Chapter 141 - 77 Executioner_2

The continuous "shasha" of night rain showed no signs of stopping. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Lu Tong spoke calmly, "Uncle, I’ve been thinking..."

"Do the living feel guilt when they err? Does their conscience trouble them? Do they toss and turn at night, unable to sleep?"

"I’ve observed for a long time and found that they do not, not at all."

The business at Liu’s Noodle Shop on Que’er Street was thriving. Liu Zixian had become an official, Liu Zide was preparing for the autumn examinations, Wang Chunchi had acquired a gold bracelet, and the Liu Family was considering moving to a larger house.

Everything was going well, extremely well, so well it sparked envy.

Liu Kun mumbled with trembling lips, "Little Girl Tong..."

Lu Tong interrupted him, "But all this goodness is built upon the blood of the Lu Family. How can it not ignite rage?"

Liu Kun took a frightened step back.

"Little Girl Tong, listen to me, when the government officers were hunting people down and came to my place, Brother Qian did not have the chance to escape..."

Lu Tong laughed.

"Uncle, you know better than I what kind of person my second brother was. The moment he realized he was being pursued by government officers, with his character of not wanting to implicate others, he would have immediately cut ties with you and hidden somewhere no one could find him. Yet, in the end, he was found at your house.

"What did you feed him? A sleeping draught?"

Liu Kun’s fingers spasmed.

Lu Tong paused briefly, her cold gaze fixing on him, "After Second Brother was captured, it was you who wrote to Changwu County to report the incident. When my father met with misfortune and drowned on his way to the capital, didn’t it also involve Uncle’s hand?"

"You betrayed not only my second brother but also my father and mother."

Liu Kun’s mind exploded with a loud bang, and his foot stumbled over a dark stone, causing him to fall to the ground.

That night, he surrendered Lu Qian to Fan Zhenglian but also saw the "letter" Lu Qian had left behind, which turned out to be the evidence Lu Qian had risked returning to retrieve.

A man who had lived life timidly and honestly, in that moment, he summoned an inexplicable courage and ambition. He wished to use these items to exchange for a lifetime of immense wealth and, in a bustling place like Shengjing, to carve out a glorious future solely for the Liu Family.

Thus, in the dark chamber of the Trial Court, he proposed respectfully to Fan Zhenglian, "My lord, although Brother Qian has been captured, my cousin is a stubborn man. Knowing this matter, it is difficult to ensure he won’t cause trouble. It would be better to deal with him cleanly, to prevent endless troubles later on."

Fan Zhenglian lifted his eyelids to glance at him, "Oh? Have any good ideas? Let’s hear them."

He bowed even lower, "I can write a letter to Lu Qilin, luring him to come to Shengjing..."

A crow flew away from a branch, flapping its wings and breaking the night’s silence.

Liu Kun, watching her, helplessly attempted to defend himself, "I didn’t..."

"I heard that, Uncle, you’ve always wanted to take over a shop on Que’er Street but lacked a hundred taels of silver when the deal was almost closed because the shop owner reneged. Not long after my second brother was captured, you rented that shop. Coincidentally, the Imperial Court’s bounty for my second brother was exactly a hundred taels."

She looked at Liu Kun, "So my second brother’s life was worth a hundred taels of silver?"

"No, it’s not like that!" Liu Kun cried out in agony, his body collapsing to the ground.

Guilt that he had long tried to ignore now came surging forth, bringing with it panic and fear.

"Those people of higher status define the rules of the world, Uncle. Facing the Grand Preceptor’s Mansion, I do not expect you to bravely stand up for us, but at least you shouldn’t have been an accomplice to tyranny."

At the mention of "Grand Preceptor’s Mansion," Liu Kun abruptly came to his senses. He grasped at Lu Tong’s clothes as if it would make his words more convincing, "That’s right, Little Girl Tong, you know it. Brother Qian offended the Grand Preceptor’s Mansion, the Grand Preceptor’s Mansion! How could we possibly afford to offend them? They forced me, I was forced by them!"

"The Qi Family, the Fan Family, none of these families can we afford to offend. Little Girl Tong, if it were your father, he would have done the same! Faced with these people, we have no choice but to be slaughtered at their whim, don’t we?"

"No, not at all."

Lu Tong replied with a cold smile, "Aren’t they having problems now?"

Liu Kun was taken aback.

The woman in front of him said, "Isn’t Ke Chengxing already dead?"

Liu Kun’s grip loosened, and he fell back to the muddy ground, his gaze toward Lu Tong akin to witnessing a fierce ghost, "You... you..."

She smiled, "I did it."

The mountain mist was like smoke in the rain, gently washing the mud off the graves.

The woman in a cloak, adorned in plain white, had an ethereal beauty, with a white silk flower by her temples like the customary mourning attire, making her resemble a ravishing ghost that had crawled out of a coffin.

What had she just said? That she was responsible for the affairs of the Ke Family?

Continue read on readnovelmtl.com