58 Chapter 058 - Li Dong Man Escapes

After sending his men out to bring those people back, the second prince didn't waste time sitting around. He went straight to the Tang residence with lots of presents. Upon reaching the Tang residence, his men report to him that Li Dong Man is currently outside the front door arguing with the guards. The second prince gave the order to not approach the Tang residence until Li Dong Man leaves. Once he left that place, have someone bring him to back to the mansion first!

Li Dong Man indeed left shortly after. He was blocked by a man who he recognized as one of the second prince's guard. The guard told him that his sister is currently at the mansion and the prince wants all her family members there to discuss something.

He thought about it and think that the second prince must want to discuss his sister's pregnancy and possibly marriage. He knew about the pregnancy yesterday from his parents, so he follows the guard back. What he didn't know is that this pregnancy will bring him and his family misfortune. And his parents also didn't tell him everything about the pregnancy and the plan that they had beforehand. Because if he had known about it, then he would have stopped their stupid plan.

He was against his father for sending his sister to seduce the second prince in the first place. He knew what kind of a man the second prince is. But Mei-Ting insisted, and she is very confident in herself that she can get the second prince to like her. And so far, according to Mei-Ting, things are going well for her.

When he got to the mansion, his parents were already there. They are in the same room with Mei-Ting chatting happily.

"Brother, you came." Li Mei Ting happily goes over to her brother and lead him inside.

"Dong Man, where did you go today? I already told you not to go to the Tang residence anymore." Chen Miu is nagging her son as soon as he walks into the room.

"Stop the nagging, today is a happy day. We are finally able to see the second prince, I'm sure our Mei-Ting is going to get married into the royal family now." Li Xiang stops his wife's nagging, he's very happy now right. Things are going smoothly for his plan, soon he will be back to how he was before.

"Father, I'm very nervous right now. Do you think the second prince will marry me as his wangfei?"

"Mei-Ting, your mother and I will negotiate with the second prince. Even if he doesn't marry you as his wangfei, we'll try to force him to at least marry you as a high-rank consort." Once you give birth to a son, you don't have to worry about your position anymore." Li Xiang said.

"But...but, you know it's not possible. I'm not really…."Li Mei Ting wants to spill out her secret, but her brother is there. Li Xiang told her not to let him know about it yet.

"What are you two talking about? Mei-Ting, are you hiding something from me?" Li Dong Man asked. He has a bad feeling right now.

"The…the truth is, I'm not pregnant." Li Mei-Ting said it in a very low voice.

"What! Are you crazy? You dare to lie to the second prince, you don't want to live anymore!" Li Dong Man shouts at his sister.

"Shh…quiet down. You want to let everyone know by being so loud!" Li Xiang warns his son. He knew he will react this way, that's why they didn't let him in their plans.

"That's right, Dong Man. You have to be quiet about it, our plan is almost successful!" Chen Miu says excitingly. She can already see her bright future again!

Li Dong Man can't believe what he is hearing. Is his family all stupid? There's no way this plan will succeed, the second prince will find out about sooner or later. Didn't his father learn his lesson yet? Back then, he was actually against assassinating his uncle. His uncle doesn't have a son and Li Hei Yi was already married. The family head position will eventually fall on him. But his stupid father wants the position for himself and insisted on carrying out his plan. He did succeed and became the head for a few short years. But he eventually lost everything when the secret came out. He's repeating the same mistake right now. But unlike grandfather that will just kick him out, the second prince will really kill them!

"Father, we have to run before the second prince comes back. Your stupid plan won't work. You just trying to get us all killed!" Li Dong Man is so upset at how stupid his family is.

"Calm down, he won't find out. We have already bribed the doctor to lie for us. Hopefully, Mei-Ting will get pregnant soon and give birth to a son. If not, then we can always find a replacement." Li Xiang said it calmly.

"That's right, Dong Man. This is our best chance to get the second prince to marry your sister." Chen Miu said. She hopes her son will understand their actions.

"You people just don't understand! Wake up from your dreams! Even if Mei-Ting is really pregnant, she can only be a mistress. If she gave birth to a son, she might get promoted to be a concubine. I know what you all are thinking, but it's not going to happen the way you think!" Li Dong Man angrily said. He really wants to knock some sense into this stupid family of his!

Unfortunately for him, his family doesn't share his way of thinking. They think he's overreacting and doesn't know how to grab a good chance when there's one. After talking to his family and wasn't able to convince them to leave and give up on this so-called plan of theirs, he plans to escape here by himself. He knows the second prince well since he has known him for a long time. He's not going to trust the words of an unknown doctor. He's most likely going to bring over the mansion doctor or an imperial doctor to check on his sister.

He already warned his family about this, but they said Mei-Tung took a pill that will temporarily cause her to have a pregnancy pulse. Even so, he doesn't want to risk it. He didn't want to die with his delusional family. He tried to leave by telling the guards that he had something to do and will be back a little bit later. But the guards won't let him leave. They said his highness the second prince will be back very soon and wishes to speak to all family members of Miss Li.

Something doesn't sound right here. If the second prince really wants to discuss marriage, shouldn't he talk to his grandfather and not them. Even though Mei-Ting is no longer the main young miss of the Li family, but she is still a member of the Li family. His parents already got kicked out of the Li Family, so there are no benefits in talking to them. He knows the second prince won't do anything that doesn't benefit him.

The more he thinks about it, the more it doesn't seem right to him. He needs to leave here and go into hiding for a few days to see what's going on. If he goes back and let his grandfather know, not only will he not help them, his grandfather might kick him out too. But that's not the main concern because not even the Li family can't stand up to the royal family. So grandfather can't help them even if he wants to and it will only bring trouble back to the Li family.

The best thing to do is to hide for a few days. If nothing happens and he's just overthinking it, then he'll come back out and just make an excuse. But if something really happens, then he needs to run away. After thinking this thought, Li Dong Man uses the excuse to use the bathroom and sneaks out from the servant's back door. The guards didn't expect him to escape since his family is still here, so they didn't keep an eye on him. But when they notice he's missing, it's already too late.

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Inside the room where Mei-Ting and her parents are, they are wondering what takes Ding-Man so long to come back from using the bathroom. But before they can continue their thinking, the second prince is already back to his mansion. He's in a good mood since the marriage proposal went well. Master Tang and his daughter have both agreed to the marriage proposal since he offered the main wangfei position. Of course, the Tang family also understands that the second prince is mostly going be the future emperor. They know what it means for them once the second prince becomes the emperor.

Bam. The door opened and it's the second prince and his guards at the door. He looked inside and didn't see Li Dong Man.

"How come Dong-Man is not here?" The second piece asked the men behind him.

"Your second highness, young master Li went to the bathroom." one of the guards in the back replies respectfully.

"I see. Go bring him back here" As he orders his guards, Mei-Ting already got up and ran toward him. She wanted to grab his arm, but he avoided her touch.

Li Xiang and his wife also got up from their seat to greet him. After greeting the second prince, they then verbally discipline their daughter for not acting properly in front of his highness.

The second prince acts normally and even discuss with them about what they are going to do now that Mei-Ting is pregnant. As they are talking, food and tea were served to them. Everything seems normal and they are talking normally until a guard came back to report that they can't find Li Dong Man anywhere.

"What do you mean that you can find him anywhere?" The second prince eyebrow was furrowed and his voice has turned cold.

"Your second highness, we have searched all the toilets and other areas, but there's no sign of Li Dong Man." The guard replied nervously.

"Your second highness, maybe my brother had something to do and left first. It's okay, I'm sure he'll be back soon." Li Mei-Ting said. She thought that the second prince is not happy because his brother left without saying anything and that's being disrespectful.

The second prince just ignored her, his attitude has suddenly changed. He gave a look to his guards and then left the room. Without warning the guards took out their weapons and pointed toward Li Mei-Ting and her parents.

"What are you people doing! I'm going to be his second highness's wangfei! How dare you people pointed your weapons at us?"Li Mei-Ting shouts.

"That's right! What are you all trying to do? Tell the second prince to come back and talk to us!" Chen Miu also shouts.

"So the second prince never plans to talk to us honestly. Even if he doesn't want to marry Mei-Ting, he didn't have to do this to us. What's he thinking?" Li Xiang tries to sound calm. He is starting to regret not listening to his son.

One of the men walks toward Li Xiang, he's one of the main lead guards. He has an expressionless look on his face.

"Li Xiang, if your daughter knows her place and left when his second highness told her to, then this will not happen today. Without any more words or warning, the men start attacking them.

Li Xiang and his family wouldn't stand still and just let those people attack them, they fought back. As Li Xiang is fighting back, something flashed in his mind. He feels that this is very similar to back then when they tricked Li Hei Yi to come to Li residence and surrounded her. Such irony that this is happening to him right now, he thought. But before long, the Li Xiang and his family have fallen to the ground. Not because they have beaten, but because they have been poisoned! The food and tea they have been served early had poison in it.

Even though they have been poisoned, they didn't die right away since it's a slow acting poison. The men reported back to the second prince and were told not to kill them right away. He will use them as bait to lure out Li Dong Man and then kill them all at the same time. He waited two days and Li Dong Man never showed up, he's getting more impatient by day. And he's also worried that he will go find Tang Wen Yi, so he had people hid around the Tang residence to catch Li Dong Man if he shows up. But he didn't show up over there either. Little did the second prince know, Li Dong Man is actually a lot closer than he thought. He has been hiding not too far from his mansion and has been keeping a watch to see if his parents would come out.

After waiting for almost a week, he got a break. It was a late night and there's a suspicious horse carriage came out and went headed straight for the forest. Li Dong Man had a bad feeling about this as he followed the horse carriage with his martial art's inner force. The carriage stopped at the deep inner part of the forest and stopped there. Two men came out, they each drags a big rough linen bag out of the carriage and throw it onto the ground. The bags have no movement, but Li Dong Man knows there must be someone in there and he has a feeling that he might know who.

The two men dig a shallow grave and buried those two bags. Afterward, they hurriedly to leave and didn't notice that someone was watching them the whole time. After they have left, Li Dong Man came out and starts digging the shallow graves. Even though he had a feeling who it might be, but he still wants to confirm it with his own eyes. When both graves have been dug up, he slowly opens one of the bags. His hands are shaking as he carefully opens the bag, and when he saw the face, his eyes swell up and turned red. Tears are dropping from those red eyes as he hugs the body that's still in the bag, with just the head sticking out. It's his mother, his mother is dead! After a few minutes, he puts down his mother's body and opens the other bag. Once the bag is open and the head appears, it's his father.

The sadness is overwhelmed that he can't think straight anymore. He knew this is what's going happen, but he ran away without them. Just as he's lost in his thought with his guilt, his father's body moved! That slight movement brought his sense back as he looks at his father. His father's eye is half opened and he was also surprised to his son before his death.

"Father! Are you alright? I'll go bring you back to town and look for a doctor!" Li Dong Man said as he tries to take his father out of the bag.

"No...Dong Man. I...I don't ...have much time left. I...should have listened to you…" Li Xiang said in a low voice as he coughs. "Run...run far away, he's not going...to...let you escape…" he coughed some more. The 'he' that Li Xiang is referring to is the second prince.

"Don't talk anymore, save your breath and strength. I'll go get help to save you!"

"No...listen to me...I'm not going to make it. The poison... inside...my body has spread, I….know that...that this is the...end of me."