Chapter 170: Past Events
“I’m thinking our luck is pretty good.” Shang Wan tossed the hairdryer to the back of her mind and handed Lu Chengjing another dry towel. “A Le happened to save a young girl, who turned out to be Er Ya. Now Er Ya is recovering from illness at Qiao Mansion. Once she’s better, she can still go to the prison to see Lin Jianshui.”
Thinking of Er Ya’s situation, Shang Wan felt complicated. “The Lin Family is also ruthless, willing to send their own child into a demon’s lair. If I were Chen Guifang, I’d go mad too and drag the whole family down with me.”
After speaking, she couldn’t help but yawn.
In this world without nightlife, she was forced to have a much more regular schedule.
Lu Chengjing’s hair wasn’t dry yet. Seeing this, he said, “If you’re sleepy, go sleep first. I’ll come after I dry my hair.”
“Wait for you.” Shang Wan reached out to wrap her arms around his slender waist, her head lightly resting on his shoulder. Drowsiness hit her, making even her voice a bit sticky.
Lu Chengjing paused in drying his hair, then sped up. After roughly drying it, he lowered his gaze to the person leaning on his shoulder, seeing only a serene sleeping face.
He subconsciously lightened his movements, scooped her up horizontally, and placed her on the kang, then blew out the lamp.
Shang Wan was just a bit dazed and woke up as soon as her position changed.
Lu Chengjing pulled her into his arms, lightly patting her back, and coaxed in a low voice, “Sleep.”
“Not sleeping. I suddenly thought of a question.” Shang Wan became a bit more alert instead and asked about the part she’d always overlooked. “How did you know about all this?”
Lu Chengjing’s previous answer had been coincidence, which sounded very perfunctory.
Now that the case was out in the open, Shang Wan felt it necessary to ask clearly.
She reached out to pinch Lu Chengjing’s earlobe, warning, “Don’t say coincidence again.”
Lu Chengjing told the truth. “Lu Shuhui told me.”
“Lu Shuhui?” Shang Wan thought for a while before digging this person out from the original host’s memory.
Lu Shuhui was Lu Chengjing’s second sister, born to a concubine, but her birth mother died while she was still in swaddling clothes, so she was recorded under Madam Lu’s name and raised by her. Because she was too quiet and taciturn, she wasn’t close to the three sons and one daughter born to Madam Lu.
In the second year after coming of age, Lu Shuhui was married far away to Prefect Zhao of Huzhou Prefecture as a second wife. After marriage, Lu Shuhui only returned to her maternal family home once, and letters were rare otherwise.
People at Lu Residence basically didn’t mention this Grand Aunt, so the original host knew very little about her.
She hadn’t expected Lu Shuhui to be in private contact with Lu Chengjing.
“How did she know about this?” Shang Wan furrowed her brows. “Could Prefect Zhao also be involved?”
Lu Chengjing sneered. “Far more than involved.”
Shang Wan listened quietly as he spoke, feeling more and more that both the Lu and Zhao families were a bunch of scumbags who deserved to go to hell!
It all started with that Prefect Zhao; the Lu Family was just one of the accomplices.
The accomplices were responsible for gathering good-looking young children and secretly sending them to Huzhou Prefecture, with someone receiving them along the way.
Once they arrived in Huzhou Prefecture, these young children became Prefect Zhao’s money tree.
Some were sent away from a young age, others raised a bit larger and sent into pleasure houses or the backyards of wealthy households and gentry. When they grew old, they were sold like livestock to surrounding small countries, squeezing out the last drop of value.
Over the years, the dark network spread wider and wider like a spider web, inescapable once caught. Either collude in villainy or end up dead.
Snow-like silver flowed like water into the ringleaders’ and accomplices’ money bags, each feasting on the flesh and blood of the innocent, making a fortune.
Collusion between officials and merchants, piling up evil deeds; even with public outrage boiling, protection among officials prevented it from reaching the heavens, leaving the people in dire straits.
Shang Wan frowned tightly. “Why did Lu Shuhui tell you about this?”
“She’s also a pitiable person.” Lu Chengjing sighed lightly, holding Shang Wan tighter, and slowly recounted what had happened to Lu Shuhui.
It all started with Lu Shuhui’s birth mother—Concubine Qin.
Concubine Qin was the daughter of Master Lu’s wet nurse, two years younger than Master Lu. They grew up together and were childhood sweethearts.
After the wet nurse died, Concubine Qin had nowhere to go and sold herself to become Master Lu’s maid. Due to their shared childhood, Master Lu treated her differently from other maids, and over time, they developed a private affair.
After Master Lu came of age, Concubine Qin naturally became his concubine maid.
After Master Lu married Madam Lu, he raised Concubine Qin from concubine maid to a proper concubine.
Concubine Qin was gentle and never caused trouble. Out of childhood affection, Master Lu took good care of her. Unfortunately, after giving birth, her body weakened, she often fell ill and couldn’t get out of bed, and soon passed away.
On her deathbed, Concubine Qin worried about her only daughter and begged Master Lu to record the daughter under Madam Lu’s name, promising to find her a good family in the future. Even in death, she would remember the master and madam fondly.
Master Lu felt pity and agreed readily.
But this pity dissipated quickly with Concubine Qin’s death.
After all, her biological daughter’s happiness couldn’t compare to the Lu Family’s glory and wealth.
A young girl just sixteen was married by her own father to a man nearly fifty, even older than her father, as a second wife.
Lu Shuhui was unwilling in her heart, but with no one backing her and her temperament raised too timid to resist, she stepped into the Zhao fire pit.
Prefect Zhao’s original wife had borne him two sons and one daughter, with the daughter the same age as Lu Shuhui, her stepmother.
In Zhao Mansion’s backyard, there were many songbirds and swallows; just concubines numbered seven or eight, concubine maids even more, and three illegitimate children, all older than Lu Shuhui.
How could Lu Shuhui, an inexperienced young wife, compete with these people?
She miscarried twice during pregnancy, and finally gave birth to a daughter with a folk remedy, but ruined her body in the process and could no longer bear children.
She had thought at least the daughter could keep her company, but unexpectedly, the daughter died before her first birthday.
Lu Shuhui nearly went mad, mumbling about her daughter in a daze all day. Disgusted, Prefect Zhao sent her back to her maternal family home to recover before returning.
Master Lu blamed Lu Shuhui for not bearing a son for Prefect Zhao, so the family estate would all go to the original wife’s children, and he was very cold toward her.
Madam Lu had never cared much for this daughter not her own and even harbored some resentment, so naturally she didn’t bother.
The servants sided with the wind and poured salt on the wound, making Lu Shuhui’s mental state worse. She grew suicidal and wanted to drown herself in a well.
Lu Chengjing happened to save her. Lu Shuhui perhaps just wanted someone to talk to and blurted out everything, said and unsaid, to Lu Chengjing.
At the time, Lu Chengjing was only glad no one was around, or both their lives would have been lost because of her words.
After venting recklessly, Lu Shuhui regained her senses, became terrified, and begged Lu Chengjing not to tell anyone, or neither would survive.
Lu Chengjing couldn’t do anything and agreed along with her words. Not long after, Master Lu sent the somewhat recovered Lu Shuhui back to Huzhou Prefecture.
