Chapter 180: Unexpected Guest
Walking in the garden full of chrysanthemums, looking at those rockeries, pavilions, small bridges, and flowing water, Lu Xiang felt deeply moved and sighed endlessly, “Alas, I thought I would be stuck in Congshan Ward for the rest of my life, but I never expected there would be a day to return north of the Luo River.” As he spoke, the old man’s eyes reddened and he said, “If your grandmother were still alive, she would definitely be very happy!”
“Grandfather…” Lu Ying’s tears fell at once. Supporting Lu Xiang, she teared up and said, “Grandmother’s spirit in heaven will surely see it.”
Seeing the two wiping tears there, Lu Yun felt nothing in his heart. Because he had never met that elderly person at all. His heart couldn’t help but feel a bit gloomy as he thought to himself, ‘I am not truly Lu Yun after all…’
At this moment, a guard came from ahead and softly reported, “Old Master, Miss, Young Master, there is a guest in the Front Hall.”
“I’ll go take a look.” Lu Yun quickly said, as he somewhat wanted to escape from there.
Lu Xiang’s eyes were red, so it was naturally inconvenient for him to meet guests. He nodded in agreement. Lu Ying did not forget to instruct, “Just say Grandfather is too tired from moving and has already gone to bed.”
“Got it.” Lu Yun nodded and quickly left the garden.
After leaving the garden, he let out a long breath and cast that untimely melancholy aside. He secretly mocked himself, ‘People are just never satisfied…’
Then he steadied himself and walked into the Front Hall.
In the Front Hall, a somewhat familiar middle-aged man was standing in the room, expressionlessly examining the furnishings inside the room.
“Who might this senior be…?” Lu Yun had face blindness and couldn’t remember others’ names, so he could only ask honestly.
“I am Lu Ren.” The man gave Lu Yun a deep look and said, “You are Lu Yun, right?”
“Yes, your young nephew.” Lu Yun searched his mind for the name Lu Ren, but still found nothing. Although he had previously used a watermelon rind to make Lu Ren eat dirt, he had no idea what the other’s name was.
“Is your father at home?” Lu Ren slowly walked toward Lu Yun and asked, “I am… your father’s subordinate.”
“My father has gone to the yamen.” Lu Yun answered.
“Didn’t he request long leave from the Court of Judicial Review?” Lu Ren said again.
“My father is no longer at the Court of Judicial Review,” Lu Yun answered honestly, though he felt the other’s questions were a bit strange. “He is now working at the Chancellery.”
“Is that so?” The other was stunned upon hearing this and said, “To be a Secretary in the Chancellery? Though it’s a lateral transfer, being close to the water gets the moon first, so it’s quite a good position.”
“It’s Chancellery Vice Minister.” Lu Yun said softly.
“Oh?” Lu Ren was clearly stunned and said in shock, “He actually became a Fourth Rank Minister, and a Chancellery Vice Minister at that?!”
“…” Lu Yun’s temperament was somewhat shy and he generally wouldn’t stare at a stranger’s face right away, but the other’s speech and behavior were strange, and he kept approaching. This made him feel somewhat uncomfortable, so he began to size up this Lu Ren. Upon looking, he felt even more puzzled, only to see that the other’s facial mask was extremely stiff. Even though his tone was filled with shock at this moment, there was not the slightest expression on his face.
From Lu Yun’s profound disguise skills, this person seemed to be wearing a fake mask. He couldn’t help but secretly become vigilant.
But the other clearly did not care about Lu Yun’s reaction and fell into rage on his own: “Good, good, usurping the nest, rising to the heavens in a single step, your dad truly has heaven-defying methods!”
Lu Yun frowned tightly upon hearing this. How could this possibly be something a subordinate would say?
Seeing this, that guard stepped forward to the Lu Ren and said, “Watch your mouth!” He then went to push and shove him, wanting to keep him away from their Young Master, “Our Young Master does not welcome you, please leave immediately!”
“Get lost!” Lu Ren let out a low roar and with one palm sent the guard flying. His movements were truly too fast; Lu Yun wanted to stop him but it was already too late!
With a boom, the guard solidly crashed into a sandalwood flower stand. That extremely sturdy flower stand immediately fell apart. Looking at the guard again, his chest was deeply caved in, blood still gushing from his mouth, and the man was already dead…
“Who exactly are you?!” Lu Yun erupted in anger upon seeing this and deeply blamed himself. If he had not been disturbed by the emotions that arose in the garden just now and failed to detect the other’s killing intent at the first moment, perhaps he could have saved this guard.
“Haha, good question!” Lu Ren let out a ferocious laugh, reached out, and peeled off his own facial mask, revealing a completely different face brimming with killing intent.
“Lu Jian?!” Lu Yun’s pupils shrank. He had originally planned to immediately capture this scoundrel, but after recognizing the other’s identity, he forcibly held back.
“That’s right, it’s me!” A cruel smile hung on Lu Jian’s face as he sized up Lu Yun like a lion eyeing its prey, grinding his teeth and saying, “Your father caused me to fail at the last moment, family destroyed, reputation ruined. Today, I will make him pay back tenfold!”
Lu Jian, who had fled out of guilt, had actually disguised himself as Lu Ren and openly appeared in Lu Xin’s home!
.
Back then, when Lu Jian bought killers to murder, he naturally had a guilty conscience.
That day at the Grand Court, as soon as he saw Lu Xin, Lu Wei, and the others slip away, he felt something was off and wanted to follow to check, but he was called by the Clan Leader. They chatted idly, and Lu Jian couldn’t get away, so he could only irritably cope while his mind was in turmoil. In the end, he couldn’t hold back and asked Lu Shang, “Where did Older Brother and Lu Wei, Lu Xin, and the others go?”
“It seems one of Lu Song and them had a mishap while practicing martial arts.” Lu Shang intentionally delayed Lu Jian and had long thought of how to dispel his doubts. “No big deal, let them go check. At worst, there’s still Lu Xian; nothing major will happen.”
“Mm.” Lu Jian indeed felt much relieved. At this time, the Jingyang Bell rang, signaling the time for court. He also gave up the idea of finding an excuse to follow.
Throughout the entire morning court, Lu Jian was absent-minded, not knowing if the White Ape Society had succeeded. He finally endured until the end of morning court and planned to hurry and check the situation, but was once again held up by Lu Chou.
“Fourth Brother,” Lu Chou said to him with a serious expression, “The Finance Department has recently withdrawn several large sums from me in succession. What exactly are you using them for?” Although clan regulations stipulated that the Steward of Storage would allocate funds to the Finance Department annually according to budget, there would always be unexpected situations and occasional needs, so the Finance Steward also had some authority for temporary fund transfers. For example, the previous expenditure for relieving disaster victims was not in the initial budget, and Lu Jian could temporarily withdraw some unplanned grain from the Storage Department’s warehouses.
In the past few days, Lu Jian had successively used his temporary fund transfer authority to withdraw a massive sum of several hundred thousand strings from the Storage Department’s treasury. The amount was truly too large, so Lu Chou had no choice but to report to the Clan Leader. Who knew that Lu Shang told him to stick to Lu Jian today and absolutely not let him leave for half a step. Lu Chou was puzzled, but Lu Shang refused to say more, only saying he had some suspicions and would tell him once confirmed.
Lu Chou could only accept the order. Fortunately, he was just about to question Lu Jian about this, so it didn’t seem too abrupt.
Hearing Lu Chou’s question, Lu Jian’s heart tightened, but he feigned nonchalance on the surface and said, “Some funds I put out for interest collection had issues, so I took money from you to tide over for a few days. Once I recover the money, I’ll naturally pay you back.”
“That’s no small matter. What if the funds can’t be recovered?” Lu Chou immediately looked anxious and said, “No, I need a number!” Without another word, he pulled Lu Jian onto the carriage: “Hurry to the Finance Department!”
“I have other matters!” Lu Jian wanted to shake off his hand.
But Lu Chou did not let go and frowned, “Nothing is bigger than this! The Storage Department has already cleaned up too much mess for your Finance Department this year; we can’t have another one!”
“…” Lu Jian knew this Lu Chou was stubborn. If he didn’t agree, he would keep pestering. He could only go back to the Finance Department with him first and deal with this guy later.
As soon as they entered the Finance Department, Lu Jian saw Lu Ren waiting outside his room like a medicated patch. As soon as he saw Lu Jian enter, Lu Ren came up with a face full of smiles: “Brother, just agree to it.”
“Agreed, agreed, get lost!” Lu Jian irritably waved his hand, not knowing what was going on today. Why was everyone sticking to him?!
