Chapter 142: Hidden Truths

The rewards from the palace were indeed neatly piled up in her room.

There were gold and silver fabrics, as well as jade and agate.

All of them were gifts from Princess Leyang, Shen Zhiyi.

Jiang Xuening returned to her room from outside. The two young maids, Tang’er and Lian’er, hadn’t seen their mistress for a long time. Seeing her return, they noticed she had lost a lot of weight, her complexion was poor, and she looked almost skeletal. They couldn’t help but fuss over her with concern.

They asked questions one after another.

Jiang Xuening didn’t answer any of them. After letting them help her wash up, she didn’t even ask about the recent events in the capital and sent them out, sitting alone in the room.

A bright candle was lit on the desk.

Jiang Xuening stared at the flickering flame for a long time. A drop of candle wax fell down the side of the candle, and she blinked.

All was silent.

She got up and walked to the dressing table. The mirror reflected her unadorned face in the candlelight.

With a soft “pop,” she opened the long-locked jewelry box and pulled out the bottom compartment, which contained a fine Hetian jade bracelet wrapped in a white silk handkerchief.

“Ning Ning, I have a favor to ask. If you return to the mansion and see the eldest girl, please give this to her…”

The sorrowful face of Wan Niang on her deathbed flashed before her eyes again.

She had gripped her hand tightly, her eyes wide with fear that she wouldn’t agree, filled with guilt and pain.

But who was it for?

Jiang Xuening recalled and still couldn’t be sure.

She wished there was even a small part of it meant for her.

But until Wan Niang took her last breath, and the servants from the capital pried her hand away, she never got the answer she wanted.

“Is there nothing left for me…”

She took the bracelet out of the box, turned her back to the candlelight, and looked at it for a long time. Eventually, a tear rolled down her cheek, and a mocking smile appeared on her lips.

Her fingers slowly tightened around the bracelet.

For a moment, she wanted to smash it.

Pretend it never existed.

But as she raised her hand, she felt her own unworthiness and the even more ridiculous sorrow reflected in it…

“Heh.”

So she actually laughed.

In the end, Jiang Xuening threw the bracelet onto the desk, lay back on the bed, but couldn’t fall asleep with her eyes open.

*

The capital was bustling during the New Year.

The lantern festival lasted for three days, with people visiting relatives and shopping in the markets.

Despite the sudden cold weather, the streets were crowded.

Teahouses and taverns were filled with idle gentlemen who usually strolled the streets with their birds or crickets, now sitting and chatting away.

Most of their conversations were trivial.

But this year, something unusual happened.

Lu Xian, having had a frustrating night at Xie Wei’s place, couldn’t sleep well and got up early to check on the silver shares of the Ren family saltworks at the Shuxiang Inn.

It was too early, and the news about the silver shares hadn’t arrived yet.

So he ordered a bowl of tea, sat upstairs, and cracked some melon seeds while listening to the lively chatter downstairs.

“Have you heard?”

“I’ve heard.”

“I’ve heard too.”

“Haha, isn’t this just a case of good fortune for good people!”

“Hey, what are you all talking about so early in the morning?”

“You don’t know?”

“Your words are confusing me. Have I missed something big in the capital recently? Is it about the suppression of the Tianjiao Sect?”

“It’s somewhat related, but not that.”

“What is it then?”

“Hahaha, Master Zhou, you only came to the capital seven or eight years ago, so it’s normal not to know. You all should be kind and not tease him. But this heir Dingfei, it’s unbelievable that he could still be alive and return. Who knows how much suffering and hardship he endured all these years!”

“Poor children buried in the Baita Temple forest…”

Master Zhou, sitting downstairs, became more confused the more he listened and couldn’t help but ask for the whole story.

An older man, with a hint of pride, explained it to him.

Thus, the events surrounding Prince Pingnan’s rebellion were recounted.

Lu Xian listened, finding it to be the usual story.

Prince Pingnan had invaded the capital and the palace but failed to capture the then Crown Prince. He devised a cruel plan, gathering all the children of appropriate age in the capital to identify them. When none were found to be the Crown Prince, he used the children’s lives to force the hidden Empress and Crown Prince to reveal themselves.

There were three hundred children. How could their parents bear to see this?

The city was filled with cries and pleas.

“It was the dead of winter, truly pitiful. The common people knelt in the streets, begging the rebels to spare the children and take them instead. Oh, I remember hearing about it back then, it was heart-wrenching. How could anyone with a heart not feel compassion? But it showed that Prince Pingnan was a beast!

“The Crown Prince, of noble blood, could not be taken hostage.

“If he fell into the rebels’ hands, their plot would succeed, and our Da Qian dynasty would be finished. In such critical times, loyal ministers and generals are reliable.”

Master Zhou was stunned, “Could it be the ‘heir of Dingfei’ you’re talking about?”

“Exactly!

“The young heir was only seven then. His father is the current Duke of the Xiao family, and his mother was the beloved daughter of the old Marquis of Yongyi. He was born into wealth and privilege, a prodigy who was said to have an exceptional memory for everything except learning the qin. The late emperor had already granted him the title of heir, destined to inherit the dukedom. Before the Yongyi Marquis household fell, you heard how impressive the young Marquis Yan was?

“But I say, he was still far behind the heir of Dingfei back then!”

The listeners couldn’t help but be amazed.

Lu Xian, listening upstairs, found it amusing.

The storyteller spoke vividly, as if he had seen it all himself. The story was mostly accurate, except for the part about the qin…

Frowning slightly, he couldn’t help but curse inwardly: Comparing people really is infuriating.

Everyone downstairs perked up their ears.

Even the shopkeeper forgot to use his abacus and looked up.

The storyteller took a sip of tea to moisten his throat before continuing, “Back then, the heir of Dingfei was very much liked by the Empress in the palace. When the incident happened, he was with Lady Yan in the palace, naturally protecting the Crown Prince and the Empress. Otherwise, how could one say that the Xiao and Yan families were loyal and dedicated? At that time, it was the lives of three hundred innocent children on one side and the Crown Prince in danger on the other. The seven-year-old heir Dingfei actually stepped forward and exchanged clothes with the Crown Prince!”

There were many gasps of surprise in the room, as people began to piece things together.

The storyteller continued, “Yes, it was a case of substituting one person for another! The heir of Dingfei had been in the palace since he was young, known by the eunuchs and familiar with palace etiquette. At seven, he was close in age and size to the eight-year-old Crown Prince and very clever. If he pretended to be the Crown Prince and appeared before Prince Pingnan’s rebels, convincing them to release the children, it would be a great deed.”

Someone chimed in, “Prince Pingnan, being so vicious, once he thought he had the Crown Prince, would leave no other survivors. Naturally, he killed them all. When the reinforcements arrived and found the heir of Dingfei was a fake, they killed him in anger. Poor seven-year-old child, not yet grown, met such a tragic end! The Xiao and Yan families searched through the frozen corpses at the palace gates for a long time, finding only the dragon pendant and clothes he wore while pretending to be the Crown Prince. The rest were just broken bodies, unrecognizable…”

“What a tragedy!”

“I heard that for months, the capital was haunted by the cries of children at midnight. It was terrifying. The court eventually collected the bodies and buried them at Baita Temple, erecting steles with their names and having monks chant for forty-nine months to appease their spirits…”

“But now the heir of Dingfei is alive?”

The storyteller, finding it a strange tale, smacked his lips, “Indeed! The news spread throughout the capital this morning. It’s hard to believe such a resurrection! But it makes sense, as Lady Yan said they never found the body. With clothes and a pendant, once the snow melted, the bodies were unrecognizable. All children look similar. It’s said he fell into the hands of the Tianjiao Sect and was saved by Master Xie. Heaven has eyes; such loyal ministers are blessed!”

The common folk believed in “blessings.”

Hearing this, they nodded in agreement, happy for the heir of Dingfei.

Only Lü Xian, sitting upstairs, smiled coldly and interjected, “You seem to know a lot, as if you saw it yourself. Were you working in the palace then?”

The storyteller, not expecting to be challenged, looked up to see it was Lü, the owner of Youhuang Pavilion. He quickly stood up, cupped his hands, and smiled, “I’m just repeating what I heard, entertaining everyone. But you’re right, I heard this from a eunuch who worked in the palace. He fell ill and died shortly after leaving the palace. I owe my fortune to the money he left me.”

This man wasn’t a big figure among the capital’s merchants, as there were many powerful people under the emperor’s feet.

No one expected this connection, and they were surprised.

Some who knew him confirmed he wasn’t lying.

Lü Xian, though a merchant, had once been a Hanlin Academy scholar and secretly did some dirty work for Xie Wei. His mind was complex, unlike the simple man below.

He picked up on the clues.

A eunuch who knew this and was released from the palace would die quickly.

He cracked a melon seed and raised an eyebrow, “If that’s the case, the heir of Dingfei was with his mother, Lady Yan. She should have known and agreed to his sacrifice. But I heard that after the siege was lifted, Lady Yan quarreled with Duke Xiao and returned to her family. The Xiao and Yan families never interacted again?”

The man was stunned.

Others were also shaken: the story had been lively, but this question made it seem strange.

Someone tentatively asked, “Does Master Lu know something?”

Lu Xian rolled his eyes, “If I knew, why would I ask you?”

This seemed so real that everyone felt relieved and thought: matters of the royal family are beyond the knowledge of ordinary people. The only ones to pity are the three hundred innocent children buried in the snow.

*

Early in the morning, the cold sunlight rose from the east, slanting across the line of white marble railings in front of the Huangji Hall.

The ministers had arrived and stood solemnly with their heads bowed.

Emperor Shen Lang, dressed in a black robe with a five-clawed golden dragon and wearing a twelve-stringed crown, sat high on the dragon throne behind the imperial desk, his face somewhat dark and unreadable in the golden hall.

Xie Wei stood among the civil officials on the lower left, wearing a rare, formal and dignified court robe. Compared to his usual Taoist robe, it lacked some of the reclusive and distant aura but still did not diminish his imposing presence, instead adding a bit of sharpness.

Yet it was still measured, just right.

With a slight smile on his face, he looked up at Shen Lang and gently reminded, “Your Majesty, the heir of Dingfei has been waiting outside the hall for a long time.”

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