Not Your Typical Villianess

Chapter 109: Allies or Enemies 4

The Dukes's mansion

On a hot summer night, The watcher man slim man in brown fading clothes walked from street to street, striking his chapters for the second time signalling the start of the second watch which occurs from 9 pm to 10 pm. The watcher man would go about a few watches in the night, as the watcher man moved through the street he announced, "it is summertime when the wind is drier, beware of fires and wear more clothes".

He was on his normal patrol through the Jingu Qinwang's street when he heard the loud sound of multiple horse hops from a close distance. From the junction just opposite Duke Wu's mansion over fifty armed soldiers in full amour rushed out followed by twenty soldiers on horses and five prison carriages.

They surrounded the duke's mansion and with a reinforced wooden battering ram hit the gates of the Duke's mansion and knocked it open with a *THUD**. The foot soldiers rushed in as the gate was forced open, he hid behind a wooden stall at an ally as soon as the Duke's mansion was surrounded and watched silently.

Meanwhile, inside the Duke's mansion, Zhu Fengyin had just finished having her bath and changed into a nightgown when a loud THUD was heard from the direction of the gate. She dropped the hairbrush in her hand and shivered "ah, what is that!"

"I will go find out, what that is" Tian Tian kept the bowl of water in hand by the wall and ran out the front door. 

Zhu Fengyin picked up the hair brushed and placed it by the brass mirror when Tian Tian rushed back inside and shut the door quickly. Zhu Fengyin stood from the sear by the window and ran out of her bedroom to the centre room (*living room).

Leaning by the door leading to the centre room from the bedroom, she asked "What was that noise Tian Tian?"

She had to wait a few seconds for Tian Tian who was still panting from her run while leaning in the wooden door to waste it with her weight to get her breathing in check. When she finally did, she said in a shaky tone "we have trouble, madam. The Emperor sent a small troop of soldiers to arrest the entire Lu Family members!"

"What? This can't be happening" Zhu Fengyin paced around the room the looked down at her clothes and shuddered, "it is only a matter of time before they get here. I need to get dressed" she ran back into the room.

Tian Tian pushed a chair to the door and ran after her. She helped her change into a simple blouse and skirt then braided her hair into a single braid before helping her put on the jacket. As the loud boot sounds got closer, Zhu Fengyin quickly penned a letter to Su Liya. 

She called over the young male servant that delivered her letters to her contact in the capital and handed it over to him with the instruction to escape through the small dog hole in the garden and deliver the letter as soon as possible to her contacts.

She gave him a thick purse for his worries and sent him away. She watched him leave through her open bedroom window, before instructing Tian Tian to push the chair away from the door. The soldiers will be here soon and she was determined to meet them in style. She can not have them accuse the Lu family of disobeying Imperial orders au showing resistance.

Tian Tian pushed the chair out of the way and unlocked the door just as the soldiers rushed into the courtyard with torches. The leader of the soldiers was prepared for resistance from the duchess as expected of women but was surprised to receive none.

Unlike the big ruckus created by the Dowager duchess and the young mistress when they rushed into their courtyard. Zhu Fengyin left peacefully, they didn't even have to drag her out as they did the Young mistress. The door was pushed open as soon as they ran into the courtyard and a beautiful woman in brown and green blouse and brown skirts walked out of the Pavillion. 

She walked gracefully with her head held high, her grace and beauty were enchanting. For the longest time, the soldiers found their eyes trailed on her. They would have suspected that she was tricking them so she could escape but the heavily sweating young maid following her behind discouraged them.

An overzealous soldier grabbed her arm but was rebutted by his commander. The commander gestured ahead and said, "this way your grace".

Zhu Fengyin nodded and followed ahead, she was soon led outside the game to where Lu Yiling and Madam Lu stood surrounded by soldiers. The older woman hugged her weeping daughter close, she looked up as Zhu Fengyin walked out gracefully. Zhu fengyin was led to stand beside Madam Lu and Lu Yiling, she waited until the soldier stepped back before turning to check on them.

"Are you hurt Mother," she asked running her eyes through her mother-in-law before turning to Lu Yiling. "How is Yiling, mother?"

Madam Lu Looked at her and sighed "we are good, Yiling is still in shock, apart from that all is well".

" Good", Zhu Fengyin walked closer and pretending to check in Lu Yiling whispered, "Did they tell you why we were arrested?".

Madam Lu shook her head, she was about to answer but stumbled back when she saw her sins led out in chains. "No!" She whispered. 

Zhu Fengyin turned around to see what had her shocked and covered her mouth with her hand to stop herself from screaming. The moment she screamed her mask of calmness she had on would-be broken. She needed to both look strong and act strong. That was what she needed to get them to safety. 

She needed to be of sound mind to think of a solution but the sight of Lu Yingjie, Lu Yaozhu and Lu Yong being led out in heavy chains nearly broke her.

The Lu brothers were led into the carriage, they didn't seem to have put up a fight because there weren't any injuries on them. While Zhu Fengyin was glad that they hadn't given the Emperor any way of punishing them, she was scared of what was to come.

The soldiers were merciless in their actions, they pushed them forward and forced them into the wooden barred carriage used to transport prisoners. Because of the force Lu Yingjie who was in fr fell forward and hit his forehead on the bars, Zhu Fengyin took a step forward when she saw that. She wanted to rush forward and check on him but was held back by Lu Yiling.

Her mother's gasp had made her draw away from her arms and it was in time to see her elder brothers led out like criminals in long interlocking heavy chains. They didn't seem hurt but she understood how embarrassing it was for them. The noise attracted a few daring onlookers from the residences around their mansion, all of whom were servants.

Which was typical of these spinless noble families, they couldn't come out for fear of being implicated but had no problem sending out their servants to find out what was going on. By morning a lot of distorted stories would be spread by these nosy neighbours. 

Their so-called allies would all deny them, who wants to associate with a family of criminals. This incident though sudden cleared her eyes, she watched as her brothers were roughly pushed into the carriage. She saw her eldest brother fall forward and hit his forehead and her ever proper sister-in-law rush forward as if to catch him.

She immediately held her back and pushed her back. Never in a million years would she ever believe that she would witness her well behaved and perfect sister-in-law lose control. She didn't even believe that her sister-in-law had emotions since she always gave off the cold vibe.

She held Zhu Fengyin tightly until the carriage door was locked then let go of her. Zhu Fengyin didn't make any move to go forward and instead whispered to her, "thanks". She didn't respond a just nodded, she didn't want to speak. She had lost the will to talk and just decided to observe. Lu Yiling looked around and saw that the Emperor had sent almost all his entire elite forces to capture them.

If it was in the last and the entire Lu family and their servants, she wasn't being taken in. She would have found this scene amusing, but this time the joke was lost to her. Did the Emperor fear that they would rebel, if he did, then he was more foolish than she thought. 

Her Lu family was loyal to a fault yet this paranoid old fool saw than as rebels, was this the price of their loyalty. Would centuries of loyalty to the Zhongshan royal family be rewarded with pain?

There was no other way, Lu Yiling could think this would end. She didn't bother struggling as She was led into another barred carriage with her mother and sister-in-law. In the end, struggling wasn't worthwhile.