The young eunuch trembled in fear. He hurriedly called over his companion, and together they moved the stretcher into the shade beneath one of the corridor pillars.
Lu Cheng was finally out of the scorching sunlight. However, just as he breathed a sigh of relief, hurried footsteps suddenly came from inside the hall.
Before he could even turn his head, a figure shot out through the side entrance at astonishing speed, like a wild dog that had broken free of its leash.
Lu Yuan hummed a cheerful tune as he hurried down the steps, taking several at a time. He did not even glance to the side.
Bang!
Lu Yuan’s knee slammed into the edge of the stretcher.
The force was astonishing. The entire stretcher was sent flying, and Lu Cheng tumbled down the steps along with it. Man and stretcher crashed and rolled down seven or eight steps before Lu Cheng finally landed headfirst on the stone pavement.
Lu Cheng bounced twice against the ground with the overturned stretcher before letting out a miserable howl, “Ah… my leg! My leg!”
The two young eunuchs turned deathly pale. They stood there trembling, too terrified to move for several seconds.
Lu Yuan froze for a moment. He leaned forward and glanced at the overturned stretcher below, then even lifted his leg and flexed his knee. “Huh? What was blocking the way?”
He walked to the edge of the steps and peered downward. Beneath the stretcher, a hand wrapped entirely in bandages was sticking out and twitching faintly.
“Second Brother?”
Lu Yuan slapped his forehead, then waved at the two stunned young eunuchs. “What are you standing there for? Didn’t you see the Second Prince fall down the steps? Hurry up and take him to the Royal Medical Institute. If something happens because you keep wasting time, can the two of you bear the consequences?”
Only then did the two young eunuchs snap back to their senses. They hurried down the steps and flipped the stretcher upright.
Lu Cheng’s face was now covered with even more dark purple bruises, and fresh blood had seeped through the bandages.
He was still mumbling curses under his breath, but his voice was so faint that almost no one could hear him.
Lu Yuan watched until the eunuchs carried the stretcher away, then casually brushed the dust from his clothes.
‘If a useless bastard like him really becomes Crown Prince, just how miserable will the common people be in the future?’
…
Meanwhile, after leaving the royal palace, Lu Yuan rode to the Earl of Yongning Residence.
The Earl of Yongning Residence stood in the southern part of the Royal Capital. Neither the estate itself nor its entrance was particularly grand.
If not for the two characters “Yongning” carved into the bases of the stone lions standing outside the gate, most passersby probably would not even realize that this was the residence of an earl.
Since the founding of the Great Yong Empire, the title of Earl of Yongning had already been passed down through four generations.
The first Earl of Yongning had followed the founding Emperor in conquering the realm. His noble title had been earned through countless battles, one slash and one thrust at a time. The source of this chapter is novelping . com.
During the second and third generations, the men of the Su family continued marching onto battlefields one after another.
By now, nine sons and grandsons of the Su family had died in battle.
The eldest had died on the northern frontier. The second had died in Xiliang. The third and fourth had died while suppressing rebellions. The eldest grandson and second grandson had fallen in the southern barbarian territories. The third and fourth grandsons had died in Liaodong. The fifth grandson had been the youngest. He had only turned sixteen last year before dying on the southwestern frontier during a campaign to suppress a local chieftain’s rebellion.
Nine lives. Nine coffins.
Back then, those coffins had filled the entire Su family ancestral hall.
Half of the hair on Su Tan, the Earl of Yongning, had already turned white. His back was hunched with age, yet he still held himself remarkably straight.
Now, he had only one granddaughter left.
Her name was Su Yuling.
She was the Su family’s sole remaining bloodline.
“A family filled with loyal heroes…”
After dismounting, Lu Yuan sighed with emotion before walking forward to knock on the gate.
At that moment, however, the doors of the ancestral hall inside the Earl of Yongning Residence had been firmly barred from within.
Su Yuling knelt before the ancestral tablets, holding a strip of white cloth in her hands. She had already hung it over one of the ceiling beams.
There were no tears on her face. Her eyes were calm, almost unnaturally so, as though she had merely made an ordinary decision.
Outside the door, Su Tan paced anxiously back and forth, his walking stick striking the ground with sharp taps.
“Yuling, open the door for Grandpa!”
Su Tan had already shouted himself hoarse, and his aged voice trembled with desperation. “Listen to Grandpa. Our Su family is a family of military officers. We don’t care about the rotten nonsense of those pedantic scholars. If anyone dares gossip about you, Grandpa will twist his damn head off!”
On the narrow path beside the ancestral hall, several of Su Yuling’s aunts and sisters-in-law were crying bitterly.
Madam Zhao, the wife of Su Yuling’s eldest uncle, had cried until her eyelids were badly swollen. She clung to the doorframe and sobbed, “Yuling, why are you being so stubborn? None of this was your fault. Hurry up and open the door!”
Second Aunt Madam Li was also crying beside her. “That’s right, Yuling. You’re the Su family’s only remaining bloodline. If something happens to you, how is your grandfather supposed to go on living?”
Inside the ancestral hall, Su Yuling remained kneeling on the prayer cushion, facing the door.
She could hear the crying and desperate pleas outside, yet no emotion appeared on her face.
“Grandfather.”
Su Yuling’s voice came through the narrow gap in the door. It was remarkably calm, nothing like the voice of someone preparing to die.
“What happened at the Ninth Prince Residence has already spread throughout the entire Royal Capital. Your granddaughter’s chastity is gone. Whether I continue living or die here in the Earl of Yongning Residence makes no difference.”
Su Tan struck his walking stick against the ground twice. “Nonsense! You were drugged. You didn’t do it willingly. Who would dare spread malicious gossip about you?”
Su Yuling calmly replied, “Whether a woman’s chastity remains intact isn’t judged by whether she willingly did something. People only care about the final result.” This chapter is updated first at NovelPing.
“The legitimate daughter of the Earl of Yongning Residence and the Ninth Prince were discovered together in a room with their clothes in disarray. The entire Royal Capital already knows about it. If your granddaughter doesn’t die, those rumors will continue haunting the Earl of Yongning Residence for the rest of our lives.”
Su Tan gripped his walking stick so tightly that the veins on his fingers bulged.
He had fought wars his entire life and killed more men on horseback than he could remember. Yet now, faced with these few words from his granddaughter, he could not offer a single rebuttal.
Because Su Yuling was right.
The people of the Royal Capital could be vicious with their words.
“But even if you don’t marry the Second Prince, you can still marry the Ninth Prince!”
The ancestral hall fell silent for a moment before Su Yuling spoke again.
“Grandfather, the Ninth Prince, Lu Yuan, has no ambition whatsoever. All he knows is indulging in pleasure. How could your granddaughter marry someone like him and spend the rest of my life bringing shame upon the Earl of Yongning Residence?”
The rims of Su Tan’s eyes were crimson. “Even then, you can’t die! If he’s a lump of mud that can’t support a wall, then this old man will personally plaster him onto the damn wall!”
He abruptly turned around and shouted at the steward, Su Fu, standing behind him, “Go! Break the door down!”
Su Fu hesitated, looking troubled. “My Lord, if we break down the ancestral hall’s doors, it would be disrespectful to our ancestors…”
“Respect my ass!”
Su Tan swung his walking stick into Su Fu’s shoulder with tremendous force, knocking him back two steps.
“What damn miracles can they perform? If our ancestors could really manifest their spirits, they wouldn’t have stood by and watched their descendants die one after another on the battlefield! Ram it! Break it down!”
Su Fu suppressed the pain in his shoulder and gritted his teeth. He called over two sturdy servant women and three male servants, and together they lifted a heavy wooden board and rammed it against the ancestral hall doors.
Thud. Thud. Bang!
Once. Twice. Three times.
The doors did not move at all.
The doors of the Su family ancestral hall had been made from ironwood. When Su Tan’s father had built the ancestral hall years ago, he had made them exceptionally sturdy, almost like a fortress wall.
Growing frantic, Su Tan personally grabbed his walking stick and began smashing it against the door. After three or four blows, even the walking stick had bent.
Inside the ancestral hall, Su Yuling knelt before the ancestral tablets. Hearing the relentless pounding against the doors outside, she slowly bowed her head to the floor.
“Ancestors of the Su family, your granddaughter has been unfilial. Today, I will come and join you.”
At that very moment, a young servant came sprinting from the direction of the residence’s main gate, shouting as he ran, “My Lord! My Lord! The Ninth Prince has arrived! He’s waiting at the entrance and says he’s here to see you and the Young Lady!”