Tangning tilted her head. “Was it Mother?”
Xiao Yan gave a soft “Mm,” holding Tangning with a distant look in his eyes. “Back then, she didn’t tell me her name, only that she was Aunt Xue’s close friend. She held the other half of the dragon-patterned pendant as proof and secretly sent me out of the capital.”
“In the fire at the East Palace, I injured my eyes and saw my father and mother consort die. On top of that, someone in the East Palace had poisoned me, causing problems with my body, and my temperament became erratic. But that lady always cared for me patiently.”
Once the lofty imperial grandson, he had fallen to blindness, with all his loved ones dead. He had been so despairing he didn’t want to live.
During that time, he refused medicine, ignored his injuries, and was filled with resentment, bristling with thorns to hurt anyone who tried to get close.
Yet Lady Rong stayed by his side. She didn’t try to console him or urge him to let go. When he knocked over a bowl of medicine, she’d quietly prepare another. While he slept, she’d change his bandages. She made sweet plum blossom pastries and sometimes sat nearby, playing the zither.
Her music was beautiful, as if it could soothe the rage in his heart.
Later, she brought that little pink dumpling of a girl, chattering endlessly by his ear, leaving him no time to dwell on the tragedy of the rebellion.
“When my eyes healed, countless people had already died in the capital because of that rebellion. Your mother never hid those things from me, only saying that as long as you’re alive, there’s hope.”
“I stayed there recovering for a long time. Then, one day, she left abruptly for a few days and returned looking anxious. That’s when my father’s and the He family’s old subordinates found me, and she urged them to take me away.”
“Looking back, that must have been when the late emperor, suspecting Grand Tutor Rong over the Dragon Jade Decree, implicated your mother.”
Tangning, wise beyond her years, still remembered some things from her childhood, though not as clearly as Xiao Yan. She frowned softly. “Then why didn’t Mother give you the dragon-patterned pendant back then?”
Xiao Yan said, “I’m not sure, but I guess either she thought I was too young to hold sway over my father’s or the He family’s old subordinates, fearing they’d take control and I couldn’t keep the pendant safe, or she didn’t know what it truly was, treating it only as Aunt Xue’s token.”
He picked up the dragon-patterned pendant from the pile of clothes at the bed’s head and handed it to Tangning.
“The pendant’s material is ordinary, its craftsmanship unremarkable. Apart from the unique carving, once split, it looks like a worthless piece of jade to anyone. No one would think it’s a tiger tally capable of commanding an army.”
“After Emperor Taizu passed the Dragon Jade Decree to my father, only the first commander of the Zhenan Army and Shang Zhonglin, the leader of the Dragon Court Guard, had seen its true form.”
“I don’t know why it ended up with Aunt Xue or how it came to the Rong family, but I suspect Aunt Xue never told your mother its purpose.”
Lady Rong had left the pendant to Tangning as a keepsake for Aunt Xue. Later, when the late emperor confronted Grand Tutor Rong repeatedly, and Empress Lu probed the Rong family, Lady Rong likely realized what the pendant was.
With the late emperor and the new emperor eyeing the Rong family and Empress Lu making her uneasy, Lady Rong didn’t dare keep it herself. Disguised as an ordinary jade pendant, she hung it on Tangning, where no one would suspect it.
Tangning touched the pendant. “Mother only said it was a gift from Aunt Xue, that I must never let it leave me. When she was trapped in the Song family’s ancestral hall, she told me to return it to Brother and no one else.”
She paused.
“Mother said not even Grandfather could have it.”
Xiao Yan’s expression grew complex. If Lady Rong had realized the pendant’s purpose, giving it to Grand Tutor Rong would have kept her safe. Yet she never spoke of it, not even to him.
Xiao Yan’s opinion of Rong Qian’an wasn’t favorable. Back then, his father had wanted to dismantle the noble families to restore imperial authority, and Rong Qian’an had been the first to support him. Without his help, his father and the He family wouldn’t have reached the point of betrayal and isolation.
He didn’t blame Rong Qian’an’s actions, but during his father’s rebellion, the He family was exterminated, and nearly all his father’s supporters died. Yet Rong Qian’an withdrew in time, retiring from court to preserve himself.
Others didn’t know the truth of the rebellion, but Rong Qian’an did. Still, he never stood up or defended his father, watching as his father was branded with infamy, cursed by the world, and died in disgrace.
Xiao Yan could understand that the tides had turned, the court had shifted, and Rong Qian’an was powerless, preserving himself. He could also understand that for the sake of the greater good and the stability of the realm, Rong Qian’an buried the past after Emperor An’s ascension, letting his father bear the blame.
But Xiao Yan didn’t like him.
Perhaps Lady Rong knew that if she gave the pendant to Rong Qian’an, he’d hand it to the imperial family for stability and the greater good. Yet, for her bond with Aunt Xue, she never relinquished it, even in death.
Xiao Yan’s lips tightened. “I owe your mother.”
Tangning’s eyes reddened, clutching the pendant. “If Mother knew, by some twist of fate, it still returned to you, she’d be happy.”
“But it’s good that it’s unremarkable, and no one ever thought Mother would give it to me…”
Otherwise, how could she, as a child, have kept it?
She remembered someone had tried to take the pendant. But she clung to her mother’s words, gripping it tightly even when her mind was muddled from torment.
During a struggle, it fell into the filth of the room, and even the servants found it disgusting. But she protected it fiercely, biting anyone who tried to take it.
Perhaps because she was too frantic, Old Madam Song thought it was just a keepsake from her mother, fearing that taking it would break her spirit. Seeing it was only an ordinary piece of jade, she let Tangning keep it.
Seeing her sink into memories, Xiao Yan tightened his hold, kissing the corner of her eye.
“Don’t think about it. Those who hurt your mother and you, I’ll make them wish they could neither live nor die.”
“Mm!”
…
Already ill and exhausted from the ordeal, Tangning’s mind relaxed, and fatigue overwhelmed her. She soon fell asleep atop Xiao Yan.
Only after she was sound asleep did Xiao Yan gently lift her, placing her on the bed.
He kissed the little girl’s forehead, tied her undergarments, and tenderly stroked her sleeping face for a moment before dressing in the wrinkled clothes from the bed’s head. Then, with light steps, he left the room.
Outside, he met Canglang’s gaze, which seemed to say, “Governor, you’re quite bold.”
“Lady Rong said that once you’re out, you’re to go see her immediately.”
Xiao Yan: “…”
Canglang glanced outside. “Lady Rong’s maid has been waiting there. If you’d come out any later, you’d probably have gotten your legs broken.”
Seeing Xiao Yan stay silent, Canglang leaned closer. “Governor, you can’t avoid meeting your future in-laws. How about I prepare some thorny branches for you to carry on your back and plead for forgiveness, like Gu Helian? Play pitiful, act miserable, and you’ll win her over.”
“I’ve seen Lady Rong, she’s a sucker for a pretty face. And your face is much better than that Gu fellow’s.”
Xiao Yan’s expression was blank as he kicked Canglang, who grimaced in pain.
“Get lost.”
Did he, Xiao Yan, need to resort to selling his looks?!
Two cups of tea later, when Xiao Yan met Rong Yue, his clothes were even more wrinkled, with faint signs of being torn. Ambiguous marks dotted his exposed neck, and his otherworldly handsome face carried an unusual hint of embarrassment.
Normally as cold and sharp as snow on a high mountain, he now seemed touched by mortal dust. Facing Rong Yue’s taut expression, Xiao Yan’s face reddened before he spoke.
Rong Yue’s anger faltered. “…”
Why the hell was he blushing?!
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