Terms of the deal (3)

Almost everyone involved in the court was burdened with their thoughts. Whether it was Lin Duyi and his parents who did not know what fate had in store for them, or the previous emperor, Duan Hu, or the Gong clan elder, or their founder, Deng Wei, they may not show it, but each one was plagued with the thoughts of what next.

Whether it was them, or the aggrieved. When the testimonies were done, they would all have to face whatever future today's deliberations had on them. The good, the bad, and the complicated

...

Wu Mingli, without pause, continued with his testimony.

"With almost everyone having already turned on us, turning our home into a ghost town, after the notification of his death, we left. We didn't even get to see his body or give him a proper burial. 

Like bandits, we left in the dead of the night, and after two days we were already at the village where my father was born.