novelraw Chapter 395 - 130: Lost at Sunset
Chapter 395 - 130: Lost at Sunset
When the words "Zhao Family" were heard, the atmosphere in the room suddenly cooled down.
The farce at the birthday banquet was primarily Shen Ruoshi’s fault, but Zhao Jincheng’s perverse instigation was also indispensable. If it weren’t for his shout of "Grandpa" at that time, things might not have escalated to such an exaggerated extent.
Now Shen Ruoshi himself was in a deadlock, and his right-hand man Shen Jinghai also stayed out of sight. Although these two could be said to be well-deserved of their punishment, they were, after all, the top two powerful figures in Shen City. Especially the workaholic Shen Jinghai, who was in charge of a significant portion of Shen City’s affairs, suddenly disappearing like this without even handing over their work was a catastrophic blow to the functioning of the entire city. The City Lord’s Mansion was undoubtedly the core of this blow — just the handover of work these few days had left Shen Jinghai’s former secretary overwhelmed, losing hair like crazy.
Thus, it’s inevitable for the staff at the City Lord’s Mansion to harbor resentment towards one of the main culprits, Zhao Jincheng. Hearing about the Zhao Family coming, they were practically eager to drop their pens and ink, pick up knives and guns, and turn that square face into a ball.
However, with outsiders present, especially after Lu Xin’s aura unfolded like a tiny queen, her majesty made people dare not act rashly. Although everyone was angry, they still had to wait for Lu Xin’s command.
Seeing this, Lu Xin also felt a headache.
In her opinion, that perverted member of the Zhao Family, who coveted Qingming’s beauty, would be best dealt with by castrating him and sending him to the War Elephant Camp as a gift to comfort those fierce and strong warriors.
But now, representing the Li Family, she couldn’t act on her whims. Even if the eldest son of Golden Jade City committed heinous crimes, she couldn’t just castrate him. Behind him, City Lord Golden Jade, Zhao Chenlu, was a figure who even made the Sect Leader of Saint Sect feel troubled, so dealing with Zhao Family matters must be cautious.
Yet Lu Xin was really not in the mood to let that perverted Zhao Family member come in and spew diplomatic niceties. After a moment’s thought, she said, "I’ll go shoo him away."
Lu Xin planned to act in a personal capacity, as the mother of the victim Shen Qingming, telling Zhao Jincheng to get lost as far as possible. This was a personal vendetta and did not involve inter-family diplomatic disputes, which could effectively avoid some trouble.
With a sigh, Lu Xin stepped out the door.
————
Meanwhile, outside the City Lord’s Mansion, the square-faced young man stood in a state of anxiety, full of unease.
He had no clue what to do next.
Because of a moment of impulse and blind passion, he had committed a ridiculously absurd act a few days prior, not only stirring up the whole city, but also nearly costing him his lifelong happiness.
Every time he closed his eyes these past few days, he would involuntarily recall that nightmarish scene — the pure and innocent woman, symbolizing the ultimate beauty in the world, suddenly ballooning into vulgarity and mediocrity.
Someone said that a tragedy is when something beautiful is destroyed in front of people; Zhao Jincheng felt that, judging by his life experience, these past few days could truly be described as the tragedy of tragedies.
So, if he followed his heart, he was eager to leave Shen City immediately, travel as far as possible, and preferably spend years touring other countries, supporting the construction of welfare institutions for children across Xiangzhou, using charity to heal his inner wounds. However, he obviously couldn’t just leave like that.
Having caused such trouble, he couldn’t simply pat his butt and leave without saying a word; such base acts were beneath the eldest son of Golden Jade City. One must bear the consequences of one’s actions, and even if the people of Shen City wanted to skin him alive, he had to gritting his teeth and accept it — he could always go back and ask his sister to patch him up.
So on this day, seeing that the power transition within Shen City had been completed and there was likely time to deal with his affairs, Zhao Jincheng mustered the courage and gathered the guts to visit and offer a humble apology.
A moment later, the door in front of him opened, and to his surprise, a petite woman stepped out gracefully, carrying an undeniable aura, looking down at Zhao Jincheng with a superior posture.
Zhao Jincheng lowered his head, and his gaze was inevitably drawn to the petite woman, only feeling a faint resemblance between this immature yet frost-covered face and his former beloved.
Next, he heard the woman speak softly, "Zhao Jincheng, do you still have the nerve to come here?"
The woman’s voice was obviously deliberately lowered, but still sounded immature, like a child standing on tiptoe pretending to be an adult. Hearing this, Zhao Jincheng couldn’t help but smile, suppressing the urge to pat her head, and said, "Are you Qingming’s sister?"
Bang!
Zhao Jincheng was dumbfounded to see a vein burst out near the woman’s temple.
And in her eyes, there was an unmistakable flame of anger burning.
——
For Lu Xin, this was probably the greatest humiliation in recent years.
Shen Qingming’s sister? Is your whole family blind, you blockhead face!? I’m wearing a jade hairpin that only married women wear, a golden apricot blouse symbolizing a family’s elder status, and on my feet are black cherry embroidered shoes signifying age and experience. My makeup was designed by a top artisan from the Celestial Fragrance Pavilion, yet you don’t see any of it?!
For the average mother, being compared to her daughter as sisters might be quite a compliment, but for Lu Xin, this was a direct critical hit to her sore spot. If not for her advanced age and virtue, she might have already drawn the Golden Crow Sword for a duel to the death with this blind shoebox face.
After a long time, Lu Xin finally calmed her anger and said coldly, "I am Shen Qingming’s mother."
Zhao Jincheng was startled upon hearing this, his eyes flashing with incredulous light.
Mother? You!?
But then, a flash of inspiration hit Zhao Jincheng’s mind, and he suddenly remembered that the information about Shen Qingming indeed mentioned her stepmother, the young princess of the Lu Family, Lu Xin, who was surprisingly similar to Shen Qingming.
Now it seems that this similarity is probably not referring to the face...
Realizing this, Zhao Jincheng first felt bewildered, and then shocked.
Could there really be such a person in the world?! According to the data, Lu Xin was born in 1970, which means she is nearly 50 years old today! Although there are many methods for cultivators to maintain their youthful appearance, making it common to see people who look young even though they are almost a hundred years old, someone as convincingly lifelike as Lu Xin was something Zhao Jincheng had never seen in his life!
Could it be...
Before he could think further, Zhao Jincheng felt a chill all over his body. The woman in front of him had already released a naked killing intent, obviously, he had offended her greatly...
With a bitter smile, Zhao Jincheng quickly cupped his hands and apologized, "I’m sorry, I really have eyes but failed to see, worse than a blind person, for not recognizing the Lu Family’s ’Golden Crow and Silver Moon.’
Upon hearing this, Lu Xin felt a light in front of her eyes.
The so-called Golden Crow and Silver Moon was a small reputation she made for herself at the Lu Family Mansion during her girlhood. Before the age of 20, the issue with her cultivation aptitude had not yet been fully exposed. With the pouring in of family resources, she barely managed to count as an outstanding young cultivator, with remarkable True Essence Realm and Spiritual Sense Cultivation, especially with the family-inherited Golden Crow Swordsmanship, which underwent extraordinary evolution under her innovation, capable of presenting the glow of a silver moon during the Sword Dance, an impressive spectacle highly praised among her girlfriends.
Although later, after marrying Li Fengyun, she was told that it was merely because the speed of her sword dance caused the Golden Crow’s temperature to drop, leading to dullness... but Lu Xin obviously did not care about Li Fengyun’s nonsense. After days of preparing meals for Li Fengyun where she mixed up salt and sugar, he finally admitted the positive value of her past innovations.
Now, hearing someone mention the Golden Crow and Silver Moon again, although somewhat embarrassing, she mostly felt surprised and happy.
Unexpectedly, this weirdo wardrobe face knows their stuff...
With her mood slightly improved, Lu Xin’s expression became a bit gentler, although her words still spared no one, they were no longer as aggressive.
"You know what you did, and an insincere apology is unnecessary. Just stay as far away as possible in the future, never meet again, and that would be enough."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Jincheng felt a sense of melancholy, knowing that his actions were indeed unforgivable... however, whether or not someone forgives is one thing, but apologizing is another.
"I know the crimes I’ve committed are deserving of death, so I don’t ask for forgiveness, but I’ll do my best."
Saying this, Zhao Jincheng respectfully handed over a golden seal.
Lu Xin was startled: "This..."
Zhao Jincheng explained, "Inside this is a hundred thousand spirit stones... I know what I did cannot be compensated with money, but as a Golden Jade resident, the greatest sincerity in an apology is genuine gold and silver, and I hope you can understand that. This is my entire personal savings from these years, and I humbly offer it to personally apologize, hoping to somewhat compensate for the harm caused to Qingming."
Then, Zhao Jincheng took out a contract: "This is an administrative order issued by me, as the eldest son of Golden Jade City, which entitles the Li Family to the highest grade of trade incentives in Golden Jade City in the future, and to share some of Golden Jade City’s economic data. This is my public apology... it is a pity that my sister has been in closed-door healing recently and hasn’t been reachable, this is the extent of my permissions. When she comes out, there will definitely be further compensations."
This frank attitude left Lu Xin momentarily unable to vent her anger.
Zhao Jincheng immediately seized the opportunity, and without a word, forced the golden seal and contract into Lu Xin’s hand, then bowed deeply: "Once again, I offer my most sincere apologies to you; it was my momentary muddle-headedness that caused so much trouble for Qingming, I really am very sorry."
As the conversation reached this point, Lu Xin found it impossible to do anything further. She wasn’t a person of iron heart, and Zhao Jincheng’s sincerity was so complete it made it feel as if continuing to indict would make her seem like she was maliciously making things difficult, making her appear unreasonable.
Thus, unwillingly, Lu Xin could only maintain a stern face and say, "Understood, you may leave."
She then turned and entered the door, shutting it firmly in Zhao Jincheng’s face.
Outside, Zhao Jincheng looked at the tightly closed courtyard door, without a hint of discouragement or humiliation from being shut out, but only a trace of contemplation in his eyes.
The young princess of the Cyan Cloud Lu Family, indeed, there are people like this in the world, truly an eye-opening experience.
Lingering for a moment at the door, Zhao Jincheng then turned and returned to his residence.
At his desk, he quickly set pen to paper, writing a letter to his work secretary far away in Golden Jade City.
"Immediately investigate all information on the Cyan Cloud Lu Family, with particular focus on whether they have any unmarried young women in the family recently, the closer their blood relation to the Golden Crow and Silver Moon, the better!"