Chapter 47

 

Father?

Is that Father’s voice?

In an instant, Xuyu’s heart began to palpitate and beat rapidly.

The moment this voice entered her ears, a sense of familiarity that was engraved in her bones immediately arose from the deepest part of her memory. No matter where she went or how much time had passed, she would never forget it.

However, it was not the voice of father in her memory. It sounded old, hoarse, and full of a sense of oppression that was completely unfamiliar to her.

She raised her head hastily and looked around.

At this moment, the eunuch who had brought her here just now scolded her: “How dare you be so rude in front of His Majesty?”

The sound came from behind a low-hanging curtain at the side.

Xuyu came back to her senses in horror.

She actually forgot and subconsciously thought of this situation as she and her father of the past. She knelt down hurriedly and kowtowed deeply to the ground in front of her.

A moment later, someone walked out from behind the curtain, and his boots walked past her. She heard the slight rustling sound of clothes as the person moved.

The emperor walked to a sitting bed behind the painting table. The eunuch gently helped him sit on it, then bowed and stepped back, quietly disappearing behind the curtain to wait for his summons.

“Raise your head!” After a moment, the voice came again.

Xuyu mustered up her courage, slowly raised her head and looked forward as she was told.

Across the painting table, a thin face came into her sight.

The face was old, dark, and sickly. Under the high browbones, a pair of eyes as deep as wells were filled with coldness and doubt.

The emperor was wearing casual clothes, and at this moment he was looking at her coldly with a slight frown on his face.

It’s father.

It’s her father!

Xuyu recognized him at the first sight, but she could hardly believe it. Could this emperor before her, with graying hair and frail appearance, was really her father who used to have black hair, loud laughter, vigorous steps, and was as heroic as a god?

She knew she couldn’t do this, but she couldn’t control herself. When she saw the person in front of her, her tears not only didn’t stop, but instead they kept falling from her eyes like beads.

What happened to Father over the years? Why did he become what he is now?

After a brief shock, what followed was immense heartache.

If only he called her “Hao’er” at this moment, just once, she would definitely put aside all her doubts and resentments, throw herself into his arms regardless of everything, and cry loudly.

At first, the emperor didn’t know whether he was bewildered by her endless tears or something else. His eyes fell on her face, revealing some surprise and doubt. He looked at her for a moment, and soon his expression turned gloomy again.

“Zhen is not dead yet.”

He said this coldly, with a strong disgust as if he was looking down on everyone.

The sound that was like a sharp sword or halberd immediately woke Xuyu up.

The man sitting on the seat was the current emperor of the Holy Dynasty, the king who holds the power of life and death, and the father whom she had decided not to recognize rashly after repeated considerations.

He was no longer the pure father of Li Hao’er in the former residence.

She tried her best to calm herself, wiped away her tears quickly, and bowed her head deeply.

“Your Majesty, please forgive! The reason why this small minister couldn’t stop crying just now was because seeing the deep love between mother and daughter in the painting, this small minister thought of one own’s mother who passed away early, forever separated by life and death. This small minister was overwhelmed with emotion and could not control herself, resulting in this unseemly behavior before Your Majesty.

“Your Majesty, please forgive!”

She kowtowed once more, trying to suppress the last remaining tears in her eyes.

How could she forget this picture of a pair of mother and daughter playing with cat? It was painted for her and her mother by the court painter Ding Baiya at that time. Her mother liked it so much, but her father did not. She vaguely remembered that they seemed to have an argument about this painting one late night, which scared her into tears. Then the painting disappeared. After so many years, she thought that the painting had long since been thrown and was lost somewhere. But she did not expect that it still existed and she would see it here again.

After a moment’s silence, the emperor spoke again: “Your name is Ye Xuyu?” His voice sounded much softer.

“Yes.”

“Who did you learn painting from?”

Xuyu reiterated what she had said to Zhou He in the past.

The emperor glanced at the person kneeling on the ground and snorted lightly.

“Ye Zhongli really has a lot of good disciples! There’s actually such protégé but they have not been recruited into the painting department to benefit all the painters in the world, this was indeed Zhen’s fault.” There was a hint of sarcasm in his words, as if he still felt disgusted with Ye Zhongli’s “good disciples”.

Xuyu didn’t know whether he believed her response just now. She was so anxious that she didn’t dare to speak. Fortunately, when the emperor spoke again, he changed the subject: “What happened on the pleasure boat at Prince Ning’s Qujiang Banquet yesterday? Tell Zhen everything from beginning to end, without missing a single detail!”

The emperor’s tone was calm, but the meaning of his stern order was self-evident.

Xuyu did not dare to hide anything and recounted the whole thing as it was, including how Prince Kang abandoned the two county princesses and left.

After she finished speaking, the room fell silent for a moment.

Xuyu waited for a while, then quietly raised her eyes and quickly glanced through her eyelashes at the silhouette in front of her. She saw that the figure was as solid as a cast iron, and seemed to be more hunched over than when she first saw him.

The emperor must have known everything that happened. By questioning her now, was he hoping to hear a different story?

Prince Kang may not have cared the two county princesses. His choice was probably the only choice he could think of to survive at that time. In order to survive, using any means, such as the law of the jungle, was also a natural thing.

She was not qualified to judge whether her half-brother’s actions were right or wrong.

But no father in the world, as long as he was a normal person who had not completely lost his empathy, would want to see such a situation.

Xuyu looked at the emperor’s figure and felt a little sad. She lowered her eyes, and couldn’t bear to look any longer.

Suddenly the person in front moved, and then a voice that turned cold again rang in her ears.

“What is your relationship with Ashina and Yuwen Zhi? How did you get to know them?”

Xuyu raised her eyes.

The emperor had regained his stern expression.

At this time, she was no longer at a loss like she had felt when they first met, and her mind had completely stabilized.

“For Shizi Yuwen, because this small minister once followed her master through Shu and worked for the Yuwen Mansion to raise money. As for Prince Ashina, this small minister met him because of Master Pei Erlang.”

She had already moved to Yongning Mansion. Since the emperor even knew her acquaintance with Chengping and Yuwen Zhi, there was no point in trying to hide her connection with Pei Xiaoyuan. Without waiting for the emperor to ask further, she simply told him.

The emperor probably did not expect that she would mention “Master Pei Erlang” on her own initiative. He glanced at her seriously, and one of his side muscles twitched slightly and uncontrollably.

Xuyu naturally didn’t notice and continued, “This small minister used to travel around with her master, admiring the beautiful landscapes. In addition to Shu, this small minister also went to Ganliang many years ago. It was also while working there that this small minister got to know Master Pei Erlang’s uncle, and thus got to know Master Pei Erlang and Prince Ashina.”

“Where’s Li Yan?

“What’s your relationship with him?”

After hearing her response, the emperor’s expression remained inscrutable, and suddenly, he uttered the name again.

Xuyu’s heartbeat, which had steadied, jumped again when hearing this name unexpectedly. She immediately said, “Your Majesty, this small minister doesn’t know who this person is.”

She must not let the emperor know that she had met Li Yan and even helped him escape from Pei Xiaoyuan.

Once the person in front of her knew about it, she might be able to use her natural identity to seek pardon, but what awaited Pei Xiaoyuan would be a catastrophic disaster.

The emperor’s eyes fell on her face like knives.

“Look up!”

Xuyu heard the emperor’s order.

She met him calmly, without any avoidance in her eyes or any guilt in her heart.

The emperor stared at her for a long time and said coldly: “You are just a little painter. How dare you play tricks in front of Zhen? Zhen can take your head at any time.” His tone was full of intimidation and warning.

Maybe the tacit understanding between father and daughter that didn’t need to be expressed in words still exists today, and Xuyu seemed to have understood it.

The emperor still hadn’t dispelled his doubts about her, but for now, it seemed he was offering a temporary reprieve.

Sure enough, the emperor stopped questioning about Li Yan, but looked at her from head to toe several times.

Xuyu was confused and still kneeling on the ground, feeling uneasy. Just when she thought that the emperor had figured out that she was his lost daughter, she heard the emperor ask, “Have you moved into the Pei family’s Yongning mansion?”

“Yes. We just moved there yesterday.”

The emperor paused.

“What’s your relationship with Pei family’s son? Why do you live in the same house?”

“Because when this small minister first met Master Pei Erlang in Ganliang, we were both young, so we became friends, just like brothers. Now that he has been granted the mansion by Your Majesty, he knows that this small minister still has no place to settle down, so he invites this small minister to live with him.”

Xuyu lowered her eyes and responded respectfully.

There was silence from the other side. Just when Xuyu thought she had finished responding, suddenly, the emperor bent one knuckle and knocked hard on the edge of the bed several times, making a few short and heavy knocking sounds.

“He’s an upright official of the imperial court. With your painting skills, you have a promising future. Remember your response today, and do not let Zhen hear anything that should not be heard in the future.”

Xuyu was startled by the unexpected noise and looked up again. She saw the emperor staring at her and speaking meaningfully.

She was stunned, her mind was confused, and she didn’t fully react for a moment, and could only respond with “yes”.

The emperor frowned slightly while looking at her, then turned his gaze to the incomplete painting on the table and ordered: “Paint the west wall outside for Zhen, and include this face in the painting.”

Xuyu said yes again.

The emperor called out “Yang Zai’en”, and the eunuch who had been hiding behind the curtain came out immediately. When he heard the emperor’s order to bring the painter to prepare for the painting, he bowed down.

“Withdraw!”

The emperor seemed to feel tired and waved his hands.

Xuyu looked at the incomplete painting, and she was reluctant to never see it again. She hesitated and asked, “Is it possible for this small minister to look at the painting for a while? Just now have not seen the face of the person in the painting clearly, and afraid this small minister made a mistake in her strokes.”

The emperor had already laid down with his eyes closed, and only letting out a small hum.

With permission, Xuyu walked to the painting table. With infinite emotions surging in her heart again, she leaned over the table, staring greedily at the young and beautiful face of her mother in the painting.

Yang Zai’en was a eunuch serving in the West Hall here. He had quite some experience and was one of the few remaining people after Zhao Zhongfang left. At this moment, fearing that the light in the small pavilion was insufficient and the young painter could not see the face of the person in the painting clearly, he personally held the lamp and went closer to illuminate it so that she could see it more clearly.

Looking at the young painter concentrating on the painting, Yang Zai’en was thinking about what happened this morning.

His Majesty the Emperor had wanted to paint this picture in this palace for a long time.

After the former chief of the Painting Department was killed, of the two painting directors left in Jixian Hall, Yao Xu’s painting style was ornate and extravagant, which His Majesty did not like. As for Fang Shanjin, while his work had once been acceptable, it had since become increasingly mediocre, lacking any spirit. As a result, the matter was put on hold and His Majesty never mentioned it again until today.

However, based on his many years of experience in serving the emperor, he ventured to guess that His Majesty did not summon this young painter for real purpose of painting at first. The change began when the work of this boy’s entrance exam for the painting school was brought over this morning.

After viewing the painting, His Majesty seemed to be quite pleased with it, and even asked him to take out the incomplete painting that was usually hidden away and let the young painter take a look.

It seemed that this time he really wanted to repaint the picture of the Queen Mother of the West.

He hoped that this matter could go smoothly and be completed as soon as possible, which could be regarded as fulfilling one of the wishes of His Majesty the Emperor.

Yang Zai’en was muttering silently in his heart, when suddenly, a palace eunuch came in and reported that Pei Xiaoyuan, the Chief of the Luwu Division of the Jinwu Guard, had arrived and was asking for an audience outside.

Yang Zai’en was startled and looked at the emperor who was lying on his side, motionless, as if he had not heard anything.

“Your Majesty, someone outside reported that the second son of the Pei family wants to see you.”

Yang Zai’en whispered.

“No. Tell him to go back!”

The emperor responded calmly.

Yang Zai’en put down the candlestick and hurried out to pass on the message. Unexpectedly, a moment later, the palace eunuch rushed in again and said that he would not leave.

“He said he has something important to report and he must see Your Majesty!”

Yang Zai’en began to feel something was wrong.

He turned his head nervously and looked inside, and saw that the emperor had opened his eyes. He sat up with a gloomy face, glanced at the young painter who was still in the pavilion, and spoke.

“Let him in!”

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