Discuss with you

Chapter 463 Missing

Although Lu Qing concealed his emotions well, Zhu Yu immediately noticed his dejection at that moment. So he moved closer to him, reached out and pulled Lu Qing's hand into his own.

She had previously heard rumors circulating that Lu Qing had actually benefited from the misfortune and gotten a great deal.

Although his entire family was wiped out, he was just an infant who knew nothing and remembered nothing at the time, so he had no pain or sorrow to speak of.

Even if Lu Qing's family doesn't encounter any mishaps, he is not the eldest grandson of the family, but the third son born to the eldest son's legal wife. He has two older brothers, so even if his grandfather and father are granted titles and wealth, he will not be the one to inherit the title in the future.

In that case, if you want to get a title, you have to work hard to pass the exams. If you can't stand out from the crowd, you can only rely on your elder brother who inherits the title to make a living for the rest of your life.

How could such a life compare to the glory of being the emperor's adopted son!

Although everyone knows that the Carefree King has no real power, with this title, all other rewards are negligible. The annual salary from this title alone is enough for an ordinary family to live on for several lifetimes. Most powerful officials can only look on with envy.

Therefore, although Lu Qing's entire family died, he himself turned misfortune into blessing and lived a life of wealth and luxury that he could never have imagined before.

But to such an argument, Zhu Yu could only snort, roll her eyes, or even spit.

Zhu Yu vividly remembers the feeling of fear and helplessness she experienced when she first opened her eyes in this world.

She had both a father and a mother, which seemed to be her own, but also seemed not to be. She appeared to have a life that was already better than others, and was even more fortunate to have been given a second chance at life. However, the feeling of being helpless and cautious was also very real.

If she herself was like this, then Lu Qing, who had experienced so many perilous situations since childhood, was even more so.

Who would be willing to sacrifice the lives of all their loved ones, a childhood that could have been filled with care, several brushes with death, and a body full of scars, in exchange for a fleeting sense of wealth and status?
Lu Qing had become accustomed to these things. After all, more than twenty years had passed, and compared to the pain of losing loved ones, what he had been more concerned about in recent years was how to save his own life.

He could clearly feel her emotions from the strength in Zhu Yu's hands that were tightly gripping his.

There is concern, and there is heartache.

Lu Qing paused slightly, feeling a heavy weight in her heart, yet also a sense of relief.

“I don’t understand…” Zhu Yu’s gaze shifted from the brass pendant with the Qilin pattern back to Lu Qing’s face. “Yan Daoxin said before…”

She hesitated for a moment and looked at Lu Qing.

Lu Qing was puzzled, not understanding why she stopped after just opening her mouth.

Given how open and honest they are with each other, it's clear that Zhu Yu wouldn't hesitate to talk about anything in front of him.

"Why are you hesitant to speak?" he asked Zhu Yu.

"You didn't seem willing to talk about what happened to your clan before." Zhu Yu recalled that every time the topic of Lu Qing's clan being wiped out came up, he would always change the subject. Even before the two of them had any mutual feelings for each other, he would deliberately put on an ambiguous posture to scare her away.

Lu Qing chuckled: "That's because we're in the capital, or perhaps still within the territory of Dajin. I'm not sure if there are any of His Majesty's spies around. Those Chi Fu Guards can help me deliver messages, and naturally they can also bring back other information that His Majesty wants to know."

Over the years, he has never given me any opportunity to learn more about what happened back then. Whenever I wanted to find out more, he always knew immediately and would subtly hint at it from the sidelines.

Later I understood a principle: the more I wanted to understand what happened back then, the more I needed to restrain myself and not act rashly.

"Why doesn't he want you to know?" Zhu Yu frowned. She had always felt that Emperor Jin treated Lu Qing badly. Although he seemed to give him a lot of wealth and honor, Emperor Jin never tried to shield Lu Qing from any of the harm he suffered, whether it was the misunderstandings and slander from the outside world or the troublesome tasks he did for him in private.

Not only did they not stop him, but sometimes, to use Lu Qing's words, they would even use him as a "horse stool" to step on when going down the steps.

Now things get even more interesting. Emperor Jin doesn't want Lu Qing to investigate, and Lu Qing hides his desire to find out the truth. Meanwhile, someone else is impatient and deliberately throws out what appears to be an important item belonging to his father, trying to entice Lu Qing to investigate.

Both sides have their own agendas, and the reasons behind them will probably only become clear when the truth comes out.

However, since Lu Qing said that, Zhu Yu understood that it wasn't that he was unwilling to mention what happened back then, but rather that he had some reservations.

Now things are different. Chi Fu Wei is stopped within the territory of Jin Kingdom, while the forces hidden in the shadows on the side of Fan Di are eager for Lu Qing to investigate the matter of his entire family being wiped out back then.

Talking about these things in a place like this, there's naturally nothing to worry about or be wary of.

Since that's the case, Zhu Yu felt more at ease and asked boldly: "Yan Daoxin said that you almost lost your life when you were a child because you ate a small amount of the Jade Snowbird's meat."

And the more toxic blood... is the culprit that killed your family.

But you just said that everything in the house was burned to the ground, and only the gold-threaded soft armor was preserved because it was originally used to protect that person; everything else was destroyed.

Then I don't understand. If you've already poisoned someone, why set fire to the place?
Since arson destroyed everything, how did you later find out that your family members died from the blood of the Emerald Snowbird?

“You’re right. The fact that a fire broke out after someone poisoned them is a major reason why I’ve been suspicious all these years.” Lu Qing’s brows relaxed slightly, and she was pleased that Zhu Yu had noticed the biggest contradiction in the matter. “As for this, since there’s no way to investigate, we don’t know for the time being.”

All I know is that the fire that year was suspicious. When the person who received the news that my house had suffered a disaster sent someone to check, the house was not on fire.

The men who were sent there discovered me, the only survivor, and hurriedly took me back to report. But no sooner had they left than my house burst into flames.

By the time the person sent to get there again, everything had been reduced to ashes.

However, one of the corpses was not completely burned. A coroner from the Jingzhao Prefecture took the incomplete, burnt corpse back for examination and made a record of it.

Later, that record also disappeared without a trace, and the coroner vanished without a trace.

Zhu Yu seemed to understand something: "The coroner wasn't really missing, was he?"