Chapter 1429: 1424: The Crisis of the Leng Family

Chapter 1429: Chapter 1424: The Crisis of the Leng Family

Yun Sijin looked at him with a pained expression, “This time, it’s the harshest suffering you’ve had since you returned to the Leng household.”

Zhuo Junli curled his lips into a cold sneer, “What’s this? As long as I’m not dead, the one with a crooked nose will definitely be Lu Mian.”

Lu Mian in the imperial prison tried every method to torture him without leaving scars on his body. He abused his diet, tossed him among the noisiest of felons, provided him with sour and stinking meals daily, and even placed Leng Shuqing in the cell next to him so he had to listen to her sorrowful or plaintive cries every day, trying to demean him in such conditions.

“Lord Lu comes from a noble family, with high office and rich rewards, having never suffered. Naturally, he doesn’t know how a maidservant’s son could top the imperial examination and reach where I am now. He must be really confused as to why I could still return to the Prime Minister’s Estate.”

Zhuo Junli, emaciated, propped himself up from the bed frame and walked into the bathroom. Seeing the bathwater Yun Sijin had prepared for him, he curved his lips slightly and immersed his dirty, stinking body into a good, clean soak.

While he was bathing, Yun Sijin told him about the recent events in the Prime Minister’s Estate, “Father has aged a lot, my brother has been demoted and sent away, my sister-in-law fainted from grief, and what’s most important is Ling’er, she has been let down…”

Zhuo Junli, upon hearing of other matters, had no significant reaction, but his expression became serious when she mentioned Leng Muling. Wiping his face, he asked, “That silly girl hasn’t made a fuss in front of the emperor, has she?”

According to her nature, with her wholehearted love betrayed, she must be terribly distressed and would seek out Mo Qi for retribution.

Yun Sijin shook her head, “No, she saw something in the Ninth Prince’s Mansion, and when she came out she was hit by a carriage, nearly losing her life. Now she has been saved, but her leg is broken, leaving her with a lingering ailment.”

Zhuo Junli clenched the towel in his hand unconsciously, his knuckles cracking. Although he was smiling, his gaze was chillingly cold, “Lu Mian, that was very considerate of him.”

Not content with just not letting me go, he even went after Ling’er!

“Zhuo Junli…”

Yun Sijin saw him get up to dress, still neither joyful nor angry until now, and not scolding her. Her heart grew more uneasy, “Do you blame me?”

Zhuo Junli, dressed in a white sleeping gown, walked up to Yun Sijin, cradling her regally beautiful face, “What’s there to blame you for? Blame you for being so beautiful that I’m utterly captivated, and for making me need to marry you in this lifetime?”

Tears welled up at the corners of Yun Sijin’s eyes as she buried herself in his embrace.

With his words, everything she had done in the Prime Minister’s Estate was worth it.

Zhuo Junli went to visit Leng Muling. She was awake, but she was lying in bed all the time, sullen and despondent. Zhuo Junli promised her, “I will find Mo Qi and make him explain to you. Right or wrong, whatever the outcome, he must give you a proper explanation.”

“Is there any point in an explanation?” Leng Muling asked with a pale face and a sorrowful gaze, “Uncle, it was after he lost his memory that he got together with me. Before the loss, the woman named Hong Lian was his true love, and they even had a child. Our marriage contract has now become a joke, and I…”

I’ve become the biggest joke in Jiang Du City!

The legitimate daughter of the Prime Minister’s Estate, noble and esteemed, lost her chastity before marriage for a man, and was then abandoned by him utterly.

Leng Muling was trapped by rumors and gossip, or rather, she was cornered by her youthful, impulsive actions into this predicament. Now, she didn’t even dare go outside to see the sun in the courtyard, for fear that the estate’s servants would all say she deserved it!

“Do you regret it?” Zhuo Junli held a fan in one hand, tapping it gently in the other, the corners of his lips curled in a smile, as if bathed in the warmth of spring.

“I…” Leng Muling blurted out, wanting to say that she certainly regretted everything now. Her marriage prospects were unsettled, Mo Qi no longer came to see her, and her future was uncertain—she might not be able to marry at all. To preserve the honor of the Leng family, she might even have to enter the nunnery and shut herself away for life.

Perhaps in a few years, she would wither away in melancholy.

How could she not regret?

But when she thought about her acquaintance and bond with Mo Qi, the days they had spent together, how Mo Qi had cherished her, how happy they had been—even if her grandfather had beaten her, she had never bowed her head in defeat. That courage was all hers to claim.

Did she have any right now to speak of regret?

Tears fell down Leng Muling’s cheeks as she pursed her lips and said, “Uncle, I must bear the consequences of my own actions. I won’t regret it, but in the future… if it is necessary to send me to become a nun in order to maintain the Leng family’s honor, you… don’t need to worry about me! I will go willingly and not cause any trouble for the family.”

“Silly girl!” Zhuo Junli’s fan tapped gently on Leng Muling’s forehead. “Only spineless men would sacrifice women to preserve their so-called ‘reputation.’ You stay home and heal properly. If anyone in the house dares to utter a single extra word, they will be expelled from the Leng family. But there will come a day when you have healed and need to step outside again.”

After Zhuo Junli spoke, he walked away. Leng Muling had her maid open the window, and she could still hear him in the courtyard, warning the servants that if anyone dared to speak ill of her, he would expel them all.

Her maid, Leng Qiu, sighed heavily, “The people of our mansion have already chewed over Miss’s tale until it has lost all flavor, and now the third master only thinks to speak out, isn’t it a bit late?”

During the days when Zhuo Junli was imprisoned, the madam strictly supervised the servants, but behind the scenes, who didn’t curse the Miss, calling her shameless?

It was all because the third master had once encouraged the Miss to seek her own happiness, planting the seeds of this disaster!

The Miss was young and frivolous, and the third master—despite his age and status as the Prime Minister—was still so wilful, indulging her as if she were a boy!

How could she face anyone now after this incident?

“It’s not too late. Uncle is right!” Leng Muling slowly sat up from her bed. She looked at her leg and bit her lip, “I could seclude myself in the Prime Minister’s Estate for life, but I cannot hide away forever. As soon as I step out, I will have to meet people. What I need to do now is work hard to heal my injuries. No matter what happens in the future, I am determined to live well.”

Only then would she not let down her uncle’s doting and guidance.

Life is long—who doesn’t make mistakes?

Admitting her mistakes, bearing the responsibility, and striving to live well afterward was all that mattered.

She would never be one of those women who would take her own life because she couldn’t cope. She, Leng Muling, as the legitimate daughter of the Prime Minister’s Estate, should uphold the integrity befitting that status!

Just like her, Leng Shuqing—who was also a legitimate daughter from the Prime Minister’s Estate—sat in the imperial prison at this moment, staring at the poisoned wine and white silk that Lu Mian had brought her, terror evident in her eyes to the extreme.

She even felt her knees weaken with the urge to beg Lu Mian for mercy, to spare her life.

She didn’t want to die!

She was unwilling!

Looking at her pale lips, yet still trying to maintain a veneer of calm, Lu Mian’s eyes were cold and detached, “The emperor has decreed that the Imperial Consort is to be put to death—you will not be beheaded in public. It will be my duty to accompany you on your final journey.”

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