Chapter 94 - The Funeral
Chapter 94 – The Funeral
The Emperor banned General Li's daughter, Li Rui from the Imperial Palace.
Soon the news spread all over the Imperial City. People talked about it. Something like this has never happened before. No one has ever been banned from entering the Imperial Palace, that too, for a particular time period.
But no one has ever tried to harm an Imperial Princess also.
Many assumptions were made.
Why would Miss Li do this?
She must have been jealous of the Princess. After all, Princess Wenling was the most favored princess in the Imperial Palace.
People had thought that Miss Li was lucky to be chosen as a companion of an Imperial Princess. However, she dug a pit for herself and jumped inside it leaving no way to come out.
What a stupid girl!
All in all, this Miss Li has now become a topic of gossip among the people. People could slander her, implicate her and do anything while they talked about her.
——
"Heng, what should we do? She is not ready to leave Li Zhan's hand."
Yi Jie's eyes were red as she looked at her unmoving daughter.
A few steps away from her, Li Rui was sitting on the ground holding Li Zhan's hand. She has not shown any reaction since General Li had told her that Li Zhan is dead. Not even when the Emperor banned her from the Imperial Palace.
"Don't worry. You should go and have some rest. I'll look here."
General Li said to his Wangfei. He didn't like to see her worry about anything.
"How can I sleep leaving my daughter in such a condition?"
General Li sighed as he looked towards Li Rui.
"Master, preparations have been made. The slave can be buried now."
A servant told General Li.
General Li acknowledged his words and told them to start.
The maids had to carry Li Zhan's body to the tomb. But as they were about to pick her body from the ground, they saw Young Miss Li holding Li Zhan's hand.
On seeing the maids' awkward gaze, General Li stepped forward and tried to separate Li Rui from Li Zhan.
"Rui, leave Li Zhan's hand."
However, Li Rui didn't show any reaction and continued holding Li Zhan's hand.
"Rui"
General Li held her hand and separated it from Li Zhan's hand. He had expected Li Rui to resist but she still didn't do anything just continued staring at Li Zhan's face.
For a moment, General Li really felt worried about his daughter.
As the maids picked Li Zhan's body and put it inside the tomb. Li Manor had a separate place for the burial of servants and slaves. The servants raised the tomb from the ground when General Li suddenly heard Li Rui's voice.
"We will not bury Li Zhan there."
A sigh of relief escaped General Li's lips seeing that she finally opened her mouth to say something. Her voice was very hoarse and she seemed to be very exhausted.
He patted Li Rui's head but Li Rui avoided his hand. General Li frowned at her action but said gently
"We will bury Li Zhan wherever you want."
Li Rui didn't say anything but Li Hua and Li Mei knew where she wanted to bury Li Zhan.
They showed the place to the servants and the servants dug a new pit there.
Looking at the tree in front of herself that was not fully grown yet, Li Rui remembered the day when she had planted it with Li Zhan, Li Hua, and Li Mei.
That day, she had enjoyed so much with them. When she was covered in mud, Li Zhan had cleaned her before her mother could see her and scold.
All the memories of Li Zhan rushed into her mind and she felt her heart very stuffy.
The first time when she had met Li Zhan. The memory of that day was still clear.
That day, she had sneaked out of the manor alone. She had found Li Zhan screaming in the street under an ugly man.
The man was beating Li Zhan, Li Rui had thought.
She was very angry when she saw that so she hit that man with stones using her catapult.
When the man ran away, Li Zhan was huddled in a corner; sobbing and crying endlessly.
Li Rui had to hold Li Zhan's hand at that time and bought her from the sellers with the ten tales of gold that she had saved for so many years.
So the plan to run away from the Li Manor had just been canceled like that. Because with no money, she didn't have any courage to go anywhere especially when there was one more person with her.
Coming back to the Li Manor, when her father had found out that Li Zhan was a slave she had bought; he didn't oppose and let Li Zhan stay in the Li Manor.
The first time she had seen Li Zhan's laughing was when Li Mei had fallen because of her own stupidity. At that time, she had laughed at the same time she was crying.
When Li Rui asked her the reason she told her that her younger sister was also stupid like Li Mei.
After that, she never saw Li Zhan crying.
She was sensible. She would reprimand Li Hua, Li Mei, and sometimes even her if she did something wrong.
She always cared for others.
It still felt surreal that she wouldn't be able to hear Li Zhan's voice again as she called her 'Young Miss.'
The servants picked the tomb and put it inside the pit.
The pit was being filled and the tomb started to disappear beneath the sand.
The whole Li family stood there attending Li Zhan's funeral.
Yi Junjie was standing in a corner. His gaze was fixed on Li Rui.
"Rui"
So he was the first to run when he saw Li Rui falling down on the floor with others following him.
"Young Miss"
'Li Zhan, do you regret meeting your Young Miss?
Because if you haven't met Rui, then you would be alive today. Laughing somewhere with someone else.'