Chapter 37

 

Xuyu was taken to Luwu Division’s government office.

He did not go through the front door, but led her in through a secret door. They went through a narrow passage with high walls on both sides and only a sliver of sky above her head, then entered a house in the corner of the government office.

Inside the house there was an entrance to a basement with the door made of cast iron. Behind the door was pitch black, like a road leading to the abyss underground.

He took the torch from a trusted confidant who was waiting there, the one he brought from Ganliang, and illuminated the stone steps leading down from the door, then led her through the door.

Behind her, there was a dull sound of an iron door slowly closing.

Xuyu subconsciously turned her head to look back, while the light behind her disappeared.

At this moment, if not for the light from the fire in his hand before her, she would have almost felt as if she were once again that little girl running alone through the pitch-black night where she couldn’t see her own hand in front of her.

She tried her best to dispel this unsettling thought, staying close to the figure of the man walking in front of her, not daring to fall behind by even half a step.

He held a torch in his hand and led her further down.

In this dark underground stone chamber where a faint musty odor could be smelled, no other sound could be heard except for their monotonous footsteps.

Finally she followed him into a square stone chamber.

He raised the torch and leaned it toward a bowl-like lamp suspended from the ceiling by iron chains. The oil inside the giant bowl ignited, and flames licked upward from the bottom of the bowl, gathering together. With a loud roar, a large burst of fire leaped into the air, crackling and blazing, illuminating the stone chamber. Their shadows intertwined and twisted on the walls and ceiling, casting strange, dark shapes all around.

He dropped the fire stick into the bowl and turned towards her.

“Who was the person hiding under your painting table last night?”

He opened his mouth and said the first words since he brought her here.

She was silent.

The oppressive enclosed space she was in made her feel even more stuffy and unable to breathe properly.

He seemed to have noticed her condition, looked around, and softened his tone, saying, “It’s more convenient to talk here, so I brought you here. You can rest assured to say anything that you can’t say anywhere else. After we’re finish talking, I will take you out early.” His words seemed to contain some inducement.

Xuyu tried her best to calm her mind.

She had expected him to ask this question.

This was exactly why she had been distracted the entire day.

Last night he had clearly discovered the secret under the painting table. He simply chose not to proceed, refraining from lifting the cover that concealed the mystery.

No one knew this better than her.

Her cousin Li Yan did not die as she previously thought.

At the time of the Chang’an palace incident, he was away, standing in for his father, the Crown Prince Jingsheng, to receive the army that should have already arrived. But they never came.

It was his subordinates loyal to the East Palace who brought the news of the coup before those who came to kill him arrived.

From then on, he began an endless life living in the dark world, until today, at this moment.

“If you don’t tell me, I won’t do anything to you. But I’m afraid the courtesan last night wouldn’t have such good luck as you.”

His voice rang in her ears again.

“The place you are in is just Luwu Division’s secret room, which is convenient for inviting people to talk. There is no malicious intention.

“Keep going down, right under your feet, there is another place. I don’t think you want to know what’s going on there. I also can’t bear to see the beautiful lady from last night being invited down there and suffering unnecessary pain.”

His expression was as calm as usual, but the words that came out of his mouth at this moment made Xuyu shiver.

She looked at him as if she had never known him.

He did not avoid her gaze at all and let her look at him.

“You should understand that even for the sake of your grandfather and my uncle, I never want this to happen. Last night, I let go of the man hiding under the painting table because I thought you would get dragged into it. Therefore, you must tell me everything you’re hiding. You must tell me, because only then I can help you. Not only that, if I am also guilty because of what happened last night, knowing everything will allow me to prepare in advance.”

Xuyu understood that every word he spoke was right.

She should also be grateful that he showed leniency last night.

However, putting aside the outcome awaiting Li Yan should he fall into the hands of one of her father’s lackeys like Pei Xiaoyuan, there was still the dilemma she now faced.

Even if she followed his advice and confessed that the person she was trying to protect last night was Li Yan, would that really bring an end to things?

No. He would definitely ask her why she did that and what her relationship with Li Yan was.

So when that time comes, how should she answer to satisfy the person in front of her?

Her mind was in a mess and confusion, and she felt more and more suffocated in her chest, as if the air in the underground chamber was so thin that it could not support her breathing.

Pei Xiaoyuan waited for her quietly, without showing any impatience on his face.

“Since you don’t want to talk to me about this, let’s change the subject.” He suddenly said.

“Tell me, who are you?”

Xuyu’s heart, which was in endless confusion, twitched at his seemingly unintentional question.

She suddenly raised her eyes and looked at him warily.

Her subtle intuition told her at this moment that this should be just the beginning for him.

Sure enough, his next words made her even more frightened.

“Even if you didn’t tell me, I would have guessed it.

“I didn’t go to you during the day because I was interrogating the people I arrested last night. They were all loyal men who deserve respect. No matter how inhumane the torture was, they refused to confess even a word against their master. But I recognized one person. In order to conceal his identity, the first thing he did after being arrested last night was to scrape his face with a knife so that he will be unrecognizable and I couldn’t see his true face even if he died. But he couldn’t hide his figure and voice. I have seen him before. He is a person under the Imperial Grandson of Jingsheng era.

“So it’s not difficult to infer that the person you hid last night was the former Imperial Grandson Li Yan.

“Then the question is, why do you want to protect Li Yan?”

He pressed her with question after question, not giving her any chance to think. His voice echoed in this airtight stone chamber, buzzing and hitting Xuyu’s eardrums.

“I also checked today. The courtesan named Yumian last night was the daughter of the former general of Shenwu Army, Wei Minghui, and her name was Wei Yinniang. In the last years of Jingsheng, she had a close relationship with Imperial Grandson, Li Yan. After the failure of palace coup of Crown Prince Jingsheng, she suffered a family change and entered the Music Bureau, and later transferred to Jinfeng Tower.

“And more!” he immediately continued. Another short echo rushed into Xuyu’s ears from the stone wall. Not only that, his eyes were staring at her without blinking, chasing and grabbing her gaze, not allowing her to dodge at all.

“You are obviously a delicate lady, but you ignored the advice and took the risk of being condemned by the world to enter the palace to be a painter. If you say you have no ulterior motives, I’m afraid it will be hard to convince people.”

He began to walk closer to her, until they were so close that he could reach her face with his hand.

Xuyu saw his eyes stop at her forehead again, as if he was examining something. Then, in the midst of her thunderous heartbeat, he actually raised his arm towards her and pressed his finger without hesitation on the spot of skin that she had carefully traced in the mirror this morning. His fingertips slowly wiped away the strange substance, leaving the old scar that looked like a broken star uncovered and completely exposed to his sight.

“When I met you in Ganliang, I noticed the scar on your forehead. Why did you go to such great lengths to cover it up after entering the palace?”

He withdrew his hand and took a step back.

“I heard that the current emperor has a princess, but unfortunately she was lost outside many years ago.”

“Zanxing Nunnery was very lively the day before yesterday.”

He calmly observed the face of the person in front of him which was becoming paler and paler.

“If my guess is correct, you should have been there too, right?

“Ye Xuyu, who are you?

“Could it be that you are the former County Princess Zanxing, now Princess Shouchang, the daughter of His Majesty, Li Hao’er?”

Finally, he stared into her eyes and asked this question word by word.

If heart could really burst into several pieces due to the surging blood, that would be what Xuyu was experiencing at this moment.

Since she was called by Yuwen Zhi to make a blessing painting for his mother, in order to finish it as soon as possible, she had been painting all night long and didn’t sleep well at all. Then there was the torment of waiting for Wei Yinniang’s reply for several days. When they finally met last night, she encountered such an accident. It was easy to imagine how she got through it.

She barely ate anything today. It wasn’t that she was deliberately starving herself; she simply didn’t feel hungry and couldn’t bring herself to eat.

Like a string stretched to its breaking point, the moment she heard those words came out of his mouth, a cold sweat broke out on her forehead. Her ears were buzzing with the lingering sound of his voice, as if a swarm of flies were colliding around her head.

The feeling of discomfort that she had felt since the first moment she stepped into this stone chamber tonight was like a mountain and sea pressing down on her from all sides. She felt dizzy and could no longer hold on.

Pei Xiaoyuan had not expected her reaction to be so big. She fell limply to the ground without a sound. Shocked, he rushed to her and squatted to check on her. He saw that her eyes were closed, her skin was cold, and her forehead was covered with cold sweat. He could no longer care about anything else, and hurriedly picked her up from the ground and walked quickly out of the underground chamber.

The air above was cool, and the night breeze flowed gently, brushing against her face. Xuyu slowly regained consciousness, realizing she was being carried in the arms of the man who had forced her into fainting, heading to an unknown place.

She grabbed his sleeve, tugged it, and whispered to him to put her down. But he turned a deaf ear to her and had no intention of obeying. Xuyu was too weak to argue with him anymore. In a daze, she buried her face in the iron-like strength of his arm, slowly closed her eyes again, and let him carry her onward.

At night, except for the guards on duty, all other officials in the government office had left. He avoided the guards and took her to the front hall where he usually discussed matters with his subordinates. There was a small west pavilion there, which was a private place for him to rest every day. After entering, he laid the limp person in his arms on a narrow bed with low legs, took out a thin blanket, gently covered her, lit a bright lamp, went out and ordered his confidant to guard outside and not allow anyone to approach, and finally tiptoed back to the west pavilion and closed the door.

She was still lying on her side on the bed, facing inward, motionless, as if she was fast asleep.

Pei Xiaoyuan didn’t dare disturb her again. He looked at her back for a moment, feeling confused and mixed with some regret that he couldn’t explain.

Last night he lost his mind and softened his heart. He lost his composure under the gaze of her eyes that were full of emotion and had traces of residual tears, and let go of someone who might cause him great trouble in the future.

He was certain that the person she was protecting was the man in blue who had followed him in the Ganliang wilderness at the beginning of the year and was the person the emperor wanted him to get rid of.

Tonight, he took her to the underground stone chamber for questioning. Apart to keep it confidential, he also had another purpose.

He wanted to be crueler to her and put some invisible pressure on her, in case he couldn’t pry her lips open. After all, he knew he couldn’t really resort to the usual interrogation methods on her.

But he felt regretful at this moment.

Perhaps he should be more patient. No matter what she did or what she hid, the sky would not fall for the time being, and there was no need to force her to reveal the secrets she did not want others to know.

As for Li Yan…

According to the report from his confidant, the courtesan was quietly taken out of the city by a carriage of unknown origin during the day and taken to a villa located in Nanshan. The identity of the villa owner was currently unknown.

As for whether it was the owner who aided the courtesan in facilitating the escape or if she was merely using the owner to achieve her own goals, that too was currently unknown.

But he was sure that Li Yan had taken this opportunity to escape.

But it didn’t matter, he was sure that Li Yan would never disappear completely because of this trouble. As long as he came out again, he would definitely leave some clues.

He let him go last night. It was the first time and the last time.

Pei Xiaoyuan took another look at the figure that seemed to be still sleeping.

“You take a rest. I’m going out.”

He softened his voice as he spoke to her, gently advised her. Then, he turned to leave, stepping toward the door. Just as he was about to open it and step out of the small western pavilion, a soft and distant voice suddenly came from behind him.

“I am Li Hao’er.”

Pei Xiaoyuan’s heart started beating rapidly.

He stopped walking, quickly turned back, and saw that she was still lying on her side, as if those words had not come from her.

Even though tonight this conclusion came out from his mouth first, to be honest, this matter was too bizarre. Even though all doubts pointed to this result, deep down in his heart, he still couldn’t believe it.

Even……

He also seemed a little unwilling to believe it.

Or there may be something else going on.

How could she be the emperor’s lost princess who has never returned?

If he had not heard the words just now clearly, he would have suspected that they were an illusion created by the Vishaja ghostin Indian mythology it’s an evil ghost that feeds on corpses and human essence to devour his essence at night and confuse his mind.

He turned around and stood still beside the door. While hesitating, she opened her eyes, slowly sat up from the bed, raised her face, and said clearly: “You are right, I am the former County Princess Zanxing, now Princess Shouchang, Li Hao’er.”

Under the light, her face was still as white as snow, completely bloodless, but her expression seemed completely calm. After she finished speaking, she placed her hands quietly on her knees, opened her eyes, and looked at him.

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