novelraw Chapter 680: Grudge
Chapter 680: Grudge
Chapter 680: Grudge
People tend to interpret others based on their own principles of conduct.
Therefore, Zhao Bi naturally interpreted the Lu family's knowing but letting him off the hook without making things difficult as the other party waiting for an opportunity to directly defeat him and prevent him from ever recovering.
So, in his agony, he made a decision—rather than be controlled by others and passively take a beating, he should strike first.
So he found an opportunity to have the senior disciple of the Brahma sect, who was secretly working for him, infiltrate the Lu family as a servant under an assumed name. After that, he honestly and dutifully lay low in the Lu mansion, while secretly keeping an eye on whether the Lu family was plotting anything against Zhao Bi, and looking for an opportunity to take action for Zhao Bi.
Although the eldest disciple did not learn from the mansion that the Lu family had any intention of harming Zhao Bi, Zhao Bi still did not change his original plan.
So, after lying low for a long time, the eldest disciple finally found an excellent opportunity, which was to make his move on the day of Lu Qing's grandfather's birthday.
Because Lu Qing's grandfather was highly respected among his clansmen, almost all the other members of the clansmen came to celebrate his birthday, except for those who were extremely old or had very distant relationships with him.
Thus, the well-known ending unfolded.
After this matter was settled, Zhao Bi began his subsequent actions to eliminate evidence.
After the incident at the Lu family, taking advantage of Emperor Jin's fury, he volunteered to immediately send someone to kill the master of the sect that had been working for him. He brought the head back to Emperor Jin to report back, and almost all the members of the sect were also killed by his subordinates and their bodies destroyed.
Only two people escaped: the eldest disciple who had been sent to infiltrate the Lu family and wait for an opportunity to poison them, and the second disciple of the sect leader. Both of them took advantage of the chaos to escape while injured.
Under the guise of helping Emperor Jin find the missing servant of the Lu family and the real culprit who poisoned him, Zhao Bi sent people to search everywhere. Finally, they found the man's body not far from Lan Kingdom. He had died by the water and was already decomposed beyond recognition.
As for the other second apprentice, according to the people who were sent out, they saw blood everywhere along the way, and he seemed to be seriously injured. In the end, they found his body in a deserted forest, which had been eaten by wild animals and left only bones and pieces of clothing.
From then on, there was no trace of that sect in the Brahma Land, and the Lu family, which had made great contributions in the war, was no longer in the Jin Kingdom. Zhao Bi became the most distinguished and powerful minister in the Jin Emperor's court, with no one able to match his status.
Many of those who were originally of one mind with him were also given important positions and became even more devoted to him. Those who were originally hesitant, seeing this reality, also immediately joined Zhao Bi's fold, not hesitating to call themselves his disciples, just in order to successfully curry favor with him.
Thus, under this growing prestige, the past was suppressed. Even if some people secretly harbored doubts, no one dared to risk bringing those unproven suspicions to the forefront.
After this incident, Zhao Bi became even more protective of his reputation. His behavior changed drastically from the period of the succession struggle. He transformed from someone who dared to take risky moves into someone who prioritized self-preservation. Apart from consolidating his power and position, he would never do anything that could leave a stain on his reputation or create hidden dangers. He also decisively cut ties with colleagues within his faction who might cause him trouble, leaving no opportunity for anyone to find fault with him. In order to clean up his own "weaknesses," he dared not, and no one could, obtain more Jade Snowbirds for him. That's why he risked taking out the Jade Snowbird meat he had secretly kept and tried to give it to his daughter, who had been made a concubine in the palace, hoping to eradicate Lu Qing, the last "root of trouble."
However, things didn't go as planned. Lu Qing survived at Shanqing Temple, but Consort Zhao died at a young age.
After Consort Zhao's death, Zhao Bi gave up his ambitions and dared not do anything risky again. He only kept a close watch on Lu Qing, fearing that he would investigate what happened back then.
This led to the situation where the Duke of Yan opposed the Prince of Xiaoyao in every way, both inside and outside the court.
When Zhu Yu finished reading the last sentence on the paper in her hand, her emotions were truly complicated.
On the one hand, Lu Qing had already basically deduced what happened back then. The facts relayed by Lu Zhang this time were essentially the confirmation of his previous guesses. However, the perpetrator was dead and could not pay any price for the evil deeds of that year, which was not something that made people feel happy.
On the other hand, she was also curious as to why Lu Zhang had specifically written a letter to Lu Qing about these matters.
Zhu Yu turned his gaze to the last page of the stack of handwritten notes in Lu Qing's hand: "Lu Zhang... what does this mean?"
“He said,” Lu Qing’s gaze did not leave the paper, but his mouth immediately responded to Zhu Yu’s question, “He also believed that his maternal grandfather’s past actions were unforgivable. Even though he had never participated in them, he was led by the nose by his maternal grandfather in everything in the past. The outside world regarded them as a unit and felt that everything Zhao Bi did was to clear obstacles for Lu Zhang.”
"To be fair, Lu Zhang is really wronged in this matter." Zhu Yu said with a wry smile. "To outsiders, it seems that Zhao Bi did all these things to help him, but outsiders can't see how Zhao Bi sidelined him to the point that his soldiers didn't listen to him."
“Lu Zhang said that he initially thought that if I told him about this, I might be angry with him. However, he had experienced all sorts of things with us in Lan Di and Xianren Fortress. It was the first time he had experienced true brotherhood, which made him doubt his grandfather’s 'care and concern' all along.”
He felt I should know what my parents and family had gone through back then, but he was also afraid that this would make me even more resentful towards him, so he hesitated to speak up.
It wasn't until Zhao Bi's entire family was murdered that he realized the matter might not be completely over. Since Zhao Bi and the others were dead, and I couldn't learn the truth about what happened back then from Zhao Bi, Lu Zhang felt it was necessary for him to risk a complete break with me and tell me what he knew.
After all, he wasn't stupid. Even though he had been implicated and sent to guard the border, he could still find out news about his maternal grandfather's family.
Clearly, he also felt that the attack on Zhao Bi's family on the way, with no survivors, was extremely illogical. Therefore, despite his torment and guilt, he still decided to be honest with me, so that I could have a clear understanding of the truth he had been searching for.