淫欲的代价

Chapter 311 After Dying, I Woke Up In Ancient Times With My Pharmacy 10

He came to a stop before Lu Qian and his lips arched. "...I had recognized the insignia of the Lu family attached to her her carriage."

Lu Qian\'s eyebrows raised in surprise. This was the reason the General was here? He\'d initially thought it had something to do with his fifth son but this was even better. If General He was interested in his daughter, didn\'t that make his task a lot easier? But... Which daughter exactly?

Lu Yunyue did not leave the mansion at all yesterday so it couldn\'t have been her. That thought relaxed him a bit. Afterall, Lu Yunyue was meant to be bethroded to the future Emperor.

Lu Zhenzhen on the other hand... That daughter of his had hung out with some noble ladies in the Capital yesterday so was she the one?

Excitement filled Lu Qian\'s heart. If he managed to successfully pull the General of the Northern army over to the Ninth prince\'s side, he would be able to boost himself up to the position of confidant and when the Ninth prince finally ascended the throne, there would be no lack of benefits for him as the number one confidant!

A cordial smile bloomed on Lu Qian\'s face and his attitude was much better. "Naturally, the work of fate is something to be pleased about. I wonder which of my daughters you speak of?"

He Yuan faked an embarrassed expression and raised a fist to his lips. "Well the thing is... I have no idea what she is called but as long as I see her, I would definitely recognize her!"

Lu Qian bobbed his head in understanding. General He spent most of his time in the army and before that, he hadn\'t been old enough to attend most formal gatherings so it was completely normal for him not to know the names of most daughters of noble families.

Also, the matter of matchmaking was mostly handled by the official wife of a household so he couldn\'t casually present Lu Zhenzhen in the absence of his main wife and more importantly, his mother.

With that, he beckoned a nearby servant over and whispered a few things in his ear. As soon as the servant left, he turned back to He Yuan and made a please gesture, "This way."

He Yuan inclined his head and walked side by side with Lu Qian with his hands clasped behind his back. As they walked, his eyes moved around discreetly as he tried to map out the place. He might be aware of the location of Lu Wenduo\'s and Lu Xuilan\'s courtyard but every other place in the Lu mansion was unknown to him.

Every second or so, Lu Qian would side eye He Yuan before looking away. Once they got close to his mother\'s grand hall, he said as naturally as possible, "...I wonder what the General thinks about His Highness the Ninth prince?"

He Yuan\'s eyes remained straight ahead. After Lu Qian\'s failed attempt to probe him at the Imperial palace earlier, he already knew this was coming. The so called fight for the throne was actually none of his business.

At most, he would pay more attention to Tian Weisheng\'s affairs and that was only because of the prince\'s connection to Lu Xuilan. With the shadow of a smile, he said, "The son of a dragon would naturally not be a dog. Like all other princes, he is outstanding in his own way."

Lu Qian\'s face fell. The General had said this, what else could it mean if not that he wasn\'t willing to get involved? A second later though, his spirits recovered. It was still too early for things to be set in stone.

Like most of the other ministers in court, it was possible that General He was just being cautious and was yet to chose a side because none of the Princes have shown their hands yet.

Meanwhile in Matriarch Lu\'s courtyard...

As soon as Lu Qian left, the Matriarch finally saw the opportunity to dismiss the bad luck grandson from her sight but Bai Yun as not having it.

The more she stared at Lu Jingye, the more dissatisfied she became. She just discovered that a healthy child had been hidden away for so long so how could she just let Shi Meifen go back to hiding him just like that?

She turned to pin Shi Meifen with a glare. "You\'re pretty bold aren\'t you? Daring to hide a child for so long. Even from me, the official wife!"

Lin Liang, Tan Hong, Fang Lan and their respective children looked over in interest. They were not quite over the shock of seeing the sudden child.

On the other hand, Shi Meifen felt bitter in her heart. She looked over to the Matriarch and seeing that the old woman had no plan of telling the true reason, she turned to Bai Yun with a humble demeanor.

"I had no such intention. It was Master\'s decision to hide Jingye away. Besides..." She looked over to Fang Lan and her voice became lower, "Concubine Fang had been the official wife back then."

It would have been great if Shi Meifen had stopped at her first sentence but then she went on to add the last part which successfully ticked a sore spot in Bai Yun.

SLAP!

Fang Lan flinched in surprise, Lin Liang quickly held Lu Zhenzhen and took a step back whilst Tan Hong\'s eyes brightened but a second later, they all stilled. Because the slap didn\'t land. 

With his eyes lowered and a hand in the air, Lu Jingye calmly locked Bai Yun\'s wrist in an iron tight grip. Behind him, Shi Meifen was frozen still with a shocked expression on her face.

Bai Yun\'s hand dangled powerlessly in the air and her eyes widened. "You! Let me go!"

Lu Jingye didn\'t move. He had no idea how he\'d been able to pinpoint Bai Yun\'s exact location and catch her hand accurately when he couldn\'t even see her figure clearly but his heart was currently full of anger so he wasn\'t in the mood to think too much.

On the dais, Lu Xuilan\'s eyes flashed and she took another look at the Lu Jingye. Interesting~

The Matriarch finally decided to intervene. She hadn\'t been moved by the fact that Bai Yun had raised a hand against Shi Meifen. In fact, it wasn\'t unheard of for the main wife to discipline a disrespectful concubine -especially one like Shi Meifen, who had been a lowly servant in the Lu mansion before catching her son\'s eye.

Besides... Bai Yun had gifted her with so many precious items over the past years so she couldn\'t just stay by and do nothing. She cleared her throat with an annoyed frown on her face. "Concubine Shi, this is what you raised all these years?"

Shi Meifen finally came to her senses then and hurriedly placed a hand on Lu Jingye\'s arm with fear in her heart. Her mother had been a slave in the Lu mansion before she was born and she had grown up as a servant here.

She had no backing from anyone and if the Matriarch or Bai Yun decided to target Lu Jingye, there was nothing she could do but beg with her life. As soon as Lu Jingye reluctantly let go, she shakily turned to the Matriarch.

The Matriarch sneered at Shi Meifen\'s pleading expression and turned to Bai Yun. "Handle this."

Bai Yuan rubbed her red wrist and turned to Lu Jingye. She couldn\'t openly raise her hand against Lu Jingye because, unlike Shi Meifen, he was a young master of the Lu family -albeit concubine born.

Also, the young man was already so old so she couldn\'t use the excuse of raising him to snatch him away from Shi Meifen and deal with him in the privacy of her courtyard.

What to do?

At that moment, she locked eyes with Lu Yunyue and her daughter discreetly mouthed a few words at her. Her eyes brightened and she lifted her chin at Lu Jingye.

"Being raised by a concubine all these years, it isn\'t surprising that you have turned out this way. Your unsightly personality would bring shame onto the Lu household if not corrected in time.

-For an entire week, you would kneel at the East ancestral hall and ask for forgiveness for your behavior from the ancestors!"

The punishment seemed mild but the East ancestral hall was secluded from the rest of the Lu mansion. If, per say, an accident were to happen then... who would blame her?

Shi Meifen\'s body trembled when she heard the East ancestral hall. It was the old worshiping site for the Matriarch and was very run down. Not to talk of kneeling for an entire week, it was possible the entire thing might collapse on her child!

She was about to speak up when a servant rushed into the hall and lowered his head.

"Matriarch, master sent this servant with the message that General He has come to show his interest in the Third young miss and asks that the Matriarch and the Madam be prepared to recieve him in a moment."

Everything else was automatically forgotten from the minds of everyone at that moment and they all turned to stare at Lu Zhenzhen in shock.

The young lady herself was shocked to stupor. What kind of person was General He? The He family was rumoured to possess wealth that could rival the Imperial family! The young General himself was so outstanding that he was famous throughout Xiangshan and was the dream of many!

This spectacular man... was interested in her?!!

Lin Liang\'s body trembled as she turned to her daughter excitedly. In the Lu family, she was just a step above Shi Meifen so she didn\'t set her sights so high. She knew very well how ambitious her daughter was but never knew that a day would come when she would get such a great match!

Even if General He did not marry her as a main wife, with all his wealth, she would never suffer a single day in her life!

Up on the dais, Lu Xuilan\'s eyes widened. Now that had shocked her. She knew what kind of person Lu Zhenzhen was. General He... No matter how she thought of that heroic figure yesterday, she couldn\'t see how he could possibly be interested in Lu Zhenzhen.

The remaining daughter, Lu Yunyue, looked to her mother and saw a mirror of the alarm she herself felt. First, Lu Yunyue\'s bethrothal to the Fifth prince was suddenly brought to light and now, Lu Zhenzhen had caught the attention of General He?!

She could overlook Lu Xuilan\'s bethrothal to the waste prince but what about General He? The two people she looked down on the most were slowly overtaking her!

As everyone adjusted their postures to look as presentable as possible, one person had his mind elsewhere.

Although he was a little curious about this General He because of Lu Qian\'s questions earlier, he was already in a bad mood from what had happened a while ago and was thinking of the punishment he had to face because he didn\'t want to bring any more trouble to his mother.

Lu Jingye quickly sought out Shi Meifen\'s figure. "Let\'s go."

Shi Meifen looked at the Matriarch reluctantly. She really wanted to beg on her son\'s behalf but the attention of everyone was already on Lu Zhenzhen so she inclined her head, "Matriarch, we\'ll take our leave now."

The Matriarch waved at them dismissively so Shi Meifen held Lu Jingye\'s sleeves and walked out of the hall.

.

.

.

The moment He Yuan and Lu Qian arrived at the entrance of the grand hall, they ran into two people on their way out. One was a humbly dressed woman with hunched shoulders and the other was a straight faced young man with flowing silver hair and lowered eyes.

He Yuan\'s eyes lit up and his hands trembled in excitement. Although the young man before him was much younger with a soft baby face and much paler skin... 888!

It was really his System!

Shi Meifen looked from Lu Qian to He Yuan and lowered her head in greeting. "This lowly one greets General He." Immediately after, she side eyed her son and pinched his waist.

Lu Jingye held back his hiss of pain and simply said, "Greetings."

Lu Qian frowned but He Yuan was all smiles as he cleared his throat and said, "Hello." Even if 888 couldn\'t see him, there was no way he wouldn\'t recognize his voice!

The next moment though, his smile froze. 888 barely had any reaction to hearing his voice. In fact, the two people continued on their way and 888 walked right past him like he was air.

Worse, the System even had an impatient frown on his face.

\'...\'