"Don't... think about..."
Lu Chongyuan looked ferocious, and the vague voice jumped out of his throat, mixed with blood.
Tang Ning lowered his eyes: "So you choose to let everyone die with you?"
She chuckled softly: "Yes, you still have a way out after all."
"In your heart, if the Lu family is ruined and Lu Jiu'an is gone, the lives of your nephews and grandchildren, the girls married outside the Lu family, and the thousands of people in the Lu family are all inferior to Lu Jiu'an."
"It's a pity that King Pingshan's treason was exposed, and the money used to store grain and buy horses has been seized long ago. Even the fiefdom is now being watched."
"Without the support of the Lu family's wealth and wealth, and without the private soldiers that the Lu family has hidden in the clan for many years, let's make a bet. When the Lu family's rebellion is announced to the world, King Pingshan knows that the Lu family has been wiped out, and all the wealth and wealth of the past century will be returned to the national treasury. "
"Will he protect Lu Jiu'an, a burdensome person, on the charge of being a traitor and traitor, or will he hand him over and put all the sins of treason on the Lu family to quell the imperial court and the kings' crusade?"
Lu Chongyuan's face turned pale at Tang Ning's words, and his breathing became heavier. However, Tang Ning stood up directly and turned around to leave without further persuading him.
"ah--"
Lu Chongyuan made a vague sound in his throat, struggled desperately to get up, and grabbed Tang Ning's cloak. His body was in severe pain, unable to support him, and he fell down and hit her next to him.
Tang Ning looked down at him: "What, Mr. Lu has anything to say?"
"Then you have to hurry up. What I feed you won't last long."
Lu Chongyuan felt that the suppressed poison in his body was twisting his internal organs, and he was wheezing like a broken bellows in his throat. He looked at the girl standing condescendingly in front of him.
This was a child that he had never paid much attention to, a girl that even the people in his family could manipulate at will. She had never dared to speak when she saw him. She always hid behind Lu Zhinian and looked at him with trembling eyes. .
But now there is nothing about her that was weak as before. She still has the same face, but the words she speaks are like sharp blades, so sharp that they can cut people's hearts alive with one cut.
Lu Chongyuan was afraid.
He was afraid that if Lu Jiuan lost the Lu family, they would not be able to hold back King Pingshan. He was afraid that after his death, everyone in the Lu family would be buried with him, and the Lu family's bloodline would be extinct.
Lu Chongyuan didn't dare to gamble, and he couldn't afford it.
Tang Ning saw the struggle in Lu Chongyuan's eyes turning into helplessness, as if he had lost all his energy. He made a vague sound in his throat and lowered his head towards her little by little.
She breathed a sigh of relief, it was done.
…
In the darkness of the prison, Lu Chongyuan was lying on the ground, writing something with a pen. There were specks of blood on the ground, and the paper was uneven, but he didn't dare to stop at all.
He knew he didn't have much time, and the suppressed toxins in his body were eroding his five senses. He wrote tremblingly, but his speed was not slow.
Since he had surrendered and asked Xiao Yan to let Mr. Lu live, he had no intention of resorting to any manipulation.
Tang Ning stood aside and looked at the things Lu Chongyuan wrote. Some of them were known to her, and some were unknown to her. All of them were secrets from before Emperor An ascended the throne.
The more she looked, the more shocked she became, and she couldn't help but secretly inhale.
When Lu Chongyuan tried his best to write the last word, the pen in his hand fell to the ground with a bang, staining half of the paper red. He vomited blood from his mouth and reached out to leave a palm print.
After seeing him let go and collapse, Tang Ning carefully picked up the "self-incrimination letter".
The hem of the cloak was grabbed by someone. Tang Ning lowered her head and saw Lu Chongyuan, who had lost the power of the medicine to suppress the poison again. He grabbed her robe and looked up at her.
He was in so much pain that he could no longer make a sound, blood was dripping from his mouth, and there was black blood from his nose and ears.
But Lu Chongyuan just looked up at her, as if waiting for her promise with his last breath.
Tang Ning put the scroll of self-incrimination into his sleeve, then lowered his eyes and said seriously: "Although Brother A and I are not good people, we are not as vicious as you and Emperor An."
"After what brother is about to do is over, except for the three clans of your lineage, the other branch clan members of the Lu clan and their distant relatives will be exiled to the wasteland as guilty bodies. They will not be held accountable for their crimes for three generations."
She paused, then thought of something and said:
"Those girls of the Lu family who marry outside may not be able to survive, but as long as the side bloodlines stay safe, in a few generations, if the imperial examination is launched in the imperial court and they are no longer recommended by aristocratic families, they may be able to regain the opportunity to enter the imperial court. "
Lu Chongyuan looked stunned as he listened to Tang Ning's words. He suddenly remembered what the glorious Crown Prince said a long time ago while standing in the court hall.
He said that aristocratic families monopolize official careers, resulting in more and more incompetent people in the government. The recommendation system is full of shortcomings, and it is difficult for truly talented people to be put to use.
The aristocratic family seems to be glorious, but in fact it is rotten on the inside, and the rules and regulations in the court are in chaos. If the Wei Dynasty wants to be strong, it must first eliminate the corruption in the dynasty, so that the children from poor families can have a way to rise. Only in this way can the Wei Dynasty exchange blood, and also force the children of the aristocratic family to work hard to improve. Bring vitality to the DPRK.
Back then, Lu Chongyuan was a leader in the Lu family. He was extremely talented at a young age. It was not that he didn't know that what the prince said was right, and that the aristocratic family did have its shortcomings.
But he is a member of a noble family and has been educated by a noble family. He will never let anyone want to offend the interests of the family and destroy the centuries-old stability of these noble families.
Later, the prince died, and the He family, which agreed with him and abandoned the interests of the family, was also exterminated. He thought that the Lu family could continue to prosper in his hands.
Lu Chongyuan never thought that the century-old inheritance of the Lu family would be cut off in his hands, and he never thought that the things he opposed with all his strength at the beginning would become the life-saving straw for those collateral bloodlines of the Lu family that were lucky enough to survive in the future.
Maybe fifty years, maybe a hundred years.
When the court changes and no one remembers the Lu family's mistakes, they will still have a chance to stand up and gain access to the court through the imperial examination and once again support the Lu family.
And this was something he once disdained.
Lu Chongyuan slowly raised his head and lay on the ground. He felt that Tang Ning's last "comfort" was the most heartbreaking. His face seemed to be crying and smiling. When the tears fell wildly, he loosened the cloak he was holding in his hands, and his eyes widened. Eyes stopped breathing.
Tang Ning looked at Lu Chongyuan's dead expression, bowed and dragged him backwards, letting him return to the posture where he had died from the poison. Then he collected the things on the ground and put his hood back on calmly. Take it back to your head, turn around and leave the prison.
"Girl?"
"Get out."
Jinyun nodded when he heard this, and left quietly with Tang Ning.
Everything in the prison remained the same, and no one knew anyone else had been here.
After a while, someone came in from outside and carried Lu Chongyuan's body out, and then someone came over to check.
Xiao Yan only glanced at it and then withdrew his gaze: "You will deal with the matters here. Pack up Lu Chongyuan's body. The rest of the Lu family will be temporarily moved to death row. The specific punishment will be subject to His Majesty's decree."
"Tonight's affairs should be swallowed into the stomach, the talkative people, the Yi Nine Clan."
Everyone around them bowed their heads quickly: "Yes, Lord Governor."
