The Night Before the Wedding, My Fiance Asked Me to Comfort His White Moonlight - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

By the time Lu Jingci was carried back to Lizhao Courtyard, all color had drained from his face.

There was blood at the corner of his mouth, and his hand was still clenched tight around the sachet Shen Jiaojiao had given him.

Madam Lu followed behind, sobbing so hard she could barely stand.

“Fetch a physician! Hurry!”

When she saw Pei Shu, it was as if she had found a lifeline.

“Ah Shu, quickly, take a look at Jingci.”

Pei Shu did not move.

His gaze rested on the sachet in Lu Jingci’s hand.

“Wasn’t Sister-in-law the one who invited him over to talk?”

Tears still clung to Madam Lu’s face. She froze for a moment.

“Yes. Yes, just to talk.”

Pei Shu asked, “What did you talk about?”

Madam Lu clutched at her chest.

“Why are you asking that at a time like this?”

She turned to look at me.

“Miss Song, Jingci started feeling unwell after returning from your courtyard, and now he has vomited blood here at Ah Jiao’s place.”

“What exactly did you do to him?”

What a swift and precise turn of blame.

Shen Jiaojiao was trembling with anger.

I pressed down on her hand.

Madam Lu’s eyes flashed with satisfaction when she saw the gesture.

That was probably exactly what she had been waiting for-for Shen Jiaojiao and me to stand together.

One was the fiancée. One was the cousin living under their roof.

Two women meeting privately in the dead of night, with Pei Shu standing beside them no less.

Once Lu Jingci vomited blood, there would be no need for a wedding tomorrow. The Song Family would be dragged through the mud all the same.

I took a step forward.

“Madam, you are mistaken.”

Madam Lu looked at me.

I raised a hand and pointed outside the door.

“When Young Master Lu left my courtyard, he already smelled of pear blossoms.”

“There are no pear trees in my courtyard, nor any pear-blossom fragrance.”

Madam Lu’s expression shifted slightly.

I continued, “But the old maidservant by Madam’s side has the same scent on her cuffs.”

The old maidservant instinctively tried to hide her hands behind her back.

Pei Shu did not touch her. He merely lifted a hand toward the attendants behind him.

An attendant stepped forward to search her and took a small porcelain vial from the maidservant’s sleeve pocket.

Madam Lu’s face changed completely.

“That is calming incense.”

Pei Shu picked up the porcelain vial and sniffed it.

“Take it to the physician.”

The attendant beside him immediately accepted it.

Madam Lu said urgently, “Ah Shu, what do you think you’re doing?”

Pei Shu looked at her.

“Saving a life.”

Once those two words fell, no one in the room dared make another sound.

The physician arrived quickly.

He first applied acupuncture to Lu Jingci, then examined the porcelain vial and the medicine bowl.

After working for half an hour, he finally wiped his sweat and said, “The young master inhaled an excessive amount of strong fragrance, and his emotions were suddenly agitated. That is why he vomited blood.”

Madam Lu immediately said, “I told you it was merely a sudden illness.”

The physician hesitated.

Pei Shu asked, “And?”

The physician lowered his head.

“There is also a dose of Heartbreak Vine in the incense.”

The room went deathly still.

In small amounts, Heartbreak Vine would not kill immediately. It would only cause a person’s chest to twist with agony.

If one drank wine afterward, the poison would be triggered.

By then, it would look like a sudden heart attack after drinking too much.

Madam Lu’s legs went weak.

The old maidservant dropped to her knees with a thud.

“Madam, this servant didn’t know!”

Pei Shu looked at Madam Lu.

“Sister-in-law originally planned to wait until tomorrow night.”

“But Miss Shen invited Miss Song here, and the assassin failed. You had no choice but to make Jingci vomit blood first.”

“As long as he collapsed here, Miss Song, Miss Shen, and I would all become ready-made suspects.”

Pei Shu ordered the old maidservant dragged away.

Madam Lu shrieked, “On what grounds do you dare seize my people in the Lu Mansion?”

Pei Shu placed the Dali Temple Token on the table.

“On these grounds.”

Madam Lu did not dare speak again.

By the time Lu Jingci woke, dawn was near.

The first thing he did when he opened his eyes was look for Shen Jiaojiao.

Shen Jiaojiao sat behind the screen and did not come out.

I stood by the bed.

When Lu Jingci saw me, his eyes became complicated.

“Zhining.”

I placed that sachet beside his pillow.

“Miss Shen saved you.”

His lips moved slightly.

“I know.”

I said, “But I no longer want this marriage.”

Lu Jingci’s face went white.

He braced himself, trying to sit up.

“Zhining, I will give you an explanation for this matter.”

I shook my head.

“You can’t.”

He froze.

I looked at him and said, word by word, “Even now, you still think that as long as you investigate Madam Lu, then apologize to me, this matter can be put behind us.”

“But Lu Jingci, I was almost thrown into a trap by your Lu Family.”

His eyes slowly reddened.

“I didn’t know.”

“So?”

I asked him, “Because you didn’t know, does that mean it should hurt me any less?”

Lu Jingci could not say a word.

A very soft sound came from behind the screen.

Shen Jiaojiao seemed to have knocked over a teacup.

She should have heard it too.

For all the years of sincerity she had given Lu Jingci, she had probably received plenty of those words in return-I didn’t know.

Pei Shu, who was standing at the doorway, suddenly said, “Miss Song, someone from the Song Mansion has arrived.”

I turned around.

My father stood outside the courtyard in full court robes, his face livid.

Behind him was an imperial eunuch.

In a shrill voice, the eunuch said, “His Majesty’s verbal decree: the wedding of the daughter of the Song Family shall proceed today as planned.”

I froze.

Madam Lu was kneeling on the ground. When she lowered her head, the corner of her mouth actually twitched.

She had kept one last move in reserve.