Chapter 681: Chapter 680: Grudges
People often interpret others’ actions according to their own principles.
Therefore, the Lu Family’s knowing yet choosing not to make things difficult for Zhao Bi was naturally understood by him as them waiting for an opportunity to completely crush him, ensuring his eternal downfall.
So, in the midst of agony, he made a decision — rather than being controlled and passively beaten, it’s better to strike first.
Thus, he found an opportunity to have the senior disciple from the Bhutan faction, secretly working for him, disguise himself and infiltrate the Lu Family as a servant, while discreetly watching to see if the Lu Family was plotting any schemes against Zhao Bi and finding the right moment to act.
Even though the senior disciple did not uncover any news from the mansion suggesting the Lu Family intended to harm Zhao Bi, Zhao Bi still did not change his original plan.
Eventually, after a long period of lurking, the senior disciple found a perfect opportunity — to strike on Lu Qing’s grandfather’s birthday.
Because Lu Qing’s grandfather was highly esteemed among their branch of the family, aside from those extremely old or too distant to be in contact, nearly everyone from this branch came to celebrate the grandfather’s birthday.
Thus leading to the well-known conclusion.
Once the affair was accomplished, Zhao Bi commenced his subsequent actions to eliminate evidence.
After the incident in the Lu Family, Zhao Bi took advantage of Emperor Jin’s wrath, proactively requested to have the sect head who had been assisting him killed, and returned with the head to report to Emperor Jin, while his subordinates almost completely exterminated the sect members and destroyed all traces.
Only two people escaped; one was the senior disciple dispatched to poison the Lu Family, the other was the sect head’s second disciple, both of whom fled amidst chaos, wounded.
Under the guise of helping Emperor Jin search for the missing Lu Family servant and the true poison culprit, Zhao Bi sent people to scout everywhere, eventually discovering the senior disciple’s corpse near water, decomposed beyond recognition, not far from Lan Country.
As for the second disciple, the dispatched personnel reported witnessing a trail of blood along the pursuit, seemingly severely wounded, ultimately found dead in a desolate forest, picked clean by wild animals leaving only bones and torn garments.
Afterward, all traces of the Bhutan faction vanished, and Jin Country was left with no notable Lu Family, while Zhao Bi became an unrivaled meritorious minister beside Emperor Jin, the most distinguished figure in the court.
Many who were originally aligned with him received substantial promotions, and those who were initially hesitant witnessed the reality and quickly joined Zhao Bi, not sparing to call themselves disciples just to succeed in their allegiance.
Under this growing influence, past events were suppressed, though some still harbored doubts, no one dared to risk bringing those unsubstantiated suspicions to light.
Following the affair, Zhao Bi became more protective of his reputation, adopting an entirely different style from his audacious tactics during the battle for the throne, shifting from a risk-taker to someone who values self-preservation, focusing solely on consolidating his power without indulging in any actions that could leave blemishes or future hazards, decisively severing ties with colleagues in his faction that might invite trouble, ensuring no one had a chance to exploit his weaknesses.
In an effort to eliminate these weaknesses, he dared not summon more Jade Snowbirds, neither could he find anyone willing to procure them for him, prompting him to risk presenting the secretly preserved meat to his daughter, now elevated as an Imperial Concubine, in an attempt to eradicate Lu Qing, his final "source of trouble."
Unexpectedly, Lu Qing survived the ordeal at the Shanqing Temple, while Consort Zhao perished prematurely.
After Consort Zhao’s death, Zhao Bi refrained from taking further risks, merely keeping tabs on Lu Qing, fearing he might pursue the events of the past.
This led to Duke Yan consistently opposing Prince Xiaoyao both within and outside the court.
Zhu Yu’s emotions were truly complex as she read to the last sentence on the paper in her hand.
On one hand, Lu Qing had already mostly deduced what had happened in the past, and the facts relayed this time by Lu Zhang essentially confirmed his previous speculations, but the instigator was dead, unable to pay for the heinous acts, a situation far from satisfactory.
On the other hand, she was somewhat curious about why Lu Zhang specifically chose to write a letter to inform Lu Qing.
Zhu Yu shifted her gaze to the last page of the stack of handwritten letters Lu Qing held: "Lu Zhang... What does this mean?"
"He said," Lu Qing’s eyes didn’t leave the paper as he immediately responded to Zhu Yu’s inquiry, "he also believes his maternal grandfather’s past actions were utterly reprehensible, even though he never participated, the outside world often saw them as one entity, assuming Zhao Bi’s acts were clearing obstacles for him, Lu Zhang."
"Truth be told, Lu Zhang is indeed somewhat unjustly implicated," Zhu Yu remarked with a helpless smile, "to outsiders, Zhao Bi did seem to be plotting for his benefit, yet they couldn’t grasp how Zhao Bi undermined him to the extent that even his soldiers wouldn’t follow his orders."
"Lu Zhang initially feared that telling me about this might cause me to blame him, but having experienced the various challenges we faced together at the Immortal Castle in Lan Country, it was the first time he truly felt kinship, leading him to question his maternal grandfather’s frequent ’care and protection.’
He felt I ought to be informed about my family’s past ordeal, but feared that from then on our relationship would deteriorate further, hence hesitated to speak of it.
Until Zhao Bi’s entire family was exterminated, which made him realize the affair may not have entirely concluded, since Zhao Bi and the others were deceased, preventing me from discovering the truth directly from Zhao Bi, Lu Zhang felt he ought to risk a fallout by informing me what he knew.
After all, he wasn’t ignorant. Even being dispatched to the frontier, he still managed to hear news about his maternal grandfather’s family.
Evidently aware, he found it incredibly suspicious that Zhao Bi’s family was ambushed halfway with no survivors, so despite feeling tormented and guilty, he decided to share candidly, ensuring I get clearer understanding of the truth I’ve long pursued."
