Remarrying Chun Yuan

Chapter 357 Concealment

When Wei Gongming woke up, it was already evening.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that the walls of the room were covered in somber white, and there were footsteps outside the door, with the smell of incense wafting in from time to time.

Just as he was about to prop himself up and move, a maid saw him.

The maidservant came over and touched his forehead with her hand, then immediately ran outside and shouted loudly, "The young master's fever has gone down! The young master has woken up!"

Li Shu quickly came in from outside.

She was dressed in mourning clothes when she stood at the door.

Wei Gongming looked at her and suddenly realized that, in his apparent confusion, he had killed Guan Shi...

The two stared at each other for a long time before Li Shu took out a set of white mourning clothes and handed them to the maids, saying, "Help the young master change into these."

The maids immediately nodded and stepped forward to help Wei Gongming unbutton his clothes and put mourning clothes on him.

Halfway through dressing up, Wei Gongming pushed the maids away, saying, "I am not worthy." He had personally killed his own mother; how could he be worthy of observing mourning?

Moreover, the crime of matricide is the greatest crime imaginable.

He got out of bed, preparing to go to the imperial court to plead guilty.

Li Shu stood at the door and stopped him, saying, "Young Master, you seem to have lost your mind. Your mother-in-law has passed away unexpectedly, and you should stay home to observe mourning. You can no longer go to the government office to serve."

Wei Gongming looked at her, "You..."

"You all go out. I will dress the young master myself." Li Shu suddenly changed her usual kind expression, and her tone was extremely sharp when she said this.

The maids looked at Wei Gongming. They were the people who served Wei Gongming's daily life and were sent by the Third Prince. Of course, they had to listen to Wei Gongming.

Or perhaps, they never took Li Shu, this lady, seriously.

But things are different today.

The Third Prince had already been banished to the west to observe mourning for Prince Chun. Seeing that the two of them did not move, Li Shu directly summoned the old women outside and said, "Take them out of here. From now on, people like them who have no ears need not serve the young master."

The women immediately nodded in agreement.

Although they were Guan's people, now that Guan is dead, they naturally all listen to Li Shu's orders.

The two maids begged for mercy repeatedly, but it was too late.

The women dragged and pushed the person out, and then closed the door.

Li Shu stepped forward and helped Wei Gongming change into mourning clothes.

"What do you mean?" Wei Gongming asked.

"When your mother-in-law learned that you were seriously ill, she stayed by your bedside and accidentally fell and hit her head on the corner of the table, which led to her death. Your Highness, please do not blame yourself for this."

As Li Shu tied the sash of her clothes, she spoke, "I know that Your Highness is very filial, but an accident is an accident. People can't be brought back to life. Your Highness should look forward and think about the future."

She spoke softly, as if telling a story.

If it weren't for the vivid wound left by the hairpin on her face, Wei Gongming would have thought he had killed Guan Shi in a dream, and that what Li Shu said was the truth.

"Are you really going to deceive others like this? Aren't you afraid?" Wei Gongming said.

“Why should I be afraid? Perhaps the young master didn’t do that to save me, but I am still grateful. Besides, you are the pillar of the Zhenning Marquis’s mansion. If something happens to you, what will happen to the people in the mansion? What will happen to the concubines who are with you?” Li Shu straightened his clothes and took three steps back. “And what about me?”

Her round, delicate face now bears a scar, giving it a sharp and harsh look. She is no longer the soft, easily manipulated person she once was.

Her gentle questions seemed to be an attempt to exonerate Wei Gongming, "Besides, she deserved it, didn't she?"

"..." Wei Gongming was at a loss for words.

"My conscience won't allow it."

He admitted that he had done many things against his moral conscience, but he truly could not forgive himself for killing Guan.

"During the three-year mourning period, the Crown Prince needs to eat vegetarian food and burn paper money. Why not grant him a three-year pardon? That will surely relieve his depression." Li Shu had already planned everything.

In fact, when she saw that Guan was no longer breathing, she felt an indescribable excitement and joy, and she almost laughed out loud.

Wei Gongming fainted and couldn't get up. The maids and servants outside rushed in. She subconsciously hid the truth and only said that her mother-in-law had fallen and died. The prince was so heartbroken when he saw this that he fainted again when he got out of bed to check on her.

She never lies.

Therefore, no one suspected her at all.

Moreover, Wei Gongming was indeed seriously ill, and Guan Shi was indeed dead. As for the hairpin marks on her face, they are easy to explain; she was scratched when she went to help Guan Shi and Wei Gongming.

She even felt that Guan's death was the beginning of her new life. But if Wei Gongming were to have his property confiscated for matricide, her life would be over!

Moreover, Li Shu also realized just how much Wei Gongming hated Guan Shi.

He had always resented his mother.

Without her indulgence, her brother wouldn't have been entangled in a case and sentenced to death, her father wouldn't have fallen seriously ill, and the once secure Marquis's mansion wouldn't have collapsed and lost its foundation.

He worked diligently and tried his best to find a way out for himself, but Guan kept making demands of him, showing extreme greed.

Li Shu firmly believed that if Wei Gongming hadn't been bedridden and delirious, he wouldn't have done something so reckless.

"You can fool some of the time, but not all of the time." Wei Gongming said with a straight face, "I can write you a letter of divorce, and then I won't involve you anymore."

After saying this, he turned to leave.

Li Shu used all her strength to push him back!

"Not implicated? That sounds nice, Your Highness!"

"Even if I divorce you and go home, and you are sentenced to beheading, I will be pointed at and gossiped about for the rest of my life! Those people will definitely scold me for being ungrateful, for marrying a murderer who doesn't love me at all and even killed my mother with his own hands. My father, mother, and brother will also suffer because of me!"

"Wei Gongming, you either kill me now, or you swallow this whole thing and forget about it completely!"

"And what you owe me, why don't you spend the rest of your life paying it back?!"

This was the first time she confronted Wei Gongming directly, instead of resorting to sarcasm.

The wound on her face reopened and bled again.

But she didn't even reach out to wipe it.

Wei Gongming considered for a moment, then raised his hand. "The belt on my clothes is a bit tight. Come and loosen it for me."

Li Shu composed herself before staggering forward to help him put his mourning clothes back on.

Guan's funeral was very simple and hardly anyone paid any attention to it.

Apart from Madam Li sending someone to offer a few words of condolence, the other residences didn't even exchange polite greetings.

First, Guan was not well-liked and had no particularly close friends. Second, the date for the Yan and Chu states to enter the capital of Qi had been set in ten days.

At this time, no one in the capital noticed that someone had died in the Zhenning Marquis's mansion. They were all discussing whether the Great Qi's national strength was still at the bottom after this negotiation, and if it were to be promoted, where would it rank?