Chapter 73 Death Feigned: She really liked him too much!
"Let's go to the underworld and be a loving couple."
Blood seeped from his white clothes, turning the once pristine white into a dazzling red.
Her hands were also stained with human blood.
When Yan Lang realized what had happened, he almost fell off his seat. He stood up abruptly, stumbled to Yan Ning's side, and pushed Li Yunru away.
"Guards! The Li family has committed murder..."
"Let her go!" Yan Ning said.
Lord Yan said, "She hurt you, she..."
"Let her go, let her leave this place!" Yan Ning repeatedly emphasized.
"Don't be afraid, Liyang."
The man broke free from Yan Langzhu's support, clutching his bleeding wound, and shakily approached her, stroking her face. "Don't worry, with me here, no one can hurt you!"
The metallic, bloody stench filled her nostrils, and Li Yunru felt as if something was blurring her vision, making it impossible for her to see the person in front of her clearly.
"Let's go." He lowered his voice, making his injured and weak voice even deeper, but there was no anger in it; it was still as gentle as when he had coaxed her before.
"Let's go before I back out!"
He really disliked his daughter-in-law, Liyang, but now that his son was like this, she was still protecting him. His restraint just now was almost completely forgotten because of her fear.
What can he do?
"roll!"
Lord Yan roared in anger, losing his composure. Lu Wulang, unwilling to let his friend's efforts go to waste, took the initiative to go over and pull the man away.
They finally stopped after they had gone quite a distance from the hall.
The man said with a heavy heart, "The county magistrate is bold in love and hate, and acts decisively and ruthlessly. She is truly a heroine among women. But I still want to say to you, Changjun has never wronged you. In the past five days, the Yan Langzhu and the noble families have put pressure on him to divorce his wife and agree to the marriage with the Cui family. They want to reunite with the noble families and build a harmonious relationship for a hundred years. Under such heavy pressure, he has never given up."
"I know."
From Yan Langzhu's attitude towards her, and from Yan Ning's pained gaze, she could tell that he didn't.
But whether she has it or not isn't really that important to her.
It's as if the Yan family clearly knew that their son had no feelings for Cui Wan and had no premarital affair, yet they still went along with the rumors spread by the Cui family, agreed to the matter, and did all sorts of things to force them to separate and to force Yan Ning to agree.
The truth doesn't matter.
What matters is the result they want.
Lu Wulang never expected her to say that. Under the bright moonlight, the young woman stood tall and graceful, her black hair flying, her expression calm and composed, showing no trace of the sorrow and grief she had shown in the hall just now.
"you……"
Li Yunru had no intention of explaining anything to him, and simply said, "Please tell Changjun that if he really can't withstand the pressure from his family, then he should agree. It's fine if he agrees, I won't blame him."
Having said that, the man turned and left, disappearing into the night.
Watching the figure gracefully depart, Lu Wu seemed to understand something and sighed inwardly.
Changjun's affection was not misplaced after all, but alas...
well.
These worldly customs and etiquette are an invisible and intangible killing knife.
Whether they were noble scions of noble families or lowly peddlers and courtesans of the Qinhuai River, none could escape becoming victims of its blade.
Everyone has things they can't control, things they can't get, and things they can't have.
Nobody is wrong.
Li Yunru thought that she still liked him too much after all, and that she had actually said such a thing. She didn't mind agreeing, and she wouldn't blame him.
She clearly cares about it terribly!
It's simply because it's him!
But this powerful family couldn't tolerate even a fraction of her affection.
The autumn wind howled, freezing tears into frost, which then scattered in the night.
...
When Yan Ning saw the person being taken away, the tension in her heart eased, and then everything went black before her eyes, and she fainted.
Lord Yan had not expected the gathering to turn out this way, but he had no time to think too much about it and hurriedly called his servants to summon the doctor.
Kneeling in the Buddhist hall, Cui felt a strange unease that grew stronger with each passing moment. She twirled the sandalwood prayer beads in her hands, muttering something to herself as she twirled them faster and faster…
Finally, with a "bang," the string snapped, and the beads tumbled down like rain, jingling and scattering into every corner of the room.
With this sound came the return of the servant who had been sent to deal with Li Yunru's feigned death and departure from the capital. He reported that he had been waiting for a long time but had not yet seen the Lady of Liyang County.
At the same time, the servant in Xiangshan returned to report that Yan Changjun had been assassinated on Xiangshan and had been seriously injured and unconscious.
"ah!"
Upon hearing this, Cui felt as if the sky had fallen. She lost her balance and fell backward. Granny Chen quickly helped her up and scolded the servant who had come to report the news: "You blind fools! You can't even do this simple thing right. What use are you!"
Her words were unreasonable, but since the man was a favorite of the mistress, the messenger dared not contradict her and could only lower his head and admit his mistake.
Granny Chen scolded her and called the person away. She helped Cui Shi to a chair to sit down. Cui Shi grabbed her hand, trembling like a leaf, and kept asking, "Did I hear wrong? Changjun is injured? Did I hear wrong? How could that be?"
"Madam, don't worry," Chen Mama soothed gently. "The young master is with you at Xiangshan, so there won't be any major problems. Please wait a moment while I call someone to prepare the carriage. We'll go and take a look first."
"Yes, yes, let's see it first."
Cui suddenly realized and urged, "Go quickly and tell someone to prepare a carriage. I need to go to Fragrant Hills."
At this moment, all she could think about was Yan Ning's injury; she had completely forgotten about Li Yunru's failure to leave as planned.
Cui rushed to Fragrant Hills, arriving close to dawn, as the first light of day appeared in the east.
The banquet had been disrupted by the unexpected incident, and only the Yan family, Yan Ning's good friend Lu Wulang, and Xie family's young master who was worried about his injuries remained.
When Lu Wu saw Cui, he comforted Yan Ning on her behalf, saying, "Madam, don't panic. The doctor has already examined her and there is no danger to her life. It's just that she has an old ailment that hasn't fully recovered yet, and she has been worrying for many days. She needs some time to rest."
Upon hearing this, Cui's heart, which had been in her throat all the way, finally calmed down a bit, and she remembered to ask, "What exactly happened? Why were you attacked?"
Those people at that meeting were all respectable families; who would lay a hand on him?
"this……"
Lu Wu was stumped by the question and didn't know whether to answer or not. Seeing this, Cui knew something was amiss and asked Xie Liulang, who was standing to the side. However, Xie Liulang didn't say much, only saying, "I'll tell you about this myself after the eldest prince has sobered up."
"What's so hard to say!"
Lord Yan, having seen off his guests sometime earlier, returned and saw the two stammering. He snorted coldly and said, "Apart from that unorthodox and unruly Liyang, who would dare to treat a young master from a noble family like this!"
At this point, he was extremely dissatisfied and said, "I told you to deal with her as soon as possible to avoid future problems, but you didn't listen. Look at the state of things now!"
"Liyang?"
"She...she came to Fragrant Hills?"
Lord Yan said, "Not only did they come, but they also caused quite a scene, truly disgracing the Yan family!"
He got angrier and angrier the more he thought about it!
When had she ever been so humiliated? Ever since she married into the Yan family, nothing had gone smoothly!
At this moment, Cui was too preoccupied to comfort her husband. She had planned for Liyang to leave Jiankang tonight, and had even found a suitable substitute—a young girl from a family in the east of the city, eighteen years old and pretty, but unfortunately, she had died young from illness. Her father had sold her to a local gentry family for twenty taels of silver, and she had spent a hundred taels of silver to settle the matter. All she wanted was for Liyang to leave so that she could burn down the small building in Qingfeng Villa. Then everything would be reduced to ashes, and there would be no way to prove anything. It would be up to them to say whatever they wanted.
Lord Yan was aware of this matter and had approved of it, but he never expected...
What an unexpected turn of events!
This Liyang is so out of control!
"And where is Liyang now?" Cui asked.
"Who knows where she is!" Yan Langzhu said defiantly.
Lu Wulang was unaware of their plan, but as a scion of a prominent family, he had witnessed many things in his clan and could sense that it was not so simple. When the two questioned him, he did not tell the truth, saying, "I don't know either. I only took her out and then we parted in a hurry. I don't know which direction she went after she left."
That's half true and half false.
He really didn't know where the person had gone.
However, I still know which direction to go.
Regardless of whether Lu Wulang's answer was true or false, the two did not ask any further questions. They simply said that the two were kind-hearted and that they had worked hard all night, so they told them to go and rest.
They were intentionally avoiding people, which both Lu Wu and Xie Liulang could see, and they knew when to advance and retreat, so they did not insist.
After they left, only the couple remained. Only then did Madam Cui ask, "Did you send someone back to check if they had returned to the other residence?"
"I went there, but haven't received a reply yet."
At this point, Yan Langzhu's anger flared up again, and he said, "I told you to deal with her as soon as possible, but you kept thinking about this and that. Now look what happened! A woman's kindness is indeed useless when it comes to important matters!"
Cui was dissatisfied with his statement, but she didn't show it on her face. She accepted it and said, "I will handle it as soon as possible."
After saying this, the man said, "I'll go see Changjun."
Yan Ning was still unconscious and not fully conscious. He kept murmuring Li Yunru's name. Cui sighed as she looked at him, "What a fool. It's a pity he got such a girl."
She felt a pang of regret. If she hadn't gone along with him before, and had persisted after being refused the first time she let someone into his room, allowing him to experience the taste of love early on, would things have turned out differently?
He's been so stubborn since he was little; I don't know who he got it from.
She lovingly stroked the person's face, secretly shedding tears.
...
At midday, the men sent out to investigate finally returned with a report: "We found this item on the eastern cliff; it must belong to Lady Liyang."
It was a pair of Shu brocade jade shoes and a gold armlet carved with peony patterns.
She has always loved these flamboyant things, and this is indeed hers.
Looking at the two items, Cui asked, "Besides these, are there any others?"
The servant hesitated for a moment before saying, "We found some footprints at the scene that were different from the woman's. They were very messy and looked like a fierce struggle had taken place."
If it were just these two things, it could be said that she knew the outcome, couldn't bear the blow, and no longer wanted to plan to live a life of mere survival, so she jumped off the cliff.
However, this adds a third person...
Just as their gazes wandered and they were speculating, Cui Wan walked in from outside.
“I did it!” she admitted frankly.
The news struck like a thunderbolt through the room, then fell silent in an instant, with all the servants bowing their heads.
To live well, you have to pretend you didn't hear anything.
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