Transmigrated into the Scumbag Ex-Wife of the Prime Minister - Chapter 110.1

New Year’s Eve, every household was decorated with lanterns and colored streamers, and families gathered for reunion.

Lu Zheng was still in her confinement period after childbirth, so the Lu family all came to the county town to celebrate the New Year.

Qi Nan originally planned to stay for a while after dinner and then go find Liu Yun to keep her company while they “guarded the year” (stayed up on New Year’s Eve).

But just after finishing the reunion dinner, her eyelid twitched severely, and a sudden sense of unease surged in her heart.

Qi Nan found an excuse to leave Lu Zheng’s house early and started running as soon as she stepped out the door.

The closer she got to the wine shop, the more anxious Qi Nan became.

And upon seeing the half-open small gate to the backyard, her entire heart leaped out of her chest.

Half an hour earlier.

A person’s New Year’s Eve dinner was simple and eaten quickly.

Liu Yun finished washing the dishes and was about to go back to her room to rest when she heard a “crack,” like the sound of a roof tile falling.

There were families nearby who kept cats, and the cats were often mischievous, climbing onto the roof to cause trouble.

To be safe, Liu Yun still grabbed the kitchen knife and looked outside.

The courtyard was empty, except for a red lantern hanging on the tree, which Qi Nan had put up in the afternoon.

Qi Nan had wanted to invite her to the Lu family for the New Year’s Eve dinner, but Liu Yun refused.

Qi Nan was Lu Hualin’s apprentice and could bring her sister and niece, but Liu Yun had no relation to the Lu family, so she felt it would be inappropriate to join their reunion dinner.

Liu Yun put down the knife, wiped her hands, and walked out of the kitchen.

Halfway there, she saw a dark shadow on the ground by the wall of the east wing move slightly. Liu Yun was startled, turned, and ran toward the small gate.

A low, muffled curse came from behind her.

Frantically pulling back the door bolt, Liu Yun’s hair was yanked back hard by a strong force.

“Damn you, stinky bitch, you react fast.” The vicious male voice was mixed with a blast of alcohol fumes.

“Lu Qiang?!” Liu Yun exclaimed in shock.

Lu Qiang was the eldest son of Lu Yu’s second uncle, a year older than Lu Yu’s older brother, Lu Feng. He wasn’t tall but was very strong.

Liu Yun hadn’t spoken many words to him when she was in Lu’er Village and couldn’t figure out why Lu Qiang would be looking for her now.

Lu Qiang grabbed her hair and slammed her onto the ground. Liu Yun was small and thin, and the throw left her sprawled on the ground.

“Big Brother Lu, what are you doing?” Liu Yun endured the pain and tried to get up, but the impact had hit her right knee, making it impossible for her to stand.

She looked up and questioned him with a challenging expression, “I have no grudge against you, why do you hurt me?”

“You loose woman, you’re all the same.” Lu Qiang’s face was flushed, and his eyes were cloudy, clearly intoxicated. His face was filled with loathing and hatred. “You’re all good at hooking up with men.”

“Big Brother Lu, have you mistaken me for someone else?” Hearing his words, Liu Yun seemed to find a clue.

The Lu family was poor, and Huang Shi (Lu Yu’s mother) was notoriously difficult to deal with. Lu Qiang was older than Lu Feng but married six months later than him. The money for his marriage was obtained by Huang Shi extorting two acres of fertile land from the Lu family after the death of Lu Yu’s mother and son.

Lu Qiang’s wife was decent-looking. Liu Yun heard that she had been a maid in someone’s residence and was later married off to Lu Qiang by her parents.

Liu Yun was not familiar with her, only occasionally seeing her chatting and laughing with the men in the village.

Liu Yun guessed that the person Lu Qiang was cursing was his wife, but Liu Yun had heard that his wife had passed away in the first month of this year.

Before Liu Yun could say anything more, Lu Qiang staggered over. He grabbed Liu Yun’s hand and leaned in close.

“Sleazy… bitch…”

The heavy smell of alcohol mixed with a sickening stench rushed toward Liu Yun’s face. She tried to break free, but her hand was tightly constrained by Lu Qiang, and her knee was too painful to move.

“Bitch, you just flirt all day long.” Lu Qiang continued to curse.

An overwhelming fear instantly drowned Liu Yun, reminding her of the despair of the day she was ‘caught in adultery,’ but this time, Liu Yun didn’t give up resisting. She managed to pull her left hand free from Lu Qiang’s grip, grabbed a handful of dirt, and threw it at him.

Dust blinded Lu Qiang, causing him to release her and stagger back two steps.

Liu Yun quickly propped herself up and managed to stand.

“Bitch, I’m going to kill…”

Lu Qiang swung his arm, about to grab her, when the back of his neck was hit hard.

Before he could turn around, Lu Qiang’s neck received two more heavy blows. In an instant, he fell heavily to the ground. In the shadows behind him was Qi Nan, holding a carrying pole.

Seeing him collapse, Qi Nan rushed to Liu Yun’s side, anxiously looking her over.

“Are you okay? Did he do anything to you?”

Liu Yun’s clothes were a bit messy but fully intact, which finally eased Qi Nan’s restless heart slightly.

“N-no, nothing.” Liu Yun reached out and gripped Qi Nan’s wrist, her entire body trembling with fear.

Noticing that Liu Yun was lightly balancing on her left foot and that the pants over her right knee had a large patch of dirt, Qi Nan frowned and quickly asked, “Did you hurt your right leg?”

“It’s nothing, I just fell.” Liu Yun ignored the injury on her leg, glanced at Lu Qiang on the ground, and urged, “Go call the authorities quickly!”

More concerned with treating Lu Qiang, Qi Nan was more focused on Liu Yun’s injury. “I’ll take you to the clinic first.”

She was about to help Liu Yun up, but Liu Yun shook her head. “Go call the authorities first, don’t let him run away.”

The reminder made Qi Nan realize that if they went to the clinic and Lu Qiang woke up and escaped, reporting it later wouldn’t help capture him.

But leaving Liu Yun alone with this despicable person in the courtyard was not something Qi Nan was comfortable with.

She thought for a moment, went back to the kitchen to grab a rope, and directly tied up Lu Qiang’s hands and feet.

“I’ll take you to the clinic first, and then go report him.”

“Okay,” Liu Yun nodded.

Qi Nan walked to her side and helped Liu Yun walk two steps, but this was too slow.

“How about I carry you to the clinic?” Qi Nan asked hesitantly.

Before, when she had no other feelings, Qi Nan would have carried people without any reservations. Now that her feelings were different, she was a little nervous and timid.

She was afraid of being too forward with Liu Yun and leaving a bad impression.

Walking like this was indeed slow. Liu Yun was anxious to send Lu Qiang to the authorities sooner, so she nodded and agreed, “Okay.”

She didn’t feel much at first, but when Liu Yun’s hands wrapped around Qi Nan’s neck, she noticed that the action of Qi Nan carrying her was a little too intimate.

As Qi Nan straightened up, Liu Yun also straightened her back, pulling away slightly from Qi Nan’s back, and placing her hands separately on Qi Nan’s shoulders.

Qi Nan was tall, and her back was exceptionally broad. The feeling of being half-slumped against her made Liu Yun feel a long-lost sense of security.

This feeling had been absent since her father passed away.

Her father died, her mother remarried, her stepfather disliked her, she was sold to the Lu family, lived relying on Lu Yu, was driven out of Lu’er Village, and lived a constantly anxious life with Lu Yu.

Roughly recalling all this, Liu Yun felt she had never truly been at peace for over a decade.

Even during those few years in Lu’er Village, Liu Yun was constantly being excluded and slandered by Huang Shi, who also frequently took advantage of her, while she worried about the harvest in the fields, toiling just to have enough to eat.

And at this very moment, she experienced a feeling of security.

Qi Nan’s steps were quick and steady. The candlelight flickering through the window frames cast warm and gentle shadows on Qi Nan’s profile.

Liu Yun’s gaze softened slowly, and she leaned forward slightly, resting gently against Qi Nan’s back.

Sensing the movement behind her, Qi Nan asked, “Sister Yun, is your leg very painful?”

“Yes.”

Liu Yun had always thought she wasn’t afraid of pain, but when Qi Nan asked, the ache in her knee did seem to intensify.

“We’ll be there soon,” Qi Nan quickened her pace.

The clinic wasn’t far, and with Qi Nan’s speed, Liu Yun felt they arrived in the blink of an eye.

The moment she stepped into the clinic, Liu Yun saw Qi Nan’s completely red earlobes and suddenly found it very amusing.

Perhaps because she had been raised by her, Lu Yu’s affection for her had always been direct, without any cover-up, and rarely with shyness.

Although they were similar in age, Qi Nan’s affection was mostly cautious, accompanied by a pleasing shyness.

Qi Nan gently set her down and, without looking at Liu Yun much, immediately went to find a doctor to examine her leg.

Watching Qi Nan’s retreating figure, Liu Yun thought that if Qi Nan ever truly expressed her feelings, she would accept her.

The winter clothes were thick, and Liu Yun’s knee was not broken, but it was badly bruised and swollen.

After settling Liu Yun, Qi Nan rushed out of the clinic. She didn’t go directly to the county office to report the crime but went to Scholar Street to find Zhuo Yu.

Firstly, it was New Year’s Eve, and it was unlikely that officials would be willing to handle a case. Secondly, she was afraid of blowing the matter up and attracting gossip for Liu Yun.

Lu Qiang breaking into Liu Yun’s courtyard in the middle of the night to commit an indecent act, regardless of whether he succeeded or not, would become fodder for others’ discussions.

After learning the full story, Zhuo Yu immediately arrested the man and took him to the county jail. He initially sentenced him to thirty planks for trespassing and then instructed the jailer not to leak the news.

Based on Lu Qiang’s crime, he could be sent to serve time in the Maocounty mine. Zhuo Yu planned to send him away immediately after the trial the next day, preventing the Lu family from causing trouble and making the matter known to everyone.

Unexpectedly, when Lu Qiang appeared in court the next day, he was so terrified that he not only confessed to the crime of trespassing and attempted indecent assault but also confessed under torture to the murder of his wife in the first month of the previous year.

Lu Qiang’s wife had an affair behind his back. After Lu Qiang discovered it, he suffocated her with a quilt and then dumped her in the river, faking a drowning.

The body was stuck under the arch of a stone bridge until it decomposed before being discovered. The coroner was unable to verify the actual cause of death, so the prefecture office concluded the case as an accidental drowning.

With the murder of his wife brought to light, the trespassing became insignificant. Lu Qiang’s verdict was sent directly to the Qingzhou Prefecture Office. Once reviewed and approved, he would pay for his life.

New Year’s Eve, Hai Shi (9 PM to 11 PM).

Qi Nan carried Liu Yun back to the wine shop backyard and then busied herself fetching water for Liu Yun to wash up.

Before today, Liu Yun would have avoided troubling Qi Nan once they returned. But sitting on the bed now, watching the busy figure before her, she felt an unparalleled sense of peace.

Qi Nan wrung out the wet cloth and walked to the bed. Subconsciously, she reached out to wipe Liu Yun’s face, but Liu Yun dodged, took the cloth from her hand, and smiled, “I hurt my leg, not my hand. Why would I need you to wipe my face?”

“I was being silly, Sister Yun, please don’t mind.” Qi Nan scratched her head awkwardly, also realizing that her recent action had been a little too intimate.

“Mhm,” Liu Yun lightly replied while wiping her face.

After Liu Yun finished washing up, Qi Nan showed no intention of leaving.

“Qi Nan,…”

“Sister Yun,…”

They spoke at the same time and stopped simultaneously.

“You go first,” Liu Yun said.

“Sister Yun, are you scared? How about I stay here tonight to keep you company?” Qi Nan asked with a genuine expression.

If Qi Nan were just her close female friend, this question would be completely normal. But knowing Qi Nan’s feelings, her words carried another layer of meaning.

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