The Empress’ Livestream

“Who is that?” The soldier saw the coffin on the wagon in the distance. He sensed their intention to approach them and he couldn’t help but pull his sword out. He came towards them with a look of anger. He blocked their path and scolded them. “This is the Meng’s critical place. Shabby citizens like you had better get out of here before our master sees you.”

The head of the entourage rolled off the wagon, embarrassed, and started to cry. His head and waist were both wrapped with white cloth and he wore linen clothes for the funeral. He wore a big and messy bun. His eyes were bloodshot with big, dark bags underneath them. His face seemed to be covered with a layer of dirty grease, which made him look shaggy.

“I… I have an emergency to report to Laoye. The Second Langjun is back!” He cried while he was spoke. He kneeled on the ground and took his identity card out of his pocket with trembling fingers. Even though the soldier couldn’t read, he recognized the card and his attitude completely flipped.

What? The Second Langjun is back? The soldier’s face changed immediately and he was about to adulate Meng Liang for a good impression until his eyes landed on the coffin in the wagon. A bad feeling spread from his back to the back of his head in a second and he felt his whole body go numb.

Could… could it be the Second Langjun, Meng Liang, was the one in the coffin? The assumption struck the soldier.

“Quickly respond to Laoye that the Second Langjun’s body is back. Quickly!” The head of the entourage didn’t have the courage to face to the fury of Meng Zhan all by himself. He yelled at the soldier. The soldier was still in the shock from the news and he quickly turned around and rushed into the mansion, rather dazed. He was aware of what kind of anger the messenger would face.

Meng Zhan was sitting in the waterside pavilion drinking with his friend. They sat face to face, talked about random subjects, and were having fun. That atmosphere didn’t last long. The reckless servant made a loud noise when he came in and his rudeness upset Meng Zhan.

The Meng’s were one of the four noble families. The rules were so strict that even the lowest of servants had the best manners. It was hard to pick on them about their manners.

Something that awkward, especially when they were hosting a guest, made Meng Liang feel shame, even though his friend didn’t care much about it.

“It’s very likely something happened. Why don’t you ask them?” His friend gave him a gentle smile. His peaceful eyes made people calm and at ease.

Meng Zhan held onto his anger, pretended to be cool, and bowed to his friend. “It is my fault that I didn’t train my servants well. I’m sorry to have embarrassed you.”

After that, he turned around and his face was dark as he walked towards the sloppy servant. Meng Zhan spoke impatiently and asked, “Speak up. What has happened?”

The servant couldn’t stop shaking and he lowered his body to the ground to make himself less visible. Then, Meng Liang noticed a strange soldier next to the servant. He appeared to be one of the guards of the Meng’s from the way he was dressed. All of a sudden, the fury in Meng Zhan grew bigger.

“This is a place for me to treat my precious guest and even a guard who is taking care of the door can break in. If anyone else outside of this family sees this, how can they not laugh at us for being casual with the way we train our own servants? We can’t even regulate them ourselves!” However, before he was about to storm out, the soldier finished his report to him in a state of great terror.

“Lao… Laoye. The Second Langjun’s body just arrived.”

Meng Zhan’s brain went blank after hearing this. It was like a sudden stroke of thunder occurred next to his ears and he lost his hearing. After a long time, he regained his consciousness with a dumb face. He grabbed the soldier’s collars and pulled him up.

His rough motion alerted the guest sitting in the waterside pavilion.

“What are you saying? Whose body is back?” Meng Zhan’s eyes wide open; it looked like his eyeballs were about to pop out. The manic look of him was an obvious contrast against his usual gentleman look.

The soldier grew more and more anxious, but he replied to him subconsciously, “The Second Langjun’s body just arrived.”

The Second Langjun? Meng Zhan stepped backwards from the terror of the news and his body banged into a column in the aisle of the waterside pavilion. He lost all his strength.

A group of servants was so frightened that they kneeled on the ground and kept their heads down. The friend who had been staying in the waterside pavilion overheard the noise in their direction. He went to stand up but he only saw Meng Zhan’s right hand covering his chest. The next thing he saw was Meng Zhan puking some blood, and then his eyes rolled back and he fell into the pond.

His friend witnessed everything, but he looked puzzled. He froze in place.

What on earth was happening?

Meng Zhan puking blood and falling into the pond happened in a moment. Everyone was certain about what exactly happened; they even forgot to save him. It was the friend who came to the realization and ordered the servants to save the blacked out Meng Zhan from the pond.

Meng Zhan woke up. Everything was familiar to him and his friend was sitting next to his bed, waiting for him to come back to consciousness.

He remembered the news he heard before he passed out and rashly threw his blanket aside. “Meng County Chief, the doctor just came to see you. His diagnosis is that you are overly shocked by the news and you need some time to rest.”

Out of the blue, Meng Zhan exploded and shoved his friend to the side. His eyes were full of resentment.

“Bring him over!” Meng Liang was so furious that he nearly bit his own tongue, “Who killed my Meng Liang?”

Meng Liang? His friend stood up with a sense of awkwardness. He was so shocked when he heard the name. Wasn’t that the name of the Second Langjun of the Meng’s? What happened to him?

He watched Meng Zhan leave the room in a fit of rage. The startled face of his friend returned to normal. He organized his hat and clothes back to what they used to be and he wondered, Could it be something horrible happened to the Second Langjun of the Meng’s?

Remembering the young friend he accidently met before he came to Meng County, the man raised his brows. His eyes flashed with a sense of amusement. “Did you predict an incident like this was ahead?”

He followed Meng Zhan and came to the hall where they had temporarily placed Meng Liang’s coffin. All the servants were dressed in funeral white linen clothes and the decorations of the hall were modified, too. They had set the white cloth flag and burned some candles. It was clearly a scene of a mourning hall with the gigantic coffin in the middle of the room.

The moment he walked in, he noticed the decomposing smell suffusing over the room.

Meng Zhan had lost it. He pushed the top of the coffin aside. The body lying in it was decaying and it was covered in humongous maggots.

They had used ice to freeze the body, but it had been three months since Meng Liang had died. The weather was growing warmer and there was no place to get any ice along the way back. It was absolutely normal that the body wouldn’t be preserved and would be covered by maggots.

The more pathetic the body looked, the more it struck Meng Zhan.

He couldn’t believe the one lying in the coffin was his son, but did vaguely look like Meng Liang under the face full of maggots. It was his son. Meng Zhan felt a pain in his throat and some blood ran out of his mouth when he saw it.

The scene made people who saw panic again. His friend lifted his brows and he was about to take off. There was a fragrant scent he started to smell.

A lady in luxurious dress put her whole body on the top of the coffin and began weeping in sorrow. People felt sympathetic for her when they saw her crying.

Even with a thick layer of makeup, she didn’t make a mess of her face after she cried. It was a skill for sure.

The friend was confused when he heard the lady crying out the name of the Second Langjun in the coffin as her “son.”

Wait a minute, isn’t Meng Liang’s biological mother the Second Lady of Liu She, the Hu County Chief? The friend heard this and his eyes widened. It felt like that he had overheard some incredible inside information.