The next few days after Li Zhan's burial, Li Manor was very silent. A very strange and depressing atmosphere surrounded the whole Li Manor.
The new servants found it a little weird.
Wasn't Li Zhan just a slave?
Her death should not have brought such an effect to the whole Manor.
But the old one knew the reason behind it.
Li Zhan's death was the end of the manor's liveliness.
On the day of the funeral, Li Rui collapsed and had a high fever. The physician was called and he told General Li that it was perhaps because of exhaustion or maybe Miss Li was scared because of today's incident.
General Li denied the physician's claims.
Scared? His daughter?
The words don't match with each other at all.
Li Rui murmured Li Zhan's name in her sleep as her body burnt with a high fever.
It was her emotions that had made her so weak, General Li knew.
Li Hua and Li Mei took care of Li Rui for the whole night. The next day the fever was finally down but Li Rui still needed to rest.
However, as soon as Li Rui opened her eyes she said that she wanted to visit Li Zhan. Li Mei and Li Hua tried to make her understand but she was stubborn.
Yi Jie came and talked to her but Li Rui didn't listen to her mother.
In the end, when General Li returned from the Imperial Court he had to go to his daughter's courtyard first.
He frowned when he stepped inside the room.
Li Rui was standing in front of the window looking towards the tree.
"Rui"
He called her but she didn't turn her head to look at him.
General Li sighed in defeat and went to stand by her side. He also looked towards the tree and said
"You can also Li Zhan from here. Do you want Father to ask the servants to move your bed here?"
The father inside him felt distressed when he looked at his daughter's pale face.
Li Rui didn't respond to him and continued looking outside. General Li frowned. He had also noticed yesterday that she didn't talk to him.
"Rui…"
He kneeled and stretched his hands to pick her up but Li Rui stepped backward to avoid his arms.
General Li was startled when he saw the look in his daughter's eyes. They were blank. The brightness, the mischievousness that he had seen for the past seven years in those eyes was lost.
He found her looking at himself with no emotion on her face.
"Why didn't Father try to save her?"
Her voice was weak and low but audible enough that General Li heard her words.
With a shocked face, General Li stood up and asked in disbelief.
"You think that your maid died because I didn't try to save him."
Li Rui's face didn't change at all as she said her next words.
"Father had taught me that being silent when you see someone committing a sin with your own eyes is also a sin. Hitting Li Zhan to death who was an innocent girl was also a sin. Then why was Father silent yesterday in front of His Majesty?"
General Li was really angry at this moment.
He was also feeling guilty for sacrificing Li Zhan selfishly. But he had no other way. If it was not Li Zhan then it would have been Li Rui.
So he chose to sacrifice Li Zhan. In the end, she had promised him that she would protect his daughter till her last breath.
He had thought that he would make Li Rui understand their situation calmly.
But Li Rui's words made him very furious.
"You think that I was responsible for your maid's death. What about you, Rui?"
Li Rui looked at his father in confusion.
"I have told you not to enter the Imperial Palace. I warned you again and again that that place was very dangerous. But you didn't listen to me. You were stubborn just like you are now. Would all of this have happened if you have listened to your Father?
But no, you have to do what you think is right."
"Actually you're right. I am at fault because I always tried to give my daughter everything she wished for. I ignored when she completed a punishment with the help of her maids. I ignored when she tried to betray me with her cleverness. I am really at fault, Rui."
Li Rui's mouth was parted in shock when she heard her father's words. She really remembered that her father had tried to stop her.
But she just wanted to be a friend to Princess that Princess could never have.
"Rui understands that Rui was at fault. Still, Father could have tried to save her. Father is a General. A minister who is favored by the Emperor."
General Li chuckled humorlessly.
"It is very easy for you to say this. Because you don't know anything. You don't know the truth hidden behind these lies."
The words only confused Li Rui more.
"Then tell me. Tell me the truth."
.
.
.
Half an hour later, General Li exited Li Rui's courtyard. Different from how he used to have a smile on his face in the past whenever he came out of Li Rui's courtyard, this time his face was grim, serious, and a little indifferent.
His eyes were cold.
Inside the room, Li Rui was sitting on the bed shocked by everything her father told her.
Her Clan, Li Clan.
The Emperor wanted to destroy her clan. He wanted to take all the military power from her father.
She couldn't believe this.
The favoritism was just a pretense to hide the malicious intentions.
She lost Li Zhan only to know that she could lose her family, her clan, her everything anytime.
Her father really was not at fault. He was just saving whom he thought was precious to him.
She was angry because she lost whom she thought was her precious.
But could she escape from being blamed for Li Zhan's death by doing all this?
No.
Father was right.
All of this would not have happened if she had not insisted to go to the Imperial Palace.
She was the sole reason that Li Zhan died.
And she would never let herself forget this.