Chapter 86
Chapter 86: Luo Ning Kills and Breaks the Heart
The Marquis of Zhen Nan went to take a look.
It was a Luo Family carriage.
In the ruins of the Earth God Temple, they had found a single thigh bone. But the hardest skull was missing.
For the moment, no one could tell what had really happened.
The Old Madam called the Marquis of Zhen Nan over to ask questions. Madam Bai followed her in.
Luo Ning stood by the Old Madam’s side.
“Father, should we report this to the authorities?” Luo Ning asked.
“No!” The Marquis of Zhen Nan refused and said: “Family shame cannot be spread outside.”
Luo Ning looked worried and said: “What if Brother was plotted against?”
When the Marquis of Zhen Nan heard this, anger rose from deep in his heart: “He was plotted against? It is already good enough if he is not the one plotting against others.”
Luo Ning hesitated, then said what she really wanted to say: “My maidservant…”
Madam Bai cut her off at once and said: “A’Ning, your brother’s whereabouts are unknown, and you bring up a young maidservant at a time like this? I will buy ten or eight for you!”
Luo Ning fell silent.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan was very annoyed.
The Old Madam looked at him and said: “What exactly is going on? My heart is all over the place.”
Madam Wen came in right then.
She said to the Marquis of Zhen Nan and Madam Bai: “Father, Mother, please go to my courtyard. I found something under the bed in my inner room. I did not dare to touch it.”
Madam Bai hurriedly asked what it was.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan was already getting up: “I will go take a look.”
He strode out. Madam Bai followed him. Luo Ning helped the Old Madam up, and they went together with Madam Wen to her courtyard.
There was only one maidservant guarding the inner room.
Under a floor tile lay a gold brick, worth a great deal of money. Next to it lay a defense deployment map.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan was stunned.
Madam Bai saw the gold brick and quickly said: “This is mine!”
Then she explained to the Marquis of Zhen Nan and the Old Madam: “I gave it to A’Yin.”
The Old Madam looked very shocked: “You have such a big gold brick?”
Madam Bai said: “My brother gave it to me. He wanted my help to find a future for A’Rong. This was the money for me to smooth the way.”
The Old Madam’s feelings were hard to put into words. After a long time she said: “Since you have this money, you might as well give it to the Lord Marquis instead. Let the Lord Marquis plan for you. Wouldn’t that go even more smoothly?”
The Marquis of Zhen Nan’s emotions were much more complicated than the Old Madam’s.
A gold brick like that could blind a person’s eyes.
But the defense deployment map beside the gold brick made his heart jump with fear.
He pressed Madam Bai and said: “The gold brick is yours. Is this thing also yours? Do you want Madam Luo’s whole clan to be buried with you?”
Madam Bai’s face turned deathly pale: “Lord Marquis, I have never seen this thing before…”
She glanced at Madam Wen.
Madam Wen’s manner was soft. She explained timidly: “I know even less, Mother. A’Yin would never tell me his business.”
No one suspected her.
“If these two things fall into the hands of someone with bad intentions, the Luo Family will never be able to explain it. The heads of all nine related clans will not be safe,” the Old Madam said from the side.
She was old, her breathing was uneven, and even her anger sounded low and rough: “Madam Bai, what a good son you raised. Does he want to destroy the entire Marquis Manor?”
Madam Bai knelt down before the Old Madam and said: “A’Yin would not dare.”
“Maybe Brother hates Father,” Luo Ning said from the side, “so he came up with this move. He would rather die and drag us down with him than live in peace.”
Madam Bai snapped at her: “Shut up! Do not pour dirty water on your brother!”
“You shut up! The facts are right here, and you still want to defend him? Where did he get a defense deployment map like this? What does he want it for? He even put it together with a gold brick. If he is not harboring evil intentions, then what is he doing?” The Marquis of Zhen Nan was furious.
Madam Bai could not answer.
She had guilt in her heart.
She and Luo Yin both knew Luo Yin was not Luo Chong Ye’s son.
She was too angry and hated Luo Chong Ye too much. Would Luo Yin really be capable of dragging the entire Luo Family down with him?
Madam Bai was horrified to realize that Luo Yin might truly do such a thing.
The Old Madam, the Marquis of Zhen Nan and his wife, plus Luo Ning and Madam Wen, shut the doors and talked the matter over.
They reached one conclusion: Luo Yin had gone mad.
If he were not mad, he would not have thought of stealing a defense deployment map to frame Luo Chong Ye. If he were not mad, he would not have eloped in the middle of the night with Luo Ning’s maidservant.
Now he was nowhere to be seen.
No one knew where he had run off to.
“Just treat him as dead!” The Marquis of Zhen Nan said to the Old Madam and Madam Bai. “From now on A’You will inherit the title. He is not my only son!”
The Old Madam sighed.
Madam Bai began to cry: “Lord Marquis, we must still search for A’Yin.”
“No one is allowed to search!”
All his life, the Marquis of Zhen Nan valued power the most. When he saw the defense deployment map and understood that Luo Yin might destroy everything he had, Luo Yin was already dead in his heart.
Luckily, the Marquis of Zhen Nan had other sons.
Even if they found Luo Yin in the future, he would kill this unfilial son with his own hands.
As far as he was concerned, the case was closed. He burned the defense deployment map and threatened Madam Wen to keep her mouth shut. This matter could not be spread.
The marchioness, Madam Bai, still wanted to keep looking.
She knew the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s trusted men had found a thigh bone in the ruined temple and wanted to see it.
After begging him several times, the Marquis of Zhen Nan finally agreed to let her look.
One look, and Madam Bai felt as if her soul was torn apart. She cried so hard she almost died on the spot.
She spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.
“This is A’Yin, it is him! There are marks of a fracture on the thigh bone. A few years ago he fell from a horse and was hurt just like this,” Madam Bai sobbed. “He was plotted against, Lord Marquis!”
The Marquis of Zhen Nan and the Old Madam were both puzzled.
“When was his leg ever hurt that badly?” the Old Madam asked. “We never heard of it.”
Madam Bai said: “…It was when he was at school.”
“You never mentioned it,” the Old Madam said. “Do not speak nonsense. He is the Marquis Manor’s eldest legitimate son. How could he be dead?”
Madam Bai was crying so hard she could not catch her breath.
Only she knew that Luo Yin was dead.
The Marquis of Zhen Nan and the Old Madam both had their own thoughts. Neither would ever admit that Luo Yin had been burned to death.
Even in death, Luo Yin would not get justice.
Madam Bai’s heart was broken.
After she spat blood, her whole body cramped with pain, and she almost rolled around on the bed.
Her Luo Yin, the first son she had with Qiu Shi Dong, should have had a great future.
How could he have been burned to death in a ruined temple?
The world spun around Madam Bai.
After two days, when her anger and grief had faded a little, she put all the clues together.
“It was Luo Ning!”
The side gate by Luo Ning’s courtyard had been opened that night, and only then did Luo Yin disappear. The servant boy had also said that Luo Yin had kidnapped Luo Ning. That part was probably true. Luo Ning’s maidservant was missing too.
It was very clear that Luo Yin had wanted to harm Luo Ning, but Luo Ning had turned the tables and killed him instead.
He had died in a pathetic way.
There was no place for him in the Qiu Family anymore, and the Marquis Manor refused to admit that he was dead.
He was dead, yet he had no grave, no tombstone, and no one would worship him. He could not rest in peace even after death.
He could only be a wandering lonely ghost.
Even if Madam Bai wanted to set up a ritual for him, the Marquis of Zhen Nan and the Old Madam would not agree. If she did it in secret, it would not be enough to call back his soul.
Madam Bai’s heart bled nonstop.
[My son could have become one of the richest and most noble men under heaven. How did he die worse than a rat in the gutter?]
Madam Bai almost ground her teeth to pieces.
She had once cared about that little bit of blood tie between her and Luo Ning. Now she hated her to the bone.
She wanted Luo Ning dead, to pay for her son’s life.
[What a vicious heart she has!] Madam Bai spat out another mouthful of blood.
Bai Ci Rong held her and could not help crying: “Aunt, do not scare me.”
Madam Bai looked weakly at Bai Ci Rong and said: “I will get better. I will be fine in a few days. Luo Ning will not get what she wants.”
She was Luo Ning’s birth mother. For her, it would be easy to harm Luo Ning.
Parents are like heaven.
She had never truly gone after Luo Ning, and had even thought about Luo Ning’s future. That only helped grow Luo Ning’s wild ambition.
She should not have been so soft-hearted.
Luo Ning had actually killed her own brother.
Madam Bai only needed to reach out once and Luo Ning would die. She wanted Luo Ning to die in an even more miserable way, to avenge Luo Yin.