Chapter 37: Brother And Sister

Dark clouds obscured the moon, and the air was filled with the oppressive feeling of an impending storm. Jinyun Villa had turned into a sea of fire. Tongues of flame burst out of windows, licking the ridges of the villa’s roofs. Thick smoke, carrying black ash, danced wildly in the air, dyeing half of the night sky a terrifying red.

A lone rider arrived, reporting, “I have sent someone to the nearest garrison post with all haste. If all goes well, reinforcements should arrive within half an hour.”

Zhao Yan strapped on the dagger left by her brother, feeling the heat of the flames even while sitting inside the carriage. She furrowed her brow and said, “The fire is too fierce. We can’t wait for them to arrive.”

She drew back the carriage curtain and looked at the dark forest behind the villa, pondering: If Zhao Yuanyu wanted to ensure the destruction of the evidence, he must have left accomplices hidden in the dark.

After a moment of contemplation, Zhao Yan hung the dagger from her waist and instructed the lone rider who was commanding the crowd, “Split our people into two teams. Half should go and fight the fire, ensuring it doesn’t spread to the villages and countryside. The other half should search the back mountain. Anyone suspicious they encounter should be captured and questioned.”

Having met the Crown Prince a few times, Magistrate He was aware of “his” stay at Yuquan Palace for recuperation. So, as soon as Zhao Yan got off the carriage, Magistrate He handed the dirty and tear-streaked child in his arms to a servant, tears streaming down his face as he was about to kneel, “Disturbing His Highness’s peace, I…”

Zhao Yan quickly supported him, signaling him not to overdo it.

She looked around at the twenty or so crying children and girls who had been rescued from the safety area that had been cleared. “Have all the people been rescued?”

Magistrate He replied, “A few young ones are still trapped in the fire. Minister Cen and the others are doing their best to rescue them.”

Before he could finish speaking, there was a loud bang from the main house of the villa. The burnt beams collapsed, and a man, his clothes on fire and his hair singed, rushed out of the flames, holding two toddlers tightly in his arms.

People exclaimed and rushed forward to extinguish the fire and rescue the children.

Cen Meng’s face was covered in black soot, his lips cracked, his clothes riddled with burns. His exposed arms and back were covered in blisters from the burns.

He didn’t have time to take a sip of water to moisten his throat; he rushed anxiously towards the group of girls who had escaped death, using his rough and burnt hands to wipe away the black soot from their faces, identifying each one by one.

Cen Meng suddenly stood up, his eyes bloodshot, his hoarse voice emitting a nearly desperate roar, “Has anyone seen my sister? Her name is Cen Yu, fourteen years old, wearing a crimson dress with a small silver lock around her neck, tall and thin, about to my jaw… Has anyone seen her?”

The last sentence turned into a broken sigh.

The three- or four-year-old children could only cry, and the girls who had been imprisoned for so long were physically and mentally damaged. Finally, a slightly clearer-minded girl wiped away her tears and weakly said, “When we escaped, Sister Yu was still in the prison cell…”

Cen Meng looked back, and as the buildings collapsed one by one in the blaze, the scorching heat hit his dead blackened and cracked face. He never thought that he had risked his life to save so many people, but he had failed to save his own sister.

“Why… she loves martial arts the most, doesn’t she? Wasn’t she going to be a heroine?”

Cen Meng muttered absentmindedly, turning around and rushing into the fire, but was firmly held back by fellow officials.

The scene was chaotic, with not only Jinyun Villa burning, but also the evidence and hope that Zhao Yan had been tracking for so long. Her eyes reflected the raging flames, and suddenly a thought occurred to her.

“This villa isn’t large, so it’s inevitable that so many children being held captive here would cry day and night. How did they manage to keep it silent?”

The lone rider also thought of this, immediately turning to investigate, and soon had results.

“Your Highness, they indeed saw a woman entering the backyard study, and then she disappeared out of thin air.”

The lone rider lowered his voice, pressing his sword hilt, “The girls were scared, thinking those women were mountain demons who ate people, appearing and disappearing without a trace.”

Compared to the tragic scenes in the courtyard and front yard, the backyard was much quieter. The study had already burned down to a charred skeleton, presumably the first place to catch fire. Zhao Yan speculated that Zhao Yuanyu was in such a hurry to burn down this house, precisely because this place was particularly important to him.

Sure enough, the lone rider ordered the burnt wood to be cleared away. After ensuring there was no risk of burns, he carefully felt around and found an inconspicuous groove behind a bookshelf.

With a click, the mechanism operated, and the charred floor tiles rumbled open, revealing a deep, dark passage. 

In the hidden and spacious alchemy room, the alchemy furnace was still burning fiercely, hot air mixed with choking smoke pouring in from the ventilation openings.

Sweating profusely, Zhao Yuanyu came back and forth, hastily grabbing the half-finished pills on the desk, his face showing madness, “My medicine must be taken away, must be taken away!”

Bottles fell to the ground, and the black and red pills scattered all over. He crawled on the ground like a dog, picking them up.

Servants tried to pull him away, urging anxiously, “It’s too late to care about medicine at this point. If we don’t leave now, it’ll be too late!”

Zhao Yuanyu tightly grasped the half-bottle of medicine, muttering madly about the “supreme secret medicine.”

A private seal fell from his waist to the ground, unnoticed by anyone. In less than half a stick of incense’s time, Zhao Yan waved away the smoke drifting near her nose and stepped into the alchemy room.

In the corner, there was a lotus platform, with thin iron chains scattered all over it, used to bind children. Zhao Yan looked at the dark red bloodstains on the iron chains, feeling an inexplicable anger burning from her heart to her cheeks.

Of the nearly one hundred missing children and girls, less than thirty percent survived to be rescued.

Zhao Yan clenched her fingers and glanced at the scattered medicine prescriptions on the table, instructing the lone rider, “Collect all the evidence.”

To her surprise, Cen Meng stumbled in, trembling as he picked up the iron chains.

“Brother?”

A weak voice came from the corner.

Cen Meng, looking defeated, suddenly came to life and stood up abruptly, looking around, “Yu? Is that you, Yu?”

“It’s me, brother!” This time, the girl’s voice contained suppressed tears.

The voice came from the adjacent room. Zhao Yan signaled for the guards to push open the stone door, revealing a small pool of water. Two girls, one big and one small, were huddled together in knee-deep water, using it to resist the penetrating heat.

The elder girl wore a crimson dress. From her fair face and expensive attire, it was clear she was the sister Cen Meng cherished so much. The younger girl wore rough clothes, had injured legs, and her freckled face was filled with fear. She was none other than the flower seller by Yunxiao Bridge a few days ago.

Seeing that they were still alive, Zhao Yan breathed a sigh of relief and sent two guards to help with the rescue.

Cen Meng jumped directly into the pool and carried his sister out, placing her in a relatively safe and ventilated spot in the secret room. He used the faint light from a torch to inspect his sister, ensuring she was uninjured, then sternly scolded her, “I told you not to run around, but you didn’t listen! You keep talking about righteousness and heroism every day, but you couldn’t even escape from a cell! If you had listened to your brother and stayed obediently at home, you wouldn’t have nearly lost your life!”

Some people are like this, tough on the outside but soft-hearted. When they are apart, they worry about each other, but when they meet, they are stubborn and can’t say a kind word.

Cen Yu was still young and didn’t understand that some love was hidden beneath strictness.

She was stunned by her brother’s hoarse reprimand and stood dumbfounded for a while. Tears welled up in her watery eyes as she felt wronged. “If Brother finds me troublesome, you don’t have to come to save me.”

“You!” Cen Meng was frustrated and angry, raising his voice, “Do you know how much effort was put into saving you? Just for your momentary caprice, even His Highness the Crown Prince was alarmed to take action personally! If you weren’t my sister, I wouldn’t have bothered about you!”

Upon hearing that the handsome and beautiful young man in front of her was the Crown Prince, Cen Yu felt both embarrassed and uncomfortable. She pushed Cen Meng away, saying, “Who cares if you bother about me!”

Zhao Yan was taken aback.

Through the haze of memories, she seemed to see another girl in the embarrassed Cen Yu.

Zhao Yan timely grabbed Cen Yu’s sleeve, stopping her from saying hurtful words impulsively.

“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

Zhao Yan’s gaze seemed to penetrate heavy memories as she gently advised the flushed-faced girl, “Otherwise, you’ll regret it.”

Cen Yu was stunned. For some reason, she saw a similar hint of sadness in the eyes of this overly handsome young prince.

Hadn’t the Crown Prince ever quarreled with his family?

Did they make up afterwards?

“Don’t blame sister Yu, Your Grace.”

Liu Xiaomei limped forward, dragging her injured leg, and revealed the truth crisply, “Those people wanted to burn us to death. It was sister Yu, who is agile, who opened the iron door and let us out. Everyone else ran away, but my leg was injured… sister Yu came back to the fire to save me and brought me here to safety.”

Cen Meng panted, looking somewhat dazed at his sister.

He could even imagine his spoiled sister running against the fleeing crowd under the raging flames, that bright and brave figure.

Cen Meng raised his hand high, and Cen Yu’s eyes flickered, but she stood tall with her head held high. Yet that rough, burnt hand only gently landed beside her cheek, wiping away the dirt and grime.

“It’s brother’s fault.”

Cen Meng hoarsely said, “Yu did well. The Cen family is proud of you.”

“Brother…”

Cen Yu, who had been holding back tears for a long time, finally burst into tears and threw herself into her brother’s arms.

Watching the siblings embrace and weep at the entrance, Zhao Yan’s eyes were filled with a jealousy she hadn’t even noticed herself. In this world, there was no longer a slender but tolerant chest for her to rely on. Being able to reconcile the Cen siblings was, for her, a kind of solace.

“Have you collected all the evidence?”

Seeing Gu Xing nod, Zhao Yan whispered, “We shouldn’t stay here for long…”

As she spoke, she caught sight of a figure lurking in the corner and couldn’t help but be startled. It was a young, cold-looking woman, who appeared silently like a ghost, holding a copper pellet the size of an egg in her hand, standing in the shadows.

“Your Highness, be careful.”

Gu Xing immediately drew his sword and led the guards to protect Zhao Yan behind him.

Cen Yu obviously recognized the woman, suddenly widened her eyes, and shouted, “Stop her! She’s trying to blow up the alchemy furnace!”

With that, she rushed towards the woman without regard for her own safety, attempting to stop her with her own body.

“Don’t move!” Zhao Yan grabbed Cen Yu and pushed her towards the entrance.

Almost simultaneously, the woman threw the copper pellet into the blazing alchemy furnace, raised her right hand in front of her, and muttered, “Shenguang descends, immeasurable immortal master!”

The furnace exploded with a loud bang, debris flying everywhere, causing the ground to shake.

Instinctively, Zhao Yan moved to take cover inside, but the tremendous force threw her to the ground. She was promptly surrounded and protected by Gu Xing and the others. The collapsed beams and pillars of the secret room caused dust and debris to rain down from above. It took nearly a cup of tea’s time for everything to slowly settle down.

“Your Highness, are you okay? Any injuries?”

Gu Xing picked up a fallen torch from the ground and asked in a deep voice.

Brushing off the heavy dust from her body and supporting her ringing head, Zhao Yan replied, “I’m fine, and you?”

Gu Xing had suffered some minor injuries on his arm, and the other four guards were also somewhat disheveled. The rest of the team was scattered with them, trapped on the other side of the secret room.

The collapsed boulder blocked the way out, and despite their attempts to move it by shoulder, axe, and chisel, it remained immovable.

“Your Highness, are you inside?” From the other side of the rock, came Cen Meng’s voice, as thin as a mosquito’s.

“We’re all here!” Gu Xing shouted back, “What about you?”

“We’re all fine.”

Cen Meng’s hoarse voice almost broke, “Don’t worry, Your Highness, we’ll go and get help to rescue you!”

However, with such a large boulder blocking the way, who knew how long it would take to move it. In the cramped darkness, with only one torch left for illumination, it was so quiet that one could hear their own heartbeat.

“There’s wind.”

Gu Xing stared at the flame on the torch, his determined voice echoing in the cramped space, evoking a glimmer of hope.

Zhao Yan remembered the mysterious woman who had appeared out of nowhere…

People couldn’t possibly emerge from the ground. Recalling how she had infiltrated the secret chamber of the villa following the craftsman’s blueprint, she immediately understood, “There must be another exit. Quickly, find it!”

Gu Xing persistently felt the wall with the torch, then paused, covering a slightly raised rock with his hand and twisting it hard.

After a few hoarse cracking sounds, the wall behind Zhao Yan opened. However, the explosion from the alchemy furnace had damaged the mechanism, causing the stone door to only open a little over a foot before getting stuck.

Zhao Yan, being petite, easily squeezed through, but the guards weren’t as lucky.

Gu Xing removed his armor and managed to squeeze out with two other guards, but the remaining two guards were too bulky to pass through even after exhaling and holding their breath. They had no choice but to give up and wait for reinforcements to arrive.

The secret passage was narrow, winding, and seemingly endless. In the dim light of the torch, a faint glimmer could be seen reflecting off an object ahead.

“Hold on a moment.” Zhao Yan raised her hand, her gaze slightly focused.

She gestured for the guards to bring the torch closer, and when she clearly saw the silhouette of the object, her pupils suddenly contracted. It was a piece of exceptionally crafted lotus-patterned jade pendant, identical to the one Zhao Yan had once worn.

At the end of the summer in the seventeenth year of Tianyou, that damp and painful memory surged up again, accompanied by a piercing scream.

“Who cares about your gifts!”

With a sudden flick of her sleeve, the exquisite sandalwood box with inlaid mother-of-pearl fell onto the lotus-patterned jade pendant at Zhao Yan’s waist with a clatter.

As the pendant fell, a faint crack appeared on the lotus-patterned jade pendant around the young man’s waist. In the dim light, Zhao Yan saw that the lotus-patterned jade pendant she had picked up also had a similar crack on the upper left corner.

And now, beneath this incredibly familiar lotus-patterned jade pendant, hung a small private seal, engraved with the style name of the young Prince Yong!

Why would Zhao Yan’s jade pendant be in Zhao Yuanyu’s hands!

Dispersing the fog, her suspicions gradually took shape. Zhao Yan’s eyes flashed, and she tightly clenched the jade pendant.

This time, she knew she had come to the right place.

Was it dropped by Zhao Yuanyu in his hurried escape? If so, then the suspect who killed her brother was right in front of her. With these thoughts in mind, Zhao Yan pursed her lips, raised her eyes, and looked towards the dark depths of the secret passage, exuding a calm and cold demeanor.

…

Sparks danced in the wind, resembling countless fire-flies in the night sky, but before they could reach out and touch them, they turned into ashes and scattered.

At the entrance of the secret chamber, Wen Renlin stood amidst the scorched earth, his crimson robe fluttering, as magnificent as blood.

He leaned down to look at the woman who had been half-blown to death, and asked gently, “Tell me, where is the Prince?”

The woman’s mouth and nose were bleeding, and she was forced to kneel by the guards of the Su Prince’s Mansion, intermittently sneering, “He traced… to the secret chamber of the alchemy room, obstructing… the great work of the immortal master, he was blown to death early on…”

Knowing that Zhao Yan was in the secret chamber, Wen Renlin nodded slightly and said, “Thank you.”

As he spoke these words, he still wore an elegant smile, but in the next moment, a cold light flashed, and the woman widened her eyes and fell straight down. Until the moment of her death, she hadn’t seen how the man in front of her, who looked like a deity, moved his hands.

Wen Renlin didn’t bother to wipe the smell of death from his hands. As he stood up, the smile in his eyes faded, replaced by a dark chill.

He looked at the collapsed wall and said only two sentences, “In two quarters of an hour, break it open.”

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