sbdcsierra Chapter 550 So it was a girl after all!
Chapter 550 So it was a girl after all!
Lu Yangyang met her gaze sharply.
Hua Rui suddenly felt her legs go weak and she almost couldn't stand. She instinctively avoided eye contact and tried to run away, but as she leaned forward, she suddenly came to her senses and forced herself to remain calm. "This servant doesn't know what you're talking about, young master. If you have no interest in listening to the music, please return home as soon as possible."
Lu Yangyang stared at her without saying a word.
Hua Rui subconsciously took a step back, clenching her fingers tightly: "If you don't leave, young master, I'll call for help."
Lu Yangyang tapped the strings of her zither with her fingertips: "Do you want to talk properly, or do I have to force you to speak? I'm not the prefect, and I don't have to go through procedures for you. Now that I've discovered you have a problem and come looking for you, do you think I'll let you off the hook?"
Hua Rui saw that the person was up to no good and opened her mouth to shout, but before she could make a sound, someone grabbed her by the neck.
Lu Yangyang grabbed her neck and forced her to sit on the stool. "The people outside are all my men. My only purpose is to see you. If you tell the truth, I won't make things difficult for you. If you insist on beating around the bush, I don't mind sending you on your way."
"You..." Hua Rui managed to utter, "Who exactly are you?"
"That's the question I should be asking you. Who exactly are you, Miss Huarui?" Lu Yangyang beckoned with her finger, and a slender snake crawled out from her sleeve, its forked tongue brushing against Huarui's neck.
Hua Rui's eyes widened, filled with disbelief.
Lu Yangyang took out a silver needle with her other hand and waved it in front of Hua Rui's eyes: "Trying to poison me? Miao people?"
"How... how did you find out?" Hua Rui understood that at this point, there was no point in pretending anymore. This person had already seen through her background, and it would be a matter of who was faster to die first.
But she didn't have the courage to make the first move.
She also had some concerns.
The flower stamen lost its strength in an instant.
"I noticed it as soon as I entered. There was incense burning in your room, a kind of Gu wood incense from Miao territory. I was just suspicious of you at first, thinking you had something going on, but after smelling that incense, I'm pretty sure that you were the one who did the Flower Festival incident." Lu Yangyang wasn't interested in poison, but she was usually immersed in various medicinal herbs and was very sensitive to smells.
A while ago, when Wen Qingqing was pestering Old Meng to study Gu worms, Old Meng got her a piece of Gu wood incense. Gu wood incense is the scent that Gu worms like the most. At first, the scent is very light, with only a faint grassy and woody fragrance, but upon closer inspection, it has a sweet and cloying feel.
Lu Yangyang only asked a few questions because she thought the taste was very special, and she didn't expect to run into it so soon.
Master Meng once said that the Gu worms in Miao territory do not actually feed on human blood, but rather have special feeding methods, such as special wood, poisonous herbs and insects. However, those who raise Gu worms will generally carry Gu wood incense with them to soothe the Gu worms and prevent them from becoming agitated.
So the moment Lu Yangyang smelled the fragrance of the Gu wood, she concluded that the flower stamen came from Miao territory.
A Miao girl from Miao territory plotted to kidnap Sheng Yunjiao, and Lu Yangyang immediately thought of someone.
The palace maid beside the Crown Prince, Xueyan.
Nalan Yunyan had told her that Xueyan had gone to the southwest with the Crown Prince to cure his lame leg. Judging by the time, they should have arrived in the southwest about half a year ago.
Sheng Yunjiao came to Huazhou with her father. Huazhou was only adjacent to the Southwest region and was not under the jurisdiction of the Southwest.
Moreover, Sheng Yunjiao had no prior dealings with anyone and had no grudges against them.
The only person who could be associated with her was Yan Yue.
The only ones who would set their sights on Yan Yue are His Highness the Crown Prince and, currently, His Majesty the Emperor, who sits in the court.
She didn't know much about His Majesty's thoughts, but from what Zong Que had told her before, it wasn't hard to draw a conclusion: His Majesty's pleasure was probably sitting back and watching the princes fight for the throne. As long as there was no situation of forcing the emperor to abdicate or rebelling, the emperor would not only not stop their actions, but would even secretly add fuel to the fire, making their struggle even more intense.
His Highness came to the Southwest under the pretext of seeking Little Fairy Doctor to cure his illness. How could His Majesty not know this?
Not only did he know, he even fueled the flames, using the arranged marriage as an excuse to release the Crown Prince, who was originally under house arrest.
He probably hoped that the Crown Prince would cause some trouble for Yan Yue, so that he could get rid of the Yan family, this major threat.
Having figured out the key points, Lu Yangyang had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
"Who ordered you to do this? Where did you take her?" Lu Yangyang asked coldly.
Hua Rui closed her eyes briefly, no longer flustered by the discovery of her identity, but instead feeling a sense of relief.
"Are you here to find her on the orders of the prefect? What if I told you she's dead?" Hua Rui asked softly.
Lu Yangyang's heart sank suddenly. Even with her best efforts to restrain herself, her knuckles tensed uncontrollably, almost crushing Hua Rui's throat with her force.
"Who is behind you? If you dare to harm her, I'll skin you alive first, then skin him alive."
Under the cold, stern voice, she no longer pretended, causing Hua Rui to pause slightly in surprise.
"Oh, it's a girl."
She lowered her eyes, seemingly having given up struggling and arguing. "You can't deal with him. He's someone we can't even begin to understand. To him, our lives are nothing but dust beneath his feet. Just kill me. I don't know what will happen to her. I'm just responsible for getting her out of here."
Lu Yangyang snorted coldly: "People who are unattainable? Your Highness, Zong Ke, who else?"
Hua Rui was so startled that her pupils contracted slightly, and she even subconsciously wanted to raise her head to take a look at Lu Yangyang.
Seeing her reaction, Lu Yangyang knew that her guess was correct. "What is your relationship with Xueyan?"
Hua Rui never expected that a mere piece of Gu Mu Xiang would allow this person to guess the general outline of the matter. After a moment of stunned silence, she couldn't help but chuckle: "Young lady is so astute; I'm afraid even if I lie again, I won't be able to fool you. Xueyan is my elder sister. We sisters were orphaned and relied on each other since childhood. Later, we were separated, and she ended up as a slave in the palace, while I wandered among human traffickers, eventually ending up at Huayue Tower. A few years ago, my sister's people found me, and we sisters were finally reunited. She is my only family in this life. The person she devoted everything to protecting is her life, and she is my life."
"Six months ago, I met that person. He was a very gentle person. He asked me if I would like to leave here and stay with my sister forever. Of course I would, so I agreed to do things for him."