Chapter 96: Open and Aboveboard
Chapter 96: Chapter 96: Open and Aboveboard
After lunch, Liang Wan did as she usually did. She took out the medicinal herbs she’d filched from the household doctor, arranged the various bottles and jars she’d had someone find, and began concocting poisons according to the medical texts and folk remedies she’d collected.
The Ying Grass Ointment she’d made last time was inconvenient to carry and not very effective. Liang Wan wanted to improve it, but her movements in and out of the Grandmaster’s Mansion were restricted. Aside from taking small amounts of materials from the household doctor, she had no other way to get what she needed, so her progress had stalled.
Whether she entered the palace or not, assassination by poison was the best method she could think of to kill Gao Qian. Unfortunately, she still hadn’t managed to create a satisfactory poison.
Liang Wan looked at the mess on the table, feeling troubled.
"What’s the matter? Another failure?"
Liang Wan looked up and saw Lu Xiu’s exceptionally handsome face. His eyes, which seemed to see through everything, held a hint of mockery.
She had never explicitly told him she was making poison, but was there anything in this courtyard that he didn’t know? Besides, she never intended to hide it from him in the first place.
Liang Wan raised her eyes. "Husband, aren’t you asking the obvious?"
Trapped here with no progress on her poisons, she was truly frustrated. She couldn’t be bothered with pleasantries and didn’t even want to pretend.
Lu Xiu’s sly eyes glanced over the table, his gaze landing on her furrowed brow. He simply smiled without a word.
Liang Wan knew that continuing today would only lead to another failure, so she simply had Qiuxi and the others put everything away.
After Liang Wan washed her hands, Lu Xiu had already changed out of his purple court robes and golden belt. Now dressed in a simple, light-colored tunic, he was leaning against a couch, rubbing his temples. He asked nonchalantly, "Was the Mandala Flower Powder you used last time no good?"
"What do you mean?"
Lu Xiu lowered his hand. "Instead of using these conventional ingredients, you might as well go back to what you were using before."
Liang Wan was a little surprised. "I thought you—"
Lu Xiu raised an eyebrow. "Thought I was deliberately preventing you from leaving the mansion to stop you?"
Liang Wan lowered her eyes, grumbling inwardly. ’Isn’t that exactly it?’
He lifted his gaze slightly, casually picking up a teacup from the small table beside him. He smiled. "The twelfth day of the tenth month of the year Yi-Mao."
Liang Wan blinked. "Does everyone know?" After asking, she immediately shook her head. "If everyone knew, I probably wouldn’t be here anymore."
Lu Xiu scoffed. "You’re not a complete idiot, then."
Liang Wan asked, "Do you believe it, Husband?"
Lu Xiu took a sip of tea, frowning slightly. "I only believe what I choose to believe."
She was well aware of Duke Wei’s attitude that day. Would he have let her off so easily? She didn’t believe it for a second. It wasn’t that she hadn’t wanted to ask before, but Lu Xiu had refused to mention it. Yet today, he brought it up himself.
"It must have been a tricky situation, wasn’t it?" She had been in Lu Xiu’s arms as he carried her all the way from the Duke’s residence to the carriage, and there had been quite a few people there to offer condolences.
"It was manageable."
"So, you’ve been forbidding me from leaving the mansion all this time just to lie low and avoid trouble?"
"Was it only you I forbade?" Lu Xiu set down the teacup and looked at her. "Brew me a pot of tea."
Liang Wan froze for a moment. She had assumed he was skipping court out of laziness, not because of this matter. But could they really escape the consequences just by hiding in the mansion?
Lu Xiu sighed. "Duke Wei is dead."
She remembered it clearly. The day Duke Wei had tried to kill her, before he made his move, he had told her that his own life was also nearing its end...
Liang Wan stared quietly at Lu Xiu, desperately wanting to ask if Duke Wei had died of natural causes.
Qiuxi, holding a Jade Plate, called to her in a soft voice.
Liang Wan returned to her senses. She lowered her head, walked forward, and knelt by the low table, her mind racing.
The room was silent until the tea was ready.
After careful consideration, Liang Wan decided to speak. "Husband, are you trying to use me as a shield to refuse the marriage arranged by the Grandmaster?"
The things the Grandmaster had said this morning couldn’t have come out of nowhere. Lu Xiu must have done something.
Lu Xiu turned his head slightly but didn’t speak.
Liang Wan said, "That day, His Majesty knew perfectly well that I was the one behind the rockery, yet he named Cao Luyun. Wasn’t it because he’s long been dissatisfied with Chancellor Cao and deliberately used the incident to humiliate him? And you, Husband, are also unwilling to enter into such a marriage for the sake of the Lu Family and become entangled with the Cao Family."
Liang Wan stated frankly, "Today, the Grandmaster was sounding me out, hoping I would behave myself. But in truth, I haven’t done anything. So it was you, Husband, acting in my name, wasn’t it?"
Lu Xiu looked down and chuckled. "You’re right, and you’re wrong."
Liang Wan looked up at him. "As long as you stop imprisoning me like this, Husband, I’m willing to be your weapon!"
If Lu Xiu kept her confined like this, she wouldn’t even have a chance to see Gao Qian, let alone enter the palace.
"And what could you do if you weren’t willing?"
Lu Xiu knew full well this poison was for Gao Qian. If he truly wanted to protect him, he wouldn’t have let her brew it without interference. Her making poison so brazenly in his own residence was, in its own way, a test of him.
But to say he wasn’t protecting him wasn’t right either. He was always watching her. Last time, she had been on the verge of success, but he had ruined it at the critical moment, changing the course of everything that followed.
"Husband, what is it that you truly want?"
Liang Wan really didn’t want to keep guessing. It would be better to have it out in the open.
Lu Xiu let out a laugh. "’To eat the king’s bread is to bear the king’s burdens.’ As a subject of the court, shouldn’t I be loyal to my sovereign and protect him?"
’If anyone else had said it, fine. But for him, the great traitor who would one day seize control of the government, to say such a thing... isn’t that laughable?’
’If his downfall wouldn’t implicate me, I’d really want to test my poisons on him.’
Lu Xiu looked at her and gave a faint smile. "You are completely focused on revenge, aren’t you?"
Liang Wan nodded.
Lu Xiu gave a slight nod. "If you truly succeed in what you seek, what then?"
’What then?’
Then she heard him say, "Feng Qingyue, Cui Hao... who else?"
Liang Wan was rather stunned. ’He really does know every last detail about me!’
Lu Xiu’s lips curved into a smile. "Even if you succeed, and they all meet the end you wish for them, one by one... what happens after your revenge is complete?"
Liang Wan was lost in a daze for a moment.
Her entire life was dedicated to revenge. All she ever thought about was making them pay for their crimes in blood, making them suffer the same humiliation and torture she had once endured.
Liang Wan fixed her gaze on him and shook her head. "I don’t know. But I promised you from the beginning that once my revenge is complete, I will use what’s left of my wretched life to repay you for saving me. I have kept that promise firmly in mind!"
Lu Xiu just stared at her, a chilliness coloring his features.
"What use would I have for your life?"
Liang Wan was at a loss for words.
’It really is useless. He only agreed in the beginning because he found his life too dull.’
Lu Xiu picked up his teacup, lowered his eyes, and took a light sip of the clear tea.
After a moment of silence, he set down the cup, stood up, and looked at her coolly.
"Didn’t you once ask me how I knew your name?"
Liang Wan tilted her face up to look at him. ’That’s right. That was the first time we met. It was dark, and I was covering my face, yet he recognized me at a glance and called out my name.’
’Why?’
Seeing her earnest expression, Lu Xiu let out a deep chuckle.
"You really can’t remember anything at all?"
Liang Wan was a bit dazed. She carefully searched her past memories for any image that might be connected to him, but all she could find were those moments of cold indifference. The rest was a blank.
"You advised me not to burn that painting, ’Willow Lane and Peach Blossom Path,’ didn’t you? Well, would you like to see another painting?"
He squatted down, bringing himself face-to-face with her.
Liang Wan stared, transfixed. In the depths of his dark, profound eyes, she saw an unknown emotion she couldn’t decipher.