Discovering Fan Shikun’s family servant was also quite accidental. Steward Lu had sent her away to play on a pleasure boat. Before Steward Lu could come to fetch her, she saw enamel cloisonné mercury mirrors being sold on a merchant ship and returned to the boat early, planning to buy more to distribute to Song Chuyi, her sisters at home, and her friends.
Who knew she would run into Steward Lu speaking furtively with someone. Steward Lu was trying to get Fan Shikun to rebel. Fan Shikun was the Regional Commander of Taizhou, holding military authority over places like Ningbo and Shaoxing. One could say he held high position and great power. If he was willing, he only needed to lead these troops and let them collude with the Japanese pirates and sea bandits as much as they wanted, then the entire coast would erupt in chaos.
She was shocked, not understanding why Steward Lu would say such frightening words. But Steward Lu himself revealed everything, speaking as if boasting and taking pride, saying that now His Majesty couldn’t hold on much longer, that His Highness the Crown Prince needn’t even be mentioned—he wasn’t an obstacle at all. He also said that among the capable people by His Highness the Crown Prince’s side, so many were their people…
Speaking to this point, Lu Chonghua shuddered, feeling very cold. She tightened the cloak on her body but still felt cold. That cold rose from the soles of her feet and quickly spread to all her limbs and bones, making her uncomfortable all over.
“I covered up my shock and sadness. Afterward I secretly eavesdropped on their conversations several more times. I also deliberately made a fuss about establishing a school to send Steward Lu away, and went to his cabin to carefully search through things. Only then did I know it truly was my father’s intention, was my father…” Her eyes and brows all revealed sadness and incomprehension. “It was my father who wanted to harm my cousin.”
Song Chuyi didn’t ask why. There were plenty of incomprehensible things in this world, just like Han Zhengqing’s inexplicable obsession with Lady Fan. Moreover, all the hustle and bustle in the world is for profit, all the jostling in the world is for gain. What was sought was merely these things.
Though the Lu family was indeed the maternal clan, indeed extremely honored, compared to rising to the throne themselves… The Lu family, which had now retreated to one corner for the peace of Empress Lu and Crown Princess Lu, indeed seemed rather stifled.
Uncle Lu apparently wasn’t at all what he appeared on the surface, merely wanting to climb upward through nepotism. Previously saying he wanted the Lu family to produce three empresses was thinking his ambition too great, but now it seemed Uncle Lu’s ambition was clearly far more than this.
She rubbed the corner of her eye and grasped Lu Chonghua’s hand, just about to offer comfort when she heard Lu Chonghua begin crying again: “I don’t understand why he wouldn’t even care about my life or death. Back when he told me stories…”
Speaking to here, Lu Chonghua suddenly seemed to understand something. A trace of cold laughter appeared at the corner of her mouth: “I understand now. Back when he told me stories, when speaking of the last emperor of the previous dynasty, he often said that every household had the practice of strangling infants—saying that families simply couldn’t afford to raise them, so they had no choice but to beat them to death. He also said this had existed since ancient times. He was preparing my heart in advance, wasn’t he?”
When people are angry, they love to associate everything with the worst possibilities. This way, it seemed to relieve some of their fury. Lu Chonghua was no longer sad and spoke of what happened afterward: “I wrote a letter to my cousin, wrote it secretly. Steward Lu absolutely wouldn’t know, because I entrusted it to Elder Brother Guo to have someone send it back to the capital. But from then on, I couldn’t even receive your letters anymore, let alone my cousin’s reply. From then on I knew something was wrong, but before I could react, it was already too late. One night, I was sleeping soundly when suddenly something happened in the cabin…”
Even now, when speaking of this experience, she was still trembling: “Shuanghua and the others all died… It wasn’t any pirates or bandits at all.”
She drew a breath and coughed a few times, her complexion turning pale: “If not for Second Young Master Ye arriving quickly, I would have died too. Here…” She pointed to her chest with a pale face. “Near here, I was stabbed once. Plus Second Young Master Ye’s boat was approaching close, they didn’t have time to confirm whether I was dead and directly kicked me off the boat and swam away. It was Second Young Master Ye going downstream who found me on a fishing boat…”
Song Chuyi’s eyes widened. Though Song Yi was unfit to be a father, he had never had ill intentions toward her. She didn’t understand why some people’s hearts could be so cold and hard.
But now wasn’t the time to discuss this. Lu Chonghua gripped her hand and looked into her eyes: “All along our journey here, what we heard were all words unfavorable to you and my cousin, saying that because of your persecution and framing, Prince Gong and Han Zhengqing rebelled. They also said you schemed to poison His Majesty…”
“This is obviously impossible. Is someone deliberately spreading rumors?” Lu Chonghua was somewhat anxious, sweat seeping from the tip of her nose. “Also, the people around my cousin…” She furrowed her brow and squeezed Song Chuyi’s hand. Though her nose tip was sweating, her palm was ice cold. “You must be careful. They might be related to these fierce rumors.”
Song Chuyi also gripped her hand in return and smiled at her: “No, these aren’t rumors spread by others. I spread them myself. Those people at most just added fuel to the flames.”
Lu Chonghua was stunned, not quite reacting. After a moment she said: “This is… why?”
“As you’ve seen.” Song Chuyi didn’t hide it from her. “I also discovered there’s a traitor by His Highness’s side.”
She thought for a moment, selected the matter of Qingbai and others to tell Lu Chonghua, then said: “Though Qingbai supposedly committed suicide, if he truly wanted to commit suicide, why would he first escape for a distance? Clearly he didn’t want to die. Also, if it wasn’t someone who knew our actions like the back of their hand, how would they know Zheng Baihu was in my residence? After killing someone, not leaving the slightest trace—Ma San was a scout in the army, yet even when he immediately pursued, he couldn’t find the slightest trace. This isn’t ordinary. Thinking it over, aside from there being another inside agent, there’s no other possibility.”
Lu Chonghua drew in a sharp breath, only feeling pain arise in her temples and eyes. Her throat was also extremely dry. She coughed a few times, picked up her teacup to drink a sip of tea, and after calming her mind for a while, gave a bitter laugh: “This trap was set truly large.”
“Originally I didn’t want to say this.” Lu Chonghua put down her cup. “Afraid it was my own petty suspicion, but now I must speak. Xiaoyi, if there truly is such a formidable traitor by my cousin’s side, then aside from Old Kong, I can’t think of a second person.”
Old Kong—this loyal servant who had followed by Zhou Weizhao’s side for so long, always excessively honest and simple, appearing to be in poor health, whose youngest son had once died protecting Zhou Weizhao.