Bab 59: Broken Relationship

Lin Hong stood frozen on the ground, terribly afraid of what had just happened. What would he tell the others when he returned? What excuse would he use to cover this up? His mind was running non-stop thinking of ways to tell people what exactly happened. Alas, when he turned around, his already pale face turned even paler.

"Lin Hong! What did you do?" Lin Tang's face fell. Never did he expect that Lin Hong would push his own brother down the cliff. Although he was aware of the hatred between the two brothers, he never thought that Lin Hong would do such a thing in the presence of so many nobles.

Lin Hong's face became white like sheet. With his hand outstretched in a certain way, it would seem to onlookers that he indeed pushed his brother down that cliff. Not to mention, Lin Kang screamed his brother's name when he fell down.

He thought to himself, 'How come they are here? Weren't their voices so far away to be heard?'

"Father," Lin Hong hesitantly looked at his father, only to see the latter's face was also visibly pale from shock.

The hunt ended earlier and people on the capital were busy talking about the events that happened there. The name of Lin Hong became the biggest joke in the capital. An older brother pushed his own younger brother down the cliff in front of countless nobles. It was next to impossible for that boy to have his name cleared anymore.

Because of the incident, Lin Hong was taken away by the imperial soldiers. No matter how much that boy pleaded to Lin Tang, he didn't even look at the kid. There was simply nothing that Lin Tang could do, as murder and attempted murder is grave offense in the kingdom. Against the law, he didn't have that much power and could only let them take his precious son.

Lin Tang's face was dark when the hunt ended. The emperor stared at him coldly and didn't talk to him at all. Then, Jun Hua, who was still dressed as Jun Min, walked over to him.

"Prime Minister Lin Tang."

"What is it, Young General Jun?" Lin Tang felt that he no longer had any face in front of Jun Min. Previously, he had promised Jun Zhenxian that no harm would happen while Jun Hua stayed in Lin family residence. Now that something like this occurred, how could they still trust in his word?

As he had predicted, Jun Min came to him to talk about the matter.

"I think that I will take my sister away from Lin family residence from now on. Do you have any objection?"

Facing the cold eyes from Jun Hua, Lin Tang could not bear to say no. He felt as if the moment he said no, he would end up dead. The thought truly terrified him that he only nodded his head repeatedly.

"Yes, you can take her back. I think she had learned enough in the residence."

Jun Hua stared at Lin Tang and sneered. "If I found any mishap to her, I won't show you any mercy even if you are the prime minister."

That was a threat! A blatant one at that! But Lin Tang didn't dare to show any objection. The pressure emitted by Jun Hua was not one that he could take lightly. He really felt fear towards the other party. Added with the strength of Jun Hua, there was no guarantee that the emperor would side with him even if he was proven wrong.

As Jun Min walked away, Lin Tang could only hope that Jun Hua won't complain to her brother. It would be the end of him if the little girl were to utter even a word of dissatisfaction.

This was the first time Lin Tang regretted having Jun Hua in the residence. With such a scary brother, no one would have the guts to lay his hand on that girl unless he wanted to court death. Lin Tang certainly still wanted to live for a long time. Because of that, he feared that the worst would happen.

When he turned his gaze towards the other nobles, many of them looked at him with sneer. His reputation as a father had been destroyed. From this point on, every single person in the capital would be talking about his failure in educating his son.

For Lin Tang who cares deeply about his reputation, this was definitely a huge blow. To recover from this setback, it would certainly take him a long time.

"I can't believe that Lin Tang's son actually did that," Yan shook his head. "Didn't he know that he is already the favorite son?"

Soujin narrowed his eyes. "There should be more to the story than that."

"Are you interested in finding it out?"

"No, this is just some child's play. Not worth my time," Soujin said lightly. "Besides, I have already sent some people to investigate."

"…" Yan shook his head again. 'Bro, the words you said are contradicting each other. But this incident is really interesting, what did Lin Hong hope in killing his brother?'

Lin Tang walked home in fury.

"CHUN MAORA!"

Chun Maora had heard about the news on the incidents during the hunting event, but she was still in disbelief over the things she had heard.

"Lin Tang… I…." She stuttered as she was thinking of a response.

SLAP!

"You vicious woman! What did you teach Hong'er?"

Chun Maora cried loudly in front of Lin Tang only to get beaten up by the latter. No matter what Chun Maora did, she wasn't able to appease the anger in Lin Tang.

"What did you teach your son, huh? To think that he would do something like that in broad daylight! Do you want to destroy my family name?"

Lin Tang was highly enraged. His first son was detained, his second son died; now, he didn't have any son left. He could only vent his anger towards his wife.

"It's a mistake! Hong'er won't do something like that!"

"What mistake? I was walking along with the other nobles to hunt when we saw the two kids near the cliff and Hong'er just pushed his own brother down!" Lin Tang yelled before kicking Chun Maora again. He can't believe that his favored son had just crushed his reputation like that. Now what would they say about him?

"Mother!" Lin San wanted to help and ran towards her mother.

SLAP!

"You return to your room! Didn't your mother teach you any manner?" Lin Tang shouted.

Holding her cheeks, Lin San ran away. This was the first time Lin Tang ever raised his hand to Lin San. The girl's eyes were teary red and she began to deeply hate her father for hitting her and her mother like that. Chun Maora was about to plead when Lin Tang hit her again causing her to fall down unconscious.

Because of the ruckus, Lin Yuan didn't dare to come out from their quarter. On the other hand, Jun Hua had escaped to Jun family residence even before the hunt ended because 'Jun Min' requested it from Lin Tang. Lin Tang didn't have any choice and let the girl go.

When Chun Maora was unconscious, Concubine Qi came over to Lin Tang.

"My son… please let me return to my family and mourn for my son."

Lin Tang felt another headache coming. He had never really cared about the woman in front of him. Although the other party had given him a son, he didn't think about caring for her since the boy was born weak. Now that the boy had died, what should he do with the mother?

Lin Tang finally decided to let that woman return to her paternal family. There's no way he could stand seeing the mess on his house. In the end, he locked himself in his room to drink wine until he passed out.

The name of Lin family was tainted because of this incident.