Chapter 104
Fan Changyu heard the entire conversation clearly from inside the tent. She had indeed been carrying a stomach full of questions about her parents and wanted to ask He Jingyuan about them. She immediately said, “Please ask the brother outside to wait a moment. I’ll change into something presentable and come right over.”
As she searched for a clean robe, another issue suddenly occurred to her. When she had come down from the battlefield that day, her military uniform had been stained beyond recognition. While she was unconscious, who had changed her clothes?
And now both her hands were wrapped up like this. Even if she found a robe, she couldn’t put it on herself.
Just as Fan Changyu was frowning, another voice came from outside the tent.
“Changyu, is it convenient for Aunt Zhao to come in?”
Recognizing Aunt Zhao’s voice, Fan Changyu was both surprised and delighted.
“Aunt Zhao, please come in.”
After lifting the curtain and entering, Aunt Zhao picked up the robe and helped Fan Changyu put it on.
“I heard a general has summoned you. Xiao Wu asked me to come help you change.”
Fan Changyu said, “Xiao Wu is quite thoughtful.”
Then she asked, “When did you arrive in the army, Aunt Zhao?”
Aunt Zhao sighed.
“Xiao Wu brought me here two days ago. Child, you nearly scared me to death. Your clothes were soaked in blood. Fortunately, you didn’t suffer any major injuries. If anything had happened to you, what would Ningniang have done?”
It seemed that the clothes she had been wearing while unconscious had also been changed by Aunt Zhao.
But Fan Changyu remembered that the injuries Xie Wu had suffered on the battlefield were no lighter than her own. Could he really have run home that same day to fetch Aunt Zhao?
A trace of confusion appeared in her eyes.
“Xiao Wu wasn’t injured?”
After helping her put on the outer robe, Aunt Zhao was fastening her waist sash.
“How would I know that? But during the two days you were unconscious, Xiao Wu stayed in your tent the entire time. I was afraid he’d exhaust himself and told him to go rest, but I couldn’t chase him away no matter what.”
When the topic came up, Aunt Zhao raised her head. A strange expression appeared on her face as she looked at Fan Changyu.
“He followed you through life and death on the battlefield. Changyu… could it be that Xiao Wu has developed other feelings for you?”
She seemed to get a headache all at once.
“Xiao Wu is a good child, but you already have Yanzheng. Maybe I should arrange a marriage for Xiao Wu later?”
Fan Changyu knew that both Xie Wu and Xie Qi were Xie Zheng’s men. Their loyalty to her was simply because they were following Xie Zheng’s orders.
Helplessly, she said, “Aunt Zhao, don’t imagine things. It’s not what you think.”
Still, hearing that Xie Wu had watched over her for two straight days made her feel rather strange.
After changing clothes, she left the tent and went to see He Jingyuan.
As her personal guard, Xie Wu accompanied her to the command tent, but he could only wait outside and was not allowed to enter.
The messenger who had brought Fan Changyu there spoke with the guards at the entrance. One of the guards went inside to report something before finally allowing Fan Changyu to enter alone.
The moment she lifted the tent flap, a strong medicinal scent greeted her.
Remembering the etiquette she had learned in the army, she kept her eyes lowered and clasped her fists.
“This subordinate, Fan Changyu, greets Your Excellency.”
Having served as an official in Jizhou for many years, He Jingyuan was called “Your Excellency” more often than not, whether by the common people or the generals under his command.
To be honest, he was simply too refined and gentle. He resembled a civil official more than a military commander.
A noticeably weak voice came from the bed.
“No need for formalities… cough, cough, cough…”
Before He Jingyuan could finish speaking, he doubled over and began coughing violently.
Fan Changyu hesitated briefly, then stepped forward and used her heavily bandaged hands to pat his back.
“Your Excellency, should I summon the military physician?”
Standing closer now, she finally dared to quietly observe the veteran general.
He seemed to have lost a great deal of weight. His cheeks were hollow, and his complexion was poor. His hair, once mostly black with only a few silver strands, was now half black and half white.
He had aged dramatically.
Only then did Fan Changyu realize how serious his condition truly was.
After coughing for a long time, He Jingyuan finally suppressed the itch in his throat.
When he leaned back against the pillow, he needed several breaths before recovering.
Unfortunately, the arrow wound on his chest had reopened from the violent coughing. A patch of blood the size of a fingernail spread across his snow-white undergarment.
He waved weakly.
“The injury damaged my lungs. The coughing has been particularly severe these past two days.”
Noticing both of Fan Changyu’s hands wrapped in bandages, he asked,
“How are your injuries?”
Fan Changyu replied, “Only these two hands can really be considered serious injuries.”
Hearing that, He Jingyuan laughed.
Unfortunately, the laughter quickly turned into another fit of coughing, though this one was less severe.
Once he recovered, he said with satisfaction,
“The younger generation truly surpasses the old. Prince Changxin was a renowned figure throughout Great Yin. Trading those injuries on your hands for his life was worth it no matter how you look at it.”
What surfaced in Fan Changyu’s mind, however, was the image of that scar-faced man shooting Prince Changxin with an arrow before galloping over to rescue her.
She remembered the strength with which he had pulled her onto his horse.
She remembered that familiar scent.
Without the additional arrow he fired, even if Prince Changxin had ultimately died from the wound she inflicted, she herself would have run out of strength and failed to hold onto his sword. She would have died beneath it.
Yet Xiao Wu insisted Xie Zheng had never been in Chongzhou.
Fan Changyu felt there were only two possibilities.
Either she had truly been delirious and remembered incorrectly.
Or Xiao Wu had lied to her.
And the only person who could make Xiao Wu lie to her was Xie Zheng.
The moment she realized this, her heart skipped violently.
She wanted nothing more than to return immediately and force Xiao Wu to tell her where Xie Zheng was.
But He Jingyuan was still here, so she suppressed the urge.
Given Xie Zheng’s current status, it wasn’t convenient to expose him. Fan Changyu therefore didn’t mention his disguise and rescue on the battlefield.
She only answered modestly,
“Your Excellency overpraises me. I was merely fortunate enough to land a stab.”
The approval in He Jingyuan’s eyes deepened.
“You’re a good child. With that kind of grounded character, you’ll go much farther in the future.”
Fan Changyu replied awkwardly,
“Thank you for your praise, Your Excellency.”
Seeing her discomfort, He Jingyuan pointed to a small stool beside the bed.
“Sit. There are some things it’s time I told you.”
As soon as Fan Changyu sat down, her fingers instinctively curled when she heard his words.
She grasped at nothing before remembering her hands were wrapped into round bundles of bandages.
Unconsciously straightening her back, she asked,
“Is it about my parents?”
He Jingyuan looked surprised, evidently not expecting her to already know of his connection to her parents.
After a moment, he nodded.
“Wenchang told me you’ve been investigating the records of Jizhou Prefecture, trying to find out who truly harmed your parents…”
He sighed softly.
“When your parents entrusted you and your sister to me, they did so because they didn’t want you entangled in the karma of the previous generation. They only wished for you both to live ordinary, peaceful lives. Unfortunately, fate is unpredictable.”
Memories surfaced in Fan Changyu’s mind\u2014the peaceful family life they once shared, her parents’ sudden deaths, and the assassinations they later faced in Qingping County.
Her heart sank.
“What exactly… were my parents?”
He Jingyuan looked at her as though seeing traces of old friends in her features.
His voice carried the weariness of countless years.
“Your father was once a retainer of the Wei household. Because of his outstanding abilities, he was granted the Wei surname and became known as Wei Qilin. After the Chancellor married his younger sister to General Xie Linshan, your father followed General Xie into service. Later, he married into the family of Old General Meng, one of General Xie’s subordinates.”
Fan Changyu’s pupils contracted sharply.
“Meng Shuyuan?”
The infamous name known even to three-year-old children throughout Great Yin\u2014the man blamed for the Jinzhou catastrophe.
Understanding her feelings, He Jingyuan sighed.
“Old General Meng was General Xie’s most trusted veteran commander. When your father married his only daughter, the Wei and Xie families became even more closely connected. It was originally a joyous occasion. Unfortunately, during the siege of Jinzhou, Old General Meng mishandled the grain transport mission, resulting in an irreparable disaster.”
Learning that her maternal grandfather was supposedly the man responsible for starving one hundred thousand soldiers to death in Jinzhou, causing Crown Prince Chengde and General Xie Linshan to die beneath the city gates and forcing the court to cede territory for peace, Fan Changyu felt as though she had fallen into an icy abyss.
At that moment, only one thought remained in her mind.
Their entire family were sinners of Great Yin.
In front of Xie Zheng, she too was a sinner.
Xie Zheng hated her grandfather so deeply. What would he do once he learned she was a descendant of the Meng family?
Her thoughts became chaotic.
Instinctively avoiding the question, she asked,
“So Wei Yan wanted to kill my parents to avenge General Xie?”
But He Jingyuan shook his head.
“After Jinzhou fell, your grandfather took his own life to atone for his crimes. Whether there were hidden circumstances behind the delayed grain transport remains unknown to this day. However, the Chancellor did indeed order your father to kill your mother. Your father couldn’t do it, so he faked both their deaths and escaped with her. They came to me, asking me to create new identities and hide their whereabouts.”
“But more than ten years later, the Chancellor suddenly issued another order to hunt them down. This time, it was to recover something.”
Fan Changyu looked up at him in surprise.
The words that followed seemed difficult for He Jingyuan to say.
Looking at her, he spoke with great difficulty.
“When the Chancellor ordered me to kill your parents, they seemed to have anticipated that day long ago. They only asked that I spare you and your sister. Then they gave me a box and instructed me never to open it. When the Chancellor came for it, I was simply to hand it over.”
“After making those arrangements, they committed suicide in front of me.”
Fan Changyu’s hands and feet turned cold.
She had never imagined that so many heavy secrets lay behind the deaths she had spent years trying to understand.
He Jingyuan continued,
“The assassinations your family suffered afterward were all because the Chancellor was searching for that box.”
Receiving so much shocking information at once, Fan Changyu felt a dull ache spreading through her head.
She struggled to sort through her thoughts.
What the world knew was that her grandfather’s delayed grain transport had caused the disastrous defeat at Jinzhou.
But her father had once served Wei Yan and had even received orders from him to kill her mother. Later he betrayed Wei Yan and escaped with her.
And somehow her parents possessed something so important that Wei Yan continued hunting them more than a decade later.
Did that mean Wei Yan had also been involved in her grandfather’s delayed grain transport?
But Wei Yan had only been a minister then.
Not only Crown Prince Chengde but also his own brother-in-law, General Xie, had been trapped in Jinzhou.
What could he possibly have gained from engineering such a catastrophe?
Yet when she remembered Xie Zheng saying that Wei Yan was his enemy, that Wei Yan had nearly killed him as well, and that Wei Yan now held absolute power while reducing the imperial family to puppets, Fan Changyu felt her suspicion must be correct.
If Wei Yan had nothing to hide, why would he try to kill Xie Zheng?
Her grandfather’s failure must indeed have involved Wei Yan somehow.
After a long silence, Fan Changyu asked,
“Back in Lin’an Town, when my family was attacked, soldiers arrived in time to rescue us. Were they sent by you?”
He Jingyuan nodded.
Knowing that the only lead now lay in the box her parents had left behind, Fan Changyu carefully asked,
“Have you ever looked inside that box?”
Bitterness and self-mockery appeared on He Jingyuan’s face.
“If I had opened it, not only would the Chancellor have spared neither you nor your sister, but I myself likely wouldn’t have survived either.”
After a moment of silence, Fan Changyu voiced her suspicion.
“My grandfather’s delayed grain transport… Wei Yan was behind it, wasn’t he?”
He Jingyuan sighed.
“The blame for Jinzhou’s defeat was entirely placed upon your grandfather. When Grand Tutor Tao and I discussed the matter, we both felt that a cautious man like Old General Meng could never have been foolish enough to risk delaying military operations just to rescue one hundred thousand trapped refugees.”
“But how the Chancellor’s weakness ended up in your father’s hands\u2014that is a question worth considering.”
Fan Changyu understood his implication.
Her grandfather could never have made such a foolish mistake.
Perhaps her father had become Wei Yan’s pawn, which was why he later possessed evidence so dangerous that Wei Yan still wanted it back more than ten years later.
This conclusion brought her little comfort.
Her grandfather was no longer the chief culprit, but because her father had been used by someone else, he had carried the blame for seventeen years.
The mere thought made it difficult for Fan Changyu to breathe.
In her memories, her father had always been quiet and inarticulate.
He rarely smiled.
Even when selling pork, he wasn’t very good at bargaining.
Only in front of her mother did his expressions become lively.
He silently did countless things for her, awkwardly trying to make her happy.
Because her mother feared the cold and genuine sable coats were impossible to buy, he would disappear into the mountains alone for four or five days and return with a pile of silver fox pelts to make her a cloak.
As for her mother?
She was usually gentle beyond compare, speaking softly and kindly.
But when angered, she was a different person entirely.
Fan Changyu still remembered being chased around with a broom as a child.
When her mother got angry, even her father didn’t dare interfere.
That was why Fan Changyu firmly believed that if her father had truly harmed her grandfather, her mother would never have forgiven him and retired into obscurity at his side.
Suddenly, she asked,
“Your Excellency, when my mother died, did she know the secret inside that box?”
Remembering the scene of the husband and wife committing suicide one after another in the snow, sorrow flashed through He Jingyuan’s heart.
He nodded.
“Madam was very calm. I believe she knew.”
Fan Changyu immediately said,
“If my father had harmed my grandfather, my mother would never have forgiven him. There must be another truth behind what happened.”
He Jingyuan looked surprised.
He wanted to respond but was interrupted by another coughing fit.
After finally recovering, he said,
“Grand Tutor Tao raised the same doubts. Unfortunately, seventeen years have passed. We have only speculation, no concrete evidence. There is no way to investigate further. That is why Grand Tutor Tao decided to travel to the capital personally and confront the Chancellor. Sadly, no news has come back from him.”
Looking at Fan Changyu, he spoke earnestly.
“I’ve heard a little about you and the Marquis.”
“I once considered taking these secrets to my grave. Let the affairs of the previous generation die with them. Dust to dust, earth to earth.”
“But I was afraid…”
“If the truth ever comes out, the murder of one’s father is not something anyone can easily overlook.”
“Rather than wait until matters become irreparable, I thought it better to tell you everything now and let the two of you decide your own path.”
Countless emotions churned inside Fan Changyu.
She knelt before He Jingyuan’s bed and solemnly kowtowed.
“Thank you, Lord He.”
He Jingyuan covered his mouth and coughed for a long time before finally saying between breaths,
“If you don’t hate me, then call me Uncle. Your father and I were sworn brothers once. The blade technique you use was something he and I created together.”
Looking at the elderly man who seemed to be approaching the twilight of his life, Fan Changyu felt a sting in her eyes.
“Uncle.”
It seemed He Jingyuan had waited many years to hear those words.
The wrinkles on his face deepened with his smile.
“Aye.”
\u2014
When Fan Changyu left the command tent, even breathing felt heavy.
Xie Wu was nowhere to be seen outside.
After searching for a while, she asked one of the guards,
“Have you seen the young man who came with me?”
The guard replied,
“The tall one? He went that way about a quarter of an hour ago.”
Fan Changyu frowned.
Xie Wu had been with her for quite some time, yet he had never behaved so rudely before.
Suddenly, something occurred to her.
Without hesitation, she hurried in the direction the guard had indicated.
But before she had gone far, she saw Xie Wu approaching from ahead.
The real Xie Wu.
He was no longer as tall as the man she had seen upon waking. His steps were slightly unsteady from his injuries.
When he saw her, he called out,
“Squad Leader.”
Unable to meet her eyes, he scratched the back of his head and smiled awkwardly.
“I… I’ve been taking medicine these past few days and drinking too much water. I went looking for a latrine…”
Fan Changyu didn’t listen to another word.
She suddenly tore the bandages from her hands and grabbed his collar.
“Where is he?”
Since the real Xie Wu was here, that meant the other person had already been gone for some time.
Fan Changyu’s grip was astonishingly strong.
The wounds she had suffered while catching Prince Changxin’s blade with her bare hands split open again, blood immediately seeping out.
Yet her gaze was frighteningly cold.
It was the first time Xie Wu had ever seen her like this.
Alarmed and worried that her injuries would worsen, he hurriedly answered,
“Master left the camp.”
Fan Changyu released him and immediately went after Xie Zheng.
She had been careless.
When she first woke up, her mind had been foggy, and too many other matters had distracted her.
She had sensed something strange, yet still failed to realize that the Xiao Wu beside her had been Xie Zheng in disguise.
Why had he rushed to the battlefield to save her but refused to let her know?
Why had he even disguised himself just to stay by her side?
Her instincts told her that before coming here, Xie Zheng must already have uncovered some of the truth about what happened seventeen years ago.
That was why he had chosen to act this way.
She didn’t know what good chasing after him would do.
She didn’t know what she could even say.
Yet a voice inside her kept insisting that she had to catch up to him.
At the very least, she needed to apologize to him on behalf of her deceased elders.
And tell him that even if he chose to end their relationship because of his father’s death, she would continue investigating.
He might not understand why her mother’s attitude toward her father made her so certain that her father had never betrayed either her mother or her grandfather.
But she would uncover the truth.
She would also kill Wei Yan and avenge her parents.
Once, he had reached out his hand to her.
Because of the obstacles before them, she had been afraid to walk that path with him.
Silently, he had cleared the road ahead for her.
Now, if he wanted to stop, she would continue forward without hesitation until she uncovered the truth and placed it before him, proving that it was never an obstacle between them.
Fan Changyu chased all the way to the camp gates without finding him.
After asking the guards whether anyone had recently left, she learned that a one-eyed, scar-faced man had ridden out not long ago.
She immediately borrowed a horse and continued the pursuit.
Fortunately, she had become somewhat of a legend within the Jizhou army.
Not only did the guards not stop her, they treated her with obvious admiration.
The wounds on her hands were deep.
When she pulled herself into the saddle, the pain made her face turn pale.
Ignoring the fresh blood soaking through the bandages, she cracked the whip.
“Hyah!”
The warhorse galloped forward.
After chasing for four or five li, Fan Changyu finally spotted a lone rider atop a distant slope.
Afraid of bringing trouble upon Xie Zheng, she didn’t call his real name.
Instead, she shouted loudly,
“Yanzheng!”
The rider seemed to glance back at her.
She squeezed her legs harder against the horse’s sides.
Within moments, she was close enough to clearly see his face.
Even with an eyepatch covering one eye and a scarred face mask concealing his features, Fan Changyu recognized him instantly.
The horse slowed to a gentle pace.
Holding the reins, she stared at Xie Zheng from several yards away.
Suddenly, her eyes stung.
Her voice grew hoarse.
“You came to see me, yet you wouldn’t even let me know?”
Xie Zheng sat astride his horse and looked at her without speaking.
His dark phoenix eyes were calm and unreadable.
His posture remained straight and upright, like a cliffside rock weathered by countless years of wind and rain yet still standing firm, carrying the harsh dignity of time itself.
Fan Changyu’s throat tightened.
“You already knew everything Lord He told me today, didn’t you?”
At last, Xie Zheng spoke.
“Yes.”
After interrogating Zhao Xun, he had already suspected most of it.
He simply hadn’t dared to be certain.
After hearing He Jingyuan’s conversation with her today, everything had finally been confirmed.
The worst outcome he had imagined after learning of Grand Tutor Tao’s disappearance.
Fan Changyu looked at him with reddened eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Then she added,
“My grandfather would never have betrayed General Xie. My father would never have done anything to betray my mother. Believe me or not, what happened back then definitely wasn’t what you think…”
A grief and panic unlike anything she had ever experienced overwhelmed her.
Her explanation became increasingly incoherent.
She tried desperately to keep her voice steady, but eventually she could barely force the words out.
“Fan Changyu.”
Xie Zheng suddenly called her name.
She raised tear-filled eyes to meet his gaze.
There was no emotion visible in his dark eyes.
“Let’s leave it at this.”
“From now on, I will regard you only as my junior sister.”
He would never love another woman as deeply as he loved her.
But his father’s death had been the mountain weighing upon his heart for years.
It was the nightmare that had haunted his childhood and youth alike.
No matter what, he could not simply let go of the hatred for his father’s death.
If the truth truly had hidden layers, Wei Yan would never have tried to silence He Jingyuan.
Nor would he have detained Grand Tutor Tao.
Yet even knowing that her father had likely been Wei Yan’s pawn, Xie Zheng still couldn’t bring himself to harm her in the slightest.
Tearing someone from one’s heart hurt exactly as much as people claimed.
So it was better to stay far away.
He had given her connections.
He had given her military achievements.
Then they simply would never meet again.
Fan Changyu stared at him in disbelief.
Even her breathing trembled.
Large tears rolled down her cheeks as she whispered,
“It really wasn’t like that…”
Xie Zheng met her gaze.
His hand clenched the reins so tightly that his knuckles whitened.
He had never been able to bear seeing her cry.
She was like a curse upon him.
Whenever she cried, he wanted to kill someone.
He wanted to hold her.
He wanted to comfort her.
To tell her not to cry.
But he bit down so hard that he tasted blood.
The exposed eye had already turned faintly red.
In the end, he said nothing.
Before the endless nightmares consumed his life, he had once known familial love.
He could no longer remember the face of the man who died defending Jinzhou and whose mutilated corpse had later been displayed upon the city walls.
But he still remembered that man teaching him martial arts in the garden.
He still remembered the corpse that had been transported home in a coffin.
The body was riddled with holes.
Before hanging herself, that woman had personally washed the corpse.
There were sixty-seven arrow wounds alone.
The knife and sword wounds were too numerous to count.
It was said that when the Beirong people cut open his father’s stomach, all they found inside were weeds and tree roots.
That woman had fainted countless times while crying over the corpse.
When awake, she repeated only one thing.
Take revenge.
No grain supplies.
No reinforcements.
His father had died at Jinzhou in such a horrific manner while he himself was still only a child.
And throughout all these years, he had never forgotten.
Never forgotten his need for revenge.
Xie Zheng stared at Fan Changyu.
Watching her cry felt as though a gaping wound had been torn open in his own chest.
It hurt with every beat of his heart.
She could stab him several times, and he would still hold her tightly.
But her father had helped Wei Yan kill his father.
Xie Zheng’s jaw tightened.
His bloodshot eyes fixed on her.
His voice was soft.
“Don’t cry.”
It sounded almost like comfort.
Yet the redness in his eyes deepened.
“When I discovered this result, I needed several days before I dared come see you.”
He removed the eyepatch and scar mask.
Perhaps before leaving, he simply wanted one final look at her.
“I hoped your father wasn’t involved.”
“But I couldn’t find a single piece of evidence proving he wasn’t.”
“On the contrary, He Jingyuan nearly got silenced on the battlefield just as I once did. The old man who went to the capital has been detained. And your father possessed evidence capable of threatening Wei Yan…”
He looked at her.
His dark eyes were shattered beyond repair.
“Tell me. How am I supposed to believe your father wasn’t involved?”
Fan Changyu cried even harder.
She wanted to continue explaining, but realized she had no words left.
The fact that her parents had deeply loved each other was not evidence that could prove her father’s innocence.
Xie Zheng’s gaze fell to her hands, where blood had soaked through the bandages.
“I just wrapped those wounds. How did you make them like this again?”
He sounded as though he were scolding her.
Lowering his eyes, he untied the bandages just as he had done countless times before.
He cleaned the wounds, applied medicine, then tore strips from his own robe and carefully wrapped her hands again.
Calmly, he instructed,
“Don’t let them touch water until they’ve healed. And don’t carry anything heavy…”
“Xie Zheng.”
The person before him called his name through tears.
A single teardrop landed on his hand.
Her entire body was trembling.
His hand froze briefly.
After tying the final knot, he suddenly lifted his head, grabbed the back of her head, and kissed her fiercely.
More fiercely than ever before.
His lips and tongue invaded hers as though he had gone mad.
Fan Changyu tasted blood.
And the saltiness of tears.
Then they separated just as suddenly.
Resting his forehead against hers, he allowed her to see everything in his eyes.
Love.
Hatred.
Unwillingness.
Pain.
All of it.
He said,
“Fan Changyu, the man who died at Jinzhou and whose body was cut open and displayed on the city walls was my father.”
“I may choose not to hate.”
“But I cannot allow myself to keep loving Wei Qilin’s daughter.”
“This is the best path I can choose for you.”
Holding her face in both hands, he gently wiped away her tears.
His actions were tender.
His words were merciless.
“If I manage to kill Wei Yan and survive, I won’t leave the Northern Territories for the rest of my life.”
“I will never see you again.”
“When you marry someone one day, don’t let me hear about it.”
He laughed at himself.
Yet there was no light left in his eyes.
“I know exactly what kind of person I am.”
“If one day I regret this decision…”
“Even if I have to die, I’ll drag you into my coffin and bury you beside me.”
Looking at her, he spoke in a low voice.
“I can do it.”
Whether he was speaking to Fan Changyu or to himself, even he did not know.
Fan Changyu stood frozen.
Only her tears continued falling.
Perhaps afraid he had frightened her, Xie Zheng gently stroked her cheek with his thumb.
In the end, he only said softly,
“I’m leaving.”
Then he withdrew his hand and rode away.
As though he feared that staying even one moment longer would make him change his mind.
Only after Xie Zheng had gone some distance did Fan Changyu finally regain her senses.
She shouted,
“Stop!”
The man riding away actually pulled on the reins at her command.
Seeing that, the bitterness surging inside her chest only grew stronger.
Taking a deep breath, she said,
“I will uncover the truth of what happened back then.”
“I will clear my grandfather’s name after seventeen years of disgrace.”
“And I will give your father\u2014and every soldier who died unjustly at Jinzhou\u2014the justice they deserve.”
Without waiting for Xie Zheng to respond, she turned her horse around and lashed the whip fiercely.
The horse raced back the way she had come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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