Lu Ying and his son were both well-read scholars. When had they ever seen anything like this?
Lu Ying was the first to recover. He immediately went to the door and called out, "What master has come to visit? Please show yourself!"
But the only answer was the rustle of bamboo leaves in the night wind.
Just then, Lu Jingcheng hurried to the corridor pillar, untied the letter from the knife's hilt, and handed it to his father.
Lu Ying took one look at it, and his expression changed abruptly.
When he had finished reading, he handed the letter to Lu Jingcheng. "You read it too."
Lu Jingcheng took the letter and read it, and his expression changed as well.
"A traitor to the nation, a true traitor!" Lu Jingcheng trembled all over with rage, feeling hot blood rush straight to his head.
He had studied the books of the sages since childhood and harbored ambitions of serving his country. Thus, he hated nothing more than shameless wretches who, with the nation in peril, cared only for their own interests and would even sell out their country for glory!
But once the fury passed, an enormous question arose in his mind.
Who had obtained such a confidential letter, and why had they sent it to his home?
In the space of a lightning flash, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.
Several months ago, on a late night just like this one, an anonymous letter had suddenly appeared in his study, sparing the Lu Family an immense humiliation.
The method was remarkably similar to tonight's!
"Father." Lu Jingcheng took a deep breath and voiced his suspicion. "Do you think... the person who sent this letter and the one who exposed what Lin Yan did last time could be the same person?"
Lu Ying shuddered, finding his son's guess quite reasonable.
But this was no time to dwell on it. Lu Ying's gaze sharpened, and his earlier dejection vanished.
"Whoever it was, that no longer matters. What matters is that, now we know of this, there is no reason for us to stand by and do nothing!"
With that, he strode into the inner room and began putting on his official robes.
He knew full well that the stakes were high, and not a single moment could be wasted.
That old fox Lin Hong was cunning beyond measure. Once he realized the news had leaked, heaven knew what other complications might arise.
They had to strike him dead with one blow before he could react!
At midnight, in the Hall of Mental Cultivation in the imperial palace.
The hall was brightly lit, and incense smoke curled through the air, yet neither could dispel the oppressive atmosphere within.
Emperor Yang Zhao reclined on the dragon throne, his face haggard and his eyes bloodshot.
The bad news of recent days had long since left the pampered Son of Heaven physically and mentally exhausted.
When he heard that Lu Ying, vice minister of personnel, sought an audience late at night, claiming to have a matter of extreme urgency, irritation rose in his heart.
But after he finished reading the letter Lu Ying presented, all his irritation vanished, replaced by a deathly stillness.
Yang Zhao did not roar or curse. He simply sat quietly on the cold dragon throne, his whole body like a lifeless statue.
No one knew how much time passed, so long that Lu Ying's knees began to go numb, before Yang Zhao's voice finally came.
"Minister Lu, how did you obtain this letter?"
Lu Ying dared conceal nothing and recounted the whole affair of the letter delivered by throwing knife.
When he finished, he summoned his courage and kowtowed again. "Your Majesty, the Lin Family has the wild ambitions of wolves, and the evidence of their crimes is irrefutable! This is no small matter. Please make a decision soon, Your Majesty, or if that old villain Lin Hong learns of it, unforeseen trouble may arise!"
Yang Zhao's gaze slowly shifted from the letter to Lu Ying.
At that moment, his heart was filled with endless fury and sorrow.
He was furious that, with the nation in peril, the noble family he had relied upon as his own limbs had secretly been plotting to sell out their sovereign for glory.
He was saddened that this was only what had come to light; beneath the surface, who knew how many more families like the Lin Family lurked!
He felt a sense of helplessness unlike any he had known before.
But he soon forced himself to rally and said in a deep voice, "Convey my written order. Mobilize the Imperial Guard to search and confiscate the Lin estate tonight! Seize everyone involved, men and women, young and old alike, and throw them into the imperial prison!"
He picked up a command token from the imperial desk and tossed it in front of Lu Ying.
"Lu Ying, I appoint you the officer in charge of this operation. Supervise it in my stead. You must wipe them out in one sweep before the Lin Family can react!"
"Your servant obeys!"
Lu Ying picked up the token, feeling it weigh as heavily as a thousand jun.
Before long, a grim, murderous air quietly spread through the capital beneath the night sky.
Rank after rank of elite soldiers clad in black armor and bearing sharp blades filed out of the imperial city. They were the Son of Heaven's private troops-the Imperial Guard.
Under Lu Ying's command, the Imperial Guard quickly sealed off every street surrounding the Lin estate, cutting off any possibility of escape.
Then, at Lu Ying's command, the thunderous sound of a battering ram striking the gate erupted!
Boom!
The vermilion gates of the Lin estate, symbols of a century of glory, crashed down under the impact of the great timber.
Imperial Guard soldiers, fierce as wolves and tigers, swarmed inside. Shouts of battle, screams, and cries tore through the Lin Family's dreams in an instant.
The household servants and guards were still asleep when they were swiftly subdued and pinned to the ground.
Lin Hong, head of the Lin Family, was startled awake by the tremendous commotion. He threw on an outer robe and rushed out of his bedroom, only to see the terrifying sight of a large force of Imperial Guards breaking into the estate.
Then he saw Lu Ying standing at the very front of the crowd.
"Vice Minister Lu!" Lin Hong's face turned deathly pale, but he still forced himself to maintain the dignity of a great family's head as he demanded sternly:
"What is the meaning of this? My Lin Family is a noble house that helped found the dynasty. How dare you bring troops into my estate in the dead of night? What are you trying to do? Are you planning a rebellion?"
Faced with his questioning, Lu Ying gave a faint, cold smile.
"Patriarch Lin, I imagine you know better than anyone why I've come." He slowly walked forward, looking at Lin Hong as though he were a dead man.
"To tell you the truth, this is His Majesty's decree. Otherwise, how do you think a mere vice minister like me could mobilize the Imperial Guard?"
"His Majesty's decree..."
Those words shattered the last shred of hope in Lin Hong's heart.
He knew it was all over!
Just then, a disheveled young man was roughly dragged over by two soldiers, a clear handprint on his face. It was Lin Rui, the young master of the Lin Family.
He had only just gone to bed with a pretty maid in his arms when he was dragged out from under the covers.
"Father, they hit me! Make them let me go!" The moment Lin Rui saw his father, he cried out in panic, utterly unaware that disaster was upon him.
But Lin Hong had no attention to spare for him now. He stared fixedly at Lu Ying and squeezed out a few words through clenched teeth. "Lu Ying, I truly can't understand. How did you... find out?"
"You'll find out when the time comes," Lu Ying said blandly.
Before his voice had faded, the women from the rear courtyard were all brought over under guard as well.
The third young lady, Lin Yan, was naturally among them.
Even now, however, she had no idea of the danger she was in. She screamed arrogantly at the soldiers escorting her, "You pack of dog servants, let me go! Once my father has explained everything to His Majesty, he'll have every one of you cut to pieces!"
The answer she received was an exceptionally loud slap.
Smack!
An Imperial Guard officer withdrew his hand without a trace of expression and said coldly, "Noisy!"