“Sir...”
Li Xing had been waiting in the snow for quite some time. When Lu Gaosheng finally arrived, he immediately sensed something unusual.
As Lu Gaosheng approached, his head was lowered in an oddly somber manner.
"Send everyone away. No disturbances." Lu Gaosheng's voice was strangely low.
Li Xing hesitated for a moment. He bowed and tentatively asked, "Sir, about the grain and fodder..."
"Proceed as originally planned."
"Uh... Yes."
"You may leave."
Li Xing straightened up, but Lu Gaosheng had already shut his door. He had no chance to say anything more.
...
Everyone, including Li Xing, left the garden.
Inside the room.
Lu Gaosheng lay in bed, his handsome features as imposing as ever.
Moreover, this time he had no headaches or heard Bai Fang's voice.
Yet...
Lying on his back, his eyes were oddly... empty!
As if nothing existed.
The man seemed dead.
Perhaps only his thoughts still lived.
I should have realized.
I should have realized!!
How could she be interested in that useless fool? Of course there was a reason.
Why didn't I think more about it?
If I had pondered more, surely I could have figured it out!
No.
No!
Even if I had realized, what then?
Even the ghost doctor couldn't cure it. It was a hopeless disease, a hopeless situation!
Why?
Why did you want to get away from me? I was the one!
I was Xiao Yu's...
Why!!
Why!!
Something must have gone wrong!
Something must have gone terribly wrong!!
Suddenly.
Lu Gaosheng leapt up from the bed, disheveled and seemingly deranged!
Yes, something must have gone wrong.
"Was it you? Song Yanshi! It must have been you!"
"You wretched official! Ruining so many lives isn't enough? You want to ruin me and Bai Fang too!"
"It must be you! It must be you!!! Don't try to fool me, hahaha..."
"But you won't be happy for long. You'll be dead soon, hahaha..."
Jumping up from the bed, Lu Gaosheng danced around the room like a child, waving his arms and legs with no rhythm, all while laughing maniacally.
Yet mid-dance, he suddenly stopped.
And began sobbing...
He curled up like a helpless child in the corner.
Crying, he said:
"But what can I do? Bai Fang is going to die..."
"Why is this happening? Bai Fang, how can you die?"
"Do you know how miserable I was in that brothel back then?"
"Those prostitutes mocked me. Those clients trampled me. But I endured! I endured it all!!"
"Yet you're telling me now you're going to die?"
How can you die?
What more can I do for you...?
Lu Gaosheng suddenly stood up again and charged out of his room, destroying the garden's vegetation like a madman.
Then he started laughing once more.
Maniacally.
“What more can I do for you?"
"Aren't I already doing it? Hahaha... Aren't I already doing it?"
"I'm not Lu Qingming anymore. I'm Lu Gaosheng now! I have power, money."
"I will avenge you no matter what!"
"Tell me your wishes. Come, tell me your wishes!"
He paced around the garden.
In the dim, sparsely snowing garden, with fragrant scent adrift, he seemed to see a woman in white clothes slowly approaching.
He watched longingly.
The woman smiled at him.
The woman said, "You still remember I like flowers."
Lu Gaosheng nodded eagerly again and again, laughing loudly, "How could I forget! Look, every flower in my garden is grown for you. Here are chrysanthemums, gardenias..."
The woman smiled. "You really are good to me."
"It's only natural. You're my wife."
"But have you forgotten who I hate the most?"
"I haven't forgotten!" Lu Gaosheng yelled.
"How could I forget! It's Song Yanshi, isn't it? Just wait a little longer! I'll bring you his severed head!!"
In the hazy garden...
The woman slowly drew near, like a ghost, like a fairy.
She gently kissed Lu Gaosheng’s handsome face.
And whispered, "No... Have you forgotten? There is another person I hate..."
Lu Gaosheng muttered in confusion, "Who?"
She pronounced each word clearly, "Lu Gao-sheng."
Yet Lu Gaosheng laughed, seemingly lost in her kiss.
He said, "That's easy. I'll kill him for you right now."
"Where are you Lu Gaosheng!?" he bellowed.
Then he frantically searched the garden but couldn’t find the man he had volunteered to kill.
That’s right.
He seemed to remember something and rushed back to his room.
In front of Lu Gaosheng’s bedroom was a full-length mirror.
Staring into it, Lu Gaosheng pointed at the man in the mirror and cackled, "Lu Gaosheng, I've found you! Trying to escape? Die!"
Without hesitation, Lu Gaosheng charged at and smashed the mirror, reaching in with both hands, as if truly trying to strangle the man inside to death.
Yet when the mirror shattered, the man also vanished.
Exhausted, Lu Gaosheng collapsed to the floor, still wearing an excited expression. He exclaimed euphorically, "See that? As long as you want, I can kill anyone! I can do anything."
"So..."
"Can you please not die?"
"I'll do anything for you. I only ask that you don't die."
"Even if it means killing myself."
Lu Gaosheng was spent.
Lying motionless on the floor.
Yet one voice refused to leave him be.
"No, Lu Gaosheng isn't dead yet. Turn around and look, Lu Gaosheng isn't dead yet!"
Lu Gaosheng turned his head. In the shards of the broken mirror lay the haggard, handsome reflection of his face.
He stared blankly at the fragments.
Then he reached out both hands and clutched his own throat.
Gripping it tightly!
Tighter!!
Until he suffocated!
Until he lost consciousness!
...
At the same time.
In the capital of Dawu Country, within Song Manor.
In the dead of a beautifully ornate night, candlelight illuminated the manor.
An elderly man in black robes paced the corridors, sword-like eyebrows betraying his sharpness. His blood-red lips appeared almost frightening.
The wrinkles on the old man's forehead indicated his currently foul mood.
And rightly so. After Wang Jue had snatched the grain and fodder for Hanwu Commandery, one incident after another, almost everything had gone against his wishes.
Even Heitian Gate and Dark Building, originally cooperative partners, had resolutely refused further collaboration because of that "Baijun Marquis."
The old man even somewhat doubted himself.
Could I, Song Yanshi, really be getting old?
"Report," said a black-clothed man who had appeared unknowingly behind Song Yanshi.
Song Yanshi was unsurprised. "Speak," he said evenly.
"Liu Hu has sent word... Failure."
"Hmph... But that was to be expected."
Song Yanshi was angry but not especially shocked.
Tang Li, Baijun Marquis and Xu Guo - if they were easy to deal with, that would be strange.
But he couldn't be called flustered either.
Even if the grain entered the Northlands, as long as it hadn't reached Hanwu Commandery, he, Song Yanshi, still had other methods.