Concealed by Brocaded Clouds, Frost on the Roads: Volume 02 Chapter 08
translator: Oyen
The golden charcoal furnace in the Lanlin Hall was filled with green smoke, and the scent of white sandalwood filled the surrounding area. The curtain of the veil in the deep hall was now hanging low.
It should have been quiet, but a chamberlain bowed his head and marched forward, breaking the silence, “Concubine Lie, Concubine Liu, just now a maid has come to make a report, Concubine Ning just fell into the water in the imperial garden…”
Liu Lan leaned on the golden couch and closed her eyes to recuperate. At this time, she raised her eyes sharply after hearing these words. Ru Ye, who was waiting on the side, understood her Mistress’ intention and said, “You can report in detail.”
The chamberlain leaned down on the ground and replied, “Report to Concubine Liu, this slave and others don’t know the details. Now, the imperial garden was in a mess, and this slave had also heard about it, it seems that the cushion the gallery has been tampered with, this slave don’t know the specific situation, hope Concubine Liu to forgive this slave!”
Liu Lan slowly stood up with her hand, smiled and said, “Someone come ah, give the reward.” It seemed that God didn’t help this evildoer, she repeatedly had accidents. A month ago, she fell from the stone steps, this time actually fell in the pond. She had to suffer this winter.
Who did this? They all knew, since Concubine Yin was imprisoned not long ago, she committed suicide by taking poison herself. This vast harem only had Concubine Ning, Concubine Yan, Concubine Tang and her.
Although it was said that the fact that Concubine Ning was pregnant with a dragon heir was indeed a big impact, it was reasonable to say that because of the last time the matter of Concubine Yin happened, the Emperor was angry, and Concubine Yan shouldn’t be so reckless! However, there was no knowing what was in the people’s heart… perhaps it wasn’t necessarily Tang Qiaoyan!
She couldn’t help but sigh. No wonder my father said, in this bloody harem, it was better to stay the same and respond to all change ah.
Gazing at it, the green trees in the garden were withering and desolate. What an eventful winter ah!
The imperial physician said that fortunately, Concubine Ning was rescued in time, so the fetus in her belly wasn’t hurt. Baili Haozhe’s hanging heart was slightly released, and he waved the crowd away.
Lifting the layers of soft gauze curtains, he only saw that her lacquered hair was scattered between the pillows, and there was no trace of blood on her plain fair face.
He looked at it with a somber face, and asked in a low voice for a long time, “I only ask you one question, you can answer it, and you can also not answer it.” Mu Ningyan closed her eyes and didn’t say a word, and even her eyebrows were tugged halfway.
Baili Haozhe let out a long sigh, “How can you fall down? Last time it was rolling down from the top of the stone steps, and this time it was actually in the Taiye Pond…”
There was another long, cold silence. Mu Ningyan bit her lips tightly and said in a low, mournful voice, “Emperor, please forgive me, it was this concubine’s negligence.”
He looked away and suddenly laughed out, and then there was silence. The air was condensed for no reason.
After a long, long time, Baili Haozhe opened his mouth and said bitterly. “Wushuang, you and I both need to stop acting.”
Her voice sounded faintly. “Emperor, why do you have to be like this? What is it that you’re testing this concubine for again and again?”
He laughed slowly, looking miserable and confused, “Wushuang, now that things have come to this point, you and I should be honest with each other.”
“I know that since entering the palace, because you have been unwilling to serve in bed, you have conspired with the imperial physician to say that you have been unwell and unfit to serve in bed.”
“At that time, I didn’t dare to be 100% sure of your identity, so I let you go…” At that time, he wasn’t sure she was Wushuang, so he didn’t expose her. Sometimes, maybe deep down in his heart, he was afraid that she really wasn’t Wushuang, wasn’t the one he was dreaming about day and night, if not, then he really added another thing that he was sorry to Wushuang.
“Do you remember the day you served in bed? That afternoon, I ordered someone to send a small civet over. Do you know what that small civet is? It was a small animal with an extremely sensitive sense of smell from the Western Regions, very knowledgeable, extremely rare in number, and if the local hunters were lucky enough to get one, they would regard it as a jewel, raise it, and hunt it a hundred times, a thousand times better than any intelligent hunting dog. Just give it a sniff of a person’s clothes and it can pinpoint the owner without error. Before I ordered someone to send it over that day, I had already let it sniff the clothes you used in the palace. You know what happened later…”
“Although I don’t have any clear evidence, and you have even removed the red mole on the bottom of your food… but I know, and have always known, that you are Wushuang.”
No wonder, no wonder that small civet kept coming into her arms, and how it didn’t budge when Chengxuan teased it.
Her eyes were tightly closed and her eyelashes kept fluttering, not a word was spoken, as if she hadn’t heard him.
He suddenly laughed out, desolately, “You always knew you were Wushuang, you didn’t lose your memory at all, did you? You just didn’t want me to know you were still alive. Haha… haha…” This loud laugh in the middle of the deep night seemed frantic and sad, as if a wounded night owl was crying.
His voice was lowered again, and his voice was slightly hoarse. “You just hate me. So why make it hard on the flesh and blood in your belly? Half of which is also your flesh and blood.”
She closed her eyes, as if she was extremely tired, and only wished to go to sleep like this from then on. “I never thought I would have this child…”
She was finally admitting it, admitting that she was Wushuang., and admitting that she never wanted the child. Yes, she didn’t want it, and he knew it all along.
Instead, he took a half step back and speculated with trepidation, “That fell on the stone steps, and… and this time, could it be that you did it all?” Because she didn’t want the child, she tried every possible way to remove it. No, it couldn’t be, how could Wushuang be so cruel-hearted?
She said nothing, and the fact that she remained silent seemed to amount to acquiescence.
He had known for a long time that she didn’t want his child. He knew the medicine well, how could he not know that she was secretly using musk in private, but what she had not known all along was that he had long ago ordered the musk she had secretly hidden from the dragon and turned it into a phoenix.
Although he knew it in his heart. But at this time, listening to her personally tell the truth, he would still be heartbroken.
His heart was simply like death at that moment, and only after a long time did he whisper, “If you hate me so much, why did you come into this palace?” She turned sideways, leaving her slender back to him, and laughed out coldly, “Since you have issued the decree, under this sky, who can resist it?”
He was silent for a long time before he said bitterly, “Since you don’t want to enter the palace, why do you need to draw my attention?” If she hadn’t deliberately shown up and attracted his attention, the spies he sent out might not have been able to detect the news.
She bit her lower lip with her teeth and smiled miserably, “If you know everything, how could you not know why I am here? And if you are so proficient in medicine, why would you let Chengxuan be poisoned by other people?”
The mother and child were connected by hearts. How could she leave Chengxuan alone in the cold deep palace?
His voice softened, “If I was to tell you that I set this all up, would you resent me?”
He seemed to be caught in a boundless memory. “After the fire in the Zhaoyang Hall, I found that there was less Mu Qin in the palace. Although Mo Ran and others reported at that time, when the fire broke out, Mu Qin was also in the Zhaoyang Hall. I always had doubts in my heart. Over the past few years, I have never believed that you have left me and Chengxuan. I kept sending people around to find out where you are, but there was no news. As if you really have… really have gone.”
“But I refused to give up until a year ago, when there was a rumor that someone with your appearance had appeared in the prime minister’s residence. I secretly sent spies to find out the truth, and was later informed that there was indeed someone in the prime minister’s residence who looked exactly like the image I had drawn.”
Since then, he had set a plan. In the first step, he passed the news that the Crown Prince had been poisoned and that the entire harem had been greatly rectified.
Her memory at that time had not yet been restored, but she did not know how, when she heard that the Crown Prince had been poisoned and his life and death was uncertain, she was heartbroken. She had nightmares that night, and from then on it kept going night after night. She dreamed of pavilions, corridors and palaces, all extravagant and gorgeous, and gradually, she couldn’t tell if it was real or a dream, and then she got cold and got very sick, and started to regain her memory a little.
“Wushuang, I just want to tell you that I didn’t ask Uncle Shen to give the poison to you back then. Everything was just his own idea.”
“Yes… I have always hated Ruan Yujin and hated your Ruan family. When I was young, I longed to crush your Ruan family to the ashes, so that I could solve the hatred in my heart! According to my original plan with Uncle Shen, we will remove you sooner, but.. But later, later I couldn’t bear it…”
“Because… my heart has been moved by you…”
It wasn’t until after her departure that he discovered that in the days of flowing water, he had unexpectedly married her and successfully ascended the throne. But unexpectedly fell in love with her! A thousand calculations but nothing could be calculated as predestined.
She shook her head, her voice didn’t carry any temperature, clear and cold. As if the cold water in the cold winter slowly diffused through the ears. “Baili Haozhe, don’t say the previous things you do anymore, I don’t want to hear…”
Everything he and she had done before was just a play. Since he had ascended to the throne as he wished, he had already gained great power in the past few years, and he no longer needed the Ruan family, so why should he continue to act here!
No matter what he said now, it didn’t mean anything to her anymore, simply because she would never trust him again, because she couldn’t and she didn’t dare to believe it!
She smiled slowly and stated the cruel truth word for word. “The Ruan Wushuang you are looking for is dead, she is dead…” The Ruan Wushuang who was in love with him that year had already died in the fire of Zhaoyang Hall. The past couldn’t be turned back, the years couldn’t be turned back. Although her body was still the same body, the scene and that emotion at that time would never be there again.
On that day, Aunt Mu dragged her to the rockery of the hot spring pond of the back hall of the Zhaoyang Hall and told her that when the former Emperor overhauled the harem, in case he was in danger of the day, a secret passage was left behind the hot spring pond of the Zhaoyang Hall, which could lead directly to the western mountains of the capital. Because the former Emperor and the Empress dowager left one after another, she was the only one in the world who knew about it.
But she was dazed and confused, and Aunt Mu carried the lantern, opened the mechanism and pushed her into the secret passage; She fell against the stone of the passage and the gush of pain only made her vaguely conscious, and grasping Aunt Mu’s withered hand, she said tremulously, “Aunt Mu, you- you- have to come with me.”
Aunt Mu shook her head, her thin face looked resolute, and there was a kind of calmness in her eyes. “Empress, the limit of this slave has arrived. This slave is going to follow the Empress Dowager…” Looking at her, she said, “This is the sin planted by this sale, and it is up to this slave to receive this fruit. This is Mu Qing’s retribution! It is Karma ah. It’s just this slave is sorry for dragging the Empress down, implicating the Empress.”
After saying that, she knelt down and kowtowed at her. “Empress, you must take care of yourself. You also have the little Crown Prince, and the Ruan family. As long as you leave this palace, you can be reborn as a person.”
Reborn as a person! Reborn as a person!
He treated her like this, even if she was reborn as a person, what was the point?
Carrying a lantern, she stumbled through the secret passage alone. She was surrounded by endless dark, endless cold.
She didn’t know how long she had been walking and almost thought she wouldn’t make it…When she woke up, she was in a Buddhist temple on the western mountain. The head monk said that it was sister Qing Jing that rescued her when she was picking herbs on the mountain. She was soaked to the skin, had caught a wind chill and had a high fever. It had already been eight day since sister Qing Jing carried her back.
Because of the high fever, she forgot about the past, and even her last name was unknown. The head monk took pity on her solitude that he took her in and took her to live in the Buddhist temple.
It was a small temple, only about ten people. Because she was halfway up the mountain, she had always been self-sufficient and unaware of the world, so when she got better, she started to follow her sister Qing Jing, helping her to dry and collect medicine and doing some light work.
In a blink of an eye, it was half a year. After getting acquainted with sister Qing Jing, one day she didn’t know why they talked about her amnesia, sister Qing Jing jokingly said to her. “I think you must have been a person from a rich family before.”
She asked her why she would say this, sister Qing Jing smiled and said, “Look at you ten fingers, the roots are like green onions, where there are traces of labor. Besides, at that time I carried you back, the silk clothes you were wearing, I knew at a glance that it was expensive.”
As she spoke, she looked at her and sighed. “Xiao Wan, I wonder when you will regain your memory?” Because she was picked up in the evening, white mist like smoke shrouded the mountainside, so sister Qing Jing helped her to name her Xiao Wan, calling it over and over, until she got used to it.
She smiled faintly, not that she didn’t want to regain her memory. But every time she deliberately recalled the past, she would have a headache, and even her heart would feel like she was being grabbed by something, it was hurt so much.
Maybe her old days weren’t good, so God wanted her to forget.
After a few months, some fragments gradually appeared in her dreams. It was a mansion, with water pavilions and song platforms, and flying eaves in the corners… so many days repeated. One night in her dream, she even saw the plaque of the mansion: Prime Minister’s Residence.
However, she always felt that she had forgotten a lot of things in the shadows. After several contradictions, she told the Head monk and finally decided to write a letter and asked sister Qing Jing to send it. Within half a day, two people rushed to the scene. When they first saw her, they were amazed as if they saw a ghost, and were ecstatic as if some lost treasure had been retrieved.
They stood in front of her, with tears in their eyes. They said that she was their sister. Somehow, she didn’t remember them, but she believed they weren’t lying to her, because the feeling of closeness and security that surged in her heart couldn’t deceive people.
They sent her to Xinzhou, where she lived in seclusion as Mu Ningyan. Her days in Xinzhou were very quiet.
Later, because her mother fell ill, her two eldest brothers took her back to the capital and told her that she could only call the cousins in front of people. Even Liu Li, who had been serving her since in Xinzhou, didn’t know about this matter, and always thought that she was the eldest Miss of the Mu family. As for the real Mu family’s girl, she also had a good home.
It was just that at that time, she had not yet recovered her memory, and she met Meng Lengqian. For Meng Lengqian, she wasn’t without a little love, his talent and appearance, family background, everything matched with her. The young girl’s mind was always like this.
If she hadn’t recovered her memory in a lifetime, she and Brother Meng might be able to have a harmoniousness, loving each other until old age.
In that case, it might not necessarily be bad. Beautiful as a flower, like flowing water!*
*You are beautiful as flowers, as time goes by, you are wandering around and feeling sorry for yourself in the secluded boudoir.
However… However, she still regained her memory. She remembered him, remembered Chengxuan, remembered everything…
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Our girl deserves better :( Thanks for the update!
ReplyDeleteAccording to my original plan with Uncle Shen, we will remove you sooner, but.. But later, later I couldn’t bear it…”
ReplyDelete“Because… my heart has been moved by you…”
So what ? You want a medal, a "thank you for not having killed the mother of your child right after she gave birth" ? You do realize that even if you hadn't fell for her, everything you did to her was still wrong, right ? So what, if you hadn't fell for her, you would have been okay with killing her ?
She was just an innocent girl, and not only you ruined her life to make her pay for someone else's mistake and you still intended to kill her and deprive you newborn child from his mom.
And we should soften because you didn't do what would have definitely made you the worst human being/husband/father in the world, from all times (and God knows you were already well advanced for that after everything you did to her : i mean, for God's sake, you raped her !).
He really deserves the suffering he's been through