Chapter 148 She Looks Like She’s Just Sleeping…

Chapter 148 She Looked as Though She Were Asleep...

She looked as though she were asleep, but there was no breath, not the slightest rise and fall in her chest, like a cold stone statue.

"What's wrong? Is someone inside?" Madam Lü and her husband walked in behind, seeing their son and son-in-law standing frozen, and couldn't help but ask.

No one answered her.

Liu Xiangze forced himself to move to the bedside with great difficulty. His trembling fingers reached under Lü Ruhui's nose—not a whisper of breath remained.

Still in denial, he moved his hand down to check the pulse at her neck. When his fingers touched her skin, all he felt was icy rigidity.

Her body was rigid, as hard as stone.

By then, Lü Ruhui's parents had also seen her lying on the bed. Her mother quavered, "What's wrong with Ruhui? Is she sick?"

"Will no one speak?!" Her voice was already breaking with sobs.

Liu Xiangze slowly knelt by the bed. Gently, he lifted the blanket covering Lü Ruhui. Her hands were folded over her abdomen.

He clasped her hand—freezing, lifeless.

Just last night, he had asked why her hands were so cold. Even in winter, they should have been warm. She'd said this year was different.

Why was it different?

Because... the dead have cold hands.

At that moment, Liu Xiangze felt no fear, only his heart hollowed out.

He gazed numbly at Lü Ruhui, who seemed merely asleep. So back then, she had already been gone.

Tears carved silent tracks down his face as he clutched her hand, burying his head in his arms with a choked sob.

Lü Ruhui's mother rushed over then, patting her cheeks and calling, "Ruhui, Ruhui, don't scare your mother like this. Wake up."

Of course, her eyes stayed shut forever.

Her father lurched forward as well, dazed, at his daughter, who looked as if she were sleeping.

"How did this happen?" her mother wept.

Yes, how could this happen?

"Xiangze, tell me she's not dead. If she were, she wouldn't look like this," her mother pleaded, clutching Liu Xiangze's sleeve.

A long moment passed before Liu Xiangze seemed to hear her words.

He couldn't lie to himself into thinking Lü Ruhui was still alive, but he also wanted to know why she was like this.

The incense shopkeeper had said Ruhui was seriously ill—the doctor who treated her would surely know the reason.

Soon, the physician who'd treated Ruhui was summoned.

The doctor was elderly, white-haired and bearded. When he entered and saw the lifeless Lü Ruhui, he let out a heavy sigh.

He remembered this patient; they'd crossed paths months prior. Seeing her now, she had indeed passed away.

Even after witnessing countless deaths, the old doctor still mourned each lost life.

"Doctor, what was wrong with my daughter?" Lü Ruhui's mother begged, clutching at straws.

The physician's brow furrowed slightly at her question. His gaze swept over those present before he asked, "Are you all the Lü family?"

"Yes. Please speak frankly."

The old doctor nodded, but his face hardened. "About two months ago, Madam Lü came to me for treatment. I diagnosed her with petrifying bone disease."

At the mention of the illness, they blanched.

The old doctor continued, "By then, her condition was beyond cure. She wasn't seeking treatment but a painkiller. Common remedies had failed her, so I gave her a family's secret concoction. Judging by her current state, she must have used it."

"Impossible! My sister was never ill!" Lü Ruhui's brother suddenly interjected.

The old doctor barely glanced at him before looking away. Calmly, he said, "Madam Lü must have seen other doctors before me. If you doubt my words, consult them—or even a death examiner. I'll cooperate if you report this to the authorities."

"Spare us your excuses! You knew she was ill, couldn't cure her, and then gave her some dubious 'cure'—you killed her!"

The old doctor's face turned thunderous at the accusation. He looked at the silent figures in the room and said, "Before blaming me, answer this: For months, even my regular patients could tell Madam Lü was unwell just by her sallow complexion. As her brother, how did you fail to notice?"

The old doctor rarely lost his temper with patients' families—unless provoked beyond endurance.

This family had truly tried his patience.

Months had passed, yet none of them had known Madam Lü was dying? It seemed she had passed long since, and they had only just discovered her body!

"No need for further investigation. I'll tell you plainly: Madam Lü consumed lithic extract for pain relief, which turns the body to stone after death. You may report this to the Bright Mirror magistrates and let their officials judge."

Silence filled the room after his words.

His speech didn't just shame Lü Ruhui's brother—it landed like physical blows.

After a brief silence, Lü Ruhui's mother collapsed to the ground, wailing, "How could this happen...?"

Her son rushed to help her up, but she clung to his arm, sobbing incoherently, "Ruhui's gone... your sister's gone... She was ill for so long, how did I not see it?"

Her cries grew frantic until her eyes rolled back, and she fainted. Luckily, her son caught her head in time.

The old doctor quickly stepped forward to administer acupuncture. After a while, he stood and said to Lü Ruhui's brother, "Your mother is simply prostrate with grief. Let her rest on the couch—she'll recover shortly."

Then, turning to Lü Ruhui's father, he added, "If there's nothing else, I must return to my clinic. Should you involve the authorities, they may summon me there."

With that, he strode out wordlessly.

Some people were simply beyond judgment.

The mother's grief was genuine, yet the family's neglect of Madam Lü was equally real.

Only after the old doctor had gone did Lü Ruhui's father finally speak: "Second Son, arrange your sister's funeral."

His son nodded, first carrying his mother to the couch before hurrying out.

Now only Liu Xiangze and Lü Ruhui's father remained in the heavy silence. Facing the son-in-law he had once admired, the father found no words.

He wanted to blame Liu Xiangze for failing his daughter—but the old doctor's words echoed in his ears. As her father, what had he done?

When their daughter fell ill and returned home after the separation, he only cared about losing a good son-in-law and the political connections the Lü family had lost in official circles, never sparing a thought for his daughter's health.

The Lü family acted swiftly. When Lü Ruhui's second brother returned with people, he found his brother-in-law kneeling by his sister's bedside, while their father stood by the table, holding a letter in his hand.

The letter was filled with words, and Lü's father read it over and over again.

It was his daughter's farewell letter, written before her death. It spoke of the rift between her and her younger sister Lü Ruxin, how Lü Ruxin had provoked her, and the truth about how she had been falsely accused by Liu Yuan.

She wrote: *In my last days, I was too exhausted to fight for a useless truth, so I chose separation instead.*

She also wrote: *I don’t know if you’ll believe me, Mother and Father. After all, you’ve always trusted my sister over me. If you don’t believe me, so be it—just treat this as nonsensical talk.*

Lü's father shook uncontrollably as he held the letter. Ruhui’s handwriting—he had taught her himself. Her exquisite calligraphy was beautiful.

Tears blurred his vision, making it almost impossible to read the words.

Lü's father recalled how, when she had returned with lunar new year gifts earlier that year, she hadn’t even been allowed to sit down before he rebuked her.

She had accused Lü Ruxin and Liu Xiangze of inappropriate relations, and he had chastised her for defaming her own sister.

He had never calmly asked her why she wanted a separation, nor had he ever believed a single word his eldest daughter said.

On the twelfth day, when she came to see them, he refused to meet her.

The night before, during the family gathering, she had come but was denied entry. She had said she would never come again.

Now he understood—she had meant she would never return.

Lü's father saw the date at the end of the letter: the third day of the new year.

His daughter had died on a day he didn’t even know, barred from her own home in life and never crossing its threshold again in death.

At that moment when she was turned away, had she been deeply disappointed in this family—in him, her father?

"Father, what’s wrong?" Lü's second brother had never seen his father cry before and was momentarily stunned.

Liu Xiangze remained kneeling by the bed, staring blankly at Lü Ruhui’s body, not turning around.

He had also read the farewell letter. Even as she wrote it, she was still troubled by the unjust accusations Liu Yuan had made against her.

She had never let it go.

Perhaps, even on the day she died, no one had cleared her name.

Why had she sought him out after death?

Knowing her temperament, it must have been because she could find no peace.

And what had he done?

He had apologized, told her the truth, and then said he had decided to give Liu Yuan a chance.

*A chance…*

He had always been so forgiving toward others—only never toward her.

At the time, she had said she accepted his apology and forgave him.

Liu Xiangze let out a mirthless laugh. If she hadn’t forgiven him in life, would she truly forgive him in death?

Just as yesterday, she had told him that if he came to see her today, she would give him an answer.

But now, he would never hear that answer from her lips.

He would never know which of her words to him had been true and which had been false.

When she said she forgave him, had she secretly harbored resentment?

Hated him for being blind and heartless, for his callous indifference.

When she fell ill, he should have noticed immediately. He should have stayed by her bedside until the very end.

Instead, he had left her to die alone here, quarreling with her and uttering cruel words to her in her final moments.

He couldn’t even forgive himself—how could he expect Ruhui to forgive him?

Lü Ruhui’s death went largely unnoticed. Her body was borne back to the Lü family, who set up a funerary altar for her. No relatives or friends were notified to pay their respects; only the Lü family stood vigil.

It was against custom for parents to mourn their child, but this time, Lü's father—who had always upheld propriety—remained before Lü Ruhui’s coffin.

On the last day of the vigil, Lü's father was at his limit. As his son helped him up and he was about to leave the funerary hall, he saw his youngest daughter kneeling inside.

He paused, turned to look at her, and suddenly spoke: "You resent Ruhui for taking your marriage, and you resent me for making you call off the betrothal back then, don’t you?"

Lü Ruxin slowly raised her head. Ever since Lü Ruhui’s body had been brought home, she had sensed the coldness from her parents and brothers. She suspected Lü Ruhui must have said something to their father before she died.

At this point, Lü Ruxin knew she could never compete with a dead woman. She no longer hid her feelings. Rubbing her aching knees, she stood and said to her father, "Shouldn’t I resent her? If not for her, I should have been the one to marry Elder Brother Liu. He liked me back then. Had I married him, we would have been a devoted couple, the envy of all—not like this, made to wed a husband who died young on your advice, now could not even keep my own child."

"So you deliberately sowed discord between your sister and her husband and made us misunderstand her!"

"She was foolish to believe it," Lü Ruxin sneered. "Now that she’s dead, does Father intend to lay all the blame at my feet? Wasn’t it you and Mother who scolded her? Wasn’t it you who turned her away and barred her from the house?"

Lü's father finally lost his temper. Pointing at the door, he bellowed, "Get out!"

Lü Ruxin walked out without a backward glance.

Behind her, her father’s voice rang out: "I’ll pretend I never had this daughter. Never appear before your mother or me again."

Lü Ruxin turned back in disbelief. "Father, Sister died of illness—I didn't cause it! Her suffering wasn’t my fault alone. How can you treat me like this?"

Lü's father ignored her, instructing the servants to throw her and her belongings out of the Lü residence.

Lü's mother looked on in silence but offered no interference.

In life, no one had took her side. Only in death did her parents finally seek justice for her—but it was already too late.

After casting out his youngest daughter, Lü's father felt no sense of relief.

Lü Ruxin had been right about one thing: Ruhui hadn’t been killed by her. They were all to blame.

Lü Ruhui’s body was returned to the Lü family, who refused Liu Xiangze’s request to offer condolences.

Liu Xiangze took three days of leave due to illness and secluded himself in his room for the entire time.

When the house steward of the Liu household saw him after those three days, he was horrified.

"My lord, your hair—" The steward pointed in shock at Liu Xiangze’s hair, which had turned mostly white.

Liu Xiangze ignored him. Dressed in his official robes, he attended court as was his custom.

In the court, the emperor waited for the ministers' reports as usual. When his gaze swept over Liu Xiangze, he sensed something amiss and looked more closely, only to realize that the gaunt, gray-haired man was actually his Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The other courtiers had also noticed Liu Xiangze, but no one dared to speak up during the assembly.

"Lord Liu, is something wrong?" the emperor inquired directly.

Liu Xiangze paused before stepping forward. "Your Majesty... my wife has died."

Seeing his condition, the emperor felt a twinge of sympathy, thinking Liu Xiangze must have been deeply devoted to his wife to grieve so intensely that his hair turned white.

"Very well. Lord Liu, take some time off to rest."

"Thank you for Your Majesty's compassion." Liu Xiangze knelt and kowtowed, moving like a lifeless shell.

After the court session, the emperor went to his study, still thinking about Liu Xiangze. He sent a eunuch to look into it.

Before long, the chief eunuch returned in haste and reported what he'd learned.

"Your Majesty, apparently Lord Liu had already divorced his wife several months ago."

The emperor frowned. "Did Liu Xiangze lie to me?"

The eunuch quickly clarified, "Not quite. The matter wasn't completely Lord Liu's fault. His adopted son framed his wife, and Lord Liu believed the boy's words, leading to constant arguments. In anger, his wife demanded a divorce."

"Then how did she die?"

The eunuch sighed. "She died of illness. In truth, she had been diagnosed with a terminal disease long ago but told no one about it."

"That is indeed regrettable. Still, Liu Xiangze shouldn't have taken it so hard."

"What followed was rather peculiar," the eunuch lowered his voice. "Rumors say the deceased wife came back as a ghost to visit Lord Liu. He later discovered she had been wronged and begged her to reconcile. She told him to come for her the next day, only to find her dead body instead."

The emperor gave the eunuch a sideways look. "Are you jesting with me?"

The eunuch hastily replied, "I'd never joke with Your Majesty. If you doubt it, you can have someone check. The wife's body remains in the Lü residence, turned to stone and hasn't decayed. The entire Lü household knows of her ghostly return. It's said she even said goodbye to her family outside their home during the Lantern Festival."

After listening, the emperor finally understood what happened.

After a moment's thought, he commanded, "Summon Bai Xiuming to the palace."

"As you wish."

About a quarter-hour later, Bai Xiuming arrived at the study.

"Your Majesty." Bai Xiuming bowed respectfully.

The emperor waved off the formalities and said, "Investigate Liu Xiangze's wife. I've heard her corpse remains uncorrupted. Determine if there's anything unusual and whether it poses any threat."

"I obey your command."

Noting Bai Xiuming's solemn expression, the emperor added, "Be careful when you go."

Bai Xiuming smiled faintly. "...Understood."