Old Madam Liu felt a sharp pain in her heart. Pointing at Huang Wenjun, who was kneeling on the ground, she harshly ordered the steward: “How dare you slander the shizi! Drag him out and beat him! Beat him hard!”
She was truly furious—so much so that even her fingertips felt like they were burning, and her whole body couldn’t stop trembling.
What a joke!
How could her son be dead?!
Jinghong had always been outstanding since childhood. He had always been her pride and her support.
It could be said that it was because she gave birth to such an excellent son that she was able to surpass that dead person before and pull down that d*mned Liu Wangfei.
How could he possibly be dead?
The steward saw that her face had turned purplish, as if she might lose her breath at any moment, and quickly responded, dragging Huang Wenjun out.
Huang Wenjun was completely terrified.
Were all these aristocrats so unreasonable?
He had come with good intentions to deliver the news—so why did this old lady immediately want to beat him to death?
Watching the stewards, who looked like wolves and tigers, dragging him out, with no idea how badly they would beat him, he panicked and shouted, “Old Madam! Your son is truly dead at heart! If you drag me out now, you won’t even be able to find your son’s body!”
Old Madam Liu was deeply shaken.
What body?
Her son wasn’t dead—where would a body come from?
The steward, seeing that she couldn’t even speak and was only pointing at Huang Wenjun, hurried to drag him out, not caring at all about his protests.
Old Madam Liu gasped for breath: “Go! Quickly fetch the Duke! Hurry!”
The servants immediately rushed to the Five Armies Commandery to find Duke Chu.
Duke Chu was originally reviewing the military payroll of the capital’s garrison when he saw them rushing in, frowning: “This is the government office—who allowed you to come and go so freely?!”
The steward hurried forward and whispered what had happened at home.
Duke Chu’s heart skipped a beat. Without delay, he seized a horse and rushed home.
Old Madam Liu was already in bad shape. She hurriedly grabbed his arm and cried, “My Lord! Something has happened! Jinghong has been out of contact for several days, and just now, someone suspicious came and said Jinghong is in trouble…”
Tears streamed down her face like a broken string, and her lips trembled as she said, “Jinghong has always been a cautious person. By now, he should have sent word back. It really is strange.”
Seeing his wife cry like this, Duke Chu’s heart ached. He gently comforted her: “It’s nothing, nothing. It won’t be like that.”
He didn’t believe it at all.
He knew full well how skilled Liu Jinghong was.
A man who had once single-handedly killed a leopard—how could something happen to him? Besides, he had so many guards with him at the time.
How could he possibly get into trouble?
As the head of the family, his calm words quickly steadied Old Madam Liu. She firmly nodded:
“Yes! Yes! Yes! My Lord, you are right. Jinghong is the most capable. How could he be in trouble so easily?”
Duke Chu grunted in agreement and told her to rest, then turned and left the courtyard, directly asking the steward: “Where is that person now?”
The steward lowered his voice: “He was speaking nonsense, saying right away that the shizi… that the shizi is gone. It frightened Old Madam Liu terribly. She ordered him to be beaten. The servants knew they should punish him, but they didn’t dare beat him to death, so he’s currently locked up.”
Duke Chu’s men were all tough characters, but they were also battle-hardened and very reliable.
Hearing this, Duke Chu nodded in satisfaction and walked forward: “Good, take me to see him.”
He strode ahead, with the steward closely following behind. They opened the woodshed where Huang Wenjun was held and immediately saw him lying on the ground, barely alive.
In her fury, Old Madam Liu’s men hadn’t dared to be lenient and had beaten Huang Wenjun to the brink of death.
Duke Chu pulled out a chair and sat down in a commanding posture, raising an eyebrow and coldly asking: “Who are you? Why have you come here to spread lies?”
Huang Wenjun hadn’t expected these nobles would see him as a conman.
But he knew that if he didn’t provide solid proof now, he would surely be beaten to death.
These nobles didn’t value the lives of people like him.
He had originally planned to raise his price and extort something from the Duke’s residence, but now that thought was completely gone.
The room was so silent that they could hear each other’s breathing. Trembling, Huang Wenjun pulled out a jade pendant from his chest and shakily offered it up: “I… I have proof…”
Seeing the jade pendant, Duke Chu’s breathing grew rapid. He could no longer stay seated. He shot to his feet and demanded: “Where did you get this?!”
The jade pendant was a family heirloom of Duke Chu’s residence, and it had been entrusted to Liu Jinghong more than ten years ago.
Liu Jinghong never parted with it.
If something hadn’t happened to him, this jade pendant could never have ended up in someone else’s hands.
Even Duke Chu himself was starting to waver now. He took the pendant with trembling hands, confirmed the patterns on it, and closed his eyes for a moment, his expression turning vicious:
“What exactly happened? If you don’t explain everything clearly today, you won’t leave here alive!”
Huang Wenjun was on the verge of tears—he didn’t dare to bargain anymore.
Crying, he said: “I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you everything! There was a young lady—she hired us bodyguards, said we were to escort her to Fujian. Once the job was done, she’d pay us five thousand taels of silver!”
Huang Wenjun started from how Qi Yuan hired him and told Duke Chu everything in detail, not daring to omit a single word.
Duke Chu was in disbelief.
Just like that?!
His son died just like that?!
Killed by a young girl?!
His heart was filled with boundless rage, yet somehow, he let out a cold laugh.
Perhaps it was because he had seen too much in his life that he was far calmer than Old Madam Liu.
Even though his heart was in agonizing pain, he still forced himself to remain composed and coldly asked: “What kind of girl was she?”
Although he already knew the answer in his heart, Duke Chu still wanted to hear it from Huang Wenjun’s mouth.
Huang Wenjun wiped the blood from his face and said tremblingly: “I don’t know exactly, but she was very fierce, very terrifying—even scarier than a pack of wolves. I heard the shizi calling her… calling her Miss Qi…”
It really was Qi Yuan…
When Liu Jinghong chased after her, Duke Chu had never imagined the one who would die would be Liu Jinghong.
Because in every way, the one who should have died was Qi Yuan.
Just as the outside world said, this Miss Qi truly had a fate as hard as iron—if she didn’t die, then others would.
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