Chapter 20 Re
Not long after, I brought my parents to Jinling as well.
Lu Yinchuan never married.
Whenever I investigated a case, he went to examine the corpses.
Whenever I wrote, he ground the ink for mich.
At thirty-two, I faked my death, returned to my female form, and married Lu Yinchuan.
That same year, I met Zhang Ruhua.
And her daughter.
She saw me and did not feel surprised. She called me.
"Crown Princess."
I stood up with a jolt.
"You..."
She smiled, "I only returned in the second year after I remarried."
"But I really did not expect that in this life, I would fall in love with you."
"After she remarried, she was never happy. It was not long before she passed away from melancholy."
I nodded blankly.
She continued.
"Actually, after you died in the past life, the emperor finished arranging everything and then took poison himself."
I froze.
"How could that..."
She smiled gently.
"Chu Bingzhi, have you really never thought about it? In this life, I have a daughter. I am not infertile, but the emperor never touched me."
"Those ten years, you know how many open and hidden attacks he shielded you from?"
"Later, he dared not love you anymore. As for me, I was just a target."
I murmured, "But my two children..."
"They were raised well by the emperor. In private, they often came to visit you. They always asked when they could return to you."
No one had told me these things back then, though in this life I knew of several assassination attempts around him.
My heart ached dully.
I thought to myself, in this life, Zhao Yan died before he was nineteen.
I was already thirty-two this year.
Everything should scatter with the wind.
I stared for a long time, looking at Zhang Ruhua, "Thank you for telling me these things."
"But for me, these things have no meaning now."
I got up. Lu Yinchuan stood not far away waiting for me.
Zhang Ruhua saw him and suddenly smiled, thinking of something.
"In the past life, in the first year the emperor abandoned you, Lu Yinchuan went into the palace and fought him."
"Lu Yinchuan was beaten so badly that he lost half his life."
After he recovered, he went to the desert, saying he would return and fight the emperor again.
"Later..."
I knew, later, Lu Yinchuan did not return from the desert.
She asked, "Does this have any meaning for you?"
There were bells ringing far away.
I looked back at the mountains as the sunset reddened the sky time and again.
I nodded, "Yes, it does."