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Chapter 437 Old Tree Sprouts New Branches

Lu Qing's nodding gesture confirmed Zhu Yu's worst suspicion.

Even though he had seen many cruel methods, his expression was still not very good: "The truth should be pretty much the same as what you guessed."

Those women were all drugged and then sent to the mansions of high-ranking officials and nobles. Nominally, they were to be taken as concubines, but in reality, they never received a marriage certificate. And these women were never found again, as if they had never existed.

"Did the people in the small building say these things?"

“Of course not. The guards in Xiaoshanlou are all hired from outside at high prices. They only move around inside and outside the gate and are not allowed to contact the women upstairs. Those who know the inside story will not say a word.” Lu Qing shook his head. “This is what Lu Chao told us.”

While he was traveling around, he heard many rumors that were never heard in the capital. Some of them were so bizarre that no one believed them. They were just casual gossips over tea and a few drinks.

Among them are these stories about the women living in the small mountain building.

However, those people didn't know anything about Xiaoshanlou. They only said that they had heard that there were high-ranking officials in the capital who had evil tricks to make people young again. They said that they were taking concubines, but in reality, they brought a drug-filled man into their mansion. Then, the couple would drink the blood released from the drug-filled man every day, and in this way, they could quickly regain their youth.

There were also rumors in the countryside, said to have been heard by relatives working in the capital: the old prince, already over seventy and seemingly as frail as a candle in the wind, had miraculously sprouted new branches, his white hair and youthful face rejuvenated; his elderly wife, with her gray hair, had become pregnant and given birth to a healthy, plump son.

"An old prince in the capital?" Zhu Yu looked at Lu Qing curiously. "Is there really such a thing in the capital?"

“It really is true.” Lu Qing sighed. “When we first heard about this, no one really took it seriously. Everyone thought that the old prince’s young and beautiful concubine had cheated on him with someone, perhaps someone in the family that was not easy to talk about with outsiders. So they had to swallow their anger and, in order to make it believable, simply let the old prince’s wife take the child to her side to raise, and told everyone that she had given birth to a pearl in her old age.”

This matter was so absurd that while some people joked about it in private, no one ever took it seriously.

Unexpectedly, much later, this coincided with the gossip Lu Chao had overheard in the countryside.

“Those women all agreed to enter that small brothel hoping to live a life of luxury and comfort, but in the end, they themselves became the rejuvenating elixirs for others.” Zhu Yu listened with a sense of sympathy. “I also saw many skeletons in that secret passage, not even a whole body left behind…”

That small mountain house offered those poor women only two paths: one was to become chickens slowly fattened up in a farmer's yard, and the other was to become chickens thrown into a mountain forest full of jackals and tigers.

In the end, they all meet the same fate, dying in the same cruel way, with no difference whatsoever.

But what is their purpose in doing such heinous things? It can't be to make dirty money, right?

Although the secret passage was extremely dangerous, it must be admitted that it was ingeniously designed and required a great deal of thought and effort to keep it running.

Putting everything else aside, that crystal array alone could only be set up with immense financial resources. Even those spiders and giant rats don't seem like ordinary creatures. They're either rare species or force-fed with rare medicinal herbs!

“This matter cannot be confirmed at the moment, but I think the same way you do. We will definitely find the answer.” Lu Qing helped her cover herself with the blanket. “But that’s all for later. The most important thing now is for you to recover first, and then we can continue our journey.”

During the few days that Zhu Yu was recuperating, apart from Lu Qing taking care of her, no one else came to disturb her. It wasn't until Zhu Yu's wounds healed at an amazing speed with the help of the ointment provided by Yan Daoxin, and she recovered very well in all aspects, that she finally tidied herself up a bit—changed into a dry Taoist robe, left the room, and met with Lu Chao and Yan Daoxin.

Lu Chao, whom we hadn't seen for a long time, still looked calm and composed, with a refined and scholarly demeanor. Seeing that Zhu Yu had recovered quite well, and was only slightly thinner than before, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

"It's good that you've recovered." His relationship with Lu Qing was exceptionally special, so he didn't use any particularly polite or distant terms of address for Zhu Yu, and his attitude was unusually casual. "If anything had happened to you, Lu Qing's reputation as a jinx would probably never have been able to be washed away."

"He wasn't treated well by fate before, so meeting you might be heaven's compensation. It seems heaven doesn't intend to take back the compensation; it's just that he wasn't good enough to you, so this is a small punishment as a warning."

After saying that, he looked at Lu Qing disapprovingly and said, "You should have sent me a message immediately so that I could find a way to borrow people to meet you."

Lu Qing smiled and did not argue with him.

In fact, although Lu Chao's words were well-intentioned, they were not entirely accurate. After all, if the timing hadn't been perfect and Lu Yan's alliance hadn't reassured Lu Jun, Lu Chao's manpower that could be put to use at this time might not have been more than Lu Qing's.

However, Lu Qing's lack of explanation also seemed to carry a sense of guilt about Zhu Yu's injury, as if he was deliberately trying to take on the responsibility.

Compared to Lu Chao, Yan Daoxin was much more excited when he saw Zhu Yu.

"It's my fault, it's my fault! This is all my fault in the end!" As soon as he heard Lu Chao finish speaking, he immediately spoke with a face full of guilt. It wasn't that he wanted to protect Lu Qing, but he felt really bad for Zhu Yu. "I thought that in that godforsaken place, people who didn't want to stay would just be thrown out!"

I was thinking that things looked really bad inside, and I figured they'd be drugged, so I conspired with you to make sure you wouldn't accept that old hag's suggestion and insisted on leaving!
After they took you away, I was still thinking that at least we should get you out of there first. Once you're out, we can tell Lu Qing what happened inside. We five people with ten hands definitely can't handle this place. I'll ask him to find some more help.

Who would have thought that they wouldn't let you go at all, but instead threw you into a den of wolves and tigers!
If I had known it would turn out like this... I should have just said—

"Stay?" Zhu Yu smiled and shook his head. "Did they give you the herbal medicine?"

Yan Daoxin nodded.

"Then how many doses of medicine do you think my body can withstand?" Zhu Yu asked again.