Chapter 194: Chapter 91 Trust_2
Meng Xiyang suddenly turned her head and hissed at the person in front of the tent with gritted teeth, "Have you lost your mind? I am a Consort of the Prince’s Mansion, how dare you treat me like this! The Commandery Prince will never let you go once he returns to the Wangfu!"
Pei Yunmeng was so arrogant in someone else’s mansion—did he really think the laws of Shengjing couldn’t touch him? Despicable to the extreme!
"Won’t let me go?"
He was taken aback, as if he had heard some amusing remark. His smile grew even more brilliant, but his pitch-black eyes held a chill as cold as the snow in a dark forest, desolate and distant.
He spoke indifferently, "You’d better pray that my sister is safe and sound, otherwise..."
"None of those who raised their hands against her today will get away."
The Imperial Guards, trained year-round for quick action, swiftly dragged away the people at the door. The bodies in the room were also cleaned up. Only Pei Yunshu’s painful groans echoed within the room.
The obstruction had been cleared, and now it all depended on Pei Yunshu herself.
Lu Tong, without lifting his head, said, "Everyone else, leave. Yin Zheng stay to assist me."
Fangzi and Qiong Ying subconsciously looked at Pei Yunmeng. With a slight nod to them, they quickly withdrew.
Only Pei Yunmeng was left in the room.
Lu Tong said, "You, too, leave."
A gauze hung high above the couch, like a wisp of light smoke, blurring the scarlet figure outside as if it were a tender old dream.
He moved slightly and walked towards the door, took a few steps, then suddenly stopped.
The wind stirred the gauzy curtains, revealing fleeting shadows behind them. The young man’s voice lacked its previous casual mirth, now holding back complexity unlike any other day.
"Doctor Lu," he asked, "can I trust you?"
Lu Tong paused in his motion.
All was silent in the room, save for the woman’s faint groans. The scarlet color reflected on the gauze resembled a budding peony, its beauty enchanting, as if resenting the spring for its passion.
After a moment of silence, Lu Tong bowed his head once more and spoke calmly.
"When it comes to healing and saving lives, I am merely a doctor."
...
Pei Yunmeng waited in the courtyard for a long time.
The moonlight spilled like water, illuminating the entire yard. Osmanthus flowers floated like jade, the night air was refreshingly cool, and in the fifteenth night of the eighth month in Shengjing, the full moon always outshone its usual brightness.
The young man stood in the yard, silently stalwart like a solid boulder, with the moonlight flowing through the fragrant osmanthus trees before draping over the pale gold floral patterns on his robe and tenderly caressing his face and eyes, leaving a hint of bewildered brilliance in his pupils.
He kept his eyes fixed on the flower-adorned window.
The dim light filtering through the small window made this already serene night seem even more silent. He watched quietly, as if prepared to stand there until the end of time.
A guard at his side suggested, "My lord, perhaps you should rest first."
Pei Yunmeng shook his head slightly, his grip on the hilt of his sword tightening ever more.
Intermittent humming came from inside the flower-window, and now and then a maid would come out carrying silver basins. The basins full of blood were so vivid that they were shocking to the eye and made one’s heart lurch.
He lowered his eyelids, hiding the expression in his eyes.
When his mother died, she also bled profusely.
The fourteen-year-old him did not understand, and he clumsily and panic-strickenly tried to cover the wound on her neck with his hands. But the blood kept spurting out, as if endlessly, quickly drenching his hands. His always cheerful mother embraced him tightly. The warm fluid continued to ooze from her, becoming sticky and cold. As his mother looked at him, her eyes, which were always smiling, held only pain and endearment, along with the life fading away bit by bit.
She gasped for air and implored in haste, "Yunmeng... Yunmeng, protect your sister... Run!"
Run.
Those were the last words she had left him.
Pei Yunmeng closed his eyes for a moment.
He had promised his mother to protect Pei Yunshu, but as a young boy, he couldn’t even decide his sister’s matrimonial affairs. When he learned that Lord Zhao Ning, Pei Di, was planning to have Pei Yunshu enter the palace, he desperately tried to stop it but was powerless.
That was when he realized he needed power. He didn’t want to be controlled by the Pei Family. He wanted to be able to decide their fates, to stay in the Pei Family as Lord Zhao Ning’s Princely Heir would not do.
So he left the mansion and the capital, sought refuge with others, and climbed the ranks by any means necessary. He acquired the conditions to trade with Pei Di, but upon returning to the capital, he found out that Pei Yunshu had already left the household.
Pei Yunshu didn’t enter the palace; instead, she entered Prince Wen’s Mansion, married to that useless Mu Sheng.
He was one step too late, always one step too late.
Just like the feeling he had when he learned of Pei Yunshu’s mishap in Minglin Garden today, the same as many years ago, hating his own powerlessness. A surge of intense anger swept over him, making him wish he could slaughter everyone in Prince Wen’s Mansion on the spot. Yet, in the end, he calmly rose, explained the situation to the Emperor, and rushed back with the Imperial Guards on fast horses.