"That year, I traveled around and came to a remote village on the border of Xiaoyue. I stayed overnight at the home of an old lady in the village."
That very night, a band of bandits came to the village and began burning, killing, and looting. No one was spared, from the elderly to newborns.
I wanted to rush out to save the villagers, but before I could even leave the house, flaming arrows shot into it. I only had time to rush to the next room to rescue the old woman.
The old woman had been shot in the chest by an arrow, and I was too weak to care about the rest of the village. I could only carry the wounded old woman and flee the village.
As I left the village, I looked back and saw the leader's face. He wasn't a bandit at all; he was Duan Yao, the leader of the Imperial Guards!
My aunt and I escaped to the mountain. The village at the foot of the mountain had been slaughtered, and the raging fire had burned the village to the ground.
The old woman was shot with an arrow and was dying. After learning my identity, she held my hand tightly and told me everything.
She was the wet nurse who escaped the palace with the prince. To escape Empress Wu's pursuit, she put the little prince in the river, then slashed her face and begged her way to this village where she stayed.
Unexpectedly, Empress Wu's people still discovered it. She was unwilling to accept this and asked me to avenge the villagers.
Lu Junyuan paused at this point.
Su Ruojin looked at him and asked the crucial question, "Why did the wet nurse tell you everything? What if you are also one of Empress Wu's people? What chance would the little prince have of surviving?"
"Because at that time my father was still a clean official praised by everyone in Quan Xiaoyue."
Su Ruojin looked at Lu Hong. As far as she knew, Lu Hong was now a notorious corrupt official whom everyone in Xiaoyue hated.
At this moment, Xiao Yanchu spoke up, "So after you came back, Lord Lu decided to pledge allegiance to the Empress, transforming himself from an honest official into a corrupt one, in order to deceive the Empress and secretly search for the young prince. Once he found him, he would seize the opportunity to put the young prince on the throne."
“The Regent is right,” Lu Hong said. “Only by becoming a corrupt official and giving the ill-gotten silver to the Empress and the Imperial Advisor can I make Empress Wu lower her guard against me, and only then can I rise step by step and control more power.”
"So Princess Shang is the same?" Su Ruojin added.
“Yes, I married the princess so that Empress Dowager Wu would feel more at ease with the Lu family,” Lu Junyuan replied.
I see.
This explains why Lu Hong was promoted so quickly.
This also explains why Lu Junyuan remained unmoved when Hu Qing sent him the news that Princess Yuening was keeping male lovers.
It was all just a matter of using and acting; where did the love come from? If there was no love, why should we care?
Su Ruojin seemed to realize something, "Was that time when Steward Qiu went to Jishetang to ask for someone also an act?"
"It can only be said that it was half true and half false. It was true that he asked Doctor Wei to treat Dapu, and it was false that Uncle Qiu was arrogant. However, I did not expect that the people from Shuntian Prefecture would take action directly."
"So, the silver that the middle-aged man with the broken leg found, you had it delivered there?"
Su Ruojin recalled overhearing a middle-aged man chatting with someone at Miaoshoutang, mentioning that he had found a bag of silver.
What a coincidence!
Lu Junyuan nodded. "I had Uncle Qiu secretly send silver to each of the injured as compensation."
"Then how can you be so sure that Dap is the person you're looking for?" Su Ruojin asked.
"Your Highness, you may not know this, but Empress Wu killed so many of the concubines' children, and there are so many people in the palace who resent her."
Although people dared not speak out against their anger, even the smallest ant can sometimes bite.
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