Chapter 207: Fleeing In Defeat
Seeing that Lu Yun wasn’t buying her act, Xie Min was deeply shaken and said somewhat dejectedly: “Then what do you want me to do?”
“I can’t tell you yet,” Lu Yun gazed deeply at Xie Min and said in a low voice: “You’ll know when the time comes.”
“Oh, like that…” Xie Min felt a wave of relief upon hearing this and nodded with a smile without thinking: “Alright, I promise you. Can you let me go now?”
But Lu Yun didn’t reply, merely looking at Xie Min with a cold laugh, his gaze just like looking at an idiot.
“What’s wrong?” Xie Min furrowed her delicate brows, not knowing what trick Lu Yun was up to now.
“You’re not young anymore, how are you still so naive?” Lu Yun said coldly: “Verbal promises mean nothing. What if you go back on your word later? What am I supposed to do?”
“I, Xie Min, keep my word.” Xie Min said proudly.
“Liar, you even deceive your own lovers…” Lu Yun lightly pointed out to Xie Min: “Pei Yukou still thinks you’re heading to Jiangnan even now, doesn’t he?”
“What?” Xie Min was stunned, not expecting Lu Yun to know even about this.
“Aren’t you going to hug your sister-in-law?” Lu Yun suddenly pinched his voice, imitating Xie Min’s tone, and said in a bizarre manner. After that, he grinned ferociously with a cold laugh: “I know every sordid thing you’ve done with your several lovers!”
“You…” Xie Min looked at the suddenly malevolent Lu Yun as if she had seen a ghost, unable to stop shivering. She was truly terrified out of her wits. If anyone else had even their bedroom pillow talk known inside out by someone, they would probably lose their ability to think too. “Are you human or ghost? How do you know everything so clearly?!”
“I just know it that clearly!” Lu Yun’s handsome face was full of terror, his voice chillingly eerie as he said: “So from now on, you can’t escape my palm. If you don’t want to be ruined and despised by all, obediently work for me!”
“What exactly are you?!” Xie Min couldn’t help trembling, terrified like a lamb awaiting slaughter.
“Lu Yun. Son of the Lu Clan’s Finance Steward.” Lu Yun smiled faintly, putting away his mad side, and ordered in a deep voice: “Write down every sordid thing you’ve done in detail, and then I’ll let you leave.” As he spoke, he glanced toward the southeast and said: “Hurry up. Once my father and the others arrive, even if I want to help you, I won’t be able to.”
Xie Min was completely dominated by boundless fear, not even daring to haggle. Not daring to delay a moment, she quickly took out paper and pen from the carriage, crouched in the carriage compartment, and wrote shakily, utterly ignoring that her pair of snow-white hemispheres were fully exposed.
But after just writing one line, Lu Yun roughly snatched the paper away, tore it to shreds, and said: “Too sloppy. Rewrite it!”
Xie Min fearfully glanced at Lu Yun, just like back in childhood when she was starting her education in the clan, facing the stern old mister. She hurriedly obeyed, rewriting it stroke by stroke.
This time her handwriting was much neater. After all, as a noble lady from a great clan, her script was elegant and beautiful, distinctive and highly recognizable.
Only then did Lu Yun nod in satisfaction. As she finished each sheet, he took it to read. He saw that Xie Min’s confession was extremely comprehensive, even beyond imagination, making Lu Yun secretly click his tongue in wonder…
She not only detailed her years of affair with Lu Jian, conspiring together to embezzle the Lu Clan’s vast sums, and seducing her husband’s younger brother to try to hoodwink everyone—things Lu Yun already knew—but also listed like a catalog all her amorous histories over the years with many prominent figures from various clans.
Lu Yun figured that if this confession were made public under heaven, the Lu Clan wouldn’t even need to deal with Xie Min; those wives whose husbands she seduced would devour her alive.
Xie Min had been completely bluffed by Lu Yun, thinking he had the full dirt on all her rotten deeds. That’s why she confessed so readily…
Seeing Xie Min writing more and more enthusiastically, Lu Yun couldn’t bear to watch anymore and interrupted her: “Alright, that’s enough. Sign and seal every page.”
Upon hearing this, Xie Min hurriedly stopped writing and obediently signed and sealed every page. After finishing, Lu Yun said again: “Now press your fingerprints on all of them.”
“But there’s no ink paste?” Xie Min said timidly.
Lu Yun said coldly: “Your own blood will do just as well.”
“Ah…” Xie Min was somewhat afraid of pain. Seeing Lu Yun reach for the Precious Sword, she hurriedly bit her own finger and, with a mournful face, pressed fresh red fingerprints on every confession sheet.
Only then did Lu Yun collect the stack of confessions and say indifferently: “You can go now.”
Xie Min felt as if granted a general amnesty, curtsied to Lu Yun, hurriedly jumped off the carriage, and ran toward the dock.
Xie Min’s group of subordinates also fled in panic. Lu Yun didn’t stop them. On the scene, only one box was broken, its spilled gold ingots tightly watched by Uncle Bao and the other two. As for the intact boxes, they were locked tight—whoever had the ability to carry one away, Lu Yun really wouldn’t mind giving it to him.
In the blink of an eye, Xie Min and the others had fled clean away, leaving only Lu Yun and Uncle Bao’s trio on the scene.
Lu Yun sat on one box and glanced at Uncle Bao: “You three, withdraw first.”
“Yes, Young Master.” Uncle Bao and the other two saluted Lu Yun and then hid in the shadows.
.
So, when the Lu Clan members and Pei Yukou arrived, they saw only Lu Yun alone, guarding the huge caravan, which looked quite strange.
“Yun’er, are you alright!” Lu Xin hurriedly rushed to Lu Yun’s side and looked him up and down. He remembered Lu Xian’s words, fearing Lu Yun had fought someone again and worsened his injuries.
“Father, I’m fine.” Lu Yun stood tall with fluttering robes, looking nothing like someone who had been in trouble.
Lu Wei and Lu Kan, however, headed straight for the carriages. They successively channeled their energy to break the locks on several boxes, and seeing them filled with shiny gold ingots, the two finally relaxed and laughed heartily at Lu Yun: “Good kid, you’ve done it!”
“I have not failed my mission.” Lu Yun returned to his usual gentle and refined demeanor, like a little lamb, completely different from his earlier mad and demonic self.
“Pei the Third, what do you have to say now?!” Lu Wei was excited and flushed, too caught up to say more to Lu Yun, and turned to yell at Pei Yukou following behind.
Pei Yukou’s long face was grim enough to drip water. He glanced around and saw no Xie Min or her subordinates present, then stiffly said: “What do I have to say? I just followed you all here!”
“Haha!” Lu Wei laughed full of sarcasm: “Lying with your eyes open—you’re truly the Pei Clan’s disgrace!”
“Don’t you slander me!” In this situation, Pei Yukou couldn’t stay any longer. While spurring his horse, he threw down harsh words: “Lu the Sixth, this isn’t over. We’ll see!”
“Hahaha!” Now not only Lu Wei, but even Lu Kan laughed and said: “Bring whatever tricks you’ve got—we’ll accompany you to the end!”
This was one time, that was another. Now that they had found the gold, it wasn’t them worrying about Pei Yukou causing trouble, but Pei Yukou worrying about them causing him trouble!
Watching Pei Yukou spur his horse and hurry away, Lu Kan and the others laughed freely. After laughing, Lu Wei led people to stand guard around, while Lu Xin led people to start inventorying the gold.
Lu Kan, however, did nothing and walked to Lu Yun, who was also idle, and smiled amiably: “Good kid, you’ve made a great contribution this time.”
“Uncle is too kind. Your nephew was just salvaging the situation after the sheep was lost, fortunately not too late.” Lu Yun hurriedly said modestly.
“How could it be too kind?” Lu Kan was still all smiles, praising Lu Yun endlessly: “At the time, we stewards were at a loss, yet you found this gold in one go.” He glanced at the caravan’s scale and said: “Even more impressive, you stopped the entire caravan single-handedly. I think even Zhang Yide standing horsewhip in hand at Changban Slope wasn’t much better.” Casually, he asked: “Come on, tell Uncle how you did it?”
