Chapter 490 Extra Shang Yang [2]

My father died, and in return we received a jar of rice and half a jar of noodles from the imperial court. Those were the most scarce resources during wartime, and they were also the most profound love my father gave to my mother and me.

When people are alive, they always need spiritual sustenance.

In the past, my mother's hope had always been my father. After my father passed away, my mother began to believe in Buddhism.

In the days that followed, Qi Chao's offensive became increasingly fierce.

As Zhu Yin was defeated one after another, more and more wounded soldiers returned home. My family's Baicaotang became half a charity. As long as there were wounded soldiers returning from the front line, my mother would unconditionally help them.

At that time, my mother could only sleep for two hours a day at most. She was so tired that she became sick but she refused to take a rest.

I tried to persuade my mother, but she said to me:

[Your father sacrificed his life to protect our country. As a woman, you cannot fight in the battlefield, but you cannot watch your country being trampled by foreigners.]

I looked at the various people on the street.

The stingy auntie in the rice and flour shop opened her own warehouse to help the poor;

The prostitutes in the brothels, posing and flirting, covered themselves with coarse cloth and helped carry the wounded;

The bullies of the gambling house smashed their own signs, threw away the gambling tables, and turned the huge courtyard into a refugee shelter;

And my mother hasn't asked her patients to charge more than half of their consultation fees for a long time.

I then understood,

It turns out that everyone around me is loving their country passionately in their own way.

It was from then on that I began to learn medicine from my mother, and I also wanted to do my part for my country.

I often asked:

[Aniang, do you think we can win this battle? ]

Auntie said:

[Of course. Good people will be rewarded in the end. We, the people of Zhuyin, are all very kind people at heart.]

I have always believed what my mother said.

When I was six years old, my mother went out to the mountains to collect herbs and never came back.

Neighbors said that my mother accidentally fell off a cliff and died.

But I secretly went to see my mother's body.

The bloody holes on her body caused by the sword clearly told me that she was brutally murdered by the Qi army that was about to attack the capital.

I didn't shed a single tear after my mother died.

I buried her and my father's ashes on the slope of the mountain behind.

I looked at the withered yellow flowers blooming on the bulging mound of earth and thought:

In this world, will good people really be rewarded?

Why did my father, who defended the country, and my mother, who did good deeds, end up dying a violent death?

If the good are always deceived by the world, while the evil can still wear fine clothes and eat meat and drink wine,

Then I don’t want to be a good person who doesn’t have a good ending!

The Qi Dynasty's army is about to attack the capital, and there is no safe place in Zhuyin City.

Because my parents made outstanding contributions to Zhuyin during the war, I, as their orphan, was sent to Zhuyin Palace to serve them.

That was the imperial city of Zhuyin, a place I could see every day when I went out with my mother to see patients.

I was taken into the Zhuyin Palace as a maid and assigned to serve the second prince Jiang Muye.

I've heard of this person.

He is a few years older than me and is the emperor's most beloved son.

It's just that he followed the emperor and empress to the temporary palace these two days and was not in the palace.

At first, I was just doing some simple cleaning work in the Zhuyin Palace. I tried to keep myself busy so that I had no time to think about my mother's unjust death.

But one day, when I was collecting firewood in the woodshed, I was pricked lightly by a thorn on the firewood.

I squeezed my fingers hard, drawing blood, trying to remove the thorn.

I don't know why, but the pain in my fingers actually aroused the sorrow hidden deep in my heart.

The long suppressed emotions suddenly backfired and surged towards me.

I felt a terrible pain in my heart and curled up in the corner of the woodshed, crying so hard that I could hardly breathe.

Just then, I suddenly heard someone scolding:

[Zhuyin Palace cannot bear to hear such bad things. If you cry again, be careful that someone will dig out your eyes.]

I raised my head and looked in the direction where the sound came from, and the shadow of a boy was reflected in my tearful eyes.

He was half a head taller than me and was handsome, but his expression was cold and stiff, which frightened me.

When I saw that he was wearing a black Zhulong robe, I knew his identity.

The only one who can dress like this in the palace is the second prince Jiang Muye.

I quickly wiped away my tears. Even though I said I admitted my mistake, I couldn't stop sobbing.

He asked me with disgust:

【Why are you crying? 】

I whispered back to him:

[My mother died, and I feel sad...]

He was stunned for a moment, then he took out a plain handkerchief from his bosom and threw it to me.

Then he said lightly:

【My mother is also dead.】

Jiang Muye's mother is the Empress of Zhuyin, the most noble woman in this country. How could she...

I was so frightened when I heard that that I didn't even bother to wipe away my tears. I just stared at him with eyes filled with tears.

He saw my confusion, so he said casually, as if he was gossiping about someone else:

[On our way back from the palace, we encountered an ambush by the Qi army. My mother was shot by a poisoned arrow to protect me, and during the chaos of war, not even her body could be found.]

(The extra chapters are updated daily, with about 2,000 to 3,000 words. Starting from October 3, they are updated at 12:00 a.m. every day. And because there is a word limit for the extra chapters, if there are too many words to fit on Tomato, I will post them on Weibo. Love you guys! Pen refills!)