“Don’t understand?” Nalan Xuan smiled indulgently, unconcerned. “You will.”
He did not hurry and simply continued telling the story at his own pace.
“If I remember correctly, the Han family had three children altogether: two daughters and one son. Lord Han truly was blessed, with both sons and daughters beneath his knees. He should have enjoyed his later years surrounded by children and grandchildren, yet disaster descended without warning. If I recall correctly, when the family fell, the boy should already have been ten years old—old enough to remember things. The two daughters were fourteen and eight, weren’t they? If the information is correct, the elder daughter had already been betrothed, only to lose her head along with the rest. Counting the years now, if the younger sister were still alive, she should be sixteen.”
Nalan Xuan seemingly glanced by accident at Xiao Qi, whose hands were twisting the bedding while sweat poured from her body. Then he suddenly remarked, “If I’m not mistaken, Noble Concubine Xiao is also sixteen this year, isn’t she? Tsk. What a coincidence.”
As he spoke, he flicked a glance toward Han Ruifeng.
Han Ruifeng, who had been leaning against a bedpost with his head lowered and his expression hidden, suddenly trembled. His entire body went rigid. He jerked his head up, his incredulous gaze moving between Nalan Xuan and Xiao Qi as though something directly before him were cracking apart piece by piece.
Nalan Xuan chose that moment to smile. “Why is Noble Lord Han suddenly so nervous? Surely you don’t think I was talking about you—” He deliberately drew out the final word before shifting his gaze toward Xiao Qi, who lay on the bed in obvious pain but was stubbornly enduring it without a sound. “—and Noble Concubine Xiao?”
The cramps twisting through Xiao Qi’s abdomen were becoming more severe, but she had not yet lost consciousness. She heard every single word exchanged between Nalan Xuan and Han Ruifeng. Precisely because she had missed nothing, her entire body abruptly tensed, and an expression identical to Han Ruifeng’s appeared on her face.
“Tsk. I was only speaking casually, giving an example. The two of you suddenly taking it so seriously makes it difficult for me to continue.” With a smile that was not quite a smile, Nalan Xuan turned his gaze back toward Han Ruifeng. “I was talking about the condemned criminal Han Ke and the children who should have died with him. Noble Lord Han really shouldn’t insert himself into the story and invite unnecessary trouble.”
“Thank you for Your Majesty’s concern. This humble subject has no such thoughts.” Han Ruifeng forced the words out. His tone remained as casual as possible, but the rigid muscles throughout his body were almost spasming and refused to relax.
“On a whim, I once sent people to Jiangnan to investigate. Even when someone is guilty and deserves punishment, there ought to be a beginning and an end to the matter. Convicting someone without even completing an investigation naturally makes people wonder whether something else was hidden beneath the surface. In the end, I didn’t uncover the secret behind the case, but I did find an interesting anecdote.”
“According to the story, shortly before Han Ke’s downfall, his wife had taken their young daughter back to her maternal family for a short visit. That was precisely how they escaped the officials who came to confiscate the Han residence. Unfortunately, mother and daughter were extraordinarily unlucky. Had they remained away a little longer, they might have heard the news and escaped altogether. Instead, by sheer coincidence, they returned at exactly the worst moment. The imperial decree had already been issued, and the officials naturally acted swiftly. Since the fugitives delivered themselves to the door, it saved everyone considerable trouble. There was only a minor difficulty when they tried to arrest them.”
“Lady Han loved her daughter deeply. How could she simply hand the child over to be sent to her death? According to the accounts, the scene was truly horrifying. Although she managed to break through the officials’ encirclement for a time, her own life was already nearing its end. Fortunately, she was rescued by a married couple who happened to be returning home while on leave to visit their relatives. Perhaps it was coincidence, or perhaps Heaven had arranged it. The couple loved each other deeply but had been married for many years without children. As Lady Han lay dying, she entrusted her daughter, who had already fainted from terror, to that couple.”
“Lady Han naturally died of her injuries. The pursuing soldiers eventually caught up, but unfortunately, two people had escaped and only one body was recovered. An imperial order could not be disobeyed. Since matters had already reached that point and there was at least a corpse to present as proof, no one wished to expend the effort searching for one little girl who was barely old enough to understand anything. They simply found the body of a girl of similar age through a nearby government office and used it to make up the count. With that, the matter was closed.”
At this point in the story, Nalan Xuan stopped again. Without revealing that he had noticed anything, he caught the flicker of emotion that crossed Han Ruifeng’s face even though Han stood to one side pretending the story had nothing to do with him. However faint it was, it did not escape Nalan Xuan’s eyes.
Xiao Qi lay on the bed drenched in sweat from the pain. Whether her face had gone white from the cramps or from fear was impossible to say. She stared at Nalan Xuan with wide, terrified eyes, wanting desperately not to hear any more and yet equally desperate to know what came next.
Her heart pounded faster and faster, each beat heavier than the last, as though something that had weighed upon her chest for countless years was finally about to tear its way free.
“Does Noble Lord Han know who that kindhearted couple was?” The more Nalan Xuan spoke, the happier he seemed. The gentle smile spread across his face like that of a friendly older brother next door, and he even thoughtfully tucked the blanket around Xiao Qi. “The minor prefect of a directly administered prefecture from back then has long since risen through the ranks and become a Grand Secretary of the present dynasty. Truly, one court changes with each emperor. A father rises through the honor of his daughter. That official’s surname is Xiao. Xiao. Luo. Tian.”
Nalan Xuan enunciated the name one syllable at a time, each word plucking at Xiao Qi’s already overburdened nerves. The instant the final name left his mouth, she could no longer restrain herself and screamed hysterically, “You’re lying!! That’s impossible! Impossible!!”
She completely forgot the tearing, wrenching cramps in her lower abdomen, her eyes turning red in an instant, because Xiao Luotian was no stranger.
He was her father.
Xiao Qi’s memories began only after the age of eight. She remembered absolutely nothing from before then. She had once asked her father and mother why, but they merely smiled and refused to explain. Only by chance had her mother once hesitantly revealed that Xiao Qi had fallen gravely ill when she was eight. A fever had left her unconscious for several days, and although they had summoned physician after physician, nothing helped. Then, three days later, she suddenly recovered on her own. But afterward, she was left with a lingering effect: forgetfulness. She could run, jump, eat, and drink exactly as before, yet she had forgotten every memory from her earlier life. She still remembered that when she first awakened and saw her mother waiting beside her, the first thing she had asked was, “Who are you?”
She had never paid much attention to those scraps of the past. If the memories were gone, then so be it. Her father was still her father, her mother still her mother. She had seen how deeply they loved her and had treasured it in her heart. No one knew anything about her past. Her father was unwilling to speak of it, and naturally her mother never casually mentioned it either. As time passed, no one cared anymore.
But now, why did an outsider know a secret only the Xiao family knew—that she had once lost her memories? Why did the time and place match so terrifyingly well? Why had this story somehow become connected to her? She was Xiao Qi, Xiao Luotian’s daughter. She was not some surviving child of a condemned criminal, and certainly not—
“You’re talking nonsense! You’re slandering me!! Don’t think that because you’re the empress, you can casually defame an important court official. I am my father’s biological daughter! What right does an outsider like you have to stand here making wild accusations and spouting lies?!” Xiao Qi suddenly lunged toward Nalan Xuan as though she had gone mad, desperately trying to drive him out of her sight. It was as though, if he disappeared from before her eyes, none of this would be real and everything might still somehow be undone.
Leave a Reply