My spirit appeared on the road to exile, and I was treated as an ancestor.

Chapter 115 The Troubles Resurface
Seeing that Gu Xingzhao was interested, Xu Shisan didn't even think twice and directly used his family's treasure pavilion to tempt her, after all, this was the first time he had seen her interested in things other than money.

If you can lure someone to your home, then you've practically won them over.

Gu Xingzhao's temples twitched. Just moments ago, he had felt a sense of kinship with Xu Shisan because he might be a descendant of Lu Qing and the others, but now he wanted to grab a slipper and smash it on that grinning face.

She hung up the video call immediately, threw her phone aside, pulled the covers over her head, and went to sleep.

Xu Shisan, on the other end of the line, looked at the phone that had been hung up and sighed deeply.

He stared at his eyes, nose, and mouth on the darkened screen of his phone, completely baffled. He thought, "I'm not bad looking, so why doesn't this woman like me?"

She thought back to her childhood, when she was always surrounded by people trying to please her. Before she met Gu Xingzhao, she had different pretty girls with her every day, and she lived a wonderful life. But now, she had given away a lot of money, yet she was still constantly being rejected.
At this moment, Xu Shisan even forgot that what he wanted was just the jade pendant that Gu Xingzhao wore every day.

Late at night, almost everyone in the exile group, except for those on night watch, had fallen asleep.

The Lu family still left four people on night watch, so they would know immediately if there was any disturbance.

The night wind howled, and two furtive figures crept towards the prisoners from a distance. They stuffed anything of value they saw into their arms. One of them spotted a prisoner's unfinished flatbread and boldly reached out to touch it, only to be caught red-handed by having his wrist grabbed!

"Thief! Stop thief!"

At this sound, the other person immediately tried to run, but was also pinned to the ground.

Du Hangwu woke up with a start and came over with his men to check. He had noticed earlier that they were a group of refugees who had been traveling together. The two children looked to be only about eleven or twelve years old.

Perhaps they were starving and stole things, or perhaps it was at the behest of adults, thinking it would be best if they weren't discovered. If they were, the officials would let it go once they saw that they were just children.

Du Hangwu, however, was not so kind. "He's so young and his hands are already dirty. Let's chop off his hands."

As he spoke, he raised his knife to cut off the hands of the two children.

The adults who had been secretly observing were terrified and scrambled over to beg for mercy, "Sir, spare them! These two children were just starving! Please, sir, spare them!"

One woman even knelt before Du Hangwu, tears streaming down her face, pleading, "I have no other choice, please spare my child's life!"

The sound of kowtowing was particularly loud in the dark and quiet night.

Lu Qing was a light sleeper and was woken up by the noise. He lifted the tent flap and asked his eldest son, who was on night watch, "Why is it so noisy? What's going on?"

Lu Zhou: "I only heard what sounded like a thief. Father, don't worry, let me go and investigate."

Lu Qing thought that with Du Hangwu around, nothing would go wrong, and he wanted to call his son back, but Lu Zhou had already gone far away.

By this time, the prisoners had all woken up, and the refugees had also rushed over, begging the officials to show mercy.

Du Hangwu and his officers were trapped by a group of pleading refugees, while two children were being held by prisoners. Lu Zhou frowned as he looked at the chaotic scene before him.

"Lord Du, my father sent me to inquire if you have encountered any difficulties?"

Du Hangwu was surprised that Lu Qing had been alerted and had even sent someone to inquire. He hurriedly said, "It's just two vagrant children who stole things. It's nothing serious. Please tell Elder Lu that there's no need to worry."

He had originally intended to chop off the hands of the two children. After all, targeting a government-escorted exile convoy was no small matter. If he didn't teach them a lesson, everyone would think they were pushovers who could be bullied by anyone. However, now that Lu Qing had sent someone to inquire, he felt awkward. He was afraid that if he harmed the two children and word got back to Lu Qing, he would be seen as cruel.

Seeing Du Hangwu's predicament, Lu Zhou explained, "Lord Du can handle it himself, there's no need to worry. Father is just curious about what happened, I'm just here to ask."

Du Hangwu breathed a sigh of relief after Lu Zhou left.

However, the refugees stared intently in Lu Zhou's direction, and some boldly speculated, "The 'Old Lu' they're talking about... could it be the exiled Grand Secretary Lu from the capital?"

"Can't you?"

"If it weren't for that Grand Secretary Lu, how could these officials be so respectful to a criminal?"

"I've heard that Grand Secretary Lu is favored by Heaven and has divine assistance!"

Those around gasped, "A god!?"

Someone suggested, "Why don't we go and beg that Minister Lu for some food and drink, or travel expenses? At the very least, we can save the two children. We can't let the officials cut off their hands, can we?"

"But Elder Lu himself is a criminal. Can he really help us?"

The man had already made up his mind. "Did you see how that officer with the knife treated that man? He was practically fawning over him! It shows that even though Grand Secretary Lu has suffered a setback, he's still a force to be reckoned with!"

"Makes sense!"

"Let's go, everyone! Let's go and beg Elder Lu to help us!"

There were many refugees, and Du Hangwu and the others wanted to stop them, but they couldn't actually use their knives to cut these refugees who weren't really causing trouble.

A dozen or so refugees followed them to the Lu family's place. Seeing several tents where only government officials stayed, they became even more convinced that this Grand Secretary Lu was indeed capable!
Even if we can't beg for food, it would be good to beg for a few tents to take back, so that everyone can rest in the wind and rain at night!

Even if you don't use it yourself, you can still sell it; it'll definitely be worth some money.

Having made up their minds, the refugees knelt in a row before the Lu family's tent. The man at the head of the group looked to be in his fifties, dressed in rags, and emaciated. "Please, Elder Lu, save us! Save our two children!"

The others in their group also joined in the crying and pleading, their voices mournful and desolate, "Please, Lord Lu, have mercy and give us some food!"

Seeing this, other refugees from afar gathered around, not even knowing who Grand Secretary Lu was, and joined in the crying and shouting.

Lu Zhou and the others stood guard outside the tent, watching the sudden scene unfold before them. They were flustered and had no idea how to deal with it, their faces showing distress.

Inside the tent, Lu Qing frowned, having overheard the gist of the conversation. He was about to go out and see what was going on when Lu Xingyan stopped him.

"Father, you'd better not go out."

The father and son looked at each other, both knowing that even if they went out, it would only cause them more suffering, and they could not possibly help these refugees.

This is a path we absolutely must not take, otherwise, if we do it once, it will become another. If we can't refuse their pleas today, how will we help even more refugees in the future?
After a struggle within himself, Lu Qing finally sighed, "Fine. Let's wait for the officials to come and drive them away."

This is the first update. The second update will be in an hour or two. Everyone, go to sleep now!
(End of this chapter)