“Come take a look at this.”
They lifted the bamboo mat and found nothing unusual at first glance. Lu Xiao’s sharp eyes, however, quickly turned to the mat itself. The workmanship of the bamboo carpet was undeniably rough, so rough that Qian Jinye could not even be bothered to give it a second look.
And that was precisely why it managed to deceive them. Its crude appearance fooled them into overlooking a tiny hidden corner.
When water was splashed onto it, the bamboo fibers darkened as they absorbed the moisture. Yet amid the deepened color, an arrow shaped mark emerged even more clearly than before. To their shock, the mat had a piece of jade embedded inside it.
Although it was not some rare or priceless jade, they had failed to notice it at first. Now that the water revealed its sheen, the piece looked translucent and beautiful. The jade itself had been carved into the shape of a small arrow, and everyone turned to look in the direction it pointed. Their gazes all landed on a room across the courtyard.
“The kitchen?” Qian Jinye blinked in confusion. “What, did the wet nurse hide clues for us inside the kitchen?” Aside from the bamboo mat, they found no other hints, so they could only risk going into the kitchen to investigate.
Lu Xiao had just reached out to push the door when Chen Yue’Er held out her arm to stop him.
“Wait. Listen.”
The surroundings instantly fell silent. Chen Yue’Er leaned in and pressed her ear against the wooden door.
Lu Xiao copied her movement. Beyond the sound of his own steady breathing, he caught the crackling of firewood and the squeaking of mice.
Something felt wrong. The banquet had long ended, so why would there still be a burning fire inside the kitchen? Chen Yue’Er had sharper hearing than he did, so he dared not interrupt her focus.
“Breathing.” Chen Yue’Er shaped the words silently with her lips.
Lu Xiao immediately held his breath and pressed his ear against the door again, concentrating with all his might. Sure enough, he caught a thread of faint breathing, so weak that it drifted in and out.
Chen Yue’Er seemed to reach a conclusion. She turned to Qian Jinye and whispered, “There is someone inside. Their breath is extremely weak. Jinye, that person might very well be someone you know. When we open the door, do not look. If anything unexpected happens, we will handle it first.”
Qian Jinye fell silent. She was right. If the person inside was one of his trusted men, he might not be able to control his emotions. He nodded stiffly, signaling for them to open the door while he stood outside with his back turned.
Seeing him turn away, the three moved in perfect tacit agreement and pushed the door open.
The kitchen was shrouded in near total darkness. Only the faint flames at the stove flickered weakly. The small tongues of fire seemed almost unreal, as if begrudging to offer even a sliver of light to the room. This made the situation even worse. They could not see anything at all.
The only possible source of light they possessed was the pearl. Yet using it was dangerous. They still did not know whether they could withstand its effects.
Just when they were fretting over the problem, a low groan drifted out from the shadows. Chen Yue’Er immediately grabbed Li Xianguan’s wrist and pulled him toward the sound.
Lu Xiao failed to grab hold of them in the dark. After fumbling aimlessly for a moment, he resigned himself to slipping quietly back out to sit beside Qian Jinye.
Some time later, Chen Yue’Er emerged first. Behind her, Li Xianguan carried a person slumped on his back.
Qian Jinye instantly forgot the warning about not looking. The moment he saw the figure on Li Xianguan’s back, his eyes lit up with overwhelming relief.
He grabbed Lu Xiao by the sleeve and stammered excitedly, “Lu Xiao, that is my elder brother. My brother finally came home.”
Lu Xiao followed his line of sight. The man on Li Xianguan’s back had no trace of color in his face. His brows and eyes resembled Qian Jinye’s very closely, except his expression carried more maturity while Jinye’s was more vibrant.
At this moment, Qian Shengke looked like a fragile porcelain doll, unmoving and silent, making anyone who looked at him feel a tight ache in their chest.
His appearance startled Qian Jinye so much that he nearly panicked. All thoughts of introducing his companions vanished. If his elder brother was unconscious, he could not focus on anything else.
Chen Yue’Er gestured for Li Xianguan to lay Qian Shengke onto a flat surface. She took his wrist and checked his pulse, then withdrew her hand after a moment and shook her head.
Tears burst out of Qian Jinye’s eyes like beads slipping off a snapped string. They fell one by one onto his brother’s cheek. “Brother… do not worry. I will find Father. I swear it. Brother…”
Chen Yue’Er opened her mouth to explain. “Actually…”
But she was drowned out by Jinye’s wailing.
“Brat… I am not dead yet.” Qian Shengke forced his eyes open. He gritted his teeth and squeezed out the words with great difficulty.
The moment Qian Jinye saw his elder brother suddenly come back to life, he gave a startled yelp and dove behind Lu Xiao, staring at Chen Yue’Er as if she had resurrected a ghost.
Finally able to speak, Chen Yue’Er sighed. “I shook my head because your elder brother is fine. I did not expect you to hope for the worst. He simply has not eaten for too long and fainted from hunger.”
After causing such a dramatic misunderstanding, Qian Jinye felt he had no face left at all. He watched as Lu Xiao dissolved a piece of candy into water and helped Qian Shengke drink it, and he could not stop himself from grumbling internally.
His elder brother fainting all the time was one thing, but why did Lu Xiao carry candy with him everywhere he went? He was a grown man who could whip out a sweet treat whenever he was hungry. Was he not acting like a little child?
Once he had some sugar water, Qian Shengke slowly recovered. He looked around at the unfamiliar faces with slight caution but, since they were his saviors, he kept his doubts to himself.
“Brother, why were you here? I thought you were never coming back. I was worried out of my mind.” Qian Jinye clung to him like glue, having long forgotten all his previous irritation.
Qian Shengke had little interest in humoring this troublesome younger brother but blood ties were blood ties. He could not bring himself to ignore him entirely.
With a sigh, he said, “It was all because of that scoundrel of a father. I could not stand the sight of him, so I slipped into the manor in the middle of the night. I traveled in a rush all day and was starving. I came into the kitchen to warm some tofu and ended up fainting.”
Judging by his state, he had likely been unconscious for quite some time, so much so that he had not even heard the strange noise earlier.
Jinye quickly told him everything that had happened. Qian Shengke’s expression darkened at the mention of the incident from ten years ago, for unlike Jinye, his memory was crystal clear. Those memories were likely the key to everything.
Hearing that Jinye had lost parts of his memory, he was surprised. Why was his own memory untouched? Maybe the entity involved had assumed he would never return and did not consider him at all.
“Even though you are from the Pearl academy, since Jinye trusts you, I believe you must have extraordinary abilities. Whether you truly harbor rebellion or ill intentions toward the emperor, that I still need to judge for myself. But if you wish to investigate something and it is within my knowledge, I will not conceal anything from my benefactors.”
His words were sincere. When he mentioned extraordinary abilities, Lu Xiao felt slightly guilty. He certainly could not admit that the Mingzhu Courtyard relied on beauty and charm to win over Qian Jinye’s affection.
Putting personal matters aside, Lu Xiao organized their current understanding. The dark pearl could be transformed into a white pearl. The process, however, harmed both the pearl and the person holding it, inflicting mental strain on humans and unknown effects on monsters.
Ten years ago, the mother of the Qian brothers vanished without a trace, and Miss Qian’s birth mother was equally mysterious. The entity’s primary influence was centered around a tribe in Loulan, but how the Qian family and the emperor were connected to that tribe remained unclear. Why the Qian family specifically? Why not others?
Everything they had uncovered about the Qian household was merely the tip of an iceberg. Lu Xiao’s instincts told him that Miss Qian’s mother and the brothers’ mother had similarities that made them unacceptable to outsiders.
“Brother Shengke, I want to ask… how much do you know about your mother’s disappearance back then, and why is Miss Qian’s mother missing as well? Are their cases connected?”
Hearing him bring up their mother as the very first question, Qian Jinye glared at him disapprovingly. “My brother was sick back then. He would not know the details. Ask something else.”
He glanced at Qian Shengke. Their mother was a subject both brothers avoided. Because of her, their attitude toward their father, while respectful on the surface, lacked warmth entirely.
Since Jinye refused, he assumed Shengke would refuse too.
Unexpectedly, Qian Shengke did not grow angry. Instead, he seemed to be seriously contemplating the question.
He looked up at the ominous black clouds overhead and slowly said, “I was ill that day. I only remember that the sky looked exactly the same as it does now, completely swallowed by darkness. Mother ran out into it, and she never came back.”
“Brother, stop. Do not say more.” Jinye clutched his hand tightly, as if gripping onto the past itself, unwilling to relive the memory.
Shengke squeezed his hand back. “Jinye, some things must be faced sooner or later.” After calming him, he let out a long breath.
“People say family disgrace should not be spoken of, but I trust the abilities of all of you. So even if I speak, it is no harm.”
Jinye stared at him in disbelief. The secret that had tormented them for years, the one that gave him nightmares, was finally going to be revealed?
He turned to Lu Xiao and said quietly, “Our mother and the mother of Mingzhu truly had similarities. That old bastard father of ours had an addiction to very young girls. My mother was only nineteen when she gave birth to me.”
Lu Xiao was momentarily speechless. The brothers were five years apart. Their mother had been shockingly young when she gave birth to the elder.
When the two brothers did not speak, their likeness became even more striking. When silent, Jinye lost all his usual fiery arrogance and looked almost like Shengke’s reflection.
“We have always known his filthy dealings. I left home not just because of his business, but because he defiled my young maid Yuepo and even made her give birth to Mingzhu. He hid everything from me.”
He did not continue, but Lu Xiao and the others could fill in the rest. Yuepo’s belly swelled, Shengke discovered it, and memories of his own mother flashed before him. Unable to bear his father’s obsession with young girls and unable to oppose him, Shengke simply ran away.
“What happened to Miss Yuepo? A girl that young could easily be left with lifelong harm.” Chen Yue’Er’s voice trembled slightly, both out of her soft heart and her healer’s instincts.
This time, Shengke fell into complete silence. His expression looked like both confession and prayer. Jinye could not stand to see him in pain and quickly stepped in.
“I will say it. Yuepo was too young. She could not survive childbirth. The physician cut open her stomach. Mingzhu lived, but Yuepo passed from blood loss and exhaustion.”
None of them could help cursing the Qian patriarch in their hearts. On the surface, he acted like a loving father cherishing his daughter, but in truth he fed on the suffering of others and committed unspeakable sins.
Now that they understood the truth and had also resolved the situation in the kitchen, they could not allow one despicable man to stall their advancement any longer.
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
Emergency! Someone feed the translator. 🚨☕
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · The beginning of the tragedyChapter 2 · Don’t forgetChapter 3 · Look at it directlyChapter 4 · Whom are you trying to seduce?Chapter 5 · TeaseChapter 6 · Sleeping in the same bedChapter 7 · Internal locksChapter 8 · Tampering The rules…Chapter 9 · Black LotusChapter 10 · FledglingChapter 11 · There are no horses in the stable.Chapter 12 · Water-oil separationChapter 13 · The cost of backtrackingChapter 14 · It got biggerChapter 15 · Was it a mouse?Chapter 16 · Too fieryChapter 17 · Administer medicineChapter 18 · Tracing the PearlChapter 19 · A KissChapter 20 · Ge, Kiss meChapter 21 · Ten Thousand Deaths Without RegretChapter 22 · Endless CorridorChapter 23 · CowardChapter 24 · GoodbyeChapter 25 · Back toChapter 26 · It’s is me, Not MeChapter 27 · VictimChapter 28 · Crossed CupsChapter 29 · IntuitionChapter 30 · ChangeChapter 31 · DifferentChapter 32 · ErrorChapter 33 · Mind Your Own BusinessChapter 34 · WanderingChapter 35 · EmbraceChapter 36 · LoveChapter 37 · UnrestrainedChapter 38 · Asking Over a DrinkChapter 39 · As BeforeChapter 40 · SatiatedChapter 41 · A Change in the WindsChapter 42 · A’SuChapter 43 · Welcoming the BrideChapter 44 · GossipChapter 45 · WeaknessChapter 46 · Wedding NightChapter 47 · Brother QingChapter 48 · FadingChapter 49 · Lying LowChapter 50 · CaressChapter 51 · OnceChapter 52 · The Hidden PassageChapter 53 · MotherChapter 54 · FlawlessChapter 55 · ProphecyChapter 56 · EtherealChapter 57 · DecipheringChapter 58 · The TrapChapter 59 · Stone StatueChapter 60 · ChessChapter 61 · AssassinsChapter 62 · The National Preceptor?Chapter 63 · Please return my belongings to me.Chapter 64 · I’m not that desperate.Chapter 65 · No wayChapter 66 · No turning backChapter 67 · I told you, get out of the wayChapter 68 · Still became a monsterChapter 69 · Let’s end thisChapter 70 · Why do you look so much like him?Chapter 71 · One wanted to kill, two stopped himChapter 72 · Unless, the people at Mingzhu Academy are keeping it from himChapter 73 · FraudChapter 74 · Don’t look back, Lu XiaoChapter 75 · It’s coldChapter 76 · Kill MeChapter 77 · We are even marriedChapter 78 · Gege… I Love YouChapter 79 · “It” had arrivedChapter 80 · Wake Up!Chapter 81 · How Nostalgic….Chapter 82 · You already Promised meChapter 83 · Their TerritoryChapter 84 · Jokes were JokesChapter 85 · What you dream was realChapter 86 · Did you cry?Chapter 87 · What’s wrong, young Master?Chapter 88 · No, I only ever said it to youChapter 89 · Honey, Please let me go.Chapter 90 · What are you pretending to be, a gentleman?Chapter 91 · It’s just a shoddy trick to fool people, but I like it anywayChapter 92 · Ge, I did it voluntarily, it’s no useChapter 93 · You little BratChapter 94 · Gege~ please have mercyChapter 95 · Hearing Lu Xiao come in, he patted the seat next to himChapter 96 · Stop fooling around, let me kiss youChapter 97 · “I want…” “Want what?”Chapter 98 · Gege, watch closely how I get youChapter 99 · Little Eleven, how about we talk to ‘it’ first?Chapter 100 · Had it gone mad?Chapter 101 · I will make my decisionChapter 102 · Tsk, how indecentChapter 103 · You are the creator of my original worldChapter 104 · The world is not your toy, go back to where you came fromChapter 105 · He was a boy with snow-white hair and a handsome faceChapter 106 · Haven’t seen you for a long timeChapter 107 · TYRBL Extra: 1Chapter 108 · TYRBL Extra: 2Chapter 109 · TYRBL Extra: 3Chapter 110 · TYRBL Extra: 4