TGCFNM -Chapter 519 What Exactly Happened?

Princess Rui lifted the curtain and stepped outside. At the city gate, the number of Imperial Guards was steadily increasing, and the situation had already been completely brought under control.

Chu Ling held the arrow in her hand, then passed it back to Wan Xing behind her. “Young Master Wan, can you trace it?”

Wan Xing nodded. “Yes.”

Chu Ling thanked him and followed Princess Rui outside.

At that moment, the city gates suddenly swung open, and an extremely horrific scene appeared before Chu Ling without any warning.

The instant the gates opened, the piled-up mountain of corpses collapsed with a crash. Blood flowed like small streams, splitting into countless thin rivulets that slowly seeped inward, gathering in a depression—only to be washed away by water the next moment.

“Is there no one alive?” Chu Ling asked softly.

Hearing the question, one of Mei Gao’s subordinates shook his head. “We’re not sure. But we can’t go out to check yet. No one knows if there are still ambushes.”

“Someone here is still alive!”

A voice suddenly shouted, and Mei Gao’s subordinate immediately rushed over.

Chu Ling was about to run over as well when Princess Rui grabbed her arm and quietly warned,
“Use your own eyes to see. Don’t just listen to what others say.”

After saying that, Princess Rui got into the carriage that had come to pick her up and left.

Ghost Scholar frowned. “She’s right. It’s better to be cautious.”

Chu Ling quickly made up her mind. When she ran over, she did not speak rashly. Instead, she simply stood behind Mei Gao’s subordinate, listening to the wounded man’s cries.

“Shizi… Shizi forced us to come.”

“You’re soldiers raised outside by Prince Xiao’s heir?” Mei Gao’s subordinate asked with a frown.

“We… we belong to Prince Qi,” the man cried. Tears ran down his face, washing through the blood smeared across it. He looked utterly pitiful.

Mei Gao’s subordinate froze for a moment and pointed around. “These soldiers were secretly raised by Prince Qi? And then mobilized by Prince Xiao’s heir?”

The man nodded repeatedly, crying out for a doctor to treat him—then fainted.

Mei Gao’s subordinate ordered people to carry him away. He also had others check if there were any more survivors and arranged for doctors to treat them. Once they regained consciousness, they would be questioned one by one.

Only after the injured man had been taken away did Chu Ling step forward.

“If it turns out that these are all private soldiers raised by Prince Qi, what will happen?”

“What else could happen?” Mei Gao’s subordinate shook his head lightly. “Prince Qi is dead, and Prince Xiao’s heir is also dead. When accounts are settled later, at most they just won’t be buried in the imperial mausoleum.”

After saying that, he went off to continue his work.

Chu Ling looked at the hellish scene outside and walked forward with steady steps.

Prince Xiao’s heir’s corpse lay at the very front. No one knew how many arrows had struck him. Even his knees had been shot through, forcing them to bend so that he knelt on the ground.

His eyes were wide open, unwilling to close even in death.

Bai Su let out a soft sound of surprise. “The arrows on both sides of his knees are very symmetrical. Looks like they were shot by the same person.”

Chu Ling pursed her lips and glanced over, then looked toward Chu Rou, who was crying and shouting beside him. Chu Rou desperately tried to hold onto Young Master Xiao, desperately trying to wipe the blood from his face, but it was all in vain—because she, too, was dead.

“Look at me! Look at me!” Chu Rou screamed like a madwoman. “I tried so hard to find you, tried so hard to come to your side. How could you abandon me? How could you!”

“He didn’t abandon you.” Chu Ling looked at Chu Rou with sorrowful eyes. “He’s dead… and you’re dead too.”

Chu Rou’s hand froze. Her confused, helpless gaze lingered on Chu Ling’s face for a moment before following her line of sight to the two corpses lying nearby.

She and Zhuque had both died at Young Master Xiao’s feet, blood pooled all over the ground.

“I’m dead… I died again?” Chu Rou murmured blankly. Her fingers brushed lightly across her face, and, unsurprisingly, passed right through it.

Chu Ling looked at her. “Is there anything you want to say to me?”

Chu Rou slowly stood up. She looked at the ghost beside Chu Ling, then her gaze fell on Cui Xi’s face. She seemed dazed for a moment before suddenly realizing something.

“She… is Cui Xi?”

“You know her?” Chu Ling asked in surprise. She had thought the people from the main branch of the family rarely paid attention to their second branch. After all, even after being reborn, Chu Rou had never connected her with the Third Miss of the second branch.

Chu Rou nodded. “Then you are… Third Miss, Chu Ling?”

“You never guessed?” Chu Ling glanced at the surroundings and led Chu Rou to one side, turning their backs to the others behind them.

Chu Rou shook her head. “I never thought of it. Not at all.”

“Why?” Chu Ling asked.

Chu Rou looked at her and said, “You should still remember the first time we met. I saw the golden collar around your neck—it was so beautiful. I had never seen anything so valuable before, so I reached out to take a closer look. But your mother suddenly got angry and even caused a big scene with the main branch.”

Chu Ling nodded. Cui Xi had told her about that.

“After that incident, I never saw you again. I never saw anyone from the second branch again. The old general wouldn’t allow it… Though there was one time when the main branch didn’t have enough people for a banquet, so Cui Xi was temporarily brought over to help. But in less than half an hour, the Second Madam personally came to take her back, completely disregarding my mother’s face.”

When Chu Rou mentioned her mother, she paused slightly, the words sounding somewhat unfamiliar.

Chu Ling said softly, “No wonder you didn’t recognize me.”

“No,” Chu Rou interrupted. “Because I personally saw you, your father, and your mother secretly leaving the Chu family—the three of you together. At that time, I thought the Chu family was already in grave danger, surrounded on all sides. Yet you still managed to leave.”

“You left too,” Chu Ling said.

“I had help from a mysterious person. But speaking of that mysterious person… he was rather strange.”

After dying, Chu Rou seemed to have suddenly become much clearer-minded. Looking back now, she felt as though every step she had taken had been arranged by someone else, and she had merely been a chess piece following their moves.

“I don’t know whether that person was male or female. They wore a ghost mask…” Chu Rou said.

Chu Ling showed an I knew it expression. “It was Chu Yue. Every step you took was arranged by her. You were reborn—but Chu Yue was reborn as well. You should have realized that long ago.”

Chu Rou gave a bitter smile. She looked at her hands with disgust and self-mockery.

“How ridiculous… I’m truly ridiculous. My whole life has been a joke. Every time I felt proud of myself, every time I couldn’t help comparing myself to her… she was probably laughing at me in her heart.”

Chu Ling sighed softly. It was hard not to suspect that Chu Rou’s great reputation in the capital had actually been spread deliberately by Chu Yue. That way, the Chu family would have someone attracting all the attention while she herself could remain hidden in the background, unnoticed.

But at the time, Chu Rou didn’t know that.

She thought that after being reborn, she could live a different life—perhaps even become another Chu Yue.

But she had miscalculated.

All along, she had only been a pawn for Chu Yue to use, and every step she took had been arranged by someone else.

Chu Ling looked at her, hesitating before finally asking, “Actually, there’s a question I’ve been curious about for a long time… I want to know why Chu Yue, in this life, is determined to wipe everyone out. What exactly did she experience in her previous life?”