Chapter 84
Chapter 84: Luo Ning Kills Luo Yin
Luo Ning smiled quietly.
She said: “You grew up in silk and fine food, and you don’t even understand simple chores. Sister Feng said the laundry room only washes the Wenqi Courtyard clothes for the maids and steward nannies. Have you ever paid attention to who washes your clothes?”
Luo Yin said: “Then that handkerchief…”
She said with a smile: “That was Chu Shuang’s handkerchief. She embroidered it herself. I never use that kind of fabric or pattern.”
Luo Yin’s eye twitched wildly.
Luo Ning asked him: “Bandits have been running wild in the city, and this news came at just the right time. Don’t you think something is wrong?”
Luo Yin stared at her in shock and said: “You plotted against me?”
Luo Ning said: “You had evil intentions first. That’s why you fell into the trap. You wanted me dead.”
Luo Yin struggled hard, trying to lunge at her: “Luo Ning, I’m at odds with you for life. I’ll kill you!”
The dagger in Luo Ning’s hand slid down and slashed across Luo Yin’s thigh.
The dagger was sharp enough to cut iron like mud. She cut one slash on each of Luo Yin’s thighs.
Blood poured out like a spring.
There were thick blood vessels in the legs. Luo Yin wanted to scream, but no loud sound could come out of his throat.
“Don’t move. The more you move, the faster the blood will flow, and the quicker you’ll die,” Luo Ning said.
She stepped out of the Earth God Temple.
Panic rose in Luo Yin’s chest. While he still had a bit of hope, he saw firelight.
It was not the small, dim lamp inside, but several torches.
They were thrown into the Earth God Temple.
Luo Ning took a torch from the hand of someone standing beside her.
The firelight was so bright it lit up her brows and eyes. Her beauty looked strange and bewitching.
She threw the torch into the room.
Luo Yin had already poured lamp oil all around the Earth God Temple ahead of time. He had wanted to burn Luo Ning to death in one go, just like what he had done at the silk shop.
Now, all that lamp oil had become his death warrant.
He watched bit by bit as the flames swallowed him, burning through his clothes and skin.
The sharp pain made his muscles spasm.
In the beginning, during that short time when he was still clear-headed, he wanted to live but could not, and he wanted to die but could not. His eyes glared fiercely in Luo Ning’s direction.
His vision slowly blurred.
To his surprise, he seemed to see himself, cold and indifferent, with a face as calm as Luo Ning’s, throwing a torch into the room.
Luo Ning went back to the carriage.
The carriage left the Earth God Temple and stopped in a patch of woods nearby.
This place was remote, poor, and rundown. People of all walks of life from Shengjing City lived here. The City Patrol Bureau almost never came this far in the middle of the night. They usually only patrolled the wards at the foot of the Imperial City.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan’s manor stood in one of those wards, so yamen runners from the City Patrol Bureau might pass by there. It would be better to wait until daybreak to return.
Luo Ning stepped down from the carriage and looked at the distant flames and black smoke.
Maidservant Qiu Hua stood beside her.
Qiu Hua said: “Eldest Miss, it shouldn’t alarm the people around here.”
Luo Ning said: “It’s the middle of the night, and it’s far away. Even if someone sees something strange, no one will dare come out to check.”
Qiu Hua nodded.
They stood there for a while, then footsteps sounded.
Luo Ning turned her head a little and saw Prince Yong, Xiao Huai Feng.
Prince Yong’s men had helped her. They had knocked Luo Yin out and tied him up.
He had come out tonight as well.
“How did it go?” he asked. His voice was cold.
Luo Ning lifted her hand and pointed at the flames: “It will burn everything clean. After it’s done, I plan to go with Qiu Hua to pick up the remains and bury them so we leave no trace.”
Xiao Huai Feng turned his head and looked at her.
“You have quite some nerve,” his tone was still cold. “You dare kill your own brother?”
“He has tried to kill me twice. I spared him last time and gave him a chance. Tonight, either he died, or I did. Prince, I only want to live,” Luo Ning said.
She knew Prince Yong would not blame her.
The pain of brothers fighting each other was something Prince Yong understood even better and more deeply than she did.
“Everyone wants to live,” Prince Yong said.
Luo Ning said: “Prince, you can be at ease marrying me as your Princess Consort Yong. In the future, I’ll do my best to finish whatever tasks you give me.”
Prince Yong nodded: “You are quite capable.”
“Thank you for your praise, Prince,” Luo Ning said.
They stood in the dark. Prince Yong noticed the coarse cloth clothes she was wearing.
The cloth was rough, but on her it did not hurt her bearing at all. Maybe because the night was so dark and he could only see her outline, she looked even more graceful.
Madam Luo, A’Ning, was a woman with courage and with a conscience.
She had given Luo Yin a chance.
The first time he offended her, she had given him a small punishment as a big warning. The second time he offended her, she showed no mercy and killed him.
Prince Yong watched as the fire in the distance slowly went out, leaving only thick smoke, which slowly spread under the night sky. Then he said to her: “Go back first. My men will deal with the remains.”
Luo Ning said: “I’m a bit worried we might run into City Patrol Bureau officers on the way.”
“Then go back into the carriage and take a nap. Don’t stand here and wear yourself out,” he said.
Luo Ning agreed softly.
She really was tired. At the end of the fourth month, the night dew was heavy. She did not dare stand under the night sky too long, afraid the dew would wet her hair and clothes, bring a chill, and make her sick.
She went back into the carriage.
Prince Yong called over his shadow guards and gave them a few simple orders. His carriage was parked not far away.
At first Luo Ning lifted the carriage curtain and took a look outside. Then she yawned twice, leaned against the carriage wall, closed her eyes, and dozed off.
Without knowing it, she fell asleep.
Luo Yin’s ghost might not have scattered yet and was still wandering nearby. So Luo Ning dreamed of him.
She dreamed of the way he had been in her past life.
She dreamed of him kicking her off the edge of the icy lake.
She dreamed of him helping Yu Zhuo bully her, even shoving her around.
She also dreamed of that year’s Dragon Boat Festival, when Mother had personally made a bat-pattern tassel for Bai Ci Rong, but had only given Luo Ning a five-colored wrist cord bought from outside.
Luo Ning had a hot temper. She had thrown the wrist cord onto the heated brick bed right away and said: “I don’t want this kind of thing!”
Luo Yin flew into a rage. He drew the sword he always carried and chopped toward Luo Ning’s hand.
A very deep cut appeared on the back of her hand, almost to the bone.
The blood would not stop. The pain almost made her faint.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan came. After Luo Yin knelt down, he made up a lot of things: “She insulted Mother. It was just a wrist cord, and she still got jealous over it.”
He also said: “Mother was chosen by Father himself as the Madam. If she does not respect Mother, then she does not respect the Luo family’s ancestral spirits or Father.”
Luo Ning had fallen to the ground. No one helped her up. Her maids Qiu Lan and Qiu Hua were blocked outside the door.
She also remembered that at the end of that same year, Luo Yin had framed her for theft in order to help Bai Ci Rong. He had prepared full “evidence,” forcing Qiu Hua to come out and take the blame.
Qiu Hua had taken everything onto herself. The Marquis of Zhen Nan had no choice. He could only punish her.
She had been beaten to death.
Luo Ning still remembered how, when Qiu Hua was being beaten, she had told her in a weak voice: “Eldest Miss, run, run.”
The beating had been so heavy that Qiu Hua’s internal organs had ruptured. Fresh blood had flowed from her mouth.
Those two words, “run, run,” had been soaked in blood.
Only after Luo Ning died did she understand that Qiu Hua had not been telling her to leave that courtyard where the punishment was carried out. Qiu Hua had been telling her to leave the Luo family.
After that, Qiu Lan had smashed her head against a wall, and Nanny Kong had been pushed into the lake and drowned. All of them had used their lives to shout at her, telling her to run.
Luo Ning woke from the dream.
Outside, the sky was still pitch-black. It was the darkest hour before dawn. She could not see her own hand in front of her.
Qiu Hua saw her move and asked softly: “Eldest Miss, are you cold?”
She wanted to cover her with a blanket.
Luo Ning held her hand.
“Qiu Hua, we killed Luo Yin,” she said in a low voice.
Qiu Hua squeezed her hand back: “Don’t be afraid, Eldest Miss. He brought this on himself. He deserved to die. If you have to go to hell, this servant will go in your place.”
Luo Ning could not help but laugh: “No, Qiu Hua, we won’t go to hell. We will live.”
[In this life, we can live real good days in Shaoyang and grow old together until our hair is white.]