A short while later, Madam Zheng came to.
Ling Lihua released her hand, stepped back, and observed the sick woman.
Madam Zheng opened her eyes slowly, only to be greeted by the sight of Ling Lihua.
When she recognized the person standing in front of her, her pupils dilated. “A, a ghost…”
As she had not spoken for a long time, her voice was hoarse and unpleasant to the ears, like the creaking of broken bellows.
Ling Lihua curled her lip and looked at her coldly. “That’s right. I’m a ghost, and I’ve come to claim your life…”
Madam Zheng shrank back in terror. “Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me. Back then, I only came back out of the blue because someone told me to, I never wanted to hurt you…”
Ling Lihua frowned. “Who told you to?”
Lu Liangwei hurriedly added, “Hurry up and tell us, and we might cure you of the poison.”
“It was… Ugh!” Madam Zheng’s eyes suddenly bulged and, the next instant, thick and black blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Ling Lihua’s expression changed. “Damn, it’s a sneak attack.” In a flash, she sent a throwing dagger whizzing through the air.
The sharp dagger shot straight out the window and streaked outward.
Shluk!
The sound was very faint, but Ling Lihua still caught it.
She darted out without hesitating.
However, the assailant had already escaped.
She lowered her head and observed the pool of blood left on the ground next to the window, her brow furrowing.
“Mother, Madam Zheng’s stopped breathing,” came Lu Liangwei’s voice from inside the house.
She rushed back to see that Madam Zheng had collapsed. Sticking out of her back was a sharp sword that had directly penetrated her heart.
The sword had pierced through the window and right through the middle of Madam Zheng’s back.
Lu Liangwei found the incident very unfortunate. Madam Zheng had been so close to revealing the truth, but she never imagined that there would be an assailant hiding silently outside. While she and her mother were focusing on Madam Zheng, the assailant seized the opportunity to pierce her with a sharp blade.
When Madam Zheng saw her mother just now, she cowered in fear and pressed her back right against the window, which gave the assailant an opportunity.
Although Madam Zheng’s death was not worth their sympathy, it was tantamount to burying the truth.
Raising her head to look at Ling Lihua, she explained her speculations. “Mother, even though Madam Zheng didn’t get to reveal the culprit in time, she told us that she appeared out of nowhere all those years ago because someone told her to. Maybe Dad didn’t betray you, and… Lu Yunshuang’s not his child. Maybe all of this was just a plot to separate you and Dad.”
Ling Lihua was bewildered, but she suddenly thought of something and quickly refuted her theory. “Impossible. If there was really nothing between your dad and Madam Zheng, why didn’t he deny it? There must have been something, or else, given your dad’s personality, he’d never admit to it. That said, Madam Zheng’s sudden return may have really been instigated by someone else. But who’d want to separate your father and me? It doesn’t make sense.”
Lu Liangwei frowned. “Madam Zheng’s the only one who knows the truth, but now that she’s dead, we have no way of finding it out. Unless…”
“Unless we find the culprit behind all this,” Ling Lihua said, finishing her sentence.
Lu Liangwei nodded. “That assailant just now must have been sent by the culprit to silence Madam Zheng. But we don’t even know who the assailant is, so how can we find them?”
Ling Lihua suddenly remembered something, and her eyes narrowed. “Back then, I wanted to leave the Grand Duke Mansion as soon as possible, but the moment I left the city borders, I encountered a group of assassins who tried to kill me. I fended them off their attacks, but they still forced me to a cliff in the end.”