Free Web NovelChapter 51: Chapter 51: The Affectionate are Always Hurt by the Heartless
The expressions of a few passersby changed, and they scrambled to back away. "No, no..."
They hurried away, looking terrified. No one even tried to help Cheng Yunsu up.
Yangzhou City wasn’t large to begin with.
The commotion from the Cheng Mansion’s wedding was so great that now everyone knew of their affairs. Everyone knew that Cheng Yunsu was on the City Lord’s Mansion’s kill list, so of course, they stayed far away from her.
Cheng Yunsu struggled to her feet. She looked around, only to see unfamiliar faces and streets.
She had grown up in Yangzhou City, yet her surroundings now felt completely unfamiliar.
It was as if she was all alone in the world, with no one to turn to.
She cried, "Father, Mother is already gone. You can’t leave me too! I’ll have no family left!"
Aside from her father, Cheng Chuming, she had no other blood relatives.
As for those in the Cheng Mansion? Not even a dog would acknowledge them.
Just as Cheng Yunsu was about to keep running and asking for help, a large hand reached out and stopped her.
She turned to see her new husband, Lu Chao.
Lu Chao asked quickly, "Xiao Su’er, think carefully. Where might Father-in-law have gone? Where would he most want to go?"
A slight tremor ran through her, but with Lu Chao by her side, Cheng Yunsu managed to calm down significantly.
She thought hard for a moment, then her eyes widened in realization. "I know! The place where he met my mother—Yangyu Lake."
Without another word, Lu Chao swept her into his arms and, following her directions, flashed away. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
They moved at lightning speed, reaching the outskirts of Yangyu Lake in less than ten minutes.
But just as they arrived, someone by the shore suddenly screamed, "Someone jumped in the lake! Quick, we need help!"
The hair on Lu Chao and Cheng Yunsu’s necks stood on end. In a flash, they were beside the person who had shouted.
The shouting man pointed at the lake. "He just jumped in. He didn’t struggle at all, just... sank."
SPLASH...
Without a moment’s hesitation, Lu Chao plunged into the lake and dove straight down.
He channeled the power of his Heavenly Destiny Bright Eye Bone into his eyes and immediately spotted his father-in-law, Cheng Chuming, sinking deeper and deeper with his eyes shut tight.
With a surge of speed, Lu Chao shot forward and grabbed Cheng Chuming’s sinking form.
He spun around and burst out of the water.
"Father! Father..."
The first thing Cheng Yunsu saw was her father’s deathly pale face. She lunged forward, screaming frantically, but no matter how she cried out, Cheng Chuming showed no reaction. It was as if he had already stopped breathing.
"Father, don’t scare me! Please, I’m begging you, wake up!" Cheng Yunsu sobbed, wiping at the tears that streamed down her face.
A few people had gathered around, and they all exchanged bewildered glances.
"That’s not right. He only just jumped in. How could he have stopped breathing so fast?"
As he listened to the small crowd’s discussion, Lu Chao quickly examined Cheng Chuming’s body.
Suddenly, a thought struck him, and a violent tremor shot through his body. He snapped his gaze toward the lake shore.
There lay a shattered wine flask.
Back at the Cheng Mansion, outside the main hall, he had overheard Cheng Weishan and the others talking about... using poison.
’His father-in-law... he drank the wine that Cheng Weishan and the others meant to use to poison me and Xiao Su’er.’
Realizing this, Lu Chao knew he couldn’t delay.
He quickly used the Secret Technique, the Bright Eyes and Clear Wind Guide, to observe Cheng Chuming’s body from the inside. He discovered that blood was still flowing faintly through his meridians. This meant he could still be saved. He wasn’t dead yet...
Without hesitation, Lu Chao struck Cheng Chuming’s stomach hard with his palm.
GACK...
With a retching cry, Cheng Chuming immediately began to vomit violently, spewing out a mess of blood and stomach contents.
But it was all black—a clear sign that poison had entered his system.
However, after expelling the poison, Cheng Chuming’s condition improved significantly, and he began to take faint, shallow breaths.
Panicked and at her wit’s end, Cheng Yunsu asked frantically, "Lu Chao, what do we do? What are we going to do?"
’This can’t be our final parting. I won’t let it be!’
"Is there a doctor nearby?" Lu Chao asked quickly.
Cheng Yunsu nodded frantically. "Yes, yes! Doctor Liu, the best physician in Yangzhou City, his clinic is just on the other side of the lake."
Without another word, Lu Chao tucked Cheng Chuming under one arm, grabbed Cheng Yunsu’s hand with the other, and leaped onto the lake’s surface, running across the water.
They quickly arrived at Doctor Liu’s door. After setting them down, Lu Chao said, "Get Father-in-law inside. I’ll be right back."
Cheng Yunsu didn’t ask questions. She pushed the door open and rushed in. "Doctor Liu, please save my father!"
This Doctor Liu had diagnosed Cheng Yunsu’s eyes and burns before Lu Chao had even arrived in Yangzhou City. Just a few days ago, when Cheng Yunsu had suddenly lost her sight, Cheng Chuming had dragged him over to the Cheng Mansion.
He was on good terms with Cheng Chuming and knew Cheng Yunsu quite well.
Thus, Doctor Liu was shocked when he saw the state they were in. He immediately dropped what he was doing and began emergency treatment on Cheng Chuming.
After just a moment, Doctor Liu looked up. "He’s been poisoned. Do you know what kind?"
How would Cheng Yunsu know?
Doctor Liu asked again quickly, "A sample of the poison will do. I’ll know it by the smell."
But Cheng Yunsu had nothing to give him. She had only just learned herself that her father had been poisoned.
Just then, Lu Chao hurried back.
He said quickly, "Doctor Liu, this is from the poisoned wine my father-in-law drank. Please, take a look."
He had rushed off just moments ago to retrieve the shattered flask from the shore, which still held a few drops of the poisoned wine.
Doctor Liu quickly took it...
After taking a quick sniff, he said immediately, "This is a potent poison! It’s venom from the Tiger-Slumber Bee, a type of Demon Beast. You’re lucky you got him here so quickly and forced him to vomit. Another ten minutes, and he would have been beyond saving."
As he spoke, Doctor Liu immediately began performing acupuncture on Cheng Chuming, using his needles to force out the remaining poison.
After a while, once Cheng Chuming had stabilized slightly, the doctor moved him to an inner room to continue treatment with medicine.
Outside the room...
Cheng Yunsu’s face was pale, but she could finally breathe a small sigh of relief. With tears welling in her eyes, she looked at Lu Chao and asked, "Why would Father suddenly decide to... give up like that? Why would he choose such a dead end?"
He seemed perfectly fine earlier. He was going to have a serious talk with Cheng Weishan, and he swore he wouldn’t go soft on him.
And then, in the blink of an eye, he leaves a note and tries to kill himself!
Lu Chao gazed at the agonized Xiao Su’er before him, his own eyes brimming with killing intent.
When he told her what he had overheard outside the Cheng Mansion’s main hall, Cheng Yunsu completely broke down.
"I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them! I’LL KILL THEM!"
Cheng Yunsu practically roared the words. Never before had she felt such intense hatred.
No matter how viciously Cheng Weishan and the others had treated her, no matter how they pushed her, she had never thought of retaliation.
After all, they were her elders, relatives by blood. But this time, she was truly driven mad. They had nearly forced her father to his death.
It was as if Cheng Yunsu was on the verge of being consumed by her own rage.
A son on one side, a daughter on the other. How could a father choose?
The father’s choice: to die himself.
Suddenly... PFFT!
Overcome with rage, Cheng Yunsu coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood and collapsed unconscious into Lu Chao’s arms.
Lu Chao held her with infinite tenderness, his gaze turning grimly toward the sky, then toward the room where Cheng Chuming was still being treated...
’Why are good people always exploited by the wicked?’
’They say loyalty and affection are priceless, so why are Xiao Su’er, my father-in-law, and I all being harmed by wicked people in the name of those very things?’
’The sentimental are always hurt by the heartless.’
’Very well. In that case, I will use my sword to cut down every last one of the heartless.’
