HLnovel Chapter 228 Business is business
Chapter 228 Business is business
The old woman's body was sent to the mortuary, leaving only the rope hanging from the beam, swaying precariously in the wind. Lu Zhiyuan looked up at the rope, as if she were witnessing the old woman's entire life.
She was wrong, wrong in deceiving and harming the Lord, but who caused her to become what she is today?
The cleaned teapot and teacups were placed on the table, and the four stools were put back in their original positions. One of the four cushions was missing, which looked a little odd.
Soon, this house will welcome its new owner. The old woman and her past will gradually be forgotten and vanish like smoke.
Beside the teapot sat a red box, said to be the old woman's belongings. Opening it, besides jewelry and silver notes, was a bundle of letters tied with red string. Beneath the letters was a faded sachet. Through those letters, she glimpsed the old woman's emotional journey over the past few years.
She wrote about her reunion with her husband.
She was being harassed by thugs. He was dressed as a beggar and staggered out. She used the wooden stick in her hand to help drive them away. Because of her physical disability, she was beaten several times by those thugs. It was only through her quick thinking that she picked up a stone from the ground and fought desperately with the thugs, scaring them away.
Her husband dared not acknowledge her and tried to escape, but she saw the sachet hanging from his waist.
It was a gift from her before he went to war. Even after he became a beggar, even when he was covered in dirt, he kept that sachet very well. She rushed forward, hugged his waist, and asked him why he wouldn't acknowledge her as his husband. He vehemently denied it, insisting that he wasn't her husband, but just a beggar, and that he had found the sachet.
She didn't believe it. Although his appearance had changed, his figure had changed, his voice was hoarse, and he didn't move like before, she still recognized him as her husband. She walked up to him and lifted his disheveled hair. The once spirited and incredibly handsome young man had become terrifying, only his eyes remained the same as before.
She felt sorry for him, not knowing what he had been through in the past, and she hugged him and cried bitterly.
From her husband's account, she learned that he had narrowly escaped death and finally returned home only to find his home gone. Upon learning that she was still alive, he went to her parents' home, only to discover that her parents-in-law were also dead.
No one knew his despair, but fortunately, heaven had a sliver of mercy and allowed him to find her.
That day, they embraced and wept in a dilapidated cave, crying until their eyes were almost blind.
On that same day, they decided to go to the capital to seek justice for themselves.
Injured, poisoned, exhausted from a long journey, and falling ill, her husband's life was also coming to an end after she killed the prefect's family. Holding his gradually cooling body, her hatred grew infinitely stronger.
She thought, if the emperor hadn't been so incompetent in governing the country, why would her husband have gone to the battlefield? If he hadn't been so foolish and incapable, how could those people have dared to tamper with the military rations, to slaughter and slander soldiers at will? And those county magistrates and prefects—they were all chosen by the emperor; without the power granted to them by the emperor, how could they have dared to plunder other people's property and treat human life so lightly?
Corrupt officials deserve to die, corrupt bureaucrats deserve to perish, and emperors deserve to die even more.
After her husband's death, she wanted to enter the palace to find an opportunity to kill the emperor, but she was too old to enter. Coincidentally, the Eastern Palace needed manpower, so she took the opportunity to enter the Eastern Palace.
She was literate, taciturn, and meticulous in her work, quickly gaining the steward's trust. Among the many tasks, she chose to procure spices. Firstly, it made traveling easier; secondly, it allowed her to act discreetly.
She and Eunuch Chen reunited when they went out with the steward to familiarize themselves with the procurement of spices.
The Chen and Shen families were old friends. As the daughter-in-law of the Shen family, she naturally knew about the Chen family's affairs and had also met Eunuch Chen a few times. After many years apart, their reunion in the capital was naturally filled with emotion. Upon learning of Eunuch Chen's past, the two hit it off immediately and decided to take revenge on the imperial family together.
To avoid being discovered, they were extremely careful and meticulous. First, they replaced the spices with inferior ones, then with fake ones, and finally with poisonous ones.
Lu Zhiyuan recalled that seven years ago, when she first met the Crown Prince, he did have some symptoms of poisoning. It was she who secretly gave him an antidote pill, which cleared the toxins from his body.
At the time, Lu Zhiyuan didn't think much of it. The harem was rife with intrigue, and he was a thorn in the side of many; it was normal for him to be poisoned or suffer a setback. Knowing he was frequently poisoned, every time he came to Ronghua Palace, they would find an opportunity to examine his pulse. If they discovered he was poisoned, they would give him antidotes until he became immune to all poisons.
The Crown Prince was wary of everyone, but he neglected his own palace. If those stewards hadn't given her a hard time, she wouldn't have investigated the Eastern Palace so quickly. If she hadn't investigated, the old nanny wouldn't have hanged herself. If the old nanny hadn't hanged herself, the matter of the spices might have been kept secret.
In her letter, the nanny wrote that she had never been humiliated in the Eastern Palace. The Crown Prince was benevolent and kind to his servants; if he were to become emperor, he might be a wise ruler. The emperor was seriously ill, and the Empress had devoted herself to Buddhism. After years of seeking revenge, she felt increasingly that her revenge was meaningless. She decided to let the Crown Prince go, and to let herself go.
I checked the date; the letter was written three years ago. By then, the Crown Prince was immune to all poisons, and even though the nanny continued to tamper with his spices, she couldn't detect it.
I rummaged through the pile of letters and found one with fresh ink, then opened it.
In the letter, the nanny spoke of matters concerning Eunuch Chen. She said she advised him to give up his revenge and live a good life with Chunxi. She said Chunxi was a good girl and of marriageable age. Having no children and living alone, she was willing to give all the money she had saved over the years to Chunxi as a dowry.
Blinded by hatred, Eunuch Chen refused to listen to advice. At the end of the letter, she wrote that she had a dream in which she was killed by Eunuch Chen. She felt no fear of death, saying that she was a coward who wanted to die but couldn't bring herself to do it. Being killed by a friend she had known for many years was not a bad ending.
Lu Zhiyuan sighed and ordered that the old woman be given a proper burial. If possible, she would find her husband's grave and have her buried with him.
When the Crown Prince entered, she was burning the letters in Liu Ying's company. Liu Ying saw the Crown Prince and was about to bow when he gestured for her to be quiet. Liu Ying understood, smiled, and silently withdrew.
"Has Your Highness finished your work?"
"How did you know it was me if Ah Yuan didn't even turn around?"
Lu Zhiyuan didn't even look up, continuing to burn the letter in her hand: "Liu Ying is my personal maid, she grew up with me, I am familiar not only with her scent but also with her footsteps. Similarly, I have spent seven years with Your Highness, and I know everything about Your Highness."
"I went to the dungeon." The Crown Prince squatted down next to Lu Zhiyuan. "I saw how A-Yuan interrogated people."
"Don't you think A-Yuan went too far, Your Highness?" Lu Zhiyuan tilted her head and looked at the Crown Prince. "Eunuch Chen is a veteran in the palace, and A-Yuan didn't leave him any way out. Chunxi was just an accomplice, but A-Yuan had the people from the Commandant's Office take her away. According to the laws of Beiliang, without anyone pleading for her or intervening, she will have to stay in that prison for at least a few years. By the time she comes out, her youth will have faded, and she might even hold a grudge against A-Yuan."
“Ah Yuan has been merciful enough to her.” The Crown Prince patted her head as he had when she was a child. “The nanny had been kind to her, yet she could just stand by and watch her be killed. Even if Ah Yuan spares her, she will still resent Ah Yuan. Since it’s all about jealousy, let’s handle this officially. Ah Yuan is the Crown Princess, and she’s just a convicted slave. Even if she resents Ah Yuan, what can she do?”
“Your Highness is right.” Lu Zhiyuan let go, allowing the last letter to burn to ashes in the copper basin.