Chapter 40 Liu Qingyue was being held captive by the old lady…
Because she was being held captive by the old lady, Liu Qingyue had not been able to find an opportunity to see her mother again.
It was a rainy day, and the old lady rarely allowed him to go out for a walk.
Liu Qingyue didn't dare to go directly to her mother, but wanted to meet the other members of the Liu family.
When the old lady was pressuring Liu Qingyue to marry, she publicly claimed that the second wife's family had moved out of the Liu family, but in reality, only Liu Qingyue herself moved out.
Since he was the only one who moved out, the Yang and Su families should still be here.
Liu Qingyue wanted to meet them; perhaps she could obtain some more useful information.
Then he met the Yang and Su families, as well as Liu Qingyan and Liu Qinglin, but he did not see the other two sons born out of wedlock.
Seeing this, Liu Qingyue didn't think much of it, assuming that the two illegitimate sons had gone to plot a great cause with their father.
When Liu Qingyan saw that he still had the nerve to come and see them, she couldn't help but make sarcastic remarks.
Liu Qingyan: "How come I didn't know you were so capable? With so many servants watching you, you still managed to escape on your own?"
Upon hearing this, Liu Qingyue slightly raised her chin, "There are many things you don't know."
All you do is compare yourself to me, and your first words to me are sarcastic remarks. You have no idea that the Liu family is about to face annihilation.
When the Liu family is truly finished, you'll be crying your eyes out, you fool.
Liu Qingyue and Qin Ren guessed that something bad might happen to the Liu family. Why didn't they tell the Liu family in advance?
First of all, this matter is just a guess he and Qin Ren made, and even if he said it out loud, they might not believe it.
Secondly, it should be late by now, and only Liu Qingyue and her mother remain in the Liu family.
Whether it's the Su family, Liu Qingyan, or even their grandmother, once they know the Liu family is completely finished, they might not let the mother and son have an easy time.
Also, his older brother is obviously plotting something, and he's not sure if telling the rest of the Liu family now might inadvertently harm his brother.
Compared to the rest of the Liu family, his mother and older brother were definitely more important to him.
If he could only choose one side, he would definitely choose his older brother and mother, not his father and grandmother.
Finally, the men of the Liu family should have anticipated this outcome.
They were close to the Fourth Prince, and they probably knew about what was happening in the capital earlier than he did.
They didn't care about the lives of others, and Liu Qingyue's stepping forward to reveal the truth now might not necessarily lead to a good outcome.
Liu Qingyan: "What are you doing here? Aren't you afraid we'll hurt you?"
When they were children, Liu Qingyan often harmed Liu Qingyue, which caused Liu Qingyue to always be wary of him later on.
Today, Liu Qingyue came to their courtyard alone without any servants, which Liu Qingyan found quite strange.
Upon hearing this, Liu Qingyue said impatiently, "What time is it? You're still thinking about harming me? You should think about yourself and your mother. In the future... even your father won't be able to protect you."
After speaking, Liu Qingyue turned to leave.
Liu Qingyan was displeased with this. In his eyes, Liu Qingyue was now a slut, a worthless woman who couldn't get married and had lost her chastity.
His father had long since stopped caring about him, his brother had disappeared, and his grandmother disliked him intensely.
How dare someone like him, a piece of trash nobody wants, yell at him here?
Liu Qingyan: "Stop right there! Do you think this is a place you can come and go as you please?"
While clutching the pepper spray hidden in her sleeve, Liu Qingyue turned back to him with displeasure and said, "What, you want to hit me in public on the main house's turf?"
After causing so much trouble, his grandmother punished him by making him kneel in the ancestral hall.
Even though his grandmother disliked him so much, she didn't dare to really do anything to him.
Is Liu Qingyan, a son born out of wedlock, really more powerful than his grandmother?
Liu Qingyan felt embarrassed by his glare and had no choice but to go up and rummage through Liu Qingyue's hair.
He took the hair clip from Liu Qingyue's head and deliberately threw it under his feet and stepped on it in front of her.
That was Liu Qingyue's favorite hair clip, and also the first gift Qin Ren bought for her.
Looking at the broken hair clip, Liu Qingyue didn't use the pepper spray hidden in her sleeve, but instead slapped him hard across the face with her other hand.
The person who was hit, Liu Qingyan, screamed, "Liu Qingyue! How dare you hit me? How dare you hit me?"
Liu Qingyue: "It's not like we haven't hit each other before. Didn't I hit you a lot when you were a kid?"
Upon hearing Liu Qingyue's words, Liu Qingyan disregarded whether this was the main branch's territory or not, and immediately pounced on Liu Qingyue like a madwoman.
Seeing this, Su would definitely take sides, and besides, everyone in this courtyard was Liu Qingyan's people, so Liu Qingyue alone was no match for so many of them.
After having her hair pulled and her face scratched, Liu Qingyue pulled out pepper spray and sprayed it all over them.
He wasn't driven mad with anger; while spraying pepper spray, he squinted and covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve.
Then, Liu Qingyan, who had gone mad, along with the servants in their courtyard and Madam Su, were instantly choked to death by the pepper spray from the pepper spray.
Seeing them coughing, sneezing, and crying uncontrollably, Liu Qingyue finally understood how terrifying this thing was.
He quickly hid the pepper spray and then fled from this side with a look of fear on his face.
Liu Qingyue had caused such a big mess, and everyone thought that the old lady or his aunt would come to bother him soon.
He was a little scared and wondered if he should just run away.
But thinking of her mother still here, Liu Qingyue was still worried about leaving her alone.
He can take care of his mother here because he has pepper spray and a stun gun.
With him around, my mother feels safer.
Just as Liu Qingyue was anxiously awaiting her grandmother's wrath...
Instead of his grandmother's men, he was greeted by the guards, A and B, who had been there before.
Guard A: "Third Young Master, come with us quickly."
"Go with you, go, where to?"
"Don't ask any more questions, let's go first."
"But where is my mother?"
"Madam, please come along too!"
Upon hearing that her mother would be going with her, Liu Qingyue did not hesitate any longer.
As he walked out with them, he didn't forget to ask, "Was my brother not kidnapped?"
Guard B: "Naturally, those men in black are the young master's own men."
Upon entering the prefectural city, he had himself kidnapped by his own men. It seems the elder brother knew something bad would happen to the Liu family, so he cleared himself of the situation beforehand.
Since you knew something was going to happen to the Liu family, why... didn't you leave before they came to Yuyang Prefecture?
Why did you have to come back specifically and bring your mother back to the Liu family? Wouldn't that be very dangerous for your mother?
Liu Qingyue: "Since my brother wants to sever ties with the Liu family, why... did you still make Mother come back?"
"We don't know why Madam came back. Let's wait until we see her, then you can ask her about it."
Liu Qingyue's courtyard was rather secluded, located in a small side courtyard behind the old lady's house.
After returning from the Su family's place, he waited anxiously in the side courtyard.
Less than half an hour later, when he came out again, he found that the Liu family had changed.
The servants in the courtyard were running around in a panic, and many things were left lying on the ground.
Just as they were about to reach a side door, Liu Qingyue subconsciously glanced back.
Father, grandmother, eldest uncle, eldest aunt, eldest cousin, Yang, Su, and a group of younger brothers and sisters, what are they going to do?
Before he could continue to worry about the rest of the Liu family, he was picked up by Guard B and rushed out of the Liu family compound with Guard A.
It wasn't until they got into the carriage that Liu Qingyue could see the situation outside the Liu family's residence.
The Liu family was surrounded by the guards of Yuyang Prefecture. The situation in the prefectural city was different from that in the county town.
The prefectural city not only had its own soldiers, but also a garrison army, and the two armies supervised and cooperated with each other.
The soldiers of the prefecture obeyed the orders of the prefect, while the guards obeyed the orders of the general of the prefectural city guard.
The prefect of Yuyang Prefecture is Liu Yushen, and the Liu family is now following the Fourth Prince.
The guards of Yuyang Prefecture were actually the Fourth Prince's men.
It was precisely for this reason that the Fourth Prince dared to use this place as a base for his rebellion.
Logically, even if the new emperor wanted to get rid of the fourth prince, he would need to deploy troops to deal with Yu Yang's family.
However, Liu Qingyue didn't understand what had happened in the past few days. Why hadn't the army from the capital invaded? Instead, the Liu family was surrounded by the city's guards.
Looking at the layers upon layers of guards, they should have been stopped when they came out.
But the guards seemed to be blind; not only did they not stop their carriage, they even made way for them.
When the servants of the Liu family saw this, they tried to leave with the carriage, but they were killed as soon as they came out.
When Liu Qingyue witnessed the scene of the knife falling at close range, she immediately shrank into her mother's arms in the car in fear.
Qi quickly hugged him and said, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, we're alright now."
Liu Qingyue: "Mother, what, what exactly is going on? Why are the city's guards surrounding the Liu family?"
Upon hearing this, Lady Qi looked at him and whispered, "The one currently in power is the Crown Prince."
The Crown Prince is the third prince, and he is the prince most valued by the old emperor.
This time, the old emperor's critical illness was a grand scheme he devised for the sake of the crown prince before his passing.
He wanted to kill all the princes who were plotting rebellion, so as to ensure that the throne would eventually fall into the hands of the crown prince.
The young master of the Marquis of Zhenbei is the Crown Prince's childhood friend.
When the Crown Prince was seven years old, the three-year-old Marquis, Wen Lingzheng, entered the palace to accompany him.
Wen Lingzheng is the Crown Prince's person and has been running around for him.
As for Liu Yuze, whose person is he?
Liu Yu was a man of the old emperor. Ever since he became the top scholar in the imperial examination that year, he has been the most loyal royalist.
Now that the old emperor is dying, he must pass the throne to the crown prince.
The Crown Prince is the new emperor, and Liu Yuze is naturally one of the Crown Prince's people.
The new emperor has only just ascended the throne and doesn't trust him much yet. It seems he wants to get rid of him along with the Liu family when he eliminates them.
In order to show his loyalty to the new emperor, Liu Yuze put a lot of effort into persuading General Wang of the Yuyang Prefecture garrison.
Before the new emperor's army arrives, have General Wang arrest the Liu family members who conspired with the fourth prince to rebel.
He also helped uncover the Liu family's treasonous crimes, intending to use these to persuade the new emperor to spare him and his maternal grandfather's family.
Liu Yuze was actually quite happy when she heard that her younger brother had run away from his wedding and disappeared.
In any case, it seems the younger brother has escaped unscathed.
Unexpectedly, upon hearing that his mother had come to Yu Yang's residence, his foolish younger brother, who was worried about his mother, returned.
Fortunately, the younger brother is a boy.
The new emperor is kind-hearted and shouldn't make things too difficult for a young man.
Qi Shi suddenly came to Yu Yang's residence, partly to see Minister Liu one last time.
It is said that "a day as husband and wife is worth a hundred days of kindness." No matter how he treated her, they were husband and wife after all, and she wanted to see him.
Unexpectedly, he was no longer in the prefectural city when she arrived.
Secondly, in order to atone for her sins, she personally returned to the Liu family to help her son find evidence.
As for why she, a woman, had to do it herself, it was mainly because she was worried that the new emperor would implicate the Qi family.
The Qi family and the Liu family are related by marriage. She personally returned and took this risk mainly to show Wen Lingzheng.
Regardless of whether or not evidence of the Liu family's crimes can be found, given her willingness to bring down the Liu family for His Majesty's sake, Wen Lingzheng would certainly be willing to say a few good words for her.
Qi told Liu Qingyue everything that Liu Yuze had been doing recently.
Seemingly sensing Liu Qingyue's reluctance, Madam Qi quickly pleaded for her eldest son, saying, "This kind of thing... you really can't blame him for being heartless. His Majesty is the Crown Prince, he is the rightful heir. The Fourth Prince wanted to rebel, and the Liu family accompanied him in his rebellion, which is a capital offense. If your brother hadn't done this, not only you, me, and your brother would have suffered, but also your maternal grandfather and uncles would have suffered. Don't hate your mother, your mother... also doesn't want to see such an outcome."
Unfortunately, whether the Liu family assisted the fourth prince in rebellion or the new emperor wanted to kill the entire Liu family to vent his anger, these were things that a woman like her could not control.
All she can do now is pray that His Majesty will be lenient and spare her family and two children.
Upon hearing this, Liu Qingyue didn't know what to say, and could only silently shed tears with a blank expression.
They soon left the city, and it was only then that Liu Qingyue realized that he hadn't told Qin Ren about this.
I wonder how Qin Ren is doing now, and whether he will hear the news and go to the Liu family to find him.
Even after Liu Qingyue met her brother, he still couldn't find a chance to be alone with himself.
Because his mother kept pulling him along, he also saw his cousin who shouldn't have been there.
Liu Qingyue's cousin is the youngest son of Liu Qingyue's maternal uncle.
His name was Ke'er, and he was only one year younger than Liu Qingyue. Liu Qingyue had met him at her maternal grandfather's house.
As soon as Ke'er saw Qi Shi, she asked worriedly, "Aunt, are you alright? Ke'er has been worried about you these past few days."
Upon hearing this, Madam Qi quickly replied, "It's alright, it's alright. How have you been lately, Ke'er? Your health hasn't been very good, and you've been traveling around with us. You must have suffered a lot."
Ke'er felt a little embarrassed when she heard this.
He turned to look at Liu Yuze and shook his head shyly.
"No, my cousin treats Ke'er very well and has never let Ke'er suffer."
After saying this, Ke'er turned to look at Liu Qingyue and politely curtsied slightly.
Liu Qingyue was older than him, and his family was not as wealthy as the Liu family, so he had to pay his respects to Liu Qingyue when he met her.
It's the kind of courtesy that a younger person should show to an older person.
"Brother Yue, it's been a long time."
Liu Qingyue had seen many of the Liu family's younger siblings, who were always arguing with him and fighting over his things. Seeing such well-behaved siblings suddenly made him feel a little unaccustomed.
Liu Qingyue smiled, patted herself all over, and pulled out a trembling butterfly hair clip.
"You don't need to be so formal in the future. Why should we stand on ceremony between us? I came out in such a hurry this time and I don't have anything nice on me, so I'll give this to you as a gift."
Ke'er carefully took the hair clip. It was the first time he had ever seen such an accessory, and he couldn't help but hold it up and examine it carefully for a long time.
"This is really beautiful, thank you, Brother Yue."
After they finished exchanging pleasantries, Liu Yuze called Liu Qingyue away alone.
After the two brothers were alone, Liu Yu looked his younger brother up and down.
When Guard A told him in his letter that Yue'er hadn't suffered at all, he initially thought that the other party was afraid of making him worry, so he didn't dare to tell him the truth.
Now that she has seen her younger brother in person, Liu Yu pinched his wrist, which was noticeably fatter.
Well, it seems Guard A wasn't lying after all; his brother does seem to be doing quite well.
Liu Yuze: "She's gained weight and gotten fairer."
Upon hearing this, Liu Qingyue quickly touched her face. "Is it...is it that obvious? Then...wouldn't it be very ugly?"
"How could that be? When we broke up, you were so thin. Now you've only gained a little weight, but you're still the same beautiful Yue'er."
Originally, Liu Qingyue was somewhat apprehensive because her elder brother had gone to great lengths to sever ties with the Liu family.
He knew that his older brother was doing all this to protect him and their mother.
But in his memory, his elder brother was always the gentle, refined, and humble gentleman.
He rarely showed any scheming or calculating side to Liu Qingyue.
So when Liu Qingyue suddenly heard that her older brother had done so many things, her first reaction was that she found it hard to accept.
Seeing that her older brother was still the same older brother who loved her, cared for her, and protected her, Liu Qingyue felt less fearful.
Liu Yuze: "Alright, tell me what happened after you got lost."
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