Chapter 174
Chapter 174: Luo Ning Will Not Take a Step Back
Luo Ning went back to Wenqi Courtyard and could not fall asleep.
Two days ago, Nanny Kong had changed her bed curtains for winter ones. They were thick and blocked both wind and light, wrapping her like a big padded coat.
She felt safe inside the curtains, but her mind was racing.
After her Rebirth, many things were changing. That was her wish. She wanted things to change.
But of course, not everything would change the way she planned, and not everything would be good for her.
When something turned against her, how should she deal with it?
Especially now, when Prince Yong had clearly told the Luo Family to trust him and not interfere.
The next morning at dawn, the sky cleared.
It was the first morning after the first snow. The early wind carried a sharp, biting chill.
Luo Ning washed and dressed, put on a heavy cloak, and went to Prince Yong’s manor.
The Chief Steward of Prince’s Manor greeted her politely and led her inside, but Prince Yong did not see her.
“The prince left early this morning,” the Chief Steward said.
Luo Ning had not come to see Prince Yong anyway. She nodded slightly and said: “Where is Deputy General Zhou? I want to go to the prison to see my brother.”
The Chief Steward said: “Please wait a moment. I will go ask.”
Very soon, a young deputy general came out. He looked very quick and capable.
He cupped his fists to Luo Ning and bowed before he spoke: “Princess Consort, Deputy General Zhou has important duties and is not in the manor. I can lead the way. If you wish to visit the prison, please follow me out.”
“Thank you,” Luo Ning said, standing up.
She turned and called to the Chief Steward: “I will go ahead then.”
“Princess Consort, please walk slowly,” the Chief Steward said.
This intended consort did things in a very neat and crisp way. She wanted to see Deputy General Zhou because she wished to go to the prison. Since someone else could lead the way, she did not hesitate at all and was not unhappy that another person took his place.
From this, it was clear she was not overly delicate, and she would not make trouble with the servants over small matters.
[She will be an easy master to serve,] the Chief Steward thought.
A mistress of the house like this made people feel at ease.
He nodded to himself, then went into the inner residence to report to the prince.
Deputy General Zhou really was not in the manor. The prince had sent him out on an errand in the middle of the night. But the prince himself was at home.
Before dawn, the prince had risen to practice with his spear. He trained for two full hours until his whole body was soaked with sweat. Normally, his morning practice only lasted half an hour.
It was clear he was truly angry. After sleeping a whole night, he still felt stifled. Only by getting up to practice his spear could he vent his temper.
Once he had vented, the prince was fine again. The Chief Steward had always felt that his master had a pretty good temper.
When the Princess Consort came, the master happened to be bathing.
For some reason, even after the Princess Consort had left, he was still soaking in the tub.
“Deputy General Shi has taken the Princess Consort to visit the prison,” the Chief Steward said.
“What else did she say?”
“The Princess Consort did not say much,” the Chief Steward replied. “She is very quick and clean in her actions. In how she does things, she has a few traces of Your Highness’s style.”
Prince Yong gave him a glance.
The Old Steward was not afraid of him. He had watched him grow up. He smiled and said: “Is Your Highness sulking at her?”
“Leave,” Prince Yong said calmly.
Luo Ning followed Prince Yong’s deputy general to the prison and was able to see Luo You without trouble.
Luo You’s clothes were a little dirty and messy, and a few strands of his hair had come loose, but his spirit was still fairly good.
He was shackled.
“How are you? Have you eaten?” Luo Ning asked him.
Luo You looked at her, his heart aching badly. “I have.”
“The food in prison is not very good. You have to endure it,” Luo Ning said.
The jailer at the side quickly spoke up: “People from Prince’s Manor sent him a meal last night.”
Luo Ning gave him a grateful look and said: “Thank you.”
After a few words of small talk, she asked Luo You about what had happened yesterday.
“Chun Zhi, she…”
He had just started to speak when his throat closed up.
“She only came to bring me clothes and a hand warmer. She did nothing wrong, Big Sister. When she came back to look for me, she was covered in blood. She said she would rather die than bring shame to the Luo Family and to me. Then, right in front of me, she used a hairpin to stab her own neck.”
A clear line of tears slid from the corner of Luo You’s eye. “It was her best gold hairpin.”
Luo Ning’s eyes stung, and tears fell from them too. She hurried to hold them back.
Right now, she had to be the pillar of support for her brother. She could not just sit there and cry with him.
“Zheng Xiao’s attendants, four of them, they bullied Chun Zhi,” Luo You said. “Those beasts said Chun Zhi seduced them on purpose. They ruined her and still wanted to slander her.
“Zheng Xiao was provoking me. He was forcing me to strike him. I could see that. Big Sister, I knew it was a trap, but I could not hold myself back.” Luo You was crying so hard his words broke apart.
Young Master Luo, who had been holding a long spear since the age of five, now held only a stick he had found in the woods, but with it he knocked down Zheng Xiao and the other four men.
He truly had been lazy with his martial training, but in that moment of anger, he performed extremely well. Zheng Xiao’s attendants had some skill, and they had come with the goal of goading Luo You into attacking, so they had held back on purpose. Even so, they lost to him.
Luo You wanted to beat them to death on the spot.
One of the attendants pulled out a knife.
The knife was mostly for show, but Luo You still took it from him without much effort.
That knife then stabbed into the attendant’s lower belly.
Zheng Xiao, that cowardly thing, was so scared he scrambled away, almost rolling on the ground as he ran.
The officers were waiting not far away.
Everything had been planned in advance, just to take down Luo You.
Luo You cried as he talked, speaking in broken bits and pieces.
But Luo Ning understood him clearly.
“Big Sister, don’t beg for mercy. Don’t compromise with the Zheng Family. Let me die. You must avenge me and Chun Zhi. You must make Zheng Xiao pay with his blood,” Luo You said at last.
He clenched his teeth tightly.
His tears fell like beads from a broken string, one after another, each one heavy as blood.
Luo Ning gently wiped his tears away.
He was only thirteen. A boy pampered by his wet nurse, who spent his days only thinking about where he and Zhou Huai could find something tasty to eat, light-hearted and innocent.
Then, all at once, a streak of blood had been cut across his life.
“Even now, I still can’t believe Chun Zhi is dead. How could she just die like that?” Luo You said in a daze. He had cried until he was exhausted.
From the time Luo You could remember, Nanny Fan and Chun Zhi had always been by his side.
Back then, Chun Zhi had only been seven or eight years old, small and thin. Her parents had sold her to the Luo Family as a maidservant.
She was placed in the Young Master’s courtyard to pour tea and serve water.
They grew up together.
Chun Zhi always said: when Young Master earned fame in the future, he would ask the court to grant her an imperial honorary title.
They did not really know how one asked for such a title or what one needed to do to get it. They just said it that way, because once there had been a great general with huge military achievements who had asked for such a title for his own wet nurse.
Luo You never took those words seriously. He did not think he would be that successful. Chun Zhi did not take it seriously either. Sometimes, when Nanny Fan nagged him to practice his writing and pushed him to work hard, Chun Zhi would even defend him.
Chun Zhi was his sister, a closest kin without shared blood.
When Luo Ning came out of the prison, she quietly slipped gold leaf ingots to both the head jailer and the jailer beside him.
Her chest felt heavy and tight, packed full of something so that she could hardly breathe.
Last night, she had told Prince Yong that the Luo Family could be sacrificed, as long as it was good for Prince Yong.
But now, that would not do.
No, it would not do.
She could not ignore the tears her brother had shed. Each drop had fallen onto her heart.
A blood debt had to be paid with blood.
Luo Ning went back to Wenqi Courtyard, took out silver banknotes worth five thousand taels, and slipped out through a side gate.
She took Qiu Hua with her and went to the Dou Family.
She gave the silver banknotes to Madam Dou and said: “Please help me do something. If this is done, I will be very grateful to you.”
“Princess Consort, just tell me what you need,” First Madam Dou agreed without a moment of hesitation.
Luo Ning explained her plan in detail to Madam Dou.