Lu Qian returned to town with his parents on the third day of the ninth lunar month.
He only learned of the events that had occurred in town after they left when he received a message from his servants who had stayed in the mansion.
Lu Qian was furious; someone was trying to ruin his reputation!
On the way, he also discussed this matter with his parents. When they talked about it that day, they mentioned it in the main hall of the courtyard and then decided to decline the marriage. Who spread the news will be known when they return to the mansion. Outsiders certainly do not know about this matter.
When asked if it might be someone from the manor, his mother gave his father a cold look. Seeing his mother's expression, Lu Qian roughly understood what was going on.
So, upon returning to the mansion, Madam Lu and Lu Qian immediately summoned all the servants for questioning, one by one, to see which servants had been in contact with the concubines or if there had been any changes in their relationships.
Master Lu seemed to have something on his mind, and after returning, he went to the side courtyard to visit his three concubines.
In reality, he was also going to gather information.
They would occasionally bicker and fight amongst themselves in the mansion, but he couldn't be bothered with it. After all, his most outstanding son was the legitimate heir, and his family fortune was to be inherited by his son. The concubines were just things he used to amuse himself when he was bored.
Although he didn't love his legal wife, Madam Lu, he always respected her. After marrying him, she was wholeheartedly devoted to him. It was just that her personality wasn't to his liking, so he only brought three concubines into the manor for fun.
As long as they behave themselves, even though they are over thirty now, he is willing to support them, provided that they do not cause trouble in the backyard of the mansion.
Although he didn't know which concubine it was, he knew it must be one of the three. Two of them had given birth to two daughters for him, but neither of them had given birth to a son. Logically, they should have been hoping for Lu Qian's well-being so that they could take good care of their two younger sisters in the future.
He even suspected that it might be the work of Xiao Si, who hadn't given birth yet. So, the first stop on his way to the backyard was Xiao Si's yard.
In one afternoon, the three of them had roughly figured out what had happened.
It wasn't the fourth mistress, nor the third, but the second mistress who did it.
The young man's surname was Liu. The last place Master Lu went to was Liu's small courtyard. At that time, she was sitting in the courtyard with her daughter doing needlework.
Logically, children born to concubines could be sent to be raised by the principal wife. Unfortunately, Madam Lu was petty. After the concubine gave birth, she warned Master Lu that she would not raise the child born to the concubine, nor should she expect her to take on the responsibilities of a mother. Her only child was Lu Qian.
Therefore, the children born to concubines were raised by the concubines themselves. They were kept in the backyard all day and never went out to see the outside world. It is conceivable that these two daughters would not be raised to be very magnanimous.
The outside world only knew that the Lu family had two concubine daughters, but no one had ever seen them.
As for the music, chess, calligraphy, and painting they learned, these were all taught by female tutors hired by Master Lu to teach his two daughters.
The reason Liu did this was because one day when she went out for tea, a man in black secretly followed her back to the mansion and made a deal with her. He told her to keep an eye on Lu Qian in the mansion and to tell him any news she got about him when he came to collect the information.
If she listens to him and helps him with his work in the future, he has a way to help her daughter become the legitimate daughter of the Lu family.
Only by becoming the legitimate daughter of the Lu family can her daughter marry into a prestigious family and become a proper legal wife.
Liu herself had had enough of the humiliation of being a concubine and did not want her daughter to become someone's concubine in the future. She also did not want her daughter to be married off to a poor family by Madam Lu and have to live a hard life after returning home.
Because only daughters of wealthy families could become wives if they married into farming families in villages near the town, since poor families couldn't afford to take concubines.
Actually, she was just being stubborn. Although Madam Liu didn't like her illegitimate daughter, she wouldn't mistreat her. For the sake of the Lu family's reputation, she had to find a wealthy illegitimate son for her daughter to marry into, so that she would definitely have no worries about food and clothing in the future.
It can only be said that Liu was bewitched and went astray. Another point is that after she had contact with the man in black a few times, she became attracted to his body.
Master Lu was twelve years older than her and had taken two more concubines after her. Now that she was just over thirty, he no longer bothered to come to her room and could only sleep with her twice a year. She knew that Master Lu was tired of her, but she was only thirty and needed a man at night. In addition, the man in black was strong and handsome, and had even tried to seduce her twice. Therefore, Liu did not hesitate to have feelings for someone else.
However, she hasn't had the chance to get involved with that man in black yet!
She planned that once her daughter became the legitimate daughter of the Lu family and married into a good family, she would feign illness to redeem herself from the Lu family and live happily with that person. This was her backup plan.
However, she never expected that although she had accomplished the task, the man in black never came to see her again, nor did he tell her how to help her daughter become the legitimate daughter of the Lu family. She waited until Master Lu and the others returned, and that very afternoon they entered her room and questioned her with some ambiguous questions.
When Liu saw Master Lu arrive, she had a bad feeling. Unfortunately, after Master Lu asked her only a few questions, Madam Lu led her men to tie Liu up and drag her out of the house.
Master Lu did not stop it. After torture and interrogation, Liu couldn't take it anymore and confessed.
But when asked where she could find the man in black, she didn't know. She only said that the man in black had come to her, but after she spread the news throughout the town, the man in black disappeared and never came to see her again.
The concubine, Liu, was beaten half to death by Master Lu himself. She was then locked up to prevent any word from leaking out, and the person behind the scenes was to be caught, confronted, and dealt with afterward.
Lu Qian was almost furious. He glared at his father and told him to deal with his woman himself. He quickly rode out of the mansion. He had to find Zhou Quan and Li Mai first. He had to explain things to them first, otherwise, his relationship with Zhou Tao might really be over.
Night had already fallen when he arrived at the restaurant. The Lu family's pomegranate shop was already closed, so he rode his horse to the Li residence.
When he arrived, Li Mai and Zhou Quan were sitting and talking in the courtyard. When they saw him, they both looked at him indifferently.
"I'm sorry, I haven't been in town for a while, so I didn't know someone was spreading those rumors about me," Lu Qian quickly explained to Zhou Quan.
Zhou Quan frowned. "Have you offended someone? Or is this something the woman's family leaked to force you to accept the marriage?"
In fact, Li Mai and Zhou Quan had already figured out the general truth of the matter after they returned, and they had a general idea of what was going on. They were just waiting for Lu Qian.
Zhou Quan's words startled Lu Qian: "You mean, the person behind this might be someone from my aunt's side who ordered it?"
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