Chapter 7 | Dominating the World with Nine Yin and Nine Yang

Lu Manor was deeply unusual today.

Ever since early afternoon, the main gates had been shut tight.

Clang.

Both wooden door bolts dropped into place.

The old servant who usually sat at the door soaking up the sun was no longer sunbathing.

The guards no longer chatted.

Every single person held either a saber or a staff.

Even Old Zhang, who chopped firewood in the kitchen, had tucked his wood-cleaver into his belt.

A maid passed under the corridor carrying tea.

Her hand trembled.

Crash!

The teacup shattered into pieces.

Seven or eight people whipped their heads around in unison.

The maid's face turned pale as ash.

"I... my hand slipped."

No one scolded her, because everyone's heart was hanging by a thread.

Outside the main hall, on the snow-white wall.

Several dark red palm prints were stamped.

All five fingers were clearly defined.

The blood had already dried, turning a dark, blackened color.

No matter how one looked at it, it sent chills down the spine.

Lu Liding stood in front of the wall, unmoving for a long time.

Lu Erniang walked up from behind with light steps:

"Husband, is it really her?"

Lu Liding reached out his hand.

He rubbed the pad of his finger against the edge of a bloody handprint.

A smudge of dark red stained his fingertip.

"It should be."

Lu Erniang's expression changed as well.

"Is it really that female demon, Li Mochou?"

Lu Liding nodded.

No one spoke in the courtyard.

Not far away, someone moved a table, its wooden legs scraping across the green bricks.

Screech—

The sound was sharp and drawn-out.

Lu Erniang felt her heart tighten:

"Ten years have passed."

"She still refuses to let it go?"

Lu Liding let out a bitter laugh:

"Back when my elder brother married,"

"she threw a storm of a scene."

"If that high monk from Tianlong Temple hadn't intervened at the wedding banquet,"

"my brother and sister-in-law would likely have met an untimely end right then and there."

Lu Erniang naturally knew about this.

It was just that in ordinary times, no one wished to bring it up.

Lu Liding looked at the bloody handprints on the wall and continued:

"That high monk asked her to show respect to Tianlong Temple,"

"and guarantee my brother and his wife ten years of peace."

"Today happens to be exactly ten years."

Lu Erniang fell silent for a moment.

"But Big Brother has already passed away from illness."

"And Sister-in-law also..."

She did not utter the second half of the sentence.

Three years ago, Lu Zhanyuan's lung ailment reached the bone, beyond the help of medicine and doctors.

He feared Li Mochou would vent her wrath on his wife, He Yuanjun.

So he instructed his younger brother Lu Liding to take He Yuanjun and flee far away to take refuge after his death.

Yet on the night of his passing.

He Yuanjun sat by the bed and stayed with him for the entire night.

When the servants pushed open the door the next morning,

Lu Zhanyuan lay on the bed, breathless.

He Yuanjun had slit her throat to follow her husband, slumped over the bedside.

Husband and wife had both departed together.

At this moment, Lu Erniang's face turned pale:

"They are already dead."

"No matter how deep the enmity, shouldn't it be laid to rest?"

Lu Liding shook his head:

"If that female demon reasoned like that,"

"she wouldn't have left these bloody handprints today."

"I fear what she wants is..."

"to leave neither chick nor dog alive in the Lu family."

Just as the words left his mouth,

a burst of light footsteps suddenly came from behind.

Immediately after, two small hands covered Lu Liding's eyes.

"Daddy! Guess who I am!"

Lu Liding's body stiffened.

The next moment, all the heaviness on his face vanished, and he forced a smile onto his lips:

"Hmm..."

"Could it be the little thief who stole sweet osmanthus cakes from the kitchen?"

Lu Wushuang behind him instantly released her hands, her cheeks puffing out like a pufferfish:

"Dad! That was yesterday! Why are you still bringing it up?!"

Lu Liding turned around and pinched his daughter's nose:

"So to speak,"

"you didn't steal today?"

Lu Wushuang tilted her chin up, completely justified:

"The kitchen door was locked today, so I couldn't get in!"

Lu Liding: "..."

Lu Erniang couldn't hold it back.

She burst out laughing with a snort.

Cheng Ying, who followed behind Lu Wushuang, couldn't hold back either; covering the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief, her shoulders quivered softly.

Lu Wushuang immediately looked over.

"Cousin, you're laughing at me!"

Cheng Ying looked up with an innocent face:

"I am not."

Lu Wushuang said, "You clearly smiled!"

Cheng Ying smiled and said, "I just thought Uncle said something very sensible."

Lu Wushuang was left speechless.

"You..."

"The three of you are teaming up to pick on me!"

The family finally let out a few laughs.

The tense atmosphere in the courtyard thinned out a bit as well.

Lu Wushuang was nine years old this year, carved like fine jade, with a wild temperament like a little monkey.

Cheng Ying was two years older, her facial features delicate and serene; standing there, she exuded the dignity of a young lady from a noble house.

She usually spoke little, and sometimes the look in her eyes made people feel that this child understood everything.

Lu Liding looked at them, the smile on his lips slowly fading.

He suddenly reached into his coat and pulled out a silk handkerchief.

Seeing this, Lu Erniang's expression changed.

"Husband, you..."

Lu Liding did not speak; he drew his dagger.

Rip!

The silk handkerchief was sliced right down the middle.

Lu Wushuang was startled.

"Daddy!"

"Why did you cut up a perfectly fine handkerchief?"

"Father is giving this handkerchief to you two sisters." As he spoke, Lu Liding tied half around his daughter's neck.

The other half he tied around Cheng Ying's neck.

Lu Wushuang looked down and touched it.

"A perfectly fine handkerchief shrunk to half its size—it doesn't look nice!"

Lu Liding helped smooth out the silk handkerchief for her:

"Father thinks it looks very nice."

Lu Wushuang blinked her big eyes and instantly changed her tune:

"Then I think it looks nice too."

Lu Erniang's nose tingled with sadness; she quickly turned her face away.

Cheng Ying looked down at the half-piece of silk handkerchief on her chest.

After a moment, she looked up and asked:

"Uncle."

"Why half for each of us?"

Lu Liding's throat choked up; his rough palm stroked the top of Cheng Ying's hair:

"This, you see, is the most popular new style of wearing them in Lin'an City right now."

Cheng Ying did not press further; she merely tucked the silk handkerchief slightly under her collar.

"I will keep it safe."

Lu Liding nodded:

"Go on, go play in the back courtyard."

"You are not allowed to come to the front courtyard today."

Lu Wushuang was about to ask why.

Cheng Ying had already taken her hand.

"Wushuang, let's go."

The two young girls went to the back courtyard one after the other.

Not until their figures vanished...

...did Lu Erniang speak up.

"Husband, are you really planning to..."

Lu Liding stared at their retreating backs, tightening his fists:

"We have to leave a way out for the children."

"In case we truly cannot hold her off..."

"...I hope Li Mochou will spare Shuang'er's and A'ying's lives for the sake of this handkerchief."

...

Back courtyard.

The further Lu Wushuang walked, the more she felt something was wrong.

After walking a long distance,

she suddenly stopped.

"Cousin."

"My dad is very strange today."

Cheng Ying touched the silk handkerchief inside her collar.

"Uncle seems to be hiding something from us."

Lu Wushuang put her hands on her hips.

"I knew it!"

"Grown-ups are always like this."

"Whenever something happens, they say kids shouldn't pry."

Cheng Ying glanced at her.

"Then what do you plan to do?"

Lu Wushuang casually said:

"Haven't thought of anything yet."

Having said that,

she kicked a small pebble near her feet. Looking up, she happened to spot the old tree in the middle of the courtyard, so thick it would take three people to encircle it.

On the topmost horizontal branch, a few clusters of pale red flowers were in bloom.

Lu Wushuang's eyes instantly lit up.

"Cousin, look!"

Cheng Ying looked in the direction she pointed.

"I see them."

Lu Wushuang had already walked over to the tree and started rolling up her sleeves:

"Pretty, right?"

The moment Cheng Ying saw her posture, she knew trouble was brewing.

"Wushuang, it's too high."

"Don't do anything foolish!"

Lu Wushuang was already starting to climb the tree:

"It's fine."