The Night Before the Wedding, My Fiance Asked Me to Comfort His White Moonlight - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

For the first time, I felt that getting married was truly a troublesome affair.

When other women married, at most, they feared their husbands had someone else in their hearts.

When it was my turn, my husband had someone in his heart, there was poison in the wine, and something was even hidden in the wedding robes.

I asked Pei Shu, “What is it?”

Pei Shu did not answer right away.

He walked to the window, crouched down, and pulled a thin sheet of paper from the assassin’s sleeve.

On it was a map of the rear courtyard of the Song Mansion.

And the location of my room.

I recognized the handwriting on it.

It was the neat, fine script written with a wolf-hair brush that the Lu Family accountant often used.

Pei Shu handed me the paper.

“They originally planned to take you away tonight.”

“If they couldn’t, they could make their move tomorrow.”

I crumpled the paper in my hand.

“Madam Lu wants to kill Lu Jingci. Why come after me too?”

“Because you are Grand Tutor Song’s daughter.”

Pei Shu’s voice was steady, but it did not sound relaxed.

“The Lu Family has relied on your father to maneuver for them at court all these years. Otherwise, that old case would have dragged them down long ago.”

“If Lu Jingci dies in the bridal chamber tomorrow, and the nuptial wine had passed through your hands, the Song Family will never be able to clear its name.”

“Sewn into the wedding robe is half a page from an old ledger. On it is an imprint of Grand Tutor Song’s private seal.”

“Once someone dies, and that ledger page is found, it becomes proof that the Song Family killed to silence him.”

I understood.

Madam Lu wanted to kill two birds with one stone.

Kill the stepson who was in her way, then drag the Song Family down with him.

Then her own son could rightfully inherit the Lu Family title.

I sneered. “What a clever plan.”

Shen Jiaojiao leaned against the couch and said softly, “She also wants to kill me.”

I looked at her.

“Because you know too much?”

She nodded.

“That arrow during the spring hunt three years ago was loosed by one of my father’s old subordinates.”

That stunned me for a moment.

Shen Jiaojiao closed her eyes briefly.

“Madam Lu threatened his wife and children to force him into it. After the arrow went wide, he died that very night.”

“My father was once an old subordinate of the Lu Family. Before he died, he hid a ledger.”

“Madam Lu thought the ledger was in my hands. She brought me to the capital to find it.”

I asked, “Where is the ledger?”

Shen Jiaojiao looked at Pei Shu.

Pei Shu did not answer.

For a moment, the room fell silent.

Suddenly, I understood. Pei Shu’s appearance here tonight was no coincidence.

He had been watching the Lu Family for a very long time.

I looked at him. “You were investigating Madam Lu, and Lu Jingci too?”

Pei Shu said, “I was investigating the Lu Family.”

It was a broad answer, and a very clean one.

I should have kept asking.

But just then, Lu Jingci’s voice came from outside.

“Zhining?”

Shen Jiaojiao shot to her feet.

She was too weak. The moment she stood, she swayed.

I caught her.

When Lu Jingci pushed the door open, that was exactly what he saw.

He looked at Shen Jiaojiao first, then at me, and only then did he notice Pei Shu.

“Uncle?”

Pei Shu gave a faint hum in response.

Lu Jingci frowned.

“Why are you in Ah Jiao’s room?”

What a marvelously phrased question.

His fiancée was in his white moonlight’s room in the middle of the night, and he did not find that strange.

But the moment Pei Shu was here, he panicked.

Shen Jiaojiao said in a low voice, “Jingci, tomorrow’s wedding cannot go ahead.”

Lu Jingci’s face darkened.

“Not this again.”

Shen Jiaojiao’s eyes instantly reddened.

“I am not lying to you.”

Lu Jingci held back his anger.

“Every time, you say someone wants to hurt me. But how Mother has treated me all these years-you saw it yourself.”

I could not help speaking up.

“She treats you well, so she put Sleep Herb in Miss Shen’s medicine?”

Lu Jingci froze.

He looked toward the medicine bowl on the table.

“What Sleep Herb?”

Shen Jiaojiao raised a hand and covered her face.

Perhaps what hurt her most was not that Lu Jingci did not believe her.

It was that Lu Jingci had never even asked.

Pei Shu tossed the thin needle at Lu Jingci’s feet.

“Half a quarter of an hour ago, someone came to silence her.”

Lu Jingci’s face finally changed.

He looked at Shen Jiaojiao.

“Are you hurt?”

Shen Jiaojiao did not answer.

She only looked at him.

“Lu Jingci, you really only see me at times like this.”

My chest tightened at those words.

It was not coquetry, nor was it blame.

It was someone who had held on for too long, so long that she no longer wanted to hold on at all.

Panic flickered through Lu Jingci’s eyes.

He took a step forward.

“Ah Jiao.”

Shen Jiaojiao stepped back.

I stood between them and did not move aside.

Lu Jingci looked at me.

“Zhining, don’t misunderstand.”

I found him utterly ridiculous.

Things had already come to this, yet he was still afraid I would misunderstand some romantic entanglement.

I slapped the paper with the map of the Song Mansion against his chest.

“Lu Jingci, tomorrow your mother is going to kill you, and she plans to drag my Song Family down with you.”

“You had better do something useful right now.”

Lu Jingci lowered his head to look at the paper, and his face slowly turned pale.

Someone came running from outside again.

It was the old maidservant from Madam Lu’s side.

She stood at the doorway, her gaze sweeping over everyone in the room, her smile very forced.

“Young Master, Madam asks you to come over.”

Lu Jingci did not move.

The old maidservant continued, “Madam says tomorrow is your joyous day, and there are some things she wishes to tell you in private.”

Pei Shu suddenly said, “Go.”

I looked at him.

Pei Shu looked back at me.

“If he doesn’t, she’ll simply find another way.”

As if grasping at something, Lu Jingci said in a low voice, “I’ll go ask her clearly.”

I did not stop him.

Some people would never believe a wall was there until they slammed into it themselves.

When Lu Jingci reached the door, Shen Jiaojiao suddenly called out to him.

“Jingci.”

He turned back.

Shen Jiaojiao took a sachet from her sleeve and threw it to him.

“If you still trust me even once, don’t smell the fragrance inside.”

Lu Jingci clutched the sachet, his expression chaotic.

After he left, Pei Shu shut the door.

I asked, “What’s in that sachet?”

Shen Jiaojiao said hoarsely, “Incense ash from Lizhao Courtyard.”

Pei Shu took over.

“That incense can cause temporary palpitations.”

“If mixed into wine, it looks very much like a sudden fatal illness.”

A chill ran down my back.

So the pear-blossom scent on Lu Jingci had not rubbed off on him from Shen Jiaojiao.

Someone had been using him to test the incense long ago.

Before I could speak, a scream suddenly rang out from beyond the courtyard.

Immediately after, someone shouted, “The young master is vomiting blood!”