused at the time that I still thought it was because I missed General Chu."
Lu Yu was already in tears as she recounted this: "Then one night, when it was snowing heavily outside, my husband suddenly stood in front of my bed with an oil lamp in his hand, looking at me intently. I heard the noise and quickly woke up. My husband said to me, 'Go! Leave the capital, let me go as far away as possible.'"
Chu Yening looked up in an instant.
General Chen Chuansong, who was trapped in enemy territory back then, also said the same thing: Let's go!
Lu Yu choked up again and said, "I held my husband's cold hands. It took him a long time to tell me that he had a dream. In the dream, he went to see General Chen and took General Chen to Huangtupo. He then led a group of troops to attack the enemy army hidden in Huangtupo."
"Later, he led General Chen and the remaining reinforcements to another hideout of the Yuchao people that he had inadvertently discovered."
"Then... he watched helplessly as General Chen was seriously injured, he went back to report to General Chu, and then watched as General Yu Chaoren was killed."
Lu Yu closed her eyes tightly at this point, her voice trembling as she said, "And my husband said..."
Chu Yening looked at Lu Yu in front of him, seemingly wanting to say something but then hesitated. Suddenly, he strode over and said coldly, "Lu Yu!"
Lu Yu shuddered and began to tremble uncontrollably.
"Lu Yu, countless souls have died by my sword, Chu Yening. I don't mind killing one more!" Chu Yening glanced at the daughter in her arms for a moment.
Lu Yu cried out in surprise.
Qin Weixi hurried past him, their fingers intertwined. It was a murmur she had heard amidst the rumbling thunder last night. She knew that the scenes in his dream were also the predicament he had been struggling with for many years.
Chu Yening's breathing calmed down in an instant.
After a short while, Lu Yu said, "My husband had a nightmare and was talking nonsense. He said that in his dream, he stabbed General Chu in the back with a sword. The general opened his eyes and shed tears. Before he died, he looked at him and called out Xu Zhi."
Chu Yening suddenly roared, swiftly drawing his sword from his waist. His usually gentle smile was now filled with malice: "Lu Yu, I'll tell you the truth about my father's tragic death at Huangtupo! My invincible father died in a foreign land! He was killed by the blade raised by his own confidant. Is that laughable?"
"That wasn't his dream; it was the thing deep in Li Mou's memory that he feared most!"
Qin Weixi threw herself into his arms in an instant, holding tightly to the nearly out-of-control Chu Yening, and said with suppressed emotion, "Fourth Brother! I'm here!"
Xue Zhaomutong and the others, who had been waiting quietly outside the courtyard, came closer upon seeing this scene.
Tao Qingyun snatched the sword from Chu Yening's hand and said, word by word, "Chu Jiayou, this is the only witness who can clear the Qin family's name and uncover the true culprit behind Uncle Chu's murder. Li Mou's crimes are unforgivable; even if he were torn to pieces, it would not be enough to quell our hatred. Lu Yu's mistakes will be judged by the world in the future. What we need to do now is find the real culprit!"
Xue Zhao took the long sword from Tao Qingyun's hand, sheathed it, and placed it aside. Upon hearing this, Mu Tong and Song Zijin immediately surrounded Lu Yu.
He had personally witnessed the person who came like a demon, bringing with him a murderous aura and bloodshed at the top of Penglai Mountain.
Lu Yu buried her daughter's head in her arms, pressed one hand tightly against her eyes, and said in a trembling voice, "Later, my husband kept talking nonsense, running naked in the yard and shouting in the snow. I knew something was wrong. I'm not afraid of death, I'm willing to face it with my husband, but I'm afraid that the next one to die will be my baby daughter."
While grasping the coldness of the person in front of him with both hands, he tried his best to suppress his urge to turn back and look at Lu Yu.
“Lu Yu, since Li Mou has such deep feelings for you, he wouldn’t have left just a few words. Third Brother is right. Even if Li Mou stood in front of me today, I could still scrape his flesh and blood off piece by piece, tear him apart and skin him alive, and it still wouldn’t be enough to quell the hatred in my heart!”
"My mother slit her throat under the drum of petition, my father's living flesh and blood entered that imperial family, but in the end, he was just a cold corpse, his death shrouded in mystery! And my brother, Lu Yu, do you remember him? How did he die?"
Qin Weixi spoke each word with eyes as cold and sharp as a sudden snowfall in the capital.
After calming down, Chu Yening took her hands in his. After a moment, they intertwined their fingers and looked at Lu Yu in front of them.
The little girl in Lu Yu's arms suddenly burst into tears, crying out, "Daddy's gone!"
Lu Yu's teeth chattered as she slowly said, "All these years I've been hiding because my husband killed a scholar taking the imperial examinations during the New Year and was thrown into prison. My husband was a heavy drinker, but he didn't touch a drop when he went to war with General Chu, especially since General Chu had just passed away. But I've also wondered if it was because of General Chu, and because although we won the battle and returned to the capital, we lost over ten thousand soldiers, that my husband drowned his sorrows in alcohol and inadvertently got into an argument with someone."
"But later my husband said that the day before he was thrown into prison, he told me how the powerful could break free from the powerful..."
"And then came the things you all know." At this point, Lu Yu raised her eyes to look at Chu Yening, and then knelt down with her daughter with a thud: "Your Highness, my husband is loyal to the General. The case of the Duke of Dingguo was definitely caused by someone threatening my husband with my daughter and me! I beg you, Your Highness, to spare our lives and let us go, for the sake of how kind the General treated my husband back then!"
Chu Yening flashed his blade, his eyes flashing with killing intent once more. Then Lu Yu saw him look at the woman beside him and say to her, "My wife, are you willing? I will bear her hardships and suffer her pain! But who will atone for the wronged souls of the more than one hundred members of the Qin family? Lu Yu, your word of 'let them go' cannot bring back the bodies of hundreds of Qin family members!"
"But Lu Yu, even with all this, no matter how much I do, it's hard to explain the ten years she couldn't sleep at night."
"I, the Marquis, will not allow it!"
Lu Yu suddenly looked up again at the girl beside Chu Yening, who was the daughter of Duke Qin Heng.
She knew about the rumors circulating in the capital that the youngest daughter of the Duke of Dingguo had died in Jiangnan, and she also knew that all the women of the Qin family had drunk poison and died in order to preserve their innocence.
Compared to all that, she had spent years living in constant fear and hiding with her young, frail daughter, while other young daughters lived in peace, able to attend private schools and have enough to eat. What was she compared to them?
Lu Yu pursed his lips and gave a bitter smile: "The capital is more than a thousand miles away from here, and you have come all the way to me. I... I will just go back to the capital with you."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
