So, everything stemmed from a HUGE misunderstanding in Shuli's family that never got solved like in the first "current" timeline. The starting point is when her ex-husband died. The said misunderstanding was FULLY exploited by many interested parties, which culminated in the form of several of not-so "coincidences" that followed the event of the eldest son's wedding party, which leads to Shuli's death.
[ul] First of all, There was a rift between her and the children. Shuli was naive and just prodded along the path that her power-hungry in laws prepared, at least at first, especially by officiating the engagement between her eldest son and that girl who is his cousin(forgot the name), earning the bitterness of them both. Shuli's children never exactly hate her, but they also thought that they are an obstacle to Shuli's happiness, so they stay cold in their act. They don't know how to express their 'love' and concerns for Shuli, and the same could be said for her. They just don't have a heart-to-heary talk, and so many things are left unsaid.[/ul]
[ul] Secondly, before the wedding of the eldest son. When the eldest's son marriage ceremony was about to be held, Shuli thought that she was NOT invited, if my memory served right. She thought that the eldest son hated her and didn't want to see her again, so she had long prepared to leave the mansion at the day of ceremony, which would make the eldest son the new marquis. But that was NOT the case, with the children were about to give Shuli a surprise invitation or some sort of that. The eldest son also express this intent to his fiancee, which the fiancee took badly. The fiancee thought that with the existence of Shuli in the eldest son's heart and in the family, she could not fully seize the power as the current marquis wife. So the day before the ceremony, the fiancee meet with Shuli and said that the eldest son does not want to see Shuli at the wedding. Shuli, who once hesitate because she still have that tiny bit of hope to just see the eldest son's wedding, was crushed. She ordered the preparation of her leave to be continued. [/ul]
[ul] Thirdly, the church and their dislike for Shuli.Shuli might ONCE been a naive girl, but as years come to pass, politickings and schemes were beaten into her by experiences. Coupled with her looks that resembles the late Queen, whose the church seemingly hate and might or might not play a hand in her death, Shuli was not well received in the Church's circle.In the earlier chapter, we saw that in the 'current' timeline, Shuli proposed a policy that would cut the Church's opportunity to conduct a corruption of the nation's fund in a grand event. The latest chapter might also indicated that Shuli's actions/schemes might directly clashed or thwarted the Church's ambition. But as they said, keep your friends close and enemies closer. The Church seemingly have planted many agents to spied on Shuli, and one of them got the wind of Shuli's departure preparation. If memory served right, Shuli planned to retired to a villa far away from the capital. She would need to go through woods, and some of the path that she need to take to reach her destination are not that well-guarded.
Although Shuli planned to retire far away, this doesn't means that she would never get in the way of the Church ever again. The higher ups think that it's best to remove her permanently. One of them proposed a bandit attack, to make it looks like an accident. Then, they succeed in killing Shuli.[/ul]
[ul] Last, The aftermath of her death. I'm not sure what the translation said, but it seemed that the eldest son really grieved for Shuli. Coupled with Nora's dogged investigation, who have a crush for Shuli real bad and now held a high position as a knight under the king, in which Nora was ordered to keep a tab of Shuli's action, The Church's scheme was partially exposed. It wasn't really explained that clearly, but it seems that the Church played the innocent card and was forced to sacrifice the person who proposed the idea of bandit attack to appease the public. Shuli's death scandal and the Church's foul play was exposed, Shuli's action behind the scenes, which i speculate might also includes how she proposed several reforms to counter the Church's power-slash-corruption, was brought into the eye of public. Shuli was lauded as a noble saint and the symbol of justice by the masses. [/ul]
That's what happened so far, according to my interpretation and speculations.
[/s]