lcionline Chapter 263 She looked at the corpse, but felt no pain in her heart.
Chapter 263 She looked at the corpse, but felt no pain in her heart.
The two held their breath, barely daring to make a sound, and listened intently to the conversation taking place not far away.
"Still haven't found it. You guys, keep searching downstream! We'll take a closer look upstream!" the gruff voice ordered.
The footsteps and voices gradually faded away, as if they had split up and were going their separate ways.
In the reeds, Chu Ruohan's tense body relaxed slightly.
She asked Gu Cheng'an beside her in a low voice, her tone carrying a hint of coldness that was barely perceptible: "These people... are Gu Chengyan's men?"
Gu Cheng'an nodded with a complicated expression.
"Judging from what they said, it should be."
It seems that Gu Chengyan did not jump off the cliff with her on a whim.
He was prepared.
He had anticipated the possibility of an accident and had arranged for people to meet him downstream in advance.
This was entirely a carefully planned scheme by him to escape unscathed.
Chu Ruohan felt an even greater chill in her heart.
"We can't stay here any longer," she decided immediately. "We need to get out of here quickly, or we'll be in trouble if they come back."
Gu Cheng'an nodded immediately, his previous blankness gone, replaced by a hint of wariness.
"Okay. Which way to go?"
Chu Ruohan looked around and determined her direction.
This guy clearly doesn't know the way.
She pointed in the opposite direction from the searchers, a direction that seemed to lead into the deeper, denser forest.
"Go this way."
Meanwhile, above the cliff.
Gu Junze gripped the rough rope and climbed down little by little.
The cliff face was steep and slippery, and loose rocks were constantly being pulled down by the ropes, making a heart-stopping sound.
His palms were chafed raw, and blood seeped out, but he seemed not to feel the pain.
The further down you go, the wider your view becomes.
When Gu Junze saw the winding river flowing at the bottom of the cliff, a faint glimmer of hope suddenly ignited in his otherwise lifeless heart.
water!
If Han'er fell into the water... perhaps she would still have a sliver of hope!
He quickened his descent and soon landed on the soft ground at the bottom of the cliff.
"Search!"
Gu Junze almost roared the order, his voice distorted with excitement and fear.
"Search every inch of the riverbank, upstream and downstream!"
His shadow guards and the soldiers assigned by Guan Cheng immediately sprang into action, launching a thorough search along the riverbank.
Gu Junze also joined the search, his eyes scanning the river surface and every patch of grass and crevice in the rocks along the bank.
Time passed slowly, and everyone's heart was in suspense.
"Sir!"
A soldier suddenly shouted from a short distance downstream, his voice filled with surprise and uncertainty.
Gu Junze's heart skipped a beat, and he rushed over like a madman.
Several soldiers were seen working together to drag something from the turbulent river to the bank.
It was a human-shaped object.
She was wearing... the same dress that Chu Ruohan wore in his memory at the end.
Gu Junze staggered, almost losing his balance.
He watched as the swollen, indistinct "corpse," soaked in water, was dragged ashore. His heart felt as if it were being gripped tightly by an invisible hand, the pain making it hard to breathe.
He approached step by step, his body trembling uncontrollably.
The surrounding soldiers and shadow guards held their breath, not daring to make a sound.
Gu Junze slowly squatted down.
He reached out, his hand trembling, trying to brush away the wet hair covering the "corpse's" face.
That face... resembled Han'er's, yet it looked unfamiliar because of the water.
His fingertips gently stroked the cold, stiff skin of her cheek.
Touch...
Gu Junze abruptly stopped, his eyes suddenly sharpening.
He was figuring it out.
To confirm whether this is indeed a... human skin mask.
Yingqing returned to the capital and happened to run into Song Ruyan and Chu Yueshu, learning that the Chu family had been invited into the palace.
He immediately took Gu Junze's token and requested to see the emperor, but he couldn't even get through the palace gates.
Left with no other choice, he could only take the two of them to find Gu Junze first.
The three of them didn't linger, hurrying through the somewhat oppressive streets of the capital.
They had just reached the city gate when a troop of soldiers slowly approached from the front.
The procession was solemn, their steps heavy.
In the middle of the procession, several soldiers carried a stretcher, which was covered tightly with a white cloth.
The white cloth undulated slightly with the swaying of the body as they walked, and beneath it, the outline of a human figure was faintly visible.
The air seemed to freeze at that moment, and an ominous premonition enveloped my heart.
Ying Qing's gaze sharpened, instantly locking onto the familiar figure at the very front of the group.
He is the heir apparent.
But at this moment, Gu Junze was completely devoid of his former high spirits.
His clothes were stained with mud and bits of grass.
His face was deathly pale, devoid of any color, and his eyes held a bottomless weariness and an indescribable emptiness.
It was as if his soul had been ripped out, leaving only a walking shell.
"Sir!"
Yingqing called out hurriedly, her voice filled with urgency.
Upon hearing the words "Prince," Chu Yueshu's previously dim eyes suddenly lit up, as if a drowning person had spotted a piece of driftwood.
"Brother-in-law!"
She stumbled and ran ahead, her voice trembling with tears and a last glimmer of hope.
"Brother-in-law, you're finally back! Did you find my sister?"
Her voice trembled, filled with worry for her sister's safety.
Before she finished speaking, her gaze passed over Gu Junze and involuntarily settled on the stretcher covered with a white sheet behind him.
The color of the white cloth was so glaring that it made her feel uneasy.
Who could be lying down there...?
A terrifying suspicion, like a cold, venomous snake, instantly seized her heart.
"Sister—!"
A piercing cry shattered the silence of the street, filled with despair and disbelief.
Chu Yueshu's legs went weak and she almost collapsed to the ground, but fortunately Song Ruyan, who was right behind her, caught her.
Her tears flowed like a broken string of pearls, instantly blurring her vision, and her whole body trembled violently.
This sudden blow completely devastated her.
The soldiers and pedestrians around were startled by the pitiful cries and turned to look, making the atmosphere even more somber.
Gu Junze slowly turned his head.
His movements were somewhat stiff, like a rusty machine.
Those once sharp and bright eyes are now veiled in a thick layer of gray, revealing no emotion whatsoever.
He looked at Chu Yueshu, who was crying uncontrollably and almost fainting, and his lips moved, his voice hoarse.
"Is she... really Han'er?"
This seemingly casual question, however, was like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, stirring up a stormy sea.
Yingqing and Song Ruyan were both stunned.
Chu Yueshu suddenly raised her tear-filled face and looked blankly at Gu Junze, seemingly not understanding why he would ask such a question.
She nodded even more forcefully, choking back tears, each word seeming to be squeezed out of her throat.
“It’s my elder sister…it’s my elder sister…”
"Besides my elder sister... who else could it be..."
She assumed that her brother-in-law had witnessed his sister's tragic state and was so grief-stricken that he had asked such a perplexing question.
After all, the person on the stretcher was wearing the same dress that her older sister had worn before she disappeared.
Gu Junze's hand, without his noticing, instinctively covered his chest.
But why...
His heart felt heavy and oppressed, but he didn't feel the pain of losing his lover that he had expected.