Chapter 303: Chapter 122 New Year_3

Lu Tong was fishing through the mud in those few porcelain jars.

She fumbled in panic and haste, as if afraid that a moment later she wouldn’t be able to retrieve it at all. She even tried to scoop up the spilled water, but the water slipped through her fingers, dripping into the bits of soil, indistinguishable from one jar to the next.

Blood flowed from the wound on her finger, but Lu Tong was completely unaware, forgetting even Pei Yunmeng beside her, as if in this whole world, only the matter before her was of any importance.

It was the first time Pei Yunmeng had seen her flustered.

Even when he pressed her hard at Wan’en Temple, when the night patrol raided the medical hall after the tribute case, or even earlier, when she was held hostage by bandits beneath Baoxiang Tower, on the brink of life and death, he had never seen her display such panic.

But now, she was scooping up those shattered pieces of earth, looking utterly distraught and flustered.

Pei Yunmeng narrowed his eyes.

A ridiculous thought rose in his mind.

Looking at the woman who was cautiously picking up the soil, the young man hesitated before saying, "Is this... grave soil?"

A secret letter from Qingfeng had mentioned that the entire Lu Family of four had perished, except for Lu Rou, who was buried peacefully, the rest had no remains left.

Lady Lu was destroyed in a great fire, Old Master Lu was buried at the bottom of the water, and Lu Qian’s dismembered corpse was left to wild beasts after he suffered capital punishment in a chaotic graveyard. Though Lu Rou had been laid to rest, as the daughter of the Lu Family hidden in the shadows, Lu Tong could not go to mourn openly.

Pei Yunmeng’s gaze swept over the four porcelain jars on the ground.

Four jars, four spirit tablets.

No wonder she worshipped such an image of Guanyin in the little Buddhist shrine in the house.

Even though her hands were stained with fresh blood, she didn’t believe in gods or Buddhas, yet she feigned worship to Guanyin, because what she was really venerating were the memorial tablets of the Lu Family members.

Lu Tong did not answer.

She strived to scoop up the grave soil mixed together.

The soil she had gathered from all over, which might contain the breath of her family members.

She brought back ashes from the fire in the old house in Changwu County, scooped up flowing river water from the boats on the waterways of Shangjing, dug up the moist black earth drenched by rain in a desolate graveyard watched by wild dogs, and covertly took away a small clump of yellow earth from her sister’s unattended grave.

Unable to find any other relics left by them, she could only store this mud and water in porcelain jars, keeping them in her room as if this would bring her family together.

Now, that mud and river water were mixed together, muddled and chaotic, like dirtied tears slipping through her fingers.

Nothing could be retained.

The movements to save the muddied soil began to slow until they finally froze. She knelt on the ground, staring blankly at the mess around her.

Suddenly, a blurred image flitted before her eyes.

It was probably a scene from a very long time ago.

There was father, mother, brother, and sister. In the courtyard at summer dusk, she sat with her sister and brothers, discussing a recent case from a neighboring county.

A rich man had taken possession of a young and beautiful daughter from a farm laborer’s family, and the Magistrate was hearing the case, which was the talk of the whole county town.

As a child, she nibbled on wild grapes that had been cooled in well water, lamenting, "It’s too hateful. What if one day someone like that rich man tried to harm our family? What would we do then?"

"That would never happen," her sister responded.

"But what if it did?"

"Well, you would just report it to the officials!" Lu Qian dismissed it nonchalantly, "The law will decide."

Mother laughed, "Exactly, we don’t have enemies, without reason, who would harm us?"

She wasn’t quite satisfied with that answer. After a moment’s thought, she clenched her fist and said, "If someone really wanted to harm our family, then I would take revenge!"

"Pfft—" Lu Qian pinched her round cheeks, "Little devil, you’re not even as tall as a table, and you want to seek revenge? With what, the slingshot I bought you?"

Everyone burst into laughter.

Those sounds of laughter grew distant, faded, and eventually turned into the yellow, muddy earth in front of her, and that drop of tear-like crystal on the back of her hand.

Pei Yunmeng was taken aback.

She sat silently on the ground, surrounded by the mire, like a flower about to wilt.

He finally spoke, "You want to enter the Hanlin Medical Institute to go against the Grand Preceptor’s Mansion?"

"Haven’t you already figured it out?"

"Qi Yutai is Qi Qing’s son, killing him is a fool’s dream."

Fan Hong was just a Judicial Commissioner, while Qi Yutai was the son of the Grand Preceptor. Everyone who approached him would be thoroughly investigated. With the same tactics, Lu Tong could get close to Fan Hong, but not necessarily to Qi Yutai. Even if she entered the Hanlin Medical Institute, the path to revenge would be fraught with obstacles.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read