Favoring a Hidden Mistress? Engagement Broken-Chapter 81 - 77

Under the city, the attacking forces grew stronger and more aggressive, and the defending soldiers began to falter, with soldiers climbing the battlements, and the fighting intensifying.

Lü Ping glared angrily, shouting, "Lu Ziyuan, years ago when you first joined the army, you were a Deputy General under my command. Out of respect for the Old Marquis, I took care of you. Are you truly going to drive me to a dead end now?"

Below the city, Lu Ziyuan, seated on his steed, heard this and gave a cold laugh.

Beside him, Ming Feng tightened the reins, took a breath from his abdomen, and shouted loudly, "If Lord Lü opens the gates and surrenders now, the General will not force you to a dead end."

"What a joke! If I surrender now, taken back to the Capital, how could I keep my life!" Lü Ping laughed heartily, suddenly drew a precious knife from his waist, and decapitated a soldier, drinking the blood directly. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Scarlet hot blood trickled down his short beard, and the gurgling swallows made the soldiers beside him somewhat fearful.

They had stained their hands with many lives, but drinking human blood like this, they had never seen before.

Truly worthy of having half Qiang Clan blood?

The gate was very high, but Lu Ziyuan had excellent vision, taking in the scene on the walls completely.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and he extended his palm behind him.

Ming Feng handed over a heavy bow.

On the battlements, after Lü Ping finished drinking, he casually tossed the head in his hand, when suddenly a whistle of an arrow slicing through the air sounded. His face changed drastically, and he hurriedly dodged to the side, but an arrow still pierced through his shoulder bone.

As the leader was injured, chaos erupted on the battlements.

Lü Ping had an arrow in his shoulder, but his life was not in danger, and he quickly stabilized the situation. However, during this short period, more siege soldiers climbed up the battlements.

In the midst of blood and wind, with the sun gradually setting, the gates that had taken several hours to attack finally broke open.

Lü Ping swung his sword to commit suicide but was captured by Ming Feng.

Around them, cheers resounded like a mountain torrent and tsunami, deafening.

As Lu Ziyuan was instructing the cleanup of the battlefield, suddenly, a shadow swiftly descended from the sky.

"It’s Yun Jin."

Saying so, Ming Feng quickly walked over. The black giant eagle landed on his shoulder, with a sealed bamboo tube hanging from its neck. He patted Yun Jin’s head, took down the bamboo tube, and respectfully presented the letter with both hands.

Lu Ziyuan handed his spear to a Deputy General, took the letter, and his pitch-black eyes fell upon it...

Then, in front of many Deputy Generals, his expression changed drastically. The eyes that had remained unchanged through the two-day siege suddenly filled with violence, and he shouted, "Ben Yun!"

The entirely black warhorse, hearing its master’s call, dashed out from somewhere. Lu Ziyuan swiftly mounted and left a command to return to the Capital first, leaving everything to be handled by Ming Feng before speeding off.

The remaining Deputy Generals watched this young, famed "God of Killing" hastily leave, all showing fear.

They feared something had happened in the Capital City.

Fortunately, Ming Feng, as Lu Ziyuan’s trusted and beloved general, held significant authority in the camp. In Lu Ziyuan’s absence, he could still maintain control temporarily, especially since the gates were broken, Lü Ping captured, and the victory complete.

He merely stayed behind to clear the battlefield, stabilize the situation, and escort Lü Ping back to the Capital.

Ming Feng, a retainer of the Lu Family, had followed Lu Ziyuan from a young age just like Mingjian. He knew that anything causing the master’s urgent panic must be significant.

It’s not about an accident with the few wives, or else...

......

In September, the intense summer heat had not completely dissipated. Xie Wanqing, fearing the heat, still had ice jars in the room.

At the break of dawn, the girl on the canopy bed furrowed her brows, thin sweat appeared on her forehead, and she looked restless in sleep, suddenly sitting up and softly exclaiming "no."

Erqing, who was keeping night watch outside, was startled by the sound, pushed the door open, walked around the screen, and asked with concern, "Did the young lady have a nightmare again?"

Clearly, in recent months, there hadn’t been any...

"It’s fine," Xie Wanqing covered her chest, slowly shaking her head, "It’s not the dream from before."

She took a deep breath, looked at the ashen sky outside the window, and said, "Go back to sleep for a while, I’ll rest a bit by myself."

Seeing her face not look well, Erqing couldn’t help expressing worry, "Young lady should also rest; tomorrow is your joyous day, and you won’t look beautiful if you don’t have enough energy."

Xie Wanqing uttered a sound in agreement, lay back down, and pretended to sleep.

Only after Erqing left and the door was reclosed did she open her eyes again.

She had dreamt about Lu Ziyuan.

After more than two months without seeing him, Xie Wanqing actually rarely thought of him anymore; in her secure and peaceful life, nothing seemed incapable of being soothed.

The fright he brought, the annoyance during those endless tangles... and her fervent pursuits from the past.

She thought of them rarely, yet on the eve of her marriage, she dreamed of him again...

Unlike the previous dream.

The Lu Ziyuan in the dream was not that young, famous at a young age, smoothly rising through the officialdom, and graced with spring breeze Marquis Lu.

He...

Xie Wanqing pressed her lips, unsure of what this dream meant.

They say that the thoughts during the day become the dreams at night, yet she had no such thoughts, but still dreamed of Lu Ziyuan, gravely ill, devastated with grief.

He appeared young, yet his hair was completely gray, without a hint of youthful black, and his deep, unfathomable eyes were sunk into twilight, devoid of any vitality.

No matter what the Lu Ziyuan in the dream was like, it wasn’t enough to shock Xie Wanqing, but inside his room...

In front of his bed, hung an old garment that she had worn.

A garment she hadn’t worn yet, but had worn several times in previous dreams after marrying him.

The wind rustled the deserted garment, looking eerie, yet the Lu Ziyuan in the dream kept staring at that piece of clothing.

That gaze, when Xie Wanqing recalled it now, just sent chills down her spine.

Was this dream as real as the previous ones?

The sequel to her spitting blood to death?

Xie Wanqing’s heart faintly trembled.

No, in the dream, he clearly liked Liu Manrou, treated her coldly, cruelly, and his whole heart was with Liu Manrou.

He pampered Liu Manrou, took her from being an outside woman to a concubine, finally making her a second wife concubine, trampling the face of her rightful position into the ground.

He even cursed her as a shrew, and knowing she only had two accustomed maidservants, he took in Er Xia and ordered the death of Er Qing.

She was forced to death by him, so how could he grieve excessively because of her death?

No matter how much Xie Wanqing thought about it, the gaze in the dream from Lu Ziyuan was indelibly etched into her mind and could not be forgotten.

When she ended the engagement, Lu Ziyuan had said he only liked her as a young lady.

...Is it possible that everything in the dream was just an illusion?

No, no!

Xie Wanqing sat up again, she had already verified that the dreams were true.

Liu Manrou’s face, her being pregnant, all appeared in the dreams.

People she hadn’t met appeared first in the dreams, isn’t this enough to prove the reality of the dreams?

As for why Lu Ziyuan became like that...