Chapter 50 Chapter 50 Family Law
Lu Chen suddenly opened his eyes.
The candlelight in the bathroom was dimmed by the steam, casting a faint shadow on the blue bricks.
The maid behind him approached cautiously, holding a celadon teacup in her white hands and handing it to him. A silver bracelet on her wrist dangled and swayed lightly with her movements, brushing against the back of his hand, bringing a slight chill.
"My dear, would you like some tea?"
The voice was as sweet as a yellow oriole singing out of a valley, so soft and mellow that it seemed as if water might drip out of it.
Lu Chen paused for a moment, then slowly shifted his gaze from the silver bracelet to the man's face. "Who are you?"
The maid lowered her head slightly, her slender neck curved into a gentle arc, and said softly, "I, Tan Yun, was ordered by the Madam to come here to serve you, my lord..."
Hearing this, Lu Chen raised his eyes and glanced at her, his voice unclear as to whether he was happy or angry, "Madam?"
Tan Yun nodded softly in agreement. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the young man lazily leaning in the bathtub. A thin, lean chest like white jade was faintly visible in the rippling water. His skin was thin, tough, firm, and well-defined. He did not look as green as a teenager, but instead had the charm of a grown man, which was very attractive.
Her face suddenly flushed and her heart began to beat fast. As if possessed by some mysterious force, she mustered up her courage and stepped closer.
The fluttering of her sleeves during the movement brought with it a few breaths of extremely light scent of apricot blossoms, exactly the same as the soft fragrance on her body.
Even though they hadn't seen each other for months, just by smelling this scent, all those familiar and intimate memories came rushing in like a burst dam, roaring to swallow him completely.
妱妱……
Lu Chen's eyes darkened, his Adam's apple rolled up and down slightly, and his long, bony fingers unconsciously exerted force, clasping the wall of the bucket tightly.
Tan Yun noticed his unusualness and secretly felt that she might have caught the young master's eye. She grew bolder and gently reached out to touch his bare shoulders, "Let me help you bathe..."
Just as his fingertips were about to touch the thin, strong muscle, Lu Chen grabbed his wrist.
“…My dear!”
He exerted force on his hand, which was as hard as iron. Tan Yun couldn't help but tremble and cry out in pain.
Lu Chen's expression had completely turned cold, and his deep black eyes stared at her coldly, "Who gave you the incense?"
Tan Yun trembled and looked at him in panic, feeling a little overwhelmed for a moment: "My dear, my dear, do you not like it? This incense was ordered by the Madam to ask Xiaochan for it... Um!"
With a splash, water splashed in the bathtub. Lu Chen suddenly raised his hand, and his wet palm tightly grasped the slender neck in front of him. His five fingers were like iron clamps, suddenly tightening.
"Uh... cough..." Tan Yun's face turned purple and red, his eyes were full of fear. He tried desperately to cough and gasp, but he couldn't make a sound. Water marks meandered down his neck and gradually blurred into a pool on his thin chest-length blouse.
"Her fragrance is worthy of you."
The air in his throat became thinner and thinner, and Tan Yun was on the verge of suffocation. He instinctively climbed onto his arm, twisting and struggling violently like a fish out of water.
The heat was rising, and the fragrance was wafting into his nostrils. Lu Chen's heart became more and more agitated, and the violence and hatred in his heart surged up like a tide.
She hated others for using her perfume, and she hated even more for the people who used it and left her without looking back.
Occasionally, there were a few extremely dazed moments, and a trace of inexplicable relief flashed through his mind, because he knew that with Xie Yunzhou's help, she would not have a hard time outside, nor would she be easily bullied.
But what followed was a more violent and clear hatred that was almost engraved in his heart. She was clearly his mistress, but she was accompanied by other men. The mere thought of it made him so hateful that he wanted to kill her and was burning with jealousy.
Lu Chen watched coldly as Tan Yun was strangled until his eyes rolled back and his larynx crackled, until he was about to suffocate to death. Only then did he loosen his grip and let the man under his palm slide to the ground like a puddle of mud.
The shackles around his neck were suddenly released, and air rushed in suddenly. Tan Yun lay in a puddle on the ground in a panic, covering his throat and gasping for breath, and couldn't stop coughing violently.
"Get out."
Hearing this in a trance, Tan Yun struggled to his feet and was about to escape when Lu Chen coldly called him back, "Go to Songchun Courtyard and ask the lady to take a close look at the wound on your neck."
Tan Yun nodded in panic, not daring to stay any longer, and staggered out the door as if running for his life.
The bathroom fell into dead silence again.
Lu Chen stood up, casually pulled on an outer robe, and with a gloomy look on his face, he walked back to the couch barefoot and sat in silence for a long time.
There was still a double mandarin duck pillow on the bed, made of the fabric they had chosen together and the pattern she had embroidered herself.
But she had been gone for too long.
I could no longer smell her soft fragrance on the pillow.
The night watchman ticked, and the moonlight shifted gently. After a long silence, Lu Chen stood up, walked to the wardrobe, and pulled out a dark robe to put on.
As expected, he had barely straightened his clothes when a maid arrived at the door, her voice filled with suppressed nervousness and trepidation: "Master... Master, have you rested? Madam, please go to the ancestral hall. I have something to say to you."
Lu Chen curled the corner of his lips slightly and walked out.
After midnight, the north wind was blowing fiercely, biting my bones.
Bright candles had been lit in the ancestral hall, illuminating the surrounding area. The spirit tablet of Mr. Lu was placed upright on a carved rosewood table, with green smoke curling from the incense burner.
Zheng Lanbi stood quietly in front of the coffin for a long time. When she heard Lu Chen coming in, she unconsciously straightened her back slightly.
"Kneel down."
Lu Chen calmly glanced at the cushion in front of him, lifted the corner of his robe, and knelt directly on the blue bricks.
A deep muffled sound almost hit Zheng Lanbi's heart.
Unable to hold on any longer, she turned around abruptly and looked at the young man kneeling upright on the ground.
Her son no longer had the gentle and elegant appearance of his youth. His face had lost its youthfulness, and his eyes and eyebrows were tough like an adult man. He knelt on the cold and hard blue brick ground, standing tall like a stone statue.
"Just a country girl, but you're so depressed that you feel like a completely different person... You're really a loser! You've brought shame upon the Lu family!"
Lu Chen's expression was indifferent. "How is my son different from before?"
"...What's the difference?" Zheng Lanbi asked in a trembling voice, "You ask me what's the difference?"
With a crisp "clang" sound, she suddenly threw the small diamond-shaped mirror in her sleeve out, and it hit Lu Chen's knee hard.
"Take a good look at yourself in the mirror and see what you look like now!"
Lu Chen lowered his eyes calmly.
The candlelight flickered, and the bronze mirror reflected half of a pale face and a pair of lifeless and cold eyebrows.
"Sanlang," Zheng Lanbi said, feeling both pained and anxious, "There are countless women in this world, are you sure she's the only one for you?!"
Lu Chen lowered his eyes, tightened his jaw, and said nothing.
Seeing his silent resistance, Zheng Lanbi angrily scolded him, "Ever since I wrote the divorce letter, your fate with her has been severed! In this world, how can a beautiful woman without a father or a mother find it easy to survive on her own? Now, half a year has passed, and she might have remarried. After a while, I'm afraid she might even have a child! What can I do if you still refuse to change your mind?!"
Lu Chen pursed his lips and sneered.
Zheng Lanbi shuddered violently.
Although he didn't say anything explicitly, the cruelty in his eyes, as a mother, how could she not understand?
As if deeply stung by that gaze, Zheng Lanbi's fingertips trembled, and she staggered back, picked up the thick rattan stick on the table, and whipped it hard towards Lu Chen's back!
"Crazy... You're really crazy..." She took a deep breath, and every word was almost squeezed out from between her teeth. "Today, I will wake you up on behalf of your father, you unfilial son!"
Zheng Lanbi was extremely furious. She used all her strength in her hands and whipped down with a rattan whip as thick as two fingers. There was a crisp "snap" sound, which made her shiver slightly and her wrist went numb.
Lu Chen did not dodge or evade, but gritted his teeth and endured it. His back became even straighter than a bamboo.
After more than ten lashes, blood was already visible on the cane. Zheng Lanbi suddenly stopped, her hand gripping the cane trembling. She raised her chin slightly, her eyes reddened. "Do you admit your fault?"
The assassination attempt that night had already left some scars, and after being hit several times suddenly, Lu Chen was almost unable to stand steadily on his knees. His back felt as if it was burned by fire, and his chest was filled with blood and energy, and his throat was faintly filled with blood.
However, the more pain I felt, the more regret I felt.
The bloodstain on her arm appeared uncontrollably in front of my eyes, so hideous that it was glaring and heartbreaking.
In a trance, I felt that even if I suffered more, it would not be enough to compensate her for even a little bit of her grievances.
His throat rolled violently a few times, and after swallowing down the churning blood, Lu Chen raised his eyes and looked at his mother.
He only asked in a hoarse voice, "When I was not around that day, did mother punish her like she does today?"
Unexpectedly, he was so paranoid. Zheng Lanbi's hair was disheveled, and she was breathing heavily, her voice filled with uncontrollable pain. "You are my only child in this life... I just want to see you marry a virtuous and noble woman, have children with you, and live a peaceful old age. Is there anything wrong with that? Why don't you agree?!"
"Is that so?" Lu Chen's lips suddenly curled into a faint smile. "I wonder what mother cares about more, her son's safety or your dignity."
"Sanlang!" Zheng Lanbi's lips trembled with anger. "...What nonsense are you talking about!"
The candlelight in the ancestral hall suddenly burst into a spark. Lu Chen looked up at his father's portrait. The eyebrows and eyes of the person in the painting were immersed in the candlelight, and his originally gentle and elegant appearance became increasingly blurred.
He pulled the corner of his lip and said lightly: "Mother, do you really think I know nothing? Mother once had an old relationship with the teacher of the Zheng family, but later because that teacher came from a humble background and had no prominent family background, you resolutely abandoned him and married someone else.
But a dozen years later, the situation changed, and the Lu family fell into decline. The former little teacher had a successful career, holding the rank of third-rank official, and his wife was in harmony... Mother has always been proud and arrogant, and she always insisted on this tone, fearing that her son would make a mistake and make people look down on you again, and laugh at you for marrying the wrong man. Mother, did I say anything wrong?
Zheng Lanbi's pupils suddenly shrank, and her whole body began to tremble. She could only stand steadily by leaning against the table.
Lu Chen seemed unaware of this, and raised the corners of his lips sarcastically with a cold smile.
"You were a daughter of a noble family, enjoying a glorious life in the first half of your life, envied by all. Naturally, you couldn't stand the harshness of the world after your husband's family was convicted and felled. For this reason, when I was sentenced to exile and was about to be escorted out of the capital, even though you knew your life was uncertain, your mother never even visited me once."
"What mother has always wanted is a young scholar who can bring honor to our family and earn you an imperial edict, not a convicted criminal who has his fame and reputation stripped away and becomes disabled and banished to the army."
Before he met Meimei, no one treated him kindly with pure love and without asking for anything in return, not even his mother who gave birth to him.
Apart from his sister, no one would want Lu Bingyan, who had nothing and was half disabled.
He doesn't want anything.
The only thing he can't lose is his sister.
Anyone can betray him.
Only his sister-in-law cannot do that.
After a while, Lu Chen stretched out his hand to support himself on a brick in front of him, and with the help of his hands, he stood up. He said in a hoarse voice, "Mother asked me before if I had to find her. Today, I will make it clear to you - yes. Even if it means sacrificing my own life, I will find her."
"As for the honor and glory that Mother desires, I have already sought your imperial title. From now on, Mother, please consider that you have never had a son like me."
After saying that, he didn't stay any longer. He gritted his teeth, turned around with difficulty, and walked out the door.
As he walked down the stone steps in front of the ancestral hall, he could faintly hear Zheng Lanbi's sobbing, which she was trying hard to suppress.
Lu Chen lowered his eyes slightly, without stopping for a moment, and walked back towards the East Courtyard step by step against the biting night wind.
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