A Lifetime of Peace - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I brought Lu Shi’an home in an ox cart.

He did not make a sound the entire way. His loose hair hid his face, and he was covered in blood and grime.

I drew some water and wiped his face clean, little by little.

The young man had delicate, handsome features. His eyes were half-lidded, and beneath them was nothing but a deathly stillness.

I stared blankly at his face.

The longer I looked, the more my nose stung.

Heat gathered in my eyes, but I forced it back with everything I had.

Smiling brightly, I said, “My lord, you really are handsome. Looks like I didn’t waste my money after all.”

Before coming down the mountain, I had asked Tianji about Lu Shi’an’s life.

The legitimate son of a marquis household, he had passed the imperial examinations at a young age.

A gentleman as pure and bright as jade, he had once been the dream of every sheltered young lady in the capital.

The customs of the day were open, and there had even been girls bold enough to confess their feelings. “If Young Marquis Lu were to favor me with even a single glance, I would not trade it for a thousand pieces of gold.”

The jade-like young lord once worth more than a thousand in gold could now be bought for a mere thirty copper coins.

His dark eyes shifted. At last, when I reached out to remove his clothes, he spoke. His voice was terribly hoarse. “Miss, this is improper.”

My words were as rough as my movements. “I bought you, so you’re my man now. What propriety says I can’t look at my own man’s body?”

I stripped off his clothes.

What met my eyes was a chest covered in bruises and wounds.

There was not a single patch of good skin left.

I closed my eyes, forcing down the emotions churning inside me, then reached for the waistband of his trousers. The man lying there like a dead fish began struggling again. His wounds split open, and the blood that flowed out stained the brand-new bedding I had just bought.

I had no choice but to stop. Instead, I picked up a pair of scissors and began cutting upward from the hems of his trouser legs.

This spring, Prime Minister Song had suddenly impeached Marquis Lu for colluding with the enemy and betraying the country, with letters as evidence.

The Emperor flew into a rage. Without even verifying whether the evidence was true or false, he issued an edict confiscating all Lu family property. The men were to be made slaves, and the women prostitutes.

Marquis Lu was already past fifty. He had never imagined that, at the end of his life, his lifelong reputation would be destroyed. He left a blood-written letter on the prison wall, then dashed his head against it and died.

Marchioness Lu had always been frail. When she heard the news, all hope left her. Within two days, she followed him in death.

In that vast marquis estate, only Lu Shi’an and his seven-year-old little sister remained.

The people sent to seize the property had a grudge against Lu Shi’an. For the sake of a private vendetta, they broke both of his legs.

Too much time had passed without treatment, leaving them in the terrifying state they were now.

Seeing me stare at his broken legs in silence, Lu Shi’an closed his eyes. His voice carried a trace of humiliation.

“I am already crippled. I am not worth thirty copper coins.”

If I truly were a peasant girl, then spending thirty copper coins on a cripple would indeed have been a terrible loss.

But I was not.