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Chapter 539 What Happened Back Then

As soon as Lu Qing uttered his answer, several memorials flew towards him, hurling them at his head.

Although each individual document in the stack wasn't particularly thick, the sheer weight of the pile made it heavy. It came crashing down on Lu Qing, hitting him squarely in the face and knocking his head to the side.

The folded paper fell to the ground with a clatter.

Grandpa Gao was so frightened that he knelt down on the ground with a thud, buried his face in his sleeves, and lay on the ground without daring to lift his head.

Emperor Jin stood behind his desk, his chest heaving violently with anger, veins bulging on his forehead, clearly quite furious.

He watched as a trickle of blood slowly seeped out from Lu Qing's forehead, which had been struck, and flowed down her cheek. His furrowed brows relaxed slightly.

“People can’t come back to life after they’re dead. I’ve never wanted you to be held back by the past, because that would keep you living in pain. That’s why there are many things I haven’t talked to you about before.”

You were just a baby back then, too young to remember anything. I hope you can live a carefree and easy life, and not be held back by things that are destined to be irreversible.

He sighed deeply, his earlier rage completely gone, and said earnestly, "But as you grow up, I also know that perhaps because of the bond of blood, or perhaps influenced by the rumors outside, you have begun to stir and want to find out what happened back then."

I didn't stop you. I even made you a Golden-Faced Censor, giving you an identity unknown to outsiders, allowing you to move freely outside. I also transferred the Chifu Guard to serve you.

You're right, you, the Golden-Faced Censor, have indeed helped me with many things that I couldn't personally handle or get involved in, but what else?

I turned a blind eye to your private inquiries about what happened back then and didn't ask too many questions.

And what happened? After all this time, I can't believe you haven't uncovered the truth of what happened back then. Instead, you've gone out and been misled by others, relying on hearsay. It's truly disappointing.

After Emperor Jin finished speaking, he sighed slowly, as if the action of throwing a stack of memorials at Lu Qing had exhausted all his strength, causing him to slump back into his chair.

Eunuch Gao hurriedly reached out to help him up, fearing that Emperor Jin might accidentally get hurt.

Blood had already trickled down Lu Qing's forehead to his temples, but he seemed oblivious, his eyes lowered as he glanced at the messy memorials before him. After a long while, he finally looked up at Emperor Jin again.

"Your Majesty seems to have forgotten something," Lu Qing said in a stagnant voice. "Although the Chi Fu Guards obey my orders, their job is to relay messages between Your Majesty and me. In the end, they are Your Majesty's eyes and ears."

If you are unwilling, with them around, what can I find out from the outside?

What I can see is only what Your Majesty wants me to see.

After Lu Qing finished speaking, the Emperor Jin's expression became very complicated, seemingly a mix of sadness, disappointment, and, more naturally, anger.

"Alright, alright, alright!" He sighed and nodded slowly. "Since we've already come to this point, I'll tell you about what happened back then myself!"
Back then, your grandfather and father led the clan to fight alongside me, quelling rebellions everywhere and making great contributions. However, they met with a tragic end just before I was preparing my birthday gifts. That day was your grandfather's birthday, and I originally intended to go there in person to enjoy a cup of birthday wine, but I was tied up with other matters, so I had to send someone to deliver some fine wine instead.

I never imagined that I would hear such terrible news in just an hour or two.

Afterwards, he immediately led a group of people to the scene. When they arrived, they found the courtyard full of dead men, women, and children. After a search, they determined that there were no survivors and that everyone was dead.

Just as they were about to leave, they heard what sounded like a baby whimpering or a cat meowing coming from the house next door. So they sent someone to check, and they found you in a hidden compartment in the wall.

You were still an infant at that time and couldn't hide in the secret compartment by yourself, so I had people check carefully and found that your family members, relatives and guests had all died in the front courtyard. There were no wounds on their bodies, as if they had died of poisoning. Most of the other servants were also found dead in the front courtyard, but they did not die of poisoning. Instead, their necks were broken.

Only one woman dressed as a wet nurse died in the inner courtyard, her neck also broken.

The room where you were found was only a courtyard away from where your wet nurse died.

At the time, some speculated that the wet nurse was kept in the inner quarters because she needed to take care of the baby, so she didn't have to go to the front to serve at the banquet or eat the same food as the others.

She must have heard something in the inner courtyard and sensed something was wrong, so she hid you beforehand. She then tried to escape to check or call for help, but ultimately met her demise.

Lu Qing listened to Emperor Jin's story with a blank expression, while Lu Chao also looked up at Emperor Jin attentively, listening to him speak.

For many years, Emperor Jin has remained tight-lipped about the Lu Qing clan. Those around him, either to curry favor with him or for other purposes, have mostly kept quiet about it.

So this time, not only Lu Qing, but even Lu Chao was hearing about that tragedy from back then for the first time.

"That evening, after a careful count, it was found that almost no one in your entire clan, including the women and servants, had escaped death."

Besides you, who was hidden in the secret compartment, when checking the household servants' roster, you first discovered that one servant was missing.

This person is not a servant born into your family; he is a starving person whom your grandfather and father took in along the way when they were quelling the rebellion.

When Emperor Jin got to this point, he seemed a little sad, perhaps recalling his past interactions with Lu Qing's grandfather and others. He paused, took a deep breath, and it seemed that talking about this topic still left him feeling exhausted.

Grandpa Gao, who was standing nearby, quickly got up from the ground, poured him a cup of tea, and handed it to him so that he could moisten his throat.

“I also sent people out to search everywhere immediately. After a while, we found him,” Emperor Jin said after taking a few sips of tea. “When he was found, his body was on the bank of a river in Liangzhou, face down in the shallows of the river. He had been eaten by fish and was unrecognizable. If he hadn’t been wearing the clothes of one of your servants, it would have been very difficult to recognize him.”

Whether this person escaped in the chaos or betrayed their own side, acting as an informant and then being silenced, at that point, apart from you, the infant in your swaddling clothes, there were no other survivors from your family, and the investigation was dropped.

(End of this chapter)