In his prime, Immortal Lord Qing Yue could even trap thousands of people simultaneously within a single person’s memories, leaving them to perish there.
But now, with her cultivation realm greatly diminished, after a full day and night of rest she had only recovered a sliver of her magical power. She still needed to use blood and talismans to perform “Dream Tracing.”
The “Shadow Return” could only be briefly shown to one person.
At this moment, within Princess Qing An’s memories, Dongfang Yan finally recognized those as the back alleys of Shouyang County.
Shouyang County was the fiefdom of Dongfang Yan’s father, the previous Jin Wang.
Dongfang Yan was seven years old when he followed his father to take up residence in Shouyang.
Back then, Dongfang Yan was utterly unruly and couldn’t stand being confined in the prince’s mansion to study. He frequently sneaked out to play, always earning himself a beating afterward, yet he never learned his lesson.
During the Lantern Festival that year, hearing about the magnificent lantern displays outside, he threw down his books and slipped out, taking Princess Qing An with him.
The scene now appearing before Dongfang Yan was the main street of Shouyang County.
On that Lantern Festival night, blooming trees of flowers and falling stars of rain filled the city with brilliant lights.
But seeing this now stirred something in Dongfang Yan that made his face pale with terror.
Yes, he remembered.
That night, he lost his younger sister Princess Qing An, which eventually led to their mother dying with regret…
In the current scene, two children—a boy and a girl—appeared.
The boy became engrossed in solving a lantern riddle. After racking his brains to figure it out, he discovered his sister was gone.
At that time, Princess Qing An was only five years old—delicate and lovely as carved jade. Being siblings from the same mother, the two shared an exceptionally close bond.
Dongfang Yan frantically searched everywhere, but the crowded streets made it impossible to spot his sister.
“Sister! Sister!” His shouts were instantly swallowed by the roaring crowds.
“Fool! Qing An was dragged into an alley! Go chase after her in the alley, hurry!”
In the illusory dream trace, the adult Dongfang Yan screamed at his younger self.
But his younger self was just a child—panicked, disoriented, and being pushed further away by the crowd.
The scene shifted. The seven-year-old Dongfang Yan disappeared, replaced by Princess Qing An’s perspective.
In a dark alley, the five-year-old princess had been drugged unconscious and tossed into a burlap sack.
After an unknown length of time, she groggily awoke to find herself in a crude carriage. All around her were children of similar age, each with bound hands and gagged mouths.
Adult voices came from outside:
“I heard the Jin Wang’s mansion lost a princess. They’re searching the whole city—could it be one of ours took her?”
“Among today’s batch, there were indeed a few little girls dressed like noble young ladies.”
“Ah! What should we do? Should we return her?”
“Return her? Our trade is criminal to begin with! Do you want to turn yourself in and get our clans executed? We’re already outside the city—just sell this batch quickly. Who could trace it back to us?”
“Right! Whether she’s a princess or a beggar, in our hands she’s just livestock!”
Several days later, Princess Qing An was sold to an acrobatic troupe, transforming from a precious princess into a lowly apprentice.
Every day she was forced to practice skills, with any mistake met by whippings.
In the acrobatic troupe, some children with weaker constitutions couldn’t endure the harsh conditions and soon fell ill and died.
The troupe master didn’t care, simply discarding their bodies in the mass graves to feed wild dogs.
Even Qing An Junzhu once developed a fever for several days due to an infected wound and nearly died. Fortunately, her strong vitality prevailed, and she pulled through.
After enduring four years like this, Qing An Junzhu began performing on stage.
She could successfully execute all acts – balancing giant vases, jumping through flaming hoops, and handstanding on stacked chairs – but she particularly excelled at high-wire techniques.
When she stood on the high platform wearing garish makeup and exaggerated costumes, watching the noble ladies and young misses chatting and laughing below, she would occasionally remember how she used to be an honored guest sitting among the audience.
As she grew older, her memories of the past grew increasingly faint. She had almost forgotten that she was once a respected junzhu, the emperor’s niece and a prince’s legitimate daughter.
When those memories occasionally surfaced, she even doubted whether they were merely an illusion.
In the blink of an eye, Qing An turned thirteen.
That year, the troupe received an invitation from a high-ranking official to perform for distinguished guests from afar.
It was said that the honored guest was a newly inherited prince who, because his younger sister enjoyed acrobatics, had developed a fondness for them as well.
The local officials, seeking to curry favor, specially invited the most famous acrobatic troupe in the region to perform.
That day, Qing An wore peach-colored performance attire and walked unsteadily to the center of the steel wire while holding a balancing pole.
Applause erupted from below, and a cool voice reached her ears: “Reward.”
“By order of Jin Wang – reward!”
Jin Wang!
What a familiar title. She vaguely remembered that this used to be her father’s designation.
Unable to resist, she looked down and saw a man in magnificent robes sitting on the elevated seat. His face was young, but his brow bore some resemblance to her father’s.
Not father – brother!
She remembered! I am Qing An Junzhu, a member of the imperial family, not an entertainer for others’ amusement!
Her concentration broken, she swayed and suddenly plummeted from the wire.
Chaos instantly erupted around her.
Screams of shock filled the air, along with the host’s dissatisfied reprimands and the troupe master’s repeated apologies.
Qing An Junzhu felt dazed for a while before struggling back to consciousness.
She tried desperately to get up, to run toward that man, to say: “Brother, I’m Qing An, your younger sister!”
Blood gushed from her mouth, rendering her unable to speak.
Fearing further disturbance to the honored guests, the troupe master quickly ordered his subordinates to carry her away.
She wanted to struggle, to call out, but it was all in vain.
Just like when she had been kidnapped by traffickers years ago – equally helpless.
In the final moment before being carried away, she glimpsed from the corner of her eye the noble man looking displeased as he turned and left, his retreating figure resolute.
Thus, he didn’t see Qing An’s outstretched hand toward him.
Nor did he hear Qing An’s silent cry:
“Brother, I want to go home… I want Father and Mother…”
Because the failed performance had displeased the honored guest, the entire troupe was unceremoniously expelled from the mansion.
The troupe master was furious about this, severely scolding Qing An and punishing her with two days without food.
Qing An knew she couldn’t continue like this – she had to seek rescue.
But her brother held such an exalted status that even local officials rarely had the chance to see him, let alone ordinary commoners?
He had finally appeared here, finally within reach. If she missed this opportunity, she might never see him again in her lifetime.
However, Qing An was genuinely seriously injured, especially her leg from the fall, preventing her from going out.
Therefore, she entrusted the troupe member she was closest with to help her find Jin Wang.
Two days later, Prince Jin arrived personally with a large contingent of guards.
That day, the young actress who had suffered abuse since childhood was welcomed away, henceforth clothed in silks and fed delicacies, elevated to an untouchable status of nobility.
Unknown to all, on that same day, at the bottom of a well in the acrobatic troupe’s courtyard, a ill-fated young girl drowned silently and unnoticed.
Meanwhile, the entire acrobatic troupe was convicted and executed.
The vision before him abruptly dissipated. Dongfang Yan remained pale-faced, unable to regain his composure for a long time.
Within the dream-tracing recollection, he had witnessed with his own eyes his sister being abducted and sold into the acrobatic troupe. He watched her grow up enduring daily abuse, transforming into… someone entirely different.
He slowly lifted his gaze, staring blankly toward the nearby figure—Princess Qing An, drenched from head to toe.
Yet this Princess Qing An before him… the one he had personally retrieved from the acrobatic troupe, bore no resemblance to the girl from the traced dream.
“Who are you? You’re not Qing An?”
After Qing An’s abduction in the traced dream, the vicious traffickers—fearing discovery—had callously poisoned all the young girls from that batch to render them mute.
Thus, Qing An lost her ability to speak. Even when she later reunited with her brother, she could only weep and scream in silence.
Eventually, through painstaking effort using hand gestures, she managed to convey her story to her closest companion.
Her companion was named Hong Yan’er, also an actress in the acrobatic troupe.
Hong Yan’er had likewise been sold into the troupe.
Originally the daughter of ordinary farmers, her family had been devastated by disaster, forcing them to sell her to survive.
Hong Yan’er had always possessed a volatile temper since childhood, clashing with nearly everyone in the troupe. Only Qing An—gentle-natured and mute—managed to maintain a decent relationship with her.
Upon discovering Qing An’s true identity as a princess, Hong Yan’er immediately agreed to help.
The next day, Hong Yan’er came rushing back saying: “I’ve sent the message! Your brother will come retrieve you soon. You’re too filthy—would you like to wash up first?”
“Your leg injury prevents you from walking? No matter, I’ll carry you to the well to wash. We performers are already despised—if you remain dirty and foul-smelling, what if your brother finds you repulsive and disowns you? He is a golden, noble prince after all!”
Thus, she coaxed Princess Qing An to the well’s edge, then ruthlessly pushed her in—
“We were both abducted and sold! Why should you get to return as a princess while I remain a lowly performer forever?”
“If you can become a princess, why can’t I? You were simply unlucky—you deserved to die! Don’t blame me!”
When Dongfang Yan received the news and rushed over with his men, Hong Yan’er stepped forward with tear-filled eyes: “Brother, I am Qing An…”
When Dongfang Yan asked how she had survived all these years, she tearfully recounted being abused, forced to learn acrobatics, and nearly beaten to death on multiple occasions.
She manipulated Dongfang Yan into convicting the entire troupe, ensuring no one could expose her as the false princess.
As a performer, she had been humbly positioned, bullied by all.
But upon ascending to the princess’ noble seat, she not only enjoyed luxury and wealth, but also experienced the numerous conveniences brought by power.
When displeased, she could freely beat and scold her maids, even selling them off or executing them.
Even members of the aristocracy had to bow and scrape before her, flattering obsequiously.
Gradually, her behavior grew increasingly domineering. She forgot her lowly origins, forgot that everything she possessed had been stolen.
As for Dongfang Yan, he had been consumed by guilt and self-blame for losing his sister all those years ago. After miraculously finding her again, he became utterly devoted to spoiling her.
Even when Princess Qing An reached marriageable age but refused to wed, he indulged and pampered her without question.
Yet he never imagined that the sister he had cherished for years was actually an imposter.
What’s more, through Dream Tracing Shadow Return, he witnessed with his own eyes how this impostor had pushed his real sister into a well to drown!
Now, he stared incredulously at the woman before him: “Who are you really? Are you Qing An, or… Hong Yan’er?”
“Are you playing tricks here?” he suddenly glared at Lin Qingyue.
At this moment, he would rather believe Lin Qingyue was scheming than accept the cruel truth.
“Instead of questioning me, why don’t you see for yourself who your real sister is!”
As Lin Qingyue spoke, she passed her hand before his eyes, granting him Yin-Yang vision.
Thus Dongfang Yan clearly saw a person clinging to “Princess Qing An’s” back.
It was a girl around thirteen years old, her entire body dripping wet.
Noticing Dongfang Yan’s gaze, she slowly raised her head. As her soaked hair slid aside, it revealed a deathly pale face.
The features on that face still bore some resemblance to their mother.
Instantly, Dongfang Yan recalled his mother’s final words: “A-Yan, you must find your sister, you must find her!”
Because he had lost his sister, his mother became deeply distressed and passed away from illness within two years.
His father fell from a horse while searching for her during a journey.
That single act of childish mischief had not only cost him his sister but led to both parents’ premature deaths.
Everything was his fault!
After all these years, when he finally recovered his sister, he had brought back a fake.
And he had lavished this impostor with boundless affection, unaware that his true sister had long become a wandering spirit, suffering endlessly.
Just moments ago, to save the fake sister, he had forced Xie Shouzheng to disperse her soul, condemning her to eternal oblivion!
“Pfft—” A sharp pain pierced Dongfang Yan’s heart, and he vomited a mouthful of blood.
“Qing An… little sister…” The usually composed and arrogant man finally broke down in tears.
Qing An’s spirit detached from Hong Yan’er, tilting her head as she blankly watched the weeping man.
After a long moment, a faint expression finally appeared on her face, and two clear trails of tears rolled down.
Meanwhile, the impostor Hong Yan’er regained consciousness and called out dazedly, “Brother.”
“I have seen everything—how you pushed Qing An into the well, how you killed my sister and stole her identity, living as a princess for five full years! You must have enjoyed these five years immensely, haven’t you?”
“I was like a fool, pampering and indulging you! Even when you injured the minister’s daughter, I couldn’t bring myself to scold you. I even collected evidence of the minister’s corruption to shield you from imperial punishment.”
“In the end, I was nurturing a viper in my bosom!”
“You… know?” Hong Yan’er collapsed to the floor, stunned for a moment before scrambling over to cling to Dongfang Yan’s legs, weeping and pleading.
“Regardless of anything, the bond we’ve shared these years can’t be fake.”
“Brother, hearts are made of flesh. I’ve never had a good life, never met anyone who treated me well.”
“You’re the only one who ever showed me kindness. I’ve kept that gratitude in my heart and always put you first. Every day I saw you off and waited for your return. When you were sick or injured, I cared for you day and night, wishing I could suffer in your place.”
“If you dislike Lin Qingyue, I’ll rack my brains to help you get rid of her!”
“Brother, you once asked me what kind of husband I wanted to find. I didn’t answer at the time, but now I’m telling you—the husband I want is someone like you!”
“What other woman in this world understands you, respects you… loves you as I do?”
“Brother, could you give me another chance? If I can’t be your sister, let me stay by your side, even as your servant or maid.”