In the second half of the night, Liang Yuzhou, a light sleeper, opened his eyes.
His first reaction was to look at the person in his arms.
After longing for so long when his arms were empty, now seeing Song Wanchu's serene sleeping face and feeling her soft body snuggled against his, he had a sense of regaining what was lost.
Liang Yuzhou lowered his eyes and quietly gazed at Song Wanchu for a while. Greedily, he planted a kiss on her nose.
Then, he got up quietly, dressing himself without making a single sound.
Song Wanchu didn't know he had left in the middle of the night.
The moon was bright and the stars were sparse. The sweltering heat had subsided a lot. Liang Yuzhou stepped out of Shuiyunju briskly.
Zhou Sheng and Zhou Yan were already waiting outside.
"Second Lord, Yu Rongbai has been captured. He's being detained in the backyard of Qingyazhai. My second uncle is guarding him," Zhou Sheng stepped forward to report. Liang Yuzhou pressed his finger to his lips, making a "shh" gesture.
Zhou Sheng quickly pretended to slap his own mouth.
The Second Lord was afraid of waking up the lady!
After leaving the Duke's Mansion and boarding the carriage to Qingyazhai, Zhou Sheng continued to report, "Second Lord, you're really a master of prediction. Yu Rongbai indeed took advantage of the dark and windy night to conduct those shady deals on the black market!
We caught him red - handed with solid evidence. Lord Shi, the Minister of Dali Temple, hates illegal merchants who deal in prohibited drugs the most. Moreover, Yu Rongbai is the eldest son of the late Princess Jialing. This time, he's really making a fool of himself!"
Liang Yuzhou listened, his eyes gradually dimming.
Back then, when his grandfather, the Old King of Cheng, was alive, the Cheng Prince's Mansion was once a place of great splendor. His aunt, Princess Jialing, was the eldest legitimate daughter of his grandfather and could have been given a well - matched marriage by the emperor.
But Princess Jialing fell head over heels in love with Yu Jingnian, a handsome young man, and married him, a seventh - rank official, with a generous dowry.
Yu Jingnian was handsome, elegant, and glib - tongued. It seemed that flattering women was his inborn talent.
According to seniority, Liang Yuzhou should address Yu Jingnian as his uncle - in - law.
But the first time he saw Yu Jingnian, he felt that there was a kind of coquettish and evil aura about him that ordinary men didn't have.
He didn't like this man.
Princess Jialing fell seriously ill and died less than a year after giving birth to Yu Huiyan.
Under Yu Jingnian's "guidance," her son and daughter turned out to be like this: one only knew how to make money by any means, having no bottom - line;
the other was insidious and vicious, using the dirtiest means to deal with her enemies.
One wondered what Princess Jialing would think if she knew in the afterlife that her children had become so unrecognizable.
Yu Rongbai was tied up tightly. From the moment he was captured until Liang Yuzhou entered the backyard of Qingyazhai, he kept cursing.
He stared at Liang Yuzhou with a sinister look in his eyes, like a poisonous snake that had been grabbed by the seven - inch point but still refused to submit and was spitting out its forked tongue to scare the enemy.
"Liang the Second, how dare you arrest me! Do you know whose financial path you're blocking? Be sensible and let me go quickly!"
His blustering appearance was like a drowning dog's last struggle in Liang Yuzhou's eyes.
Of course, he knew who Yu Rongbai was making money for.
Two years ago, Liang Yuzhou intercepted a secret letter from Yu Jingnian to the Princess Dowager and learned about their sordid relationship.
Even Yu Jingnian's marriage to Princess Jialing as a consort couldn't have happened without the Princess Dowager's push behind the scenes.
The Princess Dowager had many male favorites, but none of them were idle. They all had to find ways to make money for her to maintain her extravagant lifestyle.
The Yu family was no exception.
During his tenure as the Minister of the Ministry of Works, Yu Jingnian embezzled 100,000 taels of silver for the river embankment repair project, most of which ended up in the Princess Dowager's pocket.
The river embankment on the outskirts of the capital collapsed, destroying countless commoners' houses, while every road in the Princess Dowager's Mansion was paved with luxurious hexagonal rhombus - patterned bricks made of gold.
The huge profits Yu Rongbai made from selling prohibited drugs on the black market were also all dedicated to the Princess Dowager.
Liang Yuzhou suspected that there was also a sordid relationship between Yu Rongbai and the Princess Dowager.
His eyes were deep and cold. "I'm not interested in anything you said, but Lord Shi, the Minister of Dali Temple, should be very interested."
His powerful and chilling aura made Yu Rongbai shiver.
The last time he was in the prison of Dali Temple, Shi Jinglu, that living Hades, was impervious to soft and hard tactics. He was tortured severely and almost became disabled.
Yu Rongbai still had lingering fears.
As a noble official's son and the son of a princess, how could he be humiliated in such a dark place again?
"Liang the Second, my selling prohibited drugs doesn't hinder you. According to seniority, you should call me cousin. How can you send your own relative to the authorities? Let me go. We can talk things over."
Cold sweat had broken out on his back.
Liang Yuzhou in front of him was as tall and imposing as a mountain. His cold and heavy gaze bore down on him, making him feel suffocated.
Although they were of similar age, Liang Yuzhou had a kind of shrewd and steady air. What was even more infuriating was that he didn't seem to be afraid of the Princess Dowager at all!
Seeing that Liang Yuzhou was unmoved by both soft and hard tactics, Yu Rongbai gradually lost his composure. He bared his teeth and sneered maliciously.
"Liang Yuzhou, you're avenging Song Wanchu, aren't you? The last time I was beaten up after being put in a sack, with three broken ribs and a fractured right foot. It was also your doing, right?"
Liang Yuzhou's tone was calm, but his eyes were as sharp as a sword, filled with a strong warning. "There are some people you can't afford to offend."
"Pah! You're a hypocrite with a double - faced heart!"
Yu Rongbai spat hard at Liang Yuzhou's instep. "How could you treat my sister like this? She's deeply in love with you and determined to marry you, but you chose that slut -"
Before he could finish his words, a flying kick came at him, hitting his chin squarely. His mouth was forced to close forcefully. His upper and lower teeth collided, making a bone - cracking sound. His tongue was severely pinched between his teeth. Yu Rongbai broke out in cold sweat from the pain and groaned, rolling on the ground painfully.
"Watch your mouth! How dare you curse my lady? Do you want to keep your tongue?" Zhou Sheng warned sternly.
He had followed Liang Yuzhou for many years and knew his mind best. When Yu Rongbai said the words "slut," he saw the strong killing intent in Liang Yuzhou's eyes.
That's when he took action.
"Send the man and the evidence to Dali Temple together," Liang Yuzhou disdained to lay a hand on him, thinking it would dirty his hands.
Yu Rongbai, lying prostrate on the ground, trembled like a sieve. It took him a long time to recover. He spat out a mouthful of thick blood mixed with a few teeth.
Like a dying old dog, he gasped heavily, glaring at Liang Yuzhou fiercely with a hideous face like a devil.
Suddenly, he burst out laughing strangely, the muscles on his face twisting and trembling.
"Liang Yuzhou, does Song Wanchu know her father was killed by the Old Lord?"
The air fell silent. Liang Yuzhou's pupils suddenly constricted, and a fierce aura emanated from him.